The names we choose and use are important, yet churches are not always the best at naming their programs and ministries.
Individual churches can be bad at the name game, but so can entire denominations. My own denomination is guilty of this. When a pastor accepts a new call, the pastor’s current congregation goes through a process called “Dissolution.” There are certain steps the congregation and governing body go through in order to “dissolve” the pastor’s employment.
Dissolution? Surely there’s a better name for this season in a church’s life? Even when the pastoral transition is healthy and well-timed, the name for this process sounds like forcing down antacid for congregational heartburn or ecclesial indigestion.
The names we choose and use are important.
When I first started working as a pastor, I noticed that many of the churches in my denomination used the same name for the team or committee that welcomed new members into the congregation: “The Assimilation Team.”
As far as I can tell from a quick online search, the English word “assimilation” initially had a physiological meaning. It was first used to describe the way our bodies absorb food.
But modern connotations make the word much harder to digest. Because assimilation also came to mean the way differing cultures and traditions become similar or like-minded. Degrees of assimilation can take place slowly and naturally, but human history, including our own country’s history and my own denomination’s history, is replete with examples of forced assimilation, especially of indigenous peoples and minority groups.
To call the committee that “welcomes” new members into a church “the assimilation team” is to communicate the philosophy that these new people need to look like and act like us to truly become one of us. They must assimilate their way of being and believing to look more like the way we do church—the way we look, the way we worship, the way we do ministry and community.
This one-size-fits-all membership model gives me spiritual heartburn. When you join our church, we will help you (force you?) to fit within our structure and theology. You need to assimilate into who we are. Then, and only then, you can become one of us.
I believe there may be a healthier way to talk about church membership.
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In chapter 12 of Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, Paul uses the metaphor of a body to talk about the importance of different spiritual gifts. The Corinthian church was arguing over which gifts were the most significant. Paul counters this conflict with the image of a body, with each individual member playing a vital role to the health of the whole.
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ…Indeed, the body does not consist of one member but of many. If the foot would say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. And if the ear would say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. If the whole body were an eye, where would the hearing be? If the whole body were hearing, where would the sense of smell be? But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many members, yet one body. The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.”… Now you are the body of Christ and individually members of it.
The word “member” seems to have fallen out of favor in churches recently. I hear more and more congregations using new names like “church partner” or “covenant friend”.
But I still love Paul’s body metaphor from 1 Corinthians, and I think this biblical image makes a strong case for continuing to use the word “member” to express participation in and commitment to a congregation.
But the body metaphor is distorted a bit when we start talking about adding new members. How would you even do that? What would the body look like if new appendages were added? Does a body really need a third ear or second nose?
I’ve spent 15 years pastoring small churches. I’ve joked that in these congregations we don’t have the option for members to sit back. In small churches with minimal staff, it takes an “all hands on deck” mentality to make the ministry of the church work.
So the onus is on the church to help its members find ways to connect and serve. One church elder I worked with came up with a line that I love and have now stolen. His leadership responsibility in our church was to help members find roles that fit their individual skills, interests, and passions. He liked to say, “Help us, help you, help others.” We don’t just want to slot you into any open role, like a square peg jammed into a mismatched-shaped hole. We want to find a position that truly fits—that is more life-giving than life-draining.
But what if that right role doesn’t yet exist in the church? What then?
Here is a place where smaller congregations, who are sometimes more pliable and maneuverable, may have an advantage and offer a significant witness to larger churches.
If the right role and position doesn’t exist, maybe it should! Maybe that’s a sign that the Spirit is up to something—moving and transforming the congregation in a new way!
Whenever welcoming a new member into the life of the church, I’ve started naming that moment in a different way. Instead of using the language of “becoming one of us” (a part of who we already are), I’ve tried to express the desire to remain open to how their presence and passions are leading us and transforming us in completely new ways.
So now, when welcoming a new church member, I usually say something like this,
“You are not becoming part of us. We are becoming something new because of you. We welcome your gifts, passions, and service as God transforms us together.”
You don’t have to adapt to who we are. With the addition of you, we are being transformed into something new.
This membership philosophy is an intentional shift from assimilation to transformation. How can we expect the Spirit to lead our congregations into new mission if we lock our church membership into one-size-fits-all ministry?
The names we choose and use are important, so I’m proposing that it may be time to do away with the name: “The Assimilation Team”. How else could we name and value the committee that helps church members find life-giving ways of leading and serving?
Whatever name your church may come up with, consider this shift in philosophy—from assimilation to transformation.
“You are not becoming part of us. We are becoming something new because of you. We welcome your gifts, passions, and service as God transforms us together.”
