An Editorial Article in the June issue, Is It Time To Reorganize? has provoked some very interesting and encouraging responses. As must be expected, views vary greatly. Some feel that the work of the truth is most effective if carried out by big centralised organisations with adequate levels of funding. To many others, big organisations with their councils, synods, and committees, can be unwieldy, bureaucratic, impersonal and sometimes insensitive. Of course, anecdotal support for the various standpoints is given. Recent experience suggests that neither bigness nor centralised control guarantee effective performance, especially in the spiritual arena. Yet, small efforts at coping with big problems can lead to frustration because of inadequate resources, and their “public relations” are often unsatisfactory.
We can divide the responses to the article into three broad categories. We will comment briefly on each of these, and let our readers take things onward from there, according to their own consciences.
(1) Response: The “dire crisis” referred to in the article is being exaggerated, and right now all reasonable needs of the Brotherhood throughout the world are being effectively taken care of, principally by our three Bible Missions. These need our consistent financial support, but no “reorganisation” as proposed is needed, and no other help is required. Comment: We hope that this confidence is fully justified, and it is obvious that the enormously expanded field of missionary activity will certainly require greatly increased levels of funding for our troika of Mission organisations. Ever since the very first meetings of the original Christadelphian Bible Mission in the 1950’s, in which a few of us still alive were deeply involved, fund raising and public relations have never been very dynamic aspects of the work. In fact, they have often been almost apologetic, as if there is only a humanly fixed pool of money out there rather than a super-abundant supply limited only by the blessing of Almighty God (II Cor. 9:8). We believe that jealousy of perceived `competitors’ has no place in the divine economy. We may be quite mistaken, but a lot of correspondence we have received and much personal experience do suggest that there is indeed a “dire crisis,” and that it is very far from being adequately dealt with at present.
(2) Response: The second category of responses has been encouraging. Fully acknowledging that there is a “dire crisis” worldwide, they have presented much evidence that we are in fact “reorganising” quite quickly, and in a Scriptural manner. There is no space to give details here, but we have been told about very many activities going on outside the aegis of the Bible Missions: Christadelphian Save the Children Fund, Meal-a-Day, several international Care Groups, and many cases of “twinning” ecclesias in Canada, the USA, the UK, Germany, Australia and New Zealand with struggling ecclesias and groups in many poorer parts of the world.
Comment: Learning about these efforts has been a great encouragement. There is, however, a serious dilemma associated with these smaller initiatives. On the one hand we are understandably cautious about doing our alms before men, and therefore tend to limit information about them. Also confidentiality is essential in some cases, and in many areas of the world today. But if generous saints know nothing about these useful initiatives and efforts, then the necessary resources will not be made available. It is a difficult dilemma to resolve. A happy compromise has to be worked out somehow. And it is possible that if there are too many small initiatives and schemes of aid, donor fatigue may set in.
(3) Response: The third category of response — thankfully the smallest — is simple denial. There may be a “dire crisis” but it is no concern of ours. Our only duty is to “hold fast” to the purity of the faith, and quietly wait for the salvation of our God.
Comment: Some ecclesias with which we have had direct involvement during the past year are hardly aware of anything going on beyond their narrow circle, and virtually no announcements are ever made about the Brotherhood at large. In one case of a quite large ecclesia, no member appeared to know that there were Christadelphians in Jamaica (the Kingston ecclesia is 113 years old). They were amazed beyond measure to learn that there were brothers and sisters in Russia who could not speak English. How ever could they ever have learned the truth?, was their astonished response. And when told that there were now more than forty brothers and sisters in Moldova, the poorest nation in Europe, they simply shook their heads in disbelief.
Consensus: Overall, the consensus is that it is time to reorganise, but in a gently persuasive and orderly manner without raising hackles or stepping on toes. Moreover, this reorganisation is already well advanced in a few areas of the Brotherhood. The newer, and the specialised and focused, initiatives need more publicity and more support, without forsaking or in any way abandoning the many faithful workers in our traditional organisations such as the Bible Missions. The work is so big, there is room for all, and clashing concepts of `turf’ and ‘spheres of influence’ are political not spiritual, and must be abandoned. Perhaps most crucial of all, the ecclesial basis of the Christadelphian Brotherhood must be retained intact and inviolable. Despite a few voices suggesting that this is an “archaic” system, and we would be more “successful” with a centrally-directed system like the ‘JWs’ and the SDAs’, most Christadelphians feel that our cherished structure of ecclesial autonomy has not only served us well, but is fundamental to our faith.
We sincerely believe that, if our claims to true doctrine and practice are in any way to be credible, all we do must be infused with a far more evident and pervasive spirit of love. The love of Christ must constrain us, not Christadelphian politics. By this all men will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another (John 13:35).
The Origin of the Organic World – Part One