Somehow, when I originally read this post, it just didn’t sit right with me. I agreed, and still do, with the premise, but something wasn’t quite right.

Now, I know what it is. The collective is made up of individuals. If I am really going to change my generation, I must be really to risk criticism not only from my generation, but also from the collective of Christians around me.

Rosa Parks and Dr. King were both a part of a larger collective, but they had to take a major risk of making things worse for their collective, namely the black minority, in order to effect a change for the better of that collective. In all likelihood, they received plenty of criticism from some of their peers over some of their decisions.

I can now put my finger on what didn’t sit well with me: In order to effect change, we can’t challenge the collective directly…we must challenge those individuals within the collective that are willing to take the risk.

You see, if “I” am called, then I have a personal responsibility to make these changes, but if “we” are called, then I can very easily pass my responsibility off onto someone else.