Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Tuesday, 10 June 2014 " All the parts…are one body"

Leawood, Kansas, United States - The United Methodist Church of the Resurrection Daily Guide grow. pray. study. for Tuesday, 10 June 2014 " All the parts…are one body"
Daily Scripture:  1 Corinthians 12:12 For as the body is one, and has many members, and all the members of the body, being many, are one body; so also is Christ. 13 For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body, whether Jews or Greeks, whether bond or free; and were all given to drink into one Spirit. 14 For the body is not one member, but many. 15 If the foot would say, “Because I’m not the hand, I’m not part of the body,” it is not therefore not part of the body. 16 If the ear would say, “Because I’m not the eye, I’m not part of the body,” it’s not therefore not part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole were hearing, where would the smelling be? 18 But now God has set the members, each one of them, in the body, just as he desired. 19 If they were all one member, where would the body be? 20 But now they are many members, but one body. 21 The eye can’t tell the hand, “I have no need for you,” or again the head to the feet, “I have no need for you.”
Reflection Questions:
Drawing on a fact we live with daily—the interdependence of all the varied parts of our physical body—Paul created a new image to describe God's intention for the church. We are, he said, "the body of Christ." The image is now so familiar that we don't often think about what it actually means. Paul was saying our varied gifts relate to one another in the same way all the different parts of our body interact. Wholeness depends on each part doing what God designed it to do.
Paul addressed two challenges in today's passage. The first is our human tendency to think, "Everyone else should be like me—do what I do, be passionate about the same things I'm passionate about." So he asked, "If the whole body were an eye, what would happen to the hearing? And if the whole body were an ear, what would happen to the sense of smell?" (verse 17) How hard or easy do you find it to value people whose gifts are very different from yours?
The second challenge Paul spoke to is our tendency to envy other people's gifts, to want to be like them. "If the foot says, 'I'm not part of the body because I'm not a hand,' does that mean it's not part of the body?" he wrote in verse 15. Have you ever wished you had the same gifts as someone you greatly admire? What has helped you learn to value and use your own gifts, rather than trying to imitate someone else with different gifts?
Today's Prayer:
Lord God, there are days when it's hard for me to believe that you love and value me and my unique mix of strengths and weaknesses. But I'm part of your "body," so please use what I have to offer to bless others. Amen.
Insight from Brandon Gregory
Brandon Gregory is a volunteer for the worship and missions teams at Church of the Resurrection. He helps lead worship at the Vibe, West, and Downtown services, and is involved with the Malawi missions team at home.
As a teenager, if you asked me what I wanted to be when I got older, I said that I wanted to serve God, which meant one of two things: youth pastor or worship leader. I spent a lot of time preparing for these roles—I led Bible studies for my youth group, helped lead worship every Sunday, and studied the Bible fervently. All through college, in fact, I continued these activities.
I had other hobbies and interests, of course. I was a designer, and was constantly tinkering with websites. I took some computer science courses in college to supplement this. I was also a writer, spending countless hours reading about how to write more effective dialogue, or more convincing statements, or just how to craft a good story. I wound up with a degree in English literature. But I was still going to be a youth pastor or worship leader because I wanted to serve God with my life.
When I got out of college and started looking for something to do, I ended up working for an international missionary organization. Not exactly what I had in mind, but I sort of fell into it. I found out God was doing some amazing things through this agency, so I decided that’s what I wanted to do with my life: serve God by being a missionary.
Long story short, that didn’t work out. I did some amazing work there, but I couldn’t raise the support I needed to actually make it a career. Turns out I wasn’t as passionate about raising support as I was the actual work I would be doing, which meant I never got a real paycheck.
So, being back at square one, I decided to go back to my original calling: youth pastor or worship leader. I found an opportunity as a worship leader for a small church plant in Kansas City. So I decided that’s what I wanted to do with my life: serve God by being a worship leader.
Well, long story short, that didn’t work out either. I was passionate about leading people in worship and inspiring them to change, but not as much about recruiting volunteers, doing clerical work, or doing things I really didn’t agree with because it was what the congregation wanted.
At that point, I knew I wanted to serve God, but I also knew I needed a paycheck, so I went searching for a job to tide be over until I could get back into ministry like God had called me to. I applied to a local ad agency as a proofreader and got hired as a web designer. My first year was actually pretty miserable, because I thought about all the people I could be helping as a full-time minister. It was never quite what I had pictured.
But after a year, I realized something: I was really good at web design. And working for a large agency came with other opportunities. I was able to continue my writing, churning out magazine articles, company blog posts, and the occasional headline. I delved into psychology books (another long-held passion of mine), and soon found that my unique gifting was in influencing people. Within two and a half years, I was a senior; within three and a half, I was a manager.
The problem all along was that I was looking for ways to serve God, and I looked at models set by others. I looked at someone who answered a calling to youth ministry, or worship leading, or missionary work, and I saw a perfect fit, and that was something I longed for.
But all along, while I was looking at everything God was doing around me, I missed what was happening inside of me. I missed what God had uniquely created me to be, and I squandered it by ignoring my innate gifting and longing for what I saw others doing.
You don’t answer God’s call by taking a job as a worship leader, or a pastor, or a missionary, or any job. You answer God’s call by recognizing the gifts He’s placed in you and working hard to develop them into something amazing, and then finding some way to use them to advance the kingdom of God. If you’re great at working with teenagers, public speaking, mentoring, and organizing events, then great, you can be a youth pastor. But if you have a great business sense, it would be a complete waste to throw away God’s gifting and pursue something you’re only decent at.
God’s work needs worship leaders and youth pastors, but it also needs creative professionals to get the word out about what’s going on; it needs teachers to build up strong leaders, or even teach missionary children growing up in mission fields in other countries; it needs business leaders with integrity who can bring insight to any organization that pastors and youth pastors don’t have, or to make a lot of money to support other ministries financially; it needs HR professionals to make sure organizations obey the laws of man; it needs IT professionals to make sure churches and other organizations can stay up and running and extend their reach far beyond the walls of their buildings.
God’s kingdom needs you to be you, not any pre-defined role you see.
Right now, I’m working as a web developer for another large Kansas City agency, and I’m still doing some amazing work in influencing people and helping people. There may never be a spot for a marketing guy like me in a church; but I know there is a spot for me in the body of Christ. It is a spot uniquely designed for me, and it would be a big gaping hole if I were to be anyone else. I don’t know what kind of job that means, but I’m through picking destinations. I’m trusting God to make the most use of my talents, and I’m making sure every step of the journey is the best step I can take. That is God’s calling on my life, and I’m happy to be living it out.
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