After Judas had gone his own way and thrown away God’s gift of purpose for his life, the disciples selected two candidates to compete for the missing post of apostle and threw dice. Matthias ‘won’, according to the story.\r\n\r\nBut I wonder if they had waited – rather than select the best candidates around at the time, and had prayed rather than thrown dice, whether Paul, who seemed to be God’s choice, would have come into the church sooner?\r\n\r\nIt seems that their criteria for selection – length of service, the new candidate should have been there from the beginning – was nowhere near the criteria God used in choosing Paul.\r\n\r\nWhich reminds me of Neil Cole’s comment, that the leaders of the church of the future are no yet in the church.