If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. ~ 1Cor 12:26
When one member of the church is going through difficulties; does your church step up and help them, or do they just promise to pray? Don’t get me wrong prayer can move mountains! But seriously, when an issue is brought up what is actually done about it?
I know that when I lived in North Carolina, I had many people in the church who tried to help me on many occasions. They always would insist for me to go out with them for Sunday lunch and sometimes Sunday dinner. Sometimes they would just bring over groceries, sometimes they would hand me a twenty and insist I take it. Even though I did not have a job, and was still receiving quite a bit in unemployment, they still wanted to help in whatever way they could. I only asked for prayer during church service, because I had an interview coming up. Still, as a church they loved me and cared for me as if I was one of their own family members. They would also check on me if I didn’t show up for church, as they were concerned I might be ill or something.
This is quite different than other churches I have attended. Unless I was involved with smaller groups, the church really had no idea that I was struggling, ill or going through some other life problem. My problems just weren’t something that I ran up and told the pastor, so I suffered alone in most cases. This seems to be common when you are in a large church, because you can sometimes get lost in the numbers. But even the large churches need to operate the way God intended them to operate, as one whole and healthy body.
The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ…. And we were all given the one Spirit to drink.~ 1 Cor 12:12-13
When one member of the body hurts they all hurt!
I have seen here in Kenya when a member swallows his pride, (which is hard for them because they are very prideful people) and shares with another that they are struggling, the entire church helps them. They rally around them to help much like my small country churches in NC. It is encouraging when I have been asked to walk 5 km to take ugali flour to a family because business is slow and they haven’t got anything to eat. It is encouraging to hear that many pitched in to help another family put their children in school that semester, or help out with one going to the hospital for treatment.
When we refuse to help a fellow member of the church, the church doesn’t operate in the Spiritual manner that God intended to operate in to fulfill His plan. Stress about their situation could overwhelm a member to the point they cannot walk in the spirit and contribute to the church as they as intended by God. God has placed each one of us into a specific church for specific reasons, specific gifts, and specific seasons. Some go to a certain church their entire lives, yet the members really don’t know each other. I have had to attend many different churches for many different reasons. Most of those reasons were due to moving, but I have also changed churches because I was maturing in my Christian walk towards a spirit filled walk and needed a church that could nurture that growth. So in each instance I had to get reacquainted with church members, and or small groups.
I have also seen the pastor here tell a visitor, who came to visit me in the church, that they want them to stay with their own church across town because that is where God put them in the body of Christ. He also told them it would be nice if they came to visit one Sunday, but he didn’t want to disrupt God’s plan by trying to persuade him to change churches. He was confident of his position in the church and the direction of the church. I know of many pastors that would try and convince a stranger to attend their church, because they would like to increase their numbers or their tithing. I tell you the hearts of the pastors I am working for here never cease to amaze me, as they are true servants of God.
On the same note, when the church begins to operate in the spirit and not everyone has the gifts that are in the limelight, like the prophet, or the interpreter or the pastor; how do the other members of the church feel, or how do we as a church treat them?
I have known churches that have made members uncomfortable, or even leave the church because they didn’t operate in the spirit. They also refused to fake operating in the spirit. This is a huge injustice to the church as a whole! What if that person was the intercessory prayer warrior? What if it was because of that person’s prayers, that church was able to operate in the spirit in the first place? That prayer warrior spent much time in the prayer closet for that church, but because they were not publically operating in the spirit the church made them feel like they were not contributing to the church. Shameful…
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!” On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are INDISPENSABLE, 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, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But GOD has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other ~ 1 Cor. 12:21-25.
We must remember that a church is that which GOD creates. He appoints the pastors, the prophets, the healers, the teachers, those with tongues, and He brings the members that need to be there for other reasons such as to pray or just to learn from other members to that church.
Church you must know what your position is in the body. Be glad and rejoice in it! Do not try and take another position which was not given to you by God. When God wants to promote you, He will promote you on HIS timing, not yours. Also, remember to help out the other members of the body because when you don’t, the church will suffer as a whole. Walk in the spirit and if you discern someone needs help, act on it. Don’t wait to be told what to do! Remember God needs the church to bring the lost to His kingdom, and if your church is not healthy and whole, it will not be attract strangers no matter how flashy your praise music is or how humorous pastor can give sermons. Be a Whole and Healthy Body of the CHURCH!
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