There's no 'i' in 'church'

I'm not entirely sure where I stumbled across this, perhaps through a link from Jesus Creed. But I was looking at a short paper on the differences between consumerist churches and missional churches and came across this diagram:



While there is much to commend, I have one fundamental problem with this particular definition of 'missional'...

As you may have guessed from the title of this post, my problem is the notion that church community supplements my personal spiritual growth. As I've said time and time again, we need to be willing to face the evil that is overdone American Individualism and beat it profusely about the head and shoulders!

I know this is a uniquely American cultural index. I know it's a general Western cultural index, too - but most heightened in America. I know, too, that it could be reasonably argued that this Individualism is a large part of what made this country get to where it is economically, militarily and politically.

But the rugged Individual has no real place in the local church. A church is by definition a single body - not a hodge-podge of Individuals. Moreover, if you want to break the church Body down into its constituent parts, I'd be much happier if you went to the level of individual Families, not individual Individuals.

Think of the metaphors we can use for the local church:

We're supposed to be a team - no 'i' in there, right?

A body - again, no 'i'.

A family - oops! there is an 'i' in there ... forget that example! : )

You get the point. I was just going to type 'why is it so hard for us to stop constantly thinking I, I, I?' ... but I know the answer already. It is hard, but it's a battle worth engaging, is it not?

Hatushili