They Depend on Me, I Depend on Them
When we boil things down to the basic unit for mission, be
it in business, the military, or in the church it begins with the individual.
Our bodies are made up of cells. It could be said the cell is a basic unit of
the body. Each cell has a particular function. Each cell is differentiated from
other cells. Cells join together to fulfill a particular function in the body
as an organ. Each organ as a particular differentiated function in the body.
The body depends on each organ fulfilling its function. Each organ depends on
the body in order to fulfill its function.
I shift metaphors. On a football team, since it is that time
of the year here in the States, each player has a particular function. Players
joint together in differentiated squads: defense, offense and special. The
squads can be broken down in to particular units: defensive line, offensive
line, safeties, linebackers, receivers, quarterback, and so on. To carry out a
successful play each single member must do their part in the functioning of the
whole squad. Each squad must do its particular function for the team. If a team
were composed only of people who can function as a quarter-back the team would
be in total chaos. Yet, every individual player, every squad, relies on the
success of the team.
Let’s move to another realm, the church. Individual
believers join with other individual believers to form a congregation. Each
individual fulfills a particular function/role within the congregation
contributing to the well-being of the congregation. The congregation
contributes to the well-being of each member through corporate worship, various
programs, government, discipline and participation in mission in the
congregation’s particular context. Congregations are the basic unit of mission.
Because the Mission of God it larger than a particular congregation can fulfill
congregations frequently join efforts for effective mission within a larger
geographic context. The larger body contributes to the well-being of the
individual congregations.
If an individual withdraws from the congregation, both the
individual and the congregation are the poorer for it. The individual is no
longer contributing to the health of the congregation, and the congregation is
unable to provide for the health of the individual. The same is true when a
congregation withdraws from the larger body. When an individual withholds
financial support for the congregation, the congregation is robbed of one of
the nutrients required for its health and functioning. The same is true when a
congregation withholds financial support for the larger body. Both the one
which withholds and the one which receives experience poorer health and a
lessened ability to function.
The congregation is a confederation of individual
members. The larger parts of the Church are a confederation of congregations. Friedman
says this about these confederations,
Within such “confederations,” to the extent
that the smaller unit helped the larger unit deal advantageously with the
environment, the larger unit, by surviving, ensured the survival of the smaller
unit. It was thus to the advantage of the smaller unit to work to preserve the
larger unit’s integrity. That is because those smaller units that worked for
the survival of the larger unit were more likely to survive. (A Failure of
Nerve: Leadership in the Age of the Quick Fix" by Edwin H. Friedman,
Kindle location 2960)
It is to the advantage of the congregation to
fully participate in and work for the health and functioning of the larger
portions of the Church. However, what we see are individuals and congregations
declining when they move into a posture of seeking to ensure their own survival
at the expense of the larger portions of the Church. I have heard it said by
congregation leaders, “We cannot afford to share some of our best human
resources with the presbytery. We need them here.” Therefore, the larger body
is weakened and is less able to work for the health of all the congregations in
its bounds, and congregations become weaker in the loss of nutrients which
could be provided by the larger body.
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