So, you want to be a hand? Tell you what, why don’t you start out as a spleen. You can learn and grow and mature there while we help you evolve into a hand. Oh, I see, you already have a palm, five digits, fingernails. But you’re kind of a baby hand. Working as a spleen will help you learn to be a mature hand. And remember when the mouth unintentionally bit you a while back? You seem to have been offended by that. Are you healing well? I really think some time as a spleen will help you heal and learn not to take offense.

Apparently the Church does believe in evolution – the morphing of one structure into another through sheer dumb luck and/or dogged persistence. I believe in Intelligent Design. I know, that term has been used to avoid the “G” word, but I would like to use it because it elegantly describes a thoughtful, thorough, purposeful, carefully implemented plan by God the Creator.

A hand will struggle to provide excellence as a spleen. It was not designed to function as a spleen. And no matter the good intentions of leadership, it will never be a spleen. There is no program, no conference, no class that will evolve a hand into a spleen. Nor will functioning as a spleen make a hand better at what hands are designed to do. In fact, coercing (even with the best intentions) a hand into serving as a spleen will almost certainly damage its ability to function within its true design. We are all designed specifically to operate within certain parameters in the Body. In a pinch can one member of the Body help out in an area for which it was not designed? Sometimes… for a while… inadequately… and perhaps with negative impact on it and the Body.

Uh, Mr Surrogate Head? I have an idea. Maybe my gifts would be better used reaching to grasp other hands stretching out for help. I’m not really very good at this spleen gig – filtering blood and creating disease-fighting white blood cells. No? Just keep doing what I’m doing? Really? I’m doing a great job? Hmmm. Btw, what are you doing down there between those cheeks? Aren’t you supposed to be guiding and keeping watch? You know, leading. Come to think of it, you look more like a foot than a head. What’s up with that? Oh, you have to take on a lot of functions you aren’t really designed for to keep your vision rolling. Hmmm.

Church leaders often run around wearing too many hats and plugging “hands” in as “spleens” – creating a kind of frankenchurch. We hear a lot about a lack of willing laborers. I am beginning to believe it looks more like what Josh describes in “There’s Little Room for the Body in the Modern Church”. The problem may not be lack of willing laborers, but lack of trusting leadership. Leadership that doesn’t trust God to provide people resources or doesn’t trust God in the people he provides. Leadership that is afraid. Afraid to allow “baby” hands to serve and mature and be mentored as hands. Afraid the mistakes of the maturing will reflect badly on them and The Vision. Afraid to relinquish control. They take too much upon themselves in order to control direction and pace of The Vision. Wouldn’t it be better if they would allow Christ to be the Head and allow him to lead through the people resources he provides? If direction and pace of The Vision were guided by God’s provision and placement of “body parts” within his design, how much stronger and more resilient would the body be?

In the human body we call massive organized growth that sucks up resources to fuel further growth “cancer.” A counterfeit that brings deformation and death. Growth of one member that outpaces the growth of the rest of the body may likewise be damaging – to the member experiencing the growth and to the rest of the body. In the same vein, a member that struggles to grow may need some extra attention and “nutrients.” We will not and should not all grow at the same rate. But we should all grow within the design. We should not attempt to artificially control growth.

Um, Surrogate Head, why are you trying to function as the head? I mean, you look like a foot. You work very well as a foot. You have provided support and balance…. Well, you did before you elevated yourself to headship. And, honestly, while I appreciate your effort, you really haven’t been a very attractive or functional hand either. No opposable digit for one thing. As a hand myself, I have developed many of the skills necessary to function in that capacity. I will be happy to help. Oh, that whole spleen thing again. And I see that I have offended you. Maybe it would be best for me to find a different body. It will be painful – I have served as a spleen here for several years and nobody likes to lose their spleen. But I just don’t feel I have been terribly effective as a spleen. I’m much more effective operating the way I was designed. So, I love this body, frankenchurch though it is, but I’m going to move on. In fact, there is this small group I have been attending….

In Bak’s Sand Pile: Strategies for a Catastrophic World the author, Ted Lewis, posits that Black Swan events are inevitable. A Black Swan event is one that has potential for catastrophic destruction. He also proposes that the more centrally controlled and highly interconnected the system, the less likely it is to survive such an event. The most resilient systems then are not centralized hubs with dense connectivity and control, but rather smaller networks with strong local connections between autonomous, but sympathetic, units with only simple ties to the primary system. Thus, the overall system is less likely to be damaged or destroyed by a disruption in one of the sections. And the damaged section/unit may be more readily repaired/restored by those less affected.

It is really quite wonderful operating as a hand in this little body. I was able to find some measure of joy as a spleen, but it was confining. I never really got to flex my digits. You know? Also, there is a remarkable freedom from performance/guilt – responding to needs as I am able and within my design capacity. Not feeling like I should be doing more to help a body that is, perhaps, growing at a pace and in a direction that may be more a product of surrogacy than authority. It’s not always comfortable here. I am being stretched, long unused muscles developed, tendons loosened, capability expanded. And it is so good, because it is happening with the support of an arm and a shoulder and legs and feet. Most importantly, it is under authority, not surrogacy. The eyes see a hand outstretched in need. Head? True religions is this…. Hey feet, can you take us over there, please? Knees stoop just a bit, would you? Shoulder, arm, hand, can you stretch out there and grasp that hand? OK, everybody lift. Perfect! Good job, Body!