If the church is something like a football team…if there are positions to be played, and special teams and if there are goals to be achieved…well…what is the state of our team?  Who is playing what position?  Are skills and your passions working together for the good of the whole?

In the first two parts of this sermon series we learned to always keep the goal in front of us – that is, to always begin with the end in mind; to know where we are headed in order to plan how to get there.  This is a life lesson that applies in almost any situation, but certainly applies to our spiritual journey.

We spoke of how to keep making progress toward the goal; how to assemble our strategies and plays, so to speak, so that we grow in faith and become effective in ministry together.  We spoke about spiritual disciplines and means of grace as the pathway for individuals to grow spiritually.

Today we begin to see how a body of diverse individuals, different in as many ways as can be imagined, might come together to do the work of Christ in the world.  This is where the work of the whole community and the uniqueness of each individual come together.  This is the place where we discover that while faith is personal, it is never private.  Discipleship has a goal in terms of the progress toward holiness of each one of us – but it makes that progress in community with others with whom the practices and purposes of discipleship are shared.

The team; the community of faith – a church congregation – needs to be effective in several areas in order for the community to be healthy.  Last week, the survey that we asked those who were in worship to complete was about measuring how North Broadway is doing at our “team work.”  While we haven’t compiled the results of that survey just yet, it should tell us about our strengths and needs for improvement in areas related to passionate worship and spiritual vitality, faith formation and Christian education, inviting and involving new people through radical hospitality, reaching into the world with risk taking mission and concern for justice, and commitment to generosity and stewardship.

Embedded in those practices of effective churches are many, many tasks requiring the participation of, well, everyone.  Just as a football team needs a quarterback, and running backs, and offensive and defensive tackles and a kicker and several special teams in order to execute a game, so does the church needs different people with different kinds of gifts serving in a variety of roles in order to be effective as a community of faith.

I know even before those survey results that our team is limping along in a couple of areas because we do not have enough people playing the position.  One of those areas is in Children’s’ ministry.  Despite the fact that every time we have inquired about what our members feel is important, raising children up in faith has been mentioned over and over as a priority, we struggle to find enough teachers to maintain a vital Sunday School for our children.  There is no ministry without servants to fulfill the functions of that ministry.

The apostle Paul, though fond of sports metaphors, knew nothing of American football…so he used a different metaphor for the work of the church.  He spoke of the community of faith as though it were a human body, with its different parts functioning together for the health and goodness of the whole.  When not every part is functioning, the body is not healthy.

Paul’s assertion here and elsewhere in his letters is that every single person is given gifts of the spirit to be used for the purpose of building up the body.  Everybody is needed on the team.  That is one of the best things about belonging to a church community:  the assurance that there is a place for you.  There is no one for whom there is not a place here.  We need you – we need each other.

This is one of the qualities of an effective church.  Through its classes, ministries, programs and tasks, it offers opportunities for people to discover their gifts and their place in the body.  This process of discovery is a spiritual task.  It requires intentionality.  Church leaders need to plan the life of the church in such a way that opportunities to serve Christ are available.  Members of the body need to respond to opportunities that will move them into their place within the body.

Paul tells us that this model – the body functioning effectively and every part functioning within it – is not achieved by our own human efforts.  It is a gift of the Holy Spirit.  All the human planning in the world will not achieve spiritual vitality unless the humans involved in it are receptive to, attentive to and responsive to the Spirit of God.

And so we have circled back now to those personal spiritual practices which awaken each individual to their role and importance to the community.

A good player needs a good team – a team with the right physical resources and the right game plan and the right coaching.  But a team with the best stadium in the league and the best coach money can buy and a brilliant playbook will not succeed unless the players come to the game in peak condition, with all the skills and aptitudes to play their position well.

Paul’s assertion is that the Spirit has put the church together in such a way that there is a place and a gift for serving in that place for every member.

Even so, it is not always easy for us to find our place.  Many people who are active and vitally effective in ministry say that there was a time when they believed that they did not have any spiritual gift.  And many of them say that discovering their gifts meant trying different things, some of which didn’t work and that finding their place often meant moving out of their comfort zone and trying something that they didn’t believe they would be good at.  Their advice:  “don’t pass up small opportunities to serve.  “ Taking up these opportunities leads to affirmation and assurance of your giftedness over time.  And a small opportunity may lead to a larger role.

Every opportunity we take to serve, every time we take a risk, every time we move out of our comfort zone we can reflect on the experience.  Did it make us feel needed and appreciated?  Did someone tell us that we were good at it?  Did we feel gratified for having done it, even if it exhausted our physical energy?  Did it feel as though we were responding to a genuine need that Christ has called us to?  Reflection on those questions can help us feel our way into our spiritual gifts and our place as servants of Christ through the life of the church.  This rhythm of serving and reflecting on our service is, in fact, a means of spiritual discernment.

Sometimes we feel under-qualified, afraid that we’ve been asked to do something that we can’t yet do really well.  Other times we may feel under-employed, feeling that the task we’ve been asked to do is beneath our abilities, or not the high profile role we would prefer.  Paul’s words come to remind us that every role is valuable…not everyone can be every part – but all parts are essential.  Perhaps the Spirit of God places us where we are meant to be instead of where we prefer to be in order to contribute to our growth, to increase our confidence, or to teach us humility.

Some of us have found our position and work at playing it well.  Some of us are still trying different things.  Some of us don’t particularly want to play on the team.  Perhaps we prefer individualism to community; or we have ordered our lives so that we don’t have time or energy to explore our spiritual life.  But we are on the team by virtue of our baptism, and the witness of the scripture is that we all – every one of us – has a role to play.  Respecting the team means playing our role, exercising our gifts, taking up the unique call to serve that Christ has placed on our life.

This is not just a matter of what skills we possess, or what we have been trained by education and experience to do.

Our gifts and our effective exercise of those gifts is deeply connected to our heart and soul.

There is a wonderful scene that illustrates this point in the move “The Blind Side.”  The film is based on the true story of Michael Oher, who as a homeless teenager was given shelter and guidance by an adoptive family.  In the movie, his adoptive mother, Leigh Anne Touhy is played by Sandra Bullock.  A petite southern lady, married to a successful businessman; she is an interior decorator who lunches on expensive salads and is a ferocious advocate for each of her children – especially for Michael.

Michael is 6’ 4” and weighs 309 pounds.  Of course, when Michael first enters the private school where her children attend, the coaches immediately look at his size and decide “football player; big, mean, aggressive, scary, dangerous football player.”

But when Michael gets onto the practice field, he is terrible at defense.  He is just not angry and aggressive enough to do the job.  The coach keeps yelling at him; telling him to get mean.  But Leigh Ann knows Michael, and so after witnessing a few minutes of this, she climbs down from the bleachers at the practice field and marches onto the field in her high heels – totally confusing the coach – “You can thank me later” she tells him – and has a talk with Michael.  After her little talk, Michael becomes effective at his job on the team.  The coach knew Michael’s outward attributes.  Leigh Ann knew his heart.

The coach did not understand how to connect Michael’s heart with his job on the team.  Leigh Ann knew Michael possessed an extraordinary instinct for protecting those for whom he cares.  Standing in the middle of football practice, she shows Michael that the team is his family, and his job is to protect everybody wearing the same color jersey he is wearing, especially the quarterback.  She evokes his true gift.  He is not cut out to attack the enemy.  He is cut out to protect the team.  That makes him among other things, a much better offensive than defensive player.  On the surface, these look like the same jobs – tackle the opponent.  For Michael, tackling the opponent is not his job.  Protecting the quarterback is his job.

Respecting the team means finding the place where a need in the life of the church or in the ministries of the church connects with the place where your heart comes alive with purpose.

That place exists – for each and every one of us.  May God grant you grace as you seek and find your purpose and place, as you serve where you have been placed to serve, as you strengthen the team and as you are strengthened in mind and spirit for faithful discipleship.  Amen.