Many new parents and grand parents love to explain to the rest of us how their children are geniuses or mini miracles. And we pretend to love to listen to them explain this. "Little Johnny started walking at 10 months and could say the alphabet by his first birthday!" "My Lucy could read The Cat in the Hat by age 3 and wrote her first letter to Grandma in kindergarten!" "You should see Andrew. He made all-district in baseball and basketball this year in middle school!"

Let’s just say that Mrs. DiBenedetto tops these comments when she brags about her daughter Kaitlyn. The youngster taught herself the drums at age 5 and picked up the guitar by 11. After playing supporting instrumental roles with a number of local New Jersey rock acts, she broke off on her own at 16 to form the band Just Kait.

Just Kait is a band featuring, well, just Kait. She literally plays and records every instrument — drums, bass and guitar — and lays down her own vocal tracks as well. As a 17-year-old high-school senior, Kait released her first EP-length record last August. Hannah Montana who?

Kait is almost as impressive as the perennially hip Stevie Wonder. After signing with Motown Records at 11, he released his first single at 13. He also recorded one or two instruments on his albums — namely piano, bass, guitar, harmonica, drums, congas and bongos. And, oh yeah, he’s blind. There’s that.

But none of this diminishes Kaitlyn’s achievements. Last summer, Just Kait had two pop-culture accolades slapped onto her punk-pop single "Sick." MTV made the song a Discover and Download feature — a publicity wildfire given to only the hottest new up-and-comers. And the E! Channel used the high-energy song to back its summer network commercial series.

In Just Kait’s music videos, Kaitlyn changes her wardrobe, including glasses, hats and wigs, as she is filmed playing all three instruments in the band.

Doesn’t the word band imply a group of people coming together around a common purpose? Did Kait grow up unable to play nice with others on the playground? Maybe her first word was mine.

Can you imagine her live shows, as she does the customary introduction of the group during the encore? "On guitar tonight is the talented Kaitlyn. Laying down the soulful bass is Kaity B. Keeping the rhythm going … we call her DiBen. And I’m Kait. Together we’re Just Kait — thanks so much for coming out tonight!"

As staggering as it is that someone who can’t vote can make pop-music headlines. But the "one-person band" genre is nothing new. We’ve seen it in popular artists from Prince and Paul McCartney to the weird guy at the fair simultaneously playing folk tunes on the accordion, harmonica, and foot drums and between-the-knees cymbals.

The point here isn’t to bad-mouth Kaitlyn DiBenedetto. What’s she’s doing is pretty cool. It’s just that being a one-person band isn’t what our text is all about. The problem in many churches is that there are too many people trying to play a whole bunch of instruments. This chapter’s theme is that all of us are in the band, and we all have an instrument to play. The quality of the music depends on each of us, as individuals, using our gifts for the benefit of the whole.

Okay. There’s no band in 1 Corinthians 12. The chapter is about a body, not a band. But Paul makes the point explicit: If the body were all eye, it would be one gross monster of a body. The message in terms of Paul’s image of the church reveals two distinct themes: the reality of diversity and the necessity of being in harmony.

It’s the overlooked word in this passage but is central to the idea that the body is supposed to be diverse. A church is many members. It isn’t just the tithers or the leaders or the confirmed. Paul isn’t talking about membership numbers here; he means people. And every one of the many, every part of the body matters.

Starbucks puts its employees through rigorous training to ensure that every nonfat, no-whip, sugar-free Caramel Macchiato is precisely the same as the next. It wants loyal customers to get the same exact drink at a neighborhood store as they do at the airport Starbucks or as they do at the Starbucks in Manhattan while traveling for business.

That kind of product uniformity is admirable in producing coffee, but it’s awful in producing healthy ministry in our churches.

If everyone were a visionary leader, nobody would complete a single project. If analytics weren’t balanced by big-picture people, we’d have paralysis by analysis. If everyone were administrative-minded and ministry conversations lacked input from the creative-minded, you’d have well-organized community missions that were irrelevant and boring. Without servants, nobody would count the offering or wash the communion vessels.

In light of the "many" members, we have to wonder, are the spiritual gifts listed in 1 Corinthians chapter twelve and Ephesians chapter four exhaustive? In

other words, are there more gifts than just those that appear in these passages? Are there as "many" gifts as there are "many" members?

Scripture lists other gifts that are not in our text, things like: hospitality, martyrdom, voluntary poverty. It’s likely that people have spiritual gifts arranged in the body by God’s choice that don’t get mentioned in the Bible. Things like musical ability, arts and crafts, plumbing and wiring, accounting, quality control, giving good advice, holding the attention of toddlers … for three minutes at a time.

The diversity is as big as the attendance. So Paul’s vision of church is not a few one-man bands playing all the music. It’s every member as minister. Co-creating the church and not consuming it. Investing in it and not just attending it.

The word "all" shows up 13 times in this passage! When Paul asks are we all apostles, are we all prophets? he is quite aware that all of us don’t possess all of those gifts. Paul is speaking to the whole body, all of us, and not just the leaders.

So we have to ask ourselves, is our church a Beatles church or a U2 church? Los Angeles Times music critic Robert Hilburn captures the anti-Kait nature of U2, the spiritual rock band that practices collaborative diversity in songwriting.

"John Lennon or Paul McCartney usually came up with songs and then taught them to George Harrison and Ringo Starr. But U2 collaborates to a degree that is rare — a process that depends on the singular chemistry of the four musicians. Bono and guitarist Edge bring ideas into the studio — stuff like a title, the trace of a melody or a catchy riff — then bassist Adam Clayton and drummer Larry Mullen join in the actual construction of the songs.

The grueling give and take sometimes stretches for weeks as the musicians toss ideas back and forth, equal partners in the search for an emotion that seems fresh and deeply rooted." So are we a Beatles church or a U2 church? Are we a few leading the whole band or are we an entire band working together to accomplish a goal?

The apostle Paul discusses the idea of being in harmony within the Body of Christ in terms of unity, shared vision and purpose. Being on the same page.

Churches have lifecycles just like people do. They are born, they grow and mature, they decline and they die. In the absence of biblical mission, the congregation suffers a lack of vision, which leads to plateau and decline. But the tipping point that flips a congregation from the upward side of the life cycle to the downward side is not just poor organizational structure, troubled relationships, or weak programs.

Problems with programs, people, and policies are the result of inadequate vision. When people can see no compelling destination to which all church activities are leading, they are understandably less willing to show up and pay up. It’s not a lack of commitment; it the lack of a cause that is worthy of commitment.

Two things should be true of our Christian experiences: Our inner life needs to radiate outward, and what we radiate needs to be contagious. Christianity should be catching. In other words, God intended Christian faith to be an "inter-experience" and not just an inner experience.

In Romans, Paul reminds us to mourn with those who mourn and rejoice with those who rejoice. The writer of Hebrews tells us to provoke one another to love and good deeds. This kind of unity leads to other interconnectedness as well. Verse 26 reminds us, "If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together."

In describing a healthy church, Paul says it takes both diversity and unity. But here’s one more thought to pull this all together. Spiritual gifts aren’t the same as ministry needs in the church.

Everybody here, and our members who are not here all have some kind of gift. I am asking each of you to use the gift you have. Who has the "gift" of holding crying babies, handing out programs, mowing the lawn or folding bulletins, setting up Communion, changing the paraments, maintaining the building, reaching out to our community? These things all need to happen, and they are all places where we can be serving.

We are a team that is united by Christ. We are recipients of Christ’s love and mercy. We are the poor, the captives, the blind, the oppressed. By grace thought faith, Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection gives us new life and identity. Word and Sacrament unites individuals into the communion of saints. We are empowered by the Holy Spirit to rejoice in the Lord who has saved us and appointed us to serve.

In gratitude, we willingly die to ourselves, and in so doing, we serve Christ, glorify God and win souls who will in turn bless and serve the body of Christ.

Serving in the church and the living out of our giftedness — we all should do both. It’s good to help vacuum the floors, gather food for the poor and homeless and put together flower arrangements for the altar. God made "all" of you to be the "many" for the One. Go in peace and serve the Lord. Amen.