Faith in Focus #19
A reflection from Connection Church and other spiritual events from the week
Faith in Focus is a weekly reflection on what God has been teaching me throughout the week regarding my faith. Whether it’s personal interactions, reading, or the Sunday sermon, God speaks through it all, and I hope this helps you focus on His mission.
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Sermon Reflection: One Body, No Spare Parts: Rediscovering the Church in 1 Corinthians 12
Based on the sermon by Jonathan Land, Connection Church Sioux Falls, March 15, 2026.
A blizzard has a way of stripping things down to essentials. Roads close. Buildings empty. Plans dissolve. And yet, as Jonathan reminded us at the start of his sermon. The church is not a place. It’s a people.
That truth isn’t sentimental but it’s biblical. When the gathered body is scattered by weather, illness, or circumstance, the church doesn’t cease to exist. It adapts, because its foundation isn’t geography but identity. In a week when screens replaced pews, the question became sharper. What actually makes the church the church?
The apostle Paul answers that question with precision in 1 Corinthians 12. His answer is both deeply theological and uncomfortably practical. The church is a Spirit-formed body where every member matters, every gift is given, and no one stands alone.
The World Behind the Text
The church in Corinth was gifted but fractured. Spiritually active, yet relationally divided. They prized visible, dramatic expressions of spirituality and ranked one another accordingly. Some gifts were celebrated while others were sidelined.
Paul writes into that tension with intentionality. He doesn’t downplay spiritual gifts. He elevates them. But he reframes their purpose entirely.
He begins with a line that draws a boundary around true spirituality:
“No one speaking in the Spirit of God ever says ‘Jesus is accursed!’ and no one can say ‘Jesus is Lord’ except in the Holy Spirit” (1 Corinthians 12:3, ESV).
This is not merely a doctrinal statement, it’s a diagnostic one. In a world filled with competing spiritual claims, Paul anchors authenticity in allegiance to Jesus as Lord. The Spirit does not exist to draw attention to experiences, personalities, or power. The Spirit glorifies God.
From there, Paul unfolds a Trinitarian framework:
“There are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit… the same Lord… the same God” (1 Corinthians 12:4–6, ESV).
Diversity is not a flaw in the system but the system itself. The unity of God himself, Father, Son, and Spirit, grounds the diversity of the church. This is the make up of a gospel-shaped community. Different people, different gifts, one source, one purpose.
Walking the Passage
Paul moves from theology to embodiment with a single line that should reshape how we see ourselves:
“To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” (1 Corinthians 12:7, ESV).
Every believer receives a gift. Not some. Not the “elite.” Each. And those gifts are not self-oriented but are for the common good. This cuts against two common instincts: insecurity (“I don’t belong”) and independence (“I don’t need anyone”). Paul dismantles both.
He then introduces one of the most enduring metaphors in the New Testament. The church as a body.
“For just as the body is one and has many members… so it is with Christ” (1 Corinthians 12:12, ESV).
This isn’t metaphor for metaphor’s sake but a redefinition of identity. To belong to Christ is to belong to his body. There is no category for isolated Christianity here. Paul presses the point by imagining the absurd:
“If the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ that would not make it any less a part of the body” (1 Corinthians 12:15, ESV).
And again:
“The eye cannot say to the hand, ‘I have no need of you’” (1 Corinthians 12:21, ESV).
These are not hypothetical errors, they are lived ones.
“I don’t belong” is the voice of comparison.
“I don’t need you” is the voice of contempt.
Both are lies that fracture the body. Paul’s vision is radically interdependent. The overlooked are indispensable. The visible are not superior. God has arranged the body intentionally:
“God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose” (1 Corinthians 12:18, ESV).
This means your placement is not accidental. Your wiring is not random. Your presence in the body is purposeful.
A Fair Counter-Reading
Some traditions interpret 1 Corinthians 12 primarily as a catalog of miraculous gifts, including tongues, prophecy, or healing, and build entire frameworks around identifying and activating those specific expressions.
That reading rightly takes the supernatural work of the Spirit seriously. Scripture does affirm that the Spirit empowers believers in dynamic ways. However, Paul’s emphasis in this chapter is not on elevating particular gifts but on equalizing their importance within the body. The thrust of the passage is communal, not individualistic. The gifts matter but the body matters more.
Any reading that leads to hierarchy, isolation, or self-promotion runs against the grain of Paul’s argument.
The Turn
If the church is a body, then the question shifts from “What do I have?” to “Who needs what I’ve been given?”
Jonathan’s challenge lands with his conviction to start needing each other.
That sounds simple, but it cuts deep. Needing others requires humility. It requires admitting limitations. It means receiving correction, encouragement, and help from unexpected places.
It also means rejecting comparison. The “I don’t belong here” narrative dissolves when we remember that we are all made in the image of God (see Genesis 1:27) and placed intentionally within the body of Christ.
And it means rejecting self-sufficiency. The Christian life was never designed to be a solo journey. You can start alone but you won’t last long that way.
This is where gospel, community, and mission intersect:
Gospel: Jesus is Lord, not us. Our identity is received, not achieved.
Community: We are bound together as one body, dependent on one another.
Mission: Our gifts are given not for visibility, but for building up others.
The Spirit’s work is always directional. It moves us toward Jesus and toward each other.
Song of the week: Have Your Way - Katy Nichole
In recent weeks, the message of this song by Katy Nichole has begun to resonate more deeply in my own life. Time and again, moments when I tried to map out my own plans were met with unexpected turns that ultimately revealed something better than what I had imagined. Situations that initially caused frustration or disappointment have often ended up serving a larger purpose, even if that purpose wasn’t immediately clear.
The song’s chorus captures that realization with peaceful clarity, “Lord have your way every time. Cause I know your plans are better than mine.” It’s a line that reflects a familiar tension for many people of faith. The desire to control the direction of our lives while learning to trust a plan that extends beyond our own understanding.
For Christians, myself includedthe journey of following Jesus often involves moments of humility like these. What feels like a setback can later reveal itself as guidance. Even when the final destination remains the same, the road taken to get there can look very different from what was first imagined.
That difference in path, however, is rarely without purpose. The experiences, challenges, and detours encountered along the way often shape faith in ways that can only be understood in hindsight. In that sense, the song serves as both a reflection and a reminder: trusting God’s plan does not always make the journey easier, but it frequently reveals that His way was better all along.
Carry It Into the Week
So what does this look like when the storm passes and the rhythms resume?
First, refuse comparison. When you feel the pull to measure yourself against others, return to the truth that Paul provides. “To each is given.” Your role is not to replicate someone else’s gift but to steward your own.
Second, practice DEpendence. Ask for help. Invite input. Let someone speak into your life even when it’s uncomfortable.
Third, engage the body intentionally. Don’t drift on the edges. Join a community where you are known, challenged, and encouraged.
Fourth, aim your gifts outward. Whatever God has given you, whether it be time, encouragement, leadership, or creativity, use it to build others up.
And finally, test everything by its trajectory. Does it lead you to confess “Jesus is Lord”? Does it deepen your connection to his people? If not, it may not be the Spirit at work.
Week in Reflection
As mentioned above, an untimely blizzard swept through Sioux Falls this week, forcing churches across the area to cancel in-person worship services. But the weather doesn’t stop the Lord. While the weather kept congregations out of their sanctuaries, it served as a reminder of how much the modern church has changed. Technology now allows believers to gather digitally when circumstances prevent them from meeting face to face.
Yet that convenience carries a tension. Online services can become an easy substitute for true community. The author of Hebrews reminds believers not to neglect meeting together, emphasizing the importance of shared worship and fellowship. While I was grateful for the opportunity to participate online this week, it also reinforced how different the experience feels compared to sitting among fellow believers in a church pew.
There is something powerful about corporate worship that simply cannot be replicated in a living room. The collective voices, the shared prayers, and the presence of a gathered community create a sense of awe that is difficult to capture alone. For those who may have grown comfortable watching services from home, perhaps this week can serve as an encouragement to take that next step and walk back through the church doors. The experience of worshipping together is unlike anything else.
The week also prompted reflection on God’s timing and the way He uses the gifts He places in our lives. As a teenager in high school, photography was one of my greatest passions. There was something special about capturing a moment and preserving it in a single frame. A memory that could last indefinitely.
But when college presented obstacles that prevented me from pursuing a photography degree, I pivoted to finance, another interest of mine. What once felt like a closed door now looks more like a detour. Two decades later, God has brought that original passion back into focus. Photography has once again become part of my journey, and the early steps of returning to it have been both exciting and encouraging. Seeing how this path has begun to unfold leaves me eager to discover where God will lead it next.
For those interested in following along on that journey, updates and work can be found on Facebook and Instagram under Life With Glanzer Photography. But above all, it is a reminder that the gifts God places within us are never wasted, or lost. Even when they seem dormant for years, He has a way of bringing them back at exactly the right time.
And remember, God loves you, and so do I.
Connection Church in Sioux Falls is a gospel-centered community committed to helping people follow Jesus through authentic relationships, biblical teaching, and everyday mission. Rooted in historic Christian belief and aligned with gospel renewal movements, the church exists to see lives transformed by Jesus. Learn more: https://siouxfallsconnection.com/who-we-are
