Acts 11:1-18
Dear RTB’ers,
Today I saw two items that struck me: unity within the church and apostolic leadership. First, unity: Now the apostles and the brothers who were throughout Judea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God. So when Peter went up to Jerusalem, the circumcision party criticized him, saying… (vv. 1-2) There is initial doubt among the Jewish Christians of the Gentiles becoming believers, but then Peter tells his full story. When they heard these things they fell silent. And they glorified God… (v. 18a). My Study Bible also pointed out a number of other unification items that we have seen thus far in Acts 6:5, 11:1, 11:22.
Second, apostolic leadership: the Jerusalem leadership of the church was quick to double-check work that was going on elsewhere. You may recall back in Acts 8 that Peter and John were sent to Samaria after Philip and others had been preaching to the Samaritans. Now we have the church “testing” Peter’s activities in Caesarea. We continue to have that apostolic leadership in our church today. Our priests are subject to our bishops and our bishops to our Archbishop and Archbishop Beach to God Himself. But this leadership is a two-way interaction. Foley Beach, our Bishop and Archbishop offers advice and counsel to rectors in ADOTS, but he also seeks their input and input from other leaders within GAFCON on matters where discussion is needed. Without this model of apostolic leadership unrestrained pastors and teachers can create problems that wisdom “from above” might have forestalled. We at St. Andrew’s are truly blessed!
One more item on this apostolic leadership – think back to our own beginnings in 2003/2004. When this “group of 80” was willing to leave St. John’s and call David Brannen as their rector, the first thing that they did was to seek a “covering” for themselves. This they found in the Ugandan Diocese of Bunyoro-Kitara, wherein they received the Godly leadership of Bishop Nathan, a relationship that is still strong in our church today. GLORY!!
Blessings!