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Building One Another Up in Love
Life-giving Communities of Faith and Discipleship

Response to Feedback on the Directions

In Barry A. Ensign-George’s work on a theology of denomination he says, “Congregations are the immediate context in which our membership in Jesus Christ and one another is embodied.”²⁷ The Basis of Union affirms that truth with the bold claim of the Congregation being, “the embodiment in one place of the One Holy Catholic and Apostolic Church…”. The Constitution goes on to describe the Congregation as “The primary expression of the corporate life of the Church…”.²⁸ It is deeply challenging that something so central to our identity has been in such sustained decline for so long.

The call to discipleship and mission is at the heart of what it means to be a Christian community. Communities of faith should be intentional, consistent, relational and contextual in their approach to making and growing disciples. It should not be seen as an ‘optional extra’ once some ‘core’ activities have been done. Local communities of faith and the wider Church should be oriented around these tasks.

All expressions of Church which fulfil the vision of Congregations as described in the Basis of Union should have the opportunity to be recognised and experience oversight, support, encouragement and empowerment to fulfil their calling in Jesus Christ. This will require greater imagination and flexibility in the Regulations associated with Congregations and other expressions of local communities of faith. It also means continuing to question the institutional and cultural assumptions which have underpinned our understanding of Congregation.

Flexible, fit-for-purpose governance arrangements will mean less prescription and questioning the assumptions associated with Church Councils. This will require flexibility and oversight by the wider Church. However, regulation alone is not the path forward. The Assembly should also use its guiding authority to collect and share diverse examples of good local governance practice that are consistent with the theology and polity of the Uniting Church. We can also learn from the experience of other denominations which have moved away from prescription towards principles and guidance.²⁹

The compliance environment in which the Church now operates means that paid administrative support is now almost always necessary, either locally or from the wider Church. Compliance requirements are an essential part of ministry and mission. There is a tendency in the Church to draw a distinction between “ministry and mission” and “administration and compliance”. They are inextricably linked.³⁰ Separating the two areas invariably leads to trade-offs as the constraints of property, finance and compliance impact the ambitions of ministry and mission. Local communities need to embrace those trade-offs to be freed from burdens that are weighing them down, so they can fulfil the ministry and mission that is aligned with the gifts God has given them.

To enable this Presbyteries need additional tools in the exercise of their oversight, encouragement and support of Congregations.³¹ This includes the ability to vary the responsibilities of Church Councils and Congregations, and the ability to appoint people from the wider Church to a Church Council. While the agency and autonomy of local communities of faith remains an important principle, the size and capacity of many of our Congregations means wider support is needed. In combination, these changes should support communities to sustain a life of discipleship and mission while finding practical and effective ways to fulfil their ethical, legal and social obligations.

Davis McCaughey, the first President of the Uniting Church, made the following observation in his retiring address: 

“The Presbytery must know the congregations and love them, must see that they are fed by the Word and nourished by the Sacraments, built up through pastoral care.”³² 

It is never more important to know and love Congregations than at their beginnings and endings. No number of regulations or processes can ensure that Presbyteries know and love the Congregations they oversee. However, the processes laid down can be valuable enablers of this important work. 

Presbyteries and the wider Church need to create pathways to get to know and love new and emerging communities, both for the sake of those communities and the wider Church. New communities hold a mirror to our culture and practices which can be mutually transforming.

Many new and emerging communities see value in the support, resourcing, encouragement and even accountability which can come from effective oversight. However, they are looking for that to be expressed in relational and culturally relevant ways rather than just through process. The complex processes are sometimes used to safeguard our values and identity. However, wisdom, judgement and relationship are more appropriate and useful in achieving this.

Presbyteries and the wider Church also need to accept and fulfil their responsibilities in relation to communities of faith that are coming to the end of their life. We need to know and love our communities enough to be able to have honest and hard conversations with them. There is no substitute for wisdom, judgement and pastoral sensitivity. It is neither fair on communities nor on the wider Church to avoid these hard conversations. Presbyteries are not a disinterested bystander in the process. They have an interest in the health and well-being of a community and of the whole Church.

Beginnings and endings are hard work, for communities and for the parts of the Church supporting those communities. They must be undertaken by capable and wise leaders. Through deepening the knowledge for and love of communities of faith, the wider Church will be both enriched and transformed as we embrace the precarious path before us as a people on the way. 

Local communities of faith are places of life – not problems to be solved, not activities to be maintained – but places where life is found, lives are transformed, and life is so abundant that it overflows into the community in which it shares in mission.

Discipleship, Evangelism and Mission

Further work needs to be done to explore and reflect on foundational concepts such as ‘mission’, ‘evangelism’ and ‘discipleship’. Many feel uncomfortable with how these concepts have been understood and interpreted within the Uniting Church, by other churches and the wider society. However, as a Church we all share these words and concepts. Claiming, exploring and further defining these concepts will serve us well. We will not find a simple bumper sticker definition³³, but an ongoing and intentional conversation will help us have a better shared understanding of what it means to cultivate life-giving communities of discipleship and mission.

Diaconal Communities

We have reflected on the question of local expressions of the Church which do not meet the vision of Congregation as described in the Basis of Union. These contexts might be primarily oriented towards service and justice, places where community relationships are regularly formed, and not generally centred around the regular practice of worship but may have times of gathering and a place for the sacraments.

We acknowledge that the lack of a mechanism to recognise non-congregational ministry and mission contexts has led to a feeling that ‘Congregations’ are the only legitimate and best form of church. However, we do not believe that expanding the definition of Congregation is a useful solution. This is not to say that Congregations cannot arise within settings such as agencies and schools. We believe the work done in Being Church Differently and Ecclesiology: Alternative Communities of Faith remain valuable resources for such instances.³⁴

Rather than expanding the definition of a Congregation, we believe it will be more fruitful to address the gap in other ways. We already have some resources to assist us in understanding these contexts and communities and their place in the life of the Church. The renewal of the diaconate that occurred in the 1990s through the ordering of our ministries could be extended into how we consider the ordering of our communal life. The concept of ‘a diaconia’ is not simply confined to a ministry or an office but also refers to institutions in contexts focused on the service of the poor.³⁵

Our work on the Ministry of Deacon provides a valuable starting point to explore how we may order our communal life in fulfilling the diaconal ministry to which the whole church is called. This is not an attempt to domesticate or institutionalise a ministry of radical discipleship.³⁶ Nor is it to reinforce a separation of service from worship and witness. Rather, in understanding the respective roles of different communities within the Church and their relationship to one another we can strengthen our connections and have a more flexible understanding of our collective ministry and mission.³⁷

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