Sharing the Load for God's Kingdom

By Dean Collins

To fulfill your role as a servant leader, you have to spread the workload. God never intended anyone to do the work by themselves. God sent Jesus to carry the whole sin load for all of humanity, but his plan for seeing his kingdom on earth as it is in heaven requires that we all do our part. God is not looking for individual heroes to be in charge. His plan is for Jesus to be the head of the body and all of us work together as servant leaders within his kingdom. We advance the gospel and live out his kingdom way together.

 As I consider the sixth chapter of Acts, I am reminded of a somewhat similar leadership challenge/opportunity from Exodus. In both situations there was an issue concerning the distribution of work required to fulfill the spiritual work of God’s appointed leaders.

 In Acts, the situation concerned the daily distribution of food to take care of the widows. The apostles were having trouble keeping up with their daily preaching and teaching and the growing number of other things required as the church was exploding with growth. Rapid growth is a good problem, but it is still a problem. And problems need to be solved, or else they interfere with the mission. 

 In Exodus the situation was similar. God used Moses to free the children of Israel from their bondage in Egypt. In chapter 18, Moses’s father-in-law visited Moses in the wilderness, accompanied by the wife and sons of Moses. After hearing the stories of all that God had accomplished and how Moses had led the Israelites safely through the wilderness, he observed a day in the life of Moses. What he saw was that Moses was trying to do the work of many all by himself. God of course can and often does do impossible things through us individually, but his plan has always been for the community to come together in work and ministry. The burden and the workload is never to be on one person, no matter how talented or spiritual they might be.

 Moses followed his father-in-law’s advice and distributed the load. The apostles used a similar strategy, picking seven men who were “of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we will appoint to this duty.” By distributing the work of ministry to others, both Moses of the Old Testament and the apostles of the New Testament were able to focus and work within their callings and gift sets.

 We cannot fully explain why some people seem to excel in certain work or ministry more than others, nor exactly why some who are called also seem to be chosen to endure more suffering than others, but we know it is true. In Acts 7, one of the seven leaders chosen was Stephen, and immediately both the church and the non-believers observed that there was something special about him.

 “And Stephen, full of grace and power, was doing great wonders and signs among the people. Then some of those who belonged to the synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called), and of the Cyrenians, and of the Alexandrians, and of those from Cilicia and Asia, rose up and disputed with Stephen. But they could not withstand the wisdom and the Spirit with which he was speaking.”

 The end result of the work of God’s undisputed Spirit in Stephen was him a powerful testimony about Jesus to the elders, scribes and other Jewish leaders. After he gave his testimony, he was stoned to death by the mob. Some are chosen to suffer for the name of Jesus.

 As followers of Christ, we are called to offer ourselves in service to our Lord and Savior. We are also called to serve in the context of the community of faith. Success is not required in God’s kingdom, but God delights in our obedience even, and especially, in the times we are called to suffer for his name.

 Lord, we surrender to you today. Thank you for calling us to serve within your church, knowing that the weight of success is never on us. Thank you for your Holy Spirit who fills us and uses our weakness and our suffering for your glory. We pray that our service to you will prompt others to serve with us, that we might realize the power of a united church on mission to extend your kingdom on earth as it is in heaven. In Jesus’ name, amen.

Your Time with God’s Word
Acts 6:1-15; Exodus 18:17-27 ESV

Photo by Diva Plavalaguna: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-of-people-bumping-fists-6146704/
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