Introduction
Running a church sometimes just takes common sense. Real problems arise in the Church just like any other institution, however, through prayer, cooperation within the Body of Christ, and some thought even the most complex problems can be solved. Today’s reading from Acts 6:1-7 deals with the early Church’s management problems. Let’s see what you would do in the circumstances.
The Scenario/Background
Our case study begins with grumbling in the ranks of the believers. This is the history behind the dissention. When the early church began, it needed funding to accommodate its growth. Due to its rapid growth the Apostles were having problems managing its finances, personnel, and overall focus. The rapid influx of new believers put a strain on the Apostles and certain groups of people were not receiving adequate ministry. Before I go into specifics, I want to back up and describe how the early Church evolved.
After our Lord resurrected, the disciples where huddled together in a closed room and received the Holy Spirit at Pentecost. At this point the disciples became Apostles and they spent most of their time evangelizing and converting people to the faith. The Apostles were missionaries in the purest sense of the word and wanted to spend all of their time praying and preaching. Unfortunately, growing pains evolved. First, the early church had money problems. How were the early Apostles paid? How were churches funded? Where did the resources come from to take care of the poor and needy? Answer, the Church got funding. We are told in Acts Chapter 4 that the whole congregation shared things in common. Property and other riches were sold and the proceeds from the sales were laid at the Apostles feet and they were distributed based upon need. Amazingly enough no one in congregation was in need; there were plenty of resources for everyone.
Despite adequate funding for the new church, distribution issues arose and some of the membership complained about not getting fair treatment. This problem was related the Church’s rapid growth, its lack of formal organization, and dissention within the ranks. Now there were two basic groups of people within the Church: Hellenistic Jews who spoke Greek and were converted to the faith, and Palestinian Jews who spoke Hebrew. Obviously, the Palestinian Jews were from the area and were converted to Christianity while they resided in their homeland. The Hellenistic Jews were born out of Palestine and many came to the region for Passover and Pentecost. After their conversion, they decided to stay in the area. Some of the older Hellenistic Jews relocated to Palestine to live out the remainder of their days. I guess they wanted to retire there like sunny Florida. The Greek-speaking Hellenistic Jews were in the minority.
The Challenges
St. Luke tells us that after the funds were collected from believers, the early Christians found jobs and no longer needed help. The community relied upon the common fund less and less except for the widows who could not get jobs. They still relied on the common fund for assistance. The widows are the center our case study. The Palestinian Christians widows who understood the language continued to receive help from the fund. The Hellenistic Christians widows who were unfamiliar with Hebrew were often overlooked and neglected. The result was that tensions arose between the Greek-speaking and the Hebrew-speaking believers. The Greek-speaking believers felt that their widows were being mistreated and murmurings arose. The Apostles realized that this division was becoming serious and they needed to resolve the issue before it split the church.
The Apostles huddled together to resolve the issue. While they recognized the issue’s importance, they did not have the time to deal with the matter: they wanted to continue to preach the Word of God. The Apostles did not feel it was the best use of their resources to dole out money and food to the widows, other things were more important to the early Church’s survival. So, my friends what would you do? Assume you are one of the Apostles, what is your plan considering these issues:
1. Factions within the Church and dissention within the ranks of believers.
2. Lack of manpower to handle church’s needs.
3. Chaotic situation as the result of rapid growth. Church growing faster than can manage it.
4. Lack of common language and procedures for resolving differences.
5. No defined mission and action plan.
Apostle’s Action Plan
Here’s the Apostle’s action plan. First, they highlighted the problems and set priorities for their ministry. The Apostles realized that it would be impossible to successfully minister to all the communities’ needs. They called together the congregation of disciples and reasoned that they should devote their ministry to preaching and teaching the word of God. Ministering to the widows was important, but it was not their chief priority. The community needed to be strengthened through prayer, preaching, and teaching. The early Church was growing and the Apostles were called to evangelize to all nations. How could they fulfill the Divine Commission if they had to take care of the money tables?
The Apostles arrived at a solution, they would delegate. The Apostles received unique spiritual gifts and they were to use these gifts to grow the community. Other people in the community also received special spiritual gifts and also had their special calling. The Apostles advised the community to choose seven honest men full of the Holy Spirit to minister to the widows. The Apostles were to devote themselves to prayer and preaching. The Church responded by choosing seven men full of faith and the Holy Spirit and everyone was pleased with their decision. The Apostles prayed and laid their hands on the seven men. In our faith the laying of hands is the equivalent to ordination. At ordination the Bishop lays his hands on the deacon or priest and invokes the Holy Spirit to bless the ministry of the person.
The passage concludes with the successful resolution of this problem. We assume that the widows received their assistance and we learn that the Apostles’ preaching and teaching brought a large number of believers into the faith. The early Church continued its rapid growth because the Apostles could devote themselves completely to prayer and preaching the word of God.
What About Our Own Church
Today’s reading in the Book of Acts is a nice historical account. We have a complex problem that could have disrupted the spread of Christianity followed by a prayerful, thoughtful solution. My question is this: Why can’t we have such happy endings in our own parishes? It seems as though our challenges arise faster than resources can be directed to solve them. All parishes have their unique challenges including our own Cathedral so, put on your thinking caps because here’s my nickel opinion on the challenges that face us all.
Cathedral Challenges
Funding Issues
Like the Apostolic Church, the first challenge that I detect is funding issues. After looking over the annual budget it’s evident that revenues from stewardship and fundraisers are not keeping up with expenses. Obviously, many of the Cathedral’s woes are rooted in the expansion of its facilities. Unfortunately, cost overruns, interest payments, and higher upkeep have consumed funds necessary to repair the sanctuary, adequately staff and distribute resources for specific ministries, and this lack of funds force the community to spend a disproportionate amount of time on finances. In addition, I feel sorry for my fellow clergy who have not received a raise in several years and inflation has gone up. I feel their strain. I work in a secular job during the week like many of you and expect an annual increase. Don’t you? Why then are we not properly taking care of our priests who are responsible for spiritual welfare of this community? Would the early Church deny the Apostles?
What’s the solution? Well, we can either increase membership and stewardship revenue, or we can all give a little more of our personal treasury. It’s the same in business, you either have to raise prices, cut costs, or ramp up volume. Cutting costs here unfortunately is not a possibility because almost all the Cathedral’s costs are fixed. Increasing membership sounds promising, but we have limited human resources to reach new people. This brings us our second challenge: limited human resources.
Limited Human Resources
Like the Apostolic Church, our clergy are outnumbered. We only have two full-time clergy for about one thousand families. This is not a good ratio. I’ve been there, done that, and lived this horror story by ministering to a twelve hundred family Cathedral in Houston, TX. With a Cathedral this size, I estimate that my brother priests probably need to work eighty-hour weeks just to tend to the most basic needs of the community. Churches cannot grow with tired, overworked, and outnumbered ministers. Father George and Father Paul do a great job here despite the circumstances, yet they need help. There is no possible way that they can connect personally with each parishioner and also reach the masses. In my humble opinion, they are to pray for the faithful, teach the Word of God, and preach to the masses. Why do we expect more from them than the early Church expected from the Apostles? Isn’t this an area where we can all chip in like the early Church? Are our clergy supposed to do everything?
Lack of Unified Action Plan
The Apostolic Church struggled early on because it faced many conflicting needs that diverted its attention. This Cathedral and any organization are confronted with infinite issues but only have limited resources. That’s why well-run organizations develop mission statements and strategic action plans. Mission statements help organizations prioritize and focus their resources so that the most important things get done first. Ventures not critical to the Church should be left out of its mission statement and should be avoided. Looking for guidance, I searched our Archdiocese’s web site for a mission statement and strategy. Unfortunately, I wound up at the Missions Center, not at a mission statement. After further searching I actually found what could be deemed the parish’s mission in the Uniform Parish Regulations (Article 15, Section 4 Page 27). It reads as follows,
The diakonia (ministry) of the Parish will include proclaiming and teaching the Gospel in accordance with the Orthodox Faith; sanctifying the faithful through God’s grace in worship, the Divine Liturgy and the other sacraments; enhancing its parishioners’ spiritual life; and adding to the numbers of the faithful by receiving persons into the Church through instruction, baptism and/or chrismation. In addition, the Parish shall establish educational and philanthropic activities to foster the aims and mission of the Parish and to edify its parishioners in the Faith and ethos of the Church. The Parish shall also engage in such inter-Orthodox, ecumenical and interfaith activities as are consistent with the policies of the Archdiocese.
This sounds great and I’m in full agreement. This paragraph summarizes what the Church is about. Our Church has not changed in two thousand years because our focus is the same as the Apostles. The problem my friends are in the details. How do we proclaim and teach the Gospel? How do we edify our parishioners? How do we accomplish all these things with limited funds and limited resources? This is the challenge. We know what to do, but what is our plan? This is where I’ll leave off, not because I don’t have any ideas, but because my thoughts are not of paramount importance. The resolution of our problems lies in how we bond together in a common Spirit of prayer, understanding, and holy purpose. Remember, it’s never the answer that is important; it is the struggle and the journey that build Christian character. Finally, I would like to explore these challenges at a later date, maybe through another sermon, but today we’ve run out of time.
As I conclude, it is my hope that we recognize that God’s church was always confronted with difficult challenges. These challenges were solved first by the Apostles who devoted themselves to prayer and yielded to the call of the Holy Spirit. The Apostles correctly recognized that God’s Church is dependent on its faithful to make available their spiritual gifts for God’s glory. Our Cathedral shares the identical challenges as the Apostolic Church. We have financial challenges, our clergy are overstretched with our large numbers, and we need to identify our priorities and action plan. Fortunately, our Lord has given us all the resources to solve all these problems overnight. We are all the solution. Are we willing to come together in prayer and are we willing to make ourselves available to God? Today seems like a good time. Amen.
