The eNews Introduction to Trent Grable

I think I should be paid a commission by the General Conference for the publicity I provide for its blog.

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The October 25, 2019 CGGC eNews introduced the newest member of CGGC staff, the first ever Director of Strategy/Director of Developing Leaders, Trent Grable.

The article was no surprise. The announcement had already been made on Facebook.

Mr. Grable seems like an impressive guy. I've heard, independent of Facebook and the eNews, that he is.

Having said that, I've been on a bit of a micro journey over the course of the last few days.

It actually began with "Unknown" and his/her comment on my Lawrence Metzler post.

When the eNews arrived, I'd just come up with the questions in the "1835" post and was thinking about the "WWJWD" question, and I was also thinking about how we are now, in our decline and how we were then in the midst of the Lord's blessing.

I read the article and as much as I'm predisposed to think of Trent Grable as an impressive and gifted man, it strikes me that the fact that he's been, well, hired for the job at all reeks to me of same old, same old and suggests that, in spite of the man's impressive credentials and gifts, we're in for more decline and decay.

I'd just finished telling Lawrence that we've always had good people in positions of institutional authority. Few, if any, CGGCers will argue that point with me.

So, we've added another fine person to the hierarchy.

It seems to me that, in the CGGC, we do hierarchy better and better all the time, yet the rate of our spiritual decay increases.

Our problem, it seems to me, is clear. The way we think is wrong.

Hiring Mr. Grable is built on the conviction that what we need is a stronger institution. We've been seeking to solve the problem of our decay by expanding and updating the institution since we restructured and launched 35,000 X 2000, nearly 30 years ago.

And, truly, the CGGC institution is in better shape than it's ever been.

Yet, with each tweaking of the structure and with each new amazing hire, we lose ground.

In the 1830s and 1840s, the Church of God faced serious challenges. The growth was so amazing that deciding what was the Lord's will for our future expansion was a serious problem.

Can you imagine the men and women who started our movement attempting to devise an institutional answer to our struggles in their day!

Early histories of the Church of God note that John Winebrenner arrived at his vision for the ministry of our movement by reading the Scriptures on his knees.

That's the old paradigm. Back in the day, we didn't devise institutional solutions to ministry challenges. We humbled ourselves and read the Word.

We need to think differently than we do now. We must repent.