Part of the #Squad

Jesus desires to fill us in a profound and tangible way with the presence of the Holy Spirit, so that we might reflect His glory and point people to Him. Ephesians chapter 1 identifies Jesus as the head of the church, His body:
22 And He put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be head over all things to the church,
23 which is His body, the fullness of Him who fills all in all.

If you have called on the name of Jesus and you have been born again, you are part of the church, His church.   He has a plan for the church and he has provided power for the church to do His Kingdom work.  And, He has a purpose for your local church, too.  Your involvement in the local church represents a powerful opportunity to be involved in Christ's larger work.  That includes smaller groups inside the local church, through which the Lord can work to encourage and strengthen believers to walk in obedience to Him.

+++++

The following passage in Colossians 1 establishes that Jesus is the head of the church, His body, and He wants to express Himself through His people:
17 And He is before all things, and in Him all things consist.
18 And He is the head of the body, the church, who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in all things He may have the preeminence.
19 For it pleased the Father that in Him all the fullness should dwell,
20 and by Him to reconcile all things to Himself, by Him, whether things on earth or things in heaven, having made peace through the blood of His cross.

After two actors quoted from Taylor Swift songs on radio shows, one of them tweeted out to ask the pop superstar if they could join "the squad?", according to a piece on The Atlantic website.  Swift responded that, "You two...are the ULTIMATE Squad Goals."

The article says, "Welcome to the summer of the #squad." It names some examples: The Huffington Post touting Sasha Obama and two of her pals as “the new standard for squad goals,” and BuzzFeed listed “16 Ultimate Squad Goals Through History” (these include Mt. Rushmore, the Rat Pack, the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, and “Jesus and his disciples”)

But Swift's penchant for squad-dom is the central focus of the article:

Swift is a performer not just of music, but of friendship. She takes the clichés of female camaraderie, young and old—“sisterhood,” “besties,” “goddesses” if one is being extra-giddy about it—and commercializes them. A handful of the shows on her 1989 tour have featured the sister-centered group Haim, and her concerts have featured surprise cameos from, at various points, the Swift-squadders Lena Dunham, Selena Gomez, Cara Delevingne, Karlie Kloss, Lily Aldridge, Jason Derulo, Lorde, the U.S. women’s soccer team, and Swift’s cats. (The shows have also featured, as gifts for every concert-goer, wristbands that transform an audience, via coordinated LEDs, into a sea of light—which is also to say, a massive squad.)

The Atlantic continues, saying that the hashtags #squad and #squadgoals..."make a general assumption: that groups—be they composed of girls or boys or celebrities or musicians or Taylor Swift’s cats or a mixture of all of the above—are more than the sum of their parts. “Squad” is the logical outcome of a cultural moment that brought about selfie sticks and “giving face”: We are, collectively, fascinated by ourselves, as physical beings. And we are particularly fascinated by ourselves as members of groups."

The piece also says that:

...there is also something reassuring about a squad, whether it consists of celebrities or normal people. The squad takes the logic of the sitcom—a small social universe, carefully curated and hermetically sealed—and makes it accessible to the rest of us. And there’s a certain appeal to that, on-screen and off. The squad is, ideally, a solid group of friends—friends who will be with you, season after season.

Which is also to say: The squad is a friend group that functions, in its way, as a family.

I don't even remember how I came across this article, and it's interesting from a sociological standpoint, even though I don't endorse some of the reference materials contained within it.

So, do you have a #squad?  You may consider yourself to be part of a squad centered around a celebrity.  But, I'll tell you, in a very real sense, hopefully sounding too trite, Christians are part of the ultimate squad centered around our ultimate Savior.

For, you see, we are all called to be part of the body of Christ.  Our big-time squad is "the church." And, on a smaller scale, we have our smaller groups or communities to which we are called - the local church, which is part of God's plan to make an impact on the world.  Then, there are small groups that can enable us to grow deeper in the Lord as well.  But, ultimately, we all derive life from the head, our Lord Jesus.

The article I referenced describes a squad as a friend group that functions as a family. Perhaps you've heard the term, "church family."  And, we refer to our "brothers and sisters" in Christ.  There is something powerful that bonds us together as believers in the Lord.  Sure, we follow Jesus, but we are connected in a more profound way - His life, His Spirit flows through each of us, and that can cement the relationships we have with one another.

Finally, I want you to consider your #squadgoals.  For the church, the body of Christ, those are found throughout the Scriptures - God wants His people to follow His instructions in order to live out and establish the principles of His Kingdom here on earth.  I believe that our ultimate aim as believers is personal obedience and corporately, to accomplish God's purpose.  God may have called you to a certain group of people, a definite squad, in order to express His life, His nature, and His plan through it.