Tuesday, June 29, 2021

Did you say : complementarity ? (2)

1 Corinthians 3.6 to 8 - I planted, Apollos watered, but it was God who made it grow. Thus, it is not the one who plants nor the one who waters that counts, but God who gives the growth. The one who plants and the one who waters are equal, and each will receive their own reward according to their own work.

Yesterday, we were talking about the complementarity of departments and the importance of that. We come back to it today because we find that it is rarely put into practice in our communities or groups. The human being being what he is, it is very difficult for him to unite with others in order to serve but also to be served. We often want complementarity as long as we're at the “head” of it, you know what we mean ? However, we would like to make the difference between complementarity and delegation !

The Barnabas-Paul tandem is complementarity, the Paul-Timothy-Titus team is delegation. There is nothing wrong with a delegation, there is the visionary leader and others adhere to this vision by accepting the sine qua non of submitting to this leader. The functioning of the team is more or less “democratic”, depending on the case, but we are talking here of a relationship of subordination, of a leader who gives directives and not of complementarity.

The complementarity of the ministries is different. Each ministry is on an equal footing. Nobody takes leadership. There is mutual submission, drawing on each other's gifts and talents. Paul gives a good illustration of this in our verse of the day on his relationship with Apollos. Paul and Apollos were complementary for the building of the church of Corinth. To show this equality, let's see what Paul says again : "As for Brother Apollos, I urged him a lot to come to you with the brothers, but it was decidedly not his will..." (1 Corinthians 16.12). In short, Apollos felt the freedom to say no to Paul.

My beloved, the complementarity of ministries is extraordinarily powerful, but to get there, it requires a few elements : first, it requires real fraternal love. Then, it requires having the humility to recognize your limits and especially to see our "extension" in another, to know how to abandon our propensity to dominate others, to want to "be the greatest", to be open to opinions and to have respect for the anointing of the other, accepting to be served by another.

Let us not shut ourselves off from the riches that are in the body of Christ. Let us not hesitate to make “inquiries” in prayer on this subject and the Lord will enlighten us.

Good reflection.

Source (Ezekiel 37 Ministries)