I was e-chatting with another member of the CGGC yesterday. That person was a part of the approval of the first-ever CGGC Strategic Plan and, therefore, knows much more about it than do I.
We were chatting about issues relating to the primary emphasis of this blog, that is, the importance of all disciples of Jesus being His hands and feet in the world, not mere attenders of a church's Sunday Morning Show and listeners to this week's sermon.
I knew that one of the values in the Strategic Plan is "Total Participation." So, I asked, "Total participation in what?
Later on, I opened the pdf of the Strategic Plan on cggc.org and began to read through the booklet that has been prepared to give an "overview" of the plan and to lead discussion of it among our people.
Below I will paste three passages from the booklet into this post. The first is from the section on values. That's where I went to find the answer to my question, "Total participation in what?" The others are typical of the whole booklet.
--------------------
A number of years ago, I left my position on the staff of the seminary to be the, well, pastor of a CGGC congregation. When I arrived, I met wonderful people who, clearly, were on a spiritual journey. Most of them, however, were rough around the edges.
Most of them had very interesting pasts: Alcoholism. Drug abuse. Crime. Imprisonment. Divorce, certainly. Numerous failed shack up relationships. Premarital motherhood, and fatherhood. Not one of them had a college degree. Few of them, in fact, had even finished high school.
Two facts about those people strike me as being important:
1. They were probably somewhat less polished and educated than the typical CGGC congregation, but not by much.
2. They were the sort of people the CGGC hoped to reach back then...and still does hope to reach.
--------------------
The passages quoted below are representative of the whole Strategic Plan booklet. If you doubt me, read it.
As I read the booklet, I thought of the rough-around-the-edges people I met when I left the seminary. And, I experienced a number of emotions, the most powerful emotion being anger. I begin by quoting the section defining values, then move on to two other typical passages.
Imagine the people I've just described using the CGGC Strategic Plan booklet!
Values are the shared convictions that guide your actions and reveal your strengths. They are springboards for daily actions and filters for decision-making. Values represent the conscience of the CGGC. They distinguish your philosophy of ministry and shape your culture and ethos.
Vision proper is the living language that illustrates and anticipates God’s better future. It is important to keep the distinction between mission and vision proper clear. Mission is simply a compass; it informs about direction. Vision Proper is a travel brochure; it inspires as a picture of the future that no one can see yet. Vision Proper does things that no other part of the Vision Frame can do.
Strategy is the picture or process that demonstrates how the organization will accomplish its mission on the broadest level. It also sets the expectation of involvement for all members.
The strategy is like a container that holds all of your activities into one meaningful whole. Without this picture, churches within the denomination will forget how each component fits into the mission. They will be lost in a programmatic soup of good but random activity.
Think of strategy as a pattern of participation or engagement. It reveals places and rhythms of being involved. It is the denomination’s operational logic.
--------------------
Many of you know that I have more formal education than most people do. I'll happily confess that I had to reread some of this stuff several times to begin even to guess what it means.
Imagine presenting this booklet to the leaders of the typical CGGC congregation.
And, because one of the CGGC values is Total Participation, now imagine presenting it to all of the people!
If you doubt that the passages I quote are typical of the whole booklet, go to the website and read for yourself.
--------------------
In the spirit of the booklet, I'll offer two questions for discussion.
1. What does this document reveal about the people who consider themselves to be CGGC leadership?
2. Can you offer explanations as to why people in CGGC leadership inspire almost no followership?
--------------------
We must repent.
No comments:
Post a Comment