Sometimes it can be a tricky thing discovering your role within the church. We know that each of us is gifted in different ways, and essential to the life of the church as a body. But we may well be confused about what this looks like in practice. Are you meant to join a serving team? Are you meant to have some kind of official title or leadership position?
I’m aware that when I preached on the life of the church as a body last Sunday, I left a lot of these questions wide open. I intend to return to the subject soon and speak about some of the spiritual gifts that Paul mentions in Romans 12. But, there is something crucial that needs to be understood at the outset in asking the question, How do I find my place in the body?
One of the most helpful and important analogies of how churches are meant to operate is the image of a trellis and a vine (taken from this book). Some of church life is trellis work – the organisation, with its structures and programmes, budgets and roles. Some of church life is vine work – the organism, with its unplanned and spontaneous expressions of life and service. In fact, it’s fair to say that in a healthy church, most of the good stuff happens in organic and unplanned ways.
Think about the kinds of ways the New Testament calls us to minister to one another: in love, in service, in generosity, in exhortation, in acts of mercy, in hospitality, and so on. While we can help build a trellis for these things to take place (including Sunday services and Life Groups, as well as various ministries) most of this church life happens in the thousands of interactions within the church family from week to week.
What does this mean for you? Well, it may well be that you are willing and gifted to serve in a volunteer capacity (i.e. trellis work) and we always need that. But someone who understands the life of the vine will think differently. For example, you’ll come to church and see someone new, and understand that befriending them is ministry. Arriving early and staying late to catch up with people is ministry. If you discover a new believer, you might offer to meet up with them regularly to help them grow deeper in faith, offering to study a book or read the Bible together. As you attend Life Group you start with small talk, but soon that reveals real needs in the lives of others, and your relationship gives you opportunity to help – with money, or time, or service, or friendship.
The healthier a church gets, the more this vine life becomes evident. And it goes without saying that this kind of church life is only possible the closer we walk together. It is out of relationships that these opportunities to strengthen each other emerge, and every one of us becomes a minister of grace. So, let’s pray earnestly and look for opportunities to serve each other, and in this way bring pleasure to the heart of God.