Rediscovering the Church Life In Christ James W. Thompson Sermon Seminar 2014

What kind of Leaders Do We Want? 1 Cor. 3:5-17 In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt atone of the most critical moments in our history. It was in the middle of the depression, and it was in the years of the rise of Hitler and the beginning of the war. As with many other instances in history, one wonders, “What if?” What if the assassination had succeeded? What if Kennedy had not been assassinated? Would the course of history have been different? We ask that question because leaders shape the destiny of nations. Leaders can build or destroy.

Leadership in the Church Leaders also shape the destiny of the church, and we can be passionate about choosing leaders or being leaders. The Corinthians were passionate about their leaders, and they turned the discussion into a political debate. “I am of Paul” and “I am of Apollos” mirrored their political discourse. Of course, the Corinthians are still around. What is distinctive about Christian leadership?

What do we expect of leaders? The Corinthians thought in political terms. – Others may think in managerial terms. But Christian leadership is different. Paul is emphatic: This is God’s vineyard, God’s house, and Jesus Christ is the foundation. But that is not all. This is the house where the Holy Spirit lives. Just as God dwelled in the temple, the Holy Spirit dwells in the temple, the church.

What do we expect of leaders? So what do we expect of leaders? God has invited leaders to build on to God’s house. We can build poorly or we can build on to make it a lasting structure. We can destroy or we can build on appropriately. It is a daunting task.

Galatians 3:6-29 The crisis of the church in Europe and North America has led to multiple attempts to reinvent or redefine it. We confront multiple understandings of the church. – Consumer product? – An institution to meet our needs? – An association of like-minded people? – A political lobby?

The church in an era of individualism As Gary Badcock maintains, “The individualism of late capitalism is perfectly matched by the notion that the church is a ‘voluntary association,’ so that the important thing in its realization is that each person makes his or her own decisions to belong.” According to this view, individuals find their identity as Christians prior to and apart from membership in the church... The church is the aggregate of the individual Christians who “contract” with each other to form the community. Thus relationships within the church become instrumental to the goals of individual self- interest.

Who are the people of God? The Galatian churches were asking: Who are the people of God? That is, who are Abraham’s children. Their answer: All of Abraham’s seed, i.e., the Jewish people. The Galatians assumed a homogeneous church.

Who are Abraham’s seed? Paul’s answer: The seed is one person, Jesus Christ, who inaugurates the new age. – He is the inclusive person, who incorporates us into him. We find our identity in him. We come together because we have been incorporated into him. The church is not something that we choose.

The church is the new humanity (3:26- 29) The church is not the association of the like- minded, but the people incorporated into Christ. The church is not something that we choose as a consumer good. The church is universal, unlike any association. It is the new humanity in Christ.

The Church as the Body of Christ (1 Cor. 12:12-27) Introduction: Diversity has become a dominant value in our society: in academia, in corporations, in all institutions. The church is also a place for diversity. But diversity is a positive value, not when it results in balkanization of the group, but when it results in unity. The image of the body suggests diversity that results in unity.

The image of the body offers great insight for our view of the church. It reminds us that we cannot be Christians alone. The individual is absolutely essential. The individual needs the organism, and the organism needs the individual.

The church is not only a body, but the body of Christ! Christ is one and has many members (12:12). Our baptism was a corporate experience: We were baptized into a body that was there before we were. We are the body of Christ, and individually members of it.