Why You and Every Single Church Member is Essential to the Church

God has placed the members of His church where He sees fit, but every single member of the church is essential.

Jesus Builds His Church

God has placed the members of His church where He sees fit, but every single member of the church is essential. When Jesus began to build His church on the Apostles and Prophets (Heb 11:1-2), with Himself being the Chief Cornerstone (Eph 2:19-22), He needed diversity. He didn’t need twenty pastors and five lay members. He needed pastors, teachers, evangelists, elders and deacons to equip the church, but He needed more. He needed other members to be joined together and make a functional body…the Body of Christ, with Jesus as the Head of the Church. We didn’t decide which member goes where in the Church. That is God’s choice. It is the wisdom and sovereignty of God at work in His calling and placing those whom He has chosen to build and sustain His church. It was not man who built this church, otherwise, it would have failed 2,000 years ago, “But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose” (1 Cor 12:18). It was His choice, not ours, and we should be thankful for that because we know God will get it right! Mankind? Not possible.

Every Member Essential

My liver is essential to life, but when was the last time someone asked you, “Hey, how’s your liver?” Probably never, but the point is every single member of the church is critical to its growth, to its strength, to its mission work, and for the equipping of the saints. My liver draws little attention unless I have a medical issue with it, but those who might seem less important and hardly noticed or mentioned by name are just as important as any member in the body, including pastors, elders and deacons/deaconess. If I could show someone my liver, they’d probably say, “Yuck,” but it takes all the different body parts to be able to live, breath, move and have a life.

If the foot doesn’t gets less attention, is it any less important? Drop a hammer on the foot, and believe me, the whole body suddenly remembers it! When another member hurts, we should hurt. We should be so connected as the Body that we “Rejoice with those who rejoice, weep with those who weep” (Rom 12:15). The foot moves the body but the hands are needed to take up the gospel, but we’re not done yet. We need the mouth to preach the gospel, otherwise they cannot be saved (Rom 10:14), however without the ear, it’s pointless because we can’t pass on what we did not hear. The foot is probably not the most beautiful member of the body, but without it, we could not go into all the world, therefore it takes each and every member of Christ’s Body (the church) to go into all the world so that others might be saved. Even what others might consider the unseemly parts are more necessary! Without them, the Body would not be as effective.

Not Many Mighty

God uses ordinary people to do extraordinary things! He does this to bring glory to Himself, and naturally He is worthy of all honor, praise and glory (Psalm 19:1-6, 115:1-2). I shouldn’t ask Christ, “What can I do for you” but “What can I do through You.” God does not call the high and mighty, probably because they’d boast about it, or someone would say, “Well they did some extraordinary things because they’re rich…or a politician, they have a lot of power, or persuasion…etc.” It is not so with the church. God chooses or calls the lowly, weak, broken, poor, humble, meek, and often, those rejected by the world. He cannot fill people who are already full of themselves. God gives grace to the humble, but He is opposed to the proud (James 4:6), and you do not want God opposing you!

No Boasting or Bragging

We can never brag or think we’re superior to others because we’re saved. The late preacher Adrian Rogers once said, “We’re not better than others…we’re just better off!” And that’s only because of Jesus and only because God sought us and bought us (John 6:44). We didn’t find God because He wasn’t missing! He ran ahead of you so He could be found by you. One old time pastor called it, “The hounds of heaven pursued you.” I put it this way: He thought me, He sought me, He bought me, and He taught me, what I ought be. It’s all about “He” and not about me. We didn’t have that grace of God coming to us (Eph 2:8-9). We had God’s wrath abiding on us (Rom 2), so “consider your calling, brothers: not many of you were wise according to worldly standards, not many were powerful, not many were of noble birth” (1 Cor 1:26).

Good Chooses the Lowly

God didn’t look down from heaven and say, “Hey, this one stands out to Me” or “She’s really special, I’ll choose her.” The fact is, “God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong” (1 Cor 1:27). Even further, “God chose what is low and despised in the world, even things that are not, to bring to nothing things that are” (1 Cor 1:28). God’s reason for this was “so that no human being might boast in the presence of God” (1 Cor 1:29), and knowing human nature (knowing my nature!), we’d boast. If it were up to us complete our salvation, I think we’d become arrogant, and look down on sinners (just like the Pharisees did.). We might say to the lost, “Hey, what’s wrong with you! Why aren’t you saved yet! Get it together man!”

Conclusion

God uses even the poor widows as prayer warriors, so no one is useless while they are still drawing breath. Those who think they can’t do anything end up doing nothing…and that’s tragic. They are selling themselves short. What greater access to God’s power than through the prayers of the saints. Speaking of prayer, I pray you have put your trust in the Savior, Jesus Christ. I prayed when I wrote this that those who read this would turn to Christ and be saved. If not, then Jesus Christ will say, “Depart from Me” forever and all time and into hell or outer darkness (Matt 7:21-23). My dear friend this is why right now as I write this, I plead with you to repent today and put your trust in Christ. If you don’t, it hurts me to tell you that you will face God’s judgment after death (Heb 9:27) or at Jesus Christ’s appearance (Rev 20:12-15), whichever comes first.

Here is some related reading for you: What Does the Bible Say About Church Membership and Attendance?

Resource – Scripture quotations are from The Holy Bible, English Standard Version^® (ESV^®), Crossway Bibles. (2007). ESV: Study Bible: English standard version. Wheaton, Ill: Crossway Bibles. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Tagged as: Body of Christ, Church, church members, church membership