Body Parts
I am not a specialist at working on cars. I know how to do a few little things like change the oil, tires, plugs and other small things like that. If I need my car check out, I take it to my friend Kenny Duke at Accurate Auto, formerly known as the Car Clinic. The same is true with my body. I know how to diagnose some things when I feel bad or something gets cut or punctured. However, if anything big happens to my body, I usually go see the Doctor William Berard. He can usually figure out most anything that is happening with my physical body based on symptoms and tests.
Paul spends a good bit of time talking about the spiritual body – the church and uses the analogy of the body to describe the functionality of the church. Check this out…
18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body. 21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. (1 Corinthians 12:18-26 NIV)
The cool thing about our body is that all the parts working together help me shave and shower. They all work together to help me eat breakfast and function throughout the day toward goals set by my brain. The hands or the feet don’t just go their own way and do something different than the rest of me.
I think this is a fitting analogy in most every organization. Leadership is needed to give vision and direction. The every day functionality of the organization is carried out by little known parts of the organization – the hands and feet. They must work in concert for the proper function of the organization.
The Church is a passion of Paul and he is really speaking about the functionality of the church at Corinth. I think there are some very valuable lessons to be learned here about churches in general. The Church is in the serving business. We need each person serving. The leaders of the church are simply “lead servants”. The church members who clean facilities or park cars are very important to the overall functionality of the church. The people who type letters on the computer or build graphics, or arrange the chairs are all servants serving the King. In the church we are all servants who serve. The one who preaches and teaches is a servant. The head of the church is Christ himself NOT the leaders. The Leadership of a church answer to the Head of the Church. I personally believe that this is where churches often go off track. Sometimes people in church leadership start thinking it’s all about them and they get a bit puffed up. The most powerful church leader icon in my mind is Billy Graham and he would tell you that first he is a servant of the Lord. Servants serve. Leadership in the church is about serving. Being part of the body of Christ is about serving from the bottom to the top – serving! It’s a beautiful thing when the body of Christ is functioning as designed with ALL the parts of the body serving the Head!
Pressing On! Dwayne