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Financial Support of the National Association

Financial support is also at the discretion of the local Church; and to the degree that participation in such an association enables that congregation to do its work better, a fair share of the cost of those services is only right. But participation in the National Association also addresses the fellowship obligations which are ours as Congregationalists. The primary question is not, "What do we get?" but "What do we bring to such an association of Churches that will enable the witness of the Congregational Way to prosper in our time?"

The present mission statement of our National Association, as stated in the yearbook (1995) is this: To encourage and assist local churches in their development of vibrant and effective witness to Christ in Congregational ways." This exposure to other Churches across our nation, and to the work of missionaries around the world, broadens and deepens our identity as a people of God. Such participation encourages us to envision new ways to do the work of our Lord in that place where God's lens is focused for us - among the people with whom we have entered into covenant in a Church. But when such organizations presume to speak for a Church or assume to place costs upon that Church directed toward programs and issues to which that Church is not committed, we see this as a move away from Congregationalism toward a form of denominationalism contrary to our Way. Clearly our office in Oak Creek exists solely to assist the Churches of our Association and not the other way around.

Other Church Bodies

Each Church is free to do as it feels led. Just as an association of our Churches can never presume to speak for individual member Churches, so we are not disposed to seek membership in groups who make religious, social, or political statements as if those represented the thinking of each member Church. We presume that each member is capable of making those decisions on his or her own as guided by the dictates of conscience; and that the Church should speak its own convictions. We do receive and exchange fraternal delegates with other bodies and participate in ways consistent with our practice.

Ours is not the Church of the clergy, or a denomination, or of any wider council. The Congregational Church is the people's Church in Christ.

Copyright 1995, Schimpf and Hall

National Association of Congregational Christian Churches
PO Box 288, Oak Creek, WI 53154
 

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