"A time to mourn"

Being the geezer I am, the Byrds 1965 hit, TURN! TURN! TURN!, is a compelling earworm dancing through my head as I think about CGGC delegates gathering for General Conference business sessions and to remember the origin of the Church of God in 1825.

(BTW, the Church of God Eldership was formed in 1830 and the 50th anniversary was celebrated in 1880.)

TURN! TURN! TURN!, is a 1950s folk, anti-war protest song written by folk music mega-star Pete Seeger. Seeger adapted Ecclesiastes 3 for the lyrics:"... a time for every purpose under heaven..." 

For many boomers, it's a classic. 

Anyway,...

I know how things go in the CGGC. John Winebrenner will appear at Conference sessions. Delegates will receive, from him, the message that we have a proud history. All of us should be glad. 

Here's the thing: The Church of God has an awesome history of walking in the power and blessing of the Spirit and of calling, to use Winebrenner's word, "sinners" to "repent and believe the Good News."

Our history is thrilling but our present is tragic. 

At General Conference you will be encouraged to cheer, but you should weep and wallow. 

Today, we are not walking in the power and blessing of the Spirit. Many of our churches are declining, many others have already closed. Our membership is aging. We are not raising up "leaders." We have to beg people from outside our body to pastor our churches.

This General Conference is a critical moment when, instead of looking to our early days to celebrate, we should examine our present and mourn. 

We are failing the Lord, but He loves to forgive. 

Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the poor in Spirit... Blessed are those who mourn." Later, He challenged, "Come to Me all you weary and burdened, then He promised, "I will give you rest." 

Later, after Paul challenged the Corinthians to repent, after they did repent, Paul explained: "godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret."

My dear friends, 

The CGGC is dying but it can once again, experience the power and blessing of the Spirit as it did at the beginning. 

This is, as the song says, "a time to weep,... a time to mourn..."

Pope Francis

I woke up to the news that Pope Francis died during the night.

I despise institutionalized Christianity. There's nothing in the Gospels that allows for the creation of a clergy class among disciples, let alone a multilayered, hierarchical elite class of "leaders" in the Body of Christ that provides religious products and services to a passive class of consuming lay people. 

As time passes, our own CGGC becomes less a vibrant body of Spirt-empowered followers of the Way in which the greatest is the servant of all and, where leaders "equip the saints for works of service." (Eph 4:12) And, the CGGC declines. 

For Roman Catholics, Pope Francis was a baby step in the right direction. True, he embraced the pomp of the institution, yet, he, at least, didn't see institutional trappings as his end all and be all.

Francis was a "least of these," Matthew 25 guy: "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink..." Francis practiced John 13, not as ritual but as life.

Francis moved Catholics toward raw obedience. 

The CGGC has needed someone like him for generations.

eNews: "What Will Church Planting Look Like in 2033?"

 

I still read the CGGC eNews.  

These days, in my opinion, the quality of the articles is higher than it has ever been. Today's eNews articles tell the truth about who CGGC "leaders" are, how they're thinking and what they're doing. 

Still, while I appreciate the quality of eNews writing, I am, more than ever, concerned and disburbed about what's going on in the CGGC headquarters building. 

Last week's September 1, 2023 article was by Lance...a rarity these days. The title of this post, What Will Church Planting Look Like in 2033? is the title of Lance's article. Lance details some things that he and about 25 CGGC "leaders" learned at a two-day training organized by an organization called Axelerate.

About a third of my way into reading the article, I decided to stop and return to the beginning, then scan the whole thing to see how many times the word Jesus appears.

Nada.

Today, more than ever, CGGC leaders are all  about institution. All church no Jesus.

I'm old. I can remember. It was about 40 years ago that we decided that the way to reverse our decline was to plant churches. We were wrong. Our last 40 years have been bad years.

Gang! Jesus didn't say, "Therefore, go and plant churches."

In my opinion, this group of current CGGC  leaders does what it does very well. But, very simply? It doesn't do the right thing.

We need to turn to Jesus. 

We must repent. 

"For better or for worse..."

That's what Evie and I promised as a part of the vows we spoke on our wedding day. We got hitched long before writing your own vows became a thing.

As you get older, the "worse" part becomes the norm.

My back is killing me...again. It's a genetic thing. My dad struggled with back pain from my earliest memories of him. My brother quit his job before he could receive Social Security at age 62 because his back pain was excruciating. 

Last year at this time, I was in physical therapy to treat back pain. I still do the exercises a minimum of a half hour most days. Often, I do them for about an hour. I've met with a back pain doctor. He said, essentially, I'm an old man with a bad back. I take a strong prescription NSAID daily. 

I'm happier to be on the other end of 'worse.'

Since 2010, Evie's had cancer, open heart surgery and a perforated colon. More surgeries than I can remember. Since she survived, I'm happy to have been with her through them...

...but, for me, to spend these days as the care-receiver, not the care-giver, is difficult. 

It's a spiritual thing. 

*****

About twenty years ago, I read Hirsch and Frost's, The Shaping of Things to Come and, The Present Future by Reggie McNeal. As I've noted on my blog, I have never been the same. 

Since then, my intention has been to practice radical grace and mercy. Among the 'least of these.' 

Since then, a handful of Bible passages have ruled what's in me head. Among them, Matthew 25:35-36. 'I was hungry and you gave me something to eat...," and Ephesians 2:8-10. 'For it is by grace you have been saved (8)... For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works (10)..."

When Evie struggled?, that was a piece of cake. I was on mission...

...but, to receive grace and mercy, uh, graciously? For me, that's a very serious struggle. It points to a spiritual problem. 

I chide the American church...and the CGGC specifically...for its clergy/laity culture in which its 'laity' consumes the religious products and services provided by its 'priesthood.' As far as I can tell, there's not one jot nor tittle of that vision of Kingdom life in what Jesus did and taught.

Me?, I go so bonkers for Ephesians 2:10...'created in Christ Jesus to do good works...' that I'm tempted to ignore 2:8...'it is by grace you have been saved through faith...'

So, for me, the receiving part of 'for better and for worse' is a difficult, convicting, part of my discipleship journey. 

The line separating works righteousness from a life in which the full Ephesians 2:8-10 dynamic thrives... where faith produces fruit... that line is a very fine line.

When I'm laid up with back pain, I have extra time to think about it. 

It's painful in several ways. 

A view from 40,000 feet

My friends, thanks for your reception of my earlier post. I sent it out to an abridged mailing list. I was stunned to note the number of hits on it in just a few hours. Blessings.

It's been a long time since I've walked in my prophetic calling within the CGGC... particularly as far as the writing of articles in this forum is concerned. 

Being prophetic among people whom the Lord is not blessing is not fun. In fact, merely BEING among a people whom the Lord is not blessing isn't fun. What's even more painful is to be among people who are as content not to be blessed as CGGC people are.

It's easy for a prophet to burn out and to lose focus when ears don't hear and hearts are hard.

Considering the most prominent names that have gone before me, I have no excuse. Elijah, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, John the Baptist? I cower in shame noting those examples of faithfulness. 

I'm resolved to be faithful. Still,... As Ringo Starr sang, back in '71, "It Don't Come Easy."

So, for today...

The CGGC pays lip service to a belief in the continuing ministry of apostles, prophets, evangelists and shepherds and teachers. The CGGC talks a good talk...

...but it doesn't walk the walk.

To my knowledge, there are no prophetic voices in the CGGC conversation in 2023. There are, at least, no prophetic voices being listened to. 

One characteristic of the prophetic is the ability to see the big picture...(and, also, the inability to comprehend up-close detail.)

I still read the CGGC eNews faithfully. I read the ERC E-Newsletter. I hear the oral scuttlebutt.

It's the gift...and the curse...of the prophet to discern a big picture vision.  From everything I know, in the CGGC, all big picture vision is being stifled or ignored... or, those people have moved on. There is no big picture perspective. 

Gang, the Lord promised that even the gates of hell will not stand against the church. The Lord of that promise is not blessing us. In every way decline can be measured, the CGGC is in decline. 

So,...

...in future days and weeks, if the Lord allows, I'm going to contribute some big picture insights.

Blessings. 

We "went to 'church'" again yesterday

Gang,

It's been a year since I posted a blog. Actually, I've rough-drafted about a half-dozen but have not hit publish on any of them, though I might still. Many of them still seem like good ideas and...of the Lord. 

I'm still up here at 40,000 feet and observing. 

We did go to church on Sunday. The last time we went, I blogged that, too. So, I know. The last time we did the traditional, institutional church "service" was in August 2021.

Yesterday was an okay experience. It was a small group that meets in a bowling alley. Very nice, welcoming people. Mostly people a little older than are we. Plus some grandkids. Just like many CGGC congregations. For the most part, they appeared to be people from a Mennonite background. 

In the "sermon," the guy who self-identifies as "Lead Elder (pastor)," "preached" a "topical sermon" mostly from James, on the connection between faith and works. He spent a chunk of time on 1:26-27, verses I harangued on often when I was blogging regularly. It's the "religion that is pure and undefiled" verses...which few, if any CGGC "churches" practice. 

WE MUST REPENT...or else. 

Anyway, the message content was fine. But, gang, it was, by definition, at its core, unbiblical...because sermons ain't biblical. 

After the "service," as we were chatting, the "Lead Elder (pastor)" engaged Evie in a cordial  conversation about why she isn't a regular attender of the services of the institutional church. I was fascinated. She and I don't talk about this regularly. Her explanation was far less theoretical and theological than mine is. But, I was nodding through the whole thing. 

Bottom line. What happens in "church" "services" doesn't resemble, in even the slightest way, anything Jesus did, or taught. The same is true of the behavior of the apostles and early disciples. 

Evie has a part time job now. The pastor's wife works with her...is her supervisor...and they're becoming close friends. We promised that we'll be back to their gathering...from time to time.  It wasn't an empty promise. 

Still, American institutionalized church involvement doesn't enhance our lives of obedience.   

I have struggled for about a half-dozen years with Hebrews 10:24-25. "...let us...not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing..."

I am convinced that what happens in an American church in 2023 has absolutely nothing in common with early disciples "meeting together" and truly does me more harm than good. Certainly, the Lord isn't blessing it.

Still, the early followers of Jesus knew that it was important not to "give up meeting together." I'm convinced that it still is important. But, how? Where?

Anyway...

..."we went to 'church' again." My guess is that I may reflect more on the Hebrews 10 teaching in the future. 

Blessings. 

We must repent. 

On being "Postmodern Bible-thumper" in the CGGC

Years ago, during the heyday Brian Miller's Emerging CGGC blog, I began participating in another discussion forum, a religion board where most participants are not Jesus followers. That board still functions. 

Recently, one of the old-timers there reminded me that, for a brief time, I posted under the name, "Postmodern Bible-thumper." That's what I did there: Thump the Bible. 

It's also what I did on the CGGC Blog. 

In those days, the CGGC approved its first ever Mission Statement, directly inspired by the three points John Winebrenner preached in his October 1830 sermon, on the day the Church of God was formed. 

Our first ever Mission Statement was:

As witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ, we commit ourselves to make more and better disciples by establishing churches on the New Testament plan and proclaiming the Gospel around the world. 

In the early years, "the New Testament plan" was a way of life in the Church of God, and we were blessed. 

In 2010, the General Conference unanimously adopted that first Mission Statement. Sadly, we talked, but we didn't walk.

In our early years, the Church of God searched the Scriptures first, then acted. By design, our "Plan" was the New Testament. 

Today, in the CGGC, the church, not the Word, is our focus. 

Today, we devise humanly-imagined visions and strategies, then, we supplement them with verses and passages from the Word.

Today, the CGGC is in decline. 

The men and women who make decisions that determine what the CGGC will be, and do, in the future met, recently, to "Reimagine."

It's time to Reimagine ourselves as people who focus, first, on the Word, as people who are willing, as God said to Jeremiah, "to uproot and tear down, and to destroy and overthrow" everything about us not of the Word and, "to build and to plant" (1:10) a people who, once again, "search the Scriptures daily" (Acts 17:11) to know what is true. 

Forget Reimagining. We don't need to rethink our own thoughts. 

It's time to thump His Word. And, to hit it hard.

We must repent. (Mt. 4:17)