April 08, 2011
Speaking the Same Language
Last Monday our men began raising the church floor, which originally was an octagon shaped sunken dance floor in our restaurant-turned-church. They had professional contractors, experienced handymen, jacks-of-all-trades, and more supervisors that you could shake a stick at. There was supposedly one foreman, three teams of men and a plan that was drawn out. The demolition was fast, furious and focused. Next came the knee walls, subflooring and head scratching. I understand that there was a lot of that male-bonding stuff going on. However, as I listened to the tales that were told throughout the week, I had to wonder how the Tower of Babel came into existence.
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Gail;
-----Church projects and the Tower of Babel have a lot in common, yet not everything. I cringe whenever I hear church leaders introducing a new focus upon some aspect of charity, or this aspect of service, or that aspect of evangelism. Almost invariably at the point of their focus is another program of designed and managed outreach, as if the whole church were a sort of team fielded from their coaching prowess for the scoring of big points. The Tower of Babel was a designed and managed project necessitating the focused efforts of every human alive in its time. Not everyone was a brick maker, of course, or a brick carrier or layer. But even the bread bakers were baking for the purpose of feeding the brick makers and carriers and layers to build The Tower. It was a project combing every string of human purpose into the unified direction of raising it up. Unity is not good when it raises a particular to the level of the general.
-----Those among us to whom we look as examples in the Lord and to whom we submit and obey have been commissioned by the Lord to direct the raising of a building, not in particular, but in general. It is no more a physical building beyond the physical presence of the saints than it is a spiritual building of what are the saints. In fact, the saints are built into it as they are shaped into the materials of its nature, “...you are fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, Christ Jesus himself being the cornerstone, in whom the whole structure is joined together and grows into a holy temple in the Lord; in whom you also are built into it for a dwelling place of God in the Spirit.” (Eph 2:19-22) In this generality of being built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets for a dwelling place of God is our unity for the leaders’ concerns. This unity is the bond of peace in the Spirit, a unity of faith and knowledge of Jesus Christ, towards which the saints are equipped for ministry and built into the body of Christ having the same, “...spirit, sympathy, love of the brethren, a tender heart and a humble mind.” (I Pet 3:8b) It is a unity in the general substance of what makes the new life new.
-----Yet the church encounters particular reasons for needing some unified efforts of particular folks. I would not dare join those raising your floor unless either my almost every move were supervised or there was needed an accounting of costs to maintain budget. I am good at other things as others are good at many various things. When the leaders have done well equipping the saints in the nature of Christ and exemplifying the unity of faith, all the body’s particulars are fulfilled by what the builders of the Tower of Babel might call chaos, but by what we certainly call the various gifts of the Spirit manifesting in various parts of the body.
Love you all,
Steve Corey
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