Irreplaceable
From the Series—The Ministry Matrix
September 4, 2003This evotional continues the Ministry Matrix series.
In I Corinthians 12, Paul uses the metaphor of a body to describe the way a church functions. Verse 7 says, “Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good.”
Irreplaceable
One of our core values is that everyone is invaluable and irreplaceable. I think sometimes we get so focused on the fact that “all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God” (as true as that is) that we miss the message of the crucifixion. The message of the crucifixion is this: God thinks you’re worth dying for. You are invaluable in the sight of God.
If you’ve ever been to an auction (online or in person) you know the value of something is determined by the highest bidder. The object doesn’t have a price tag. In a sense, there is no inherent value. The value is determined by how much the highest bidder is willing to pay for it. The crucifixion reveals how much God is willing to pay for your redemption. And to think of anyone as anything less than invaluable is to devalue what Christ did on the cross.
You are invaluable. That speaks of value. But you’re also irreplaceable which speaks of function. The word “irreplaceable” simply means “no one can take your place.” The larger we get as a church the easier it is to say, “Someone else will do it.” But that totally misses the point of this passage. I Corinthians 12:22 says, “Those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable.” The Message puts it this way, “The least important parts are the most necessary.” If you don’t use your gifts and play your part there is no substitute. There is no backup. No one to take your place.
You are not part of a church body by accident. You are there by divine assignment. I Corinthians 12:18 says, “God has carefully placed each part of the body right where he wanted it.”
The Part
Last week I was studying at Bagels & Baguettes and I couldn’t help but overhear a phone conversation. Have you ever sat next to someone you don’t know and you don’t say a word to, but they talk so loud and so much that you feel like you know them by the time they leave? A woman sitting behind me got a phone call and I can practically tell you her life story. Evidently this woman had tried out for a part in a production and she got a call from the casting director. Here’s what I pieced together. She got the part. She starts December 29th. She’ll get paid $375/week. They’re doing eight shows/week starting in January and they’ve got matinees on Saturday and Sunday. She hung up the phone and then she called her mom to share the good news.
Then she left Bagels and Baguettes. But its how she left that was so amazing. I wished you could have seen it. She was glowing. And she practically floated down the stairs and literally hopped away. Why? She got the part.
After reading this evotional you ought to float or hop away. I Corinthians 12 is a letter from the casting director and you’ve got a part to play. God has included you. You are part of something bigger than you are. You have a part to play in God’s plan for planet earth!
Exercise
The word “manifestation” in I Corinthians 12:7 means “to exercise.” Let me make an obvious observation: If you want a great body, and I don’t care whether you’re talking about your body as in the Temple of the Holy Spirit or we’re talking about the corporate church body, if you want a great body you need to do two things: watch your diet and get lots of exercise.
No one here would argue that point, but sometimes the obvious eludes us. I think all of us know that we’ve got to watch our diet and get lots of exercise to be in good physical health, but I’m not sure we make the connection to our spiritual health.
Let me make a pretty sweeping generalization. I don’t want this to sound judgmental and there are always exceptions, but I wonder if the generation of churches that preceded us didn’t focus more on diet than exercise. Teaching is the solution to whatever ails you. If you’re got a spiritual problem the solution is in the diet. You need to learn something.
I’m not saying that isn’t important because it is. That’s what I do. I spent a lot of hours preparing messages and evotionals. I take our diet as seriously as you can take something. But let me be perfectly honest. I don’t think your greatest need is more messages. I think most of us educated beyond our level of obedience. Here’s the big idea: most of us don’t need to know more. We need to do more with what we know.
I think most churches are overweight because they eat more than the exercise. And I think most Christians are overweight because they eat more than they exercise. Ministry = Exercise. The way we get exercise is by using the gifts God has given us to serve others.
Baptism by Immersion
The longer I live the more I believe in baptism by immersion: learning by doing. We’ve got a gift and passion assessment online. (Click here to download it from our site.) You can check it out in the resource section, but I don’t think it’s the best form of discovery. I think the best form of discovery is discovery by doing.
Last week I was reading the September issue of Fast Company. They did a series of interviews with Business School Deans. Robert Joss, the dean of the Stanford Graduate School makes a great observation about leadership. “The way you learn leadership is by leading. Leadership is a performing art. Intellectually it’s simple. But behaviorally, it’s a complex and difficult work.”
Ministry is a performing art. You learn it by doing it. The best way to discover what you love to do and what you’re good at is to try different things. It’s baptism by immersion.
Every once in a while a NCCer will talk to me about missions. They feel like God might be calling them into full-time missions and ask my advice. I usually give the same advice across the board: baptism by immersion. Go on a short-term missions trip or spend six months overseas. Jump in with both feet. Immerse yourself in missions. I gave that advice to NCCer about a year ago. She spent six months with YWAM. And I just got an email from her this week. She’s going on the mission field full-time. But it started with baptism by immersion.
That’s how I discovered and developed my teaching and leadership gifts. I put myself in situations where I had to use them. I felt called to preach when I was nineteen years-old. I took every opportunity to preach that you can imagine. What I remember most are nursing homes. That may sound like an easy assignment, but it was tougher than what you’d imagine. During one of my messages, a woman suffering from senility got up and started taking her clothes off. Then she started screaming at the top of her lungs, “Get him out of here, get him out of here.” Nothing fazes you after that.
When I went to college I decided not to just attend a big church and learn by watching. I attended a tiny church that averaged about twelve in attendance, but I learned by doing. I cut my teeth preaching. Some of those early messages were pretty pathetic, but it was baptism by immersion.
The decision to go into church planting was intentional. I could have found a position on staff someplace, but I wanted to learn how to pastor a church by pastoring a church. We’ve made lots of mistakes, but mistakes are good if you learn from them and grow from them.
I think one reason some people don’t get involved in a ministry or community group is because they feel like once they get in they can’t get out. That’s not how NCC operates. The last thing we want is for you to be part of a community group or ministry that isn’t the right fit. I never buy pants without trying them on. I want to see how they fit. We don’t expect you to commit to a ministry without trying it on for size. You need to see how it fits.
Copernican Revolution
This week I was reading an excerpt by a German psychologist named Fritz Kunkel. He said that all of us need to go through a life-changing shift he calls the shift from “me to we.” I think that’s what Paul is talking about when he says “common good.” We have to come to a point where we realize that the world doesn’t revolve around us. We need to stop living for ourselves and start serving others. We need to stop looking out for number one and start looking out for each other.
And when we make the shift we discover that the way to get a life is to give your life away. When you only act out of self-interest your world gets smaller and smaller. I like the way John Ortberg says it, “If you want to be your own God, you have to settle for living in a tiny universe where there is only room for one person.” Selfish ambition is a dead-end. There is no outlet literally.
Some of us need to go through what a friend of mine calls a Copernican revolution. In 1530, Copernicus discovered that that the sun didn’t revolve around the earth. The earth revolved around the sun. It was a radical paradigm shift.
In the same way, each of us needs to make the discovery that the world doesn’t revolve around us. And it’s tough to do because all of us were babies and babies are the center of the universe. The world revolves around them. They are fed and held and changed and loved. And that’s the way it should be. But at some point children need to start learning that the world doesn’t revolve them.
Josiah is eighteen months and like most eighteen month olds, he thinks everything is his. A few years ago I got an email titled “Introduction to property law from a toddler’s perspective.” It’s a perfect description of the way toddlers think.
If I like it, it’s mine
If I can take it away from you, it’s mine
If it looks like mine, it’s mine
If I saw it first, it’s mine
If you’re having fun with it, it’s mine
If you lay it down, it’s mine
If it’s broken, it’s yours
The Talmud, the Jewish commentary on the Old Testament, says there are four types of people.
What’s yours is mine
What’s yours is yours
What’s mine is mine
What’s mine is yours
We need to make a shift from “me to we.” What’s mine is yours! We need to realize that what you give away you get back and what you keep you lose. The way to get a life is to give you life away!
Problems
If you’re looking for an excuse you’ll find an excuse not to serve. Some of you are reading this evotional and you’re thinking, “I’ve got too many problems to get involved in a ministry.” That mindset will keep you out of ministry forever. You may have problems, but I think the more problems you have the more you need to serve.
After he retired from his counseling career, Carl Jung was asked how he helped people get well. His response was pretty profound. He said, “Most people came to me with an insurmountable problem. However, what happened was through our work together they discovered something more important than the problem and the problem lost its power and went away.” That’s what ministry is. It’s something more important than your problem.
If you’ve got problems you need to start serving others. Keep trying to solve your problems and your problems will get bigger. Start serving others and your problems will get smaller. Try going on a mission’s trip to a Third World country. It’ll put your problems in perspective. Volunteer at a local homeless shelter or meals on wheels and it’ll put your problems in perspective. I’m not trying to minimize your problems. I’m just telling you that the solution to your problems is helping people with their problems! All of us are wounded healers.
The Red Pill
Let me end this evotional the same way I ended last week’s message. You have a choice to make. You can choose to exercise your gifts. Or you can atrophy. You need to enter the Ministry Matrix.
There is a scene in the Matrix where Neo meets Morpheus for the first time. Morpheus ends the discussion by giving Neo a choice between two pills: a blue pill and a red pill. He says, “You take the blue pill and the story ends. You wake in your bed and you believe whatever you want to believe.” That’s what happens with most messages. You may be inspired or convicted or challenged, but if you go to bed and get up the next morning and don’t do anything about it you took the blue pill. That is what happens in most churches most Sundays. Lots of people taking the blue pill.
Morpheus gives Neo another option. He says, “You take the red pill and you stay in wonderland and I show you how deep the rabbit-hole goes.”
Quit making excuses. Take the red pill.