Dear Easter People,
I follow my favorite sports teams closely. My favorite football team struggled somewhat last year. They had many good skill players – those making the flashy plays, scoring the points, getting the headlines. But the team struggled because they lacked equally good “behind-the-scenes” players to help the skill players excel at what they were drafted to do. So, in the draft of new players, they selected some behind-the-scenes players to help the skills players perform better. Hopefully success will follow next season!
Long before anyone ever even dreamed of a thing called the NFL, the early church’s first “skill players” had a problem. The Apostles were God’s skill players, chosen by Jesus as His representatives in the world. Jesus called them to “make the flashy plays” by preaching and teaching everyone about Him to “score points” by bringing more to faith through the Holy Spirit. They had a problem though; they were also responsible for taking care of all the behind-the-scenes work needed to care for those who already believed (Acts 6:1-2). To address the problem, they held a “draft” to select a team to take care of the work of the church within the church. This allowed them to focus on proclaiming God’s word outside the church. The draft was successful as “the word of God continued to increase, and the number of disciples multiplied greatly.” (Acts 6:7)
God is still increasing His word, growing the number of His disciples. He does this through His church – the gathering of all who believe in His word and promise that Jesus suffered, died, rose from the dead, and will return one day to gather these believers into the kingdom of God. Until that day, God has drafted us to use the gifts He’s given us – some to be proclaimers of His word, others to work behind the scenes. But all of us are drafted to do something. Therefore, prayerfully consider how you might use your gifts to serve God and His people in some way to increase His word and grow more disciples.
ALLELUIA! CHRIST IS RISEN!
Pastor Jim