I had a vision of the church; an epiphany, if you will. It was of a pastor leading a flock of sheep. Not unusual for a
pastor. But what struck me was how he
was leading. He was not leading from several paces out in front of the sheep
but from right in the middle of the flock.
He was surrounded by the sheep, attending to each one, learning who they are
and how they each have a unique place in the flock. This is a picture of how Scripture
says the church is supposed to be.
We
find this picture in Romans 12 and 1 Corinthians 12 but I think Ephesians 4:12-13 really
captures it. The gifts that God gave to us in Christ are “…to equip the saints for
the work of ministry, for building up the body of Christ, until all of us come
to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to maturity,
to the measure of the full stature of Christ (NRS).”
Now picture this. Who we truly are, the person that God created us
to be and is bringing out into a new creation is really a gift to the church.
You see, it is not so much that we have
gifts as that we are a gift. Ephesians
2:10 says, “For we are what he has
made us, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand
to be our way of life (NRS).” By our giftedness we nourish and build up the
giftedness of each other. Is this not a beautiful picture? That is, to
understand that my giftedness works to bring out the person that God made you
to be because your giftedness further nourishes and brings out the person that
God made me to be.
Ephesians 4:12-13 has three parts:
To
equip the saints for the work of ministry.
For
the building up of the body of Christ.
Until
we all grow into the full stature of Christ.
This is such a beautiful picture because it shows the church
growing organically. As we each grow
into the unique person that God created us to be by our mutual nourishment of
each other the church as a whole grows into the true picture of Christ. This is
how the church is to shine out into the world. It is with a knowledge of Christ
growing internally that reaches deep into the heart.
Are we there? I don’t think so. But we can work at it.
