We need one another.
Like, really, really need one another.
Mercy and I have just flown back from a conference, Friends Around the Table, organised by SEAPC, her employer. If I have one takeaway from our three days in Singapore, it is this:
We are each essential, unique parts of God’s Body on the earth, and it is absolutely right that we should be different, no matter how frustrating or downright annoying that may sometimes seem. Jesus would have it no other way.
Allow me to share a brief illustration. Try as I might, there are certain spots on my back that I cannot reach with my hands. My lack of shoulder mobility predetermines that one part of my body will never come into contact with another part. And yet both my hands and my back are invaluable to my existence: the former for their opposable thumbs and the latter for the rather handy way it stops my head from collapsing into my thighs in a jelly-like heap.
This is hardly a new metaphor for those of us familiar with the New Testament (historians believe 1 Corinthians is the oldest Christian document the church has), but it could not be more timely. I need to know, and maybe you do too, that God is absolutely, totally present and holding his vast, diverse Body together in Himself.
This hit home at FATT (#leviticus3:16). There were people gathered that I know and love intimately as close friends, there were those that I had not met before but experienced a joyful spirit-to-spirit fellowship with, and there were others still who I either knew already and did not get along with “in the natural”, or did not know and did not especially “click” with on this occasion. A minority were even offensive to my TCK / British / Hong Kong Chinese / denominational / theological sensibilities… but God!
Despite — no, actively because of — all of the people at FATT, the Kingdom of God is advancing apace around the world. In that sense, not much has changed in 2,000 years. Amidst the Twelve, the very different personalities that made up Jesus’ disciples (not to mention other strong characters like Paul, Barnabas, and Apollos in the New Testament), the Gospel thrived, even through “sharp disagreement” (Acts 15:39), foundational theological arguments amongst leaders (Galatians 2:11) and contrasting approaches to financial ethics (2 Corinthians 2:17). And to think, there are only Christian 45,000 denominations or so today…
The Snare of Unbridled Criticism
I read an article a while ago that has stuck with me since and feels pertinent to this sentiment. Its most memorable quote is the following: “Do not blaspheme the sacrament you do not understand.” This wise proverb, which the author of the post attributed to Daniel Epstein, Aimee Simple McPherson’s biographer, has so, so many applications for us, not least as we acknowledge that God, in His infinite wisdom and humour, has chosen to work in different ways, at different times, and in different places, that all may come to know Him. Perhaps this is why Paul says, “I have become all things to all people so that by all possible means I might save some. I do all this for the sake of the gospel, that I may share in its blessings.” (1 Corinthians 9:22b-23)
Without this idea in mind, it’s easy to be critical and to create distance from “the church” when we see or hear things that we don’t like from a personality perspective. Here are some paraphrases of things I’ve heard over the last decade of following Jesus:
“I don’t like the Gospel-style worship at church ‘x’; it feels too ethnic for me. Why not go back to good old hymns, like in the 1920s? Or to the Coldplay-lite vibe all those other white churches seem to enjoy?”
“The preaching at church ‘y’ is just too modern and topical for my liking; it lacks substance and feels too much like a lifestyle pep talk. Give me pure, Bible-based exegetical teaching any day.”
“The members at church ‘z’ dress plain weird. I mean, who even wears a dog collar nowadays? That’s so medieval 1500s. Oh, and the sweat from all those layers makes them downright stinky, too. Gross.”
The common denominator in all of the above, deliberately embellished examples is preference: we’re not talking grave moral sins here, just personal taste. And guess what? If I’m genuinely that fussed about something, I can just stop complaining and go somewhere else.
Criticism: “You are wrong and I know better than you, so unless you come over to me, I’m going to stay here. Ha! So there.” [+ sticks tongue out, places gloved thumb on nose and provocatively wiggles remaining fingers while floating in the noiseless vacuum of space…]
Building Up, Not Tearing Down
But even that (going somewhere else) isn’t really the point, is it? The counterbalance to all of these self-centred, myopic perspectives is also found in 1 Corinthians. God writes through Paul’s hand, in 1 Corinthians 14:26 and elsewhere, that our focus should always be to build up the church.
In that verse, he’s pretty clear about the universal call on followers of Jesus to have this mindset… every. single. time. we meet: “WHENEVER you come together… EACH of you has… EVERYTHING must be done so that the church may be built up.” No excuses, no exceptions. No counting yourself out and sitting critically in the back row. Everybody has, and everybody can, for God’s good purpose. Love one another!
Sadly, this ethos is a far cry from the consumer-oriented church “services” that have become the norm (who exactly is “serving” who in our modern, Western gatherings?). If I show up just to get angry about the things the ‘pastor’ says or does not say, if I get nitpicky about the ways musicians miss a note here or there, and if I am actively offended by the weak coffee at the refreshments table, then perhaps I need to go home and rethink my life in Jesus.
Reading through the rest of Paul’s letter to the Corinthian church, I can see why: it’s about living a life of love that focuses on the other rather than oneself, and which is only possible through the wonder-working power of the Holy Spirit. All throughout 1 Corinthians 12-14, you will notice that the things we’re exhorted to bring to the table (wisdom, knowledge, special faith, healing, miraculous powers, prophecy, discernment, revelation, tongues, interpretations, etc.) are gifts of the Holy Spirit; i.e. they cannot be accomplished by human effort alone.
In the Greek, “gifts of the Holy Spirit” = “charismata.” If you break that word down further, you get “charis” and “mata” — literally, “grace” and “gifts of” (i.e. “gifts of grace”). For those of you who need a refresher, this kind of “grace” does not have a human origin… “From His fullness we have all received, grace upon grace.” (John 1:16). God’s Beloved Son, Jesus, completed His work and promised to send the Spirit to dwell in us by His grace, so that we could then abide in Him by His grace, come to the Father by His grace, and become like God in all things by His grace, to aid in the restoration of all things, by His grace.
Effective Missiology
And with that teleological thought, let’s return to the back-scratching metaphor inspired by 1 Corinthians 12: if my hand stops getting snippy with my back for remaining untouchable, and starts focusing on what it’s good at (holding stuff, exercising complicated motor skills, etc.), and if my back remains stable and strong, my body will not only feel pretty good as a whole, but I can hopefully get on with making a positive difference in the world.
To labour the metaphor even further, if I ask Mercy, another Jesus-follower, to come and scratch my back in the area my hand cannot then, provided she says yes, my itch will be scratched even as I make myself useful by serving others. And we will together have demonstrated an important object lesson in humility, service, and Kingdom productivity.
This is precisely what the Friends gathered in Singapore demonstrated: people came from far and wide, with very different callings, personalities, and nationalities, but everyone expressed God’s goodness and mission, by the grace and power of the Holy Spirit, in their own weird, wonderful way.
This generous, outward focus amongst Friends of SEAPC has led to:
thousands of prayer-walking guides distributed in Mongolia (a nation currently without many followers of Christ),
tens of thousands of house churches being miraculously planted in villages all over India,
many other inspiring Kingdom stories besides; bless them all!
At the core of these Jesus movements are a couple of insightful, telling little questions that Matt, SEAPC’s current president, likes to ask:
Would you rather be a small part of God’s big thing, or a big part of your own small thing?
Are you willing to walk alongside others in friendship, around a table, rather than in competition, for the sake of your own empire?
A Little Faithfulness Goes a Long Way
I hope we can answer Matt’s questions well. I hope that by Mercy and I following God’s call to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (“Go West to Go East”), and being faithful with what we have been given in small, but consistent ways — Mercy in her role connecting SEAPC’s Friends around the world through regular rhythms of prayer, and me through various writing and editing projects that help others better tell their stories, among other things — we can demonstrate God’s love and call on a daily basis.
I pray that the renewed desire to foster Kingdom friendship stirred up by this gathering will inspire us to be a blessing in our immediate neighborhood, work contexts, local church community, and beyond. I pray that we will commit to living at peace with everyone in His plans, as far as that depends on us. And I pray that we will see even clearer how much we need one another, even as we seek to meet others’ needs — by His grace.
Lord, lead us and help us to do everything that the church, your Body on the earth, may be built up… and even grow in our midst!
P.S. If you’re reading this, please know that you have a place to stay if you ever want to visit the ‘Burgh: we have been blessed with an affordable apartment that has a second bedroom, and this was only possible because of a dear friendship connection through a local realtor. Come and share in the blessing! (Mercy adds: but please reach out first, if you can.)