An Uncommon Common Good
Chuck Swindoll, the former pastor of Stonebriar Community Church in Frisco Texas once shared in a message at Dallas Seminary about an incident with a new staff member. Stonebriar is a large church with a large staff, and every new pastoral staff member goes through in-processing which includes a stop by the church’s IT department to receive a church issued cell phone. The phone has a standard list of contacts and apps, and each pastoral staff member is required to have one. Sounds pretty straightforward, but Chuck shared how one new pastor refused to take a cell phone, and when the IT staffer reiterated that taking the phone was mandatory for pastors in the church, the man expressed his disdain for the phone by noting it’s inferiority to his personal phone. So the staffer pressed the issue a second time, leading the new pastor to lean forward and say in a threatening tone “Don’t you know who I am?” Chuck then shared that this new pastor was fired and out the door the very next day. This man saw his place within the church as justification for belittling and threatening a fellow member of the church family. He was just a bit too full of himself, not unlike some in the church at Corinth who felt this way about themselves because of the spiritual gifts God had given them. Some Corinthians were exalting themselves because their spiritual gifts were more dramatic demonstrations of the Spirit’s power, perhaps forgetting that these gifts came from God according to His will and for the purpose of the common good. Just as fame and fortune often distort the lives of people who possess fame and fortune, certain spiritual gifts can distort a church family when they lead to some being exalted, and others diminished as unimportant or insignificant. If our spiritual gifts are exercised under the influence of our sinful nature, serving one another for the common good becomes a bridge too far, but when the grace of God moves through a humble people, then a most uncommon common good is possible within a church.
We invite you to come join us this Sunday morning for our in-person worship service at Leptondale Bible Church in Newburgh, starting at 10:55 AM. For those unable to attend, our service can be viewed live on the church’s Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/leptondalebiblechurch. This Sunday, we’ll continue a sermon series from 1st Corinthians titled “Written for Our Instruction” with a message from 1st Corinthians 12:1-13 titled “An uncommon common good.”
God bless!
Pastor Mike