The Church Chooses Seven Special Helpers

The church in Jerusalem was growing bigger and bigger every day! This was wonderful, but it also created a problem. The church was helping widows by giving them food every day. But some of the widows weren't getting their fair share.

The twelve apostles called everyone together for a meeting. They said, 'We have an important job that God gave us: to pray and to teach people about Jesus. If we spend all our time handing out food, we won't have time to do what God called us to do. So here's what we should do: You choose seven good men who are honest, wise, and full of God's Holy Spirit. We'll put them in charge of making sure the food gets shared fairly.'

Everyone thought this was a great idea! They chose seven men who loved God and whom everyone trusted. Their names were Stephen, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolas.

The apostles put their hands on each man's head and prayed for them. This was a special ceremony that showed everyone that these men were now official helpers in the church.

Something amazing happened! Because the apostles could now spend more time praying and teaching about Jesus, God's word spread even faster. More and more people kept becoming believers—even many of the Jewish priests started believing in Jesus! The church learned that when everyone uses their gifts to help, the whole church grows stronger.