micromanage this!
i was reading through acts chapter 6 today and came across something i absolutely fell in love with! at the beginning of this chapter, luke describes an interesting scenario. there are a certain group within the new Christians that realize a certain need: the widows are going hungry. this certain groups begins to complain about this and brings it to the apostles.
the apostales say something intereesting…
they got together and said:
“…It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry ofthe word.” [Acts 6:2-4]
interesting…
many of us, especially those who serve in ministry somewhere, would jump on that and try to solve the problem ourselves. but the leaders of the early church model something special for us well at the very beginning. instead of trying to fix it themselves, they say to the group that the group should pick seven people among them to meet this need and they will keep their attention where it needs to be, on prayer and the ministry of the world.
when the group picked people that were “full of the spirit and wisdom” and prayed for them, and released them to do their works!
that’s it.
no micromanaging, no dictating from the top who and where they should start, but they picked people who had the gifts necessary, prayed for them, and let them serve.
a bold model for ministry if i might say so myself.
-A