Many churches in the US are organized around two ships; the leadership and the fellowship. Let’s think about these terms for a second…..the leadership…..the fellowship……the leader ship…….the fellow ship.

When the community in a local church is broken into these two groups it means they are in different boats! It is hard to be unified when you are in different boats – even if you are headed in the same direction.

Typically the leadership is made up of the people who make the decisions and do the ministry. They are the capable ones, the privileged, the super-Christians. While the fellowship is seen as the people who are part of the crowd. They help out when they can with varying levels of commitment. They often see themselves as incapable of leading a group, speaking up front, or sharing Christ with others. They are the beneficiaries of the leader ship’s work.

In the Bible, there is only one ship – discipleship. When we look at the evidence of scripture we realize we are all in the same boat as followers of Christ! Look at the life of the Apostle Paul, arguably one of the greatest leaders of all time. He said things like “Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am the worst” (1 Timothy 1:15), and “follow my example as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Cor. 11:1). In various passages throughout the New Testament he talks about being given his role only by God’s grace. Never once did he place himself above the people he ministered to. He knew that all Christians are in the disciple ship seeking God and doing our best to follow Him faithfully.

What this means is that while each member of the Church has a distinct role (or roles) within that community, (some of which will be leadership roles) there needs to be a culture of “being in this together.” We shouldn’t be so quick to label some members of our community as the expert. Small groups are often structured so that a group of people gather to answer questions (and hopefully get the right answer) from a leader who is perceived as possessing all the right answers. This attitude can easily lead to an “us” and “them” attitude in the church. There are the ones who have it all figured out (the gurus) and there are those who don’t. While we are all on different points on our journey, my desire is to be part of a church where we are all earnestly seeking to grow in Christ together. Even though I preach most weekends I don’t want to be perceived as the one who knows all the answers or has all the information on what it means to follow Christ. I want to be a fellow traveler who is following Jesus.

We are all in the same boat! For my next post, I’ll begin to explore how you create a culture of “being in the same boat.”

 

Emmaus Road Church in Fort Collins, CO endeavors to build a culture of seeking Christ together. Join us any Sunday at 10:00am.