From "Me to We"

We live in a culture that has been built around independence. The country was started by the Declaration of Independence. This declaration has continued to be the driving motivation for us as a country and as individuals. Where success is measured by the amount you can live your life financially and socially independent. When we can truly say we don’t need anyone. This idea of success has caused Americans to be in an unhealthy state of anxiety, trying to return to a place in which God has not intended us to be. The only man that was alone with God was Adam and “...the Lord God said, ‘It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.”

This brings me to the point of this blog, I want to make a bold assertion. It is not enough for me to manifest the person and work of Christ. While this is a great goal, I must recognize that this is an incomplete and impossible goal. Colossians 1:19 states, “For in Him (Christ) all the fullness of God was pleased to dwell...” meaning in Christ we have both Man’s Ideal God and God’s ideal Man. While Christ is able to embody all the holy attributes of God, I can not. While the fullness of the Spirits gifting is manifested in Christ, It is not fully manifested in any one man. Therefore if we are to get a true and full picture of the person and work of Christ in our day, we must go to the community of God where the Spirit abides and has chosen to sprinkle His gifting amongst the entire community (1 Cor. 12:4-7).

But what God has chosen to do to bring us together as a body in order to accomplish His will has actually divided us and driven us farther apart from one another. Individuals have traded in the concept of working together for “His agenda” for an individualistic approach only aligning ourselves with those who can help me accomplish “my agenda.” (for His sake of course). This is why I bleed local church because the local church is a place where unity and diversity should be manifested. A place where ethnic (from white and black), generational (from young to old), socioeconomic (from poor to rich) educational (from not so intelligent to “the know it all’s”) diversity is to be celebrated. A place where Christ is the Chief Shepherd and we are all His under-shepherds. With Christ at the helm, we simply find our place and do all that we can to build up His body.

Paul draws the same conclusion in Colossians 1:28, when he states...“Him we proclaim, warning everyone and teaching everyone with all wisdom, that we may present everyone mature in Christ.

So, may I suggest that it is not wrong but incomplete for me alone to strive for Christ-likeness because if We are His body then we must labor to present every one complete in Christ.

So, we must begin to go from “ME” to “WE”