BODY PARTS Paul,inspired by the Holy Spirit, gives us an important teaching aboutthe church he calls the body of Christ in 1Corinthians 12:12-30. Heexplains how we should each fit into the church and function withthe purpose of making the body do what it was created for. Heteaches us that we are different from one another and that we have differentfunctions within that body but that we all work together to makethe body function properly and accomplish what God designed thechurch body for. This eliminates the lone ranger type of service becausewe are only a body part and not a complete body. I hope that Ihaven’t lost you at this point. I will try to give a more detailed expla- nationas we move forward. First, we must look at the goal for the bodywe are involved in. John 15:8 tells us that our heavenly Father isglorified when we bear much fruit. Jesus tells us in John 15:16 thatwe have not chosen Him, but rather, He has chosen us and appointedor ordained us to go, and to bear fruit and that our fruit shouldremain, that whatever you ask the Father in My name He maygive you. These things I command you that you love one another. As agrape vine is designed to bear grapes, we are designed as Christians tobear spiritual fruit. Using the grape vine as an example Jesus teaches uswhat the vinedresser needs to do in order for us to be able to bear fruit. I amnot saying that everyone must plant the grapes. However, an experiencedperson who knows how and has a green thumb is not theonly one who can try. The best way for that inexperienced person tolearn however, is to watch and work with someone who knows how toplant grapes. Someone else may be hired to weed and clean the vineyard.Another person with know how might prune the vines, and evena different person harvest them. Another person might take them andmarket them. All of these people working together can produce andmarket grapes. Billy Graham, one of the most outstanding evangelist’s ofour time said “ I feel that my ministry is only about 5% of the overall workof the church.” I am not sure that that is his direct quote but it is the essenceof his thinking on the matter. He realized that there was no way hecould do follow-up on the many who came down to accept Christ. Monthsahead his team began working with churches to prepare them forthe upcoming harvest. Unfortunately many of the professed converts fellinto the hands of churches that had no solid program for mentoring newbelievers and they soon fell away or remained carnal Christians. In mywandering I meet one now that and then that has continued to grow spirituallyand that God is using. I can in no wayfault Billy Graham, hehas done his part in the body function. Somewhere in the body of Christthere is a malfunction. In a research book I have I could list severalpages of spiritual disaster but for time and space sake I will onlylist a few. In his book Today’sEvangelism, Earnest C. Resinger saidof an outreach event, “it lasted eight days, and there were 68 supposedconversions.” A month later, not one of the “converts” couldbe found. Between1995 and 2,005, Assemblies of God churches reported an amazing5,339,144 decisions for Christ. Their net gain in attendance was221,790. That means that (5,117,354, over 5 million) decisions couldnot be accounted for. A leading U.S. denomination that might hitcloser to home, reported that during 1995 they secured 364,057 decisionsbut retained only 22,983 in fellowship. They could not accountfor 361,074 supposed conversions. That is a 94% fall-away rate. Itgets worse, but I will spare you more of the same. What is happening inthe church body? Jesus warned us that many would fall away when Hetaught about the parable of the sower, but He also told us to produce thekind of fruit that would remain and also reproduce, 30, 60 and 100 fold.The author of the book I got these accounts from blames mostly theEvangelists and the way that the gospel is presented. He is no doubt rightabout some who preach an “easy” gospel but I feel that most of thebody malfunction lies in the lack of follow-up. I once heard a stirringmessage Billy Graham preached in Sacramento Calif. over 40years ago and I can still remember parts of it. Had I not been saved I wouldhave gone forward that night. But how many heard that message andwent forward and soon backslid? Backto the body function. I have been an Evangelist, a church planter, translatorand more. I have worn several hats. However, the Lord, in the lastfew years has impressed on my heart “discipleship”. This is my burning passiontoday. The reason for it is that I feel that personal discipleship is oneof the greatest lacks in most of our churches today. When we talk aboutbody parts, each church has several and sometimes many, more matureChristians who could take a younger or weaker Christian under theirwing and nurture him/her to maturity. This isn’t everyone’s cup oftea but it’s certainly the crying need in our church body today. Ihave been accused of being pushy and judging others for challenging peopleto become mentors, spiritual parents, and talking about reproducing otherChristians who in turn will teach others. This accusation is true. Itend to go overboard on it because it is my passion. It’s what I live for. Iapologize for coming on so strong but if I have offended you I’msorry. That isn’t my desire. The zeal for God’s house caused Jesusto make a whip and drive the money changers out of the temple. Myzeal has caused some to say that if it isn’t done my way it isn’t theway to go. That’s not what I am trying to say! We have different spiritualgifts and different capacities to serve God with. My article yesterdayabout “Beverly” serving in the nursery exposed her gifts. Shesowed seeds in little lives through telling Bible stories that willpoint children to the Master. One of the best Missionaries I ever metwas “Rollie”. He was terribly shy. He wouldn’t attend meetings forfear someone would call on him to pray. He couldn’t hand out tractsand witness. Then why was he such a good Missionary? Rollie workedin the office doing the book-keeping and was supply man. Severalfamilies lived and worked in isolated areas that could only bereached by our small Mission plane. Orders for supplies were sent ToRollie and he would buy them, package them and get them on the planeplus run many errands for the missionaries. He worked 12 to 14 hoursa day. He always wrote an encouraging note and sent something special likecandy or some other treat. When Rollie retired it took two peopleto replace him. Was he part of the body, yes! we were all working togetherfor one purpose, to bear fruit to glorify the Father. At the Wycliff basethere was a gifted Linguist that was translating the Bible in one of theIndian languages. Because of the lack of a book-keeper this gifted man hadto delay his important work and keep books. The father of one of the missionariesat the base had retired as a book-keeper and had come with hiswife to visit their missionary children. Seeing the need for a book-keeper torelease the translator they became “laborers for God” in Bolivia. Every giftmentioned here was used to bear fruit for the Master. We are not preachers,teachers, helpers, prayer warriors, givers, etc. that are doing ourown thing. We are workers together for the common purpose of producingfruit for the Master which will glorify the Father. We are part ofthe body of Christ and my concern is that something is wrong in our universalchurch body. We need to diagnose the problem and look for healing.I was taken aback by one jungle preacher teaching on this subject. Henamed some of the parts like the heart and its importance, the hands andtheir importance and shocked us by saying “I want to be the rectum”. Hewent on to explain that it was a hidden part but needful to eliminate thewaste from the body. Weare many different parts but one body. God has put certain gifted leadersin the body like the mind, the heart, liver, kidneys, etc. and Theblood is pumped from the heart to all parts of the body. The principaljob of the main parts of the body(the leadership)is to help theother parts of the body function. For the equipping of the saints forthe work of the ministry. (Spiritual coaches, if you will) That is whatI want to help out in, equipping others to do the work of the ministry. I must confess that at this point I haven’treally found my groveyet but I’m praying for God to send me someone who wants to studythe Word with me to the end that they will teach someone else. Interestinglyenough my only student at present is a dear brother 70 yearsold that desires to become a spiritual father to someone. That’s astart and I realize that God is more interested in preparing me as alaborer that He is in the labor I might achieve. He’s working on that. Ifyou know the Lord you are part of His body. As you seek His will andstrive to please Him He will reveal what part of the body you are andwill show you how best to use your unique gifts to produce fruit thatwill remain, to God’s glory which should be our purpose in life if weknow Him. |
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