Keeping the Gospel Central

Being in Baptist circles I have heard many sermons about Acts 6 and the reason we have deacons.  Not only have I heard countless sermons, but I have had many conversations about the role of deacons in the church.  Please keep reading as my point today is not Deacons. Currently I have been teaching at our church through the major themes from Acts.  This past week we came to Acts 6.  My studying led me to an interesting conclusion, the main focus of Acts 6 is not the establishment of deacons, but there is something deeper happening in the church.

The church is growing and there comes to be a real issue between the Hellenist and Hebrew parts of the church.  The issue was real and needed attention and this issue alone led to the establishment of the role of deacon.  The apostles did not get to a place where they needed an advisory board, etc.   The original deacons were chosen to wait on tables, to be servants, not decision makers.  This ministry and role in the church was instituted to be a servant role, to take care of a portion of the body.  We have drifted from the original intention.

The deeper reason behind the decision to have deacons was for this reason:

"It is not right for us to give up preaching the Word of God to serve tables."  The apostles are not downplaying servanthood, but rather making sure that the teaching and proclamation of the Word of God continues to get the highest nod in the church.  This whole decision to start deacons was so that those who taught and led the church would have the time to prepare and teach the Word to the body of Christ.

The proclamation of the Gospel, keeping it central to body life was why the apostles met and decided the best thing to do was to get men of good reputation, wisdom, and full of the Holy Spirit to be servants, who oversaw the distribution of food to the widows.  

  The church must make every decision it does based on that biblical foundation.    Keep the gospel of Jesus Christ central to everything.  That is the point of Acts 6.  As a result of this decision, Acts 6:7 says, "And the Word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly in Jerusalem."

The foremost decision in every church is to make sure those who teach the Word of God do not have things that hinder them in this ministry.  Both ministries were important, but one is central to everything the church does and that is to be guided by the Word.  When feeding widows or any other ministry becomes more important and takes away from the proclamation of the gospel, then the church has moved away from being a gospel centered church.  All of those things are important, but they must flow out of the foundation of proclaiming the story of Christ.