Living From Sunday 2 Sunday
Living From Sunday 2 Sunday
EP 173: The Rise of Me-Centered Christianity
Something has gone terribly wrong with modern Christianity. We've shifted from the vibrant communal faith described in Acts 2:42-47 to what Pastor B calls a "me-centered gospel" — one that prioritizes personal benefit, individual platforms, and private spiritual experiences over collective wellbeing.
Drawing from recent community service experiences, Pastor B challenges listeners to examine how cultural individualism has infiltrated our faith practices. The podcast unpacks how genuine Christian community operated in the early church, where believers "had all things in common" despite diverse backgrounds and languages. This stark contrast to today's fragmented, often tribal approach to faith reveals not just a theological problem but a deeply practical one — leaving believers disconnected and unsupported despite unprecedented technological connectivity.
While many blame the pandemic for declining community engagement, Pastor B suggests it merely exposed existing fractures. The episode explores how our pursuit of personal platforms and individual success has overshadowed our responsibility to one another. Yet this isn't a call to abandon personal goals entirely, but rather to embrace what the host describes as "connected individualism" — achieving personal growth while simultaneously investing in community flourishing. This balanced approach recognizes both individual rights and collective responsibilities, seeing others not as burdens but as necessary resources in our spiritual journey.
Take time this week to reflect on how cultural forces rather than scripture may have shaped your understanding of faith community. Consider whether you're actively investigating "common unity" with others or simply waiting for connection to happen. Subscribe, share, and join the conversation as we rediscover the power of moving from "me" to "we" in our walk with God.
Welcome to the Living From Sunday to Sunday podcast with your host, pastor B. This podcast is designed to help you walk faithfully with God through the various trials and challenges this life presents. The truth of who we are is revealed in our lives in between Sundays. You will be inspired, challenged and equipped to live a victorious life that will bring glory to God himself. Come on, let's get started. Hello and welcome to another episode of Living from Sunday to Sunday podcast. I am your host, pastor B. Thank you so much for tuning into today's episode. I believe that this is the best 15 minutes of your day, because real change happens 15 minutes at a time. So do me a favor please take a moment to like this video, share it um. Subscribe to the podcast. If you're watching on um youtube, please make sure that you hit the notification button so that you're um aware of any time that a new episode drops. If you're listening, so that you're aware of any time that a new episode drops, and you're listening to the audio podcast, please make sure that you like, share and subscribe. Share this with your family and friends. Let them know how this show is blessing and benefiting you. Today's topic it is an interesting one. It's actually the beginning of a series of episodes.
Speaker 1:I've been thinking a lot about the importance of community, so I had the pleasure of being able to serve my local community over the last couple of weekends. And doing community service, I think, helps us understand our role and purpose in life and so being able to just see the smiles on people's faces, being able to just really see a tangible impact in people's lives, it's help me just kind of think about the role of Christianity as a whole and what I've noticed is there has been a rise in belief. A rise in this ethos of Christianity needs to benefit me. I'm not so much concerned about how other people are doing, but it really becomes a me-centered gospel and I've got to admit like some kind of way we've lost our way and when we look at the original birth of the church, which is in Acts, chapter 2, verses 42 through 47, it's like the blueprint and I was reading that the other day and I had to ask the question how do we go from a communal environment in Acts 2, 42 through 47, in Acts 2, 42 through 47, to now we really have a disdain for even communing together in church and being able to worship together. It's not something that is the go-to anchor of our walk with God, right. And so one of the things whenever I just kind of looked at the history, not only of of faith, but also just the history of mankind as well, individualism and essentially what this is is, it's when we live in a culture that is centered around me, right, my goals, my truth, my brain. Now, the one thing that I think we have to really understand about the culture that is me related, not every part of a self-realization or seeking out ways to bless and benefit ourselves, not all of that is bad. But I think what happens is is we've put our personal success above the desire to show up for other people and the well-being of the whole. Right, and so it's. It's. It's shown up, obviously, in many, many areas.
Speaker 1:I think a lot of times we've, especially those in the church, we kind of blame the pandemic. Right, we say, well, prior to the pandemic everybody was in church, everybody was full of community, and then after the pandemic we kind of became more individualized and really I just think the pandemic just kind of exposed some places that we were already kind of to expose, some places that we were already kind of shifting among ourselves and really only being concerned about our own wants, our own needs, above helping other people. And so, like this type of hyper individualism or self is placed above the community is left a lot of people feeling disconnected, feeling left out and also feeling unsupported. And I think that's something. When I look at these last couple of years, when I really look at just kind of church as a whole, there's no way that I can really know how you're doing if I don't spend time with you, right, and if people feel unsupported in an age where you have the ability to connect with everyone through social media, then something is wrong. Something through social media, then something is wrong, something isn't working and we need to kind of reevaluate every part of ministry so that we can support and help people, right. And you know, another thing I think that happens is that we really aim to build our own platforms, right, and so in the building of your own platform or securing a individual bag for your future, your relationships with others kind of suffer because you're really focused on you and you're focused on making sure that your name is established.
Speaker 1:And again, none of these things inherently are wrong, but what happens is things start to fade in the background at once were very, very important. Start to fade in the background at once were very, very important. And so when we look at Acts 2, 42 through 47, there's a couple of things that to me, I kind of really, really it stood out to me in terms of going from, like this me-centered Christianity to one that is about the whole, about the community. Right, the verse 44 says that in all who believed were together and had all things in common. All things in common. When you look at Acts, chapter two as a whole, one of the beauties of this miracle of the Holy Spirit is that people came from all over the known world at this time to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. And so what this means is you have people from various regions of the world, people who spoke different languages, people who had a separate, alternative cultures, all in one place, and the word says that all of them who believed had all things in common.
Speaker 1:And what I think is important about shifting from a me-centered place to a place where the community has more value is that we have to be able to agree with people who think differently, who see the world differently, and one of the travesties of the Western faith. For sure is that anyone who thinks opposite or sees Christianity or sees the word of God in a different point of view. There's so much tribalism in America is that we're not willing to hear someone else's opinion, we're not able to let them voice their differences and just seek to understand them or agree to disagree. Right, these things aren't really happening and tribalism is an extension of hyper individualism because it's my way or the highway. Right, it's a difference of opinion that can never be resolved, right, and I think it's really, really important that we don't lose the power of the collective, that we don't lose the power of we. Right, if I'm only focused on myself, then there is a shared responsibility that everyone really fails when everyone's trying to do it themselves. Right, because together we're stronger together than we are apart, and we just have to really center ourselves, especially in our faith that, whereas, yes, I can create my own brand, yes, I can start my own businesses, we have to be able to balance that with the needs of the community. Right, we can't foresee the needs of the community just so that I can satisfy myself.
Speaker 1:The one way that you know that you value others more than you value yourself is when you're able to share what's important to you. What you need In this particular chapter, in verse 45, it says, is and they were selling their possessions and belongings and distribute and distributing the proceeds to all as any had need, right? So, whereas your, if your brand is only something that benefits you and just makes you rich, but it doesn't enhance your community, if your gift isn't blessing other people and enhancing their lives, then you're really only focusing on on making your pockets fat. And how does that really help everyone else? Right?
Speaker 1:With all of the church hurt and with all of the pain that other people have caused in the name of God, in the name of religion, in the name of church, should that in itself cause you to walk away from the body of Christ? Should that cause you to walk away from Christ himself? Right, if one restaurant gives me bad food, that does not mean I stop eating. That means that I stopped eating there, but I still have a desire for nourishment. I still have a desire to be fed as well as I have a desire to pour into people, right? So it's not just a, a, I'm not just receiving all the time, but I'm pouring into, because the more that I pour into people, I have more room to receive myself, and that's the value of community. When you're living in a silo, you will always start because there's no one pouring into you and it's difficult for you to grow. And it's difficult for you to grow Right.
Speaker 1:So, as I talked about, we have to learn how to connect with people. And the other thing too and this is something that my pastor is helping me with as a, as a church leader is for years we've waited for people to come to us, for people to come to us. But true connection is going to people and seeking and investigating where you can find common unity. That's the word community, just kind of broken down into two facets. Do you take the time to seek common unity? Do you go out of your way to learn about people, to see where they're living, to hear their stories, to find commonalities right?
Speaker 1:Too often we're more concerned about what separates us instead of what binds us right, because investigating what binds us requires that we be vulnerable, it requires that we get outside of ourselves. We can't just assess from the outside, we have to invest from the inside, we have to get in the trenches with people and have conversations right. And so you know, I think we, once we have a decision, once we make a choice to invest in the sacrifice of ourselves and to give onto the betterment of the community, then we have the ability to do what's called connected individualism, whereas you can build and establish your own and translate that into pouring into your community. Right, because my personal goals can also be achieved as I impact my family, my community, my city, my country and my world. Right, we have to foster a culture that values both the personal rights and collective responsibilities. We have more than just a right to certain things, but we have a responsibility to build one another up.
Speaker 1:This is going to be an interesting series as we look at how we can navigate from focusing on ourselves to inviting others into the community and us going into the community as well and investigating to see what their needs are. So here's what I want you to do All right, I want you to look over your life and reflect on how your faith has been impacted via culture versus scripture. You can ask yourself this question how do I see others in my spiritual walk? Do I see them as burdens and as something not worth investing in, or do I see them as a necessary resource in my walk with God. All right, so that's all we have for today.
Speaker 1:Thank you again for listening to today's podcast. Of course, this podcast can be found everywhere where they're made available. That's Good Pods Spotify, Apple Podcasts everywhere where you can get them. This podcast is there and, of course, make sure that you subscribe to the video podcast. Hit the notification bell, that you subscribe to the video podcast. Hit the notification bell, and I really hope that you enjoy the rest of this week and until next time, y'all, we'll see you when we see you. Bye, don't forget to like, share and subscribe to our channel, as well as this podcast, everywhere where they can be found. Have a great one.
