Sanctification as a Group Effort

Lord, it strikes me that there is one sense in which our Christian faith (sanctification) is very much an individual project – there is no church, politician, program, drug, job, curriculum, or romantic partner that will miraculously change / fix you... at the end of the day, you are the only one who can do the long, hard, work of bringing change in your life. (e.g. N is the only person in the world who is going to ever be able to do something about his addictions.)

That said, there is another sense where our Christian faith (sanctification) is very much a group effort – when you talk to people who have actually made significant progress in their lives, experienced great change, one of the things they tell you is that you can never do it by yourself. They all had help from others. And from God. For Christians, this happens primarily in a local church...