Seven Chosen to Serve
1Now during those days, when the disciples were increasing in number, the Hellenists complained against the Hebrews because their widows were being neglected in the daily distribution of food. 2And the twelve called together the whole community of the disciples and said, ‘It is not right that we should neglect the word of God in order to wait at tables. 3Therefore, friends, select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this task, 4while we, for our part, will devote ourselves to prayer and to serving the word.’ 5What they said pleased the whole community, and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, together with Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte of Antioch. 6They had these men stand before the apostles, who prayed and laid their hands on them.
7The word of God continued to spread; the number of the disciples increased greatly in Jerusalem, and a great many of the priests became obedient to the faith. [Acts 6:1-7, NRSV]
Pope Francis wanted to see a synodal Church where the entire community – laity, clergy and religious – walks together, dialogues earnestly, and enters into spiritual discernment to make decisions. He insisted that to solve communal problems, two elements are essential: listening, and walking together.
Acts 15 becomes a key resource in this regard. It narrates the “Proto Synod” – the Apostolic Council. “This first synod was so successful that,” one of the cardinals declared, “we still live from its fruits today.”
Lived experience in the nascent church the Lord Jesus left behind had guided the faith community in multiple ways, including the proper reading of Scriptures, moral life, and communal regulations. In this regard, actually, the first synodal experience in the early church is recorded in Acts 6:1-7. Though this is a short passage, a serious reflection of its narrative contents can hugely benefit our reflection on Acts 15 in the next post on 1 Dec 2026.
In Acts 6, as disciples were fast increasing in numbers, Hellenist widows were neglected in food-distribution. Naturally, the Hellenists complained. Severe discontent on basic human sustenance is no “rock” on which to build a harmonious community. So a first warning sign had emerged in a community in its early inception that was built on Christ’s sacrificial love. The problem demanded immediate redress before a malignant schismatic mentality spread and splintered a young but unified community of “one bread, one body” (cf. 1 Cor 10:17). At once, the early church encountered a pressing need for a serious problem-solving spirit and Luke’s account portrayed the early apostles facing the challenge brilliantly.
Observe four things the apostles did and achieved for the good of the faith community:
- Listening
Communal wounds are the results of sins. In this case, the sins were of neglect. Wounds must be attended to; delays would only cause wounds to fester. Delayed redress might be difficult and costly, even requiring amputation. The apostles acted immediately. They did not sweep the problem to a convenient corner. They actively sought to nip a potentially serious communal wound in the bud. Their problem-solving spirit kicked in promptly.
The first thing they did was to listen. They called the whole “body of disciples” together – to listen – in order to understand what the problem was and to work out a fitting solution for it. It was the first recorded convocation of an assembly of the early church upon an admirable problem-solving spirit.
In any 21st century local church, official leadership that reads, understands, obeys, and puts to practice the Word of God in Acts 6, will not claim to lead a Word-centred community, while screaming menacingly from the pulpit: “You lay people listen here: we are the ones to decide!.” Read the Bible; first century apostles have set a Spirit-filled example. Today, we are either obedient servants of the Word, or we are its rebels.
- Walking with one another
After listening well, the apostles made their decisions without any delay. They called upon the Hellenist community to pick out from among themselves “seven men of good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom, whom we may appoint to this duty” (Acts 6:3). This decision was profoundly wise and significant.
Three stand-out points deserve attention:
[a] It was fair and just. The apostles paid heed to the ethnic sensibility of the problem. Themselves Jews, they did not arrogate communal power and authority to the Jews alone; instead, they gave full authority to the Hellenist section of the community to select its own trustworthy team. This team would be vested with the authority and duty of food distribution to their ethnic group. St Stephen, the first Christian martyr, was first on this seven-men list. As a significant reference against today’s short-sighted culture of racial-control and ethnic-bias and, in the case of the Church, a will to power-control on the part of church-officials (loosely appropriating a usage from Friedrich Nietzsche’s conception of human conscious or unconscious desire to exercise authority over others), the Hebrew-speaking apostles’ handing over authority for food-distribution to Hellenist leaders in consideration of the Hellenist section of the community is truly commendable. They did not reserve the authority to the Hebrew corner when the neglect arose in the first place due to a lack of sensibility on the part of the Hebrews towards significant “others”. This is wisdom in evidence. And it was at once a fair and just measure that easily won over the trust and confidence (the hearts) of the Hellenist faithful.
[b] Men of good repute were chosen. In choosing the team of seven, the apostles stressed trustworthiness as an important quality. Scriptures thus clearly set the norm for the choice of office bearers in the Church – avoid favouritism and nepotism, and ditch the tainted banner of “promoting vocation” in questionable cases.
[c] Furthermore, the apostles set the bar clearly: the men chosen must be “full of the Spirit and of wisdom”. From the outset, the apostles who had recently experienced the Pentecost had borne witness to the fact that the life of the Church rests not on men but solidly on the Holy Spirit despite men of questionable caliber posing as gatekeepers. They knew well that without the Holy Spirit, the Church would falter and fail.
- Good result
A delightful picture emerged from all this. In agreement, communal unity was restored, schism avoided, and the Church grew. As a collateral benefit, the apostles could focus on prayer and teaching as the urgent tasks the Master had entrusted them with. And as apostolic teaching and evangelisation increased, the experience of God was enriched among the people, and disciples grew in numbers.
- Relevance for today
As transparency and accountability in financial management becomes an obstinately entrenched problem in many of our local churches, the matter turns on the administrative competence of the local bishops (successors of the original Apostles) and their assimilation of the Word in Acts 6. The open secret is this: “Men and women of good repute, full of the Spirit and wisdom” and professionally competent in management, law and accountancy are in plentiful supply in every local church. Why are they not enlisted to stop this prolonged criminality on the part of the clerics in charge of parishes? No “pastoral conventions” and “synods” announced on bright banners are remotely meaningful when the local churches persistently turn a blind eye to a blatant and flagrant crime such as this. This common phenomenon marks a prolonged thievery by ordained custodians, protected by the prolonged silence of consecrated overseers. And the rest of the People of God are taken for fools. Pope Francis’ repeated calls to “speak courageously”, and to “listen respectfully”, and to “walk together” do not appear to have reached the shores of Borneo.
- The Church learns
The Christian Church, in its early inception, manifested the wisdom of problem-solving without delay. Through St Luke’s account in Acts 6:1-7, the Church today inherits a significant lesson on the importance of a problem-solving spirit, combined with Spirit-inspired wisdom that is attentive to social-ethnic sensibilities.
The presence of this same spirit is key to a healthy community, be it the faith-community, a social group, a family, or a work place. That’s the first quality to look for when a social group is seeking to admit new members or when a workplace is seeking to employ new staff. Is the potential newcomer likely to be part of the problem or part of the solution? On seeing something that needs to be done, will the newcomer willingly get it done, even when no one is watching, or ignore it and walk away?
Meanwhile, the early Church also learned another crucial lesson so far as ecclesial unity is concerned. The Church today must learn it as well or ignore it to our peril, and that is, in agreement, small things grow, and in discord, great things fall apart.
[Our reflection on the synodal church modeled after Acts 15 will appear on 1 Dec 2026.]
Copyright © Dr. Jeffrey & Angie Goh, November, 2026. All rights reserved.
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