THE BODY OF CHRIST
Scripture: Romans 12:4-5; 1 Corinthians 12:14-26; Ephesians 4:14-16
Season/Sunday: Any, but may also be used around stewardship season.
Focus: The body of Christ is the Apostle Paul’s powerful image to describe the interrelated structure of the church. Each part needs the other; each part has a specific task that it is uniquely able to perform. The focus of this sermon is to explore what these different parts of the body are in a particular church.
Experience: To relate the parts of the body mentioned by Paul to specific groups within the church, by asking members of those groups to stand when they hear their group called (and its corresponding part of the body you have assigned to it). Children will be asked to stand when they see their parents or the persons they came with stand to form bridges from adult to child through church service groups.
Arrangements: You will need a list of the various parts of the body mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians, alongside a list of all the groups in your church. Organize the list to match your church’s ministries. The list shown here is an example.
Leader: | Good to see you today! I want to read to you a few verses from the Bible, from the book of Romans: “For as in one body we have many members, and not all the members have the same function, so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members one of another.” A man named Paul wrote these words, and he is saying that a church is a lot like our bodies. Part of the church is a foot, part of it is a hand, part of it is an eye. Do you know which parts of our church are these things? |
Children: | No. |
Leader: | I thought you might not, so I made a list! (To the congregation:) How about standing when I call out a part of our church body that you’re a member of? (To the children:) And how about standing when you see your folks or the one you came with stand, okay? Then here we go.
(And so on; your list can be as brief or as comprehensive as you like! It probably would be good, however, to end with the following:) And now, will all the other parts of this body of Christ please stand? (To the children:) There’s one very important part of the body that I didn’t mention, the Head. Who do you suppose is the Head of the church? |
Children: | The minister? My daddy? Jesus? |
Leader: | Some interesting answers, but I think I’d have to agree that Jesus is the Head of the church! Jesus is the one who tells all the other parts what to do, and then helps them do what they need to do. Let’s have a prayer, and since we’re all standing up, let’s all hold hands while we thank God that we are joined together in one body, with Jesus Christ as our Head. (Prayer) |
Brant D. Baker
(The Abingdon Children’s Sermon Library, vol. 2, ed. Brant D. Baker © 2007 by Abingdon Press. Adapted and used by permission.)