By Dr. Charles W. Ferguson
“If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” – African Proverb
Introduction: When the Ground Shakes
We are living in a time when it feels like the very ground beneath us is shifting. Familiar systems are collapsing. Old certainties no longer hold. The news cycles are filled with war, white nationalism, climate catastrophe, political extremism, and economic anxiety. And beneath it all is a quiet epidemic that rarely makes headlines: isolation.
We are surrounded by people but starving for connection.
We scroll endlessly but rarely feel seen.
We work harder but feel emptier.
We achieve more but belong nowhere.
Our world is filled with noise and novelty, but the soul still craves what the algorithm cannot provide: belonging. Care. Presence. Partnership. Power shared in common.
And yet, we’ve been taught—conditioned even—to pursue everything alone. Individual success. Individual dreams. Individual salvation. Even in many faith spaces, the gospel has been privatized: your breakthrough, your blessing, yournext level. We’ve been told that strength is about doing it all yourself. That dependence is weakness. That we should compete instead of collaborate.
But if the past few years have taught us anything—from pandemics to protests to personal grief—it’s that we were never meant to survive alone.
I remember moments when I tried to carry it all by myself—wearing strength like a mask while crumbling underneath the weight of expectation. And I also remember the sacred moments when community saved me. When a kind word, a shared meal, a silent presence, or a collective vision reminded me that I was not alone—and that I didn’t have to be.
The truth is, collective power is not only our resistance—it is our remedy.
It is how we have always survived. Enslaved ancestors built networks of care beneath the lashes of oppression. Civil rights organizers planned in basements and prayed in kitchens. Black mothers, queer artists, laborers, elders, youth—all found strength in the “we” when the “I” was not enough.
Even now, amid the noise of this digital age and the rugged grip of hyper-individualism, the Spirit is whispering again: It is not good for you to be alone.
This post is a declaration:
The power is still with the people.
Not just in marches and megaphones, but in the ordinary miracle of showing up for one another.
Not just in emergency, but in endurance.
Not just in protest, but in proximity.
Not just in anger, but in affection.
The ground is shaking—but so is the silence. So is the apathy. So is the lie that you’re better off by yourself.
We don’t need more self-help or solo acts.
We need to rediscover the sacredness of our togetherness—to organize, to accompany, to imagine, to resist, and to build… together.
Because together, we have always gone farther.
And this shifting world still needs what only we can offer.
Scriptural Bridge: The God Who Moves With the People
From the first pages of Scripture, God does not simply call individuals in isolation—God calls people into community with purpose.
- When God delivered Israel from Egypt, it wasn’t Moses alone who walked into freedom—it was a nation of slaves turned into a people of promise.
- When Nehemiah rebuilt the walls of Jerusalem, he didn’t do it with charisma—he did it by rallying families to stand shoulder-to-shoulder, each one building their section.
- When Jesus began His ministry, He called twelve—not to follow Him in private, but to learn how to walk togetherin the way of the Kingdom.
Ecclesiastes 4:9–12 declares:
“Two are better than one… for if they fall, one will lift up the other. But woe to one who is alone and falls and does not have another to help… a threefold cord is not easily broken.”
The witness of Scripture—and of history—is clear:
God’s greatest works are revealed not through isolated greatness but through unified faithfulness.
The Lie of Individualism
There is perhaps no lie more dangerous than this: you are better off on your own.
From capitalism to colonial theology, we’ve been told to grind alone, win alone, pray alone, and suffer alone. Even in church, we hear messages about my blessing, my calling, my breakthrough. But Jesus never called anyone to follow Him in solitude.
Individualism leaves us disconnected, disoriented, and disposable. It feeds systems of injustice that profit from our division.
But when we remember our interdependence—when we reclaim our sacred connection—we become unbreakable.
Historical Glimpses of Collective Power
History shows us what happens when the people move together:
- Montgomery Bus Boycott: Ordinary people walked together for 381 days and changed the nation.
- Bayard Rustin & the March on Washington: Behind the scenes, Rustin organized thousands into a unified movement.
- SNCC & Freedom Schools: Young people created grassroots educational hubs for justice and transformation.
- Combahee River Collective: Black lesbian feminists gave us a model for intersectional, liberating solidarity.
- George Floyd Uprisings: Mass protests, mutual aid, and community care showed that collective grief can become a movement.
We remember Ella Baker, Fannie Lou Hamer, Fred Hampton, and Grace Lee Boggs—visionaries who knew that the power wasn’t in one leader.
It was in the people.
Biblical Foundations: The Sacredness of Togetherness
In Acts 2, the early church shared everything in common. They sold possessions, broke bread, prayed, and grew together.
- In Exodus, manna fell equally for all.
- In Deuteronomy, Jubilee restored the land and the people.
- In Jesus’ ministry, healing happened in community.
Jesus did not build empires.
He built tables.
And He invites us to do the same.
The Modern Challenge: Disconnection in a Connected World
Though we live in a hyper-connected world, we are suffering from spiritual and relational disconnection.
Capitalism tells us to compete.
Social media tells us to curate.
Empire tells us to isolate.
But our bodies and spirits long for true community. Presence over performance. Shared meals over shallow scrolling.
Reclaiming collective power means reclaiming presence as sacred.
It means showing up for one another—in real life, in real time, with real love.
A Prophetic Call to Rebuild the Village
The time has come to rebuild the village.
Not a return to oppressive traditions—but a forward leap into radical care, shared power, and spiritual resistance.
- The church must become a community of healing, not just a service.
- The neighborhood must become a place of kinship, not just proximity.
- Movements must become ecosystems, not just moments.
We rebuild by listening.
By feeding each other.
By trusting the Spirit’s voice in the collective.
By dreaming out loud.
Together.
Conclusion: The Power Is Still With the People
The world may want us to forget. But history, Scripture, and Spirit remind us:
We still have each other.
And that is enough.
So let us build.
Let us pray.
Let us protest.
Let us protect.
Let us gather around new tables and plant seeds of new systems.
Because the power is not in performance—it’s in partnership.
The hope is not in hierarchy—it’s in the village.
And the future belongs not to the few—but to the faithful collective.
We are still here. And we are still powerful. Together.
Closing Prayer: A Prayer for the People
God of the Village, Weaver of Community, Keeper of the Collective—
We thank You for the power of “we.”
For the sacred stories that live in our neighbors.
For the hands that hold us when our strength runs dry.
For the voices that rise in unison when justice demands an answer.
Forgive us for believing the lie that we must walk alone.
Heal us from the wounds of isolation.
Break every system that teaches us to compete when You have called us to commune.
Build the village again in us.
Stitch together our broken places.
Make us bold enough to show up for one another.
And wise enough to know that Your Spirit moves strongest when we move together.
Make our circles wide.
Make our tables long.
And make our love loud enough to shake the foundations of injustice.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.
Dr. Charles W. Ferguson 