Is It Time for More Multi-Denominational Congregations?

                Once upon a time, there was a proposal to create a united church in the United States. This proposal was explored in what was known as the Consultation on Church Union. It began in the early 1960s, but despite a lot of hopeful conversation it never came to pass. Across the land, there are numerous communities where mainline Protestant congregations continue to exist, but often struggle to maintain a strong witness. So, in a small community, there might be a Disciples congregation, along with PCUSA, United Methodist, ELCA, American Baptist, and United Church of Christ congregations. Some of these denominations hold full communion relationships, others do not. For the most part, they are very similar in their beliefs and practices. Yes, they might baptize differently and have communion with different frequency. But on the “essentials,” they largely agree. So, why not become one much stronger congregation?

                I currently hold the position of Chair of the Board of the Disciples of Christ Christian Unity and Interfaith Ministry (CUIM). We Disciples have a strong heritage of pursuing Christian Unity. Barton Stone, one of our Founders, called it our “Polar Star.” We were participants in COCU and have been involved in many other ecumenical ventures.

                We at CUIM are in the early stages of a project to collect information and stories from across the denomination about regional and local involvement in ecumenical and interfaith efforts. One part of this project involves discovering how many of our Disciples' congregations are part of multi-denominational or federated congregations. While the list isn’t yet complete, I’ve been amazed at how many places where we are in some form of a partnership relationship. The partners in these congregations vary. Except for congregations in which we are partnering with the United Church of Canada or the United Church of Christ, the constituent parts are ones with whom we don’t have full-communion relationships. This isn’t easy but it is happening. Maybe, it should happen more often for the good of God’s realm.

                I recently read an intriguing book titled Daring to Share: Multidenominational Congregations in the United States and Canada. It is authored by Sandra Beardsall, Mitzi J. Budde, and William P. Campbell. They open their book with this statement:

Christian worshiping communities number in the hundreds of thousands across the United States and Canada. Sprinkled among them are congregations with a distinct character. They have dared to share. That is, they have constituted themselves multi-denominationally. Refusing to accept division from other Christians as “normal and inevitable,” they live out their faith lives in covenanted partnership, sharing worship and ministry while remaining in good standing with the two or more denominations they formally represent.  [Beardsall, Budde, McDonald. Daring to Share: Multi-Denominational Congregations in the United States and Canada. Pickwick Publications, Kindle loc. 66].

What we’re talking about here aren’t autonomous community churches, but congregations that have been intentionally formed in a way that the congregations continue to maintain full relationships with their denominations. At the same time, they are committed to living together as one congregation. It’s easier when the denominational partners are in full communion, such that matters of who can preside at communion have already been worked out. However, there are numerous congregations where the partners are not in full communion. There are more challenges, and yet such congregations exist (we Disciples are in quite a number, especially with PCUSA, UMC, and ABC churches). Regarding the challenges, the authors note: 

Shared ministries outside of full communion partnerships are rather like couples who fall in love across differing cultural backgrounds. Not only does the couple have cultural issues to settle with each other, their parents may not be entirely sold on the viability of the relationship. Yet, these congregations persist—and have done so for decades, in some cases. [Daring to Share, chapter 2, Kindle loc. 556].

Edgar Dewitt Jones, a Disciples pastor of an earlier generation wrote in his book This Great Business of Being a Christian, published in 1938, about the church life in the town where he grew up in. It was a small town in Missouri. There were five churches, each with about 100 members. Each Sunday the bells rang out inviting folks to attend their church. Though on Sunday these churches exhibited outward rivalries, “I perceived that on week days our denominational differences were largely lost in neighborly relations and kindly ministrations.” Years later he visited the town, which had grown smaller, but four of the five churches remained (the two Methodist churches had merged), now diminished as well, still calling out with their denominational invitations. He writes that “denominational zeal was dying and kept alive only by ‘shots in the arm’ from denominational headquarters” [The Great Business of Being Christian, pp. 92-93].  While that was true in this community and others, there were other communities where reunion was being accomplished. Maybe it’s time for us to consider how to begin building these new communities to further the ministry of grace across the land.

           Of course, the pursuit of such gatherings requires considerable conversation about ecclesiology. That is, what does it mean to be church? What is the common core that will unite communities of faith into one body? To pursue such ventures will not be easy. It will involve taking risks. It will take the support of those folks known as “judicatories,” those folks who help oversee and guide regional bodies, sitting between local congregations and the larger denominational bodies. But this might be, in many cases, a risk worth taking.