Many Parts, One Body

I'm teaching two Baptism classes right now... one is for middle school aged kids and the other is for elementary aged kids. Tonight during the younger aged class I thought I was really making some headway with my discussion on "Many Parts, One Body - The Body of the Church", when I was promptly put in my place. It went a little something like this:

I had the kids draw a stick figure...

When they were done, we talked about how Jesus is the "HEAD" of the church. This allowed me to lead into the following question: "If the Pastor preaches each week using his WORDS, which part of the body would he be?" The kids answered - The mouth! YAY! My next question was: "What can WE do with our hands to help others... something Jesus would want us to do?" The kids answered - Mission work! YAY! We went on and on until we had names written beside each PART of the BODY - the Head, the hands, the feet, the mouth, etc. Then, after we completed our lesson, I asked the kids - "Out of everyone represented on here - besides Jesus - who is the most important?" After they thought about it for a minute, the kids answered - "No one is more important than the others. It takes everyone to make the BODY of the CHURCH!" YAY! I was so proud!

And then one of the kids asked me this: Who's the nose? I almost had'em! LOL I love teaching children!


1 Corinthians
Unity and Diversity in the Body
12 Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

15 Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

21 The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” 22 On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, 23 and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, 24 while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, 25 so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. 26 If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.