The Well

FUNCTIONAL OR DYSFUNCTIONAL?

As a little girl I remember meeting a woman who had an extra finger. I was young and just could not keep from staring at her. It amazed me. It wasn't a whole finger, sort of like a tumor with a fingernail. That image stayed in my mind for a long time, but I forgot it until right now.

God purpose for His church is that we be a complete body. My Pastor was talking about unity in the Body the other night and he brought up something I have heard many times. In each fellowship there is only one head ¾ Christ. Under Christ there is one head ¾ the Pastor. Any body that has more than one head is deformed. It has the look of a monster. Well, Hallelujah!

Now, under that Pastor, and in order to support the work of that Pastor are many organs, each designed to support the head and help the head send forth messages to the body. Do we get it? A Pastor without a body working as it should work is disabled. Ouch! Is your fellowship disabled?

In the book "In This Sanctuary," by Twila Paris and her Pastor, Robert Webber, they talk about the importance of worship. Pastor Webber makes some profound statements that I want to pass along to you. "I discovered that the broken relationship which I experienced in my inner self and the loss of self-worth which came from that ruptured inner self found a place of healing in the church and in its worship. Self-worth is derived not from anything we have done but from the realization that we are remade in the image of God…Having been remade in the image of God, we receive a restored sense of our task and function in the world…Everyone has something to contribute. This means, of course, that in the church, we need to help each person find his or her unique gift and exercise it to the benefit of all. When the gifts God has given to us are accepted and used in the church, our own sense of self-worth is intensified."

While attending the fellowship at River of Life, I saw this happen in numerous ways. One in particular that makes the Pastor smile is the gift of a special lady ¾ Pam Goodwin. Once, Pam went to the Pastor and made a comment that the nursery needed a transformation. He told her that since the Holy Spirit spoke that to her, he would let her run with it. Well, her gift spilled over from the nursery all the way to the hall and in the bathrooms. Her gifts are literally flowing.

I enjoyed the way he empowered each person to flow in their gifts. That is being the Body of Christ. When each person is operating in his or her gifts the church is functional, not dysfunctional! Hallelujah!