Collaboration, Community and Christ

Unless you were off on a deep space mission this weekend, you probably know that Whitney Houston died this weekend.  LL Cool J described it on the Grammy’s as a death in the family.

I read an article in a magazine discussing the secret to Eric Clapton’s success.  Of course he has talent and has worked hard, but one of the main secrets to  his success was the collaboration he had with other artists.  The list of bands and individual artists that he has worked with was incredible.

What do these two things have in common?

Community.  My One Word this year.

Whitney Houston was part of a community of artists.

Eric Clapton is part of another.

Each has had an impact far greater than they would have had individually because of the communities they were a part of.

What does that have to do with you and me?  Most of you are probably followers of and believers in Christ.  We belong to a far greater community than any of these others.

We belong to the Body.

We need each other.

We don’t have room for Lone Ranger Christians.  As John Maxwell has said, “Even the Lone Ranger had Tonto.”

My blogging friend, Ben Emerson, wrote a great post the other day about this.  He discussed how we don’t need to interpret scripture alone.  We need the group.  At first I disagreed.  Then I thought about it.  We stand on 2000 years of interpretation.  We don’t need to come in to Sunday School or Bible Study Group and all say what it means to us.  We need to find out what it means.   Together.

We need the corporate worship experience, not to be entertained or fed, but because we  need each other.

We don’t need the singing just to pump us up.  We need to sing and praise our God and Savior together.

We don’t need to just listen to a sermon.  We could do that on our iPod.  We need to hear it together and share the experience.  We need to worship Him together in the word.

We need each other.  We need to collaborate in this thing we call the Christian life.  We need our brothers and sisters.

How do you collaborate in your community and part of the Body?