Tuesday 5 October 2010

The hopping, skipping, dancing Body of Christ!

One of our key staff at Kings had an operation last week. Dave Less who plays a major role on our conferencing team (as well as doing a host of other tasks!) fell off his bike last winter, tore a ligament in his shoulder that needed to be stiched back together again. It doesn’t sound like much fun, and David assured me that it wasn’t! Result? Well, apart from being sore, the worst of it is that he has to keep his arm in a fixed position 24 : 7 for 6 weeks - and that’s the biggest pain! And we’re minus a key player!

Something that set me off on the course of life & ministry that I am on today was the realisation, some years ago now, that the church is far, far more than a bunch of people siitting in the same room for an hour or so on a Sunday morning. Important though the preaching of the Bible and corporate worship is, nevertheless, if that’s all we’re doing, I would go as far as saying that we haven’t got church.

I remember God impressing on me that the church is to be the Body of Christ - a living, moving, hopping - skipping - dancing - thoroughly alive body, and not a paralised, passive body being kept alive artificially by the life support system of a one-man-ministry. What a revelation that was for me - to think that every single person in the church family has a God-given and Spirit-energised gift; a part to play in the dynamic of church life, without which, the whole body of the church family just won’t work right!

Right now I am very well aware that David’s immobility is affecting life at Kings on a daily basis. How much more could your immobility be restricting all that God intends for us at Kings? I remain passionate about the fact that the church is a dynamic, mutli-faceted, multi-gifted body of believers, each rising to the challenge to play their part, and living out their lives together under the Lordship of Jesus Christ for His glory and fame!
And hey, we’re not just any body - as we all come alive and serve together with the gifts that we have been given, we are the Body of Jesus Christ, visible to the communities around us!

So whether you are brand new to Kings or have been here for years, let me encourage you to stir up the God-given gift within you and start using it, serving for the glory of God - and get well soon David!

Goff