What is the body of Christ? Am I a part of it?

It’s been a few months since I’ve done a homeschool Bible lesson.  I’ll admit that’s because as the kids get older they’ve headed more and more towards independent reading and study. But, in Sunday School I’m supposed to be teaching the Gospel Project lessons, so I’m prepping new stuff now.  This led to the question, what does the body of Christ mean?

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Before I can answer what does the body of Christ mean, I need to give you some background information

First off, this came from the book of 1 Corinthians, it was written to the church of Corinth.  The Corinthians are fighting over what does it mean to be a church, who should be leading the church, and what does a church act like?  What does it mean to be the body of Christ?

Next, Corinth was a “modern” trading city with all the things you would expect from a city that was the meeting of several cultures.  In many ways, Corinth was a lot like current American culture, with all of the resulting culture clashes.  This influences some of what Paul is writing to them.

The body of Christ and what it means

Paul spends the entire chapter of 1 Corinthians 12 talking about how we all have different gifts, and they are all needed and all useful.

The church does not function as well without the other people, and the individual church member cannot function without the rest of the body of Christ.

Side note: One of my most favorite Adventures in Odyssey episodes* teaches this lesson in an amazing way, and if I could figure out how to pull it off, I would do this episode in my Sunday School class.

So we brainstormed what each part of the body of Christ might do

I set a five-minute timer for us and put my giant oh so wonderfully drawn sketch on my chart tablet paper* and said, “Write down what each of the parts of the body might do to serve the church and others.”

Immediately Superman said, “Well what can your hair do?”  I took that as a challenge and came up with something, and as our five minutes went on I added in one or two other body parts as I thought of other items.

When the timer went off, we were all starting to slow down on what we were writing, so five minutes seemed to be just the right length (I plan when I do the Body of Christ lesson with my Sunday School class to give each small group one or two different body parts to inspire them, to cut down on overlap of suggested things people can do).

When all was said and done we could see connections between different gifts people might have.  The person who is good at listening and hears about the person in need of a new house, may not have the skill.  But the person with the hands may not catch the need, but has the skill to build it.

The person with the skill to write and create amazing songs, may not be good at actually singing them, or an effective teacher.  But another person might be.

This is why the body of Christ works best together, with each person working together to show off their skills.

I have to admit as I worked on this lesson, I kept hearing “If We Are the Body” playing over and over in my head.

Coming up soon: The church service, or why can’t I just talk whenever I like?