When my dad passed away, one of his best friends said of him, “Everywhere he went Brad was building a team.” This was an apt characterization even if it wasn’t a quality that I had considered before. My dad loved working together with people to accomplish a goal. He realized that the strength of people joining forces surpassed the results of each individual’s efforts. My dad was a strong proponent of “synergy” long before it became a popular buzzword.
While we tend to recognize that we can’t win a softball game or accomplish a business objective all by ourselves, many Christian has been tempted to believe that the pursuit of godliness falls into another category. One indication of this is the increasing number of believers who evaluate a church performance or even the selection of which church they attend based on what they “get out of it.” The communal aspect of a congregation has been replaced with the mindset of a consumer. Church is a place we go to get what we need, just like Costco is. The fact that we have relationships with some of the people who are there at the same time seems to be a positive byproduct, but not a necessary component.
Scripture, however, makes it clear that this view of church isn’t consistent with God’s view. In fact, a local congregation is integral to the process of growing in our faith. The early Church supported each other by meeting physical needs, as well as spiritual ones (see Acts 4:32-33). While each member of a church grows in their faith individually, that growth can be strengthened or weakened by other members of the congregation (See Romans 12:3-8; Acts 4:42-47; Hebrews 10:24-25; Colossians 3:16). No Christian can fully pursue God and His desire for their lives apart from the active involvement in a local body of believers.
This wasn’t just a New Testament understanding of what it means to belong to God’s family though. In Leviticus 20 we see a stark reminder that what one member of a community does can have an impact for all. As the Lord makes clear His condemnation of the pagan practice of child sacrifice, He tells the nation of Israel this, “then I will set my face against that man [who engages in child sacrifice] and against his clan and will cut them off from among their people, him and all who follow him in whoring after Molech [the foreign idol to whom pagans sacrificed]” (v. 20). Did you catch the surprising part of this warning? It wasn’t just the person who participated in this detestable practice that was cut off from the people – it was the entire clan to which he belonged. It was expected that the community would be involved in the individual’s pursuit of God. If they failed to do that – if they failed to hold their community member accountable and as a result he engaged in child sacrifice – they were held accountable for his sin and suffered the discipline as well. Pursuit of godliness was considered a team effort.
Likewise, our pursuit of greater sanctification isn’t an individual event. God intended the local church to be a means by which our understanding of Him and our display of His likeness were strengthened. We were made to be relational beings, and our relationships with our brothers and sisters in Christ are intended to aid in our sanctification. If we fail to recognize this, not only will the local church suffer, but so will our individual walk with God.
My dad constantly formed teams because he recognized that they could achieve more than was possible if each person worked individually. When it comes to our pursuit of Christlikeness, let’s recognize that we can also achieve more when we are active and dedicated members of a team. We help our brothers and sisters grow, and they help us. We are accountable not only for our increase in Christlikeness, but for the degree to which we helped our brothers and sisters do the same. Let’s take this charge seriously, and as a result, may God’s greatness be further displayed in our lives – and in the lives of our local congregations.
