Body Building

Our overarching theme at St Luke’s in 2021 is ‘Body Building’, that is building up the body of Christ - “the Church”

For the last couple of years we have been talking about being disciples of Jesus, and making disciples of Jesus following the command from Jesus himself in Matthew 28 to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptising them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit.”

With the roadblocks and difficulties of life, making disciples can seem a lofty and impossible goal.  However Jesus didn’t set this gaol then abandon us to our own imagination to figure out how to achieve it.  He established the Church as the body in which individual Christians would be integrated with fellow believers in interdependent relationships designed for their mutual growth and maturity and as a launching pad for ministry to others.

When we follow his design the body of Christ (the church) matures and grows stronger and functions beautifully.  But it doesn’t happen on it’s own!   So what does help the body of Christ to be stronger and more mature? 

1. Working together.  Unity is essential to the health functioning of the body; like in a physical body, if one part is malfunctioning, or worse, working against the other parts, then sickness and weakness takes the place of healthy function.  
2. Nutrition.  What we put into our bodies matters, and it is the same with the Body of Christ.  A balanced diet of Bible study, Bible teaching, Prayer & Worship will give the body the fuel that it needs to function, grow and mature. 
3. Training & exercise!  Like the physical body, the church will grow when the members of the church engage in training for ministry and in the exercising ministry in the places where we live and work, as well as when the church is gathered.

This can all sound very daunting; but the building up of the body of Christ is meant to be a joy, not a burden!  So it is important that we aways remember that:

• We don’t do this body building in our own strength, but in His!
• We do not mature by our own wisdom, but through His!
• We do not gain unity through our own works, but through His! 

Grace & Peace

Jen