The WCG Motto:
"Men, Women and Children 
Making a Difference
for the Kingdom of God"

By J. Michael Feazell

The Worldwide Church of God motto says a great deal about how we see ourselves in the world as part of the body of Christ. Let’s take a few moments to consider its implications.

Our motto begins with "Men, women and children." The task Jesus Christ has given our church involves every one of us—not just ordained elders, deacons and deaconesses. Not just men. Not just adults. It involves everybody.

The apostle Paul used the analogy of a human body to illustrate the activity of the church: "The body is a unit, though it is made up of many parts; and though all its parts are many, they form one body. So it is with Christ" (1 Corinthians 12:12).

When one part of the body is not free to function in the operation of the whole, then the whole body suffers (verse 26). In the Worldwide Church of God, our goal is that every man, woman and child have the opportunity to contribute usefully in the ways the Holy Spirit has gifted them. And each person’s contribution is important. Each person’s contribution makes a difference for the kingdom.

Our motto continues, "Men, Women and Children Making a Difference." God provides spiritual abilities to all members of the body of Christ as he sees fit for service and activity in the church and in the world.

Paul wrote: "Now to each one the manifestation of the Spirit is given for the common good" (1 Corinthians 12:7). These "gifts of the Spirit," as they are often called, are given by God to believers for the common good. These are not for show, nor for any other merely personal or selfish purpose. These gifts are for the common good of the church and the common good of humanity in general. They are means by which God’s goodness is manifest on earth through his people.

That means we need to take the initiative to put to use in God’s service whatever spiritual gifts we have. What the Spirit empowers and leads us to do has purpose, and therefore it needs to be done well.

Because God gives these spiritual gifts in the context of the church, it takes teaching and guidance from the church to help us use our gifts wisely, effectively and in coordination with other members of the body.

It also takes accountability and feedback so we can improve. What we do in God’s service needs to be thought through in humility, prepared for in unity and prayer, and put into practice in such a way that it can, in love, make a positive difference.

Most of the time, the difference our efforts make may seem quite small, but mustard seeds are also small, and Jesus likened the kingdom of God to a tiny mustard seed that takes root and finally takes over the whole world.

Our work in the Lord has meaning and value, whether it is preparing a meal, visiting the sick, forgiving an offense, loading software, running off copies, painting a wall, preaching the Word, visiting a prisoner, doing someone’s shopping, mopping a floor, sending out literature, comforting the brokenhearted, setting up a meeting room, mowing a lawn, making a phone call, delivering a meal, teaching a class, fixing a computer, hosting a small group, offering a word of encouragement, ushering a meeting, providing a ride, handing out flyers, trimming a shrub, raising money, planning an activity, washing a car, organizing a social, running a booth, refereeing a game, hosting a house church, listening without condemning, welcoming a guest, or etc., etc. You get the idea. Everything we do has great value when we offer it to the Lord.

Paul wrote these encouraging words in 1 Corinthians 15:58: "Therefore, my dear brothers, stand firm. Let nothing move you. Always give yourselves fully to the work of the Lord, because you know that your labor in the Lord is not in vain." No work done for Jesus is in vain.

When we belong to Christ, everything we do is a potential love-offering to God, a potential act of service to him. What we do for other people, Jesus said, he considers us doing for him (Matthew 25:40, 45). Sometimes Christians envy certain impressive spiritual gifts they think others have, and forget that the Holy Spirit is present with us at every moment for the help we need to act in any situation according to Jesus’ love.

Every act of self-sacrificial love is an expression of the kingdom of God at work in the world. Every time we don’t push to get our own way, or give up our desires, to serve someone else, we are walking in the steps of Jesus and making a difference for the kingdom of God.

Our motto concludes with "Men, Women and Children Making a Difference for the Kingdom of God." The nature of the task is not what is important, as we have seen. What people consider lowly tasks have no less value than what people consider great tasks.

In the kingdom of God, service done in self-sacrificial love is world changing, and whether something appears great or small to people is of no consequence to God.

The important thing is that what we do serves others, and that it is done to the Lord, by his child, as a testament to his kingdom in the world. The kingdom of God is in the world as yeast in dough, as a treasure hidden in a field, as seeds cast on all sorts of ground.

Its work is often invisible, "small," unnoticed by those who are not looking for it. But as part of the church of God, we are always a testament to what God is doing in the world: making all things new (Revelation 21:5).

In Christ, we have already been made new, and our presence in the world in Christ’s name is God’s declaration that just as his people have been made new, so all things will indeed be made new in Christ (2 Corinthians 5:17; Romans 8:21; 2 Peter 3:13).

The Worldwide Church of God motto serves to remind us that our work in the Lord truly makes a difference, and that God calls all of us to be fellow workers together with the saints. It reminds us why we are here, and why we are sacrificing our time and our energy in the many and varied ways we all are gifted by the Spirit to serve in the body of Christ.

Our work together as believers in Jesus Christ is a work that endures by faith. We are called to serve the One who is faithful, and we trust him to see us through the trials of life, trials that serve to strengthen that same faith.

God stands faithfully beside us in our good times and in our bad times, and heaven and earth bear witness to that priceless truth every time we trust him with our own lives enough to act in his love toward others.

Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2001