Leaderless-ship
“But we will devote ourselves to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.” Acts 6:4 NASB
But – Let’s see if we have this straight. The Twelve, the most important men in the assemblies of Torah-observant Messianic Jewish believers, decline administrative responsibilities because they need to be fully attentive to prayer and the “ministry” of the word. Right? We understand the idea of commitment to prayer. Of course the leadership must be committed to prayer. But what is “ministry” of the word? The Greek is diakonia tou logos. Literally, service of the word. Interestingly, this is the same root word that the Twelve just said they can’t do (diakonein trapezais = wait on tables). They can “wait on the word” but they can’t “wait on tables.” Why?
Because it’s all about time. To wait on tables, in this case to be involved in the daily administration to widows, takes time, and in their minds, this is time away from the study of God’s words. The more time they spend in the necessary but trivial (not trivial for the widows, by the way), the less time they have for the necessary and important. It’s simple mathematics.
So they arrange for others to take care of these issues. They pray. They study. Others carry out the required tasks. In other words, they lead by not being involved in the public efforts of the community.
This raises an interesting question. How leaderless are our assemblies? How many of our rabbis devote themselves to prayer and service of the word rather than all the tasks of the assembly? How invisible to the public are our leaders?
Oh, I know what you are going to say. “Yes, my leader does involve others so he (or she) will have time to prepare the sermon and to direct the congregation and to win souls for Christ.” But I don’t find any of those things in proseuche (prayer) and diakonia tou logos. There is no mention of preaching, soul-winning or strategy sessions. There’s no mention of visiting the sick, performing marriages, raising funds, developing a building plan. There is prayer and service of the word. And nothing more (in this text). The leader is quite invisible. Her role (or his) is before God, not men. The members of the assembly are quite capable of all the rest, as long as the leader pleads their case before the Lord and dedicates her time to knowing what God has revealed.
Ah, you object. “But all this prayer and study. Its purpose is to provide for the people. There has to be teaching, preaching, healing, discipleship and all those things Paul mentions.” Of course. But who does those things? We have been religiously trained to think that this is the job of the minister, priest or pastor. But is it? Isn’t the real task of the leader to understand the will of God and go in that direction? Followers do. Leaders learn.
Topical Index: prayer, service of the word, diakonia tou logos, leader, Acts 6:4
“Followers do. Leaders learn.” Right on!
I was an older person (sic) before I learned that the word “minister” is NEVER used for a ‘position’ proper in the Body. It is a designation reserved for the Body Itself, in other words, in church parlance, for the lay people. We as those ‘common’ lay people are called to be the ministers to the Body, to each other.
1Peter 4:10 “As every man hath received the gift, even so minister the same one to another, as good stewards of the manifold grace of God.”
Eph. 4:11,12 “And he gave some, apostles, and some, prophets; and some,evangelists; and some pastors and teachers; for the perfecting of the saints, FOR THE WORK OF THE MINISTRY, for the edifying of the body of Christ.”
In 1Cor. 16:15 Paul mentions that the “house of Stephanas” was “addicted to the ministry of the saints.”
Mark 10:42-45 “But Jesus called them to him, and saith unto them, Ye know that they which are accounted to rule over the Gentiles exercise lordship over them; and their great ones exercise authority upon them. But so shall it not be among you; fut whosoever will be great among you, shall be your minister; and whosoever of you will be the chiefest, shall be servant of all. For even the Son of man came not to be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give his life a ransom for many.”
This puts ‘leadership’ in a whole new light for me. Now I see that all ‘leaders’ are there for is to equip the Body to be able to MINISTER TO EACH OTHER; to bone up on ways to help us to help ourselves by helping each other. We at the ‘bottom’ of this structure are THE MOST IMPORTANT PART. We are the ones that actually are supposed to get the job done!
Those leaders were put there to be the fetch-and-carry gofers to give us the tools, and to teach us HOW to help each other. They should be giving us what we need to meet each others’ needs and to effect all the gifts of the Spirit as outlined in1Cor.12 needed to the “perfecting of the saints”.
Perhaps we still have a way to go before we quit looking like those Gentiles!
We have such a long way to go that we can’t even begin to see the goal. Yeshua came to save us from our sins. What is sin? Transgression of the law. How did He save us from this? By teaching THE WAY to walk in the law. How does that pertain to this discussion? Simple. The law is the constitution of heaven. it teaches us how to treat God and each other. When we keep the law the entire assembly is totally without need. We save each other from the effects of our sin when we treat each other according to the law of heaven. No one hurts physically or emotionally and it becomes evident within the community that everyone is just as important and necessary to the body as anyone else thereby eliminating strife and envy because the greatest thing we can do for God is keep the least of the commandments.
Until we for hunger and thirst for God’s will to be done on earth as it is in heaven we will remain divided up like this. And until we truly begin to walk in the law according to Yeshua’s instructions, we will not be able to even see the kingdom that we should be hungering and thirsting after.
That’s why it’s so important not to follow anyone that would turn us away from keeping the law.
Keeping the law in spirit and in truth is the whole point!!!
The more I look at the “ministry of Christ” while He walked the earth, the more I think I see an example of, not one of those “leaders” listed above in Ephesians, but of a common ‘lay person’. In other words, as He was my example, I should be able to help others the way He helped them, even healing the sick, or raising the dead, if necessary. And if my ‘leadership’ is not equipping me to be able to follow in His steps of effective ministry, I should want to know why. (Should I want my money back, too?)
Yeah, absolutely! Oh, if only I could have my money back, I would be sending more $$ to Israel for their war efforts right this second!
Is it as simple as this?A Leader needs to prepare themselves to have an answer to all questions.
Eph. 4:11-12 And he gave some as Apostles, and some, prophets; and some, preachers of the good news;
and (then there are) some to give care and teaching for the training of the saints as servants in the church,
I’ve always known this, in my gut, especially as a child. Prayer (conversing with and listening for God) has always been huge to me. To my way of thinking, if the headship doesn’t consider the serious, continual, time-consuming petitioning and repenting and seeking direction and etc for himself/herself as well as those under his care, then “all else is just rearranging the chairs on the Titanic” as they say!
Without a congregation and a leader who has shifted Greek paradigm to Hebrew ways of thinking, what sort of condition are we in? We keep praying for fellowship with the Hebrew way of thinking (3 hours from here, one way, is the closest congregation we can find by searching on the Internet. I have a disability so travel is extremely tough on me.) We can’t “go to church” any more.
Don’t you wish this site had a like button?!
Ha! If it did, I would also wish that it would immediately draw more and more “seekers” out there who are done with church but aren’t completely sure why!
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