Individual in Community
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Western Governors University *
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Religion
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Apr 3, 2024
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docx
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Uploaded by BrigadierAlpacaPerson467
Individual in Community
Wade Johnson
RTCH 500: Research, Writing, and Ministry Preparation
February 5, 2024
Contents
Individual in Community
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Prompt
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Response
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Bibliography
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1
Individual in Community
Prompt
Based upon your Learn material of chapters 9-13 in Ecologies of Faith in a Digital Age, what is it about our tendency to individualize the Christian faith that is at odds with how God has
designed the body of Christ to grow? How does Paul’s concept of the body of Christ align with virtual, digital, and online gatherings of Christians?
Response
The writer of Hebrews gives this exhortation regarding the corporate, community, nature of the Christian faith. “And let us watch out for one another to provoke love and good works, not
neglecting to gather together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging each other, and all the more as you see the day approaching” (Heb 10:24-25 CSB). Western culture, with an emphasis on individualism, has “deprived us of the rich spiritual ecology we inhabit in Christ.”
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The Christian faith is one built on not only a personal relationship with Christ and indwelling of the Holy Spirit, but also on a relationship with other believers. As expressed by Lowe and Lowe, “the Holy Spirit makes many into one, thereby maintaining the unity of the church as a community of faith.”
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Paul expressed this idea of community throughout his epistles with a great example of the
interconnected nature of found in 1 Corinthians 12. Verses 12 – 27 paint a vivid picture of the body of Christ and how each person in that body serves a different role, but all are essential to the functioning of the body. Each part of the body serves to help and support the rest of the body.
If all of body was one part, there would be no survival of the body. Interaction is essential to the 1
Lowe and Lowe, Ecologies of Faith in a Digital Age
, 196.
2
Ibid., 176.
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survival of any ecosystem, most especially our spiritual ecology. The interaction of believers helps to provide the development we need to become spiritually mature. This interaction is not confined to face-to-face instances, but can also occur in the virtual setting as well.
While there will never be any substitute for the types of relationships we develop when physically with others, there is still growth that happens in the digital environment. In their book,
Lowe and Lowe discuss how online environments, especially those in an academic setting, provide “the kind of reciprocal interactions Paul describes.”
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Students are able, through intentional and even spontaneous interactions, to provide the type of support Paul speaks of in 1 Thessalonians 5:11, “encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.” These digital environments are not confined to academic endeavors. Churches are now connecting with others through online services with real-time prayer support, faith groups are building online forums for the exchange of theological ideas, and social media groups have developed to provide people with prayer and encouragement. Just as with in-person interaction, we must practice discernment, but we cannot disregard the online environment as a way that we see the communal nature of our faith continue to grow.
Bibliography
Lowe, Stephen D. Lowe and Mary E. Ecologies of Faith in a Digital Age.
Downers Grove, IL: InterVarsity Press, 2018.
3
Ibid., 186.