Individualized Christianity Has Crippled the Church
© 2012 by Dick Wulf
Below will be many references to our 65 Togethers of Scripture. These are categorizations of hundreds of Scriptures detailing what God wants from us when we are together. Full explanation of The Togethers is found at our other website www.ChristiansTogether.org. Perhaps after reading this article you would like to explore ChristiansTogether.org.
Individualized Christianity Has Crippled the Church.
Individualized Christianity is an oxymoron. Christianity is not an individual experience. This is serious! Individualistic Christian has crippled the church.
Individualized faith inhibits the Christian person in many unseen ways. It almost neutralizes Christian friendships, marriages and families, inhibiting the “2 or 3 with Jesus” aspect of our faith. The result is that the church is much less obedient and often just an entertainment center or institution of higher education rather than a community for holy living.
Individualistic Christianity is oriented toward the individual with minor attention given to faith together. Yet, it is corporate faith that God most wants and is the key to the fulfillment of the individual's faith.
INDIVIDUALIZED CHRISTIANITY
SERIOUSLY HINDERS THE CHRISTIAN INDIVIDUAL
The Individual Christian Can Become the Center of His or Her Faith
Christian life should be centered around God and what He wants, not on what the individual Christian finds interesting, comfortable, or useful.
Individualistic faith acts as if God exists to bless us. The individual becomes the focus of faith. Individualistic Christianity appeals to our innate selfishness, the “What’s in it for Me?” Sin. Then, it ushers in "It’s All About Me Christianity".
"It's All About Me Christianity" leaves others out. In leaving out loving interaction and inter-dependency, individualistic faith eliminates the resources to make faith really attractive, rewarding and powerful - i.e. Christian relationships. Furthermore, individualistic Christianity does a very poor job of showing Jesus Christ to the world. Christians are just seen as people out for themselves.
Down deep we all know that it is All About God. Shouldn’t we primarily focus on blessing Him?
We bless Him by living His Way. We bring the ways of the Kingdom into everyday life. If we realize that a king and one subject does not a kingdom make, we wake up to the fact that most of what we do in the faith by ourselves is for when we are together. Our list of the Togethers of Scripture (1) spell out the ways of God’s kingdom, (2) define the various aspects of love in Christian relationships, (3) give a picture of how powerful our faith can be, and (4) delineate 65 ways to worship God in life.
What a disastrous mistake to focus almost exclusively on the Christian individual. There is a reason why Jesus said, “For where two or three come together in my name, there am I with them.” (Matthew 18:20) Jesus did not elevate the Christian individual nor recommend an individual focus for our faith.
The Individual Christian’s Spiritual Growth Will Be Stunted
Christians only really grow in relationship with other Christians. This is the laboratory where biblical knowledge gets put into practice, faithfulness is evaluated, and Christians help one another toward becoming more and more like Jesus.
Christians cannot grow very much spiritually in isolation from one another. Every Christian needs the love, knowledge of God, victories and difficulties of other Christians to grow. It is in the challenges of giving and receiving God’s love in relationship with other Christians who know Jesus that the individual grows most spiritually.
(There is more about this in my article titled The Limitations of Individual Spiritual Growth.)
The Christian Will Face Life Without Essential Resources
The Christian has all sorts of resources available, but generally does not know they exist. Often, those resources are lying dormant in their closest Christian friendships, their marriage, and their family.
As people born into the kingdom of God, Christians have birthrights. Heavenly citizenship brings privileges from God such as salvation and provision. But it should also make available a wealth of privileges from other Christians. Our list of 65 Togethers of Scripture spells out these rightful benefits from other Christians.
When we emphasize only individual spiritual growth and behavior apart from the social setting of Christians gathered, we rob our brothers and sisters in the faith of their birthrights, those things only available in the Kingdom of God. They do not get the deep encouragement they need to do difficult things for God’s glory. (Encourage One Another) They miss out on finding out so many things about God and the kingdom without the perspective (Teach One Another) and experiences (Disciple One Another) of others who are also walking with God. They do not get the thrilling 65 things that are their rights and only available through collective obedience to the Scriptures. These are the ways of God’s people when they are together.
For example, too often when a marriage is falling apart in the church, (a) those who sense something is wrong believe that it is not of their concern; (b) the trapped husband and wife believe that they have to face their painful situation alone; (c) the power of the church to help this couple by working together to defeat Satan is not even thought of. (To see how the church can really get involved when people face overwhelming circumstances, read our article titled Helping a Long-Unemployed Father Finally Get a Job.)
God has delegated to the society of his people, for example, the task of comforting one another. “Comfort one another” in 2 Corinthians 1:3-5 is not just a good idea from God — it is God’s powerful way of healing His people. This work of comforting will be done in friendships, marriages and families because that is where hurts come to light. Then, God’s balm can flow through the lives of His believers.
Sadly, sometimes friendships, marriages and family life are omitted from what is normally called “the church.” They are regularly omitted from application of Scripture taught in sermons. But, without these basic social units acting as expressions of the church, Christians will not get what God wants for them. In fact, sermons should most focus application of biblical truth to life in Christian friendships, Christian families, and Christian marriages.
The Christian Will Not Experience Much of the Kingdom of God
Relationships are the primary aspect of heaven. Certainly it is our relationship with God that is the most important thing in the Kingdom of Heaven. Relationships between believers are the next important thing in the Kingdom, even here on earth.
This side of death Christian relationships are more critical than ever. The key to these relationships is God’s word on how we are to live together. Our categorization into 65 things God expects of his people when they are together, the Togethers of Scripture will explain how we can bring “thy kingdom come, on earth as it is in heaven”.
Many of the things God tells us we are to do with one another in love are directly tied to living in this sinful world. Things like the Togethers “Bear with One Another”, “Forgive One Another”, “Confess Sins to One Another” and 26 more will not be necessary after we die and we no longer live in a hurting, sinful world. In short, it is time to pay attention to doing these things NOW.
We each will get as much “kingdom” as is commensurate with the obedience of our Christian friendships, marriages and families to the 65 Togethers of Scripture.
The Christian Will Not Serve Others Very Much And Miss Eternal Rewards
The individual Christian needs engagement with and involvement in the lives of other Christians to serve God as He directs in Scripture. Since this life continues beyond death, loving involvement with one another brings treasure in heaven.
Let’s be honest. It is just not possible to do very well many of the things God has asked us to do when we are alone. Unfortunately, we are still too autonomous in what most of us call “church” to do what God has asked. How do you carry one another’s burdens in the larger church setting?
Therefore, we have to add to what we call “church” Christian friendships, Christian marriages, and Christian families. To be able to do what Scripture tells us God commands.
For example, one of the reasons we gather as a church is to place courage into one another. Hebrews 10:24-25, says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”
To encourage means literally to place courage into one another. But courage for what? Courage to become more and more like Jesus. Courage to be a better and better husband or wife. Courage to be a better and better parent, uncle, aunt, grandparent. Courage to let Jesus make you His vehicle for reaching your extended family, neighborhood and workplace. Courage to obey the Bible in all your relationships with others and with God — following the commands we call The Togethers of Scripture. Courage to . . . . (fill in what God is asking from you).
So, you can see that there are all kinds of things we need courage for — courage we just don’t have. Such courage is supposed to come from Christians meeting together. But you’ll rarely find it through church programs, small-group Bible studies or even wonderful worship services. Those gatherings are too large or too focused on some other program or agenda (as wonderful as they are), so any “encouragement’ they offer is vague and general. We need very specific encouragement for whatever it is that God wants from us.
The person looking for work needs courage to go out and be rejected over and over again until he or she lands a job. The teenager needs courage to go against what he or she wants to do instead of getting a difficult school assignment done. A husband needs courage to point out to his wife something about her behavior that she would benefit working on — something contrary to Christ’s calling as a Christian. The single person needs courage to rebuff the advances of an attractive person who believes casual sex is okay. I could go on and on.
This kind of encouragement comes only out of deep relationships with other Christians, those who we trust and have knowledge of what is going on in our life. Who else would know when someone needs courage to steadfastly love a relative who treats them poorly? Or when a married couple is growing more and more unhappy and thinking about divorce? Or when a child is lacking in self-esteem and doing poorly in school? For these urgent and loving interventions, “insiders” are necessary.
Additionally, rewards in heaven are privileges of service based on what we have proven here on earth. So, to have a good quality of life for eternity, it behooves us to be able to do the 65 Togethers of Scripture. We need to know them and do them to show God what we are capable of in His power, how obedient we can be.
The Togethers of Scripture spell out these aspects of the Kingdom of God more thoroughly. Individualized Christianity must be eliminated because it works against these ways of the Kingdom.
The Christian Will Not Love Jesus as He Wants and Miss God's Additional Love
John 14:21 ESV
"Whoever has my commandments and keeps them, he it is who loves me. And he who loves me will be loved by my Father, and I will love him and manifest myself to him."
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Jesus’ basic request for love from his followers found in John 14:21 absolutely requires biblical love by the Christian individual extended to those in his or her Christian inner circle as well as received from those same people.
I suspect if we asked 100 Christians if they love Jesus, all of them would reply, “yes”. But, I wonder what answers we would get if we asked, “What is the main thing you do to show Jesus you love Him?” I would be very grateful if they answered, “I go far out of my way to love those in my Christian inner circle in the self-denying ways instructed in Scripture.”
If we really take a close look at John 14:21, we will see that Jesus was telling his disciples that what really counts is that they love each other as he had loved them - not that they love the world, but that they love one another in the daily grind as He did with them. Let me explain.
The statement of Jesus in John 14:21 refers to keeping the commandments he had given them. Just paragraphs earlier he had given a new command, recorded in John 13:34: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another."
And then he repeated this command just after the statement of John 14:21 as recorded in John 15:12-13: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."
There is not even one other command clearly recorded in this Upper Room discourse just before Jesus went to die. So, it seems the command to love one another as he had loved them is the command linked to the promise of extra love from the Father, extra love from the Son, and a special personal manifestation of Jesus.
The key concept that must be emphasized is the phrase, “as I have loved you” which indicates it must be “up close and personal” love within the believer’s inner circle - his or her Christian friends, Christian spouse, and Christian family members.
But, if a Christian wants to love Jesus as he has requested, what does that love look like? It is biblical love, to be sure. And, it is described in Scripture.
Years ago, in the days before computers, I took hundreds of Scriptures about relationships among Christians and put them on 3x5 inch cards. Then I sorted them out and came up with a way of systematic presentation of what God expects Christians to do when they get together. All of those 65 things are in fact both (a) worship of God as they each reflect back to God his own character and also (b) the ways of self-denying love to be effected among believers, in essence, the ways of the Kingdom of God.
Let’s now return to John 14:21 and think through a surprise. God the Father loves us already. Jesus loves us already. So, this verse must be talking about extra love love contingent upon our loving our inner circle deeply. Wouldn’t we want to have an extra helping of love from God the Father? Would we not want to have bonus love from Jesus? And, would we not like Jesus to present himself in a more personal way (manifest himself) to us?
If so, the individualized focus of our faith has to go. It is not right! It is not glorifying to God. And here we see that it is not all that advantageous to us.
Once we shirk the burden of self-focused faith, we will want to get down to the business of learning what each of the 65 Togethers of Scripture are and start doing them for the rest of our lives with the Christians we relate to most intimately and regularly.
INDIVIDUALIZED CHRISTIANITY PREVENTS OBEDIENT FOCUS ON FRIENDSHIPS, MARRIAGES AND FAMILIES
Foundations are important for giving strength and stability to their structures. Christian friendship groups, Christian marriages, and Christian families are the foundation of any local church.
So, if the small, intimate, and foundational social organisms of Christian friendships, families, and marriages are so important, why are so few references made to them in sermons and books? When friendships, families and marriages are left out of sermons and the books Christians read, those basic social units of the church do not know that they need to do anything. It is assumed that Christianity is all about the individual.
People hearing most all sermons go away filled with motivation to make this or that spiritual change. But they have not been told that they might not be able to make that change without the help of other Christians. Has the basic design of the human race been forgotten? (See our article titled Going It Alone: The Tragedy of Ignoring God’s Design.) Have church attendees been admonished to make sure the teaching of the sermon takes root in each of their closest friends’ lives? Have husbands and wives been commissioned to help one another see the needed change through to completion? Have kids and parents been told that they can do a lot to help one another make the change highlighted in the sermon?
Sermons and books that talk to individuals need to be altered. It is okay to apply Scripture to an individual. As an example, a sermon can teach that greed is wrong. The individual who is very greedy may not be able to see and convict himself of that. And the individual who is greedy only a little probably doesn’t see it either. Therefore, the preacher must tell friendship groups, marriages and families listening to the sermon that they need to point out what seems like greed to their friend, spouse or family member, lovingly without judgement. The sermon must make it clear that even the person who readily admits his or her greed will need help to overcome it in thought and deed.
Sermons and other Christian communications need to begin being addressed to the basic building blocks of Christianity, friendships, marriages, and families. They need to be introduced, not as insignificant in light of the individual, but as more important than the individual. They need to be talked to and empowered.
INDIVIDUALIZED CHRISTIANITY CRIPPLES THE LOCAL CHURCH
The majority of Christians want to love one another more than they do, so why do they not do it? The answer is simple: nobody is telling them to do much more than the most simple love, that which we can find in the home of almost any religion. Sermons and Christian books only make occasional references to applying Scripture in the most important relationships of a person’s life, that of friendship, marriage and family.
Even many Christian songs have individual words that keep the focus on the individual. Yes, it is wonderful that “Jesus loves me, this I know” but overwhelming evidence in Scripture is that we should do cartwheels because “Jesus loves us, this we know”.
Self-centered Christianity is promoted in what we read. All that great knowledge and insight not applied to relationships between friends, spouses, families, and the local church cripples the love and power of the church.
I got this wrong in my book Find Yourself - Give Yourself (1983 NavPress) when some of the group discussion questions sounded like this: “Are you at the place where you can look forward with peaceful excitement (rather than anxiety) to difficult assignments for the Lord? Explain.” I should have written, “Discuss with at least one good friend if you are at the place where you can look forward with peaceful excitement (rather than anxiety) to difficult assignments for the Lord. Help each other get to such a place as quickly as you can, but certainly within the next year.”
But, a year later I got it right in the youth discipleship game DragonRaid. When, in the game a group of young Christians want to attack a castle and destroy the Money Love Potion, their LightRaider game avatars had to have a rating of 28 on Hatred of Evil. However, a LightRaider could only have a rating up to 10 at the most, and usually had far less. It was the whole Raid Team entering the Dragon Lands to defeat evil that had to have a strength of at least 28. The players had to add together the strengths of each of their characters to adequately serve the OverLord of Many Names (Jesus in the allegory). In this way we could show these young Christian game players that Christians need each other to do significant things for God. This is the way the Christian life is supposed to be.
Individualistic Christianity ushers in It’s All About Me Church. It discounts how much we need each other to do church right.
Christians choose churches based on their own needs. That would be fine if they chose because a church would help them build powerful friendships that constantly encourage spiritual growth and service. It could even be okay if they chose a church because it would assure that they are continually growing to be better and better spouses. Also, it would be acceptable if the church they chose would build their family into a powerhouse of faith carefully watched over by the fellowship. But, choosing for individual spiritual “highs” or that they like the music?
Christians have not been taught that anything worth having in the kingdom of God comes from deeper love and interaction. This is a horrendous mistake. A local church could be very obedient and successful if it empowered the friendship groups, marriages, and families by focusing on them.
INDIVIDUALIZED CHRISTIANITY ROBS THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH
Just imagine the lost resources to the church at large, whether that be local in less evangelism or worldwide is less funds and volunteers for parachurch and missions efforts.
When Christianity is lived primarily at the individual level, the joy of fellowship is replaced with more expensive recreation, the thrift of living is replaced with material and recreational indulgence, those living in poverty are not lifted to higher levels of education and earnings by their Christian brothers and sisters, to name only a few things that inhibit more involvement and financial giving.
I suspect if we asked 100 Christians if they love Jesus, all of them would reply, “yes”. But, I wonder what answers we would get if we asked, “What is the main thing you do to show Jesus you love Him?” I would be very grateful if they answered, “I go far out of my way to love those in my Christian inner circle in the self-denying ways instructed in Scripture.”
If we really take a close look at John 14:21, we will see that Jesus was telling his disciples that what really counts is that they love each other as he had loved them - not that they love the world, but that they love one another in the daily grind as He did with them. Let me explain.
The statement of Jesus in John 14:21 refers to keeping the commandments he had given them. Just paragraphs earlier he had given a new command, recorded in John 13:34: "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another."
And then he repeated this command just after the statement of John 14:21 as recorded in John 15:12-13: "This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends."
There is not even one other command clearly recorded in this Upper Room discourse just before Jesus went to die. So, it seems the command to love one another as he had loved them is the command linked to the promise of extra love from the Father, extra love from the Son, and a special personal manifestation of Jesus.
The key concept that must be emphasized is the phrase, “as I have loved you” which indicates it must be “up close and personal” love within the believer’s inner circle - his or her Christian friends, Christian spouse, and Christian family members.
But, if a Christian wants to love Jesus as he has requested, what does that love look like? It is biblical love, to be sure. And, it is described in Scripture.
Years ago, in the days before computers, I took hundreds of Scriptures about relationships among Christians and put them on 3x5 inch cards. Then I sorted them out and came up with a way of systematic presentation of what God expects Christians to do when they get together. All of those 65 things are in fact both (a) worship of God as they each reflect back to God his own character and also (b) the ways of self-denying love to be effected among believers, in essence, the ways of the Kingdom of God.
Let’s now return to John 14:21 and think through a surprise. God the Father loves us already. Jesus loves us already. So, this verse must be talking about extra love love contingent upon our loving our inner circle deeply. Wouldn’t we want to have an extra helping of love from God the Father? Would we not want to have bonus love from Jesus? And, would we not like Jesus to present himself in a more personal way (manifest himself) to us?
If so, the individualized focus of our faith has to go. It is not right! It is not glorifying to God. And here we see that it is not all that advantageous to us.
Once we shirk the burden of self-focused faith, we will want to get down to the business of learning what each of the 65 Togethers of Scripture are and start doing them for the rest of our lives with the Christians we relate to most intimately and regularly.
INDIVIDUALIZED CHRISTIANITY PREVENTS OBEDIENT FOCUS ON FRIENDSHIPS, MARRIAGES AND FAMILIES
Foundations are important for giving strength and stability to their structures. Christian friendship groups, Christian marriages, and Christian families are the foundation of any local church.
So, if the small, intimate, and foundational social organisms of Christian friendships, families, and marriages are so important, why are so few references made to them in sermons and books? When friendships, families and marriages are left out of sermons and the books Christians read, those basic social units of the church do not know that they need to do anything. It is assumed that Christianity is all about the individual.
People hearing most all sermons go away filled with motivation to make this or that spiritual change. But they have not been told that they might not be able to make that change without the help of other Christians. Has the basic design of the human race been forgotten? (See our article titled Going It Alone: The Tragedy of Ignoring God’s Design.) Have church attendees been admonished to make sure the teaching of the sermon takes root in each of their closest friends’ lives? Have husbands and wives been commissioned to help one another see the needed change through to completion? Have kids and parents been told that they can do a lot to help one another make the change highlighted in the sermon?
Sermons and books that talk to individuals need to be altered. It is okay to apply Scripture to an individual. As an example, a sermon can teach that greed is wrong. The individual who is very greedy may not be able to see and convict himself of that. And the individual who is greedy only a little probably doesn’t see it either. Therefore, the preacher must tell friendship groups, marriages and families listening to the sermon that they need to point out what seems like greed to their friend, spouse or family member, lovingly without judgement. The sermon must make it clear that even the person who readily admits his or her greed will need help to overcome it in thought and deed.
Sermons and other Christian communications need to begin being addressed to the basic building blocks of Christianity, friendships, marriages, and families. They need to be introduced, not as insignificant in light of the individual, but as more important than the individual. They need to be talked to and empowered.
INDIVIDUALIZED CHRISTIANITY CRIPPLES THE LOCAL CHURCH
The majority of Christians want to love one another more than they do, so why do they not do it? The answer is simple: nobody is telling them to do much more than the most simple love, that which we can find in the home of almost any religion. Sermons and Christian books only make occasional references to applying Scripture in the most important relationships of a person’s life, that of friendship, marriage and family.
Even many Christian songs have individual words that keep the focus on the individual. Yes, it is wonderful that “Jesus loves me, this I know” but overwhelming evidence in Scripture is that we should do cartwheels because “Jesus loves us, this we know”.
Self-centered Christianity is promoted in what we read. All that great knowledge and insight not applied to relationships between friends, spouses, families, and the local church cripples the love and power of the church.
I got this wrong in my book Find Yourself - Give Yourself (1983 NavPress) when some of the group discussion questions sounded like this: “Are you at the place where you can look forward with peaceful excitement (rather than anxiety) to difficult assignments for the Lord? Explain.” I should have written, “Discuss with at least one good friend if you are at the place where you can look forward with peaceful excitement (rather than anxiety) to difficult assignments for the Lord. Help each other get to such a place as quickly as you can, but certainly within the next year.”
But, a year later I got it right in the youth discipleship game DragonRaid. When, in the game a group of young Christians want to attack a castle and destroy the Money Love Potion, their LightRaider game avatars had to have a rating of 28 on Hatred of Evil. However, a LightRaider could only have a rating up to 10 at the most, and usually had far less. It was the whole Raid Team entering the Dragon Lands to defeat evil that had to have a strength of at least 28. The players had to add together the strengths of each of their characters to adequately serve the OverLord of Many Names (Jesus in the allegory). In this way we could show these young Christian game players that Christians need each other to do significant things for God. This is the way the Christian life is supposed to be.
Individualistic Christianity ushers in It’s All About Me Church. It discounts how much we need each other to do church right.
Christians choose churches based on their own needs. That would be fine if they chose because a church would help them build powerful friendships that constantly encourage spiritual growth and service. It could even be okay if they chose a church because it would assure that they are continually growing to be better and better spouses. Also, it would be acceptable if the church they chose would build their family into a powerhouse of faith carefully watched over by the fellowship. But, choosing for individual spiritual “highs” or that they like the music?
Christians have not been taught that anything worth having in the kingdom of God comes from deeper love and interaction. This is a horrendous mistake. A local church could be very obedient and successful if it empowered the friendship groups, marriages, and families by focusing on them.
INDIVIDUALIZED CHRISTIANITY ROBS THE WORLDWIDE CHURCH
Just imagine the lost resources to the church at large, whether that be local in less evangelism or worldwide is less funds and volunteers for parachurch and missions efforts.
When Christianity is lived primarily at the individual level, the joy of fellowship is replaced with more expensive recreation, the thrift of living is replaced with material and recreational indulgence, those living in poverty are not lifted to higher levels of education and earnings by their Christian brothers and sisters, to name only a few things that inhibit more involvement and financial giving.
__________________________________________________________________________________
If you are concerned about the same things we are, we invite you to join our Advisory Team. This means that we will occasionally send you emails asking your thoughts about an issue we are thinking through. If you would like to be a part of our team, please email Dick Wulf at Dick@Wulf.com and let him know of your willingness to help.
If you are concerned about the same things we are, we invite you to join our Advisory Team. This means that we will occasionally send you emails asking your thoughts about an issue we are thinking through. If you would like to be a part of our team, please email Dick Wulf at Dick@Wulf.com and let him know of your willingness to help.
__________________________________________________________________________________
Copyright 2012 Dick Wulf, Colorado, USA
Copyright 2012 Dick Wulf, Colorado, USA