“Let no man seek his own, but every man another’s wealth.” ~ 1 Corinthians 10:24

It was the end of practice.

Every day, at the end of the Cross Country practices I coach, I give one of my runners the honor of breaking the team down — calling out the chant that closes out the work and sends everyone home. It is a small thing. But to a kid who shows up every day and gives everything, it means something.

One afternoon I asked who had not done it in a while. A hand went up. A good runner. A hard worker. One of those kids who does not complain, puts his head down, and does the work every single day. I thought I had been including him all along. I was confident of it, actually.

He told me he had done it maybe once or twice.

That shocked me.

I had been so focused on making sure everyone felt included that I had missed one of the very people standing right in front of me. My effort to be attentive had created a blind spot. My intention to include had produced exclusion.

The Church does this too.

There is a genuine and right desire in many congregations to reach outward — to be present in the world, to make the Gospel known. Some congregations will make this to the only intention at the neglect of all else. Paul understood the urgency. He declared in Romans 1:16 that he was not ashamed of the Gospel, and he proved it by spending his life crossing borders to proclaim it.

Outreach is not the problem.

The problem comes when the push outward causes us to neglect the Body we are already a part of.

Paul’s letters — our instructions for the church in this present age — are saturated with this inward attentiveness. In Galatians 6:10 he puts it plainly: “As we have therefore opportunity, let us do good unto all men, especially unto them who are of the household of faith.” Especially. The household of faith comes first. The Body is to be built up, edified, and cared for. That is not a retreat from ministry — it is the foundation of it.

A healthy Body is what goes out. A neglected Body has nothing to give.

The runner with his hand in the air was not bitter. He was not demanding. He just told the truth. And that quiet truth exposed something I needed to see — that good intentions without close attention still leave people behind.

Look around your church. Look around your small group, your Sunday school class, your ministry team. Who has been showing up faithfully, putting in the work, never making a scene — and quietly going unnoticed?

Paul told the Corinthians not to seek their own, but the good of others. He was writing to a church. He meant the people already in the room. Healed people, heal people. Hurt people, hurt people.

Good intentions are a start. But they are not enough.

We must pay attention to the order of the sending.