¹¹It was he who gave some to be apostles, some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers,

¹²to prepare God's people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up

¹³until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.

¹⁴Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of men in their deceitful scheming.

¹⁵Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will in all things grow up into him who is the Head, that is, Christ.

¹⁶From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work._{Ephesians 4:11-16}

In the world of business jargon and sound bites, you often come acrss the phrase "the sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts".  Its meaning is fairly easy to understand - that a group of people single mindedly together accomplish more than the same individuals in isolation.

Every born-again believer has a ministry within the body of Christ, and a duty to exercise that ministry for the good of the body as whole.  The idea of a separate priesthood and laiety (minsters and congregation if you like) within the church is completely man-made.  Every believer is called to be a minister, albeit that we all have very different ministries.

If we constantly come away from a services/meetings and the predominant impression of that meeting is how good the minister is, or how well he/she delivered the message then we have missed the point. Everyone within the Body of Christ has to exercise that which God has placed within them, otherwise they will never get the opportunity to grow.

Henri Staples understood this truth decades ago, and in many ways was a man before his time. He preached and practised body ministry - encouraging people to spontaneously testify what God was doing in their lives, emphasising that doing so would help them to grow.

If you are born again, I have a vested interest in you becoming everything that God intended you to be, because when you do so it will benefit me.

¹⁶From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work.

There is no greater experience than when all of the Body of Christ is ministering, but as Paul made clear, the devices and traditions of man are such that it very rarely gets the chance to.  The sum of the whole is greater than the sum of the parts.