The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and on those parts of the body that we think less honourable we bestow the greater honour, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honour to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another.

1 Corinthians 12:21-25 (ESV)

No church is perfect, but it can be healthy.

A healthy church community comes from embracing the strengths and weaknesses of each member and coming alongside to offer the help that we can. According to the Apostle Paul, instead of condemning the weakest amongst us, we should be encouraging and helping them to grow in the next steps in their journey of faith. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen.

We must learn to choose to love each other even in those moments when we struggle to like each other. In this lies the difference between “doing church” and “being church”. Doing church is like stocking salt in a container. There is no influence, no impact, and no active engagement. Being church is salt in action. It is fulfilling its true purpose by bringing taste and flavour to everything it touches.

Doing church does not involve becoming inconvenient or taking risks. This makes it easy to disengage and disconnect when church life becomes something you consume and not contribute. Being church is about making a positive difference and doing whatever you can to build the community.

It is not others who make us feel belonged and welcomed, but Christ who gives us a place of belonging and identity. In order to become a healthy community, we should learn together who we are, where we come from, to whom we belong and how we fit together. Then we will become a community of possibilities, not a community of problems.