What does it mean to be a Christian? What does it mean to be in Christ? Paul answers those questions in 1 Corinthians 12:12-19.NIV
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.
15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.
According to Paul there is no such thing as a “solitary Christian.” To even imagine such a thing would be as silly as imagining an autonomous freestanding solitary eyeball. We are Christians together or we are not Christians at all. We find our individual identities only within our shared experiences together.
But, how do we do that? How do we share this life together? Can you do it sitting in an auditorium one hour a week? I think not. In fact I think the very idea is ludicrous.
Clearly there must be more. And there is. In Galatians 6:2 Paul exhorts us, “Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.” Sunday worship is a wonderful time where we all come together to share the Lord. There is power there. But the power doesn’t end there. The real relationships grow outside the auditorium.
Sermon based Grow Groups start up September 15th. They are “sermon based” but the purpose of the groups is not to dissect the sermon. What I hope is for the sermon to be a springboard into meaningful time together… a time where we share our God stories, where we share what the Holy Spirit is doing, where we share our burdens. I further hope that these groups will be hotbeds of prayer…not just laundry lists of things for God to fix, but prayer to seek His will, to see Him glorified. More than that, more than anything, I hope that you will experience His presence in a unique way.
