It’s likely that you are very aware that you are a unique human being, an individual. We’re all members of the human race, but for each person, there is something that sets you apart from the other 9 billion members. Even identical twins have differences that serve to identify them as unique.
Similarly, though all Christians are part of the body of Christ, and we are all called to fulfill the great commission to make disciples of all nations, we’re not all called to do that in the same way. Even those who are called to the same positions within the church (pastors, worship leaders, teachers) there are differences that make you unique in your fulfillment of Matthew 28:19.
God did this on purpose. 1 Corinthians 12:14-20 says, “So the body is not one part but many. If the foot should say, ‘Because I’m not a hand, I don’t belong to the body,’ in spite of this it still belongs to the body. And if the ear should say, ‘Because I’m not an eye, I don’t belong to the body,’ in spite of this it still belongs to the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? But now God has placed each one of the parts in one body just as He wanted. And if they were all the same part, where would the body be? Now there are many parts, yet one body.”
Cleverly, God designed the human body very specifically. Every part of it is unique. Every part is necessary. And every part has to do its job to keep the body functioning at 100 percent. Even though you have two eyes, the inch or two that separates one from the other is enough that they each see the world from a slightly different perspective, even to the point that your right eye can see things your left can’t, and vice versa.
Here’s where I get to the point. There are two parts of being unique in your function as a Christian: your function, which is your job as a pastor, worship leader, teacher, etc., and your positioning, which is where you are at any given moment. Together, these two parts serve to identify your unique fulfillment of the calling to make disciples.
So, let’s break it down. The first step is to determine your function, or your spiritual gift, as it were. Each Christian has one or more spiritual gifts they are given by God through the Spirit to advance the kingdom, and they often point to how you serve in the church. Some are gifted knowledge and wisdom, so they teach; some are gifted the ability to manage, so they lead; some are gifted especially strong empathy, so they encourage. 1 Peter 4:10 says, “Based on the gift one has received, use it to serve others, as good managers of the varied grace of God.”
The second part is, arguably, the hardest part to live out because I think we often get the calling to serve wrong. I think we’ve come to this belief that only pastors or teachers can spread the gospel, that only missionaries can go out to the mission field and show Christ to others, that you have to be one or the other to evangelize.
But I think what we fail to realize sometimes is that you are where you are because that’s where God wants you. He doesn’t want an engineer to go to seminary school and learn to be a pastor so he can make disciples. He doesn’t want a scientist to leave her research field and run off to a foreign country to spread the Gospel. He wants you to show Christ to others right where you are.
Joel 3:10 says, “Beat your plows into swords and your pruning knives into spears. Let even the weakling say, ‘I am a warrior.’” See, in this verse, God doesn’t tell the gardener to go join the military. He doesn’t say to the shepherd, “Learn to shoot a bow and throw a spear.” He tells each one, “I have given you what you need for where you are. Shape it into a weapon to fight the good fight.”
In other words, you are uniquely positioned right where you are to advance the kingdom of God, so stay there, because that’s your mission field. You are necessary to the body of Christ right where you are in your everyday life. That’s why Paul says in 1 Corinthians 12:21-22, “So the eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I don’t need you!’ Or again, the head can’t say to the feet, ‘I don’t need you!’" But even more, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are necessary.”
Sure, maybe a pastor can preach to 300 or more people a week in his church, and maybe TobyMac can reach 80,000 people at each of his concerts, but you are just as important. Taking it back to our body metaphor, in a pinch, the right arm can do the work of both arms if it has to, though it will never be able to reach across the body to the same distance the left arm could. (Try it. Reach your right arm across your chest. It just can’t get to where your left arm could.) But it wasn’t designed to. The left arm was designed to do the work of the left arm because only it can reach far enough away from the body. In the same way, a pastor could step out and do what an encourager/helper was designed to do, but he wasn’t designed to.
When one part of the body of Christ has to do the job of two parts, it makes the whole body less effective. That means we’re reaching fewer people when parts of the body aren’t evangelizing in their mission field. So step up. Pick up your briefcase, or grab your screwdriver and go to work, using what you have in your unique position to adhere to the calling of Christ. “Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” Matthew 28:19.