The introduction of leaven

[YP0534]

I briefly hit some of my most at-hand volumes regarding my speculations and didn't find anything to support my contentions (no surprise there) but nothing that directly addressed them, either (as expected.)

More to do on that front, for certain.

But, just out of curiosity, I opened LS-Acts to Message 19 and found it a really interesting discussion.

I'll summarize as concisely as I can.

Lee says there was "A Problem in the Church Life" regarding the "daily dispensing" to the widows and he muses that "these problems are not caused by outsiders but by those in the church." He notes in passing that the first "problem" was with Annanias and Sapphira. Then he notes that different languages caused problems in the Local Church once but "no longer!"

Then he addresses himself to the choosing of the 7 deacons and refers to it as the apostles "exercis[ing] their wisdom to solve the problem and to take care of all the different saints." He quickly asserts that this is "A Pattern for Us Today" and explains that the best thing is to delegate and to "distribute the responsibility."

He follows up by noting the "Two Brothers with Particular Gifts" and then discusses that "some who have particular gifts may not be willing to serve tables" but that "Steven and Philip did not murmur." He then gives a short paragraph to say that there was "No Leader Appointed" among the seven deacons. "All the serving ones are the servants to the saints," he says. 'This is a good pattern for us to lean and follow that we may avoid leadership in rank and position in any form."

Anyway, it struck me as quite ironic that Lee found all of these things as excellent "patterns" for us to follow while I'm noting

1. that his praise of Steven and Philip is essentially my criticism of the 12 and
2. that the appointment of the 7 is implicitly not "leadership in rank and position in any form" as far as he was concerned.

I find myself in Opposite-land.