“We won!” If you’re a sports fan, you might have bellowed those words when your favorite team emerged victorious from an epic showdown.
But of course, we know that we didn’t win at all. I sat on my couch and cheered for my Chiefs. But it was Andy Reid who drew up the play, Patrick Maholmes who threw the pass, and Travis Kelce who caught it.
They, not we, won.
Many of us have come to believe the opposite lie regarding the church. It’s easy to think they are doing the work of the gospel. In a celebrity culture, it’s easy to get sucked into thinking that pastors do ministry and preachers do gospel work. This isn’t true. God’s ministry is advanced by his people collectively.
They don’t do the work of the gospel. We do.
As Paul begins his letter to the Philippians, he bubbles with praise for his friends, “I thank my God in all my remembrance of you, always in every prayer of mine for you all making my prayer with joy, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now” (Phil 1:3-5).
Paul didn’t view the church as serving him or serving his ministry. He viewed them as equal partners with him in God’s ministry. The ministry of the gospel is the ministry of we.
For this reason, we have proposed a constitutional change at New Life that will shift what we have called “membership” to what we will call “partnership.” Along with changing the language from “member” to “partner,” we are also lowering the voting age from 18 to 15 and introducing a yearly renewal process. We want to be more inclusive, inviting students to engage in active ownership in God’s family at New Life, and annually provide the opportunity for partners to recommit to the church family through community, service, and generosity. Statistically, we know that 1) there is a danger for many students to disengage from the church after they graduate high school, and 2) the most significant indicator for students to remain engaged with a local church post-high school is that they feel meaningfully connected to the church as a whole (not just student ministries—as important as that is!) prior to graduation. At New Life, we want to cultivate deeply rooted relationships among followers of Christ, young and old alike. Partnership is part of establishing those meaningful spiritual relationships.
One of our principal values at New Life is that we are contributors, not consumers. We live in a consumable culture. Our commitments are disposable. I’m a member of Costco and Southwest Airlines. What does that mean? Next to nothing. But relationships among the people of God are so much more because they are eternal. When Paul uses the term “member” in 1 Corinthians 12, and throughout Ephesians, he is speaking of us as body parts, each crucial to a person's overall ability to function. How can an eye smell or an ear taste? He reminds us, “Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it” (1 Cor 12:27). Paul is reminding us that the body is deficient without each of us joyfully contributing God-given gifts in a local family of faith. The point isn’t that “member” is an inappropriate word, but if we use it, let’s recover its deep biblical meaning. In God’s providence and grace, we, members and partners, are essential for the gospel to go forth.
As Paul concludes his letters, he often offers recognition and thankfulness by naming specific individuals in the community. In his lengthiest greeting (in Romans), he names 29 individuals! Our 21st-century eyes might glaze over these sections, but Paul is cleverly giving integrity to his own preaching by putting it into action. He’s showing us that ministry is not about him; it’s about us. Prisca, Aquila “fellow workers in Christ Jesus,” Epaenetus, Mary, Adronicus, Junia, Ampliatus, Urbanus, and “my beloved” Stachys are just a handful on the list.
What a gift to be partners in the most significant work we can imagine ~ serving the Kingdom! Thank you, my partners at New Life! Thank you, Mark and Shawna, Larissa and Jeannie, Carol and Brian, Nicole and Sal, Carlos and Malea, Adi and Rob (and on and on the list could go). You are beloved workers and faithful partners.
Through Christ, we are winning: breaking strongholds, planting churches, experiencing healing, being transformed by his truth, and manifesting his Kingdom on this earth.
Thank you for your partnership.
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Photo by Felix Rostig on Unsplash