For the last four Sundays we have looked carefully at the followers

of Jesus in the days following the resurrection of Jesus.  It was a

time of dramatic transition in that Jesus was no longer with them. In

their state of quandary, however, they choose to follow Jesus’

instructions to stay in Jerusalem and wait for the Father to fulfill a

promise to send His Spirit as a comforter, empowerer, and guide. Sure

enough God kept his promise and in spectacular fashion the full

presence of God came fully among them.

Several things evidenced God’s presence among them. One, they found

great courage in retelling the story of Jesus. Two, they became

closely bonded together as a new kind of community. Three, their faith

launched them into unusual care for those outside the community of

faith. Those in the rigid and fearful cultural order were amazed by

their faith and turned to Jesus as the promised Savior.

As the community grew in number from 120 followers to 5,000, there

arose a need for some people of strong faith and full of God’s Spirit

to help the apostles in ministering to those in the community that

needed urgent and consistent care. In this case it was some widows who

needed help with food.

The apostles recognized the need and sent out word for the people to

select a small group of people to help in the work of delivering food

to those who most needed it.  It is very interesting and  prescriptive

that this was a decision made by the people and not by apostles who

could have been viewed as the “higher ups.”  This is one reason why

churches adopt a governance pattern of trusting the people in

ordering the work of the church and reject a top down governance

model. After all, it was  ALL the people who had been filled with

God’s Spirit.

Now to this important step for Soul Cafe. It is time for our community

of faith to select people who can help us more robustly take care of

the needs of the people both in and out of our fellowship. So this

Sunday come prayerfully ready to commend the names of several people

among us who could help us take this critical step.

This Sunday a good portion of worship will be spent in prayer asking

God to lead us in selecting those among us who would be willing to

take this task to heart. What will we call these people? Assistant

coaches, brave hearts, deacons? With God’s we’ll find the answer.