Building Community
Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. And God has appointed in the church first apostles, second prophets, third teachers; then deeds of power, then gifts of healing, forms of assistance, forms of leadership, various kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets? Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all possess gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues? Do all interpret? But strive for the greater gifts. And I will show you a still more excellent way. ~ 1 Corinthians 12: 27-31
On February 1st, I will be on a plane to Bogotá, Colombia, to gather with missionaries of the United Methodist Church serving in Central and South America, Europe and the Middle East. Some missionaries will bring their spouses. Some their children. A number of staff members from the General Board of General Ministries will make the trip. In all, we expect 70-80 participants from around the world to be present in Bogotá to worship, pray and learn together. We will be together for 4 days for times of discussion, celebration, sharing and building community.
I have been asked to lead and organize the Opening Worship for the community and have been working with a team to facilitate a bi-lingual worship experience that includes hymns and praise songs, texts from scripture activity and prayer exercise in both Spanish and English. It is quite an honor and a responsibility to ‘set the tone’ for the gathering and, through this process, I’ve been witness to the truth of the scripture from 1 Corinthians, chapter 12.
“Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it,” Paul writes. And then he lists various vocations - apostles, teachers, miracle workers, healers - and shows how we each work together for the good of the community. In creating the worship service, our music will be led by a missionary from Costa Rica now serving in Mexico and a missionary from the Philippines serving in Switzerland; our scripture will be read by a missionary from Mexico who is now serving in Guatemala and a missionary from Puerto Rico serving in Puerto Rico; our prayer time will be led by a missionary from the United States now serving in the Czech Republic; our benediction will be given by a missionary from Peru now serving in Costa Rica. We are a body of Christ and we each have our gifts to give to build our community and we come together to do something we cannot do alone. This is the theme of our gathering and is echoed in one of our opening songs:
Unidos siempre unidos
tomados de las manos
iremos por este mundo cantando amor
la gloria de Jesus, en ti resplandecera y todo se llenara de amor y paz
United always united
holding hands
we will go through this world singing love
The glory of Jesus will shine in you and everything will be filled with love and peace.