What If We Were Really a Connectional Church?

My denomination calls itself A Connectional Church.  This means we share in ministry and governance.  We – as a collection of churches in regional groups called Presbyteries and as a national group called General Assembly – are connected in terms of money, property, mission, and relationship.

But – honestly – we aren’t all that connected.  Many of our congregations live as individual communities, maybe even seeing ourselves in competition with other individual communities that happen to be across town or in the next neighborhood.

Imagine what might happen if we were actually A Community of Communities that supported each other?  Examples:

• Very few congregations will say that they have extra money but actually many of our congregations do have assets.  We just choose to spend it on ourselves with a survival mentality (e.g. “What if we need that money to replace our roof?) But imagine if Little Church on The Corner gave a chunk of their endowment to help Little Church on The Hill hire a part-time educator.  Imagine if two medium-sized congregations pooled their resources to send a group of kids from a third congregation on a mission trip.
• Few congregational leaders know the congregational leaders from neighboring churches.  Imagine if a team of teachers who have figured out a new way to teach kids trains the teachers in another church who are looking for a new way to teach kids.  What if the local mission coordinator from Church A hangs out with the local mission coordinator from Church B and they share what they’ve learned?  Imagine people trading leaders who specialize in a specific ministry to equip others.  (e.g. We have a stellar Financial Giving Ministry.  You have an amazing Middle School Small Group Ministry.  Let’s share what we know.  And make some new friends.)

Our church culture has become so individualistic that shared ministry feels counter intuitive but it’s an ancient church practice.  We can do more together.

What if we were truly a connectional church in the New Year – not just in terms of sharing resources but also in terms of connecting relationally?  How would that change your congregation?