Amelia Earhart made flight history when she flew solo in
1932 from Newfoundland across the Atlantic. We need determined individuals to
pave the way forward. However, lest we forget, (and not to minimize Amelia’s
feat) it took hundreds of years of trial and error, thousands of inventors who
devoted their talents and skills to enable humans to be airborne, a number of
investors, engineers, and flight controllers who built and guided the plane she
flew. That’s a team the size of a Kansas town. Solo doesn’t come close to
describe the efforts it took to fly solo. Plural is more like it.
In Christianity rugged individualism (this dogged
determinism to do it my way, without help) is no friend of spiritual formation.
In shaping our character, in walking with the Master no person is an island.
Doing the Christian life solo is not an option. Spiritual formation beckons us
to do life in community.
When it comes to our spiritual growth many of us are lonely.
We know the depth of Paul Simon’s words in I Am a Rock: “Hiding in my room,
safe within my womb, I touch no one and no one touches me.” The renovation of
our soul happens best when we touch one another in groups where belonging and
community prevail. Doing life together is spiritual formation’s bread and
butter.
Africans have proverbs about the way the village raises its
children. It also takes a village to raise a follower of Christ (Parents are
primary, but grandparents, Sunday school teachers, aunts and uncles, pastors
and youth leaders, etc... play a role). Spiritual formation tolerates no spirit
of independence.
Shaping lives in the likeness of Christ is a
multidirectional activity: Let us spur one another on to love and good works
and thus to grow in Christ, enjoins the writer of Hebrews (10:24-25). When
Peter commands “grow in the knowledge and grace of Jesus Christ our Savior” he
uses the plural form of the verb to grow. The idea that spiritual formation
happens best in groups is biblical and a way of life in church history.
Our God, who is Trinity, calls us and shapes our lives to
become conformed to the image of his Son. This formation is done as the Holy
Spirit acts in us as his individual and collective temple. Our Trinitarian God
transforms us into his likeness individually (but never as separated from a
community of believers). I am one member in the body of Christ. Most of the
instructions for Christian living in Paul’s letters address groups. You is
hardly ever singular.
Baby Boomers are attracted more by individualism than by
plurality. The Marlboro Man fascinates us; that lonely figure who rides into
the sunset with his cigarette as his only friend. We are attracted to the John
Waynes, the Clint Eastwoods, the Colombos, and the Dirty Harrys of the cinema
who personify rugged individualism. Trendle’s Lone Ranger attracts us with his
mysterious private existence. This man whose name nobody knows, and who never
takes his mask off, makes us wonder: “Who was that masked man?”, only to be
told, “Why, he’s the Lone Ranger!” We build walls, “fortresses deep and mighty
that none may penetrate” ... “I am a rock, I am an island”, we sing with our
lives. Individualism hinders the spiritual formation in the church. A new day
has dawned and by God’s grace younger generations know spiritual formation is a
community affair.
We spend energy to hire the best preachers money can afford,
we develop the best programs, we stage the greatest music for worship, we house
these in the best brick and mortar dollars can buy, and not much of it has had
a sustained record of success in changing our character or the character of the
church or of society! Meanwhile, in the chair next to us, there is someone
wondering: Where do I belong, how do I become Christ-like in my family, at
work, and at church, and how do we do life together? How will we respond?
Reflection: What draws you into community? What hinders you?