Being Connectional

For many years I was part of a "non-denominational" church. That meant that this church had no formal accountability or connectional system outside the local church.

I'm now part of a "denomination" (called "Free Methodist"). This means that I operate within a larger structure. It also means that I'm connected to a world-wide system of other Christians.

There are lots of good reasons to be connected. One reason I've seen in action over the past week and a half.

The Free Methodist Church has 15,000 members in Haiti. Over the past 10 days, I've seen this connectional system kick into action. Our churches are giving (we have a rare system where 100% of the funds given for Haiti, go to Haiti). Our structures that are left are serving people (we have about 500 people camped out in the yard of our school). We are grieving together (we know that we lost 3 US missionaries... and we're waiting to hear about our Haitian brothers and sisters). We are sending aid and teams into that area targeted for specific jobs.

I'm glad I'm part of the Free Methodist family...