The Challenge of Living "we" and not "me"
I had the thrill of growing up in Southwestern, Ohio in the 70's, during the time of "The Big Red Machine". For the unenlightened, that was the name give to the Cincinnati Reds baseball team of that era... Johnny Bench, Joe Morgan, Pete Rose, Tony Perez, Davey Concepcion, Ken Griffey (Sr.). This team won back-to-back World Series in 1975 and 1976. And then, during the off-season before the 1977 season, it happened. The Reds front office traded Tony Perez to the Montreal Expos. I was devistated! I felt betrayed! Where was the Reds' loyalty?
Since that time, I have come to understand professional baseball is a business, a consumable product. Today, there is very little loyalty on the part of management and players to each other, because "it is a business". In fact, today it is newsworthy if a player stays with the same team throughout their entire career. I must confess, I find it amusing when the guy making $6 million a year says he needs more money because he is "thinking about his family"!
Here is my concern. This same mindset of the business world has permeated our churches. In his book, The Divine Commodity, author Skye Jethani writes, "we've turned God into a consumable product" and this mindset has led to "the breakdown of community through market-driven individualism". The acceptance of the consumer mindset into our Christian culture has caused some Christians to be constantly shopping for the church that best fits their "needs". Once they find that church, they hang around long enough, until they find a better deal. You would think this approach of pandering to the consumer would have increased church attendance in America, but the opposite is true.
"The percentage of Americans engaged in a local congregations has been declining for years. In 1990 approximately 20 percent of the population attended church on any given weekend. By 2004 the figure had dropped to 17 percent. If the trend continues, by 2050 only 11 percent of Americans will attend church. Although megachurches have multiplied across the fruited plains, the numbers show that Christianity is consolidating and not expanding." Jethani, pp.17-18
My point is not to level a criticism against all megachurches and megachurch pastors. Many of these churches and their leaders are struggling with this same issue of "spiritual consumerism". The fact is, people can be just as consumeristic in a church running 40 on Sunday morning as a church running 4,000 on Sunday morning (see if this sounds familiar, "I LIKE a church where I know everyone").
So, what do we do? I believe one of the answers is to change our orientation from thinking about "me" to thinking about "we". The Apostle Paul emphasizes the communal, corporate life of the Body of Christ over the individual's experience. Of course, we are saved as individuals. The individual must open his/her heart to the Lord Jesus (Romans 10:9-13). But the moment we are saved, we are "baptized into one body - Jews or Greeks, slaves or free - and all were made to drink of one Spirit" (1 Corinthians 12:13) To the Romans, Paul wrote, "so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another" (Romans 12:5).
Imagine what would happen if we began to think and live "we", not just "me". Such a change in orientation will inform our conversations and our emotions (Ephesians 4:25-27. Thinking "we" instead of "me" will guide me in decisions on what I do with my money (Ephesians 4:28), my time (Ephesians 5:15), my worship (Ephesians 5:19-21) and my relationships (Ephesians 5:22-6:9).
Living "we" instead of "me" will be a challenge in this world, because it goes against our selfish and sinful natures. But, remember, we have the Spirit of God, we have the Word of God, and... we have each other.
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