Church Anatomy 101: The Hand Is not a Mouth

Two texts have been on my mind as I think about church body life. They have wide scope, I believe, but I want to point them up in relation to a couple of issues on my mind since, by God's gracious appointment and calling, I'm joined to a church plant in Naperville: New Covenant Church. 

First, the texts:

"The members do not all have the same function" (Rom. 12:4b).

"We have gifts that differ according to the grace given to us" (Rom. 12:6a). 

Now these texts are part of a flow of thought. I don't want to obscure that. So what is in view in large measure is how the local Roman church (or churches) should think of herself as she, by the mercies of God, offers her bodies (plural) as a living and holy sacrifice (singular). Body life is on Paul's instructional agenda.  And, like a competent clinician, he knows how to distinguish anatomical structures, how to identify healthy physiology, medial from lateral, caudal from cephalid—for instance, the ear from the foot, and how each should function.

So think of Romans 12 as a sagittal plane MRI of the whole body that shows significant slices of the body's anatomy as it moves right to left in the coronal plane. How this unified diversity and diversified unity is expressed in embodied life has been brought into focus. In other words, Paul has not given us imaging studies of eighteen spleens or eighteen lumbosacral facet joints. We have in view here a variety of body parts and functions. Paul is not looking for the gall bladder to pump blood around the body to make sure every part is satisfied with sufficient oxygen content.  And Paul is not against the whole body getting the requisite oxygen; he believes that oxygen is important and vital. But he doesn't believe that everyone should preach or teach.  All are not expected to show mercy just the same. Every member of the body is not called to be a heart, vital as its function is.

Now my questions. What do these texts have to say about evangelism and discipleship? (And of course other texts like 1 Cor. 12 and Eph. 4 feed into this.) As these are great commission concerns, so they are great going concerns. If local churches are to be microcosms of the mission of the worldwide witnessing Church, we've got to get this, and get it in balance, in view of the texts above. As we think about every-member ministry, we must not foist a one-size-fits-all model upon churches or body parts that make up churches. Why not? Because the Spirit sovereignly dispenses gifts. And because the hand is not a mouth, the eye not a lung, because the elbow pumps blood rather poorly, the stomach always garbles speech, and so on.