Built for Success

The sermon, titled "Built for Success," is part of a series called Rise, which explores the early Christian church through the book of Acts. The message focuses on Acts 6, where the rapidly growing church begins facing organizational challenges due to its expanding and diverse community. Specifically, tension arises between two cultural groups within the church: the Hebrews (native Aramaic-speaking Jews from Jerusalem) and the Hellenists (Greek-speaking Jews from outside the region). A complaint surfaces that the Hellenist widows are being overlooked in the daily food distribution, highlighting the church's failure to live up to the values of compassion and generosity expected of Jesus’s followers.

Pastor Scott Harris explains that early Jewish customs already included systems of support for the needy, such as weekly and daily food collections. The neglect of the Hellenist widows violates these traditions and the teachings of Jesus, who emphasized caring for the least among us. This neglect signals a need for the early church to develop formal leadership and structure to manage growth and ensure fairness. By addressing these growing pains, the church begins forming the foundational structure that will enable it to succeed in its mission and reflect the character of Christ more faithfully. The overall message emphasizes that the church must be built not just on passion, but on intentional systems that reflect Jesus’s love and justice.