Serving

Again, one of the main pictures the Bible gives us of the church is a body. Once again, Paul says in 1 Cor 12:12:

Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.

A body is made up of many different parts (eyes, ears, noses, arms, legs, hearts, livers, brains etc), but each part is indispensable for the proper functioning of the body. If the body loses one part, the whole body suffers. So no part of the body should think that they don’t belong or they are unimportant because they don’t serve in the same way as the other parts. This is what Paul goes on to say in verses 15-17:

Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 

A church is not a one-man show that you attend each week to watch. It’s Christ’s body, made up of members, and each member is needed and valued and plays a different role and function. And who has designed and arranged all the parts together? The pastor? The staff team? The elders? 

But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. (1 Cor 12:18)

God has designed and arranged his church in such a way that the different parts of the body complement each other and mutually benefit each other. Serving is not just doing a job on a roster on a Sunday. It’s using your God-given gifts in a way that serves your brothers and sisters in Christ. God has drawn you into the body of his Son for the purpose of serving others, and he has drawn others in his body for the purpose of serving you.

If you want to be part of the church body in a formal sense, start out by praying about how you can contribute to the proper functioning of the whole. Talk to the elders or Jayesh if you need help with this, or fill in this form here. You could help out in practical ways around the church throughout the week (with gardening or maintenance), or on Sundays (with welcoming, music, tech, morning tea etc). But more importantly, you can serve the body by caring for people in the church community. Get to know people (joining a small group helps), build relationships with others, learn what others’ needs are, and see how you might meet those needs in love.