There is often a sense that the big speech is the most important thing that a church does. And those things wouldn’t be possible without something to talk about, without the effectiveness of individuals “just like you.”

Recently I talked with a person who is the public face, the up-front speaker, the voice. The person talked about the importance of other people who make possible his work and the work of the organization. And in our conversation, I might have mentioned the image of the body that Paul uses, talking about how we, together, are the body of Christ. Each one with different capacity, different ability, different vulnerability.

As I’m reflecting on that conversation, and many others like it, I am beginning to ask myself a question.

What if we get it backwards?

What if all of our work behind the scenes isn’t to support the public face, the big event, the speech, the sermon, the game? What if the speech is the easy work to support everything else?

The heartbeat of the body of Christ isn’t the preacher. The heartbeat is Christ, whose blood and breath invigorate each finger, each toe, each skin cell and forearm and chin. And each part that touches hurting hearts and sores isn’t doing it so the preacher has an object lesson to complete the sermon and make a point.

The point is the touch, the act, the affection, the love.

There is no value difference between an obedience sermon, an obedient song, an obedience casserole, an obedient pie, and an obedient silence. There is a massive value difference between a disobedient sermon and an obedient casserole.

Live as the limb you were formed to be. Serve the way you hear to serve. Because we aren’t serving the public face. We are serving Christ.