The Power of One

Could you imagine going at life alone? I simply cannot.

“Then all the Israelites from Dan to Beersheba and from the land of Gilead came out as ONE man and assembled before the LORD in Mizpah. The leaders of all the people of the tribes of Israel took their places in the assembly of the people of God, four hundred thousand soldiers armed with swords.” Judges 20:1-2

Friendships, partnerships, and teamwork make almost anything possible and it makes the journey more enjoyable as well. And they’ve got your back. When an injustice is done, there’s nothing quite like having a friend or colleague fight for you. Israel did this. In Judges 20 we see assembled an army of 400K men ready to rock. It was in the following verse (vs.3), that they finally asked, “So tell me what happened”. They were ready to defend before they even knew what they were defending! All they needed to know was WHO they were fighting for… the WHAT seemed very secondary.

There’s nothing quite like being on the team that accomplishes so much. The U.S. Army knows that, it’s why their new recruiting slogan is “An Army of One”. The idea appeals to each of us at gut level. So much more can be accomplished when we work together. Much more than any one singular entity, no matter how great, in partnership we are that much more productive. And in different kind of ways.

I’m reminded of this recently at ANC (www.AustinNewChurch.com) and our South Austin Cares (www.SouthAustinCares.org) relief efforts during Hurricane Ike. Because we are a new church (5 months old), we are pretty lean so we were able to mobilize quickly, take in evacuees, rally our resources, and make a HUGE impact immediately. But then after a week and a half of going “all out” we all realized how spent we were. And I mean “spent” in every sense of the word. That’s when our partnerships fell into place. At the beginning we had moral and directional support through some great counsel from my friend Alan Graham (www.mlfnow.org) , were given our first opportunity to serve through a call from the Austin Baptist Association (www.austinbaptist.org), and away we went, a hundred miles an hour.

Then as the days went on, our houses filled up, our trailers filled up with supplies going to Houston, and our partners and friends began to give to our efforts… where our resources were running out, our relationships with Vista Community Church (www.thevistacommunity.com) , Generations Church (www.gen-church.net) , some amazing parents rallying together from my son’s soccer team (Go Scorpions!), and individual members of Austin New Church, we were able to continue (and even expand) our efforts.

When the time came to realize we had done almost all we could do…and develop a sustainable relief strategy… it was an easy transition to point all our people and incoming resources to our more established partner ministries like Mobile Loaves & Fishes (www.mlfnow.org) and the Capital Area Food Bank (www.capitalareafoodbank.org) . Amazing. Like an Army of one… never missing a step.

I’ve been reading a ton of books lately on the condition of the church. Almost every study and survey tells us that people are leaving the church, as we know it, in droves. Mostly because people feel the church has become irrelevant and an insignificant contributor to their faith. Many claim not to be rejecting God, they are rejecting the institutionalized church. George Barna predicts that in 15 years, “House Church” will represent the majority throughout America. There are many reasons for this, some I even agree with, most I understand, but what I don’t get is the lack of connection with the greater body of Christ. It seems to me we are missing something when we do our own thing, especially if our motivation is control. Maybe that desire comes from being burned, feeling like your church is out of control, or whatever… but that seems like we’ve reverted back to the school-yard and saying, “I’m taking my ball and going home.” This is definitely not a team attitude, definitely not a good starting point, and definitely not the posture you want in casting a vision for something new.

Scripture tells us that we should rejoice when Christ is preached in “all” forms and ways. Paul wrote that. So I’m not critiquing the House Church (or any form of church for that matter) as something wrong. As long as Christ is proclaimed, I’m good. I’m just basking a bit in the amazing partnerships we currently have, seeing the benefit of network, and realizing that I couldn’t dream of doing it any other way.

We are a gift to one another. Thank you, God.