Our bodies are amazing acts of creation. As I looked at some of the details of how they work, I was amazed to find just how much our body does. Did you know that in one twenty four hour period your heart beats 103,689 times; your blood travels 168,000,000 miles; you breathe 23,040 times; you inhale 438 cubic feet of air, and fortunately you exhale the same amount; you move 750 muscles; and you exercise 7,000,000 brain cells, or at least you're supposed to. All this seen and unseen work is accomplished by a body of many parts, bones and muscle and organs and tissue, all working together.

There is a passage in Ephesians where Paul describes the church as a body which Jesus Christ has fitted together and which is connected to each other by that which each part supplies. I'd like to push that metaphor just a little further today and examine what I would call the connective tissue. In our physical bodies, connective tissue refers to tissues that surround, protect, and support all of the other structure in the body. They help transport substances, protect against disease, and help repair tissue damage. The connective tissue doesn't do the work that a kidney can do, but without the connective tissue supporting it, the kidney can't function. So what is most like the connective tissue in this body we call the church? I believe it's the leadership. Our Elders, Deacons, Teachers, Chairpersons, Sponsors, Co-ordinators, and Pastors? these are the connective tissue people that surround, support, protect and help repair the body of Christ. Have a look at 1 Thessalonians 5:12-22, as we look at the way the connective tissue of leadership is meant to work in the church.

I. For Leadership to be Effective There Must Be a Mutuality of Attitude

Who is Paul talking to in the first part of verse 12 and verse 13? It has to be the main part of the congregation that he exhorts to take the attitude of appreciating and esteeming very highly in love. Though we typically think this passage just refers to Pastors, it does apply for other roles of leadership as well. The congregations? appreciative and esteeming attitude to that leadership is essential for these people to be effective. Is it possible that leadership in the church today has pulled back because of a perception that they are being intrusive, are going where they are not wanted and not desired for the roles they are called to? To teach requires that people be teachable, for some to have charge over, in the Lord, necessitates that others be in submission. These are not roles that our world values, they do not come easy to us, yet Paul says we are to live in peace with each other as we do them. They require a mutuality of attitude that sees Christ as the Head of the whole body and His hand as that which has fitted them together. Leadership needs to see this and move forward, that's their call. The remainder of the body needs to see this and encourage that leadership to function, that's their call. There must be a mutuality that seeks to glorify God by having these kinds of attitudes.

II. The Responsibilities of Leadership are Essential to Life.

Have a closer look at verse 12, do you see the three areas of responsibility Paul sets before Leadership? to diligently labor'to have charge over in the Lord'to give instruction. These could be called Commitment, Commission, and Competence. They are essential to the healthy functioning of the church, that's why Paul wrote what he did.

1. Commitment ? the term to labor meant to labor even to the point of extreme weariness, don't give up. Peter used it to describe a fruitless fishing trip, Jesus used the same word as an invitation to all who labor like this to come to Him for rest. Pastors, Elders, and all levels of leadership will be called to this kind of labor. We could take the words of verses 14 and 15 to summarize what that labor looks like? it's admonishing the unruly or rebellious, it's encouraging the fainthearted, literally the 'small souls?. These are those looking for hope, seeking for truth. It's helping the weak, perhaps this has particular reference to moral weakness or sexual weakness. Certainly that's what Paul was speaking of in the first part of chapter. Commitment also is required in being patient with all men, being careful to help others avoid revenge or vengeful thinking. Do this even to the point of extreme weariness.

2. Commission ? the term used was, 'to have charge over you in the Lord?. Leaders such as Deacons, Elders, Pastors are charged with an accountability for the souls entrusted to their care. Hebrews 13:17 says, ?Obey your leaders and submit to them for they keep watch over your souls as those who give an account.? We don't think of leadership this way very often, even leadership frequently doesn't regard itself this way, yet this is the truth. Perhaps the charge to Leadership is seen in their directing of the body to be faithful to verses 16-18.

? 'rejoice always? this is not an exhortation to always be happy, it is to always be joyful. It points you to the fact that not only do you know how the story ends, you know the Almighty and Soveriegn God who enables you to more than an ?over-comer? (Romans 8:37) in all the trials that beset you.

? Pray without ceasing? never stop being with God. Be with Him in sickness and in health, in times of riches and poverty, for better or worse? prayer sounds like a wedding vow doesn't it? The incarnation of Christ for the purposes of suffering and dying for our sin had redemption in view, but it also had intercession in view. Jesus is our high priest who has been tempted in all things as we, and yet He is without sin. He lives now to hear and direct you through prayer.

? In everything give thanks for this is the will of God for you in Christ Jesus. The indictment of Romans 1 is that godlessness is quickly accompanied by thanklessness. To be thankful moves you to humility, it confesses grace, it acknowledges the presence of God and the love of God. It's the ?in everything? part that throws us, for even in trials we are called to be thankful for what the Father sees and is doing, a purpose and perspective vastly beyond ours.

3. Competence ? 'to give instruction?, is how Paul put it in verse 12. Leaders are going to be called to teach, to give of what they have received. The next verses of 19 to 22 describe how you have received and how you are to give.

? Do not quench the Spirit? what we receive in our minds from the Lord comes via the Holy Spirit (1 Cor. 2:13). Don't ignore that or treat it as just your own thoughts and therefore optional. The spiritual gift that has been given to you is for the whole body, don't neglect that but move in accordance to the well being of the whole body.

? Do not despise prophetic utterances? this has often been thought of as someone standing up and giving a cryptic message with the tag of, 'thus saith the Lord?. Prophetic utterances occur far more commonly than that. They are the words of wisdom spoken by another at the direction of the Holy Spirit at perfect moments. They occur in counseling sessions, business meetings, Sunday School classes and times of preaching. We need to carefully weigh what we hear, that's the next directive in verse 21, but realize that the Spirit of God has many things to say and many mouths and personalities by which He may choose to say them. Don't despise the utterances that come as instruction to the body, thoughts of wisdom and counsel that are timely by divine standards. Hold fast to that which bears itself as good.

? Abstain from every form of evil? Let me ask you what form can evil take? Evil is that which is against the revealed will of God. So evil can be thought as well as action. Abstain from every form of evil. If it has the form of evil? abstain from it. Abstain if it is evil in form. I can't say it in enough different ways to express how varied the way is that evil presents to us. Abstain.

These are the essential calls of Leadership, but you also know full well that Paul wrote these words to all the brethren. We are all to be faithful in these things.

Leadership by these things you are to supply what is lacking, to protect against disease and repair the wounded part, to support the body and equip it for the work of service.

Leadership, you are the connective tissue in the body of Christ, the church.

Rev. Spence Laycock pastors at Church of the Open Bible, Ponoka, Alberta, Canada.
www.churchoftheopenbible.ab.ca