There are few things worse in life than feeling like a spare part.
Spare parts have their place of course, because if something goes wrong with one of the main parts then you’ll need a … spare part.
Until then, however, to all intents and purposes your role as a spare part is to lie about being useless.
Thus there are few things worse in life than feeling like a spare part.
In church circles, from time to time, talk will be about how the congregation and members of the church are seen as members of the Body of Christ. References will be made to various scriptures that indicate that each person has their role to play. But do they?
Is everyone who gathers really needed in the Body? Is the measure of their function based on their attendance of the weekly meeting for the few hours? Is there a focus on activity for the sake of it and just throwing people into learning how to volunteer in the ‘less glamorous’ positions and keeping the machinery going with little in the way of exploring and understanding Body Life?
When it’s a machine, everything is fairly well set for people to fill a positiong that keeps the machine going. That machine can look like the gathering as a performance requiring those who can give hospitality and those who can provide engineering skills and everything geared to the production. That machine has to operate and if someone doesn’t do their bit, the search is on for the next one to do it.
Beyond even that, though, if you’re not a part of the machine, then at least you can show up as a regular spectator.
Is that what God had in mind for Body Life, though? Is that how everyone contributes and recognises their vital role in Body Life. Is everyone really needed in the team?
(Photo by Margarida CSilva on Unsplash)
For His Name’s Sake
Shalom
C. L. J. Dryden
Life With CD 