Chapter 10 – The Preeminence
of (Identity in) Christ
Cleveland does a great
job wrapping the book up in this final chapter. She uses it as an opportunity to
bring in a variety of ideas from past chapters in relation to her final points.
One of the key points she made throughout the book that I was able to take away
from it is the fact that it is extremely difficult for Christians to step out of
their comfort zone and break from the patterns they are used to. I have been able
to better understand this idea that our identities and cultures are too small and
we need to work on acknowledging our greatest common denominator, God. He is what
brings each and every one of us together with a common identity in Him. Cleveland
states that “Christian groups who hope to attract more diverse members continue
to idolize their smaller cultural identity.” She isn’t wrong in saying this. I can
agree that while I or my church continues to reach out and continue growing in a
diversified manner, we also continue to group up and find our “common identities”.
This is eliminating and harming the idea of expansion and we need to begin using
that word, We! Becoming a we creates a common ground. We naturally like others much more, we become more
open to receiving helpful criticism from others, we forgive more easily and are
less likely to expect others to experience collective guilt, our diversity initiatives
begin to work, we treat each other better, and so many more positive benefits follow.
The concept of we and we together with our common identity in Christ is huge. I
hope that this can be a lesson to all individuals as we expand and become a diversified
church, we step back from our groups and become a We!
I think it is very important that we should continue to use the word we! I do not think that we realize how much it changes the meaning of things. It is also interesting that people have a better attitude when we use the word we. Who knew that one word could make a huge difference in the way people think. I definitely think that I need to work better on having that attitude. Cleveland really took it to home when she wrote this last chapter and it was a great to finish this way.
ReplyDeleteI really liked how you said that our biggest priority is to get to know God more. because if we get to know our creator and better understand Him we will be able to understand why we have different cultures. without the knowledge of God we have nothing, I feel like it is important because God made us all the same on the inside and we are created in His image, so it shouldn't be hard for us to want to obtain more knowledge about other cultures because they are our brothers and sisters in Christ.
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