Wendell Berry wrote the essay, The Ideal of a Local Economy. In it he discusses the idea of a neighborhood economy. It is a subsistence economy where people can control the morals of production and seek to assist one another rather than a production economy that limit not only products, but neighborhoods to units. Units have no feelings and units do not suffer. But neighborhoods do and neighborhoods watch each other.
For Berry, it is important to have economy be local. This does not mean that it is not a portion of a larger economy, but that the dynamics of the economy stem from the local economies.
I wish to apply this to the church as well. The Church, universal is essential, but the dynamics come from the local church and the neighborhood churches. They certainly may not be as efficient, nor as fun, but one thing can be said about the neighborhood church - it understands its local community. It thrives or suffers with its local community.
From Berry's essay:
In a viable neighborhood, neighbors ask themselves what they can do or provide for one another, and they find answers that they and their place can afford.
I like that understanding of neighborhood and want to apply it to ecclesiology. If local churches remember their neighborhood rather than searching to be the corporate conglomerate, they would ask what they could do or provide for their community, they would find answers and they would supply as possible. Not only could they do this with their local community, but other churches within that community.
In this way, if the community suffers, the church empathizes, suffers with and reminds of Christ's joy in times of suffering. They provide a stable outlet of hope. If the community thrives, the church provides the same outlet of hope in the expression of thanksgiving and joy.
Under the neighborhood model, imports and exports are not shunned. Churches do not need to look outside for resources that they can produce locally. When a resource would be deemed helpful and cannot be produced locally, then the church looks outside and imports it as necessary, tailoring it to fit the local need. The conglomerate church can assist in these exotic resources. Also, local churches can send their surplus out. This surplus can be in the financial form or bodily form and can be used by local churches outside the neighborhood that may need it.
Specialty shops occur in the neighborhood, but not at an alarming rate. These specialty shops in ecclesiology appear in the form of a para-church. Too many para-church organizations, especially those focusing away from the neighborhood start to strip the neighborhood of precious resources. An appropriate amount can add specialized and specific resources to build the neighborhood.
Berry quotes Albert Schweitzer near the end of his essay:
Whenever the timber trade is good, permanent famine reigns in the Ogowe region because the villagers abandon their farms to fell as many trees as possible.
As long as specialized, unitized churches are in demand, the local community experiences spiritual famine because each church seeks to mass produce and the community around fails.
Churches need to have a neighborhood ecclesiology. With other local churches, they can be the dynamic of the Church universal, propelling the mission of Christ to make disciples of all and administering the hope of the Gospel.
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