The other day my oldest child was walking to the bus stop with his head buried in a book. That’s a pretty common sight so early in the morning. His attention is usually wrapped up in his latest novel and he’s not very interested in talking with friends. Later in the day, everything changes. When he comes home from school he really wants to hang out with his friends or log onto Xbox to play Fortnite. In the matter of only a few hours, he moves socially from single to mingle.
I think we all crave that kind of balance in life. Introverts and extroverts alike need some down time by themselves, but they also hit pockets where they crave community.
Unfortunately, in our churches, I wonder if we’ve forgotten the power of plus one? Maybe it’s our competitive spirits, or perhaps it’s driven by measures like worship attendance and giving, but too often churches go it alone. When considering outreach efforts and new ministries, we typically only consider “one” congregation. Even in a multipoint charge we’re hesitant to lose our identity and autonomy to the greater whole. We rarely think to collaborate and slowly start to isolate. We convince ourselves that God’s economy is one of scarcity. We become concerned there are only so many resources with so many opportunities and we see ourselves missing out. But what if we extended our thinking?
We say United Methodists are connectional, but what if connection went beyond paying our shares of ministry.
Recently, I was talking with one church leader who was struggling with the fact that his church of more than 50 years was dying. “We’ve tried everything!” he lamented. From the outside, I knew right away they hadn’t tried “everything”. They couldn’t have. Maybe they tried “everything” they could think of, and maybe they tried “everything” they were capable of doing, but they couldn’t have tried “everything.”
Some ideas require multiple churches working together. Other ideas require radically changing our culture and identity beyond our own capacity. And still other ideas require closing our doors and realigning our resources with brothers and sisters in other congregations. Certainly, they hadn’t tried “everything”, but from his perspective, they had. And now he and his church felt abandoned and alone. Their plan was to spend down their savings just to keep the doors open as long as they could.
But what if they teamed with another church or a church planter to write a different ending? What if they had vital partnerships that refused to let them close? What if there were a nearby community that shared their values and viewed their talents and abilities as a welcome contribution? Sometimes in our focus, we lose sight of the fact that these things might already exist. Our heads are wrapped up in our own stories completely missing others around us. What if we changed our social approach to church from single to mingle? That’s what happens when we Connect Ministries. Collaborative relationships form and new ministries become possible.
