Football is big in these here parts. From late Friday evening through Sunday night, it is not hard to find a conversation concerning football. From the Benton High Tigers, to the LSU Tigers, to the La. Tech Bulldogs, to the New Orleans/San Antonio/Baton Rouge Saints, football is a language we all understand. LSU had a great victory over the University of Alabama a little over a week ago, and I know that that makes a few of you sad, but the great majority were glad to see the Tigers eek out that victory. Certainly, it will rank with one of the biggest victories in LSU history. But the University of Alabama has in its storied past one of, if not the greatest, football coaches in history—Paul “Bear” Bryant. Bear Bryant said concerning his football team:
“I’m just a plow hand from Arkansas, but I have learned how to hold a team together. How to lift some men up, how to calm down others, until finally they’ve got one heartbeat together, a team. There’s just three things I’d ever say: If anything goes bad, I did it. If anything goes semi-good, then we did it. If anything goes real good, then you did it. That’s all it takes to get people to win football games for you.”
“One heartbeat together, a team.” What a dream! But a team is exactly what the Apostle Paul is describing in our Scripture today. We know the definition of a team—a single unit composed of individual components for the purpose of accomplishing a common goal. It is as Webster’s defines it “two or more people working together.” That’s what Paul says the church is in Ephesians 4:4-7—“We are all one body, we have the same Spirit, and we have all been called to the same glorious future. [5] There is only one Lord, one faith, one baptism, [6] and there is only one God and Father, who is over us all and in us all and living through us all. Do you think Paul has stressed the point that we are one—a single unit?
Then, in verse 7, Paul opens the door to our individuality— [7] However, he has given each one of us a special gift according to the generosity of Christ.
We are many, yet we are one. Our team is defined by our relationship to Jesus Christ. Jesus Christ, our Savior and Lord, has given every single one of us gifts—spiritual gifts so that we can all live up to the one hope of our common, God-given calling. Jesus has given every single one of us spiritual gifts that God has designed for the express purpose of building a team that will help us all win in the game of life.
Unfortunately, the church doesn’t always play like a team. Oh, the church can resemble a football game at times. If you’ve ever been to Tiger Stadium in Baton Rouge, or made a trip down to the Independence Bowl, you know what I mean—22 players doing all the work while 80,000 people sit by and cheer from the sidelines. You know that’s what the church looks like. Twenty percent of the people doing 80% of the work, and all led by a pastor that is supposed to more than all the rest. But that is not the biblical image that Paul gives us of ministry, and it just might be the reason so many churches are falling on hard times.
You may remember the pastor of the past. His name is Pastor Fetch This is the man I grew up with in my home church. Notice I said “man.” He was probably the man you grew up with, too. Pastor Fetch’s job description looked something like this:
• Unlock the doors to the church before the services
• Turn on the lights
• Check the water in the baptistery
• Make sure all the pews have hymnals
• Type, print and fold the bulletins
• Preach Sunday morning and Sunday night
• Teach a Sunday school class
• Teach a Wednesday night Bible study
• Lead the youth group
• Attend all class functions
• Be an ex-officio member of every committee
• Take communion around to the shut-ins
• Type, print, fold, and mail the church newsletter
• Attend the board meetings
• And, mow the church grass, if necessary.
Recognize that depiction? In my home church, the only person besides the janitor who had keys to the church was the pastor. If he could not be there, meetings did not happen. The role of the pastor was to preach, celebrate the sacraments, visit the sick, bury the dead, marry off the young, and confirm the teenagers, and bring in new members. He was to be every one’s friend and was to be available 24 hours a day, seven days a week. He was expected to return home from vacation if someone became seriously ill or passed away. The members came first, his family came a distant second. Because, after all, he was the minister, the only minister, and that was his job. That’s the way he wanted it, and that’s the way the members wanted. The pastor did the ministry because he was paid to, and the members consumed ministry because they paid for it. What a contrast to what Paul says to the Ephesians concerning the task of ministry in the body of Christ. Paul says Jesus has given the church gifts for a very specific purpose. Listen as we continue with verse 11: He (meaning Jesus) is the one who gave these gifts to the church: the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, and the pastors and teachers. Paul gives us a glimpse of the early church leadership roles and functions, and he says that these leadership roles serve a particular purpose in the church. Verse 12: [12] Their responsibility is to equip God’s people to do his work and build up the church, the body of Christ,
Paul is clear. The body of Christ is called to do God’s work on earth. We are all ministers, with a variety of gifts created by God to employ those gifts in His service. The old model of “Pastor Fetch” worked for a while. Up until the mid-seventies that type of church could do very well—maybe even grow. But that is no longer the case. In the last 30 years there has been a 33% decrease in church membership in the United States. Something like 3,000 churches close every year in America. Of the remaining churches in America, 80% are plateaued or declining. There is an alarming rate of pastoral burnout and a sense of boredom among church members. The reason: too many pastors, church members, and church leaders were not taught, or failed to learn, the Biblical principle of ministry and church leadership. Too many spectators and not enough players, and the team is failing. Too many have lost at the game of life because we aren’t playing as a team.
What I’m talking about here is a total transformation in our theology and understanding of what it means to be the church, and what it means to do church. I am talking about clergy and laity working side-by-side to achieve Kingdom goals. I’m talking about blurring the lines between clergy and laity to make it almost indistinguishable who is the pastor and who are the “ministers.” The only way to know which person is the pastor is to show up and see who is equipping the body of Christ to do ministry and mission. When we do this we will see something amazing and powerful happen. Paul spells it out for us. Look at verse 13:
[13] until we come to such unity in our faith and knowledge of God’s Son that we will be mature and full grown in the Lord, measuring up to the full stature of Christ.
[14] Then we will no longer be like children, forever changing our minds about what we believe because someone has told us something different or because someone has cleverly lied to us and made the lie sound like the truth. [15] Instead, we will hold to the truth in love, becoming more and more in every way like Christ, who is the head of his body, the church. [16] Under his direction, the whole body is fitted together perfectly. As each part does its own special work, it helps the other parts grow, so that the whole body is healthy and growing and full of love.
Paul says three things happen when we follow the biblical model of service within the church. First, we achieve unity. Ask any person who has served on a mission team. Serving together brings a sense of purpose and builds unity. We are defined by the purpose for which we serve, and that single purpose brings unity.
Secondly, we achieve growth. Nothing helps you grow as a Christian like service. If you want to grow, visit a nursing home, teach a class of young children, go on a short-term mission trip, or volunteer to a humbling job like cleaning up after youth group on Sunday nights. If our church is not providing opportunities for our members to serve, we are stifling our members’ spiritual growth. Through service, Paul reminds us, we become more and more Christ-like. Remember, it was Christ who said, “For even I, the Son of Man, came here not to be served but to serve others, and to give my life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
Finally, Paul says, when we play as a team the whole body, the team, is healthy. There is an element in of salvation in that statement. We look around at others, and we look inward at ourselves, and we see broken-ness of one kind of another. This passage holds out the promise that the power of God is made real in our teamwork, as His Spirit fills us and uses us to accomplish magnificent and wonderful aims for creation.
There’s a wonderful story about Jimmy Durante, one of the great entertainers of a generation ago. He was asked to be a part of a show for World War II veterans. He told them his schedule was very busy and he could afford only a few minutes, but if they wouldn’t mind his doing one short monologue and immediately leaving for his next appointment, he would come. Of course, the show’s director agreed happily. But when Jimmy got on stage, something interesting happened. He went through the short monologue and then stayed. The applause grew louder and louder and he kept staying. Pretty soon, he had been on fifteen, twenty, then thirty minutes. Finally he took a last bow and left the stage. Backstage someone stopped him and said, "I thought you had to go after a few minutes. What happened?"
Jimmy answered, "I did have to go, but I can show you the reason I stayed. You can see for yourself if you’ll look down on the front row." In the front row were two men, each of whom had lost an arm in the war. One had lost his right arm and the other had lost his left. Together, they were able to clap, and that’s exactly what they were doing, loudly and cheerfully.
When we play as a team, we fulfill the God-given vision for His church. I’m not the coach. The Church Council members are not the coaches. We’re team members. We have a role to play. If we don’t do our part, the team loses. If you don’t do your part, the team loses. Jesus is the coach. He’s given us the play book, and he’s calling the plays. He’s left it to us to run the plays, and when we do, everyone wins.
