Deacons, overseers and a walk in the woods.

The need for deacons

Acts 6:1–5 NIV

1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” 5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism.

Acts 6:1–15 NIV

1 In those days when the number of disciples was increasing, the Hellenistic Jews among them complained against the Hebraic Jews because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution of food. 2 So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. 3 Brothers and sisters, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them 4 and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.” 5 This proposal pleased the whole group. They chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Spirit; also Philip, Procorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas from Antioch, a convert to Judaism. 6 They presented these men to the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them. 7 So the word of God spread. The number of disciples in Jerusalem increased rapidly, and a large number of priests became obedient to the faith. 8 Now Stephen, a man full of God’s grace and power, performed great wonders and signs among the people. 9 Opposition arose, however, from members of the Synagogue of the Freedmen (as it was called)—Jews of Cyrene and Alexandria as well as the provinces of Cilicia and Asia—who began to argue with Stephen. 10 But they could not stand up against the wisdom the Spirit gave him as he spoke. 11 Then they secretly persuaded some men to say, “We have heard Stephen speak blasphemous words against Moses and against God.” 12 So they stirred up the people and the elders and the teachers of the law. They seized Stephen and brought him before the Sanhedrin. 13 They produced false witnesses, who testified, “This fellow never stops speaking against this holy place and against the law. 14 For we have heard him say that this Jesus of Nazareth will destroy this place and change the customs Moses handed down to us.” 15 All who were sitting in the Sanhedrin looked intently at Stephen, and they saw that his face was like the face of an angel.

1:15

This was the start of the splitting of roles in the church where. Where some people were identified as having specific tasks in the church.

If we look around us, this church, there is lots to do. As a church we employ one person, me. Now I am good but even I can’t do all that needs doing in the eight hours a week I am employed for.

This church relies on everyone else in this place.

So I am going to ask everyone who activly works on behalf of the church and I would like to exclude Assist at this point to to stand up., so if you do anything for the church or the library, or coffee connect, or cell groups - please stand up.

Acknowledge them.

Sit down

As part of the church we also have Assist - Now by far the majority of the people who help run Assist either employed or as volunteers go to other churches but if you work with assist in anyway please stand up.

Acknowledge them.

Sit down

It is good that we acknowledge people that sacrifice their time to serve Jesus.

Serving Jesus is not just the visible parts.

Some people would wonder how washing cups up after a service is serving Jesus - but it is, it is.

Serving Jesus is about

Obedience - Loving God

Supporting others - Loving People

but most of all doing whatever you do with the correct heart. It is about serving because you love Jesus, you love your brothers and sisters and you want to advance the kingdom of God.

In Acts we see that the qualification for serving the church is not - must have a doctorate in Tea Making, or a social work degree, or great organisational skill - It was simply to be “Full of the spirit and wisdom”

They needed to Love God so they could understan his purposes. He they needed wisdom, Gods Wisdom - They needed to be people that would understand the WHY of what they were to do and not just the HOW.

The Why of Assist

The Why of the Library

The Why of personal relationshipts

The Why of Coffee Connect

They Why of TST

They Why of Souled Out

They Why of midweek Groups.

The means is only the route to the ends. Having to do the things we do to Glorify God to get the Message of Jesus to People to serve people is worth it.

Trustees

There is another set of people that are identified in the bible. In Titus we read

Titus 1:5–9 NIV

5 The reason I left you in Crete was that you might put in order what was left unfinished and appoint elders in every town, as I directed you. 6 An elder must be blameless, faithful to his wife, a man whose children believe and are not open to the charge of being wild and disobedient. 7 Since an overseer manages God’s household, he must be blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. 8 Rather, he must be hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined. 9 He must hold firmly to the trustworthy message as it has been taught, so that he can encourage others by sound doctrine and refute those who oppose it.

We don’t have elders in the church. Although there are definatly some people that I Jenny and I are connected to that fulfil the spiritual role of an elder.

The governance of this church is the governance that UK Law imposes on us as a charity.

We have Trustees - The are currently, Phil, Shirley, Jenny, Aiden from Market Rasen (we like to always have an external person on the the trustees.) and my self.

As trustees we have the fun jobs - we are legally responsible for:

Making sure we opperate in line with our Charitable Objectives. Which for us map to all the things we do to advance the kingdom.

Health and Safety

Safeguarding

Contracts

Employment

& Finance

This is not day to day managment - it is oversight

We saw earlier that there are so many busy people in this church but I want to ask even more.

We would like to appoint at least one, ideally two additional trustees.

There is no pay, it means meeting four times a year for about and hour and it carries alot of responsiblity. It is also the strategic place that keeps us deliverig the Mission of Jesus.

So if you are: blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, you are hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.

blameless—not overbearing, not quick-tempered, not given to drunkenness, not violent, not pursuing dishonest gain. Rather, you are hospitable, one who loves what is good, who is self-controlled, upright, holy and disciplined.

&

Full of the spirit and wisdom.

Then we would like you to consider offering to be a Trustee.

*** Treasurer ***

Speak to us at the end. - you are not committing yourself by talking to us.

Qualities are important.

The qualities of thoose who serve the church are spelled out. But you know we all serve the Church of Jesus, we are all called to serve the Kingdom as we go about our lives.

That minimum qualification of Full of the Spirit and wisdom seems pretty sensible to me.

What does it mean to be filled with the spirit.

We talk about having the holy spirit. God’s Holy spirit enters us when we accept christ

Romans 8:9 NLT

9 But you are not controlled by your sinful nature. You are controlled by the Spirit if you have the Spirit of God living in you. (And remember that those who do not have the Spirit of Christ living in them do not belong to him at all.)

We use all sorts of anologies to explain the Holy spirit and us.

Cup and water. - it can spill out

Fuel and Flame. - it consumes the fuel

Our spirit joins with Gods Spirt

The mashed potato analogy. This is why Jesus refered to himself as the bince and us as the branches

​ NIV5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

Your spirit and Gods spirit can not be wrenched apart. When God says he will never leave you he means it.

The way we allow the Holy spirit to affect us can be different though.

Having the holy spirit and being empowered by him are two different things.

Having the holy spirit and being empowered by him are two different things. Having a source of wisdom and the ability to ignore it is our free will.

We choose if we embrace the holy spirit, quench him, grieve him, or simply ignore him. We probably do all of that at sometime every day.

One of the ways that we can make sure we honour the Holy Spirit is to give some time to seeking Him. To be in the presence of God.

embrace the holy spirit, quench him, grieve him, or simply ignore him.

A walk in the woods

On wednesday morning I took some of my own advice from last week and headed over to Whisby Nature reserve. My plan was to spend some time walking around the lakes and through the woods spending some good time in prayer and seeking the presence of God. I hadn’t planned for rain but the trees gave me some shelter and after an hour and a half of walking and talking to my Father as well as some listening I settled down with a coffee outside of the Cafe to write down what God had been saying and to start to think about today’s message. It was amazing how different it feels writing when you have first spent some time with the author of all creation. I had a lovely walk, a good coffee, some productive time and eventhough I spilled my coffee before I could finish it that wasn’t a problem. I really do recommed spending some time resting in God.

Still, Trembling or moved by the wind.

As I was walking through the woods their was a breeze. Have you noticed how when there is a breeze or a wind it affects the things it comes into contact with?Have you noticed though it affects differenet things in different ways. A feather gets blown all over the place but a rock is unmoved, unless it is a really really strong breeze. A stood in one spot, feeling the breeze on my face, what I noticed awas the some of the leaves on the branches were not moved at all - they were still, they were not affected by the breeze at all. Some of the leaves, tremled or shivered in the breeze, you could see the movement of the air was affecting them but it was momentary, soon passing. There was one branch though. The leaves on that stem danced and fluttered in the wind. What was the difference between these leave? They were the same plant, in the same part of the forest, experiencing the same wind. Positioning - that was the difference. Some of the leaves we positioned in such a way that the wind just passed them by - the still leaves.Some, because of their positioning experienced the force of the wind, they were moved briefly before returning to a position where the breeze could catch them momenterily again or they moved their position out of the breeze. The last set were position so the even as a slight breeze caught them, moved them, shaped their dance.The movement of the individual leaves seemed to amplify each other, causing them to catch the wind more and and the whole branch was rocking and moving in what was the smallest of breaths.

The breath of of God.

The Hebrew word used to describe God as he interacts with man is Ruach, the spirit of God. The word Ruach can be translated in a number of ways depending on context but it refers to God as spirit, Gods creative life giving breath or how we percieve Gods interaction with us.

it mean Spirit - Holy spirit - Gods spirit. - part of God

​ NIV2 Now the earth was formless and empty, darkness was over the surface of the deep, and the Spirit of God was hovering over the waters.

​ NIV6 By the word of the Lord the heavens were made, their starry host by the breath of his mouth.

Life force of a person - breath of God

​ NIV7 Then the Lord God formed a man from the dust of the ground and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and the man became a living being.

it also means wind both of the kind in nature, but also the noticiable activities of God.In new testement this same word is used but in the Greek form Pneuma.

​ NIV2 Suddenly a sound like the blowing of a violent wind came from heaven and filled the whole house where they were sitting. 3 They saw what seemed to be tongues of fire that separated and came to rest on each of them. 4 All of them were filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in other tongues as the Spirit enabled them.

This concept of Gods breath creating our spirt, God’s breath being the Holy Spirt, and Gods inteactions with the natural world being as a wind, as the spirit moved are tightly bound together with one another.

The mashed potato analogy. This is why Jesus refered to himself as the bince and us as the branches

​ NIV5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If you remain in me and I in you, you will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing.

What the Wind Brings.

God speaks to you when you catch the wind

​ NIV1 He said to me, “Son of man, stand up on your feet and I will speak to you.” 2 As he spoke, the Spirit came into me and raised me to my feet, and I heard him speaking to me.

This is our source of Wisdom

The wind brings life.

​ The Message7 “Are your ears awake? Listen. Listen to the Wind Words, the Spirit blowing through the churches. I’m about to call each conqueror to dinner. I’m spreading a banquet of Tree-of-Life fruit, a supper plucked from God’s orchard.”

The wind directs

​ NIV1 Then the Spirit lifted me up and brought me to the gate of the house of the Lord that faces east. There at the entrance of the gate were twenty-five men, and I saw among them Jaazaniah son of Azzur and Pelatiah son of Benaiah, leaders of the people.

Are you positioned to Catch the wind.

Are you positioned in such a way that the spirit just passes you by - like the the still leaves. Are you positioning yourself to experience the the spitit, but just enough to suit you before returning to a position where the spitit could catch you momenterily again or do you move your position out of the breeze.

or are you positioned so the even as a slight move of the spirit catches you, moves you, shapes you?

Are you positioning yourself to go where the spirit leads even if it is uncomfortableare you positioned to hear Gods voice, to live life to the full, to Go and be carried?

As I stood in the forest The movement of the individual leaves seemed to amplify each other, causing them to catch the wind more and and the whole branch was rocking and moving in what was the smallest of breaths.

You see Jesus is the Vine and we are the branches, and each of us are part of the branch. If we position ourselvs so that we catch the breath of God, I believe that it is not just us as individuals that God will move but the Vine as a whole.