The earliest structure of Methodism in American history was communal and creative. The isolated frontier churches shared clergy and operated in cooperatives in which teams of itinerant circuit elders (usually a trainee and a slightly older mentor) would traverse the countryside on horseback preaching, visiting the sick, and holding the many classes and bands to task in their Christian discipleship.
The cooperative parish concept has been knocked around in the United Methodist Book of Discipline and annual conference staff organizational charts for decades. And yet, either out of fear, distrust, or selfishness, few congregations have seen fit to actually live into the possibilities of sharing ministry intentionally. Sure, churches may begrudgingly share a pastor when a district superintendent comes in for consultation and asks nicely. But the powerful impact of intentional regional ministry represented in the cooperative parish model is so much more than just operating as a charge for the clergy appointment-making purposes.
In An Effective Approach to Cooperative Parishes, Kay Kotan and Jason Stanley offer a roadmap for discernment and implementation for congregations to cooperate strategically and creatively to make a bigger Kingdom impact. Readers will be challenged, directed, and coached by the pages of this book. But all this work begins and finds momentum in the willingness of disciples to serve Christ together in community.
