In March 2010, our churches will gather once again for General Assembly. And for the first time in history, we will be gathering off-shore, in Turkey, a decision made by the constituency at General Assembly 2008.
What is General Assembly and why is it important to your church?
Much happens at General Assembly. It is a time for resourcing, vision building and spiritual renewal. In fact, this is the main motivation for us going to Turkey - to build into all our people a renewed vision for the world and our duty to the world, as we connect with the greatness of Christ's love for the world.
General Assembly is also a place for accountability as the President reports on how well he has fulfilled its mandates. These are important and would, in and of themselves, be enough to call together an Assembly. But there is one more crucial thing that happens when we gather as a family of churches and that is to make decisions that affect us all?the ministry and operation of each church, and the ministry and operation of our common work around the world.
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Assembly is based on the gathering of churches as recorded in Acts 15 |
Assembly is based on the gathering of churches as recorded in Acts 15, where representatives from the churches and the Apostles met to decide together what to do about a thorny issue. It was an issue that various individuals had very deep feelings about; feelings which they believed were based on a correct understanding of the Bible.
Note several things from Acts 15 about this meeting. First, they came together. It was not good enough to simply have letters from various churches, nor was it good enough for the top leaders to make the decision by themselves. Rather, the church was and is seen as an organism, and when key decisions are made, the church needs to gather.
When gathered, they debated. Recently I discovered some people find debate offensive. And, to be truthful, sometimes debate is generated because the work of bringing carefully thought-through motions to the floor has not been done well and things begin to snarl up as a large number of people seek to ?wordsmith? a document. But, that is simply an error that sometimes occurs in the process.
The big picture is this: debate is something that must occur in order to test an idea. For example, in Acts 15, two ideas were front and centre. First, if Gentiles became Christians, then they needed to follow the Jewish law; and second, the opposite, that if a Gentile became a Christian that person need not follow the law.
To test these ideas, people from both sides were allowed to speak; and they did, sometimes with passion. After long debate, the ground had been covered, everyone had had a say, and in the end, everyone was convinced that the second of these ideas was the true one. Ever since, the Christian Church has stood on that principle as a solid rock.
There are a number of issues that cannot be decided any other way. Sometimes it is proposed to me that we hold electronic General Assemblies. That is, we post certain issues on the web, and people would vote. The only problem is that we would lose the critical component of face-to-face interaction, of sensing the weakness of some arguments and the weight of others. And, we would lose the consistent attention that is paid when we are all sitting there focused on what a speaker is presenting.
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The wisdom provided by people from various professions...is...necessary for sane and sensible governance |
Finally, meeting together and following the model of the early Church is an attempt to guarantee that the family of churches is not governed in an authoritarian way by certain well-known pastors or some elite lay people. Rather, that everyone and every church have a voice, and that the various important questions are considered equally by all.
I will repeat my comments written in a recent Table Talk about District Conferences, but apply them now to General Assembly. "The business covers all aspects of your ministry, from children to seniors, from evangelism to teaching, along with the issue of how to pay for everything. It is imperative that your pastors attend so they may give seasoned and wise input into the discussions and decisions that may affect their particular work. As well, your church can and should send lay delegates. The wisdom provided by people from various professions, and who serve in one or more of the local church ministries, is not only valuable but necessary for sane and sensible governance.?
Rev. Dr. Franklin Pyles is President of
The Christian and Missionary Alliance in Canada
