Welcome to the TEAM!

We recently enjoyed a friendly, albeit competitive, game of softball on a Sunday morning after worship and a quick message from our pastor. It was a fun time, I got some sun on my arms and filled my belly with a hot dog loaded with mustard and my favorite chips, salt and vinegar kettle chips. I didn't play this year, but as I was sitting in the stands with some friends I noticed how the teams worked very well together, encouraging each other and all the players looked to their coaches for instruction, and when that instruction was given, it was followed without question! I think of so many times that John and I (my husband and pastor of our church) have "coached" sound instruction to our people and sometimes it's treated as though the difference between the right and the wrong needs to be weighed out and maybe our advice is too hard or just not worth the effort. I saw absolutely no one on the softball field that day that questioned their "coach" about going ahead to second base or where to throw the ball to get somebody out. And these coaches are just acquaintances, possibly friends, to them, yet they did what was asked with barely a stutter step. I wonder what would happen in our lives if we all became that way with God and the people he has placed in leadership of our lives?

Now before I go on I want to stress that before you decide to submit to a godly authority, you better pray and hear from God that it's the right person! And when He tells you who that is, then submit whole-heartedly and listen to SOUND advice that is backed by scripture! The pastoral role is not a controlling, contriving position, but the position of a shepherd, leading, guiding, protecting and correcting. Pastor's are men, and therefore not perfect, so don't expect them to be. Support them, honor them and serve them to fulfill the vision! And most of all, give them grace, as they do to you when you come in their office month after month with the same problems, or multiplied problems, and they give you counsel session after counsel session, all the time working with you in patience and love trying their best to get you through your situation! Why does the body not think of acting like that when their leader's falter? Instead we point fingers, lay blame, snicker, backbite, gossip, slander and then on top of that leave the church for another imperfect pastor that will suffer the same fate later on. It really is a vicious cycle. Do you not think that your pastor goes home and struggles with fears of failure and possibly depression? Is he not human, or even allowed to be human? Does anyone think that they need to be shown the same love they expect them to show everyone else? Do we really think that if the pastor's home were built out of glass that we wouldn't see the kids fighting or screaming they want something, or mom getting frustrated with a never-ending messy home and a huge to-do list that 10 people in the church are counting on so the laundry and home-cooked meal will have to wait, or dad (the pastor) feeling overwhelmed with a church of 200 people with no outlet other than his wife and all that stress stays in one place, the house, because there is no one to talk to and the huge weight of expectations from those very 200 people is crushing their family?? That is the reality of most pastors, and I believe they're not looking for "special" treatment, just "treatment", in the same manner you want to be treated, treat others! My prayer at this very moment is that God would give church congregations eyes to see those things. Everyone in the body needs to be encouraged and given some grace! Including it's leaders! I believe if we did that the Body of Christ would be so strong the devil would not be able to penetrate it! Instead he tried to use the body against itself and works from the inside to bring his destruction. I'm going to post an article I wrote a while back about that very subject.

Okay, so that was a free paragraph about how to treat your pastor! Now on to my main point about the body of Christ.... here's the referral passage: I Corinthians 12 -

¹² For as the body is one and has many members, but all the members of that one body, being many, are one body, so also is Christ. ¹³ For by one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, whether slaves or free—and have all been made to drink into^[c] one Spirit. ¹⁴ For in fact the body is not one member but many.

¹⁵ If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I am not of the body,” is it therefore not of the body? ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would be the hearing? If the whole were hearing, where would be the smelling? ¹⁸ But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased. ¹⁹ And if they were all one member, where would the body be?

²⁰ But now indeed there are many members, yet one body. ²¹ And the eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you”; nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”²² No, much rather, those members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary.

We are all a part of it and we need to work together as a TEAM to accomplish His goals and win His game! I thought of it like this....have you see those commercials where, at first glance, there seems to be a map of, let's say the United States. And the states look to be separated by colors, but as you get closer you recognize little people all organized by color standing in the shapes of the states, and that's your map... a bunch of people, because people make up the United States of America. Okay, so now envision Jesus, standing in front of you with His arms low and out to the sides, in a welcoming pose, (like we pretty much envision Him anyway). It's like the map - from far away you see Him as a body, but as you get closer you see His body is made up of millions of people, everyone having a different face, purpose and personality, and all these people must work in unison to accomplish His vision. 


Now let's take our own bodies for a minute and look at something - If I'm hungry my brain sends a signal to my belly which rumbles. Then I consciously send a brain signal to my legs and feet to walk to the kitchen, then to my arm and hand telling it to pick up a banana to feed my hungry belly. My belly cannot feed itself. It HAS TO HAVE THE ARM to get some nourishment. So let's say I've got a rogue arm and it doesn't want the belly to eat the banana so it just doesn't pick it up. We call that paralyzation. If my arm refuses to do it's job to nourish the entire body then what will happen? That body will starve and eventually die. You can tell that is what's happening to the American body of Christ in this day. We are refusing to do our job because we don't like that job, or we're too busy doing our own self-fulfilling job so our body isn't being nourished with the love and encouragement it needs. 


Now let's look back to the picture we have in our minds of Jesus from a few paragraphs up. If He stands with His arms low and out and He wants to lift His right hand in the air, then the ENTIRE right arm must move up. The WHOLE arm must move to get that hand in the air! No one can be in disagreement about it! Even if we don't know what the hand's job is going to be when it gets into the air. But we do know that the hands of Jesus heal the sick, right? That's a great outcome! Philippians 4:8 says we need to meditate on things that are noble, holy, pure, just, of good report, etc..., so when we are asked to do a job for the Body let's meditate on the good report to come as a result of our submission and obedience instead of how it affects us at that moment. We need to get a visual of what it looks like for the body of Christ to work together so we can do just that!

Struggles - we all have 'em!

What comes to mind when you hear the word “struggle”? For me, and maybe most people, it’s not positive. Struggling conjures up images of two people in a great battle and the one struggling is the one about to concede victory. I think of Roman or Greek warriors, helmets shining in the sun, sweat dripping from their brows, sword against shield, battling each other with all their might to be the one that comes out on top! The truth is, they are both struggling. Struggling means that you are fighting against something. I would rather not struggle because, in my mind, struggling means that I will be having a hard time, and who wants to have a hard time? Not me.

I’ve never even thought of this until one morning when I was reading I Timothy and the word “struggle” popped off the page at me because of the context it was in. Paul was speaking to Timothy in 1:18 about all the prayers coming together for him to do well and be fearless in his struggle. Then verse 19 says “after all, this is a fight we’re in.” And it dawned on me that if I’m not struggling, then I’m not fighting.

The great thing about the struggle of the overcomer is that He has already overcome for us! Here is what the dictionary defines a struggle as:

1 .   an energetic attempt to achieve something; battle, attempt, effort, endeavor.

2 .   An open clas between two opposing groups or individuals; conflict, combat, feud, war, warfare, revolt, uprising

3 .   Strenuous effort; exertion, sweat, travail, wrestle, to contend

After defining that word I can see that I want my whole life to be a struggle FOR the Kindgdom, AGAINST its foe, Satan! I want to CONTEND for my King, to COMBAT the assailant at every turn, to RISE UP against an army meant to bring down everything my General gave His life for, knowing that the weapons of my WARFARE are mighty through Him for the pulling down of the enemy’s strongholds!

We need to be sure in our struggles that we have picked the right thing to struggle FOR and AGAINST. We need to assess our struggles and see what they are aimed at and if the outcome is even going to be beneficial for us or building God’s kingdom. There are many things out there that are not worth struggling for! One of the “things” that comes to mind is how much we fight for what WE want. Don’t fight for yourself! Jesus fights for you! (2 Chron. 20:15) Trust me, you would rather have Him fight for you anyway! When our focus is Him, His focus is us! If you only take one thing away from this article, let it be that if you aren’t struggling, the you’re not fighting, and if you are struggling then be of good cheer!