1. Before We Carry Responsibility, We Follow.
Let Us Build Together
Seven reflections on faithfully carrying responsibility for others
Nehemiah did not rebuild the walls of Jerusalem alone. The work was shared by ordinary people who recognised what needed to be done and offered themselves to God’s purposes.
The Christian community is built in much the same way. Christ calls people to himself, joins them to one another and gives each person a part to play. Some responsibilities are more visible than others, but none of us is called to build a private kingdom or carry the work alone.
Over the next month, these reflections will invite each of us to consider not only what we might do in the church and wider community, but the kind of people we are becoming as we serve Christ and one another.
1. Before We Carry Responsibility, We Follow.
“I am the vine, you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit.”
John 15:5, NRSV
Many of us want to make a difference. We notice something that could be strengthened, repaired or begun, and we feel drawn to help. That desire can be a gift from God.
Jesus, however, begins somewhere deeper than activity. He begins with relationship.
A branch does not produce fruit by trying harder to appear useful. It bears fruit because it remains connected to the vine. In the same way, Christian service does not begin with our ability, confidence or enthusiasm. It begins with Christ.
Baptists have often placed great importance on each person responding to Jesus personally. Faith cannot simply be inherited from our family, culture or church tradition. We are each called to repent, believe, follow Christ and publicly identify with him.
That is part of what believers’ baptism expresses. A person enters the water to declare that they belong to Jesus and intend to walk in his way.
Yet personal faith is never meant to become private faith.
When we follow Jesus, he joins us to a people. We become part of a gathered community in which we pray, worship, learn, serve and discern together. We do not follow Christ alone, and we do not decide by ourselves what faithful service should look like.
Those who carry responsibility within the church must therefore remain disciples among other disciples. We still need Scripture. We still need prayer. We still need encouragement, correction and the wisdom of the community.
It is possible to become busy with the work of Christ while slowly becoming distant from Christ himself. We may know how things are usually done but stop asking what God is saying. We may become skilled at helping others while neglecting our own need to receive grace.
Prayer is not merely something added at the beginning of a meeting. Scripture is not simply material to use. Music-Worship is not a performance or duty. These are places where God forms us into the people he is calling us to become.
The church does not need people who imagine they have arrived. It needs people who remain close to Jesus, open to the Spirit and willing to keep growing alongside others as disciples.
Before asking what we can build, we must remain rooted in the One who gives the growth.
Questions for reflection
Is my desire to serve growing from closeness to Christ, or from a need to feel needed?
Am I allowing other Christians to help me discern where and how I should carry responsibility?
One practice this week
Before your next church commitment, spend fifteen to thirty quiet minutes with John 15:1-5. Ask Jesus what he wants to form in you before asking what he wants you to do.
