Interdependence.org.uk

It is the FIEC Annual Assembly Day today, and although I was not able to attend, I am hoping to read some encouraging news of the future direction of this grouping of churches.  Interdependence continues to be something we struggle with and need to get better at thinking about.  As Rupert Bentley-Taylor said in the flyer for the day “These are days of unparallelled challenge for our nation and unparallelled opportunity for churches which have the vision and the courage to work together in the gospel” (my italics).  More news as soon as we hear of it.

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We had a very encouraging session yesterday afternoon with Richard Underwood, general secretary of the FIEC.  Amongst other things he spoke of his vision for the FIEC, and we have his permission to summarise some of what he said below.

Firstly he took us to Acts 11:19-30 and pointed out that though the Jerusalem church and the church in Antioch were different in many ways yet they were alike in the only way that mattered - as brothers (and sisters) in Christ (11:29).  As a result of this they:

• Shared Information
• Shared people
• Shared money
• Shared vision

In God’s providence this sharing and working together was driven by persecution  (11:19) and famine (11:27).

We were reminded that the apostle Paul’s vision was broader than just the local church (2 Cor 11:28) and the way this concern shaped his ministry which was characterised by:

• Church planting mission
• Apostolic relief fund (a perhaps surprisingly significant emphasis in his letters)
• Apostolic letters
• Apostolic teams

And in the light of all of this, we were encouraged to consider the FIEC’s vision in the following way:

“The FIEC exists to equip gospel churches to make disciples together”

We love the use of the word ‘together’ and the emphasis that came across the whole session on the importance of interdependence and relationship.  A particular strength of this interdependece was the possibility of seeing the ‘big picture’, and letting the gospel drive our agenda (and our fellowship - so that we can be generous on secondary issues whilst holding fast to what is primary).

He identified ministry priorities for the FIEC in the following way:

Churches on a mission together to

• Reach the lost
• Grow leaders
• Care for churches

And of course these are all priorities we share.  Praise God that the leadership of the FIEC is thinking in these ways.  Pray that God would give individual churches the same vision inasmuch as it is a Biblical one.

 

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We are pleased to see that in the announcements regarding the nation-wide mission initiative - A Passion for Life (for March 2010) - not only is there a desire to reach out to people with the gospel of Christ, but specifically to do so by “connecting with churches.” According to the latest South East Gospel Partnership newsletter this means “partnership with all who share a commitment to the mission’s doctrinal basis with generous accommodation across cultural and denominational differences.”

Wonderful!

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I recently came across the following quote which (though referring primarily to Congregational Churches) could well be applied to some of the Independent Churches in the UK. Written in 1906, we see that our concerns for Gospel Fellowship are not new ones.

“The curse of Congregationalism, which not only hinders it from fulfilling its mission, but threatens its very existence, is “parochial selfishness.” This is by no means confined to the Congregational churches, but is a graver danger under our free polity. Each church, being sufficient unto itself, thinks only of itself. It resents even advice from other churches as an interference with its supreme authority. Various remedies may be suggested for this unhealthy state of our body ecclesiastical. Sackcloth and ashes is one of them. A review of Congregational polity with the New Testament in hand, is another. . . .The only remedy for selfishness is unselfishness. The great remedy for lack of fellowship is to practice fellowship. Let the churches unite in common work which calls to them, work which no one of them can do alone. Let the strong churches love their weaker neighbors as themselves, and love in deed. We shall soon recover from our Independency into the strong fellowship of Congregational churches. If the pastors lead in such a movement, the churches will follow.”

[quoted from Edgar L. Heermance Democracy in the Church (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1906), p. 121-2.]

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Here’s a great example of Interdependence in action, or ‘Gospel partnership’ as it is called here…

Partnership in Action

What does Gospel partnership look like? There are several ways of answering that question, but one answer comes in the form of churches releasing their own leaders and allowing them time to work with other churches that need their help.

We were asked by the membership of an evangelical church in Sharnbrook, Bedfordshire to support them through a difficult period. The departure of the minister had left the church without clear spiritual
leadership so that the church was beginning to drift. With many in the church rather downcast about the position they felt the church had reached it became clear that we needed to be in a position of actually leading them in making these changes, rather than acting as neutral consultants giving advice.

Not surprisingly, some were rather nervous about this since it meant the local church surrendering its independent status and asking outsiders to take over. We were grateful at this juncture for the support of Martyn Hallett (pastor at Goldington Evangelical Church in Bedford) who had been acting as chair for the Sharnbrook deacons’ meetings, so along with him Phil and I were appointed as interim Eders for a period of two years, with the expectation that we would give about two days a week between us (it probably worked out at more than that, which is usually the case in ministry!).

The focus of our activity was relatively straightforward: organising the Sunday ministry (Ian with his part-time status at Brixworth was able to preach every three or four weeks, Phil every six or seven, and Martyn about once a quarter); organising and leading the setting up of weekly housegroups; some pastoral visiting; leading deacons’ and church meetings; and, this year, heading up the search for a new pastor. It was not really possible to do much more, as the distance from Brixworth to Sharnbrook is just under 25 miles and time is restricted because of other duties, but it is surprising how that little was so encouraging to the people at Sharnbrook.

In all of this, we have sought to keep people regularly informed for prayer, even though members at Brixworth have not been directly involved. Quite a few have thus maintained an active interest in the progress of the fellowship at Sharnbrook and have therefore also shared our joy at the Lord’s recent provision of a pastor who we hope will take up his appointment in October. So our involvement with the church will be scaled down, but our sense of unity with the church at Sharnbrook will not diminish.
We are grateful to have been able to work with them in a way that both demonstrated and strengthened the bonds that exist in Christian fellowship.

Ian Rees, Associate Pastor of Brixworth Christian Fellowship (FIEC)
(Article reproduced with permission from Spring 08 issue of Together Magazine – www.fiec.org.uk.)

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The FIEC are designating 15th-29th June ‘Fellowship Fortnight.” As I understand it, this is to encourage member churches to pray for the FIEC and to make them aware of some of the work of the movement. I noted in the following in their Spring bulletin “You may feel that you could arrange for some expression of local inter-church fellowship during that period with your FIEC friends and neighbours.” Here here. Let’s get talking and working together!

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One of Interdependence.org’s priorities is seeing Bible churches work together to train people in Christian Ministry.  One part of that must be by funding and supporting people through Bible College. 

 Bible College is only part of the picture though.  There is the before and the after.  It is good to see the develpment of Apprenticeship schemes although independent churches perhaps have some catching up to do with their Anglican brothers. 

The other side of the coin is what happens after college.  The Anglican Church has an established curacy system.  Can interdependence enable us to develop something similar and appropriate?

 A third consideration might be whether or not there are some men who are called to pastoral ministry for whom attending college is not practical, or neccessarily the most effective way of learning. 

 Finally, we want to encourage the training of elders, deacons and preachers within churches, not just full time pastors.

 How might these things happen?

1. One good starting point must be the Learning to Lead and Prepared for Service courses offered through the FIEC

2. Is there a place for churches to work together by

a. Sharing the task of mentoring and coaching Apprentices

b. A few churches might club together to support someone responsible for training apprentices as a full time task

c. Smaller churches might twin with larger churches when taking on a new pastor.  This might mean that a young man looking for the equivalent of an assistantship could go into a church currently without a pastor but with the support of an experienced man at the twinned church.

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I’ve spent most of my life as part of two Independent Churches.  The first was an Evangelical Methodist Church in Bradford where I became a Christian and grew up through the Sunday School and Youth group.  The other an FIEC church in Rochester. 

What both Churches had in common was that they had left their previous denominations because they were unhappy with the liberal direction that those denominations were taking at the time.  Their priority was to remain distinctive as Evangelically minded, gospel focused churches.  The first, as far as I’m aware has no formal ties to any church networks, although it has always worked with others on specific projects.  The second chose to affiliate to the FIEC.

Why do I mention these churches?  The reason is that if we are going to think about what it means to co-operate together, we need to understand our history?  Why is it that we are independent.  It may be the case that some churches have  a strong tradition for independency on principled reasons (I would love to hear the views and thoughts from people from such backgrounds).  However, a lot of us are independent by accident.  What I mean is that being independent wasn’t our primary goal.  This will apply at the corporate level of church -but also for individuals who join churches, not because they are independent but because they are Bible based.

 We should think through our approach to church leadership, decision making and institutional membership.  What are the real priorities about how we do those things?  What are the pragmatic or accidental aspects of where we are now?  And to what extent do we run the risk of developing theologies to justify where we are now and even making an idol out of our independence?

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Another area in which interdependence.org would like to encourage thinking, is the area of church planting - again with a view to seeing how different evangelical churches can work together in this area. One of the questions this raises is to do with the relative merits of new plants, and ‘grafts’ onto existing (but struggling) churches - and how the gospel is best served.

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