As a healthcare worker, I have always loved studying the human body and learning how the individual parts work. Every part has a specific function but all the parts have to work together in order to have a healthy body. So I can appreciate the text in the New Testament that says the church is the body of Christ. Believers all have a specific role and function in the church. If one part of the body is not working as it should, the whole body suffers.

Often in the church, we view our pastors and staff as the ones who not only lead our church, but as the ones who do most of the work of ministry as well. I think the apostle Paul has something different to say.

In the first half of his letter to the church in Ephesus, Paul spends time talking about how because of His grace, God has gifted the believer with “every spiritual blessing in the heavens.” We have received things like adoption into the family of God, an inheritance, forgiveness for our sins, wisdom, understanding, the Holy Spirit, new life in Christ Jesus and the list goes on.

Starting in chapter four, Paul changes the tone of his letter. The chapter starts with the word, “therefore.” It’s common for Paul to offer an “If… Then…” statement throughout his epistles. He gives the reader not just a command, but the reason why. It’s helpful to understand the heart, the meaning or the protection behind the mandate.

Because of all that God has given us, the church is therefore urged to live worthy of the calling it has received (vs 1.) In verse four he stresses that the church is one body. He goes on to talk about how grace is given to each believer according to the measure of Christ’s gift. Each one of us is given a gift and He’s “equipping the saints for the work of ministry.” Keep reading and you see it again. What is the reason we are gifted and equipped? To build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity. (verses 12-13).

When every part is working as designed and working together, we build the body up. All of us have to play our part. There are many who approach church from a consumer standpoint. They ask, “What can the church do for me? Will this church feed me? Is this a place I can drop-off my kids and let someone else disciple them?”

We have to get away from the idea that church is about us. It’s not about our preferences or our opinions. The greater responsibility of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ as we pursue Him together as one body of believers.

If we take an honest look at our churches, we often see that we have segregated ourselves out into individual ministries. We have kids ministry, student ministry, women’s ministry, senior ministry and everyone is doing ministry separately. Many of these ministries are doing fantastic things for the kingdom. But rarely are our ministries integrated and working together. The reality is that the kid’s ministry is not always preparing kids to enter into the student ministry. And students are graduating and many of them are leaving the church, even if for only a season (See detailed numbers here). Maybe if we help them connect to the larger church and help them see that they are a vital part of the body, we would see fewer of them leave.

What does it look like to practically work towards a church that is truly one body? To start with, I think we can:

• Equip kids instead of entertain kids: teach biblical literacy, encourage scripture memorization, small group discussions, stop giving pat answers to their hard questions, be intentional about making sure our activities, crafts, songs and games are pointing kids back to what we’re teaching.
• Preach the gospel instead of teach moralism: it’s not what we can do to earn God’s approval or love, it’s about what Jesus has already done on the cross.
• Partner with parents to make disciples of Jesus Christ: while parents have the primary role of discipleship for their children, the church has a responsibility to come alongside them.
• Help kids and students see their gifts and passions and get them plugged into the church serving somewhere: if they are believers, kids and students have also been gifted by God to serve the body – as you see areas of giftedness in their life, speak words of encouragement to them, help them see that they are valuable members and are needed in the body.
• Bring kids into our missions efforts and give families opportunities to serve together: there are many kid friendly opportunities (singing together at a nursing home, baking cookies for neighbors, visiting church members in the hospital, etc)
• Help adults see that investing in a young person personally and spiritually is a major factor in helping young adults stay in church (see article above).

It is unfair and unreasonable to expect the pastors to have the sole responsibility to disciple and care for the needs of the entire body. We have not been given gifts so that we can hoard them or build up our own kingdom. We have each been uniquely gifted by Jesus for a specific purpose to help build up the church. If we are going to be church contributors instead of church consumers, we have to get involved in the ministry. We need a church where the equipped saints are all serving, including kids and students. When we integrate our ministries we can build up the body of Christ, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of God’s Son, growing into maturity.