The heart of the experience of the church for most Christians is what takes place in the local congregation. Here is where they most frequently experience the Christian community and hear the Scripture proclaimed.
The easy flow of members across denominational lines results in a weakening of denominational loyalties. When members have belonged to several churches from different denominations, they lose their sense of loyalty to any particular denomination. This, together with the institutional distrust present in our society causes many members to look upon their denominational structure as more of an irritant than a partner in the Gospel. Yet the danger of a local congregation becoming myopic with respect to the call of the Gospel is increased to the degree that they are divorced from any connection to the larger church. Trans-congregational structures have a critical role to play in the Body of Christ.
First, they offer an opportunity to experience the larger community of faith. In a society that is increasingly built on distrusting anyone you cannot control, people are becoming isolated from the larger reality of God’s concern. The regional and national bodies of denominations and ecumenical groups have the challenge of building a community of trust within that increasingly hostile culture so that people can listen to the Word of God being fleshed out in the diverse situation of God’s world.
The God of Christ is never a local God and the Word of God never finds its full expression in one setting. Through offering opportunities to spend time learning how to communally exegete the Body of Christ, they invite people to build communities of trust across the many divisions that separate us in our society. Individual members and local congregations experience the opportunity to learn to trust God in venturing out into a larger vision of God’s call to ministry.
