Connectionalism
Encyclopedia : C : CO : CON : Connectionalism
Connectionalism is the theological understanding and foundation of Methodist polity. It basically means that all local congregations are interrelated through the larger church.
In the United Methodist Church, this translates in several ways. All local church buildings are owned by the local church, but held "in trust" for the whole denomination. All local churches are expected to participate in the annual conference's and the denomination's ministries through shared ministries payments. In addition, pastors only serve a congregation when they are appointed by their bishop.
See also
From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.