Do I Need to Be Part of the Church?

Loving the Whole Body

God understands our limits and our complex webs of obligations. He is the one who gave you children to feed, crops to be harvested, a body to nourish and clothe, and relationships to dwell within. We can value our respective vocations, recognize differences in gifts and skills, honor different personalities, and foster the arts even as we give attention to social injustices. But such a full vision can be honored only if we take more seriously the whole body of Christ.

We are not rugged individuals; we are an interconnected body. Jesus does not overburden his flock; he affirms who they are in their life as a whole. “You are in me, and I am in you,” he says (John 14:20), which is also true of our participation in each other as a body. A part is not the whole, nor should the whole be reduced to the part. This is why we weep with those who weep, we celebrate with those who celebrate. We serve and we feast, we rest and we labor, we love and we sacrifice. Living in Christ means that we imitate him, but it takes the whole church to fully reflect the Messiah.

Even in our fallen world, faithfulness to Christ means that the church provides a space for God to realign our loves to our created purpose. Faithfulness in the church makes it a place where our shame and guilt before God can be addressed and overcome. The church, at its best, realizes God’s relational design for humans and promotes not simply programs but shared lives. Unfortunately, the church is often not at its best.

The gospel entrusted to the church preaches a grace that restores and unites neighbors who are not naturally drawn together. When we gather, we do so not because we are so similar but because our Creator Lord calls us out of our differences to unite together in worship.

All humans, including ministry leaders, are wonderfully and necessarily dependent creatures. We need to be needed, and we need to receive what others can give, and that mutual dependence is a good thing.

Praise God. It takes the whole church to be the one body of Christ.