How to handle complaints with justice

Elaine Storkey unpacks Acts 6, revealing the principles that enabled the early Church to move forward after a dispute and which she urges us all to live by today 

Most of us don’t like hearing complaints. This is as true for manufacturers, water companies or school as it is in personal relationships. And when the complaints are about things related to church, like the preaching, the times of services, the way church is run or the lack of consultation, things can get very ‘unchristian’! Very often the leadership can see complaints as a distraction from the real job of preaching the gospel. Sometimes the response is to deny anything is wrong, or do nothing and just hope things sort themselves out. In aggravated situations, complainers can even be asked to leave and find another church. But none of these reactions produces a proper resolution. Whole fellowships have been broken up because of niggling complaints that eventually got too big to handle.