Some years ago before I was a Pastor, I regularly had to go to an aeroplane engine factory as a part of my job. It was an exciting large-scale place, full of huge machines and massive spaces to move them around. Visiting the factory every few months was a highlight of my job. One day I was asked to go to a particular workshop within the factory where a team of about 12 people, each with his own bench, were working. Most of these guys had been there for 20 years or more and their task was to make a very precise heat shield the size of a small plate. Each of shield was fitted to a hidden part of a huge aeroplane engine that was twice the size of my car. Without these small components the engine wouldn’t work properly and may not even get an aeroplane off the ground, let alone keep it in their air. Yet before I met the team I didn’t even know such a piece existed, let alone that someone needed to make it their life’s work making them and all so that a huge aeroplane could fly.
As Paul writes to the dysfunctional Corinthian church, he reminds them in ch 12 of his first letter that church is the body of Christ. Their very existence as a body of believers is not all about them and doing them good, but about Jesus and His glory. He tells them that they function like a body, with each one playing their part and with all of the parts dependent on all of the others, no matter how hidden they may be.
Its easy for us to think of a body as being all about those parts that we can see – when we think of loved-ones we invariable think of their faces first, and not about their internal organs!
When you think of a local church, its almost inevitable that you’ll think of the preacher or other more public roles before you think of anything else. But its important to remember that church doesn’t work like that:
A body can only function if every part fulfils its task. We can’t see one another’s lungs and heart and kidneys, but if they don’t work properly then each of our bodies would suffer. So it is with a local church: the preacher may be great, but without fellow leaders and musicians and Sunday school teachers and people cleaning the building, and someone dealing with admin and so on and so on.. the whole body will be dysfunctional.
One of the most unhelpful phrases that I’ve heard people say is that they ‘come to church to be fed’ (i.e. hear a great message they can mediate on). But the New Testament doesn’t say that at all:
Firstly, if church is the body of Christ then Christians don’t just ‘come to church’, they are always part of the church and should recognise that belonging.
Secondly, being part of the church isn’t primarily about being ‘me being fed’, its all about fulfilling my part in that body and recognising that its all about Him and not about me. Its crucial to see how important everyone in that body is and vital to note that by supporting, helping and serving them I can bring Jesus honour.
Finally, its somehow become fashionable to ‘wait until my gifts are recognised’ before being ready to use them. ‘I like to be asked’ is the phrase so often used – along with ‘I don’t like to push myself forwards’. But if our lungs waited to be asked to breath, none of us would get very far!
If you’re willing to play a part, come and get stuck-in! Tell your church leadership that you’d like to help! Please be ready for them to spot that you’d fit better as an ear than you do as a foot… and please be ready to change your role as your gifts develop and the need arises. But don’t sit on the sidelines, if you are part of the body – behave as if you are!