Church of the Brethren 
Western Plains District 

We are a network of churches in community as followers of Jesus.  
We endeavor to continue Jesus' work peacefully, simply, together.  

New Vision Statement to Be Considered

The District Board is recommending that the 2008 District Conference adopt a new Vision Statement—an attempt to focus in just a few words the central calling of the Western Plains District. The statement grew out of several months of prayerful discernment by the Inspired Future Team (the “IF Team”), a group charged with helping the District rearticulate its vision, plan for a staffing transition and consider a streamlined structure.

 A reader’s theatre presentation was used to introduce the theme, providing reflective background for each word or phrase chosen. The reader’s theatre presentation and accompanying PowerPoint slides are available on the District’s website. 

The Vision Statement reads: “The Western Plains District—rooted together in Love to be Christ’s transforming hope and power!” Congregations are encouraged to become familiar with the statement before it is considered at District Conference.

The One Body of Christ

Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it. 1 Corinthians 12:27

The Apostle Paul boldly declares that we – together – are the body of Christ. And how do we become that body? We may too quickly respond that the body is formed by individual believers who choose to join together. Unfortunately, thinking that way makes us the founders of the church. The New Testament teaches quite differently.

In 1 Corinthians 12, we are the body of Christ because we have been transformed, reenergized, breathed into by the spirit of God in Christ. We are truly the body of Christ when we are dependent upon the Spirit of Christ making us one and making us children of God and giving us the very same mission that God gave Christ. Without the spirit of Christ moving in and through us, we are just a community service club. We are the body of Christ not because of our decision but because of God’s.

There’s more. What about you and me? If our decision to join together is not the source of the body of Christ, what place do we have in the church? It would be ridiculous to think that we could assemble a body by fastening together hands and feet and a head to a torso. Yet, it is just as clear that we observe the life of the body through what the hands and feet and facial expressions do.

And that is true, also, for the body of Christ. Together, we are indeed the body of Christ, but individually we are the means that body has of demonstrating its life. God places us in the body in a way that our gifts and talents make the body of Christ more complete and able to do the work that God calls it to do. Without a hand, our own personal bodies are crippled, but we can get along. Without you and me contributing in all the ways that we can the body of Christ can also get along. But it is crippled.

We should not miss a further most important implication. As congregations we are not first of all individual congregations who choose to band together and therefore form the larger Church. It is always the Spirit of God in Christ who creates the body of Christ. Whether two or three or hundred thousand or a million are together as disciples of Christ, they are together as the body of Christ. Each congregation, no matter how small or how large, is part of the full body of Christ.

As the Scripture says: “You are the body of Christ and individually the members of it.”

• Robert W. Dell

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