From Here to There

We like to think that we are further down the road than we are about this but . . .we still have work to do.

When those of us planning a Midwestern gathering of congregational leadership teams to work together (and with professional support) on their own processes of transformation, we intentionally made it easy for these congregations to bring teams from neighboring non-Disciples congregations. We reduced the amount of denomination ally specific references throughout the event so as to provide a less exclusive context. Our thought was (and still is) that congregational transformation happens best when it happens in concert with neighboring congregations in a community because the missio Dei (work of God) was given not to a denomination but to the whole Body of Christ. In other words, we are transformed - not to be more competitive but to become more collaborative with other congregations beyond our particular denominational tribe.

Sadly, no one took us up on the offer and only DOC congregational teams will be in attendance.

I accept some responsibility for that. We probably needed to customize our promotional materials. I could have been more aggressive in marketing the event to ministerial alliances. I suspect, however, that part of the reason for the response we got is that many of us are not yet there.

In the first place, not all of us are convinced that our work is, by its very nature, ecumenical. Without wanting to minimize the real value of serving within denominations, it has become comfortable for many of us to operate primarily within a denominational bubble. We know the people, the language, the safe boundaries within which we can operate freely. Not a bad thing, necessarily.

And if we are inclined to think ecumenically, we may be a bit jaded by previous attempts to create artificial unions between denominations before we were ready to experiment with shared missions - before we had sufficient opportunity to wrap our minds and hearts around the concept locally. Understandable uneasiness.

Our non-Disciples colleagues might also be wary - and not without good reason. Could ecumenical conversations these days be driven more by shrinking budgets and membership rolls than by a sincere desire to get the whole Body of Christ working well together locally? A fair question. How would you answer it? And if the Baptist congregation down the road has a thriving ministry with a million dollar budget and a junior college campus that is busy seven days a week, why would they suddenly feel the urge to partner with a congregation that prefers to take smaller steps to advance the Kingdom?

Like any change worth making, this one - local congregations of any and no denomination working together closely until big missions are actually accomplished - will take time. We cannot shorten that timeline but could we, should we begin to name that as a goal toward which we all strive?