Saturday 22 September 2007

Prayer and the ministry of the word

“…but we will give ourselves continually to prayer and to the ministry of the word." - Acts 6v4

Perhaps today’s thoughts are more for me than anyone else, but I think there is a lesson for us all.

Things were marvellous in the church. In spite of the trials and persecutions the church was growing and multiplying. Because of the sheer numbers the apostles soon realised that they could not do everything so they suggested, and the rest of the church agreed that men should be appointed to carry out the every day tasks of the church.

The reason was so that they would not be so weighed down that they could not do their primary tasks, which were to pray and minister the word to the people. Like everyone else in the church, the twelve had a role to play – pray and preach – and this would allow them to focus on that. Of course this does not mean that they were not to do anything else, but it would free them up to so what they needed to do.

The lesson for all of us is clear. God has called certain men to the role of praying and preaching. When a church gets to the point where their task is hindered by the everyday task men need to be appointed to help do those things. We need to respect and honour the primary role of the leaders, and do all we can to help them

Now I have to face the convicting part. Am I doing what God wants me to do? As a pastor I need to make sure that I keep my priorities straight. There is a temptation to get involved in everything, but I need to make sure that I first am doing the task God has given me.

1 comment:

Parrowdigm said...

The subscription option doesn't send the emails until about a day later, so I got this post this morning.

I was interested because a commentary I am reading on Exodus linked this passage to that in Exodus in which Moses attempted to take all the work of leading the people upon himself.

God has certainly designed delegation as a useful tool.