Building the Body

I recently attended a Young Adult night in Grand Rapids. It was a great experience to be able to see how another church did their YA ministry, and though the church was significantly larger than Corner, I was surprised by the similarities between the two. There was nothing spectacular about the evening, but you could tell it was a very God-filled place. Their worship wasn’t showy, it was heartfelt and passionate. The message wasn’t “appetizing”, it was the Truth, God’s Word, and it cut through to my heart to divide what my flesh wanted to hear from what God was speaking to my spirit.

It was beautiful to see the unity that our two churches have in Christ, before even knowing each other existed. I didn’t have to know anyone from that church personally to feel a deep connection in my spirit the people there. I believe it’s because I could sense that the same Holy Spirit that lives and works in my heart was living and working in theirs. Our churches have this unity because we have the same foundation, the same root; Our churches are connected in an unseen but tangible way because Jesus Christ is the lord over us all.

Seeing this other church founded solidly on the Gospel and their Christ-centered community and fellowship was encouraging, but it made me realize something sobering: Why don’t ALL our churches have these two things in common? Why don’t ALL of us believers, across West Michigan, across the Midwest, across the nation, have these things in common?

I sincerely believe that deeper unity within the body of Christ is possible, but it starts with people like me and you: everyday followers of Jesus, who make an impact in the church in important but sometimes unnoticed ways. I don’t think the biggest change is needed in our leadership- I think the change needed will come from us “regular” people. After all, we are the ones who make up the majority of the Body of Christ.

So what can we do? How can we make changes to bring the churches in our community closer together in fellowship and in preaching the Truth? The answer is simple, but not easy:

1. Each of us as individuals must be saturated in God’s Word (to know what it says and live it out).

2. We must make an intentional effort to grow relationships within our church family.

I don’t plan on talking about the first point much in this blog. I think it’s rather self-explanatory: we simply need to read the Bible! And we have to read it every day. We have to dive deep into the things that confuse us, ask questions, talk about it with other believers, think about it. I have been convicted over and over again in recent years that I don’t spend enough time in God’s Word, because if someone were to question my faith, would I have an answer as I am commanded to have in 1 Peter 3:15? Yet I know this is a struggle we all face, and I can’t ever give up on it.

For the Truth to be my foundation, I have to know it so well that I literally think about it all the time, so that it changes every part of me and the way I live, “dwelling richly” in my heart as Colossians 3:16 says. No matter how “busy”, distracted or overwhelmed I am, the fact remains the same: I’m not going to know what God’s Word says if I don’t read it, and I have to know what God says if I am going to be obedient to His will for my life.

Now let’s go deeper into my second point: Christ-centered fellowship. Coming to church weekly, serving in some way, and maybe even attending Bible studies throughout the week are all very good things, things that can build up the body… But unless we are making an intentional effort to pour into others, we will never go much further than creating surface-level relationships.

I think “building up” goes much deeper and requires much more effort on our parts than just showing up and attending something. And really, I am speaking to myself here. It’s so easy for me to get lazy, but convince myself I actually just don’t have the time or energy or resources to connect with fellow believers beyond a “good morning!” every Sunday. But those are excuses, not facts. If can make time for other things that matter to me in my life, I can make time to build up the people that I will be spending eternity with!

I love the analogy of a human body that Paul uses for the church in 1 Corinthians 12. It perfectly describes the complicated and interconnected nature of the church:

“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. … 15 If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 16 And if the ear

should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? 18 But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ”

We all have different purposes, but we are all under the same Head- Christ, with the same goal to spread the Gospel. We all have a part to play in the grand scheme of God’s plan, and we were were created to do it together.

This passage in Corinthians continues in verse 26, “If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” We are not only together in our mission to share the Gospel, we were meant to do every part of our lives together! We are to suffer, weep, rejoice, hope, struggle, overcome, work, play, and live together. Not one of us was made to be separate and disconnected. Simply attending church on Sunday is not enough to develop this level of unity: we have to do the hard work of reaching out to people in our community to start building relationships that could become lifelong.

It is exciting to think of spreading the Gospel to the ends of the earth, and it should be: It is our great calling, the “Great Commission” (Matthew 28:19). Yet I think too many of us have forgotten the need to strengthen internally. We need to be solid and unified on our foundation of Christ together as His Body before we can effectively be His hands and feet.

With all of these things in mind, let’s each take a few moments today to think of the ways we are building up the body, and how we can do it better. The change that the church needs starts in us. Unity is hard work, but it is possible with Christ as our cornerstone.

“I appeal to you, brothers, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree, and that there be no divisions among you, but that you be united in the same mind and the same judgment.” (1 Corinthains 1:10)