What would you say if HALF of your organs suddenly failed to function? Would you take an aspirin? Schedule an appointment with your doctor? No, you would would be DEAD within minutes, perhaps seconds.
1 Corinthians 12 tells us, "Now you are Christ's Body, and individually members of it"(v 27) and "But to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good" (v 7). The Word of God is saying that EVERY disciple of Yeshua (Jesus) has been given a spiritual gift in order to build up the Church. That means all of us, as "organs" or " body parts" in Messiah's Body (the Church), need to fulfill our function if we are to keep this Body healthy and growing. That is God's grand design for the Church!
"from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love" (Eph 4:16).
So, if the Church is a Body, what would you say if half of its organs, or members, failed to function!? According to a Barna Group survey of American born-again Christians, LESS THAN HALF of the Christians polled claimed to possess a biblical spiritual gift. 46 percent were either not aware of spiritual gifts, had not identified one, or even believed that they did not have one! And I am certain many of those who do claim to possess a biblical gift do not put it to regular use. What does this say about the state of the Church!? Beloved, this is a crisis - we are a Church in critical condition!
The Failure of the Traditional Church Model
The sad truth is that we have failed to follow God's design for centuries, if not millennia. We have followed a man-created religious system that has kept the Church from realizing its full potential. We are following a church model that echoes the unbiblical divide between the "clergy" and the "laity", which has resulted in a paid, overworked hierarchy ruling over or pandering to the complacent and lazy masses of biblically-illiterate consumers. Church is rarely more than a spectator event for Christians. The congregation is usually nothing more than an audience who shows up to watch a band play and listen to a message. There is nothing wrong with a good sermon and a time of corporate worship, but it pales in comparison to the Bible's call to true "fellowship" and what the Church was designed to be and do. Every member is a minister and must contribute!
God's Design for the Church: a Virtual Cure-All
If properly implemented, God's way of doing Church could radically transform the Church into an efficient, strong, healthy Body and very likely solve some of the Church's greatest challenges, such as hypocrisy, complacency, biblical illiteracy, and lack of evangelistic outreach. It could even free up billions of dollars that could be spent more wisely.
I believe the key to understanding God's design for the Church is in the Greek word koinonia, often translated as "fellowship." Acts 2:42 says that the young Church's priorities were to "the apostle's teaching, and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer." The word koinonia has a rich meaning and can be translated as contribution or sharing. I prefer the translation "teamwork" because it so perfectly fits the biblical model.
As competition has increased, the business world over the last few decades has come to the conclusion that the best and most efficient model for business is the team. It is striking to note how similar the business world's definition of team is to Paul's description of the Church model quoted above:
"a group of people who are interdependent with respect to information, resources, and skills who seek to combine their efforts to achieve a common goal" (Tools for Teams, Thompson et al., 2001, p9).
God's people, when working together in small groups, or teams, for the common purpose of building up, would be virtually unstoppable. The benefits of such a system would be outrageous, and would outweigh any of the benefits of the current tradition model: NEXT
