Christ's body is uniquely gathered
Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don't think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ's body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. - Romans 12:3-5
"If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it." - 1 Cor. 12:26
One of the learnings in my short 2 yrs of working in a multi-[sub]ethnic, multi-congregational church is that the job and work can be overwhelming. There is a lot of opportunities, tasks, ministries, relationships, and events to discern. It is likened to a scattering of seeds to choose from. Which one should I pick to focus on? What am I called to do? Everything is good to do, but what am I meant to do as a pastor?
Churches today had often wanted to put each member into the right ministry neatly. We find out their gifts, talents, capacity, and even ethnicity, and we slot them in their respective silos. We ask them to pursue their ministry with excellence and advance their ministry's goals. In a multi-congregational church, we strategically put people in their language-based subgroups; we put them in the soil that we hope will allow them to grow the most efficiently and have the highest chance of individual success.
This all sounds and looks good until I step back and look at the body of Christ as a whole. As I reread Romans 12, where Paul speaks about the uniqueness of each body part, we often jump quickly to the recognition of the diversity of individual giftings in the church. That, because we are each uniquely gifted by the Holy Spirit, we, therefore, have a specific role, and because of these functional roles, we are siloed and separated accordingly. It seems to make sense that we fit better separated in our own boxes. But as I reread carefully again this passage, vv5 stood out in that Paul ended that by saying, "We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other."
We belong to one another.
Each of the body parts has a special function; they are unique, yes! But what is the most unique is the body of Christ as a whole. When each part—each member—is connected and bound to each other, we testify to the Good News of Jesus Christ itself. The Gospel is made alive when the diverse people of God are united by the Spirit, and they function in a way that "belong to one another." This is why Paul warns the church in 1 Corinthians that, even if one part of the body suffers, the whole body suffers. Even if one ministry is thriving, the whole church is affected if other ministries are not doing well. One body part can't turn a blind eye to the other body parts. It can't ignore the others. Each part must relate to the other in order to belong to one another.
I think this is why I started to see my work not just in slotting myself into a box and focusing only on my own ministry portfolio. It is not just focusing only on the English congregation and on my unique ministry callings. But as part of a diverse multi-congregational Canadian Chinese church, I think one of the most important charges to any leaders is to help each other belong to one another; To help our people relate to one another; To lead our easily segmented congregations be a unified, gathered people of God. The realist might say this is a pipe-dream, but I believe God specialized in the impossible if it is His word, especially when it is about His church.
So, in short, what did I learn the last two years serving in a Canadian Chinese Church?
It is this: My purpose is not about advancing a cause, an institution, or policy, but it is advancing His people as a whole, a people that proclaim and carry the Gospel: A gospel that speaks to the gathering [verb] and the gather [noun] of God's people.