LEADERS ARE PARTNERSBoth Jesus and the Apostle Paul always had people around them that they
were training. They brought them into partnership with them in the work
of God’s Kingdom. Jesus called and commissioned the twelve and the
seventy-two – and transmitted His power and authority to them. Paul
always had a little “traveling Bible School” of men and women he was
discipling and mentoring everywhere he went. He names many of them
in his various Epistles. Romans 16 has the longest list – some twenty-six
people he refers to as his beloved friends and ministry partners. And at
least seven or more of them were women.
When you study the book of Acts, you see this same emphasis upon
partnership. One of the defining words of that book is “together...
fellowship.” It comes from the Greek word, koinonia which means
“communion, fellowship, sharing in common.” Rather than living in isolation
and individualism, the early believers were constantly together. The
leaders – the Twelve – were right in the midst of them practicing partner
leadership. We can see this leadership principle being demonstrated in Acts
- There we read the very straightforward account of one of the very first
“leadership crises” in the 1st century church. Look at it briefly with me.
Just like in the case of Moses and the people, this crisis revolved around
meeting the needs of people. Once again it was another bread crisis! In
accordance with God’s admonition to care for widows and orphans (Deut.
14:29; 16:11; 14:19-21; Ja. 1:27, etc), the early church had a “food kitchen”
to care for these needy people among their fellowship. The Jews of the
Diaspora, who were living in Jerusalem, felt that their widows were not
getting proper care. They felt that the widows of the Jerusalem Jews
were being given preferential treatment – and getting a disproportionate
allotment of food. So they “...complained against the Hebraic Jews
because their widows were being overlooked in the daily distribution
of food.”
In typical “church committee” fashion, they took the problem to the
leadership – in this case, the twelve Apostles. They in essence said to the
Apostles: “This is your problem as our church leaders – you solve it!” Wisely,
they followed the example of Moses and the seventy elders. They gathered
all of the disciples together and said: