Methodist and Nazarene Polity, Worship, and Sacraments — Unit 1: Connectionalism: Why Methodists Are Connected

Key Verse

"There is one body and one Spirit, just as you were called in one hope of your calling; one Lord, one faith, one baptism; one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all." (Ephesians 4:4-6, NKJV)

Learning Objectives

When you finish this unit, you should be able to:

1. Define connectionalism and explain why Wesleyan churches practice it.

2. Describe how John Wesley's societies, preachers and conferences formed a "connexion."

3. Give the biblical reasons for churches that are bound together and not alone.

4. Name the marks of a healthy connection: shared doctrine, discipline, mission and resources.

5. State the main objections to connectionalism and explain how Wesleyans answer them.

The Voice of This Course

This course is written from inside the Wesleyan tradition, for students who belong to it. It is theologically conservative. When it says "we" or "our tradition," it means the evangelical Wesleyan and Holiness churches that hold the Bible to be the inspired and authoritative Word of God and keep the doctrine of John Wesley. These include the Church of the Nazarene, The Wesleyan Church, the Free Methodist Church, the Global Methodist Church, and Methodist churches in Latin America and Africa that keep Wesley's doctrine. Some older Methodist bodies have been troubled by liberal theology, and we describe that honestly but do not adopt it.

Other Christians organize their churches differently, and some of their objections are serious. We state them fairly and then give our answer. Scripture says, "Test all things; hold fast what is good" (1 Thessalonians 5:21). This course is about church order. Salvation is treated in Courses 2 and 3, and the history of Methodism in Course 1; we refer to them and do not repeat them.

What Connectionalism Means

Many churches in the world are independent. Each congregation owns its building, calls its own pastor, decides its own doctrine, and answers to no one outside itself. Other churches are ruled from a distant center. Wesleyan churches have chosen a middle road that we call connectionalism.

In a connectional church, a local congregation is not alone. It belongs to a larger body, bound to other congregations by shared doctrine, shared rules for Christian life, shared ministers, and shared work. The local church has real responsibilities and real freedom, but it also has real obligations to the whole.

The word comes from John Wesley himself. He called his people "the Connexion," using the old spelling. In Wesley's day the word did not describe a committee or an office. It described people bound together. A Methodist in a village in England was part of one family, with a preacher who also served other villages, a conference that guided all the preachers, and a mission that reached beyond the village.

For a pastor in a distant village, this has a practical meaning: you do not carry the ministry alone.

Where Connectionalism Came From

Wesley's practice

Course 1 told the story of the societies, classes and bands, so we only recall the main points here. After the revival began, Wesley did not leave new believers alone. He gathered them into societies, divided the societies into small classes under leaders, and appointed preachers to travel and care for them. In 1743 he published the rules for these United Societies. He wanted the work to last and to produce holy lives, not only to produce excitement.

The preachers who traveled were called itinerants. They did not stay in one pulpit for life. They moved in a circuit, a round of societies visited in turn. This meant that no society depended on one local man alone, and no preacher could build a private kingdom in one place.

Wesley also gathered his preachers in conference. The first conference met in London in 1744, and the conferences became a yearly gathering. There the preachers prayed, discussed doctrine and discipline, and received their appointments. The questions and answers they agreed on were printed as the Minutes, and later in the form called the Large Minutes. These became the working law of the connection.

Pragmatic, but tested by Scripture

Historians debate how deliberate all this was. Some say Wesley never meant to found a church. He remained an Anglican priest all his life and said he wanted to renew the Church of England. On this view the Connexion grew from need: there were crowds of new believers, too few ordained clergy to care for them, and one man to direct it all. Other historians stress that Wesley thought carefully about structure, tested every new step against the Bible and reason, and drew on his reading of the early church.

Both accounts have truth in them. Wesley did respond to needs as they arose. But he did not trust whatever worked simply because it worked. He asked whether an arrangement served the gospel and agreed with Scripture. The results were a structure that was flexible and a movement that stayed tied together. We receive the connection as a gift of God's providence, and we test it, as Wesley did, by the Word.

The American step

After the American Revolution, Wesley's followers in America needed a church of their own. At the Christmas Conference held in Baltimore in 1784, the Methodist Episcopal Church was organized, with a conference, an order of ministers and a body of doctrine. Course 1 told this story, and Unit 2 of this course will treat the offices of superintendent and bishop. For now, note that the American church did not give up the connection. The conference, the circuit and the appointed preacher traveled with Methodism across the new nation.

The Biblical Basis for Being Connected

Wesleyans do not hold connectionalism because it is old but because we believe it fits the New Testament. We offer several reasons.

One body. Paul wrote that there is one body and one Spirit, one Lord, one faith and one baptism (Ephesians 4:4-6). The church is not a collection of separate clubs. It is one family, and Paul urged believers to keep "the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (Ephesians 4:3). A church structure that makes the unity visible and practical expresses what the New Testament teaches.

Shared decisions. In Acts 15 the church at Antioch faced a hard question about Gentile believers. The congregation did not settle it alone. Paul and Barnabas went to Jerusalem, where the apostles and elders met to consider it. The letter that followed was carried to the churches, and Acts 16:4 says that as Paul and his companions went through the cities, they delivered the decrees to the churches. The pattern is plain: a question that touched many churches was settled by a gathering of leaders from more than one church, and the result guided them all.

Shared giving. When famine came to Judea, the disciples in Antioch sent relief by the hands of Barnabas and Saul (Acts 11:29-30). Paul later organized a collection among the churches of Macedonia and Achaia for the poor among the saints in Jerusalem (Romans 15:26; 2 Corinthians 8-9). Churches that were far apart and different in background were helping each other.

Shared ministers and letters. Paul traveled from church to church, and sent co-workers such as Timothy and Titus to set things in order. He told the Colossians to see that his letter was read also in the church of the Laodiceans (Colossians 4:16). Early Christian ministry was not locked inside a single congregation.

Shared accountability. Paul told Titus to appoint elders in every city (Titus 1:5). Leaders were accountable to each other and to the apostolic teaching, not left to do as they pleased. The Lord's warnings to the seven churches in Revelation 2 and 3 treat each congregation as answerable for its faith and life.

None of these texts gives a full chart of church government, and honest students should say so. The New Testament does not hand down one exact pattern. But it clearly describes churches that were linked, and the Wesleyan connection follows that direction.

The Marks of a Healthy Connection

A connection is more than an organization chart. We name four marks.

Shared doctrine. The Wesleyan churches stand on the Scriptures and on a common statement of faith. For Methodists this includes the Articles of Religion that Wesley adapted from the Church of England's Thirty-Nine Articles and sent to America in 1784, and Wesley's Sermons and Notes on the New Testament as standards of teaching. The Nazarene and Wesleyan churches have their own written statements of faith. A connection without agreed doctrine is only a fellowship of convenience.

Shared discipline. Wesley's societies kept the General Rules: to do no harm, to do good, and to attend upon the ordinances of God. Unit 5 will return to these. A connection where anything goes in conduct will not stay holy.

Shared mission. The connection exists to spread scriptural holiness and win the lost. It sends preachers and missionaries where a single church could not afford to send them.

Shared resources. Congregations support the wider work by giving. Stronger churches help weaker ones. A rural pastor and a city pastor are both cared for. This is the practice of Acts 11 and 2 Corinthians 8-9 in modern form.

Itinerancy and the Appointed Pastor

In many Methodist bodies the pastor is not hired by the congregation alone. A bishop or superintendent, working with others, appoints pastors to churches and moves them from time to time. This is called the itinerant system. It grows from the circuit rider. Its supporters say it guards against two dangers: a congregation that can dismiss any pastor who corrects it, and a pastor who can make himself the owner of a flock.

Not every Wesleyan body works this way. In the Church of the Nazarene, for example, the local church calls its pastor, and we will see that pattern in Unit 3. But even there the pastor belongs to the district and to the denomination, and cannot simply act independently. Unit 2 treats the appointment systems more fully. In all the Wesleyan churches the pastor is first of all a servant of the whole body.

The Churches Today

The connectional idea is found in different forms around the world. The Church of the Nazarene, The Wesleyan Church and the Free Methodist Church are connectional. So are the Global Methodist Church, a more recent body that formed from the division in the United Methodist Church, and many Methodist churches in Latin America and Africa. The Iglesia Metodista de México, for example, is an independent Methodist church in Mexico that keeps a connectional structure. The details differ from body to body. The United Methodist Church is the older connectional body, with conferences and bishops. The Global Methodist Church, named above, is connectional in its own structure. The Free Methodist Church, The Wesleyan Church and the Church of the Nazarene each have their own structures of districts, conferences and general assemblies or conferences, with their own ways of choosing leaders and placing pastors. As noted above, in the Church of the Nazarene the local church calls its pastor. We do not try to describe every body's rules here, because they differ and change. Your own manual or book of discipline is the final word on how your church works.

Objections and Our Answers

Objection 1: Each local church should be independent.

Baptists and many other evangelicals teach that the New Testament church is the local congregation, with Christ as its only head. They point to the seven letters of Revelation 2 and 3, addressed to individual churches, and warn that denominational structure can become human control. Where the structure grows large, they say, ordinary members lose their voice.

Our answer. We agree that Christ is the head of every church and that local churches matter greatly. Our connectionalism does not make a local church a mere branch office. But the New Testament does not show local churches acting without regard for one another. Acts 15 shows a church decision settled together, Acts 11 and 2 Corinthians 8-9 show shared giving, and Ephesians 4 shows one body. Independent churches in practice often form associations and fellowships, which is itself a kind of connection, only a looser one. We believe that a firmer connection, with real accountability, serves the churches better. We also admit that the danger of control is real, and that leaders in a connection must serve and not rule (1 Peter 5:2-3).

Objection 2: A connection protects error and wastes resources.

Critics point out that in some older Methodist bodies liberal teaching spread through the structure. Property held for the denomination made it hard for faithful congregations to leave. Bureaucracy, they say, grows heavy and slow. Faithful Wesleyans have said some of these things themselves. The recent division in the United Methodist Church, and the founding of the Global Methodist Church, grew out of such concerns.

Our answer. This objection is partly true, and we do not hide it. A connection is only as faithful as its doctrine and its discipline. Where leaders stop holding to Scripture, the structure can carry error as easily as it carried truth. But the answer is to restore faithful doctrine and enforce it, not to abandon connection. Paul did not respond to false teaching in the churches by telling each church to stand alone. He told Timothy and Titus to guard sound doctrine and to appoint faithful leaders. Independent churches are not free of error. They simply have fewer ways to correct it. A conservative Wesleyan church should choose its connection with care, stay in one that holds the faith, and work to keep it faithful.

Objection 3: Wesley did not design this.

Some historians say what we call the connection was an accident of English church life, and not a pattern that later churches must copy.

Our answer. We agree Wesley did not draw up a complete plan in advance. But he tested what grew by the Bible and found that it served the gospel. A custom that began in need and was confirmed by Scripture and by fruit is not weaker for its beginning. Churches of every tradition have organized themselves in response to need, and what matters is whether the result is faithful to the Word.

Pastoral Application

A pastor in a small town serves a congregation of about forty people. The district asks each church to contribute to a shared fund, and some members complain. One man says, "We pay our own bills. Why should we send money to people who have never visited us? Let us leave the denomination and be free."

The pastor does not become angry. First, he listens, because the complaint may hide a real hurt: perhaps the district has indeed neglected this church. Second, he opens the Scriptures with the congregation and reads Acts 11:27-30 and 2 Corinthians 8:1-5, where poor churches gave to help others. Third, he shows them what the fund pays for: the support of missionaries, and help for pastors in churches smaller than theirs. Fourth, he writes honestly to the district superintendent to ask that someone visit, because a connection must care for its churches as well as collect from them.

Summary

Connectionalism is the Wesleyan practice of binding local churches together by shared doctrine, discipline, mission and resources. It came from John Wesley's societies, itinerant preachers and conferences, which began as a response to need but were tested by Scripture. It crossed the Atlantic with the Christmas Conference of 1784. Its biblical roots are the one body of Ephesians 4, the council of Acts 15, the shared giving of Acts 11 and 2 Corinthians 8-9, and the traveling ministry of the apostles and their co-workers. Baptists and others object that churches should be independent, and critics say connections can protect error. We answer that the New Testament shows churches in real relationship, and that the cure for a failing connection is renewed faithfulness. A healthy connection helps the pastor, strengthens the weak church, and keeps the whole body on the road of holiness.

Further Reading

• John Wesley, "The Nature, Design, and General Rules of the United Societies" (1743).

• John Wesley, Minutes of the Methodist Conferences and the Large Minutes.

• John Wesley, sermon "Of the Church."

• John Wesley, Journal.

• The Methodist Articles of Religion (1784).

• Francis Asbury, Journal.

• Your own denomination's current manual or book of discipline, as the authority for how your church is organized today.

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