Body Transformation

(this article was originally published in the September 2018 Communique)

Over the past few months, God has continued to put on my heart a strong feeling that, much like my physical body needs a transformation, the body of Christ both here and beyond are in need of a transformation. It isn’t an accident that God chose to use the body as a picture of the church. While describing us as a community is true on many levels, I think that we often take that picture to its logical end when what we need to do is take the picture of the church as the body of Christ to its logical end.  I’ll explain. In a community, we are close in proximity, but there can be distance within the relationships. We can speak to our neighbors regularly and wave when we drive by, but we can easily be oblivious to the trials and struggles that they are going through. However, when a part of the body is going through pain, the whole body feels it. Beyond that, when the body is operating properly it will immediately start attempting to heal the suffering body part and restore everything to proper health. When the body isn’t healing then what happens, as many doctors and physical therapists can attest to, the rest of the body starts to compensate for the part not functioning well. Very often compensating for a non-functioning part of the body leads to additional injuries as those parts aren’t meant to take on the extra stress. It is a really accurate picture of the body of Christ. The body is best when everyone is functioning in the role they are intended for. When someone is hurting, the body functions best when the other parts of the body are aware and can work to heal and restore. When the body doesn’t have a chance to heal the hurt then the other parts of the body are left to compensate for an ill-functioning body part and that can cause further damage. This is why I believe that we need to seriously pursue a transformation in our lives and the life of the church.

At a recent Pastor’s conference, there were multiple items that were shared that, if we can really take hold of, I believe can help us have a much better plan and focus on seeing transformation come here.

“I am a gift given by God to the people of this church”

When Pastor D.A. Horton made this statement at a recent conference, I had to really think about it to try to follow how that could be true. Thankfully he did a nice job of helping me follow the logical flow:

• Jesus suffered.
• What reward did He seek for His suffering?
• Believers. The Church. We are the trophies of His love.
• So, if we are His reward and He has placed us where we are at this church, it does logically flow that we are a gift given by God to the people of our church.
• Now…why did He place us here?
• To bring our gifts to the body and be a healthy, functioning part of that body, active in bringing glory to His name.

Can you envision how different things would be if each of us came to church or church business with the express purpose of being a good gift of God to further His goals for the Body of Christ at Claycomo? Now I’m sure someone is saying “that’s great in concept, but how do we accomplish that”? There are two things that I believe can help make this possible. The first is a life of prayer and the second is what I like to call “the formula”.

“To be a Christian without prayer is no more possible than to be alive without breathing”

Pastor John Onwuchekwa included that quote in the first chapter of his book on prayer and it really hit me. (To be transparent, the quote either originated with Martin Luther, or Martin Luther King Jr. but there doesn’t seem to be a definitive answer as to which one). Do I look at prayer like breathing? John O.  accurately called out that we are far too prone to view prayer as a prescription. We use it until our issue is better and then we stop. That isn’t what our prayer life was intended to be. What does it look like when prayer is like breathing? Well, first is looks like what the Apostle Paul instructed when he said that we are to “pray continuously” or “pray without ceasing”.  To pray continuously is to have a state of prayer be our resting point. We will have to engage in other things throughout each day that require our focus and attention, but when we reach the end of those things and before we start the next we go back to our default state. That default state is intended to be a state of prayer. When that is our default state, we are much more capable of keeping a God-centered focus in our day to day lives as well as having more godly reactions to the challenges that inevitably arise. Now, the one caveat to this is that this is only effective if we also pray rightly.

In order to pray rightly, we need to be in a constant state of acknowledgment of God’s place in every area of our lives. It is not a constant state of saying “gimme” to God, even for others. When you look at the “Lord’s Prayer” in Matthew 6, the first half of it is focused completely on Him. We are instructed to begin with a focus on His name, His kingdom, and His will. If we follow that model it should help keep our prayer life rightly focused. Additionally, within the second half of that prayer where we are instructed to seek His provision, His pardon of us, and His protection, we make our requests known, but we do so with a heavy focus on Him and with a desire for His purposes in and through us.  If our personal prayer life has the right focus and frequency, then I believe it will transform us.

The second area that I believe is necessary for us to transform the body of Christ, beginning with ourselves, is what I have dubbed “the formula” after I heard it discussed by D.A. Horton. I believe this formula is critical to having a biblical focus for our lives and a healthy church for the world to see. The nature of the body of Christ is that we are a group of people that would not logically all be together as a unit in any context other than for the cause of Christ. As such, it is logical that we would not function as a unit without a different approach to our life together than those outside the church have for their relationships. Here is the formula that I believe is critical for a healthy church:

Truth + Love + Compassion (Empathy) + Long-suffering (Overlooking offenses)

The reality is that we are a group of sinners that are together a good bit of time. That in and of itself is a recipe for issues. I promise that if you want to find something to be upset about with someone at church, you will be able to find it. However, if we can apply this formula to all of our interactions within the body of Christ then I believe the unity God desires for us is possible. That unity, hand in hand with a lifestyle of prayer and a focus on using our God-given gifts to be a gift and a blessing to the church, I believe will produce the transformative results that will lead to a healthy body and an effective witness to those desperately in need of the one thing that can change their lives for eternity.

In Christ Alone,
Jamie