“An independent church is just a disconnected church”
There are 3 key terms in the assertion: independent(I), church(C) and disconnected(D).
The "just" bit is interesting. It means "no more than" here. Something like "merely". It has a negative meaning here. It means that every church should not be a disconnected church. It is a lot less than it should be. It reminds me of the "could do better" reports I used to get.
“Church”
"church" could mean
C1. The whole, single reality of the elect in all ages- the body of Christ, the bride of Christ. The sum total of all the human possessors of eternal life with Christ.
C2. A local church – a group of professing Christians forming some kind of organised unit in one location in spacetime. We need a much better definition than this but I think you know what I mean.
“Independent”
I1. A church which rejects any authority over it other than the authority of Jesus the King speaking in his word.
I2. A church which isolates itself from all other churches and acts as if they did not exist.
I3. A church which rejects any authority outside of itself... fullstop...this is a church in name only.
There are all kinds of variations from these too. I am convinced that there is a relationship between I1 and I2.
“Disconnected”
D1. Totally disconnected from Christ – a branch ready for the fire.
D2. Disconnected from
D2.1 - all the connections that it should be disconnected from but none of the connections it should maintain.
D2.2 some of the connections it should be disconnected from and some of the connection is should have maintained.
This gives us plenty of combinatorial possibilities!
The disconnection from all the connections we should be disconnected from is much easier than the keeping of all the connections we should be maintaining.
We disconnect far too easily and we are far too disconnected.
Honest evangelical churches think of themselves as D2.2 and aspire to be D2.1
D2.1 is heaven.
Sadly some UK evangelical churches are D1…
Sadly some are heading full steam ahead to destination D1.
There is a relationship between inadequate effort and inadequate aspiration for D2.1 and D1.
Speaking from personal experience I think that it is much easier to be an inadequately connected church. You can escape from all the awkward, difficult conversations and decisions by avoiding them and pressing the global disconnect button… but you will also miss all the opportunities for enrichment and growth. It is actually possible to learn something useful even from the devil himself!
So what did I actually mean?
What I actually meant was…
An [I1]Independent [C2]Church is just a [D2.2]Church which is inadequately aspiring to be a [D2.1]Church
What is your vision of a turbocharged, jet powered, super-upgraded, hypersaturated D2.1Church? Why on earth do we pray this prayer: Your Kingdom Come! Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven!?
