Fundy Failure

Another one of the areas of culture that the church has widely (and sadly) adapted is individualism.  America is quite possibly the most individualistic country on the planet. And I think the American church has widely accepted this trend instead of transforming it. The church has developed Terrell Owens syndrome (“I like me some me”).

It’s not that I think the church doesn’t care about other people. I think that many churches in America care deeply about other people. Where I see this trend is in the area of growth. We tend to focus on individual growth of the Christian instead of group growth. It’s kind of like the church is saying, “We are glad that you came to Jesus and we hope you come back to church every week, but for the most part you are on your own. It is solely up to you whether you will grow closer to Christ.”

I think this is a huge mistake. We were designed to live in community and we were designed to follow Christ together, not separately.

We have become like Cain, asking the question, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” (Genesis 4:9). The resounding answer is, “YES!”

The spiritual maturity of our brothers and sisters in Christ is a shared responsibility. We must take a portion of the responsibility for the spiritual growth of our fellow Christ followers.

The Bible says we are to share the load of each other’s burden (Galatians 6:5).  Jesus prayed before He died that we would all be “one”, because that would show an individualistic world that Jesus was really from God and came to change everything (John 17:21). He wanted us to follow Him together. He knew firsthand the loneliness that comes from the absence of community. He died alone on the Cross after all of his closest friends left him in the garden by himself.

He endured the pain of individualism so that his church would not allow anyone to suffer alone.