The Symbiotic Relationship of The Church and The Individual

Symbiotic relationships are absolutely fascinating to me. God has made his creation to have systems and entities within it that are dependent upon other systems and entities in direct ways. I say direct ways because we all recognize that everything within creation is dependent in some ways. Only God is self-existent. But there are things in creation that are dependent in ways that are direct and immediate upon something else. For instance, sloths can starve to death even with a full stomach. Why? Because in cold temperatures, the gut bacteria that help it digest food will stop working. The bacteria need the sloth, and the sloth needs the bacteria. There are bees called orchid bees that pollinate orchids. However, the bees need the oils of the orchids to attract mates in order to reproduce. The bees need the orchids, and the orchids need the bees.

I think this is a helpful way to think about the church and the individual. Right now in Christendom, the individual reigns supreme; individualism is the dominating mindset, and everything is geared to the individual. Everything from books to ministry goals to church practice revolves around individual experience. I think the easiest way to see this is to think about how people read the Bible. When people read the Bible and they see the word “you” they read it as a singular “you” that refers to them as an individual. However, almost all of the “yous” in the Bible are plural “yous” referring to a group.

Biblically speaking, the emphasis falls upon the corporate body and not the individual. Jesus is building a body of believers, and the letters in the New Testament are almost all written to local churches. Yet the individual is not spurned or ignored. Jesus wept over Jerusalem, but he also wept over Lazarus. Paul did write a few letters to individuals. Jesus taught us to enter the prayer closet alone and to pray individually. Paul included long lists of individuals who served alongside him in vital ways.

I think we can say there is a symbiotic relationship between the individual and the church. We can’t exalt the church and ignore the individual, nor can we cater to individuals and balk at the accountability of membership in a body. They are both needed. What do they each have that both need?

The Individual Has…

Giftings

God gifts individual Christians. Every Christian has some package of gifts that is a unique combination of Spirit-empowered abilities with the additional unique personality that only that person has. The church needs people who are indwelt and empowered by the Holy Spirit to bear fruit in their own special ways.

Inroads into the World

God sovereignly decides when to save a person. That divinely decided timing means that God is orchestrating exactly where that person will be when he is saved. Because that person is living and moving in that sphere of community, he will have insight into all the features of that place and people. This will allow him to bring the gospel to that place as well as to make a way for the church to support his effort and possibly bring more church resources for gospel advance. In Acts 13:1 we learn a man named Manaen was brought up with Herod the Tetrarch (thus having inroads into Herod’s palace) and in Philippians 4:22 we learn that people had been saved in Caesar’s household (thus making inroads into Caesar’s palace). It is through divinely situated individuals that the church can carry the gospel into surprising places.

Resources

God blesses individuals with wealth and resources. Those resources are the means by which the church is able to spread the gospel far and wide both within the church and outward to a lost world. The church is not a money-making organization, but the members are. They are called both to work and to give, and the church puts that money to work for the gospel.

The Church Has…

Authority

from Christ Individuals are not given the keys of the kingdom. Jesus gives the church these keys of authority (Matthew 16:19). We all need authority, and we need an accountability that has actual power behind it. There is power, protection and flourishing when authority is rightly administered. This power is given to the church and not to individuals within the church.

Diversity Necessary for Wisdom

Individuals are to grow in wisdom. However, there is a wisdom that comes from collective experience that no individual is going to match. Proverbs is given to us to be wise as individuals, yet this same book tells us that there is wisdom in the multitude of counselors (Proverbs 11:14; 15:22; 24:6). The church as a whole will have this necessary wisdom.

A Full Complement of Gifts

While individuals are gifted by God, there is no one individual that will have all that we need. If an individual really wants to grow, they will want all the grace that comes through all the gifts that are found in a body. Each church will be a divinely organized body of gifted individuals that God will use to grow each individual person in the church. We can trust God that what we need for our overall spiritual growth will normally be found in the collective body we belong to, and not just through any particular individual within that body.