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“so we, who are many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another” Rom 12:5.

This scripture paints the body of Christ, as being the sumtotal of its members, both belonging to Christ and to one another. It is a beautiful picture of individual parts being knit together as one.

How often are we aware of this fact, but knowingly or not, choose not to belong to the body as we ought to? Specifically, the body of Christ across the city.

As leadership demands pull on us, it is easy to end up isolating ourselves or those we lead. It certainly hadn’t been my intention to limit my participation, or of those around me, into communion with the church of the city, however it’s something that I have been guilty of - unintentionally or not.

I asked myself, “how can an isolated pocket of the body operate in unison with the entire body when it operates independently from its fellow members in a city?”. While it was right to proclaim Christ as head, I couldn’t proclaim His headship while reject the scripture calling us to belong to ‘one another’ - which includes the the body of Christ in my city.

During my work with One Heart, Ps Ian Shelton often said “only a healed church can heal a broken and divided city”. A city can’t be healed until we the church are healed. Yes its wonderful to belong to Christ, but we also need to acknowledge the need to belong to one another.

Rosaria Butterfield said, “If God is the creator of all things and if the Bible has His seal of truth and power, then the Bible has the right to interrogate my life and culture and not the other way around”.

I believe it’s time we allow the word of God to interrogate us in our sincerity to want to be ‘one body’. Let’s take a moment and consider how we can improve our belonging to the church of the city.

by Joshua Townsend, One Heart Australia