Multiple Membership

I wrote this in response to Tim at e-church and his entry on cyberchurch Dec. 16,  with the main idea being :

Quote: I think I that a healthy Christian is one who has multiple memberships in communities of faith, not one who 'only' attends the church in one form.

I think the idea of multiple membership is in itself an "extension" ---- but even more than that,  it is a "rediscovery" of what has always been there as potential but never realized to the extent that we can today,  via electronic networks.  Teilhard de Chardin's "noosphere" laid some groundwork for a widespread ecumenism,  and he attributed its growth to the widening of boundaries and cultures bumping up against one another as people began to travel,  and diversity "discoveries" and issues brought understanding as well as conflict.

I suppose we could point to Paul in the New testament (and Peter's vision of the clean-unclean issue) and some of the OT prophets as predecessors/examples to celebrating the "cosmic spirtuality" as it reveals the universal revelation of God.  If early history of religious communion was largely oral,  the Jewish commmunity,  who were dubbed "People of the Book" introduced to theological community the idea of revelation via written communication, but usually "read aloud" in public and in face to face community.  Paul introduced some "disconnected" communication via his Epistles.  I think most of what early communities felt as they insisted upon communal/public use of written material was the idea of interaction as vital to the "hearing";   even if "silence" is the expression,  the physical prescence of the community provided some force to the hearing;  a common affirmation of receptiveness;  and interaction ,  even if not a part of the "reading" and the "order of service",  was able to be had when the people "went out" and carried on their daily lives, all having heard and having it "written on their hearts".

Online community provides a sense of "hearing" (it's there,  for all to see --- and although there is no assurance that all are hearing at one "syncronous" time,  the prescence of interaction and response and the "asynchronicity" of it testifies to the "hearing of it".  Then the interaction also heightens the sense of individual contribution.  And the "reach" (the audience) for these communications are heightened in their significance becuase of the potential breadth of "hearing" that it enables;  that one on the opposite side of the globe can also hear,  and respond.  Both the communal and the individual are improved and possibilities once again stretched.....and the "local membership" ;  the idea of the "traditional membership" grows,  as you point out,  to multiple memberships......but the Church theology ultimately is that there is a worldwide communion.  I am a Citizen of the World as well as the U.S.  I am a Baptist, Methodist, Presbyterian, non-denominational, post-modern, evangelical, Bible revering, universalist. 

It yields some interesting direction,  this multiple memberships affirmation you present,  and one that gains strength and momentum today via the quickening of the noosphere via the growth of electronic networks and the tools built to run on top of it.  Just as many have pointed out that theological authority changes because there is the capacity for more dialogue and the recipients are more widely educated and thus the "authority" of the tradtional theological "heirarchies" erode,  it is a related phenomenon that new ecumenical communities spring up and join the Church. 

© Copyright 2003 Dale Lature. Last update: 9/23/2003; 3:38:22 PM.