Do Emotionally and Spiritually Weak People Dominate the Church?

The Apostle Paul in his first letter to the Corinthians says, “...the members of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and those members of the body that we think less honorable we clothe with greater honor and our less respectable members are treated with greater respect, whereas our more respectable members do not need this.” (12:22-23) R. Paul Stevens and Phil Collins, in their book The Equipping Pastor, ask if this means that the weaker member should dominate the church. They say, “In fact many emotionally and spiritually weak people do dominate the church. They often appear emotionally fragile, and people around them ‘walk on eggshells.’
Sometimes they dominate the church with their messages; ‘Poor me’ or ‘The church is not meeting my needs (or saving my children).’ But systems theory teaches that the seemingly weak member of a family or a church is the most powerful, organizing everyone around his or her needs.” (p. 33) – Something to think about, isn’t it?

Of course, while the tyranny of the weak may be a reality for the church, that’s not what Paul was talking about at all. Paul was not interested in organizing the church around weakness, but that there would be unity and fellowship. (Stevens and Collins, p. 33) “But God has so arranged the body, giving the greater honor to the inferior member, that there may be no dissension within the body, but the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together with it; if one member is honored, all rejoice together with it.” (1 Cor. 12:24-26)

Paul wanted to make sure that in the Corinthian community those who serve and do the grunt work of community life would know that they are honored and respected by the community as much as those whose gifts place them in more prominent positions. To see the gifts that each person offers for the building up of the Body of Christ as being of great importance for the sake of the community and the ministry of the community is what
promotes unity.

Knowing that the church often succumbs to the tyranny of the weak, usually in our attempts to be pastoral or nice or respectful or Christian, we need to work in all levels of the church to recognize this and consciously focus on the ministry that God sets before us. We need to come to an understanding that the purpose of Christian community has more to do with combining our gifts to meet the needs of a broken world than it does with meeting the needs of our most demanding people.

Mission is an outward focus which needs the gifts of all, given generously and honored equally, for the sake of bringing Jesus to the world.