The Body

Last week I left New Jersey and moved to Bandon, Ireland to begin doing ministry work with New Life Church. The first week has been great as I have been getting acclimated to the area and have been learning bus schedules/routes the hard way. I took the picture above when I went for a walk on a rainy day this week. The church sits commandingly on a hill overlooking the village.

I have long been amazed at how these older church buildings were constructed. Perhaps this isn’t the best picture to use for you to understand, but from an aerial view you can see that they are shaped like a cross. One of the reasons they were designed like this was so that when the people come and sit at the pews to worship, they corporately symbolize the Body of Christ. They occupy the same area where Christ’s body would be on the cross.

Its amazing and humbling to think that we as the church are called “The Body of Christ”. Paul writes “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ.” 1 Corinthians 12:12. There are many parts in the human body but all of these parts work together to accomplish the goal of the head. My right hand doesn’t bicker with my left and my liver isn’t jealous of my lungs. The body’s parts do their individual responsibilities to complete the will of the head corporately. And so it is with the Body of Christ “Now you are the body of Christ, and members individually.”-1 Corinthians 12:12.

Despite our brokenness God is able to make us whole, bring us together, and corporately accomplish the work that He destined us to complete. The church never really was a building anyway. The church is believers who are ready to be used for the work of the God who made them, whether that brings them to New Jersey or to Ireland.