“There is no such thing as an individual,” psychology professor Dennis Guernsey used to insist, “only members.” It is a provocative way of emphasizing that God created humans for relationship and that our identity as individuals cannot be described except in relation to the people with whom we are connected.
Why, then, has salvation been presented so often in the modern era as the liberation and deliverance of individuals? Every evangelistic crusade in recent decades focused on decisions, as though salvation was complete once the individual had experienced a change of heart and mind.
Among many missional and emerging church Christians who are rethinking this is Steve Taylor, who maintains that the beginning point for salvation is the nature of God as being-in-community. In The Out of Bounds Church Taylor writes,
And so the task of being disciples is to form communities that embody redemptive trinitarian love.
This planting of embodied communities is essential to the mission of God. This is a shift beyond individual salvation and individual discipleship. It is a shift to the priority of community planting, within which salvation and discipleship occur.
It is not I, followed by we. It is not the individual absorbing the lone preacher and the lone preacher’s words. Instead it is the we that validates the I. It is within the community that faith is found.
In short, for several generations the western church has delivered the wrong message in the wrong way. The legacy of this approach includes the multitudes who privatize their faith and consider the church an optional feature in their spiritual journey.
The loud protests from those who are reading the Bible afresh is, as Steve Taylor says, that Christians must “shift to the priority of community planting.” Our foremost objective is not the saving of souls but the formation of a people who reflect the triune God who saves.
I call it the salvation of I, because “I” desperately needs the relationships of God’s people in order to experience full restoration in Christ.
The calling that today’s sermon and Steve Taylor present seems to tweak the angle of evangelism. Instead of spreading the good news with the purpose of “winning people over” for God, Christians need to create relationships with others. There is also a personal gain by bringing people to Christ in this manner. A Christian will be holding himself more accountable when he realizes that his life, not just his words, are a living manifestation of Christ on Earth.
This approach to evanglism is parallel to the book that the college students in their bible study are reading, Just Walk Across The Room by Bill Hybels. It is changing the way that I act in encounters with non-Christians.
By: Emily on July 12, 2009
at 7:51 pm
I Cor. 12 comes to mind. How could a hand do much any and of itself. The human body is such an amazing creation yet one part cut off can’t do much by itself. Moreover, our work in evangelism is similar in nature: one plants, another waters, yet another reaps the harvest. What a privilege to be a PART of the kingdom, each of us an immeasurably critical part. (Let’s party!!)
By: Nancy Presnall on July 13, 2009
at 1:18 am