One thing that I keep returning to lately is this idea that we’re all in this thing together. We are a local body of believers and we are connected by our gifts and we are moving forward with a specific mission: leading people to know and serve Jesus.

The mission is not too broad and yet its not too specifc either. We’re not wandering around in the dark doing random things. We know that we are focused on leading people to know and serve Jesus. But, our mission is not so specific that it can’t be contextualized for every person. My journey of knowing and serving Jesus is going to look different than my frind Micah’s journey. And Micah’s journey is going to look differnt than Amy’s, and so on and so forth. I find beauty in this idea that we’re all moving forward together, in unity, and yet we all look so different. A tapestry weaved together.

This is what Paul writes to the Corinthians in chapter 12 of the first letter we have:

12 The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ. ¹³For we were all baptized by^[c] one Spirit into one body—whether Jews or Greeks, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink.

¹⁴Now the body is not made up of one part but of many. ¹⁵If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. ¹⁶And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason cease to be part of the body. ¹⁷If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸But in fact God has arranged the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²²On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has combined the members of the body and has given greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²⁷Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

I’m loving being a part of the body of believers that meets at Cornerstone. I’m thankful that we have so many people who are committed to going on this journey with us of leading people to know and serve Jesus.