The U.S.-based Episcopal Church that many of ACNA\u2019s members split from was largely unmentioned, but the divergent direction of the two churches was apparent. The Episcopal Church became increasingly centralized in the past 100 years, with more and more authority placed in the office of the Presiding Bishop and the denomination\u2019s General Convention. Subsidiarity \u201d\u201c placing responsibility with the lowest unit capable of carrying out a function \u201d\u201c often fell by the wayside.<\/p>\n
ACNA seems to have realized this, instead keeping the church at the provincial (national) level relatively streamlined.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat you celebrate, you become,\u201d\u009d claimed Ed Stetzer, a Southern Baptist missiologist and a keynote speaker for the assembly. Stetzer, who heads the SBC\u2019s Lifeway Research arm, advised how to get out of the way of local efforts: build a culture of multiplication (churches and ministries), avoid the dependency that comes from lavishing money upon start-up churches (it doesn\u2019t improve the odds of success, he reports), open more lanes to potential church leaders (lay and bi-vocational pastors) and give permission to people to do non-traditional things, such as have voluntary clergy.<\/p>\n