And He gave some as apostles, and some as prophets, and some as evangelists, and some as pastors and teachers, for the equipping of the saints for the work of service, to the building up of the body of Christ; until we all attain to the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a mature man, to the measure of the stature which belongs to the fullness of Christ. As a result, we are no longer to be children, tossed here and there by waves and carried about by every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, by craftiness in deceitful scheming; but speaking the truth in love, we are to grow up in all aspects into Him who is the head, even Christ, from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love. – Ephesians 4:11-16 (NASB)

As a combat veteran who has lost Soldiers, Memorial Day has a special meaning to me. One of my favorite things to do over the Memorial Day weekend is to watch war movies with my son. You may think this is odd for someone of my background, but the activity goes well beyond watching the movies. It is more about an activity that my son and I share and enjoy together and have done so almost every year I was home for the holiday from the time he was young(er).

One of the movies I really enjoy is The Great Escape. The movie is about a true event where British aviator prisoners broke out of a German World War II POW camp specially designed and staffed to prevent such an escape. One of my favorite things about the movie is how every character has a specific role. There was the “Tunnel King” responsible for supervising and digging the tunnels. There was the “Forger” responsible for providing escaping prisoners with papers needed to move about in Germany. There was the “Tailor” who manufactured escape clothes and disguises. There was the “Surveyor” who had to determine the best path and length of each tunnel. There are a host of other characters and roles as well. One of my other favorite things about the movies is how each one has to fulfill his role for the escape to be successful and each role depended on each person’s talents.

The idea of roles and gifts is not a new one, and it is definitely not a new one for the Church as mentioned in the verses above. In my last post I mentioned how we were blessed last year with numerical and spiritual growth and the blessings seem to be continuing. I believe one of the reasons we are experiencing the growth is because of how the elders and ministers in our leadership team fills a role based on our gifts. I serve with two other amazing elders as my shepherds and we each bring something different to the eldership. In addition to our responsibilities to shepherd God’s children, I am the organizational leader constantly struggling to figure out how to lead the organism known as the body of Christ. One of my fellow elders is both creative and organized and was the best Youth Deacon I have ever seen. If I am struggling with how to make something fun or creative, I go to him. My other elder is the quiet one and a “man of the people”. In a wealthy suburban mostly white-collar part of the world he brings us “Analogies from the Ranch” and the porch-step wisdom of the worldly man become saint. The three of us combined with our pulpit minister and another minister we are blessed with combine to make a pretty effective team, thanks to be to our Lord. It is as if we are indeed “being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part” as we try to serve His Church, our families, and our community.

I will leave you with some thoughts. Have you ever considered the gifts each one of you in your team brings to the roles you fill? Have you ever taken this into consideration along with our “checklist” of qualifications for elders when selecting new ones to serve? Is each individual working toward fitting and properly working together? My guess is if you are in a growing congregation then you are asking yourselves these questions frequently and probably doing much more.

May your blessings exceed mine today and every day.

-DEM