What do Nigerians have that we Americans lack?

I think the primary answer is community. These beautiful people know that they need one another. They don’t have the “luxury” of trying to do life solo. Therefore, they have a sense of belonging that most of us lack. This sense of belonging is far more important to a person’s overall sense of well-being than the material things we Americans typically chase after as we try to find happiness.

As Americans, we’ve always valued “rugged individualism.” Our culture has always placed unprecedented importance on the rights of the individual when compared to the broader society. In traditional cultures like Nigeria, individuals are viewed in relation to their community, but we tend to define individuals over and against the broader community.

We have made an idol of individualism.

This idolatry is intensified by the consumer culture we’ve created over the last century. The thousands of commercials we take in each week brainwash us to believe that we always need more.

Like mice chasing cheese on a treadmill, we chase after the “American dream.” This leaves us with little time to invest in deep, committed relationships.

Our individualistic, consumer culture also tends to undermine our desire for deep, committed relationships. As consumers, we’re accustomed to getting things our way. The trouble is, committed relationships require us to sometimes forgo getting things our way. Relationships require sacrifice. For people who worship at the altar of individual rights and who are used to always getting their way, this simply isn’t attractive.

So, we tend to isolate ourselves from others, surrounded by our nice houses and toys. But on some level, we know we’re missing something.

Sadly, instead of confronting idolatrous individualism, as the Church in America we often cater to it. For us, “going to church” means getting together for an hour or so each weekend with a group of people we hardly know to sing songs and hear a sermon. And most of us choose our weekly gathering place on the basis of how it caters to our personal preferences. Is it conveniently located? Does it have the kind of music and preaching we like? How about services and amenities?

If it doesn’t fit the bill, we shop elsewhere.

Since there are only so many Christian consumers to go around, we who help run churches compete with each other (mostly unconsciously) by structuring our services—and sometimes even our messages —to attract as many people as possible. This further legitimizes the lie that church attendees are consumers of a religious product, and that churches are simply dispensers of the product.

Welcome to McChurch, where you can order it just the way you like it!

This is a far cry from what God intended his Church to be, for the Kingdom of God is all about community. We are made in the image of God, whose very being is loving community: Father, Son and Spirit (I John 4:8). We are made for relationships that reflect God’s own character. Sin fragments us from one another, but a central part of the saving work of Jesus Christ is to restore us to be the community-oriented people we were created to be.

This is reflected in Jesus’ prayer for his followers to become one just as he and the Father are one (John 17:21-23). The Church isn’t supposed to be a place where individuals go once a week to hear music and a sermon tailored to their preferences.

Rather, the Church is supposed to be a community in which all of us are learning to sacrificially serve one another in ways that reflect the love of the triune God.

This is how it was in the early church. Believers “devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of break and to prayer” (Acts 2:42). They met in each others’ homes on a daily basis (vs. 46) and “had everything in common” (vs. 44) so that if anyone was in need, the community would sacrificially meet that need (vs. 45).

This sort of servant fellowship is presupposed in all of the “one another’s” of the New Testament. We’re to defer to one another, care for one another and hold one another accountable, for example. These aren’t the sorts of activities that can be done with people you hardly know when you see them once a week for an hour or so. They can only be done in closely-knit, committed communities.

We are called to be a people who revolt against the American idols of individualism and consumerism, and who put on display the beauty of Kingdom community. We cannot authentically live out the call of the Kingdom if we’re going solo. Biblically speaking, there is no such thing as “lone ranger Christianity!” Weekly gatherings may be helpful, but real Church isn’t a place you go; it’s something you are—and always in relation with others.


Greg Boyd is the Senior Pastor of Woodland Hills Church in St. Paul and former professor of theology at Bethel University. He has published 15 books, including the best-selling and award-winning “Letters From a Skeptic” and most recently “The Myth of a Christian Nation.”