In his book, Why We Need the Church to Become More Like Jesus, Joseph H. Hellerman paraphrases author Bruce Malina’s description of a “strong-group” mindset:
“The individual person is embedded in the [church family] and is free to do what he or she feels right and necessary only if in accord with [church family] norms and only if the action is in the [church family’s] best interest” (ch. 3).
I
suspect that in many churches if a pastor made that assertion this Sunday, he
would be labeled as “cultist” and would soon be shown the door. In our
individualistic Western culture, we don’t trust those who claim that “the needs
of the many outweigh the needs of the few or the one” (to borrow a phrase from
Star Trek). Yet isn’t that what Scripture consistently teaches?
“So with yourselves, since you are eager for manifestations of the
Spirit, strive to excel in building up the church” (1 Cor. 14:12).
“…to equip the saints for the work of ministry, for building up the
body of Christ, until we all attain to the unity of the faith and the knowledge
of the Son of God, to mature manhood, to the measure of the stature of the
fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:12-13).
Hellerman
goes on:
“It is not hard to see how (1) the anthropocentric approach to evangelism found in gospel tracts like The Four Spiritual Laws, (2) the framing of spiritual gifts in terms of personal fulfillment, and (3) the felt-needs focus of the seeker-sensitive movement contributed significantly to the seismic shift from ‘us’ to ‘me’ that occurred during the latter half of the twentieth century among American evangelicals” (ch. 5).
Is it
any wonder that in the twenty first century we struggle to get people to darken
the doors of the church with any kind of regularity? If the church is all about
me, then I can choose my own path. But if it is about the wellbeing of the local
body of believers, then my church family needs me and I need my church family.
“The church is a family, not a business. It is an organism, not an organization… The commitment to which Jesus calls us is a relational commitment, not an institutional commitment... To become a follower of Jesus is to become loyal to the people of God, not to a pastor’s vision or to the demands of a large church’s calendar of programs” (ch. 2).
Where
the rubber meets the road for many of us in church leadership is in discerning
how we can build that relational connection and commitment to the body either
through the programs of the church or apart from such programs. Are the events
on the calendar facilitating the growth of the church family or are they
leftovers from a different era? Are we connecting people to one another or only
introducing them to God? Are church members committed to each other’s growth or
just checking off one more obligation?
“We grow in our faith as individual Christians to the degree that we are deeply rooted relationally in a local church community that is passionately playing its part in God’s grand story of creation, fall, redemption, and restoration” (preface).
Or as
my pastor put it, “We grow together or we don’t grow at all.”
“We are to grow up in every way into
Him who is the head, into Christ, from whom the whole body, joined and held
together by every joint with which is it equipped, when each part is
working properly, makes the body grow so that it builds itself up in love”
(Eph. 4:15b-16).
© 2020 Dawn Rutan. Unless otherwise indicated, all Scripture are ESV and all images are copyright free from pixabay.com. The opinions stated do not necessarily reflect the views of my church or employer.
