The first I would point to is helpfulness. In 1 Corinthians 12:28, in the list of gifts, Paul specifically mentions gifts of helping. Have you ever noticed that phrase? Gifts of helping? Have you have thought about gifts? Could one of your gifts be to be a helper? The great apostle, under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, thinks it is so important that he includes it.

I like very much how one commentator describes this gift of helping. He says that people who have this gift are instinctive, practical volunteers. There is something in them: there is a helpfulness, readiness, and a volunteer spirit. You do not have to nag them. You do not have to give them a job description. They see the need and there is something in them which leads them to be quick to reach out and to meet that need.

Let us take a completely suppositious example. Supposing, for example, a congregation is going to have a lunch at the close of a morning service. Try to envisage that possibility. Now, if that were ever to happen, you would see the helpers putting out the chairs, cleaning up the floor afterward. While others would be sitting on their hands or involved in deep theological or other discussions, there would be the helpers. People who are equipped with practical skills.

It is something that can very easily be overlooked. But where would the people of God be without such gifts? Because, you see, not only do these people serve others, but they enable others. They set other people free for other ministry. That is really what those opening verses in Acts 6:1–15 are about. This is really where the church takes the division in church offices of elders and deacons. The word that is used in Acts 6:1–15 is the Greek word deacon.

Do you remember there was a crisis in the church? There was division and arguing. The church has never been perfect. People say, If we could only get back to the early church. Well, here is the early church: they were quarrelling. And the apostles did not sweep the quarrelling under the carpet—they did not pretend it did not exist—they brought it out to the open. They said let us deal with this and solve it. The apostles said, “We find that we are so involved with the ministry of the Word and prayer that we have no time to care for these people as they deserve to be cared for. So, these seven men full of the Holy Spirit and wisdom were chosen by the church. They exercised their gifts. The apostles were set free to do their work properly and the internal squabbling was replaced. Luke says, the Word of God continued to increase and the number of the disciples multiplied greatly and a great many priests became obedient to the faith (Acts 6:7). There was a great upsurge of spiritual life and outreach in evangelism, and by this simple arrangement, the church which had been inward looking and getting irritated with each other, were set free from all that and rich blessing came to the church.

All because there were seven men who were willing to play second fiddle. They were willing to work behind the scenes, to do the mundane, boring, ordinary things. It is like the workers behind the scenes in a theatre: you see the actors on the stage—they are the people who get the applause from the unthinking audience—but if it had not been for the lighting man, the stage craft, and the sound crew, there would not be a play, performance, actors, or applause.

Helpfulness, it is valuable in itself. One writer says, it is also valuable as the seedbed in which other gifts grow. Philip is listed here as one of the deacons; a few chapters later we see him as a mighty evangelist. Stephen is listed as one of the deacons; he becomes a powerful Christian apologist and the first Christian martyr.

There is a lovely story about a man in the 1800s, an American called Samuel Brengle. He had heard of William Booth from the Salvation Army—a very gifted man, well educated, and with great qualifications. So, he said, I would like to work with William Booth in the work of the Salvation Army. Thus, he crossed the Atlantic, came to settle in Britain, and he came to William Booth and he said, I have heard of your work. Here is who I am. Here are my qualifications. Here is what I have done. I want to work with you. William Booth said, I am delighted to have you—a man like you. I have some work for you. Booth took him down to the bottom of the building. He gave him two brushes and a tin of boot polish and he said, What I want you to do, is clean the boots of all the Salvation Army workers. Samuel Brengle did that for day after day after day. One day a feeling of great annoyance filled his heart; he thought he had all these gifts and abilities, and the fact that he crossed the Atlantic; he offered himself to this man and what has he asked him to do? But then he suddenly thought of the Lord Jesus washing the disciples’ feet. Then Samuel Brengle said in his own words, Lord, you washed their feet. I will black their boots. And then, in the process of time, he became one of the greatest missionary leaders and statesman that that era had seen. But he began by helping. Helpfulness.¹

Edward Donnelly