Christianity: Personal, but not Individualistic

Two of my classes this semester are The Church as a Community of Compassion and Non-Western Church History, and they have been quite interesting to say the least. They have only fueled my desire to understand more deeply the mystery that is the Church. I want to point out that I find the use of the word Community to be of a different sort than a typical modernist example. Essentially, we're NOT talking about a community as just a group of people who live on the same street, or live in the same retirement center, or attend the same school. These are external points of community, and while they might be part of what makes a true community, in and of themselves, they do not define a group of people as a real community.

A community, a true community, might be more along the lines of what Catholic missionary Vincent Donovan discovered as he sought to evangelize the Masai peoples in East Africa. Donovan found that in seeking to evangelize what as then a completely pagan people, he needed to evangelize the entire community, not merely reach certain individuals. That is to say, in reaching out to the entire community, he was forced to recognize that a community was formed by people who shared life together, share values (moral, familial, and religious/spiritual), and who work together for the common good of all involved. In his presentation of the gospel, he both presented and learned that Christianity is entirely personal (it had meaning for each member of the community as they discovered their place as part of that local body), but that it is not individualistic (the meaning for each member only had significance as part of that community, and was not meant to enhance that person in a selfish manner at the exclusion of the community).

We in the West [in the U.S., more specifically] have confused these terms, turning them into synonyms rather than recognizing that one brings life and freedom while the other leads to heresy and narssicism. We have created a god in our own image - a sin that is well illustrated throughout the Old Testament - and we disdain any who would challenge it. We have sought to tame God, and put Him in a cage that only we can open, and open only at times that we believe are to our own personal advantage. We wonder why the Church in the West is in such crisis? I submit it is that we have confused the gift of Christ as for ourselves, rather than for the blessing of those currently in the community, and especially for sharing that blessing with those who are yet to be called into the community - that community is the Church.

May God have mercy on us, and heal our heretical practices of individualism over above the community. God is personal, and He cares about each of His children. But Jesus died on the cross to draw the nations to Him. May we understand and joyfully seize this vision of the Kingdom, and seek to share our personal faith with all the peoples.