Monthly Archives: May 2012

Here is an exercise in counter-cultural connectionalism. It is designed to allow both the elders of a session and the pastor to reflect together on the dangers and invitation of our connectionalism as a congregation. Remember that we are speaking of narcissism as the tendency to be too focused on the self, including the congregation as itself. The universe does not revolve around either the individual pastor or the individual congregation–or around the session.

To begin the reflection, provide each elder and the pastor with a four by eight card. On one side, Elders are to write 4-5 dangers of the congregation and or session shaping their decisions on what may advantage the congregation or session. The pastor is to write 4-5 statements of the danger of focusing too much on what benefits the pastor. Let each elder share his or her list and the pastor share his or her list. (This is a time of confession. There is benefit to verbalizing this for each other.)

With those lists in mind, now let both elders and pastor list on the other side of the card 4-5 blessings that might occur when our decisions are based on faithfulness to that which is larger than the self or the congregation. For the pastor, it is a time to reflect on how he can be blessed by his service to the congregation, the larger church, and the world. For the Session, it is a time to reflect on the blessings of the church when it basis its decisions on how the congregation might serve beyond itself.

One of the blessings of our connectionalism is that an individual might be part of something bigger than self as part of a congregation and a congregation might be part of something bigger than self in association with other congregations up to and including the world wide Body of Christ.

The danger for an individual is to become to focused on the self. The danger of a congregation is to become to focused on itself. When we become too focused on the self, we become too conscious of the threats to the self and the need to protect oneself. This was the first temptation recorded for Jesus when the Spirit led (or in Mark drove) him into the wilderness. You are hungry, turn the stones into bread. Use whatever power and resources you have to protect yourself first. What good is a dead Messiah to the world? Sounds reasonable, doesn’t it? The parallel is for a congregation to focus first on its survival.

The value of recognizing that we are all a part of a connectional church is to sense our relationship to God’s work through the Body of Christ in the larger world. The issues of the larger world may seem beyond our ability to affect, but as part of the larger church we can do that which transcends our capability as a single congregation. Some churches attempt to recognize that connectionalism through a minute for mission that lifts up the work of the greater church. All churches can lift up in prayer those concerns that are beyond the physical reach of the congregation. Special offerings can also be seen as a reflection of our capacity to join together to make such a witness.

The very act of lifting such concerns up to God in prayer is to acknowledge our connection with them. When we pray “thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven,” we are committing our self to be part of God’s work to fulfill the divine purpose on earth. For us to despair that the world will ever change is to deny God’s ability or willingness to answer the prayer that his son taught us to pray.