Again I had to talk to my Faith and Learning class about their first group project.  I know that a lot of students don’t like to work as part of the group.  Too often the girls in the group become responsible for moving the group along.  In the end a perfectionist will insist that they edit everything and then complain that they carry the whole weight of the group on their shoulders.  Firstly, the ‘lazy gits’ (mostly boys) who watch passively from the sidelines need to accept responsibility for their sloth.  Secondly those who take the work on their shoulders without insisting on support should see that they are enabling the underdeveloped to stay weak.  Finally, the perfectionist who takes all of the work on their own shoulders, far from being virtuous, has prevented the rest of the group from growing because of their perfectionism.

Good group work designates roles to students and holds the students accountable for what they will achieve.  God has designed us to work in community (groups).  We are all part of the body (a group).  Pastors doing all the work for their congregations is a gift from hell.  Congregations sitting by and letting others minister cause the devil to smile.  Can you use group work to teach you how to play your role in the body of Christ?

1 Corinthians 12: 12, 13

 ¹²The 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.

Questions

1. What is the body?
2. Of what does the body consist?
3. In your own words, how does a body illustrate the truth that reality is one but it is made of many particulars?
4. How are you both an individual and a part of a bigger whole?
5. How does your gifting fit into the calling of your church, school, or home?

Going Deeper

Reality itself is a unity.  As They Might Be Giants sing, “There’s only one everything (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vs_D8dC0uwc).”  However, that reality is composed of many particulars.  Universities were originally set up to study this phenomenon, this is how they got their name.  University refers to unity and diversity.  Christians are trying to think through what this means for how we live.  The unifying principle of all reality is Christ.  We call this the Christocentric Unity of All Truth (Litfin).  Another way to talk about this is, “All truth is God’s truth.”  God is the unity behind the particulars of mathematics, science, languages, art, and history.  God himself is a unity comprised of particulars.  We call this Trinity.  The uniting principle of Trinity is Godhead.  If you begin to understand that all the particulars of the world are united in God, how do you view education, communication, management, ministry and family differently?