Corporate vs. Individual faith

A person recently asked me about my comments concerning the “corporate” nature of faith and the challenge to our individualistic approach to educating in faith and in some popular forms of worship. This seems to me evidence at some level that people “get it” but have trouble deriving at an understanding of it. The concept about faith being primarily corporate often is difficult for us to grasp because our ideas about faith tends to be so individualistic. And tragically, we tend to perpetuate this individualistic stance in our congregations, much to our detriment.

The way I start out explaining the concept is to say that “Faith is primarily corporate, but has a personal dimension. It is not helpful to think about an “individual” faith.”

Perhaps it may help to approach it by saying “Christian faith is always corporate.” By that I mean that what it means to be a Christian is related to one’s “organic” connection to Christ and to his Church. You cannot be a Christian by yourself. You are redeemed and derive your Christian identity by your connection to God and God’s Church. The simplistic theological illustration I use is to ask the question, “How were you saved in the Old Testament?” The answer is “by being a part of the People of God,” the chosen nation, the people of Israel. Anyone outside of that realm was outside of the redemption of God. Israel was to be a light to the Gentiles and to help people become a part of the People of God (a corporate entity).

Then we can ask, “How are you saved in the New Testament?” And the answer is also corporate: “by being a part of the Body of Christ.” There is no salvation for anyone outside of the Body of Christ, the Church. Again, this does not deny the fact that there is a personal dimension to faith that I experience, but my faith is not an “individual” one—it is the faith shared and connected to both Christ, and the Church. We appreciate this at some level, and at times remind ourselves of it when singing hymns like “faith of our Fathers, abiding still….”

Biblical evidence for understanding Christian faith from a fundamentally corporate perspective are the primary metaphors we have for the church. These metaphors are corporate: The People of God, the Body of Christ, Fellowship of Saints, A Redeemed People, The New Israel. Priesthood of Believers. The most mystical example of this is found in John 17 (a verse we rarely read or teach about), sometimes called “Christ’s Priestly Prayer.” Re-read that passage from the perspective of what it says about the nature of faith and the integration of God with the Son and each with us.

This corporate perspective to faith is related to Christian worship, which is always corporate. My definition of worship is, “The confession that God is God and we are God’s people.” Christian worship is the work of the PEOPLE of God. When I practice Christian worship I do so as PART OF the corporate PEOPLE of God. When I participate in Communion it is not about ME individually, it is about being A PART OF THE BODY OF CHRIST. When I am baptized it is to join as a member of the corporate Church, a uniting with the Body of Christ—not merely an individual confession of my individual faith.

Certainly, there is a place for individual spiritual disciplines and practices, and for personal piety and personal devotional practices. Those are important, and need to be personally cultivated and corporately encouraged. The corporate body, after all, is only as healthy as its individual parts remains so. Weakness or illness in one affects the whole (ever injure your toe or have a toothache? The functioning of the whole body is affected!). But personal piety and spirituality support and underguird the whole, it does not exist of itself or for itself.

So, the concept is that as Christians we have a corporate faith that we experience in personal ways and on an individual level. And we can share those “personal” ways with others. And it is not inappropriate to practice “personal devotional practices” like prayer and praise. But the nature of faith is not “individual,” nor is the end, the goal, of faith directed toward it. Even those personal devotional practices are connected to the Body—I do them as a response in obedience like ALL Christians, and I share the fruits of those practices with the Body. As Paul said, the (individual) spiritual gifts are for the benefit of the body.