Rev Writes- October 26

Making decisions in the body of Christ.

Decision making is part of everyday life. Throughout most days we all make countless decisions. What will I have for breakfast, lunch, dinner? At home, work or school we make decisions. Usually, we make them on our own. Other people expect us to make decisions on our own. Independence is a celebrated part of modern life.

Is it the same at church? As we’ve looked together at 1 Corinthians we’ve seen how Paul uses the body metaphor to help us understand church. In chapter 12 he stresses that every part of the body, every member of the church, is part of the one body and linked to every other part.

Every part of the body, every member, is important and significant and indispensible. No single member can ever say that they don’t matter.

This is very important when it comes to making decisions about our life, especially our life at church or how our life impacts church. At Synod this week another member and I moved a motion that called upon all Anglican Schools and other Anglican organisations not to put events on Sundays in competition with the churches. We did this because sometimes school teachers, for example, are placed in difficult positions because their school schedules events on Sundays. They then have to choose between complying with their agreement with the school or missing their church.

The motion we put at Synod was really the only way that we can call on others that are in fellowship with us to think more carefully about what they’re doing and how it affects others.

Sometimes other things come up in our personal lives that conflict with church. Far too often members of our congregations simply miss church for other things. 1 Corinthians calls on us not to make decisions about missing church on our own. The independence which is so important in our society makes it hard to behave in a truly spiritual way here.

We need to learn to make decisions in fellowship, as members of the same body. Notice that I’m not saying you can’t miss church for other important things. I’m saying that the Bible calls on us to make decisions like this in fellowship rather than in isolation. Although, I suspect that one reason why we find it difficult to act spiritually in such decisions is that we know our brothers and sisters will think we’re making an unhelpful decision! We really don’t want to know what they have to say.

But anyway, making good decisions, and modelling good decision making to our children and others, is a mark of Christian maturity. Involving others in our decisions, decisions that affect them, is a mark of true spirituality. Having the advice of others, especially of the leaders that God has given to his churches, can be a source of great blessing and comfort in our lives. We would be wise to seek out such advice and comfort.

Neil Macken