The God who is Social made us also to grow in a social circle. Just as we are born into a family circle, so we grow spiritually in a spiritual family.
Jesus is not a just private experience. He also is communal and occurs, and forms Himself in us, in relationship with others. We need both for balance and growth. He designed it that way. Just as He gave marriage to learn certain levels of intimacy, so He gave us the church (His People living in His Spirit) for our deeper formation into His Life. As we give to them (even if they seem like the poor to serve), He gives to us in mutual formation.
 To know God alone, and to know God through community are both parts of healthy spirituality. If our mysticism places Jesus just with us, and others way over there, we can’t move in His fullest incarnation made available to us by the life of Jesus. We need both personal faith and real friendship with Christ, and communal faith. The personal and the collective are both required to keep us maturing spiritually.
Part of this is for our fuller formation. We are social, because God is social, so we grow in relationship. That’s part of how God set things up. God, even in His Trinity, is social. And we are social, being made in His Image. We may not trust others, but they are given to us to know God through. So we must receive the methods God has given us—His Church being one of the highest. The church is a community of those centered around Christ and in His Spirit. We have to find those we are meant to be growing with in our lives. Each season, we have to find the church again.
 This is why we still need the church regardless of the imperfect expressions of it around us. Through this imperfect expression, we touch the Perfect Jesus and His Body. It was His idea for us, so we must trust that and be properly linked to those in Him He is giving us each season.
I know many have been wounded socially, but for our social dimension to grow, we must trust God to draw us into fellowship with Him through those He gives us.
 God is social. We are social, and are given a spiritual circle seasonally to grow in. The church is a very diverse community, unlike many of the communities we join–say our work community, or sewing, or frisbee. We form communities around many things, but Paul is teaching us about a type of community made by God, which is given for our spiritual maturity. The church is not just given for belonging, it is given to grow us up into The Head. We need what one another carry spiritually. There is no way to become mature in absolute isolation. This is because God set it up for us to grow in a spiritual family. Yes, we belong there, but often we are not with people at all like us. That is part of the difficulty of being part of the church. And teaches us of the labors of His marriage with her.
 Still, we cannot grow fully apart from her. Often my friends ask, what is your relationship with the church. Well He loves her, I need her, and I work to make her more whole, as I am becoming more mature. I don’t have the right to just walk away from her. It’s like not taking your spiritual vitamins, or not drinking water. Just can’t do it. God provided her for our growth, so I say yes to His Plan, even though I know her many imperfections. I am married to her. And I am becoming mature through her, even in her current state.
 We don’t “do” church because its fun, entertaining, or not socially awkward. It usually is awkward, and often is not the type of people we would choose to hang out with organically. As an artist myself, I was often the only one in the house. We choose church because it was given by God to grow us into His Son’s likeness, and that is our goal if we truly are christian.
I’m glad church is taking new shapes in our day. But regardless of her shape, she is essential if we really want to follow Jesus. It is a social organism given by God to be our spiritual home which here. We must grow in the imperfect but God given community of other Christ centered people, if we want to grow up in Christ. Healing or being made whole is only possible when linked with other believers who are centered in The Healer. That’s how God set it up. Let’s comply.
Continuing with the idea of the God who is Social in Himself, and therefore made us to grow in social containers!
This idea of the social dimension of spiritual growth, includes the late Dutch theologian and city dreamer, Pieter Bos’ idea of “the glory of corporate-ness or our group people-ness”.  We become ourselves in community–cities nations. And God deals with us as whole entities, not just individuals. So our spirituality is not ultimately private, but shared and formed by others!
  That God deals in collectives, groups, tongues, nations. There is a particular glory which comes into groups of people, which cannot come to us alone. In the West we are extremely individualistic, but in being so, we often miss out on this glory of togetherness. The aspects of God which have chosen to only show up in social circles or groups, or even whole nations. He deals with us collectively until the very end, when all the nations will see and know and be blessed by God. Psalm 67—God guides the nations. And Christ returns to set the nations in order. He deals with us collectively. That is His method. It’s dangerous to reject corporateness, because it is how God addresses us. Yes, we have personal relationships with Jesus, but we also have collective ones, meant to help make us whole in Him. The church is not a single person, but a collective. That God works in relational networks is a pattern seen throughout the bible, but that He also works in collectives with groups of people. The most overt nation being the Jews or Israel. That nation was meant to bless all other nations, by showing them who The True God is. Then each nation is responsible to worship Him and steward His specific graces given to each.
There is distinction between nations and their collective identity as well in scriptures. Deuteronomy 32:8 Moses prays: He set up boundaries for the peoples. He gave the nations their inheritance! That is a way God has chosen to deal with humans on earth—through nationhood or collective relationship.
We see as Christians that the collective is essential even to our basic growth. God designed us to grow in community. That was His method. St Paul’s Body metaphor. So we really have no option to isolate or for that extreme individualism. We need one another for basic spiritual growth. The church is a social mystical organism, which we can’t avoid if we want to become.
But even just as humans, we all need families of some type to grow up and mature. It’s a core human metaphor which is unavoidable in life. You can of course choose your circle, but some are offered to us which are the most fruitful for us.
Even whole nations in scripture have a covenant relationship with God. They are favored to seek and know and reflect Him uniquely. They are a reflection and highlight some specific aspects of who The Creator is.
The basic human need for the social applies also into spiritual growth. We cannot grow properly without being properly linked to the particular people of God He has given us.