We Are Church Together

Church is something we do (and are) together.

That may sound simple, but it is one of the most important things we can remember about our life together. The church is not simply a place we come to on Sunday morning, nor is it an organization sustained by the efforts of only a few people. The church is a people. We are the body of Christ, called together to worship God, to follow Jesus, to care for one another, and to participate in God's work of healing and reconciliation in the world.

Paul writes in 1 Corinthians that “you are the body of Christ and individually you are members of it.” That means that every one of us has a place in the life and ministry of the church. There are gifts we each bring that the church needs. There are things that each of us can do that no one else can do in quite the same way.

This is particularly important for us as a Congregational church. We believe that the ministry of the church belongs to the congregation, the gathered community . We discern together. We make decisions together. We care for our neighbors together. We worship together. We take responsibility together for the ministry God has entrusted to us.

That responsibility takes many forms. We put our shoulder to the wheel through prayer, remembering that everything we do begins with God's grace and depends upon God's Spirit. We do it through service, giving our time and energy to meet the needs of our neighbors and our community. We do it through ministry, sharing our particular gifts in teaching, hospitality, music, leadership, pastoral care, children and youth ministry, outreach, and countless other ways. And we do it through giving, recognizing that our financial resources are among the gifts God has entrusted to us for the sake of the gospel.

None of this means that everyone has to do everything. In fact, Paul’s image of the body reminds us of precisely the opposite. A body has many members, and each has a different function. The eye cannot be the hand, and the hand cannot be the foot. The beauty is not that everyone does the same thing. The beauty is that everyone lives this life together.

The early church understood this. In Acts, the first Christians shared their lives and their possessions, devoted themselves to prayer and teaching, cared for those in need, and gathered regularly around the table. Their faith was not something they practiced individually and then brought with them to church. Their shared life was their witness to Christ.

The same is true for us. A congregation becomes effective when its people recognize that the work belongs to all of us. When a few people carry the weight for everyone else, eventually even good and faithful people become tired and worn out. But when we share the load, something changes. There is greater joy, greater resilience, greater creativity, and greater capacity for ministry.

Jesus tells us that the harvest is plentiful. There is more love to share, more people to welcome, more wounds to tend, more justice to pursue, more children to nurture, more hope to proclaim, and more good to do than any one person could ever accomplish.

So we pray together. We serve together. We give together. We work together. We encourage one another and carry one another when the load becomes heavy.

This is what it means to be the church. We belong to Christ, and therefore we belong to one another. And when each of us offers our time, our treasure, and our talents, trusting that God will take our small offerings and use them for God's purposes, there is no telling what we might accomplish together.