My first attempt at a building project was affectionately nicknamed “the oblong box” by my family. It was a unit that housed two speakers, a power supply, and a bracket that allowed me to slide my eight-track tape player out of the dash in my car and use it in my dorm room. It was nicely stained and had fine fabric for the speaker grill work. It wasn’t, however, “in square.”

    In most places where decent English is spoken, “the oblong box” would be an oxymoron; a visual sighting of my stereo unit, however, would dispel any such notion. Fine craftsmanship it wasn’t. A functional chunk of stereo nostalgia it was! I built it. I wasn’t proud of the workmanship, but I used it for three years of my college journey.

    In a strange sort of way, it was a portent of things to come. You see, I’ve spent my life as a builder of sorts. While my family has generally kept me away from power tools — and has found ways of hiding the few works of my craftsmanship when they couldn’t — I’ve spent my adult life trying to help grow churches.

    Like “the oblong box,” my efforts at Kingdom building haven’t been all that accomplished. However, the Lord has done some amazing things with my deficiencies, lack of expertise, and questionable craftsmanship. After all, the Jesus is the Master Carpenter who really builds his Church, not us (Matthew 16:18). He supplies the gifts and abilities to the people of his Church, as well as the leadership that causes it to grow (Ephesians 4:7-13). God brings the growth and increase as we offer our efforts to him (1 Corinthians 3:5-9). The Spirit builds us together into a holy temple to God (Ephesians 2:20-22).

    This work of building people into something special for God isn’t just the work of a few. In the consumer driven world of church growth, “worship services” have sometimes become a performance by a few for an audience of many — versus a performance by many to The Audience of One. The apostle Paul reminded the Corinthians that the Christian assembly on Sunday was a gathering of carpenters who came to learn from the Master Carpenter so they could get on with the work of building.

    Paul insisted that the worship assembly was not a time for a few very talented to strut their stuff and be full of themselves. Instead, in 1 Corinthians 14, he told the early Christians that they came together to build each other up. He uses a form of the word “build up” seven times in his words to them (14:3, 4 [2x], 5, 12, 17, 26 — the word was originally the construction term oikodomeo, that meant to build up a house and was translated “edify” in older translations).

...the main focus is on “building up” people.

    In this one key place where the New Testament talks at length about what we should do on Sunday at church, the main focus is on “building up” people. Somehow that makes sense doesn’t it? After all, God chose to send his Son to earth as the son and apprentice of an earthly carpenter.

    Going to church isn’t about getting what we want, going where we are entertained, or finding the place that is most spectacular in its performances. It is about going to work with the Master Carpenter in the task of building up people. He wants us to work at building up his Church into something that reminds the world of him — not how it looks externally, but how people are touched, blessed, and built interpersonally (see Hebrews 10:19-25).

    Our efforts at building will not be perfect. In fact, those efforts may not be any better workmanship than “the oblong box.” Yet when those efforts are offered to the Master Carpenter, their results become something precious and eternal. So let’s make a commitment to never just “go to church” again; instead, let’s go to build up others and honor God. When we do, we will find the Master Carpenter at our side and we will be blessed and not just entertained.

 

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Title: "A Builder"
Author: Phil Ware
Publication Date: January 27, 2003