During the summer of 2005, while pondering the call to join the Ministerial Association of the General Conference, Ministerial Association secretary James Cress invited me to spend a week with him and the associate secretaries. During that week I was not only exposed to the responsibilities and activities of each team member, but of greater importance, I was able to spend quality time with each of these individuals. Doing so was crucial because in order for us to function harmoniously, I had to catch the ministerial vision of the team and we needed to develop a sense of family.
Every week in churches worldwide, men and women experience the same situation I did four and a half years ago. As I wrestled with deciding whether to change jobs and move my wife and children 1,500 miles away from family and friendships, I recognized that other people also wrestle with whether to change churches and move their families away from long-established congregational relationships. They find themselves thrust into catching a new vision of service and developing a new-found sense of family. It is not only those who move from one city to another and need to find a new church to call “home,” but those who transfer from one denomination to another, and previously inactive church members who return to congregational life.
The need to assimilate
By assimilation I refer to the process of seamlessly becoming a part of something that already exists, taking on its life, and enriching the life of the organism that already exists. The relationship is symbiotic; that is, all elements contribute each to the other, nourishing each other. This process of assimilation carries benefits for everyone in the church— for those who enter into this new relationship as well as for those who have been in the church, whether for a few years or many decades.
Assimilation leads to spiritual strengthening. Many carry with them a common fallacy that new believers must feed off the spirituality that already exists in a local congregation.
And, of course, the church should and does nourish and nurture these new believers. But the truth also is that these individuals who may have been a part of other congregations are the same as those who are a part of their new congregation—growing believers in Christ who love the Lord and desire to walk according to the light they possess. Even those who did not belong to any religious fellowship possess the capability to contribute to a conversation about God while assisting their new fellow believers to come to a better understanding of God and enjoy a stronger walk with Him.
Assimilation allows people to fortify one another through their spiritual gifts. My family and I have been blessed since we moved our memberships, upon arriving in this area, to the Dupont Park Seventh-day Adventist Church in Washington D.C. We have been nourished and nurtured as a result of the various ministries within the body of Christ there—not just as a result of the preaching and music, but other ministries ranging from the Sabbath School class I attend to the warm fellowship we experience (yes, I consider fellowship to be a ministry).
But we have made our own contributions. My son serves as a junior deacon, my daughter works with youth ministries, my wife assists with Pathfinders, and I have taught the new believers class. We were looking for opportunities to serve, and we found them. I hope others have been as blessed from our being there as much as we have been blessed by being there.
Assimilation lessens the burdens on others. Two of the Cradle Roll teachers at Dupont Park have been serving in that capacity for more than 40 years. Upon joining the Dupont Park family, my wife volunteered her services in Cradle Roll. The net effect? The three teachers lessen the load for one another, allowing them to take a break from carrying as many responsibilities as was once the case.
In years past, I pastored churches that did not have the luxury of having several teachers in one classroom. How does one lessen the burdens for others? This becomes a greater challenge; but the conscientious pastor—aware of the need to lessen the potential strains on the unsung heroes of local church ministry— works all the more to see that the church assimilates its newly baptized, returning, and transfer members.
In this issue
The lead article in this issue, written by Jane Thayer, explores the challenges that churches face in assimilating new members. In April 2010, part 2 of her series will discuss strategies for discipling new members.
But whether your church members are new, returning, or transferring, I pray that the assimilation process in your churches leads to the spiritual fortification of the saints, “so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (Eph. 4:12, 13, NIV).
