You could make the case that right here, in the first days of the first church in the first chapter of the book of Acts, the church made its first big mistake. Jesus left them in Jerusalem with nothing but a promise and told them to wait. Waiting got to be too much. With no idea what was to come, or when, anxious about the future, uncertain about what they should do, they decide to take things into their own hands. 

I can just imagine impetuous Peter—always ready to jump into a vacuum, to fill the silence with words and take charge—taking over, saying, "We've got to get organized here… Set up a structure for the transition in leadership... Create committees and boards, search teams and a term of office. Hey, I've got it! Let's have an election!" So they put up two candidates—Justus and Ma…