The "U" and "I" in Community

As I promised a couple weeks ago, here the throwback post. I originally published this post on my old blog.

"To which would you rather belong, a team or a community? Which of the two demands more sacrifice, more loyalty? Is team or community better for all those involved?

The subtle endorsement in our society today favors the team approach. Think of all the different uses you hear for the word “team.” “There’s no ‘I’ in team,” the Romania spring missions team, president’s leadership team, the (insert the department you work in here) team, taking one for the team...and so forth. All these casual references intimate that the “team approach” is the ultimat prizm for our daily operation.

I beg to differ.

At the heart of this approach is the disgusting assumption that we’re in competition with each other. Doing better than or beating out other people is the goal of the team approach. So regardless of how we’re really doing in life, we’re constantly looking over our shoulders to see who’s closing in our performance. Proponents of this approach stress emphatically that it engenders unity between people as it affixes our attention on attaining the goal above all else. The incredible fallacy of this proposition is the very reason why I disagree so sharply with the team approach, and subsequently why you’re reading this entry.

Think about it for a moment, how can we promote unity by stressing a blatant disregard of the individual and the uniqueness therein? How can there be a team if there’s no “I” in team? Stripping the ambitions, abilities, and aspirations from individuals for the sake of unity does not promote unity. What it does is to encourage lagaar mindedness and/or groupthink, but never unity.

The proverbial sports team illustrates my point well. Imagine you’re on a team whose sole goal is to win a championship. Subsequently all the time and resources available to everyone on that team is directed at the goal. The only thing that matters to that team is the championship and all the necessary routes of getting to it. Nothing else can be as important, not even the very people who work hard to deliver that championship to the team. So the man-made goal (championship) supercedes men in importance.

That’s very frightening; unfortunately this team ideal is rampant in our capitalist society today. People everywhere, myself included, are constantly latching onto some cause so they can fit into some team. Any deviance from this mind set is quashed by the anti-individualism retort.

But here’s my biggest conniption with this idea of team, it does nothing for humanity. Because, as illustrated above, the team approach elevates the goal of the team to pinnacle importance above the value of the people on the team, team does nothing for the people. At the same time the team exploits those individuals who are part of it with minimal endorsement; it does little or nothing for those outside it. Due to the fact that the idea of victory is pivotal to the team approach, teams are either going against other people or merely excluding them. If you ever tried out for a sports team, you know exactly what I’m talking about. The dejection and rejection is so repugnant, you almost believe that you’re not good enough.

Therein lies the problem with the team approach: because goals and not the uniqueness of each human being on the team are the most important things to a team, peoples importance and value to the team is predicated upon what and how they can further the team’s pursuit of those goals. That is at odds with the biblical idea that you and I have insurmountable value simply by being creations of God the most high. Psalms 139 tells both you and me that we’re fearfully and wonderfully made. There’s a fear and an intrinsic wonder that accompanies your being that should never be taken for granted. The team approach is in direct opposition to this, remember, “there’s no ‘I’ in team.”

The community paradigm is a much better model of operation. From the very roots of the word—common unity—there is a deep regard for the value of each being. You can’t have common interests if you don’t individual interests. Notice, it’s about unity itself not unity around something else. Whatever community you can think of exists for the reason of unity. This allows the community approach to be more inclusive than the team approach: anyone, regardless of how or what they can do for cause is open to join the community because it exists for the unity of the interests of all individuals. Implicit in this is the idea that each individual and the premium they place on the goal is important. The community idea, because it draws from those things that you and I have as human beings, lends itself accessible to all people regardless of ability, race/gender or creed.

I humbly implore you to elevate your thinking above the groupthink of goals to focus on what we all have in common as people and to use those things to promote a coming together of our human family.

For the “U” and “I” in community."