Southwestern Union Record

I love classical music, especially orchestral music. Maybe it’s because of the many trips that I took as an elementary school student to hear the Cleveland Symphony Orchestra in concert at Severance Hall in Cleveland, Ohio, where I grew up. Or maybe it’s because I spent so many of my school days as a second violinist in the school orchestra. Whatever the reason, I not only find the music of orchestras heavenly, but I think that the whole concept of an orchestra has a wonderful spiritual application.

Orchestras are comprised of strings, woodwinds, brass, and percussion instruments, each adding its own unique sound and function as they blend together to create beautiful music. Some instruments have a softer sound, while others with their loud bellows add emphasis or provide a dynamic climax to a song. Other instruments, such as the drums, focus on rhythm. Some musicians play the melody, while others add harmony; all blend together skillfully to make sounds that are pleasing to the ear. And of course, all the instruments of the orchestra, with their players, are led by a skilled conductor, whose purpose is to unify the performers, set the tempo, and shape the sound of the music. 

Can you see where I’m going? I like to think of the church as a type of orchestra—it’s made up of a variety of players, each having very diverse characteristics, roles, and functions, all of whom blend together with one unified purpose. In the Bible, Paul uses the analogy of a body to describe the church. He says in 1 Corinthians, beginning with verse 12 (NIV):  “Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ . . . Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.”

Focusing on our interdependence, Paul continues, “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!’ . . . But God has put the body together, . . . so that there should be no division in the body.” 

Whether you think of God’s church as a symphony orchestra or as a body, the message is the same: God’s church is comprised of a kaleidoscope of people differing from one another in age, race, nationality, culture, gender, socioeconomic status, skill, talent, ability, and function, each having a vital role to play in carrying out the Great Commission.

If the thought has ever crossed your mind that you or another group of people are somehow less valued members of God’s family, please banish that thought forever. Every part of the body of Christ is vital and without each one, the body is incomplete. Let’s all unite together and finish the work so we can go home!