Acts 6:2-4 “So the Twelve gathered all the disciples together and said, “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God in order to wait on tables. Brothers, choose seven men from among you who are known to be full of the Spirit and wisdom. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

The Twelve Apostles believed a ministry of love was important. They made this ministry of love a major thrust of the early church’s program. They created seven new positions to oversee the work. These were the original deacons–not members of a committee to run the property or make decisions, nor some kind of junior priests. They were men who made sure that poor women didn’t go hungry. In Greek, a deacon is a table-waiter. That is more or less what these men did. Their work gave hands and feet to the church’s love. It also enhanced the church’s main mission, which we will examine momentarily.

Before we do, it is worth noting that our congregations don’t usually have thousands of members. In our context, not so many live in extreme poverty. That doesn’t make our expressions of love less important. They still fill genuine needs. They give evidence that our faith is genuine. Ministries and programs that address the things our neighbors hunger for, like a support group, food drives, or financial classes, are still a legitimate part of a Christian church’s priorities.

But the ministry of the word is paramount. Isn’t that what the Apostles were saying? “It would not be right for us to neglect the ministry of the word of God to wait on tables…. We will turn this responsibility over to them and will give our attention to prayer and the ministry of the word.”

The Apostles wanted the widows fed. They just didn’t want to do it themselves. That was not hypocritical on their part. They clearly understood that they had more important work to do. They understood how the urgency of getting the food to the people who needed it could cannibalize all their time. The church lives on the Bread of Life. Jesus said man does not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of the Father. Without literal food, these widows might die and go to heaven. Without spiritual food, they might die and go to hell.

So, the Apostles understood that for the church, and for their own calling, the ministry of the word was paramount, primary, supreme. That’s not hard to see, is it? From the U.S. Postal Service, I receive a bag once a year to support a food drive for a local food bank. It is a fine thing for them to do. But it isn’t their main mission. If the mailman spent all of his time gathering donations for the food bank and didn’t deliver the mail in a timely way, we wouldn’t be happy. It’s not just a matter of preference. Our society, our economy, depend on the mail going through to function.

Whether they know it or not, the whole world is depending on the church to deliver the life-giving word of God. Not everyone likes to hear the gospel. But almost everyone likes it when someone does something kind. It is easy for the church to get distracted from its mission. American Family Association founder Don Wildmon once explained this in a little parable that went something like this:

Once upon a time there was a community on the coast of the northeast where many shipwrecks took place. There were hidden rocks, and storms often came up quickly. So a concerned individual decided to build a life-saving station. Some friends and neighbors joined him. They bought boats and life vests and even built a lighthouse. Soon they were saving lives, preventing serious injuries, and preserving families with their work.

They did such good work that more and more people joined them. They bonded together and held fellowship suppers and social events at the lifesaving station. After a number of years some of them decided that the old building needed repairs. They built a new one, bigger and more beautiful, and they hosted all kinds of activities in the building.

Eventually, many of the members weren’t willing to go out on the boats to rescue sailors, so they hired professional lifesavers to do the work for them. Then that got expensive, and they needed the money to support all the activities at the life-saving station, so they stopped paying the professionals. Years later someone asked what the purpose was for the life-saving station, and the answer was, “Why of course, to have a place for our community to get together and to host all our activities.”

You get the point, I think. The church is God’s life-saving station. Kindness and love are important. But only the word of God introduces people to their Savior. It is a message that shows people how their sins have been taken away and their relationship with God repaired and restored at the cross. It is a message that replaces the fear of death with the promise of life in Jesus’ empty tomb. It is a message that plants this faith home in human hearts. That message needs to go out from the church to rescue a world drowning in a sea of sin and death. No one else is going to do it for us. If a church isn’t delivering this word of God as the main reason for its existence, then it has mixed up its priorities and lost its true purpose.