Finding Your Place in the Church, Part 2

We may think that the hardest part of finding our place of ministry in the church is discovering our spiritual gifts, but it may be just as difficult to accept the particular gift you have been given. It can also be hard to accept the gifts that God has given to others.

In our reading today, Paul compares the church to a human body. A body is made up of many parts that work together. Likewise, the church is not made up of one member but of many, with each one making its own contribution to the health of the whole. Despite this, we do not always appreciate the way God has arranged the various members of the body of Christ.

For some, the problem is inferiority. When we compare the gifts that God has given to us with those He has given to others, we conclude that we don’t have much to offer the church. But this would be like the foot saying that it is not a part of the body because it is not the hand, or the ear saying the same because it is not the eye (vv. 15–16).

Put this way, the foolishness of our reasoning is all too apparent. Unfortunately, many of us do not even believe that we are the foot or the ear. We think we are, maybe, a hair—or some-thing even less significant. Yet even if this were true, Paul makes it clear that even in this case we would have great value.

Others in the church have a superiority complex. They have an inflated sense of their own value and look down on other members of the congregation. Both inferiority and superiority mentalities are destructive.

Pray with Us

Please pray for the rest of Moody Publishers’ Creative and Production staff: Kathryn Warren, Ryan Lloyd, and Zachary Cordes. May the books this department produces, the copy they write, the customer service they provide be pleasing to the Lord.

BY Dr. John Koessler

John Koessler is Professor Emeritus of Applied Theology and Church Ministries at Moody Bible Institute. John authors the “Practical Theology” column for Today in the Word of which he is also a contributing writer and theological editor. An award-winning author, John’s newest title is When God is Silent: Let the Bible Teach You to Pray (Kirkdale). Prior to joining the Moody faculty, he served as a pastor of Valley Chapel in Green Valley, Illinois, for nine years. He and his wife, Jane, now enjoy living in a lakeside town in Michigan.