Romans 12:3-5: How to Serve Your Church

Romans 12:4-5.. "For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another."

In modern-day evangelicalism [which is just a fancy, pastorish way of saying "in present-day Christianity], I personally believe that we could be doing a lot better in our personal service to our local church. Oftentimes we believe that the clergy (that is, the paid members of the church) ought to be doing all the work while we as the laity (that is, the non-paid members of the church) reap all of the benefits. However, this is 100% contrary to the pattern we see laid out in God's Word.

In the verses above, Paul describes how each church member has a responsibility to serve his local church. Though each one of us are all a part of "one body," we each have different functions, just as your body is altogether one yet made up of many different parts that do different functions (the eyes see, the feet walk, etc.). Paul is arguing here that each person has both the ability and therefore the responsibiliy to be serving his local church. Truly, we see this throughout all of the New Testament epistles, and especially in the book of Acts. Each Christian has a responsibility to serve the ("big C") Church as a whole by the means of serving their local church.

But how is this played out? Obviously the teaching pastor and the worship leader serve the church. Their position is obious, but what about you and me? This is why Paul speaks of spiritual gifts (which we will look at tomorrow). However, let us not miss the point: each of us is a member of the body, and if one member of the body stops working, the entire body is affected. Think of your own body: if your eye stopped working, surely your feet would not know where to walk. If your blood vessels stopped working, you would not get blood to any parts of your body and all of your members would be useless. Even if your hands stopped working, you wouldn't be able to do any work. Surely each member of your body is important,* just as each member of the church body is important.

So, are you serving your church? If you have the gift of encouragement, are you encouraging? If you have the gift of mercy, are you having mercy? If you can exhort, are you exhorting? And so on and so forth. Beloved, I urge you to use the gifts God has given you to serve your local church. It is not only the clergy that serve the church (for how will they be empowered if no one encourages them?).

How can you serve your church better today, even on this find Sunday morning?

*Note: the church has no appendix. This is a cheesy dad joke. If you don't get it, move on.