Understanding The Unique Supply of Each Body Part . . .
One of the most common forms of repeated pain in churches revolves around church government and the way governing takes place. As Blessing Point has worked across denominational lines through the years, we have discovered that it does not matter what form of church government you have, it can be the source of pain. The pain gets magnified when leaders put their trust in their form of government. It is also one of the first things leaders contemplate changing or adjusting when they face painful episodes in their ministries. The thinking goes: “If we just restructure things, it will make it better/easier/less painful! If only we were elder-led, staff-led, or pastor-led, then our problems would go away!”
Maybe if the church were a business, this would prove true, but it is not; it’s a body. And the way God has made bodies to work is that every body part is important for the proper functioning of that body. Paul tells the Ephesians:
Rather, speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in every way into him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held together by every joint with which it is equipped, when each part is working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love. (Eph. 4:15-16)
Most leaders don’t know how to make “each part work properly.” Many churches have a “congregational” form of government—where every member purportedly has a voice—but we have found that is as much a source of pain as any other. So what is the answer?
A key thing we have learned in leading churches through their histories to discover what the Lord of their church is saying to them is the role of spiritual gifts in facilitating that discovery. Not just some of the gifts, but all of them. It is often revelatory to leaders to watch the multitude of gifts represented by a large segment of their congregation—male and female, young and old, immature and mature, rich and poor, multi-cultural and multi-ethnic—come together for a historical retreat and assess the most painful events of their church’s past for what Christ is saying. When done with mutual respect, speaking the truth in love, and filled with the Holy Spirit, the ones who have “ears to hear what the Spirit says to the churches” provide clarity and direction for leadership to know how they should respond and what they should do.
This works because each body part is functioning as the Spirit gifted it to respond. We counsel leaders after such retreats that “This is what your church business meetings and board meetings should look like!” But, for some reason, we find leaders quickly forget what they saw and learned. They stop listening to the input from the full number of body parts God has supplied to them and quickly the painful struggle returns.
Every “body part” within a church or ministry wants to be valued, wants their voice and unique perspective to be heard, and wants to feel they are contributing what God has given them as a stewardship to help the body grow. Wise leaders learn that it is less about the “government structure” and more about ears to hear what the Spirit is saying to them through all the gifted people God has provided to their ministry that causes their body to grow.
Dr. Kenneth Quick serves as Director of Consulting for Blessing Point Ministries. He authored, Healing the Heart of Your Church, Body Aches and coauthored The Eighth Letter. Blessing Point works to improve the health of local churches while particularly focused on healing ministries that have been wounded by corporate pain. Ken can be reached at ken@blessingpoint.org or info@blessingpoint.org.