9.3.2025

For years I was involved with a non-profit that was run by a married couple who had worked as volunteers from the organization’s inception. They ran it with an iron fist, insisting that everything be done their way, and so were perceived as being difficult by anyone who wanted to do anything differently. But, to be honest, since they had been there from the beginning and knew the ins and outs better than anyone else, their way really was the best way. 

When they retired,  it took a small army to do what the two of them did (and not nearly as smoothly nor efficiently).  

I’ll come back to this.

In last week’s Pastor’s Note, I wrote about my goal for Christ Church – a goal that’s anchored in the writings of the New Testament. If you look at the Apostle Paul’s writings to the churches he established, his concern, his goal for ministry, was for his congregations to be like Christ. We call this “Spiritual Formation.” Too often, discipleship programs (which are a BIG business now), focus on the spiritual life of the individual – which is a good thing, don’t get me wrong. 

But Spirit Formation, being conformed into the image of Christ, actually begins with the congregation, as a church, as a fellowship. The congregations Paul established were to be like Christ, and if the congregations were like Christ, then the individual members of the congregations would be like Christ. 

We can see that in our congregation’s emphasis on loving others through our mission projects. I don’t know how many people have said that the Blessings Bags cause them to consciously look for the homeless in their community. It begins with the congregation saying, “this is important,” and it becomes important to us as individuals.

I can see it through our Bible studies. As a group, what we read and study on Wednesday nights or Thursday mornings trickles down into the way we read and study as individuals in our individual private times. 

We shape our congregation to be like Christ here on earth and that focus, that mission, shapes our lives as individual believers. 

A verse that brought that home to me was Romans 12:1-2, a very familiar passage that I’d read a hundred times before I noticed a single little word: “a.” See if you can catch what I mean: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers and sisters, on the basis of God’s mercy, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable act of worship. 2 Do not be conformed to this age, but be transformed by the renewing of the mind, so that you may discern what is the will of God—what is good and acceptable and perfect.” 

“A living sacrifice . . . the mind.” 

Paul isn’t telling the individual church members to present their bodies to be a bunch of individual sacrifices (which is the way I’ve always read it and even preached it). Instead, he’s  telling the individual church members to present his or her body so that the cumulative whole becomes a single,  living sacrifice. And not only that, but Paul is calling for the renewal of the mind of the congregation – like sacrifice, the word “mind” is singular.

For me, this stresses the importance of unity as a congregation. It’s not just me being formed into the likeness of Christ, it is ALL of us being formed, together, as we do the will of God.    

And then, if you read on in Romans 12, Paul speaks of the church as a body (singular) made up of many members, each member having its own purpose or calling – and each being equally important. But the individual members make up one singular Body. 

That’s where the example of the couple I wrote about in the first paragraph comes in. It now takes an army to do what the two of them did – and the two of them did it better! 

Once Christ ascended to the Father, the work of reclaiming the world for God was just beginning. How is God’s will done on earth as it is in heaven? Through the church, the Body of Christ. When Jesus was here in the flesh, he accomplished it all as the Son of God, through the power of the Spirit. 

But now it takes an army! 

And it begins with the local congregation, which through mission and through worship is transformed into the likeness of Christ. 

Which is why it is important to stay connected with the Body. If my right arm were to wander off (and on those rainy days when the arthritis flares up, that sounds like it’d be a good thing), it couldn’t survive without the body. If my legs suddenly begin to act independently of the rest of the body, then I know that something is seriously wrong! No, it is through staying connected with the Body through worship, through Bible Study, through fellowship, through sharing in the Body and Blood of Christ – even through reading our newsletter – that we stay connected, work together, and are transformed into Christ’s image. 

Blessings,
Pastor Terry