1 man can’t reflect the body of Christ. That takes a village.
Christ-followers are puzzle pieces, each picturing a particular part of Christ. When a group gathers and each person present is allowed to openly participate and share his/her part, a glorious picture of the living Christ is presented in the meeting.
However, we’ve been trained in Western Christianity to only allow one “part” — the pastor — to share when we meet. Perhaps this constant focus on only one individual, robs us of Christ’s glory that abides in the whole group.
Now matter how skillful, dedicated, hard-working, talented, or even spiritual, one puzzle piece may be, that one puzzle piece can never show the entire picture. We need all the pieces, working together, for that!
And that’s one of the foundation doctrines of Protestantism — the priesthood of the believer — every Christ-follower is called to do ministry. (Another foundational doctrine is that Christ, not the Pope, is the Head of the church). So why did the Reformers ignore their own teaching, put one man as head of each local church, and then tell everybody else to sit and listen to him? Perhaps they were afraid to buck tradition.
However, the results are that in our church meetings we see one puzzle piece trying to be the whole picture. And this gives us a seriously distorted view of the body of Christ.
Perhaps it is time for a spiritual movement to rise up and engage in the full participation of all believers in church meetings! If not now, when? If not you, who?
If you are ever near Nashville, TN USA and want to see puzzle pieces in action, visit The Salvation Army Berry Street, where ordinary people show and tell what God has done: Sunday mornings @ 10:45 & Tuesday nights @ 6:00, 225 Berry St., 37207.
