Ethnic privilege and ministry privilege

A lot has been written on Acts 6:1-7 but a couple of big things that are going on there jumped out at me freshly:

• Institutional ethnic privilege dealt with. The issue is ethnicity. It is not Jew-Gentile; they are almost all Jews. It is not about skin colour. It is about ethnicity in the old sense of land, language and culture; Hebraic Aramaic-speakers mostly from Palestine privileged over Hellenistic Greek-speakers mostly from the diaspora. This is a big issue, not only because it threatens the gospel ministry priority of the apostles (Acts 6:2) but because it breaks the second commandment, tramples the poor, denies the image of God, attacks true religion, and because it threatens the glorious unity of the church (Acts 4:32) which is such a prominent theme throughout Acts and the whole New Testament. So the apostles deal with it:
• They listen. They hear the complaint. Which suggests there is an environment within which different ethnicities voice their complaints to others… because they believe they will be listened to… and they are. It raises the question of whether we have that environment. Are we listening to the voices of others?
• They take it seriously. They don’t get defensive even though it is their own ethnicity as Hebrews that is being accused of privilege. They don’t deny or minimise or excuse it. They don’t suggest it is an imaginary problem or accuse the Hellenists of victim mentality. They don’t see the complaint as a cloak for liberal theology. They don’t try to deconstruct the category of ethnicity and argue that because we are all one in Christ there is no Greek or Hebrew so we should just be colour blind. They take the issue of ethnic discrimination seriously.
• They recognise the problem for what it is: institutional (probably unintentional) ethnic privilege and discrimination. They see that this is not a few isolated incidents related to a few bad apples – it is about the institution, the system of aid distribution. There are cultural bindspots and cultural practices which are leading to barriers, oversights and neglect. They see that this is not an issue to be addressed with sermons (central and vital as their gospel preaching ministry is). They see that this is a problem that requires institutional restructuring.
• There is a power shift. This is where the application really bites. Leadership of the aid distribution shifts to those from non-privileged ethnicities. All the seven appointed are Greek-speakers (including one Gentile). Interestingly they are elected by the whole congregation – they are not flown in as light-weight token or puppet leaders, rather they are men of standing from within – and then they are confirmed in their authority by the laying on of hands by the apostles. To correct the initial ethnic privilege, discrimination and imbalance requires a shift in leadership and genuine power ceded to the disadvantaged ethnicities.
• Both prayer-and-Word ministry and table ministry are given extremely high value. Just as ethnic privilege is an ever-present danger we need to deal with, so there is the danger of privileging one form of ministry above another. This passage is brilliant in dealing with that issue too:
• On the one hand the apostles are determined that the ministry of tables does not consume their time and energies so that they neglect their primary task – crying out to the Lord on behalf of people and crying out to people on behalf of God, declaring the greatness of Jesus and calling people to look at him. This task is absolutely vital to the growth of the church in number and maturity and unity. The apostles must be devoted to it (Acts 6:4). It must not on any account be ‘given up’ (Acts 6:2) or all is lost. The church desperately needs people of character, zeal and knowledge who will devote themselves to this ministry of prayer and Word.
• On the other hand, the ministry of tables (practical care within the church, concern for the weak) is given extremely high value too. There is no question of giving up the aid distribution. The apostles don’t say, “Look this is getting too difficult and distracting and divisive so we just won’t do it. The world can do social care. We’re just going to be a preaching church.” Notice also that the apostles don’t say, “We will devote ourselves to The Ministry while others can do the non-ministry stuff.” The word for ‘serving’ tables (v2) is the same as the ‘ministry’ of the Word (v4). And notice finally the quality of the guys who are appointed to the table ministry – ‘good repute, full of the Spirit and of wisdom’ (v3) ‘full of faith and the Holy Spirit’ (v5). These are very high quality guys – mature, godly, courageous, discerning, outstanding preachers and evangelists, leaders – necessary for an extremely important ministry.

Our danger will always be to privilege one ethnicity or one form of ministry over another to the point of neglect. Let us hold all in the highest possible esteem.