Words of encouragement and support for those ministering "in the fields."

Sometimes churches seem to be stuck. As in trapped, caught, jammed up, or blocked. The church just can’t move, can’t go beyond where it is.

One of the scriptural texts for this year’s Conference Annual Meeting referred to the Body of Christ as being “joined and knit together by every ligament with which it is equipped.” [Ephesians 4: 16]  Ligaments.  Ligaments are flexible; they attach our muscles to our bones, allow us to move, to grow, to pick up and carry, to go beyond where we now are, to pull us up and out when we are stuck.  Maybe, to foster the church’s “growth in building itself up in love,” [same verse] we need to pay attention to our “ligament issues.”

The word “religion” shares a common Latin root with the word “ligament.” The relationship between “religion” and “ligament” is apparent in the lives of all whom we cherish as saints, the holy people among us. Religio-ligaments make us strong, let us progress and keep us connected with our spiritual Source. We need healthy ligaments as individuals and as church communities. Flexible connectors that attach muscle to bone, creature to Creator, member to congregation, congregation to congregation, so that we can grow and move as this United [not “untied”] Church of Christ.

Each of our churches has a ligament system known as its constitution and bylaws. This is a profoundly theological document, as well as a means of legal incorporation. Constitutions and bylaws state who we are and describe our connections with one another within our church community, locally and throughout the denomination. Bylaws explain who is a member of this particular body, and what it means to be a member. Bylaws record how we’ve agreed to conduct ourselves and organize our mission. Healthy bylaws, like healthy ligaments, connect us and keep us moving and growing.

When we can’t move, when we’re not growing, when we’re stuck—maybe we’ve got a ligament problem?

I am convinced that one of our churches’ major ligament problems lies with bylaws that were designed for an era of “churched culture.” A time when the label on the social fabric could have read, “Content: 95% Christian; 5% Jewish.” The fabric content label today in Northern California Nevada reads more like, “50% on a personal spiritual quest; 40% opposed to organized religion; 20% members of a community of faith which might be Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Hindu, or other. Warning: fabric overload; components total 110%; overlap of categories possible.” Consequently, our bylaws can no longer assume that service to the church as an institution is the one true manifestation of church membership. Churches must offer more to their members than the opportunity to serve on governing boards. Churches must cultivate healthy ligaments—ways of conducting ourselves and organizing our mission that will connect us to the Holy One and to one another and mobilize us “to prosper God’s work in the world.”

Let’s get unstuck. Not unglued or untied, but winched out of the muck, dislodged from the rut. Freed. Liberated. Redeemed and redeeming. Let’s have worship and prayer and Bible study that connect us with the Source of Life and with each other. Let’s match members’ gifts and passions to ministries that God needs us to carry out. Let’s develop community life that allows us to know one another well enough to discern those gifts and passions, and to trust one another deeply enough do what each of us is called to do.

It is my intention to send out a pastoral letter on church bylaws, citing specific concerns and approaches, before I leave on sabbatical in September. Meanwhile, I hope that you will begin to take stock of your church’s ease of movement and degree of unstunted growth, and begin to get excited about bylaws—not as tomes that are dry as bones, but as prophetic ligaments that will say to any heap of dry bones that are lying around, “you shall live.” [Ezekiel 37: 5]

                                                                                                                                                             ~ Mary Susan

* DISCLAIMER CONCERNING "LIGAMENTS" - THE AQUINAS DEFENSE

Swept away by the metaphorical possibilities inherent in Ephesians 4:16, Rev. Gast has made reference to “ligaments” in a number of written and spoken presentations connected to this year’s Annual Meeting. To date, two nurses, one physical therapist, and a physician have very respectfully advised Rev. Gast that her allusions to ligaments have not been entirely correct, anatomically speaking.

“I’m sure you were speaking of ligaments in a spiritual sense,” one of the nurses noted.

“Yes, I was!” Rev. Gast affirmed at the closing worship of our Annual Meeting. She went on to cite the “Aquinas Defense” in exculpation. Thomas Aquinas, the renowned theologian, made many inferences regarding human physiology and reproductive processes which were not scientifically accurate. Thus, one concludes, even outstanding theologians are not necessarily good biologists. This is the Aquinas Defense, and we invoke it when receiving Rev. Gast’s pre-May 21 reflections on ligaments in the Body of Christ.

Your comments are welcome
Send to msgast@ncncucc.org