In several of His epistles, Paul uses various metaphors or images to describe the empowering and interdependent nature of Christ’s Church. Whether in I Corinthians 12-14, Ephesians 4, or in Romans 12, one cannot miss the recurring theme of encouraging each member of the Church of Jesus Christ to use their gifts to maintain the unity, health, and mediated glory of Jesus through the Church. In summary, Paul’s description of the empowerment of the members of the body of Christ is not only inherent to the Christian life, but crucial to the manifestation of Jesus in the world and to the further setting up of His kingdom in the lives of His people.
Despite this seemingly simple prescriptive picture, there are various obstacles to empowering everyone in the church. The more obvious hindrance is individual selfishness; simply not being willing to offer one’s gifts for the good of others. But more often than not, the obstacles are more subtle and debilitating, though still governed by self. For instance, there are various forms of power, such as levels of education, wealth and affluence, place of vocational employment, and certain personality types, which can serve as road blocks to empowerment for many believers. In fact, it is this reality that has shaped CPC’s commitment to planting churches that reflect the ‘flesh’ of the specific communities; that they sound, look, feel, and taste like the communities that they worship in. The reason for such an approach is to remove as many potential intimidating factors to empowering participation.
For failing to take into consideration the various ‘fleshes’ of communities runs the risk of communicating, both unintentionally and indirectly, that not everyone’s gifts are needed; or worse yet, that a person’s gifts or input are not good enough or wanted. I am reminded of the experience of one of the Hill parishioner’s, who originally was a member at CPC Whitney, before helping with the launch in the Hill. Upon serving and participating in the life of the Hill church, he stated to me, ‘you know Tolivar, I never could have done any of this over at Whitney. With all the highly educated, wealthy, and strong personalities, they didn’t need me and what I had to offer.” Now, of course, no one at Whitney had ever communicated or did anything that would convey such a sad interpretation of his place at CPC Whitney; sadly, it was not so much about what the Whitney folks did, but more about his own poor self-image of himself in comparison to some of the folks at Whitney; a self-image that was informed not by his identity in Christ, but by the norms of our fallen culture. It is these types of misinterpretations that create dempowering experiences for folks all crossed this country.
CPC in the Hill has been privileged to begin to implement this empowering philosophy of ministry beyond CPC Whitney over these past years. What began as a simple bible study, has turned into an ever-growing community of believers, who are learning to embrace their self-worth in Jesus and to participate in every facet of its ministry. This sanctifying process has created leaders in every dimension of the ministry; teachers, small group leaders, outreach coordinators, transportation facilitators, deacon and elder candidates, mercy facilitators, prayer leaders, and various other roles related to our Co-Op store in the Hill. As a result of this sanctifying work of the gospel, less time is spent comparing ourselves to others, and more time focused on how we can glorify Christ by blessing our brothers and sisters.
Despite this seemingly simple prescriptive picture, there are various obstacles to empowering everyone in the church. The more obvious hindrance is individual selfishness; simply not being willing to offer one’s gifts for the good of others. But more often than not, the obstacles are more subtle and debilitating, though still governed by self. For instance, there are various forms of power, such as levels of education, wealth and affluence, place of vocational employment, and certain personality types, which can serve as road blocks to empowerment for many believers. In fact, it is this reality that has shaped CPC’s commitment to planting churches that reflect the ‘flesh’ of the specific communities; that they sound, look, feel, and taste like the communities that they worship in. The reason for such an approach is to remove as many potential intimidating factors to empowering participation.
For failing to take into consideration the various ‘fleshes’ of communities runs the risk of communicating, both unintentionally and indirectly, that not everyone’s gifts are needed; or worse yet, that a person’s gifts or input are not good enough or wanted. I am reminded of the experience of one of the Hill parishioner’s, who originally was a member at CPC Whitney, before helping with the launch in the Hill. Upon serving and participating in the life of the Hill church, he stated to me, ‘you know Tolivar, I never could have done any of this over at Whitney. With all the highly educated, wealthy, and strong personalities, they didn’t need me and what I had to offer.” Now, of course, no one at Whitney had ever communicated or did anything that would convey such a sad interpretation of his place at CPC Whitney; sadly, it was not so much about what the Whitney folks did, but more about his own poor self-image of himself in comparison to some of the folks at Whitney; a self-image that was informed not by his identity in Christ, but by the norms of our fallen culture. It is these types of misinterpretations that create dempowering experiences for folks all crossed this country.
CPC in the Hill has been privileged to begin to implement this empowering philosophy of ministry beyond CPC Whitney over these past years. What began as a simple bible study, has turned into an ever-growing community of believers, who are learning to embrace their self-worth in Jesus and to participate in every facet of its ministry. This sanctifying process has created leaders in every dimension of the ministry; teachers, small group leaders, outreach coordinators, transportation facilitators, deacon and elder candidates, mercy facilitators, prayer leaders, and various other roles related to our Co-Op store in the Hill. As a result of this sanctifying work of the gospel, less time is spent comparing ourselves to others, and more time focused on how we can glorify Christ by blessing our brothers and sisters.