StainedGlassRebel

Previously, I talked about Bodybuilding as a team sport. I talked about the team (apostles, prophets, evangelists, pastor-teachers, teammates). I started to talk about the way the team interacts by being humble, gentle, patient, and tolerant of each other.

Today, I’m going to start talking about one of the most important elements of a team: Trust.

I mentioned last time the different people who work together to make the individual bodybuilder successful. One of the MOST important people on the bodybuilder’ team is called the spotter, and this is usually a trainer or another bodybuilder.

The Spotter in weight training is the person who supports another person during a particular exercise with an emphasis on allowing the lifter to lift or push more than they could normally do safely. Correct spotting involves knowing when to intervene and assist with a lift, and encouraging a training partner to push beyond the point in which they would normally ‘rack’ the weight (return it to its stationary position).

The Spotter is the person who supports their partner and pushes them to do more than they think they can. Lifters need to know that the spotter is paying attention, is strong enough to actually help, cares enough about their well-being to give their all. Bodybuilders need to know that they can trust their spotters.

However, having a spotter is not enough, just like having people in your church is not enough. Those people need to trust each other.

I have seen multiple YouTube videos where people had spotters that were completely useless. One bench presser was lifting FAR more than he could handle. His spotter helped him lift the bar off of the rack…and then just let go. The weights came crashing down on the poor lifter. I saw another one where the weights fell onto the lifter and the spotter was too weak to help get it off. Again, that lifter learned the importance of a trustworthy partner.

Did you know that the majority of bench press deaths occur because someone tried to lift without a spotter? That’s how important having a person you can trust on your team is. It’s literally life and death.

The point of all of this is to say: Bad things will happen if we try to build the body alone. Bad things will also happen when we cannot trust the people who are working with us. Just like in bodybuilding, trying to do all the heavy lifting of ministry without a trusted partner can lead to some very serious consequences.

What does any of this matter? I’m hammering home the point of trusting each other because if we are going to build the Body of Christ and be gentle, humble, patient, and tolerant, then we need to recognize the behaviors we easily do that keep us from doing that, namely lying, allowing our anger to cause us to treat each other poorly (sin), using words to tear down rather than build up.

Ephesians lays out a list of dos and don’ts because the author recognized that all of these have a huge impact on the health of the body. In my next post, I will begin discussing them. I will start with lying.