Recipe for a Great Church

[Table set up in front with scales, cutting boards, knives, ingredients, measuring cups, etc. Pastor in chef’s coat.]

Most of you know that I have spent a fair part of my adult life in the food service industry. My first job, at age 14, was at a Dairy Queen. I worked in the school food service during my college years. After graduation, the food service company I had been working for hired me as a manager, and I spent the next 22 years of my life associated with that industry – as an executive chef, food service director, salesman, caterer and consultant. I’ve worked in restaurants, hotels, colleges, universities and public school systems all around the upper Midwest. I enjoyed that work very much. I’ve enjoyed a good meal or two along the way as well!

I especially enjoyed doing catered meals or events with extra special appetizers, salads, entrees and desserts. They were the highlight of my food service career. Dinners for thousands, birthday parties for hundreds of invited guests, or intimate dinners for 8 or 10, it is always a thrill to be creative, do the imaginative and explore new possibilities. I loved planning the events – gathering the recipes; lining up the staff; making lists of linen, china, glassware, flowers and silver; acquiring the ingredients; carving the ice sculpture. There is a sense of anticipation when you walk into the kitchen on the morning of the event, and know that the necessary ingredients are all there, and that by the time you have finished that long day, usually in the wee hours of the next morning – you will have accomplished something that is out of the ordinary. It is exciting and fun – an almost “electric” atmosphere as the staff arrives and gets pumped up for the event…

The same is true for most of us – whether it’s planning a fun meal, or a camping trip, or a weekend getaway, the preparation and anticipation is almost as exciting as the event itself.

I know that some of us don’t like to cook at all – but I know that each of us likes to eat a well-prepared meal – don’t we? Thanksgiving is less than two weeks away, and I can remember watching my mom get ready for the holidays – she would go to the store and purchase huge bags of flour, sugar, butter, cocoa, pumpkin, Hershey’s Kisses, turkey, potatoes, sweet potatoes, ---Oh my goodness! Just unloading the car added 10 pounds! With all that stuff in the house, there was a buzz of anticipation – even before the aromas began to fill the air! We appreciate it when someone has gone to the trouble of putting together the ingredients in just the right way and right proportions to make everything just right – whether it’s pate fois gras or bratwurst!

For me, the same is true of the church…it’s just better when the ingredients are put together in the right way, and we have assurance that they are. Jesus said, “I will build my church, and the gates of hell will not be able to withstand it.” That’s an exciting promise! And as we come to Ephesians chapter 4, verses 7-12, we find that He has gathered all the ingredients for a great church…follow along with me as I read:

7 But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ's gift. 8 Therefore He says: "When He ascended on high, He led captivity captive, And gave gifts to men." 9 (Now this, "He ascended"--what does it mean but that He also first descended into the lower parts of the earth? 10 He who descended is also the One who ascended far above all the heavens, that He might fill all things.) 11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, 12 for the equipping of the saints for the work of ministry, for the edifying of the body of Christ, 13 till we all come to the unity of the faith and of the knowledge of the Son of God, to a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ; 14 that we should no longer be children, tossed to and fro and carried about with every wind of doctrine, by the trickery of men, in the cunning craftiness of deceitful plotting, 15 but, speaking the truth in love, may grow up in all things into Him who is the head--Christ-- 16 from whom the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

These words tell me that Christ has gathered together the wide variety of necessary ingredients to put together a wonderful entity called the church. I want you to notice a couple of things about this passage.

There is a Wide Variety of Ingredients

First, notice that it says, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” We have that important little three-letter word “but” here again – it means that there is a contrast. Paul has just finished telling us that we are to have unity in the church – that we are one body, there is one Spirit, one hope, one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God…but…” BUT while we have all that in common – we also have diversity – there is a variety of gifts in the church. Paul has just challenged us to “make every effort” to keep the unity of the body in verse 3 – BUT we are not to expect that our personalities, strengths, gifts and jobs are all going to be the same – or even similar. You would never substitute a cup of salt for a cup of sugar in a recipe – they are dramatically different – but each necessary for any cook to understand.

Neither one is going to be very appetizing. Christ knows that in order to make a church He needs a wide variety of ingredients, and this passage tells us that he has gathered them all together. There is a wide variety of gifts and personalities that come together to make up a church – and there is more!

We are the ingredients!

These gifts are given to “EACH ONE.” “In his wisdom, and to make each of us dependent on the others, God has ordained not uniformity, but an endless variety of gifts for the members of the body.”[i] John Calvin said, “no member of the body of Christ is endowed with such perfection as to be able, without assistance of others, to supply his own needs.” Each of us needs the other – none of us can stand alone - to attempt to do so is to presume to have a better idea of the nature of the body of Christ than Christ Himself has.

Jesus does the Measuring

Verse 7 continues, “But to each one of us grace was given according to the measure of Christ’s gift.” It is “according to the measure of Christ’s gift” that these gifts are given. Jesus is the one who wrote up the recipe for the church. He did it because He knows the exact mix He wants. I remember the first time I mixed up a sack of “quick-krete” to put in a flagpole in our yard. I put in some water, stirred it up, added a little more, stirred it up, then added a little more, until it looked about right to MY eyes…but it was way too wet! It wasn’t until I tried the next batch, and actually read the directions, that I saw that an entire bag of “quick-krete” only takes 5 quarts of water! OOPS!

This text tells us that Jesus has set up the gifts according to His own measure. He knows just the right proportions to place in the church to get the mix just right. This is stated a second time in this passage in verse 11 – where Paul writes, “And HE HIMSELF gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, some pastors and teachers…” I want you to ponder for a moment the magnitude of that statement…Jesus Christ Himself has placed the ingredients of the church according to His measure – as He knows is perfect for the body of Christ. That is an amazing thought!

It’s not like my cooks, who sometimes thought that if the recipe called for 55 pounds of ground beef in the chili, then 50 would be close enough – no – Jesus knows exactly the right measure of each ingredient is needed for the church and HE HIMSELF gives those gifts. Isn’t that just mind-boggling? The church is not just some accidental collection of individuals – it is a carefully thought out – cautiously measured collection of the right ingredients – brought together for effective ministry by Jesus Christ Himself.

But with all that said, there is a role that each of us must play. I have had experiences where I faithfully followed the directions for bread dough, getting the measurements right and carefully following the instructions, only to discover – too late – that the yeast was dead! Did you know that you could have yeast that is no longer effective? If it’s not stored properly, or used within 3 or 4 months, the yeast can be ineffective, and you end up with a pizza crust instead of a loaf of bread!

The same is true of a church…take a look over at verse 16 – Paul is talking about all the ingredients being placed together just as Christ desires, and he says,

“from whom, the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by each part, does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.”

What Paul is saying there is that if we don’t put each part of the body of Christ to work effectively, then the whole thing suffers. If my yeast does not do its work – my dough is ruined – if some part of the church doesn’t do its work – the church is in trouble.

Imagine the cruelty of my mom buying all those ingredients back when I was a kid – and then not doing any baking! Imagine us all sitting around the table on Christmas morning talking about the cookies of years gone by – the wonderful turkeys and hams of previous holidays – and the great bargains she got doing the shopping this year – all the while eating bologna sandwiches! The ingredients do no good if they are not used effectively! Christ has placed all the ingredients necessary for the church to be effective – and in the right measure - but as I read my Scriptures I see that there is a responsibility for faithfulness that remains with us. Those ingredients are a sacred trust that has been given to each of us – and we are to be faithful stewards of that trust. As an individual, I will one day answer to God for the way I used the gifts God entrusted to me – and so will you. As a church, and as church leaders, we will give account to God one day for our faithful use of the gifted people God brought to us.

None of us has the right to plant ourselves squarely on the shelf of the Lord’s pantry and refuse to be used by the Master. You, (yes you!) have been created in such a way that you are able to contribute something unique and wonderful to the church. No other ingredient in this church can bring the unique qualities that you can bring. It is our responsibility as a church to effectively employ all the richness and diversity of the body to accomplish what God has called us to do. And each of us must do his or her part.

Sometimes it breaks my heart to think of the wonderful ingredients God has brought to this church, which we did not incorporate into the mix, and they have become stale, ineffective or have left us. It pains me to see gifted, committed, wonderful people in our church today who are being stretched and substituted for other ingredients because some aren’t being used at all – a few faithful people leading children’s church or Nursery week after week – the same three or four people doing set up every Sunday morning. I don’t say that to shame anyone or to guilt anyone into action – I share it because I have this great sense of anticipation of the wonderful delightful creative things that God wants to do in and through the church, and it saddens me to see it unfulfilled. It concerns me when I realize that it is not because He has failed to do His part – somehow leaving us ill prepared or lacking in some way - but we who have not done our part that makes it so.

But most of all, I long for each of us to have that sense of anticipation – like walking up to the front door of grandma’s house on Thanksgiving morning, and knowing the wonderful experiences that await us - each time we gather as a body of Christ. With each ingredient carefully supplied, perfectly measured out, and doing its part to create a masterpiece – a spiritual “culinary delight” for the world to savor.