Grasping Onto the Essentials: Ecclesiology Commission reports

Kingsview FMC in Toronto recently hosted the Special Study Commission on Ecclesiology that was recommended by General Conference 2005 and established by the national Board of Administration. Dan Sheffield and Howard Olver co-chaired the two-day conversation, May 15-16.

Ecclesiology is concerned with the nature of the community into which people are called by God, commonly referred to a “the church.” From the Greek words ekklesia meaning those “called out” and logos, meaning “study.” It is the area of theology which seeks to more fully understand the nature and purpose of the Church, from its origins to the present time. Primary issues in ecclesiology concern the relationship of the church to God, the relationship of members of the church to one another, and the commitment of people in the church to people in the world.
A recent StatsCan report indicated that more than 60% of Canadians infrequently, or never, attend public religious services. Of those Canadians who never attend religious services, however, 27% said they expressed their faith weekly with private religious practices. Of those who attend religious services infrequently, 27% said that they weekly expressed their faith through private religious practices.

This information suggests that there may be a disconnection between the personal spirituality of people in our society and their ability to express that faith in the current options available for public religious services. It is precisely this gap that different church planting groups within our Free Methodist movement are seeking to address through more contextualized forms of church.
The commission was intended to look at this intersection between the essentials of Free Methodist ecclesiology and alternative forms of church structures that are emerging in response to social indicators in Canadian society.

Participants in the commission included: Bishop Keith Elford, and National Leadership Team members: Dan Sheffield, Alan Retzman and Jared Siebert. From Western Canada were: David McLauren ( Surrey , BC ), Dan Jansen ( Calgary , AB ), Jordon Cooper ( Saskatoon , SK ), and Dennis Camplin ( Arlington Beach , SK ). From Eastern Canada were: John Vlainic, Rad Zdero, Jason Johnston (all from Mississauga , ON ), Rob Clements ( Bowmanville , ON ), Mary-Elsie Wolfe ( St Catharines , ON ), Bob Lay ( Thornbury , ON ), Jennifer Anderson ( Niagara Falls , ON ), Joseph Moreau ( Ottawa , ON ) and Nathan Umazekabiri ( Montreal , PQ ).

Special invited participant was Rev. Dr. Howard Snyder, Free Methodist historical theologian, author and professor at Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky.

Howard Snyder, Rad Zdero and Jared Siebert each presented papers touching on elements of the discussion. All the papers and podcasts of the speakers can be found at www.lifecycleproject.com
On the second day members of the commission worked at developing a series of affirmations about the nature and structures of the church. Participants affirmed that presently existing statements and documents such as our Articles of Religion, Core Values and The Manual cover the essentials of what we believe.

The following statements, however, particularly address the need for ongoing engagement with our changing cultural and social environment. The contextualization of church forms and structures enables us to act upon our vision to see healthy churches within the reach of all people. We were reminded that this is a particularly Wesleyan contribution – the ways of “doing” church need to fit the particular times, so that disciples of Jesus are rooted and built up in the faith.

We affirm that:
The church is the Body of Christ, the community of the Spirit, with Jesus Christ alone as source and head.

The church lives and grows on earth in a variety of social-structural forms which are largely the product of tradition, history, culture, and human invention.

The church is to live functionally as the Body of Christ within whatever forms it finds itself, and as much as possible adapt those forms so that they are functional for the church’s fidelity and mission in the world.

The Spirit and the Word provide all the essential resources for the church’s fidelity to Jesus Christ and its effective, transformative mission in the world.

The primary mission of the church is to love Jesus Christ and to be his Body in the world, continuing the work of the kingdom of God which he began.

As a community reflecting the life of the Holy Trinity, the church is called to be a community of love, mutual self-giving, and outreaching mission, worshipping God and constantly seeking to draw others to Jesus and his Body.

Since the primary visible expression of Jesus Christ in each place is the local Body of Christ, the church is called to continually reproduce itself through giving birth to new local churches (church planting). The primary advancement of the kingdom of God in the world is through the reproduction, multiplication, and organic networking of Christian communities that genuinely live and witness to the life of the kingdom; that are empowered by the Holy Spirit and look like Jesus Christ — transforming the world as a genuine Christian counterculture, rebuilding society’s microstructures and witnessing prophetically and redemptively to and within its macrostructures.

The church also exists as a broader community of regional, national and global networks. These practical connections with the larger church are both necessary and normative.

Solidarity with all humanity and the physical creation is a concern of Christian community and of gospel mission. As Christians we understand through the gospel the true nature of the relationship that exists between God, the whole human family, and the physical-social-spiritual environment. Through Jesus Christ we know the secret, the “mystery” of the plan of God for his whole creation.
The full 3-page document can be viewed here.

The Commission members affirmed that holding onto these essentials in our understanding of the nature and purpose, or the function, of the church, allows various churches to explore culturally relevant forms that may allow them to impact people who are presently alienated from existing forms of church.

A Surrendered Body: my choice, His choice

Every year Easter takes on new meaning. There was the year when the children were little and they gleefully chanted, "HE is alive, He IS alive, He is ALIVE!" and my heart was reminded of the amazing miracle of the resurrection. Then there was the year when my own son was coming of age and the thought of God allowing Christ to surrender himself to die a painful criminal's death, overwhelmed me with the sacrifice of all of Jesus' parents.

A few years ago, the Holy Season took on yet another dimension. It was one of gratitude for the yielded body of our loving Lord. "This is my body, broken for you." You see, that year had been a year like no other for me personally. In May when the horrifying test results came back that, yes, indeed I did have a malignant lump in my left breast…and that it was not even the "nicest" form of cancer…you know the contained cancer, but rather the whippy-off wildfire spreading one, I experienced for the first time, the reality of the hymn writer who penned the words of yielding "your body and soul".

My "soul" had belonged to my Heavenly Father for years, almost as long as I can remember. But my "body" was another story. Sure, I had yielded to my body as a youth to God, trusting Him to take me wherever He wanted me to go in life, but this was quite another sort of challenge. I hadn't really thought a great deal about it. My body simply seemed to be the "earthly house" that my soul had been given to inhabit. Now, for the first time, my Saviour's words of surrender in the Garden, "Not my will, but yours be done", echoed through my mind with eternal consequences. You see, a yielded body meant that if this cancer were to take over my body and my body in turn was to give out, my spirit would then be transported out of this world and into its Heavenly home.

Now, "What's wrong with that?" you might ask. "Isn't that after all what we are all aiming for?!" True!…good point! However, like most human beings on this planet, I wanted to live to see my children married, dance with my grandchildren and retire early so that I could do winter missionary sprints with my hubby. So saying that I would yield my body to what God would see fit to do with it for His Glory took on enormous ramifications! It brought me to my own personal garden. God and I were sitting there and He was asking me to trust Him with my body. The example spread before me was that of my Big Brother, Jesus, saying those precious Easter words of surrender, "Not my will, but your be done"…"This is my body, broken for you."

You see, Jesus had counted the cost. His ministry was just taking off! He was a young man, just thirty-three years of age. He had a promising future, helping scores of people who thronged to Him for help and instruction. They adored Him! Why they had just thronged Him and had sung to Him, proclaiming Him their King! On the other hand if He was to surrender His body and soul, there stood the painful, excruciating death of the cross. If He was to surrender His physical body, He knew what awaited Him…the shame, the horror and the weight of our sins, my sins, being thrust upon His sinless shoulders. But He loved us so much; He yielded His body and soul! He also knew that beyond the grave existed a life much more victorious for all of us! So He gave up His body, His earthly container! He surrendered it for you! He surrendered it for me! That is, plain and simply put, the Easter message.

And for me, that year, the surrendered body of our Lord Jesus took on more meaning than it ever had. You see, my Brother Jesus, who had roamed both the streets of Heaven and of earth, now sat at our Father's right hand and He knew what was best for me. I could rest in that…most of the time, when I chose to.

Gini Larson is a graduate of Aldersgate College and have attended various Free Methodist Churches over the years. She now lives with her husband in Tweed , Ontario.