Our Ecumenical Path
Executive Director Report
Fall, 2004

     The first objective of the Association of Christian Churches is to discover and further, through creative forums, the unity we have in Jesus Christ as Lord and Savior. 

During our first ten years of existence as the Association (1970s) this was our primary activity, along with the Clergy Observer program.  We organized many forums throughout the state, with a goal of presenting a meaningful dialogue in each of our zip code areas.  Limited resources have curtailed much of this activity and we are studying whether we should attempt this kind of activity again.

Our second objective is to help fulfill Christ's mission in this time and place.

We meet this objective through supporting ministries run by people who have some very specific calls, and by advocating for social and political positions that we all agree we can support.

 
Our political and social advocacy is complicated by the fact that the people who make up our churches may agree with our goals - to make life better for poor, for instance, - but disagree on the methods we advocate to reach these goals, such as the recent vote on the food tax.  One of the Association Board members, in a recent conversation with me, pointed out that our churches may be splitting into "liberal" and "conservative" groups, with people having more in common with like groups in different congregations than they have with people in their own churches.  We also have pastors and other leaders who have very different political convictions than some of the people in their congregations or denominations.  To complicate the situation further, some people believe that there should be no political positioning "from the pulpit." Others believe that we must be a voice for those without one. Our Board member asked "how do we live as Christians in a fractured society?"  It's a good question.  Perhaps we act by addressing it.

Our third objective is to do those things that we may together do more effectively and efficiently than separately.

This is a strong area of interest for us.  All of the denominations, and most of the churches that make up the denominations, have resources far greater than our Association.  So the question becomes - is there anything that we can do together more efficiently and effectively than any of the Associations members can do alone.  If I speak out on a subject, or the Board takes a position, will it carry more weight than if said by a single Bishop, or even a single pastor?  I don't think so, which means we're not usually more effective in this situation than our members are.  If we decide to give money to a particular ministry, can we give as much as any of our denominations or churches?  I don't think so. If we gave our entire program budget for next year to one ministry, it wouldn't be as much as a spirited collection might take in at a single service at a large church in Sioux Falls.  We must find out how we can do the most good.

The fourth objective is to do those things that we ought or must do together.

Are there things we must or ought to do together?  The answer lies at the heart of ecumenism.  It stares at us from Iraq and Africa and the Middle East.  It has to do with the factionalism mentioned above. It has to do with perfectly sound Christian people challenged to vote one way or another as if Jesus himself preferred the Democrats' or the Republicans' stand on given political issues.  It has to do with people condemning friends and family because of their position on love, marriage and procreation as if those positions guarantee to select (or limit) their place in Heaven.  How do we, as a Christian body, respond in a fractured society?

These are some questions that our Association hopes to respond to in the coming year.

Gary Nesdahl, Director
Association of Christian Churches of South Dakota