Something Greater than Ourselves

There is a trend in 20^th and 21^st century American Christianity, and it is one of individualism. Unfortunately, individualism is not exclusively reserved for the secular realm, but has a firm hold on current Christianity as well. Now, what I am not saying is that the personal life of the Christian is unimportant. After all, “Our daily devotions bring joy in our personal fellowship with the Lord” and they should (Clowney 95). However, we cannot just (and, again, I emphasize that word “just”) focus on the life of the individual member. Do we so easily forget the fact that Christians are called to be unified in Christ, His body, and His Bride? An author I have recently been studying correctly states,

“Many people today find it difficult to grasp this sense of corporate Christian identity. We have been so soaked in the individualism of modern Western culture that we feel threatened by the idea of our primary identity being that of the family we belong to—especially when the family in question is so large, stretching across space and time. The church isn’t simply a collection of isolated individuals, all following their own pathways of spiritual growth without much reference to one another. It may sometimes look like that, and even feel like that. And it’s gloriously true that each of us is called to respond to God’s call at a personal level. You can hide in the shadows at the back of the church for a while, but sooner or later you have to decide whether this is for you or not. But we need to learn again the lesson (to take St. Paul’s image of the Body of Christ) that a hand is no less a hand for being part of a larger whole, an entire body. The foot is not diminished in its freedom to be a foot by being part of a body which also contains eyes and ears. In fact, hands and feet are most free to be themselves when they coordinate properly with eyes, ears, and everything else. Cutting them off in an effort to make them truly free, truly themselves, would be truly disastrous.” (Simply Christian by N.T. Wright)

Also along the lines of corporate focus, Clowney writes, “Above all, we must prize the blessing of corporate worship. The church of the Lord, gathered for worship, marks the pinnacle of our fellowship with the Lord and with one another. The church is the people of God, the new humanity, the beginning of the new creation, 

a colony of heaven” (Clowney 95).

So, what are the implications of a corporate focus? Before I answer this question, I think it is necessary to state, again, what this does not imply. A corporate focus does not imply that we are to neglect our hearts and personal lives and only focus on corporate worship. After all, a malfunctioning leg will negatively affect the entire body. However, it does imply that there is something greater than our individual selves, and there is something greater than what we as individuals think and feel. A rogue hand or one that is cut off from the body is useless. Now, to very inadequately answer part of the question, I will give one implication of a corporate focus. When I choose worship songs, are they songs with just chilling and hand-raising sounds? Do I choose songs that, yes, they are vague, but I know my Bible so I can interpret them based on my knowledge of Scripture?  Neither of these reasons is adequate! In Ephesians 5:19 and Colossians 3:16 “we are taught that the richly dwelling word of Christ gives us wisdom of the Spirit to teach and admonish one another. We do this in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs…” (Clowney 96). Instead of focusing our worship songs only on our private lives, they should be songs that teach and admonish the entire Bride of Christ.

Of course, there are many other implications concerning corporate focus, but there is neither time nor space for that now.