SYSTEMIC IMPACT

September 20, 2024

I’m learning a lot from a book that is turning out to be not at all what I expected. I assumed that SQUAT EVERY DAY (by Matt Perryman) was going to be a helpful guide to fitness by emphasizing the exercise of barbell squatting.

Instead, I’m getting a philosophical tutorial on the need for the systems of the human body to all act in concert for optimum performance.

It turns out that it is the HEALTH and ALIGNMENT of the bodies’ systems – musculature + skeletal + cardiovascular + endocrine + respiratory + others – that produce fitness. Strong muscles alone don’t produce maximum performance. All the systems must work in concert.

I want to take time today to apply this idea to our life in Jesus AND to our church’s impact for Jesus.

Four weeks ago, I wrote to make the case that specialization (like in medicine, tech, and car repair where there are lots of specialties and sub-specialties) is a defining mark of our age. The Jesus “point” of that post was to say that SPECIALIZATION is the mark of the Spirit when we’re talking about ministry.

The Apostle Paul told a friend named Archippus, “See to the ministry which you have received in the Lord, so that you may fulfill it.” (Colossians 4:17) He told his younger friend, Timothy, to “be absorbed” (1 Timothy 4:15) in his ministry.

In the same way, each one of us are to fulfill the ministry that we have from Jesus and are to “be absorbed” in whatever specialized ministry we are fulfilling.

Today, rather than thinking about being fully “absorbed” in our specialized ministries,  I’m asking you to think with me about being fully vested in the six key elements about life in Jesus that we especially value here at Northwest. In our consideration of the values, we are not specialists. We are all to be general practitioners of them all.

The values to which we pay a lot of attention are:

DEPENDENT PRAYER – We aim to put a primary emphasis on dependent, expectant prayer, so that everyone will see that God is the One making all the difference, not us.

COMMITMENT TO THE BIBLE – We aim to base our lives on the Bible’s truths rather than on the prevailing winds of culture which may dismiss, disallow, or reject it, advocating for its teachings with grace and confidence.

GENUINE RELATIONSHIPS – We aim to passionately pursue life-changing relationships with all, and especially with those who have different life stories than our own.

ETERNALLY-FOCUSED GENEROSITY – We aim to embrace contentment with what we have as we seek out creative ways to further God’s purposes within our church, across our community, and around the world.

GRACIOUS EVANGELISM – We aim to take advantage of the opportunities God gives us to meet pressing needs in Jesus’ Name as we share the good news that everyone who believes in Jesus receives the free gift of eternal life.

EMPOWERED UNLEASHING – We aim to lead lives of service, whether in the ministries led by the Elders and staff or in a ministry that is outside the scope of those ministries.

So, using an image that is common in the New Testament for Jesus’ church – the human body – imagine our church being a “body” of people who are making it our aim to live out all of the biblical values of our church?

That would make for one beautiful, impactful church body.

And what if, added on to the churchwide embrace of our values, each of us at Northwest was also “absorbed” in the specialized ministries God has given us to fulfill?

You – thoroughly caught up in the joy of leading in worship, or leading our teens, loving babies, teaching children in Sunday School, serving in ESL, leveraging technology to maximize ministry, promoting Missions, leading our ministry to women, serving as a Deacon or as an Elder, or any of a number of other ministries!

The full picture would be all of us aligned by full absorption in our own ministry + dependent prayer + commitment to the Bible + genuine relating + eternally-focused generosity + loving evangelism + empowered unleashing. Wow!

Getting optimal performance out of the human body requires alignment of the bodies’ various systems. Just so, our church’s impact for Jesus grows when I and when you grow as Jesus’ followers both in our ministry specialties AND in living out our values.

Yours…His,

Dave