This weekend I was blessed to fly to the San Francisco area
to co-lead a weekend gathering for those interested in learning more about Organic
Church.
Our event was hosted at a local pizza shop. The sign on the
door said “Round Table Pizza” but on the inside all the tables were square.
To me, that felt like an appropriate metaphor of the modern
Christian church in America.
We advertise ourselves as being “The Body of Christ” but
then once people get inside they quickly realize that we’re not acting like a
body at all.
See, when Paul uses that metaphor in 1 Corinthians 12, he is
describing how the Church functions in relationship to Jesus, and to one
another.
Any church that doesn’t operate the way Paul describes isn’t
really the Body of Christ. Sure, it might be a Church in the traditional sense,
but it’s not a Body in the Biblical sense.
Simply put, Paul tells us that Jesus is the head of the
Body. That means that He is in control. Not figuratively, but actually. He is
in charge. He directs the members of the Body, just as your own head directs
the rest of your body parts.
We also see from Paul’s description that the members of the
Body all share the ministry equally.
God distributes spiritual gifts to each member of the Body for
one reason: So they can build one another up into Christ.
In the round table model, everyone is equal; everyone’s
voice is just as important and necessary as everyone else’s. Every member of the
Body shares in the work so no one gets burned out and everyone gets to
participate.
In the square table model, there is a human boss, typically
referred to as the Senior Pastor, who makes all the decisions and quite often
does most of the spiritual work alone rather than relying on the members of the
Body to accomplish the work cooperatively. You know, like the various parts of
a human body.
If you’re going to follow a square table model, that’s up to
you. But please don’t refer to yourself as a round table when those four
corners are so obvious to the rest of us.
For what it’s worth, both tables are useful, but one makes
it easier for everyone to serve one another and use their gifts to build one
another up.
If you want to keep your focus on the Lord, try putting 1 Corinthians
12 into practice.
If you want to put that chapter into practice, you’ll find
that sitting in a circle makes it much eaiser.
Where you meet and when you meet matters much less than what
happens when you meet.
Put Jesus in the center, gather around Him and use your
gifts to build one another up in love.
That’s called the Body of Christ.
-kg
1 comment:
Nice illustration!
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