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The Story Behind the WE Movement (by Dan Bailey)

The genesis of the WE Movement was my coaching days at Nyack College in the 1990’s. “WE” was our motto, it was what we said together in every huddle “on the count of 3” and the theme that bound us together as a team.  Within the word “WE” was the understanding that each of us were a part of something bigger than ourselves, that apart from one another we could never be all that God intended us to be and because of our connection to one another in Christ, my brothers suffering was also my own suffering.  We didn’t fully understand at the time that we were experiencing life as a church.  While basketball was our context for gathering, we were sharing life and experiencing God in our midst.  Yes, it was messy at times and very imperfect but it was also beautiful. God moments were undeniable whenever love, the self-sacrificing kind, the agape kind, was present.  To this day, there remains a decade of players who were deeply impacted by the power of Christ so evident in the collective of WE.  Little did I know then that in those days God was giving us a prophetic peek at what community in Christ was meant to be as family living for one another, embodying the Gospel message of Christ to others.  

WE is the outworking of the Gospel, the full expression of God’s grace in unity. WE is the church in real time, the result of God reaching out in Jesus to restore his children and create one family united in spirit under the same father.  We are saved to something bigger than ourselves. While we respond to the overtures of God’s grace as individuals, our faith is not private either. We have been brought into the fellowship of a triune relational God and at the same time we are brought into a shared life with one another through the spirit of Christ who binds us in divine union together with God. Paul describes the church as “the manifold wisdom of God”, a mystery once hidden now revealed post cross through the resurrected, exalted Christ within us. “Here there is no Greek nor Jew, no male, nor female, or slave or free.” All is Christ. It is in the collective, as His body, that we proclaim Christ and make His love tangible in this world.  

Yet, sadly, community is lacking in our western culture that celebrates expressive individualism. Culture has infiltrated our attitudes as Christians, regulating the church to mostly a Sunday centric gathering of disconnected individuals who have very little of what resembles a shared life together. Furthermore, beyond the walls of the church, our impact on culture is more of the “hit and run” variety, centered around one-time events with little to no abiding presence and ongoing influence upon the communities in which we dwell.  

In addition, the present pandemic we are facing has disrupted all of life including the church. But perhaps this pause in traditional church meetings is a good thing, if we consider the church was never meant to be about buildings, budgets and brands but instead about a loving community with a missional presence in the world, always making disciples and saturating the earth with the Gospel of Jesus Christ. The church is a movement within culture, not a hidden group behind closed doors. Perhaps in addition to the great commission to make disciples and multiply, if we are reading the signs of the times right, people are also desperate for community. Loneliness is causing mental health issues like never before and financial hardship is causing us all to consider our need of one another to survive. Partnerships and sharing is trending out of necessity. The church should be at the forefront moving in sync with the spirit of God who does not come to condemn the world but always to bring healing through the Gospel’s restorative essence.  

The truth of the matter is, church as it’s been done, is failing the younger generations. If we do not find a way to reach beyond the walls of buildings to meet people where they are, we will lose generation Z, a generation sometimes referred to as the “none’s”, for their indifference to any institutional affiliations or labels. Our calling to make disciples means we need to enter the fray of life and be present as Christ centered communities who intersect the secular in tangible ways with the divine love of God. This is church on the move, on mission and always making disciples with intent to grow in influence  

All of these reasons along with decades of conversations and prayer on the role of the church in the world, have led myself and a core group of others to launch the WE Movement. WE believe the time is now.   Rather than a large Sunday centric consumer model, the WE movement is focused on small supportive groups who seek to make the Gospel concrete in missional ways, while helping one another grow to maturity in Christ. The WE umbrella seeks to facilitate lay people to live out their calling in community with others as the priesthood of believers activated and empowered.  We are all called.  

As a movement, we are spirit led, not building based, adaptable, not bogged down in dogma beyond the centrality of Christ and His Gospel of grace. Rooted in Christ and His finished work, we seek to live in response to God’s initiatives in the world.  The essence of any WE community consists of gathering under the leadership of Christ, supporting one another in community land living out the great commission by serving others on mission to make disciples and increase the influence of God’s kingdom on earth. Beyond these foundational building blocks, there is room for the spontaneity of the spirit to guide us in creative missional endeavors. WE communities may look different but they are held together by core shared values. Below is the mission and vision of the WE Movement in more concise language along with a description of key terms and the shared values of the WE culture that holds us together.  

I hope you will consider becoming a part of the WE movement and journey with us in discipleship together, perhaps even to begin a community according to your unique calling. Beyond our vocations, we are all called to build the kingdom of God. It began with WE in a garden and will end with WE in the city of God, when every tongue, tribe and nation will worship together in perfect harmony. While we wait for that day, let’s consider how together, WE can be both foretaste and preview of how the story ends, one people together in perfect fellowship with God and one another. “And God placed all things under his feet and appointed him to be head over everything for the church, 23 which is his body, the fullness of him who fills everything in every way.”     

WE are the fullness of God that fills the earth, in every way. “WE” are a part of God’s restorative plan already in effect and one day to be fully realized!