So far in this series on churches and parachurches we have defined our terms, discussed the origins of the current form of parachurches, described some of the tensions between the two types of organizations, and I have given a personal anecdotal narrative on my observations of their relationships. Now let us turnin this final post of the series to a vision of how churches and parachurches can better work together.

I would like to offer some corrections and suggestions for reconciliation and partnership between modalities and sodalities, or churches and parachurches, respectively. These suggestions are theological and pragmatic. Please do not take my suggestions as sequential—that is, there is not a necessarily logical progression through these suggestions and one can start in any place.

I said in the previous post that the next piece on churches and parachurches would be about improving the relationships between the two groups, but I would like to share a bit about why I am writing this series. Really, the main reason for this post is that I have written what is contained in this post in nearly every post on the series, but the information here does not neatly fit into any of the other headings. That, and this information would make the other posts unbearably long.

One of my primary motives for this series on churches and parachurches has been my experience as an alumnus of InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF), the organization which will continue to serve as our test case. A friend and staff worker with IVCF who was with me at UC Davis recently said to me that when he hears about former IVCF students, his first question is, "Do they still love Jesus?" He said it rather sarcastically, but we both knew that such a question has a lot of truth in it. My purely unempirical and anecdotal observations about the state between churches and parachurches have led me to believe that there is great room for improvement, especially those parachurches like college fellowships whose ministries significantly overlap with churches.

In the previous post in this series on the relationship between churches and parachurches, I mentioned Ralph Winter’s distinction between the two types of organizations as sodalities (parachurches) and modalities (churches). For ease, I will continue using these labels, with the understanding that no label will perfectly encapsulate something as broad as congregations and parachurches.

The parachurch or sodality with which I am most familiar is InterVarsity Christian Fellowship (IVCF). I participated in the organization as a student and as a student leader during my four years of undergraduate studies. IVCF will serve as a case-study for this discussion. (For the sake of disclosure, I am still connected with several close friends who are on staff with IVCF and my wife and I support the ministry through prayer and financial giving. I am very grateful for the work IVCF does and consider myself a product of its ministry.) Now let us turn to the tensions that exist between these modalities and sodalities.

As I said in the previous post, many see the existence of parachurch organizations as the result of local churches not doing their jobs. That is, certain people groups or issues slip through the cracks of local congregations and new organizations not officially affiliated with those congregations or denominations come into existence to address those concerns, to proclaim God’s gospel in deed and word to those specific audiences. As I said before, this is true, to a certain extent. IVCF began in the 19th century as a group of college students at the University of Cambridge in England began to pray, read the Bible together, and witness to other students on their campus. (You can read more on the history of IVCF here.) What should be noted is that college students found something lacking in their experience at the university, namely, that there was not an incarnational presence of the body of Christ on their campuses. Had these students’ local churches reached out in an incarnational fashion to the campuses, groups like IVCF would likely have never formed. Fast forward more than a century later and one sees that IVCF has spread to 143 countries as college students around the world seek to live as Christ-like communities on their campuses, in their own contexts.

Some churches have recently revisited the existence and continued support of parachurch organizations. Some questions being asked include, if these sodalities exist because the modalities were not reaching out to certain people, shouldn’t the sodalities cease existing once the modalities start reaching out to those people groups? Why should churches support different organizations for work that they themselves should be doing?
READ more

In the original post of this series, I gave my definitions of parachurches and churches. I will now turn to a generalized history of parachurches and their relationships to churches. This is by no means an exhaustive or authoritative history, but a thumbnail sketch in order that we might be on the same page.

The history of parachurch organizations is difficult to find. It appears that these groups emerged out of the Second Great Awakening in the US in the 19th Century, but the immense proliferation of the size, number, and influence of these organizations came strongly after World War II with the newfound prosperity in the US (Mark Noll, A History of Christianity in the United States and Canada, 1992, 438). Though parachurches are not necessarily are a part of evangelicalism, many of them within the US are tied to the general evangelical movement. Especially in the older parachurches, there seems to be a strong emphasis on proclaiming the gospel through teaching to groups of people not touched by the churches. Most parachurch organizations are born out of necessity; they find their inception in a group of Christians seeing some need that churches do not meet. These needs could be anything from evangelistic and medical outreach in different nations to building low-income housing domestically to going onto high school campuses to make disciples. The key here is that parachurches exist because the churches for whatever reasons are not addressing certain issues. One could look at this phenomenon as an example of churches not doing their jobs and this is true to a certain extent, but we do not need to condemn our congregations. Instead of knocking churches, let us appreciate what parachurches are able to do. Parachurches by their more fluid and less institutional nature are perfect organizations to answer the call that certain issues demand. The overhead is generally far lower and the scope of their ministries is more focused (or limited, depending on one’s perspective) than local congregations.

I would like to take some time and develop a series of posts dedicated to the relationship between churches and parachurch organizations. The relationship between churches and parachurch organizations is difficult to understand. On the one hand, in some examples, the relationship between these two groups is fruitful and symbiotic. On the other hand, the relationship is non-existent or antagonistic. In the middle there is room for much confusion and distrust. For some, the church and parachurches are seen as different entities and perhaps even competetors vying for converts and participation by existing Christians. For others, the labels "church" and "parachurch" are false alternatives. Let us first define our terms. (For clarity, when speaking of local congregations or even denominations in general, I will use the label "church" with a lower-case "c". When I speak of the larger, historical, and worldwide body of Christ, I will use the label "Church" with an upper-case "C".)

When we speak of churches, we usually mean ecclesial congregations that function in our traditional understandings of what a church looks like—they gather weekly for worship, they perform and partake the sacraments, etc. (These markers vary by tradition.) When we speak of parachurches, we usually mean Christian organizations that focus on a few specific ministries whose focus extends outside the boundaries of our local congregations. Many international and domestic missions organizations, evangelistic groups, student outreach groups, prison ministries, and relief agencies fit into the parachurch. (Wikipedia has a list of evangelical parachurch organizations; the list is helpful but by no means exhaustive.) These organizations may or may not have any denominational affiliation. Often they distinguish themselves from churches by saying they do not practice some of those traditional markers of the Church, especially the sacramental markers. By definition of the term, a parachurch (literally, alongside the church) is not a church, but works with and beside churches.