Here's a cool thought...

This is an excerpt from a response I posted on Kelly's blog today, when I should have been working on a paper. Click the link above to check it out. To give a little context, there's been a really intersting discussion of gender and church leadership on Kelly's blog over the past few weeks. Surprisingly, it's been (so far...) an entirely civil, 'I see what you're saying, here's my take on that issue' kind of dialogue, very constructive. In discussing whether women should hold the position of 'pastor,' Kelly brought up the point that in today's Church, the 'pastor's' job description is probably not very strongly rooted in scripture. Pastors often take on or are given more duties and responsibilities than any one person should have, and are held in higher esteem than other members of the communities they lead. This results in pastors feeling over-worked and un-fruitful, not just because they are too busy, but because many of the responsibilities require gifts they do not have. Because the pastors are doing almost everything, many lay people feel like their gifts are not needed or appreciated, so they hesitate or neglect to offer their gifts to the body. In some cases, when they do offer their gifts, they are politely told that there is currently no need for that service, but we do have a few more spots in the choir.

Anyway, I didn't intend to write this much here, but my response basically agreed with Kelly's assessment, and added a reference to the "one body, many members" passage in Romans 12, 1Corinthians 12, and throughout Ephesians. If each member of the body isn't functioning properly, the body as a whole is not healthy. If one or multiple parts of the body are taking on the roles of other parts, or are passing their role off on others, they either go dormant or end up wearing themselves out and failing.

All this to lead into...

...the really cool image-narrative that sort of ended up on the screen as I kept typing. I thought it was worth sharing, because I think it illustrates part of what motivated Jesus to take our place on the cross. Let me know your thoughts.


"Here's a cool thought. The Church wakes up tomorrow, and for the first time in a long, long, long time, Her hands don't worry about trying to chew Her food; Her tongue doesn't argue with Her feet over who gets to do the walking; Her heart doesn't try to jump out of Her chest and pick up the newspaper, while fixing breakfast, watching the news, and pumping blood through Her veins; and Her mind, Her senses, Her emotions, Her reproductive system, and Her soul remember the days when they weren't numbed, locked up, or paralyzed, and once again take hold of the roles they were created to fill. And She doesn't just get up and limp and hobble and fall back down again. She remembers how to run, to jump, to swim, to dance, to make love to the Lover she can once again embrace. She sees again how He longs to use those senses She had allowed to die to awaken her to real love, real life, real passion. She pauses for a moment to reflect on the foolishness of Her mistakes. Then He takes Her hand, looks Her square in the eyes with a passion that would frighten a lesser Woman to tears, and says, 'I've got so much more to show You.'"