The Body of Work

For you college basketball fans, Selection Sunday is over and the best weekend of the year in college basketball is on the horizon. It's a time where the phrase the body of work comes to the forefront of fans vocabulary. It's a reference to a team's accomplishments across the whole season.

As I think about Christ Community today, I'm still thinking about our body and how it works.. 7 thoughts after this weekend's Gathering!

1. On a week with all kinds of opportunities to engage the community, every member of the body speaks. This weekend is full of ways to serve in our community and LOVE SHELBYVILLE! Saturday you can serve at the free medical clinic (Touched Twice) or run in the Kingdom 5K to raise support for local ministries! Then Sunday, we go LOVE SHELBYVILLE! Find a group and get signed up ASAP!
   
   No matter what ways you serve this weekend, each member of the body must speak the good news of Jesus! He's not just our motivation, but also the one who can rescue the lost hearts of those we might be serving.
   
   
2. Selina, you’re inspiring the body to move! I loved hearing Selina talk about how God is calling her and gifting her to lead for the kingdom now, but also calling her to be sent as a missionary!  The inspiration really goes beyond her though - many of our students are reaching friends, starting discipleship groups and ministries, leading service opportunities, telling their stories and more. Y'all are inspiring the body to get moving!
   
   
3. 10 questions on spiritual gifts as our body discovers and engages ours. Many of you have already visited to loveshelbyville.com/gifts to discover your gifts or explore opportunities to engage them. If you still need to do that, head to loveshelbyville.com/gifts. In the meantime, there's a lot more that can be studied as we explore spiritual gifts together this week. Here's a great article resource that answers 10 questions about Spiritual Gifts that's really helpful!
   
   
4. Sending Members of the Body. Not only did we get exposed to this idea with Selina's story, but also as we prayed for the Greece team and asked people to join the GAP team and Chile Team! Then, after the Gathering, I was excited to connect another member preparing to go on a midterm assignment through IMB's journeyman program with a mentor who has been on the field.
   
   As I reflected this morning on these sendings as it relates to the body, I realized that sending is a lot like tranporting organ donations. We put a lot of time, energy, and resources into not only being prepared to send, but also preparing the member of the body to be sent because we understand how urgent and necessary this transplant is - it means LIFE for the people on the receiving end! Let's keep sending..
   
   
5. Feed the families of the newest members of the body. Both the Aylmer family and the Downey family have recently welcomed home new little ones! We celebrate with them as they nurture these newest members of the body! If you'd like to serve them by taking them a meal, visit the links above!
   
   
6. Learn about joining the body at our Be the Church luncheon. Maybe you've been hanging out with us at Christ Community and you've made it this far into the post.. go ahead and RSVP for our Be the Church luncheon that starts this Sunday at noon. Look forward to sharing that time with you!
   
   
7. God has given us everything we need to do everything he’s called us to do. Any discussion of gifts and serving and getting involved is also a time that the Lord reminds me that he has always given us everything we need to do everything he's called us to. It's just a matter of each of us being obedient.. I'll let the words of the old hymn close us out:

Trust and obey, for there's no other way, to be happy in Jesus, than to trust and obey.