God has called us to work together in a selfless community based on love. He called this community, “the Body of Christ”. The power of love and community releases an individual into new levels of ability and giftedness. This is the ideal community. Our talents are enhanced and sharpened when we work with people who have similar or synergistic talents and motives.
A community or group of people focused on the development of the talent and spiritual gifts of God has at their disposal all the power that created the universe. Working selflessly together with the total focus on the goal moves God to collaborate with us to accomplish anything, including the impossible.
The religious organization which is (wrongly) called the “church” could be that community, but it is not. It spends most of its time and energy teaching the Bible, believing that if people know more, they will do more. So far, that hasn’t proven to be true. In most cases, the members’ role in most religious organizations is to keep the organization financially afloat. Most, if not all, of the activities are aimed at serving the other members, and the “real work of God” (teaching, counseling, evangelism, missions) is left to “full time” professionals. The main role of a member of this type of religious community is to finance the organization’s huge overhead. In North America, less than 1% of Christian fellowships’ budgets go to missions. The dismal results of this ineffective and unscriptural form of “church” shows in their negative, or at best, flat growth rate.
The gifts of God given to men recorded in Ephesians and Corinthians are game-changers. They require any thinking leader to adjust their game plan to “invest” in the members’ gifts and to build a community in which those talents are enhanced and nurtured and at the center of the purpose of the group. We (people) are the church. The organization which is called ‘the church’ is not the church. It is a religious organization which must serve its members – not the other way around. Its function should be to encourage community, to mentor, and to provide the support necessary to change the world by the grace of God (gifts) flowing through its members. That is how the inherent synergy of community and grace can and should change the world.
The current state of organized religion does not resemble a healthy organization, nor does it accomplish the main function of the church – being the hands and feet of Jesus. It has become a hindrance to believers “becoming” and finding their call in life. The standard for a healthy Christian community is this: it should mentor, encourage, and model Jesus to its members in practical applications of His power and love. Building community and operating in community are such powerful agents that they can’t be overlooked by anyone who wants to make a difference. The challenge is to find or build a healthy community whose objectives are to selflessly nurture and develop the gifts of God in its members.
© Copyright 2014-15, Paul K. Weigel – All rights reserved.