Nobodies

So then neither he who plants is anything, nor he who waters, but God who gives the increase. - 1Corinthians 3v7

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As I look back over the nearly 34 years of my Christian life I think of it as often marked by personalities. The school I went to and the churches I attended, in fact virtually every church I ever attended has had their “personalities.” Their have been certain names that have been portrayed as pictured as successes and if a church could get one of them in for a meeting it indicates that they are a success as well. The big names can get away with more demands than the “nobodies.”

Names and personalities have been the cause for divisions and acceptance or non-acceptance. Schools and churches have been praised our condemned for the names they have had to speak for them. One must prove himself on the small church circuit before he can make it to the big time. Schools recognise the big names with honorary degrees and then that degree insures future success.

Tragically this concept of personality cults has resulted in division after division in the body. The tragedy is that this is not limited to any one part of the body of Christ, but runs the gamut, infiltrating to the whole.

One of the nice things about coming to Ireland was that all of a sudden names meant nothing. I remember when a noted speaker came over and the church advertised the meetings no one had a clue who it was.

From what Paul writes, this is not the way it was meant to be. “Who is Paul? Who is Apollos?” he asks rhetorically. Some plant, some water, some harvest, but God gets the increase. What are the ones who plant, water, and harvest. Paul says that none of us are anything. Today we might say, “We are nobodies.”

That doesn’t set well does it? The unknown, unrecognised faithful pastor of a small church in the Appalachian foothills is a nobody. The noted author, Bible college president, and pastor of a church of 2,000 is a nobody. It is God who gives the increase. Whether we pastor a church of 20 or 2,000 we need to remember that we are nobodies. If we serve in some other ministry, or go out into the workplace to be a faithful witness day after day we are nobodies.

What an army the “nobodies” would be if we remembered that God is the One to give the increase and get the glory.