Part 1 – The Borg & The Church

I am a Star Trek fan. When I was little, I watched the reruns of “The Original Series” from the 60’s. I really enjoyed the travels of Captain James T. Kirk and his crew. And I always felt sorry for the redshirted guys that were part of the landing parties. You just knew they were not going to make it off of that planet alive. I have also seen all the movies, both old and new. I even watched several episodes of “Star Trek: The Next Generation”.

One of my favorite enemies of the Federation is the Borg. I found them to be a fascinating addition to the Star Trek story line. For those that don’t know anything about the Borg, here is what Wikipedia has to say about them…

Borg is a collective proper noun for a fictional alien race that appears as recurring antagonists in various incarnations of the Star Trek franchise. The Borg are a collection of species that have been turned into cybernetic organisms functioning as drones of the Collective, or the hive. A pseudo-race, dwelling in the Star Trek universe, the Borg force other species into their collective and connect them to “the hive mind”; the act is called assimilation and entails violence, abductions, and injections of microscopic machines called nanoprobes. The Borg’s ultimate goal is “achieving perfection”.

A few years back my job changed and one of the areas I became more involved in was helping guests assimilate into our church family. In fact, we considered giving me the title Assimilation and Discipleship Pastor. We opted not, because it was too wordy and thought it would remind people of Star Trek too much. We chose the title Connections Pastor instead and it has worked out nicely.

Even with the title change, assimilation is a big part of what I do for Cornerstone Church. And this is what continually reminds me of the Borg. You see assimilation was one of their main tasks too. As a “pseudo-race” their main purpose was to bring others into their “hive” in order to achieve “perfection”.

I want to take a few moments and make some comparisons between the body of Christ and the Borg. This should be fun!

First off, the Borg try to add to their numbers. One of their main methods to achieve this is by using force. They kidnap people and force them to become a member of their “hive”. Ultimately, they are wanting to add to their numbers. However, they are choosing a very inhumane method.

Just like the Borg, Christ followers are hoping that people will become members of God’s family. In fact, when someone accepts Christ as the leader of his life Ephesians 2:19 says, You are a member of God’s very own family and you belong in God’s household with every other Christian.

A major area where Christ followers differ in this is their method of choice. The Borg tried to force people into their “hive” where Christ followers are to love people into their family. Jesus tells His followers in John 13:34-35 that others will know people are His followers by they way they show love to another.

Second thing I noticed about the Borg is that they share “the hive mind”. This mind was a collection of minds sharing the same consciousness. The purpose of this was to remove individualism and have all the Borg operating on the same goals.

Listen to how Paul describes what happens when a person accepts Christ as the leader of her life, I have been crucified with Christ: and I myself no longer live, but Christ lives in me. And the real life I now have within this body is a result of my trusting in the Son of God, who loved me and gave himself for me. Galatians 2:20 When you accept Christ, you are immediately a member of the family.

We don’t lose our individualism, but we do lose our right to live self-serving lives. This can only be accomplished if we allow Christ to influence our thinking. Listen to Paul once again, But the man who isn’t a Christian can’t understand and can’t accept these thoughts from God, which the Holy Spirit teaches us. They sound foolish to him because only those who have the Holy Spirit within them can understand what the Holy Spirit means. Others just can’t take it in. 15 But the spiritual man has insight into everything, and that bothers and baffles the man of the world, who can’t understand him at all. 16 How could he? For certainly he has never been one to know the Lord’s thoughts, or to discuss them with him, or to move the hands of God by prayer. But, strange as it seems, we Christians actually do have within us a portion of the very thoughts and mind of Christ. 1 Corinthians 2:14-16 14 When you become a follower of Christ, you are given “the very thoughts and mind of Christ.”

I hope you have enjoyed my first two comparisons. I have saved the last one, perfection, for my next post…The Borg & The Church – Part 2.