Partnering in ministry for the sake of the gospel

It's been a while since we last blogged about anything, and a lot has been happening with us at Bend City Church during the interim.  For one, we started meeting on Sunday mornings.  It's been great.  We felt that it was time to begin meeting on Sundays for two reasons.  1) To cast vision through teaching Scripture and 2) To provide fellowship for all the members of our now multiplied small groups.
 
If you've been following along with our blog for the last month you know that Shane and I have been blogging about the five p's of Bend City Church which are:

• Praying with utter dependence on Christ
• Proclaiming the gospel to believers and non-believers
• Pursuing lives of worship and service in community
• Partnering in ministry for the gospel
• Preparing others to do the same

Today I am blogging on the fourth p - "Partnering in ministry for the sake of the gospel".  In this post I hope to show you why it is not only good to partner with each other but also necessary.

1Corinthians 12:12-14 For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many are one body, so it is with Christ.  For in one spirit we were all baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and all were made to drink of one Spirit.  For the body does not consist of one member but of many.

There is only one body of Christ.  No matter where a person lives, what color they are, what race they claim, or what language they speak - if that person is a believer in Jesus then they belong to the same body of believers that every other true believer in Jesus belongs to.  It is not enough to say that we are a part of the same body of believers as everyone else that we meet with on Sunday morning.  This is true, but we also need to realize that we are a part of the same body as our brothers and sisters who are suffering for the gospel right now in China, Iraq, Indonesia, and countless other countries.

Every member of the body of Christ is joined together by God's spirit so that we are part of one another.  For this reason it is necessary that the different parts of the body have an attitude of "part"nership.  Christians, as individuals, are just a part of the body. An eye is a wonderful part of the body, but would be completely useless sitting in some laboratory jar.  It only achieves it's intended purpose in partnership with the rest of the body.  But in what ways must the body of Christ partner?

• To Care For The Body

The Holy Spirit lives inside each believer and empowers him or her to care for the rest of the body in a specific way.  As it says in 1Cor 12:7, "To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good".  That which is given to us individually is not given for our sakes alone, but for the common good of the entire body.  When one believer uses the grace given to him by the Holy Spirit to minister that grace to other believers the body of Christ is expressed in this world.

• The Mission of Christ

We must partner to accomplish the mission of Christ.  In Matthew 28 Jesus gave us our great mission - the great commission - to go and preach the gospel to the entire world.  This was not just a mission given to the disciples.  This was a mission given to the entire body of Christ.  For Christ says that he will be with us to the end of the age.  By saying this He shows us two things.  1) This mission spans generations.  2) The accomplishment of this mission will bring about the end of this current age.  Jesus says this elsewhere more plainly.   Matthew 24:14, "And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached in the whole world as a testimony to all nations, and then the end will come." 

Again, the body of Christ must partner together to see our great mission from Christ accomplished.  The accomplishment of this mission was a goal of the apostle's preaching.  In Acts 3:19-20 Peter exhorts the people to repent so that God "may send Jesus, the Christ appointed for you".  We could live to see this mission accomplished.  The gospel could be preached to every people group in our lifetime, but it will only happen as the body of Christ partners together for this great mission.

Local churches must keep their eyes on this.  We have no need to compete with each other, but we have a great need to partner with each other.