“9 After He had said this, He was taken up as they were watching, and a cloud took Him out of their sight. 10 While He was going, they were gazing into heaven, and suddenly two men in white clothes stood by them. 11 They said, “Men of Galilee, why do you stand looking up into heaven? This Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come in the same way that you have seen Him going into heaven.”

12 Then they returned to Jerusalem from the mount called the Mount of Olives, which is near Jerusalem — a Sabbath days journey away. 13 When they arrived, they went to the room upstairs where they were staying:

Peter, John, James, Andrew, Philip, Thomas, Bartholomew, Matthew, James the son of Alphaeus, Simon the Zealot, and Judas the son of James.

14 All these were continually united in prayer, along with the women, including Mary the mother of Jesus, and His brothers.”

Acts 1:9-14

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This fledgling group is now in its final moments of preparation before officially being born as the Church. A group of men and women from varied personal backgrounds, several skill sets, and assorted allegiances were getting ready to be forged and formed into a cohesive whole, a single unit, one heart, one mind, one purpose. They will operate together, they will become a new family with one Lord, one faith, one baptism. 

But it wouldn’t be because of their background, skill sets or previous allegiances. This new body of believers would still be totally dependent on Jesus and the leading and empowerment of His Holy Spirit. They wouldn’t be anything spectacular because of any individual, but because of the collective efforts of the whole. Their minds, bodies, resources, skills, passions and availability would all work together as a testimony to who Jesus is and what He was still doing, even from heaven. 

The foundation of the church would be built on their collective identity in Christ and in prayer. Again, there was no star player who would carry the team forward, but a conglomeration of people who would operate as one and serve as one. The Western church has developed a mindset that says ‘You don’t need everyone. You can kind of fly solo here, and that’s okay.’ But quite frankly, that’s a load of malarkey. We were never intended to run this race alone. We were never supposed to drift through with just some kind of loose support structure. We are one. We are joined in Jesus. We are solidified by the Spirit, and to continue to treat the gathering of the body like something optional, like it’s okay to miss out on is to say the same of Christ. 

Our church attendance doesn’t save us, but it is a marker of salvation at work in us. Western individualism is a crock. It’s a lie we’ve taken in and forced on the model that Jesus gave us, and in doing so, we lose effectiveness and our witness is diminished. If we want to GoLove and do it well, we must do it within the confines of Christ’s desire for us. 
We miss out greatly if we do not.