The mobile missional body of Christ may be said to embody a personal and corporate identity for the people of God. It may be said to occur as each of us come to see ourselves a part of the one controlling head (Jesus Christ is the head of the body). The life blood of the body of Christ is the Spirit. The Spirit, as the flowing lifeblood of Jesus might be said to empower people to participate in the life-giving blood of Jesus’ sacrifice and new resurrection life that is symbolic of the real presence of Christ. In other words, as parts of the body of Christ, we are filled with the Spirit of Jesus’ life-giving-blood, which symbolically represents that he has given his life for the world. We are a sacramental body, in the sense that we represent the sacred presence of the living Jesus to those we engage in mission among in our daily lives. We are the body and the blood of the Christ who is present in the public square at work ahead of us, and with whom we are called to participate alongside as his missionaries. We are called to serve the Lord’s Supper to the people of the world, as the metaphorical hands and feet of Jesus. We might be termed his missionary people. Each of us might be said to have our own missional ministries. In what ways does your local church equip people to identify their specific gifts so that they might exercise them whenever they sense the call of the Spirit to work alongside Jesus?
Andy Hardy
Undergraduate Programme Director