Letting Mission shape our structures
In the wake of the Primates Communique from Alexandria, I have been thinking a great deal about a) what was NOT said; and b) what we are seeing in the growing part of the Anglican Communion that is almost without exception located in the Global South and fully devoted to the uniqueness and universality of Jesus Christ as Lord, the authority of Holy Scripture, and the imperative of evangelism and mission.
I was reminded of a conversation I had in 2006 with my own Bishop, the Right Rev. Benezeri Kisembo of the Diocese of Ruwenzori, Church of Uganda, while we were travelling to a far-flung parish for confirmations. I asked Bishop Ben how many people he had confirmed since becoming bishop. "25,000," he said, "But that was when I stopped counting several years ago."
I was stunned. That figure alone exceeds the size of many dioceses in the USA. So I asked him how many people actually worshipped on Sundays in Anglican churches in the Diocese of Ruwenzori.
"Somewhere between 450 and 500 thousand every Sunday," he said.
I sat in amazed silence in the presence of this humble and unassuming Bishop. I knew from previous visits that he had no assisting bishops, no suffragans, and no "canon to the ordinary" to assist him. He is one Bishop, with a skeleton staff, each of whom wears at least two or more "hats" as they serve in their own churches in various capacities, and often without regular compensation.
He has one car, and a driver, to help him visit the 827 churches in Ruwenzori Diocese. He had less than 200 clergy to pastor those churches, with each priest often covering up to 8 churches in rural areas.
How are they growing the church on such limited resources and structures? By a fervent, unapologetic, passionate commitment to evangelism and discipleship. By converting people to the Lordship of Jesus Christ, delivering them from the powers of darkness that oppress and enslave them and their families, making them fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ through preaching and teaching the Bible (in Sunday worship and in small groups), equipping them for spiritual warfare, and sending them out to share Christ with others.
The clergy often act as "coaches," raising up lay evangelists and Catechists to do the work in the smaller developing churches. In this way, the larger church where the clergy serves becomes a kind of resource center for surrounding churches, multiplying congregations and raising up new ministry leaders. When a smaller congregation grows enough to become a parish and hire a priest, it then becomes a resource center for starting more congregations, and making more disciples.
The point is this: In the Anglican Church of Uganda, as in most of the growing Global South Anglican Communion, mission shapes structure.
Jesus put it this way: "No one sews a patch of unshrunk cloth on an old garment, for the patch will pull away from the garment, making the tear worse. Neither do men pour new wine into old wineskins. If they do, the skins will burst, the wine will run out and the wineskins will be ruined. No, they pour new wine into new wineskins, and both are preserved." (Matthew 9:16-17 NIV)
New wine precedes the wineskins. New wine demands new wineskins.
The false Gospel of TEC has already torn the fabric of the Anglican Communion to shreds. New wineskins are needed. A "holding arrangement" is not a new wineskin. Neither will twelfth hour attempts at mediation reverse the tear.
On the other hand, the new wine of a Biblically orthodox, post-colonial, confessional and missional Anglicanism cannot be contained by the old wineskins shaped and managed by Canterbury. Isn't it time for us to look where the Holy Spirit is moving in our Anglican Communion - where Jesus Christ is transforming lives and cultures - and to let mission shape our structures?
I am as eager as you are for the development and recognition of the Anglican Church in North America. I believe in good governance, doing things decently and in order, and in keeping with the best traditions of Anglicanism. But shaped as we are by an American church-growth mentality that says "build it and they will come," perhaps we need to renounce that paradigm and return to the apostolic Christianity that is at the heart of Anglicanism in the Global South. Perhaps we need some time to repent and reflect on Jesus' parable of the wineskins - placing a higher priority on the new wine of relational evangelism, church planting, discipleship and mission.
If we can do that, with humility and a patient commitment to being missional Anglicans, we'll find the wineskins that our Lord, and our friends in the Global South, know that we need.
With much love in Christ,
Rev. Phil Ashey,
CEO & Chaplain, American Anglican Council
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