The churches in the book of Acts were highly collective-deterministic communities with a common sense of destiny, where “the congregation of those who believed were of one heart and soul, and not one of them claimed that anything belonging to him was his own” (Acts 2:32). Yet, churches in today’s postmodern and post-Latter Rain times are highly individualistic communities, where the primary concerns of the congregation are personal spirituality and the primacy of “me and my family”.
Judges 6:12-14
The angel of the LORD appeared to him and said to him, “The LORD is with you, O valiant warrior.” Then Gideon said to him, “O my lord, if the LORD is with us, why then has all this happened to us? And where are all His miracles which our fathers told us about, saying, ‘Did not the LORD bring us up from Egypt?’ But now the LORD has abandoned us and given us into the hand of Midian.” The LORD looked at him and said, “Go in this your strength and deliver Israel from the hand of Midian. Have I not sent you?”
In the age of individualism where primary interactions with God and His congregations are about the primacy of “me” and what God has called “me” to do, many of us will rejoice when personal prophecies are delivered to us, especially by an angel. To various degrees, we begin to think that it is our own responsibility and stewardship – between “me” and the Spirit – to fulfil our own personal calling and destiny.
Yet, our personal calling is never personal or independent of others’ calling, isn’t it?
For Gideon, his personal calling was tied to corporate Israel. Without the need to deliver Israel from the hands of the Midianites, there was no need for the calling of Gideon, just like the preceding seven years, and Gideon understood this fact. In other words, if Israel did not fulfil its prophetic calling, then Gideon would not fulfil his prophetic calling, no matter how valiant he might be as a warrior. That was why his primary focus and response when he received the calling of God were about “us”, since all individual callings and graces must be viewed, celebrated, activated, and fulfilled from the perspective of “us” and how we can integrate and synergise with the body-community to which we are joined as body-members for the benefit of the body-community.
Ephesians 4:16
from whom the whole body, being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part, causes the growth of the body for the building up of itself in love.
Indeed, a body-member by itself is dead without the body (like a lizard’s tail that is separated from the body), and ineffective without other body-members complementing and functioning with it.
If “to each one is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good” of the body (1 Corinthians 12:7), then we must recognise that a “finger” that is not integrated and synergised to the body for community life, proper functioning, corporate accountability, and common good is dead to itself and a hindrance to the body. This is true whether it is to the primary local body of Christ or the wider universal body of Christ, for God will mature, train, and prove faithful a body-member within a local body before He sends him out to the wider body, just like a child is matured, trained, and proven faithful in the home environment before he is ready to take on the world.
Thus when God speaks to you about your individual grace and calling, ask God how you can integrate and synergise your grace and calling in your local church where you can function effectively, serve its needs, and multiply your “talents”. Even if you feel that your call is to the global body, train and prove yourself in the local body first, because when you have been proven faithful and fruitful in a small local body, you will be given authority over ten cities (c.f. Luke 19:17). After all, if you are not effective and fruitful in one vineyard, how will you be effective and fruitful in ten vineyards?
In summary, we are not here to practise personal ministry and gifting, but we are here to fulfil corporate mission and destiny through collective exercising of our grace and calling. The former is independent and convenient, but the latter requires integration, submission, and synergy of “me” into “us”.
In addition, the principal place of our training, maturation, and proving is in our local body, just like how Stephen and Philip did it in the church in Jerusalem (c.f. Acts 6-8).
Post-Script
The house of Levi did not see their unique priestly function as serving their own house but the whole house of Israel; the clan of Reuben did not settle down into their own inheritance until they had fought for the other clans’ inheritance on the other side of the promised land; and God did not judge the sin of Achan of the tribe of Judah within the tribe of Judah alone but as a whole nation of Israel.
As God’s ONE people, individual houses did not see themselves with individualistic eyes or through the lens of self-determination, but as an integrated and synergised whole community with a common calling and collective destiny in the midst of the nations.
Personal calling must not only be true to oneself as a body-member, but it must also be true to the collective determination of the body-community to which the body-member is joined.
Individualism has caused churches to be filled with people who see their church attendance as another expression of their own identities, an aid in their pursuit of spiritual esteem and self-actualisation, rather than as a “conjoined” people whose common aspiration and collective determination define theirs.
In God’s community, individualism diverges and divides, while communalism converges and unifies. Furthermore, individualism can only be truly expressed and fulfilled in communalism, for “me” can only be truly found in “us” of the “I AM”.
Let the spirit of communalism prevail over the spirit of individualism in the church. Amen.
Post Post-Script
A local church is like a local football team.
Can a striker fulfil his fullest potential and calling in the team by playing his own ways without integrating and synergising with other members of the team? Individualistic players in the team do not go far, do they?
Defenders do not only defend but must learn to support the attack as well. A defender cannot say, “My primary grace is to defend, not to support the attack, so I will just stay in my defensive third,” because teamwork is key to overcoming the opposition. This is true of strikers who must also support the defence. Even the role of goalkeepers is not limited to a shot-stopper but a ball distributor who can launch a counter-attack effectively.
A footballer must play not only to his own strength, but also play to his teammates’ strength, so that his teammates can play to his strength in mutuality.
Fivefold ministers in the church are like managers and coaches who must train, equip, strategise, and orchestrate the players to play together seamlessly to the maximum of individual and team capabilities to win the game.
Individualism and an overemphasis on individual grace have caused the church to be a gathering of loose and disjointed body-members functioning individually and tending to their personal fulfilment, rather than a well-integrated and fully-synergised body, “being fitted and held together by what every joint supplies, according to the proper working of each individual part” for a common destiny.
In other words, church must be a communalistic community that avoids individualism but integrates individualness and synergises individualities for a common goal and destiny.
Let the true body of Christ arise!
By the way, can football players work from home, where every player trains over Zoom with one another without physically relating and sparring with each other, and then play a match with the opposition over Zoom on matchday? Can football players fulfil their individual callings by expressing their skills individually in this manner?
While it is fine for spectators to support their favourite team and gain personal satisfaction by watching the game online, it is impossible for the players to play with each other without physically playing and relating with each other, isn’t it? Now we can understand how Christians, especially those who are satisfied with Zoom church, have been conditioned to become individualistic spectators and consumers rather than collective players in the church, and why “live” broadcast is sufficient despite a less immersive environment.
We must change this individualistic spectator and personal consumer mentality in the church, and guide the people to become highly integrated and synergised team players of the Captain of YHVH’s host for great exploits in the nations; else, after having preached “apostolic” messages, we become sought-after “apostolic” entertainers who produce passionate “apostolic” spectators at best, or puffed up peddlers and consumers of “apostolic” messages at worst.
For a deeper understanding of this communalistic community (as opposed to an individualistic community), please read “This is My body, which is (broken) for you…”, Personal and Community Identities in the Church, Ekklesia, A Company of “One Man”, and Let the Body of Christ BE the Body of Christ.
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