Excerpt from When People are Big and God is Small [Chapter 12]:

Recently there was an interesting study that contrasted the Japanese response to personal trials with the American response.  The question was, How did people comfort themselves during these difficulties? The Japanese consistently said, “I think about my family. I imagine that my family is with me. ” The American response was typically, “I can overcome this, I just have to work harder.” Or there was self-talk that was intended to inflate the needy self: “I’m great. This person can’t beat me.  I am better than he is.” In other words, we live in a culture that emphasizes the individual over the corporate.  Americans often use variations on the phrase “self-reliance.”  This phrase is a notorious problem for translators.  In some Asian countries the phrase makes no sense, or it is a sign of mental instability.  The person should never be self-reliant, according to most Asian traditions. The person should be interdependent.

This has everything to do with the fear of man.  When we think of ourselves as alone and isolated, we will always be prone to fear other people.  Isolation and fear of man are close companions. Yet when we truly understand that God has called us to participate in a larger family (ie, the church), we are free.  Church begins to feel a little more like a family sitting with us in our living room. Better yet, we feel like a  family sitting together at the feet of Jesus, sitting around the throne.  With family, the is no self-consciousness, no embarrassment, no fear.

Notice the results if we neglect to see the importance of biblical community.  If we privatize Scriptures, turning “we” into “I,” we have the following dilemmas:

I have to go into all the world and make disciples (Matt 28:18)

I have to pray without ceasing (1 Thess 5:17)

I have to give proper recognition to the widows who are in need (1 Tim 5:3)

I have to teach the older men, younger men, and younger women (Titus 2:1-8)

Remember that at that time you (Ephesian Church) were separate from Christ, excluded from citizenship in Israel and foreigners to the covenants of the promise, without hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you (Plural) who once were far away have been brought near by the blood of Christ. Consequently, you (Church) are no longer foreigners and strangers, but fellow citizens with God’s people and also members of His household.
Ephesians 2:12-13,19

This radically changes the way I view my circumstance when I consider I’m not alone.  That my family is for me and with me.  It seems this mindset of “self-reliance,” and “independence” has been ingrained in our culture.  Asian culture would call us mentally unstable for holding such a belief, and it seems the scriptures echo that sentiment.