Complementary and Supplementary Team Members

June 25, 2013

“For in fact the body is not one member but many.”   (1Corinthians 12:14)

The greatest Scripture in the New Testament about the way a church is to function is chapter 12 of First Corinthians.  After the Apostle Paul uses the words diversity and oneness several times, he brings these two opposite concepts together in his inspired metaphor that the Church is to function as a body.

He writes that it is not either/or but both/and; that diversity should be celebrated rather than resolved.  As the diverse members of the body of Christ come together to have a ministry there are let it happen people, make it happen people, don’t know what’s happening people, and don’t know anything is supposed to be happening people.

Let it happen people desperately need make it happen people.  And the other two kinds of people obviously need these first two kinds of people.  The truth is they all need each other to function as a team, a body and a Church. There are Mary and Martha kinds of people and they both need each other.  Often, Marthas do not appreciate Marys because they think they are unorganized. But Marys need Marthas and Marthas need to realize that if it were not for the Marys there would not be anything to organize.

Are you fitting in with those kinds of people who have what you do not have and sharing with them what you have that they do not have?

When we experience unity while celebrating diversity we do not have uniformity but a supernatural community that is in reality the body of our risen and living Lord Jesus Christ.

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Posted by Dick Woodward

A Call to Community

September 22, 2012

“Though one may be overpowered by another, two can withstand him…a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”   (Ecclesiastes 4:12)

The wisest man who ever lived wrote that we were not meant to fight our battles alone.  We need community.  Jesus told us that He is where two or three of us get together in His name (Matthew 18:20).  When Jesus said that, He was not consoling us for poor attendance at a prayer meeting.  He was giving us a prescription for an intentional dynamic we call a small group.

For nearly the first 300 years of Church history it was illegal to be a Christian.  That forced the Church to meet in small house churches.  Today we have many large churches. The only way to have meaningful interaction with other believers when you are part of a mega church is to meet in small groups. Here at the close of the Church age all over the world the Church is again meeting in small house churches

Perhaps this is what Solomon meant when he wrote that a threefold cord is not quickly broken.  Not only is a cord or a cable of three strands very strong; when cord number one is you, cord number two is another believer, and cord number three is our God – you have the cord that is not quickly broken.

The Old Testament calls this “Hesed.” The New Testament calls this concept of community “fellowship” or “koinonia.” When you are part of that threefold cord you are “wrapped in a bundle of life with the Lord your God.”  (I Samuel 25:29 Berkeley)

Have you personally discovered one of the greatest dynamics in the Bible?  Or do you believe you don’t need anybody because you can handle anything that comes your way and you can handle it alone?

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Posted by Dick Woodward