What Joins Our VMC Family Together, A Shared Constitution And Bylaws Or A Sacred Covenant?

What God has joined together, let no one separate. Mark 10:9

“My prayer is not for them alone. I pray also for those who will believe in me through their message, that all of them may be one, Father, just as you are in me and I am in you... I have given them the glory that you gave me, that they may be one as we are one—I in them and you in me—so that they may be brought to complete unity. Then the world will know that you sent me and have loved them even as you have loved me."  - John 17:20-23 (NIV)

I've lost count of how many times Virginia Mennonite Conference Assembly delegates have been asked to release and bless the decision of a member congregation to withdraw from VMC and Mennonite Church USA. Dissident congregations make their request to their District Council, which becomes involved in their process of decision making and discernment, after which the request is forwarded to Conference leadership, after which the resolution is presented at the next Conference Assembly for approval.

I always feel a profound sadness whenever this happens in the fellowship of believers that has long been a cherished part of my extended spiritual family. 

I also wonder what it says about our understanding of the nature of the church itself. Are we primarily a "Gemeinschaft," the German word for community that is associated with the word "Gemeinde" (church), or have we become too much like just another"Gesellschaft," the German word for an organization? In other words, are we intimately bonded together as sibling members of a family, or are have we become more like a business or a charitable institution with an agreed on set of policies and membership guidelines? 

While there are numerous metaphors used for God's people in the Bible, none of them even remotely resembles that of an incorporated business enterprise. None. The church may sometimes need to take care of some mundane business, but they are not a business, other than being about their Father's business, that of redeeming, restoring and caring for the whole world as Jesus did.

One New Testament metaphor for the church is that of precious and living stones being built together to form a holy temple for God, one that is established on the solid foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Christ as its chief Cornerstone. As pictured in the Revelation, it is a beautiful habitation of light and life, with walls for safety but with gates forever open in each direction, inviting people in from every tribe, language and nation.

Another familiar metaphor for the church is that of a Body, with many diverse parts miraculously functioning together as a living organism under the direction of one Head. Every part of this body recognizes its need for, and its vital connection with, every part of the whole.

A third image of the church is that of a beautiful Bride being prepared for its eternal wedding celebration and for a future in which nothing can never separate her from her beloved Bridegroom. In this present age of the church's engagement period we are rehearsing not only for our ultimate wedding, but are practicing being a living demonstration of God's shalom here on earth as it will be forever in heaven.

In no case is the church ever described in the Bible as a having a human origin, or operating by human design or direction. God is the designer and builder, the loving head, the eternal lover, the forever Lord. It is only by God's grace that we are privileged to be members of it. 

In the meantime we do need human "under shepherds" who with their flock practice prayerful discernment regarding the care and maintenance of this new creation. So God's people are to exercise prayerful discipline in cases where individual members are openly dishonest, greedy, hateful, violent, abusive, or promiscuous.

This must always be done in the spirit of first focusing on removing the beams from our own eyes, then practicing the rule of Christ as outlined in Matthew 18:15-20, urging willfully sinning members to come to repentance. Only if such individuals refuse to listen to our heartfelt entreaties, first in private meetings and then to a public appeal from the whole congregation, are they to be released from the status of insider to that of an outsider. Then as outsiders they become among the church's "most wanted," and are actively and repeatedly re-invited to their former place of belonging.

But I find no instructions in the New Testament for having congregation censuring or excommunicating other whole congregations or groups of congregations. Not even in the case of a church such as the one at Corinth, which was openly tolerating scandalous behavior, or the wealthy and complacent church at Laodicea, a lukewarm congregation in serious need of repentance. 

In the case of removing an individual, it should never be done until we are convinced that their names are clearly no longer in the Lamb's Book of Life, and that what we are binding or loosing on earth is already bound or loosed in heaven.

Meanwhile, we are to remain in earnest prayer, sustained worship, careful discernment and serious study together as we work toward the ultimate goal of achieving an ever greater "unity of the faith," while continually maintaining a heaven-blessed "unity of the Spirit" by every means possible, for as long as it takes.

And that might mean keeping on working at it until death do us part, knowing that in the next life there will be no humanly defined doctrinal or denominational barriers separating us from each other.