By Angela
“Church is not a place you go to, it’s a family you belong to.” The church is the people, brothers and sisters in Christ; not only at St. Paul, but all UMC, GMC, Baptist, Church of Christ, and so forth. From
the United States all over the world, we, the church, are considered the Body of Christ. In 1 Corinthians
12:12-13, 18-27 (NLT) it states, “The human body has many parts, but the many parts make up one whole body. So it is with the body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But we have all been baptized into one body by one Spirit, and we all share the same Spirit. But our bodies have many parts, and God has put each part just where he wants it. How strange a body would be if it had only one part! Yes, there are many parts, but only one body. The eye can never say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you.’ The head can’t say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you.’ In fact, some parts of the body that seem weakest and least important are actually the most necessary. And the parts we regard as less honorable are those we clothe with the greatest care. So we carefully protect those parts that should not be seen, while the more honorable parts do not require this special care. So God has put the body together such that extra honor and care are given to those parts that have less dignity. This makes for harmony among the members, so that all the members care for each other. If one part suffers, all the parts suffer with it, and if one part is honored, all the parts are glad. All of you together are Christ’s body, and each of you is a part of it.”
I chose the Church because of how important the body of Christ is to me. How each unique person has something they bring to the family; whether it is prayer, preaching, teaching Sunday school, leading children, cooking, cleaning or singing, we are all important. We all help one another grow and can build each other up. Being a follower of Christ without other believers is hard. When you have others, you can lean on them and build others up. In these scriptures I also see that God created the Body with diversity because we can’t all do the same thing. Paul says in Corinthians that we
all need to value each others uniqueness.
In Ephesians 4:4-6, Paul speaks about how important the unity of one body is. Our unity should show the power of God. As the church, we need to pray for unity. I have to put myself aside for the greater good.
On UMC.org, The Church is described as “an extension of Christ’s Life and Ministry in the world today.” As it states in Matthew 28:19 and on UMC. org, “we believe that the mission of the church is to make disciples of Jesus Christ.”
I am reminded as I research, that we all have a part to do in the body. We need to pray for unity and seek to bring others to Jesus. I pray that St. Paul would seek to grow closer as family, to form more outreaches, to show the love of Jesus even more, and to share our diversity.