Growing Through Acts

"If you don't like something, change it. If you can't change it, change your attitude. Don't complain."--Maya Angelou

Will Bowen, a Kansas City minister and author of A Complaint Free World, recognized there was far too much complaining in the world. He proposes that word choice determines thought choice, which determines emotions and actions. Bowen believes if you can eliminate complaining, you will experience more happiness.

So what exactly is a complaint?
 
For me, any negative description of an event, person, or issue is a complaint. Gossiping is pretty easy to define. Criticizing is too. Discussing facts is okay. Complaining is not to be confused with informing someone of a mistake or deficiency so that it can be put right. And to refrain from complaining doesn’t mean you have to put up with bad quality or behavior. There's no complaint in telling the server your coffee is cold and needs to be heated up -- just stick to the facts -- which are neutral. “How dare you serve me cold coffee?” That’s complaining.

The church has had to deal with its fair share of complainers. Look at what happened in the very first church:

But as the believers rapidly multiplied, there were rumblings of discontent. The Greek-speaking believers complained about the Hebrew-speaking believers...--Acts 6:1

The church was dealing with growing pains, making it difficult for the leaders to minister to everybody. This situation could have created an even greater rift between the Greek and Hebrew believers, but the apostles dealt with the difficulty with wisdom and grace. Satan didn't get a foothold in the fellowship!

Lake Christian Church, like all growing churches, has occasionally had to face a serious problem that presented the members with a number of challenges. But those challenges gave the leaders a chance to examine ministry and make essential changes.

In Acts 6, the apostles realized they created the problem themselves. Instead of praying and teaching, they got caught up in the secondary task of running a food program. They were trying to do too much. Even today, church leaders get so busy with secondary tasks that they fall short in the areas of prayer and study. They fail to "keep the main thing the main thing." As a result, the church becomes spiritually anemic making it easy for even more problems to develop. (Do you think we'll ever hear a church member complain that his or her minister doesn't pray and study enough?)

It is valuable to remember that complaining isn't an attractive attribute in anyone!

It's better to live alone in the desert than with a quarrelsome, complaining wife.--Proverbs 21:19

Note: The message on the book of Acts will be on Sunday, August 7 at 10:30a.