Suggestions for leading a study:
Willing or Wobbling
Discussion Questions
-Read
verse 11. What does this list
represent?
-According
to verse 12, why does God give these people to the church?
-Is that job description different
from what you have thought the role of church leaders to be?
-According
to verse 12, what is the ultimate goal?
What do you think is included in that?
-
Verse 13 lists four things that should result from being “built up” as a body
of Christ. What are they?
-Paul says that the works of service which the
people of God have been equipped to perform should help accomplish these things
in the church. Take each of the three
you have listed and ask:
How do the lay people in the church (anyone who
isn’t a pastor) help this to happen?
-According
to verse 14, what can we avoid if we accomplish these things? Have you seen
people deceived by false teachings in the church because they failed to be
built up in their faith?
-Read
verses 15 and 16. These verses portray
a body, which represents the church.
Who is the head of that body?
-How
is the body able to grow and stay held together, according to verse 16?
-Do
you think that a church can have Christ as the head, but be paralyzed, because
the parts of the body aren’t working together?
Leaders' Guide
This lesson is meant to remind us that the work of the
ministry in the church is designed by God to be done by the people, not
necessarily just the pastors, who have been called to equip the people to
accomplish the work of the church—even the work of helping people grow spiritually.
-Read verse 11.
What does this list represent?
This list represents various kinds of leaders in the church. Apostles were people who had a personal experience with Christ and generally were those who started churches. Today, the spiritual gift of apostle-ship is usually considered to be resident in those who are called to start new churches. Prophets were those gifted with a special ability to hear the word of God and pass it on to the church, something that was particularly important at a time when the New Testament was still being written. Today people differ on whether or to what extent that gift is still needed and experienced in the church, but a prophetic gift is usually ascribed to people with an ability to present the word of God in a clear and compelling way. Evangelists, of course, also helped to create as well as build churches. Pastors and teachers are the leaders we are most familiar with today, being positions of leadership that everyone agrees are still very much alive and needed in the church today. The problem comes when we mis-understand the roles that God has given to them, which is what the remainder of this study is about.
-According to verse 12, why does God give these people to the church?
God gives these leaders to the
church to “prepare God’s people for works of service, that the body of Christ
may be built up.” This may be different
from what some people assume, as the follow-up question suggests.
-Is that
job description different from what you have thought the role of church leaders
to be?
Today
there are many people who assume that the paid staff of a church are the ones
who are responsible for doing the ministry.
They do their share, of course, and in many cases have unique training,
gifts, and experience to do some things that lay people do not feel adequate to
handle, but the Bible never assumes that they are the ones who do all the work
of the church. Quite the opposite—they
are there to help the people of God do that.
Just coming to church for what you can get out of it, or to receive a
blessing, or whatever, without helping in the work of the church is something
that is foreign to a biblical understanding of church.
-According to verse 12, what is the ultimate goal? What do you think is included in that?
Paul
says that the goal is that the body of Christ may be built up. This definitely includes spiritual growth as
a group and as individuals, but does not exclude numerical growth. In a healthy body, both of these should be
happening, with numerical growth being at the very least a natural result of
spiritual growth as people grow in their faith and as a result influence other
people.
-Verse 13 lists four things that should result from being
“built up” as a body of Christ. What
are they?
First of all, there is unity in the
faith. We should all believe the same
things, at least in regards to the important fundamentals of our faith. Also, there is unity in the knowledge of the
Son of God. We should all know
Jesus—not just things about him, but have a personal relationship with
him. Also, we should become mature, or
grown up in faith and in our relationship to Christ. Finally, we need to attain to the whole measure of the fullness
of Christ. This is quite a tall order, and might just be an exaggerated
statement that includes all of the other three things, or a way of repeating
and emphasizing a grown up, mature person.
In the context of this passage, however, you could also see it as
referring to the fact that the church has been filled with every spiritual
gift, all of which are being used to their capacity by the people in the
church. For purposes of discussion,
that would be a good interpretation to emphasize.
-Paul says that the works of
service which the people of God have been equipped to perform should help
accomplish these things in the church.
Take each of the four you have listed and ask:
How do the lay people in the
church (anyone who isn’t a pastor) help this to happen?
This is a discussion question with
no right or wrong answers. This
information does not come out of the text itself, but people in the church need
to get used to thinking of themselves as the means by which God accomplishes
these things. There all kinds of ways
that people help achieve a unity in what we believe and how we know Jesus and
grow up in our faith. Pastors and
teachers wouldn’t be exercising their own gifts of teaching and preaching
without people helping create a place for them to do it, inviting people, making
food for gatherings, etc. etc. The fact
that you are leading this discussion also reminds us that others besides the
leaders can help God’s people explore and discuss his Word.
-According to verse 14, what can we avoid if we
accomplish these things? Have you seen people deceived by false teachings in
the church because they failed to be built up in their faith?
We
avoid being confused by false teachers, like a boat without an anchor being
tossed around in a storm. The second
half of the question is meant to bring this issue home, but be careful to be
gracious with anyone in the group who is from a different church
tradition. Remember, this is about
unity in the essentials of the faith, not the details as to how we practice it,
or worship, or church governance or whatever.
-Read verses 15 and 16.
These verses portray a body, which represents the church. Who is the head of that body?
Christ is portrayed as the head.
-How is the body able to grow and stay held together,
according to verse 16?
The
final phrase of this passage reminds us that the body can only stay together
“as each part does its work.” The
picture is that of a body without the ligaments attached, unable to stand up
and support itself. If the people
aren’t willing, the body will wobble.
-Do you think that a church can have Christ as the head,
but be paralyzed, because the parts of the body aren’t working together?
Any church who relies too heavily on the leaders without the rank and file of church members doing their part will at the very least compromise what they could be accomplishing as a body. If nobody is doing anything other than acknowledging Jesus, nothing gets done. A real question might arise as to whether you are really acknowledging Jesus as Lord at all if nobody is doing anything to help the church grow.
-How can this church avoid that, and what do you think
your part might be?
Here is the wrap up and application question. Spend what time you have left with it and try to get specific, concrete steps that people can commit to in order to help do the work of the ministry in the church. Being physically present, and supporting the church financially is a good start, but it’s more than that. God expects us all to be doing our part to help the church grow and grow up. We can get caught up in arguments about spiritual gifts, and trying to discern God’s call, but the place to begin is for everyone to at least be doing something. In the process, God will help you discern his specific call on your life.