Two Sundays ago we started our journey together learning about what it takes to be “The Buzzing Church”. We learned every member must integrate four core practices into the life of our church: instruction in God’s Word, fellowship with one another and the world, worship of God and a devotion to prayer. Through these practices, we know God can do a new thing in our lives and the life of our community.
Last Sunday we learned we have all inherited the necessary tools of the trade in order to put the four practices into action. The Bible describes our tools as the full armor of God. The armor of God is “the belt of truth, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit”. To be the Buzzing Church, we need these necessary tools, the tools of the trade, for the work we are called to do as God’s people.
I think it is safe to say that all of us understand what it means to be an effective part of a team, to be a good teammate. I have played my share of team sports in my life from soccer to baseball to football and basketball. And teams are not limited to athletics. I’ve played in wind ensembles and jazz bands. I’ve sung in choral groups and choirs. I’ve worked on group projects in school, sales teams in business, and team-taught many classes for all ages. What I learned from all of these different team experiences was that for a team to be successful and meet its goals, every player, every member has specific God-given gifts to be used to play a specific role on the team.
One of the early “team-oriented” metaphors that came to characterize the church was that of a ship. All ships have a captain and a crew to navigate it from one place to another. It takes a team working together to achieve the common goal of sailing a ship. In churches like ours, built with traditional ecclesiastical architecture, the place where the congregation sits is called the nave, which comes from the Latin word navis or “ship.” Looking up at the ceiling (particularly when there are buttresses) is kind of like looking at an overturned boat. Even while all of you are still in the pews, the architecture itself invites us to launch out on a spiritual journey together.
Any successful team centers its life and journey on a core set of shared values, or beliefs. And the church is no different. The Apostle Paul understands there are four core values that serve as the focal point of a church community.
First of all, Paul understood that the life of the church is essentially communal, reflecting the family relationship we all have as children of God. Paul emphasizes the strong tie that should bind the Christian community together — the “bond of peace” (Ephesians 4:3). That bond is defined by the virtues that Paul writes about in verse 2: humility, gentleness, patience, dealing with each other with love and being unified in the Spirit — all of which are keys to success for any team, especially the Buzzing Church.
Second, church life is also creedal. As a community we have shared beliefs. Paul rattles off a litany of creedal elements we share as a community of faith: one body, one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God. These elements are what unite us, rather than divide us. They are the stakes in the ground to which are tied the bonds which keep us together. The “one” relationship we share through our baptism and faith in Christ (4: 4-6). The church is a community of shared beliefs. So unified, we are better able to respond to the call of Jesus to follow with him, to be “together” with him on a journey of faith that is not merely an individual spiritual quest but a group experience to some of the neediest people and places in the world. It’s the kind of trip where as teammates everybody has a role and a responsibility, providing part of the resources for the journey.
But we must have the resources for this excursion. That’s why the life of the church is also charismatic. The word for “grace” is charis. The community is a “graced” or a gifted church. Paul says that “each of us was given grace according to the measure of Christ’s gift” (4:7).
There’s no doubt that God has graced the community, gifted the community with the skills to keep the ship of faith afloat on the seas of our spiritual adventure. God has ensured that this vessel has all the necessary teammates to make the journey. The church at its best is not a homogenous group crammed on a bus to sightsee its way through the Christian experience.[1] Instead, God equips and gifts people of all different ages, stages and abilities as fellow travelers. The gifts that Paul lists in verse 11 are just a few of the roles that are needed to move the church forward in its journey and mission. The list isn’t meant to be exhaustive, but reminds us that the role of apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastors and teachers — be they “professionals” or laypersons — is to resource the body of Christ and remind everyone on board of their common destination, spelled out in verse 13: a unified faith in, knowledge of and “maturity to the measure of the full stature of Christ.”
Paul continues to use the “ship” metaphor when he continues in the next sentence: “We must no longer be children, tossed to and fro and blown about by every wind of doctrine” (4:14). Being together, we can’t be deterred by various vacation brochures that happen to flutter past our field of vision. We know who we are, we know where we’re going, we know why we’re doing what we’re doing, and we must not be distracted by other things blowing in the wind.
Finally, the Christian life is also a caring life. Christians are called to speak the truth in love (4:16). In the verses following the text for today, Paul gets even more specific, offering a whole laundry list of examples of how the church is a caring community, not a bitter one, or a thieving one. He concludes by saying: “Put away from you all bitterness and wrath and anger and wrangling and slander, together with all malice, and be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ has forgiven you” (4:31-32).
The church becomes a team when it functions fully as the body of Christ and everyone has a stake in the adventure.
We are to focus on the “unity of the spirit” that pushes the church outward and invites people to use their gifts and engage in a great adventure in serving God. It’s God’s spirit, not our programs, that binds us together as the family of God. When we focus on the spirit, on the common destination we have together in Christ, and on making the church community a place where everyone is gifted and everyone belongs, you have a roadmap for the Buzzing Church, an awesome journey of faith that can’t get blown off course (v. 14).[i]
The “truth” that we need to speak in love is that Christ has chosen to work through each of us individually and all of us together as his body as an integrated team where each member has a role in the team’s success. As an integrated team when each member accepts full responsibility and strives for excellence, trust and performance increase exponentially. A church community that journeys toward God in worship and toward others as we go forward into the world. When every part and every person is needed and wanted; when every team member is functioning properly and ready to be mobilized, the team is ready to take off.
Are we ready to take off and reach new levels of success as the family of God?
[1] Bob Kaylor, Senior Writer
for homilecticsonline.com, and Senior Minister of the Park City United
Methodist Church in Park City, Utah.
[i] Bob Kaylor, Senior Writer
for homilecticsonline.com, and Senior Minister of the Park City United
Methodist Church in Park City, Utah.
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