Central to the theme of this blog is my commitment to work a nonchurch job, in the world, specifically and intentionally as an Ambassador of the Kingdom of God.
It is my intention to use this blog, among other things, to explore and to reflect upon the meaning of the life I've chosen.
The job...the MINISTRY...allows me to practice, on a small and intimate scale, tremendously important, big-picture principles of Kingdom living.
--------------------
Here's something I am, WE are, dealing with:
There's an elderly bagger on our team, who's about to turn 80, who's only coming to work because he needs the money.
His health is bad and has been deteriorating for years.
However, he's gotten to the point now that all he does is clock in, walk to the area where the cash registers are located and sit down in one of the chairs provided for customers to sit in.
His wife packs him a lunch and, during the course of the time he's scheduled to work, he munches on it...
...but he doesn't do his job.
...he just sits and watches the rest of us do our jobs. When his shift is over, he clocks out and goes home.
He's been doing this for months!
I'm certain that he's not goldbricking. He's clearly incapable of doing the work. And, he's poor.
He doesn't do his job right out in the open. The owners of the store see him not working.
The front end managers have gone as far up the company chain of command in reporting this as we can...several times...
It's up to the HR guy to talk to him, warn him and, if, appropriate, terminate him.
The HR guy knows. He, too, sees it daily...
And, I'm not sure what he would do on his own...
But, the owners of the store are committed Lancaster County Sermon on the Mount living Anabaptists.
You know, "Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy." It's right up there near the beginning of the Sermon on the Mount.
Clearly, the company's not rolling in the dough as well as it might be, and for many reasons, and this merciful attitude toward unproductive employees is one of them.
--------------------
Here's the problem: Call him Bob, isn't even the oldest person who works at the Front End. And, his health probably isn't the worst of the lot.
As only one example, there's a petite and frail woman in her late 70s who is a cashier, and who, about three months ago, was in a car accident in which she cracked ten ribs and is still in pain...
...but who also needs the money.
And, when Bob is assigned to be her bagger, she has to do the job without help.
You may not realize how physically demanding cashiering in a grocery store can be.
Our store doesn't serve many vegans.
At holiday time in the autumn and winter, a cashier in a typical hour many easily push around nearly a ton of turkeys and hams and beef fillets.
Image your granny doing that five or six hours a day, five days a week.
Then, think of the guy who's supposed to be helping nanna sitting by, munching on a pretzel, and joking with a customer.
--------------------
I can only guess that the disciples of Jesus who own the store are choosing to show mercy to Bob.
And, as this case makes obvious, showing mercy rarely takes place in a vacuum. Usually, in my experience, when I show mercy to Person A, there's a Person B, and, perhaps, many others, paying a price.
At Faith, it's probably about five years ago that we began to struggle with the question:
How do you show mercy without enabling sin?
I have no better an answer to that question now than I did then.
---------------------
In my opinion, if the holders of institutional authority in the CGGC want to lead a resurgence in our ministry, this is the sort of thing they should be leading.
Tell me, Lance, or here in the east, Nick, how you, personally, do this in real life.
Teach me...if you want to preach to me about something, preach to me about the connection between mercy and injustice.
Because, as much as I'm committed to showing mercy, I rarely do it, in actual practice, in a way that doesn't produce at least some negative consequence.
Jesus did warn that if your righteousness doesn't surpass that of the Pharisees and the Scribes you won't see the Kingdom.
We have to get righteousness right. I don't think we are.
I'm pretty sure I'm not.
Serious stuff.
Thursday, November 28, 2019
Sunday, November 24, 2019
Exegesis v. Eisegesis: The Stark Difference between Winebrenner and the Writers of the Current CGGC Strategic Plan
I love words, especially unusual words. But, on this blog and everywhere, I hate big and unusual words a person would learn during the process of "theological education."
Using them is a curse on the practice of the so-called Priesthood of all Believers.
Two words that I despise are the words "exegesis" and "eisegesis."
My guess that most people who read this blog learned the two terms while they were being theologically educated.
I found these definitions on line.
Exegesis is:
critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture.
And,
Eisegesis is the process of interpreting text in such a way as to introduce one's own presuppositions, agendas or biases. It is commonly referred to as reading into the text. (emphasis mine.)
The Greek preposition ek or ex means "out of." Eis means "into."
So, exegesis means to take meaning out of, in this case, Scripture. Eisegesis means to put meaning into Scripture.
--------------------
The story of the origin of the Church of God, which is the fruit of the ministry of John Winebrenner and his colleagues is truly thrilling.
There was a dark period between the mid 1820s and 1829. Little is known about those years. Winebrenner had become estranged from the German Reformed Church by, say, 1825.
In 1829, he published the extremely important book, A BRIEF SCRIPTURAL VIEW OF THE CHURCH OF GOD.
In October 1830, Winebrenner and others assembled in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to join together in a ministry they called the Church of God, a ministry established on the principles contained in Winebrenner's 1829 book.
Almost nothing is known about Winebrenner between 1825 and 1829 except that Winebrenner devoted time, during those years, to reading the Scriptures on his knees.
It is from Winebrenner's searching of Scripture that the Church of God movement was born.
The Church of God, in its movement days, is as pure and vivid a picture of living exegesis as can be known.
In its first generation, the Church of God was precisely fruit of a "critical explanation or interpretation of...Scripture."
Winebrenner's years, spent on his knees, drawing truth out of the Word, produced fruit in an explosion of spiritual blessing.
--------------------
Jump forward 190 years from 1829 to 2019.
In that year, the people who possessed institutional authority in the CGGC presented, to the delegates of General Conference, a first-ever Strategic Plan.
One of the responses to the Strategic Plan that I've received, in personal conversations, is praise of the fact that it includes so many Scriptural references.
Those Scripture references are noteworthy. They couldn't have been assumed ten years earlier.
Ten years ago, the Credentialing document presented, by possessors of institutional authority in that day, to the delegates of General Conference in session became controversial. It was well over 10 pages long and had no references to Scripture at all.
There is, indeed, reason to be surprised, at least, that the Word is cited in the Strategic Plan.
However, the difference between the use of the Word in the 2019 Strategic Plan and Winebrenner's prayerful search for truth in the 1820s could not be more stark, nor startling.
Winebrenner went to his knees, yearning to draw truth from the Word.
Reading the Strategic Plan, it seems obvious to me, that the possessors of institutional authority began with their plan and then opened their Bibles to find support for what they'd already decided they want to do.
Never in the process have we heard an account of the truth of the Word steering our institutional authorities away from a principle or value they already had in mind.
The Bible served the framers of the Strategic Plan.
In our movement days, our people served the Word, and through it, they glorified the Lord...and the Lord blessed them in a way that kept their heads spinning.
--------------------
I, very simply, can't see the Lord blessing the Strategic Plan for many reasons, only one being that the plan came from human wisdom.
The possessors of institutional authority in the CGGC are currently working on implementing the Strategic Plan. They are, as I understand it, working, in a very preliminary way, on walking the Strategic Plan's talk.
But, by 2022, this plan will have gone nowhere substantial among the people of the CGGC.
I call, today, for the following of this, uh, "strategy" in the CGGC, beginning with the next meeting of the General Conference in 2022:
That Lance and whoever else has an office in the headquarters building in Findlay set the example of reading the Scriptures on their knees, calling the rest of the body to follow their walk and to continue to do so until the Spirit speaks from the Word.
I'm convinced that we can walk again in the Spirit's blessing as we were blessed in the past.
But, we're going to have to seek our wisdom from Him.
We will have to repent.
We will have to stop demanding that He respect the wisdom of the possessors of the authority of our institution.
Using them is a curse on the practice of the so-called Priesthood of all Believers.
Two words that I despise are the words "exegesis" and "eisegesis."
My guess that most people who read this blog learned the two terms while they were being theologically educated.
I found these definitions on line.
Exegesis is:
critical explanation or interpretation of a text, especially of scripture.
And,
Eisegesis is the process of interpreting text in such a way as to introduce one's own presuppositions, agendas or biases. It is commonly referred to as reading into the text. (emphasis mine.)
The Greek preposition ek or ex means "out of." Eis means "into."
So, exegesis means to take meaning out of, in this case, Scripture. Eisegesis means to put meaning into Scripture.
--------------------
The story of the origin of the Church of God, which is the fruit of the ministry of John Winebrenner and his colleagues is truly thrilling.
There was a dark period between the mid 1820s and 1829. Little is known about those years. Winebrenner had become estranged from the German Reformed Church by, say, 1825.
In 1829, he published the extremely important book, A BRIEF SCRIPTURAL VIEW OF THE CHURCH OF GOD.
In October 1830, Winebrenner and others assembled in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania to join together in a ministry they called the Church of God, a ministry established on the principles contained in Winebrenner's 1829 book.
Almost nothing is known about Winebrenner between 1825 and 1829 except that Winebrenner devoted time, during those years, to reading the Scriptures on his knees.
It is from Winebrenner's searching of Scripture that the Church of God movement was born.
The Church of God, in its movement days, is as pure and vivid a picture of living exegesis as can be known.
In its first generation, the Church of God was precisely fruit of a "critical explanation or interpretation of...Scripture."
Winebrenner's years, spent on his knees, drawing truth out of the Word, produced fruit in an explosion of spiritual blessing.
--------------------
Jump forward 190 years from 1829 to 2019.
In that year, the people who possessed institutional authority in the CGGC presented, to the delegates of General Conference, a first-ever Strategic Plan.
One of the responses to the Strategic Plan that I've received, in personal conversations, is praise of the fact that it includes so many Scriptural references.
Those Scripture references are noteworthy. They couldn't have been assumed ten years earlier.
Ten years ago, the Credentialing document presented, by possessors of institutional authority in that day, to the delegates of General Conference in session became controversial. It was well over 10 pages long and had no references to Scripture at all.
There is, indeed, reason to be surprised, at least, that the Word is cited in the Strategic Plan.
However, the difference between the use of the Word in the 2019 Strategic Plan and Winebrenner's prayerful search for truth in the 1820s could not be more stark, nor startling.
Winebrenner went to his knees, yearning to draw truth from the Word.
Reading the Strategic Plan, it seems obvious to me, that the possessors of institutional authority began with their plan and then opened their Bibles to find support for what they'd already decided they want to do.
Never in the process have we heard an account of the truth of the Word steering our institutional authorities away from a principle or value they already had in mind.
The Bible served the framers of the Strategic Plan.
In our movement days, our people served the Word, and through it, they glorified the Lord...and the Lord blessed them in a way that kept their heads spinning.
--------------------
I, very simply, can't see the Lord blessing the Strategic Plan for many reasons, only one being that the plan came from human wisdom.
The possessors of institutional authority in the CGGC are currently working on implementing the Strategic Plan. They are, as I understand it, working, in a very preliminary way, on walking the Strategic Plan's talk.
But, by 2022, this plan will have gone nowhere substantial among the people of the CGGC.
I call, today, for the following of this, uh, "strategy" in the CGGC, beginning with the next meeting of the General Conference in 2022:
That Lance and whoever else has an office in the headquarters building in Findlay set the example of reading the Scriptures on their knees, calling the rest of the body to follow their walk and to continue to do so until the Spirit speaks from the Word.
I'm convinced that we can walk again in the Spirit's blessing as we were blessed in the past.
But, we're going to have to seek our wisdom from Him.
We will have to repent.
We will have to stop demanding that He respect the wisdom of the possessors of the authority of our institution.
My 11/22/19 eNews Comment: APEST in Action
I am the only person in the universe who is producing fruit of reading the CGGC eNews, that is, I'm the only person currently engaging with it as a part of Contagious, the CGGC blog.
And, that's a shame.
It's a good blog, though everything except for the eNews seems to have died out.
I recommend it.
I think that the most important things I've written in the last six months or so have been comments to the blog.
My comment about Lance and "Joe" is still unpublished, yet I'm still hopeful. Often, it takes time.
And, I've now entered another comment.
Because I'm not certain who, if anyone, reads Contagious, I'm entering that comment here, too.
Please read Lance's article on the blog.
--------------------
Lance,
Thanks for painting this encouraging picture of the impact one of our US congregations is having in another place in the world.
As I was reading, it struck me as the sort of thing Paul and his first century missionary team would have done if they could have been transported into this century.
I see this as APEST in action.
This is precisely what happens when people gifted to be apostles…as these people at Grand Point seem to be…are given the freedom to live in their gift and passions.
I recalled listening to Reggie McNeal, about a decade ago, in a talk he gave to another denomination, saying that, at the beginning of the 20th century, 80 per cent of the Christians in the world lived in Europe and the US but that, by the beginning of the 21st century, 80 per cent of disciples of Jesus lived outside of Europe and the US.
We live in exciting times!
And, that's a shame.
It's a good blog, though everything except for the eNews seems to have died out.
I recommend it.
I think that the most important things I've written in the last six months or so have been comments to the blog.
My comment about Lance and "Joe" is still unpublished, yet I'm still hopeful. Often, it takes time.
And, I've now entered another comment.
Because I'm not certain who, if anyone, reads Contagious, I'm entering that comment here, too.
Please read Lance's article on the blog.
--------------------
Lance,
Thanks for painting this encouraging picture of the impact one of our US congregations is having in another place in the world.
As I was reading, it struck me as the sort of thing Paul and his first century missionary team would have done if they could have been transported into this century.
I see this as APEST in action.
This is precisely what happens when people gifted to be apostles…as these people at Grand Point seem to be…are given the freedom to live in their gift and passions.
I recalled listening to Reggie McNeal, about a decade ago, in a talk he gave to another denomination, saying that, at the beginning of the 20th century, 80 per cent of the Christians in the world lived in Europe and the US but that, by the beginning of the 21st century, 80 per cent of disciples of Jesus lived outside of Europe and the US.
We live in exciting times!
Friday, November 22, 2019
My eNews Comment on Lance and "Joe"
I just entered this yesterday. I'm confident that Mike will publish it but it will be superseded by another eNews article this afternoon and you won't see it on the blog unless you're looking at old posts.
Lance spent two weeks relating his encounter with a guy he's calling "Joe" who has a role in our Asian ministries. Lance describes Joe as, "the strongest spiritual leader I've had the privilege of knowing."
Please read up on Joe if you haven't.
Lance says he wants to be like Joe. I want that, too.
I'm convinced, as I've been saying, that we have good people in positions of institutional authority but that having good people sitting behind desks in the offices of our headquarters buildings has never been our problem.
My comment says that...again.
--------------------
Lance spent two weeks relating his encounter with a guy he's calling "Joe" who has a role in our Asian ministries. Lance describes Joe as, "the strongest spiritual leader I've had the privilege of knowing."
Please read up on Joe if you haven't.
Lance says he wants to be like Joe. I want that, too.
I'm convinced, as I've been saying, that we have good people in positions of institutional authority but that having good people sitting behind desks in the offices of our headquarters buildings has never been our problem.
My comment says that...again.
--------------------
Lance,
These last two posts have been powerful, encouraging and challenging.
Yet, for all you say about Joe and his life of love for the Lord and for his neighbor, here’s the one sentence in your posts that lingers with me.
You say,
“I wish I had the kind of witness that this dear brother exhibits but I fall far short of his example.”
I take you at your word.
I’m convinced that the best thing for the CGGC body, and for you personally, is for your staff and your Administrative Council to empower you to get out from behind your desk and beyond the walls of your corner office and into your community and into the world, to live the life of love and service that Joe lives.
It’s undoubtedly true that you want to live like Joe lives and that, as you say, you chide yourself because you fall short of his example.
About 30 years ago, the people who created it envisioned the job of CGGC Executive Director as that of a CEO.
Don’t we all know now that they were wrong? Doesn't our ongoing decline make that clear?
I think the time is long since passed for us to rethink who we are and what we do and to begin with you, by freeing you up…
…by EMPOWERING you to live the life you so often tell us you yearn to live.
In your own words, you say that you fall short of Joe’s EXAMPLE.
And, truly, you do…
…because it is your job to fall short of his example.
It’s time to change your job so that success for you would be to love the Lord with all your heart and soul and strength and your neighbor as yourself.
SO YOU CAN SET AN EXAMPLE TO CHALLENGE US.
Blessings.
Sunday, November 17, 2019
A Dorm for Geezers
We've been in independent living for nearly two weeks now and it's still going surprisingly well.
I lived in on campus housing during my freshman year when I was in college. As it turned out, I had a roommate with whom I was compatible. And, I loved it.
I'm beginning to think of life here, in an independent living apartment, as life in a dorm for old people and I'm...we're...enjoying it.
It's still early days, of course, but we're settling in nicely.
This past week is actually the week we had originally planned to move in and I'd scheduled vacation. All of the moving in was done and Evie and some friends had done a lot of the work of unpacking by the time my week off began, so it was a fairly easy week for me.
I go back to work tomorrow and, while my job's okay and I love the people I work with, it's going to be hard.
And, I'm reminding myself that my job is my ministry. I am an ambassador of the Kingdom of God, and that gives me some focus but, I'd really like to spend some time hanging out in the dorm, just taking it easy.
I still have to work full-time for about a half year and I will because I have to. But, after that? Right now?, I don't know.
This is nice.
I lived in on campus housing during my freshman year when I was in college. As it turned out, I had a roommate with whom I was compatible. And, I loved it.
I'm beginning to think of life here, in an independent living apartment, as life in a dorm for old people and I'm...we're...enjoying it.
It's still early days, of course, but we're settling in nicely.
This past week is actually the week we had originally planned to move in and I'd scheduled vacation. All of the moving in was done and Evie and some friends had done a lot of the work of unpacking by the time my week off began, so it was a fairly easy week for me.
I go back to work tomorrow and, while my job's okay and I love the people I work with, it's going to be hard.
And, I'm reminding myself that my job is my ministry. I am an ambassador of the Kingdom of God, and that gives me some focus but, I'd really like to spend some time hanging out in the dorm, just taking it easy.
I still have to work full-time for about a half year and I will because I have to. But, after that? Right now?, I don't know.
This is nice.
Sunday, November 10, 2019
We Moved on Tuesday
We are now residents of the independent living community of Fairmount Homes. We live on what is literally, a fair mount, by Lancaster County, Pennsylvania standards, a high hill which affords a substantial view of the countryside for a great distance. Our mailing address is Ephrata, PA but we're probably closer to the town of New Holland.
We're young to do this. We're among the first to move into a new building. We're regularly meeting very nice people who are close to our age...and who are the children of people who will be our new neighbors.
Before the move took place, I wasn't certain I'd be pleased.
There are many practical reasons for us to make this move.
We're certainly young and healthy enough to own and live in our own home.
We're also certainly very young to have moved into a home. I don't know everyone here, but I'm confident that we're the youngest residents here at the moment.
But, I was a low church parish priest for many years and I know many people older than I am and have seen what happens when a sudden illness takes over a life.
Suddenly there's a need for personal care, what was, until recently, called assisted living, or nursing care. The person who needs it may be incapable of making decisions, even if funds are available and, if there's a close and supportive family, the loved one's health is what matters.
And, we don't have children, though we are close to family on both sides.
By making this move, we've prepared for the moment, those moments.
And, if being here was less than pleasant, there'd be comfort in knowing the future was accounted for.
But, five days in, I'm pleased and at peace.
The staff here is amazing. Cooperative. Friendly. Kind. Efficient.
The apartment is smallish, but adequate. We'll be comfortable, I'm certain.
To live here, one has to be compatible with a fairly conservative Anabaptist lifestyle. And, we are. Few people we know would be, but we are.
While it's restrictive in some ways, it's an amazing love culture...very Sermon on the Mount-ish, as Anabaptists understand it.
It's an understanding that to be a Christian is to live as a follower of Jesus, not merely to attend a church and to submit to low church rituals, such as listening to the sermon.
And, of course, we're all about that.
My dad moved into an independent living community when he was about 80. He'd fought the move, kicking and screaming, and gave up only when it became clear that mom couldn't take care of her part of maintaining the house.
But, after dad adjusted, he lived nearly a decade of happy carefree life, until dementia took away the quality of his life. And, then, he was cared for wonderfully.
I can see that happening to me...probably the dementia, too.
We'll see.
But, we're here. It's a done deal.
We're young to do this. We're among the first to move into a new building. We're regularly meeting very nice people who are close to our age...and who are the children of people who will be our new neighbors.
Before the move took place, I wasn't certain I'd be pleased.
There are many practical reasons for us to make this move.
We're certainly young and healthy enough to own and live in our own home.
We're also certainly very young to have moved into a home. I don't know everyone here, but I'm confident that we're the youngest residents here at the moment.
But, I was a low church parish priest for many years and I know many people older than I am and have seen what happens when a sudden illness takes over a life.
Suddenly there's a need for personal care, what was, until recently, called assisted living, or nursing care. The person who needs it may be incapable of making decisions, even if funds are available and, if there's a close and supportive family, the loved one's health is what matters.
And, we don't have children, though we are close to family on both sides.
By making this move, we've prepared for the moment, those moments.
And, if being here was less than pleasant, there'd be comfort in knowing the future was accounted for.
But, five days in, I'm pleased and at peace.
The staff here is amazing. Cooperative. Friendly. Kind. Efficient.
The apartment is smallish, but adequate. We'll be comfortable, I'm certain.
To live here, one has to be compatible with a fairly conservative Anabaptist lifestyle. And, we are. Few people we know would be, but we are.
While it's restrictive in some ways, it's an amazing love culture...very Sermon on the Mount-ish, as Anabaptists understand it.
It's an understanding that to be a Christian is to live as a follower of Jesus, not merely to attend a church and to submit to low church rituals, such as listening to the sermon.
And, of course, we're all about that.
My dad moved into an independent living community when he was about 80. He'd fought the move, kicking and screaming, and gave up only when it became clear that mom couldn't take care of her part of maintaining the house.
But, after dad adjusted, he lived nearly a decade of happy carefree life, until dementia took away the quality of his life. And, then, he was cared for wonderfully.
I can see that happening to me...probably the dementia, too.
We'll see.
But, we're here. It's a done deal.
What's Missing from My Characteristics of the CGGC Brand, 2015
LEADERSHIP...FOLLOWERSHIP
If you read this blog, even a little bit, you know that I have strong feelings about the desire of CGGC people at the top of our mountains, especially in Findlay, to practice so-called leadership development.
It seems like forever that I've been saying that I consider their obsession with leading and with making leaders blasphemy, or close to it.
Obviously, I haven't been saying it forever because I wasn't saying it when I put together my latest list of the characteristics of the CGGC brand in the summer of 2015.
I recall, clearly, writing that list and the leadership, uh, heteropraxy (I love that word and sometimes can't resist), wasn't in my mind at all.
Believe me, if the, almost exclusively, guys, with CGGC institutional authority had been beating the leadership drum back then, I would have been screaming about it. And, I absolutely would have included it in my Characteristics of the CGGC Brand.
I honestly believe that their inclination to think of themselves as leaders in the Kingdom of GOD approaches the line that makes a behavior heretical, and, perhaps, crosses over that line.
--------------------
As I consider my last list of the characteristics of the CGGC brand, it strikes me how powerful the CGGC Executive Director is.
The last list substantially describes the essence of Ed Rosenberry.
At least one of the characteristics in the last list no longer applies at all, in my opinion. I attribute that fact to the difference between Ed's personality and Lance's.
It's very interesting to me that, if I did a new list of the characteristics of the CGGC brand, I'd maintain many of the titles, or headings, such as, for instance, Cynicism, but I'd change the description. The cynicism that exists today in the CGGC, for instance, while it continues, is of a different quality, or, it suggests a different ethos, that reflects Lance, not Ed.
--------------------
Anyway,...
...one change in the CGGC, since Ed rode off into the sunset, is the appearance of the issue of Leadership/Followership.
Leadership/Followership is a new thing in the CGGC.
What strikes me as not being new, and as being connected to the Cynicism characteristic, is our self-understood leaders' inability to create followership.
Our men with institutional authority dash about shouting, "Leadership, leadership, leadership!"
Yet, and still, followership eludes.
Interestingly, and of course, John Winebrenner, never talked leadership and people enthusiastically followed.
Sunday, November 3, 2019
Characteristics of the CGGC Brand, 2015
What follows is part of a post I entered on the A Layman's Log blog in August 2015, about one month after Lance Finley assumed the position as the Executive Director of the CGGC.
I'd actually been working on it as Ed Rosenberry's tenure was coming to an end. It was intended to provide a baseline for Lance's impact on the body.
I still stand by it as my honest assessment of what the CGGC was when Ed stepped down.
If God is willing, I will reflect on where we were and where we are now, more than four years later.
One thing is clear, from the beginning, though. Based on statistics presented during General Conference sessions in 2019, Characteristic 16, Decline, still holds.
Other than that, at an initial glance, some things have changed while others, in my opinion, have not.
At this point, I'm thinking that I'll take the characteristics one at a time and in the order that they seem interesting and important to me.
This whole enterprise seems important to me, actually. This is not a silly little game or a fun thought experiment.
We must repent.
One aspect of what leads to repentance is a willingness to be honest with oneself about oneself.
In my opinion, we've not done that well for a long, long time.
So, here's what I recorded over four years ago:
6. Faddism. The CGGC shifts direction according to what is fashionable among other religious denominations. Hence, today, the people with offices in headquarters buildings fret over the CGGC 'brand.' Most recently, with other trend-driven denominations, the CGGC has sought to embrace the 'transformational church' fad and the coaching and leadership development fads. Currently fads such as these, not biblical truth, drive CGGC change.
7. Mellow Relationships over Truth. The CGGC has serious issues with truth primarily because it values, to the extreme, human relationships rooted in tolerance of others but does not value hunger and thirst for righteousness. The CGGC no longer holds, as the most important relationship, love for the Lord, which Jesus called the greatest commandment. The CGGC no longer takes firm stands on any biblical truth, as the recently adopted revision of We Believe and the 2013 Statement of Faith make clear.
8. A Middle Ages Understanding of Christian Community. Perhaps the most harmful achievement of CGGC elites has been the creation of a 'laity.' In its early years, the Church of God had significantly attained the priesthood of all believers. Recently, however, CGGC higher ups have transformed the typical participant in a CGGC congregation into a mere consumer of the religious products and services supplied by the parish clergy and their higher ups.
9. Strong Central Planning Coupled with Lower Level Clergy and Congregational Resistance. It is not enough to suggest that the CGGC is becoming clergy and higher up dominated. (See item 8) Even in the expanding CGGC clergy world, there are extremes in power from the bottom of the clergy pyramid to its peak. Some higher ups in denominational headquarters and in regional offices act from a sense of power that no Roman Catholic Pope would dream of. However, in response, many pastors outside of the good-old-boy leadership network, and most local CGGC congregations, ignore and sometimes defy (always without consequence--unless money going to leadership is involved), the authority of the leaders located in the denomination's central planning offices.
10. Cynicism. As much as CGGC higher ups are shepherds seeking peace, calm and quiet among the pastors and congregations of the CGGC, there is a stifling atmosphere of cynicism among our pastors and congregations toward those in CGGC seats of power. (See item 9.) There is also thinly disguised cynicism flowing from headquarters leadership down into the body. This cynicism flows in every direction: From the top down, from the bottom up and horizontally among factions in the body.
11. To Talk is to Walk-ism. According to the New Testament, a follower of Jesus is one who possesses a faith that organically produces acts of obedience to God's will. (Matthew 7:21-23, 24-26, 25:1-46; John 14:15; 2 Cor. 5:10; Eph. 2:8-10; Jas. 2:12-26; Rev. 2-3). However, CGGC faith is disconnected from action. It is possible to talk CGGC talk without walking it. Hence, for example, the GC Mission, Vision and Faith Statements that are not lived out--and virtually no one notices.
12. Empty Faith. The Old and New Testaments define saving faith as a way of living that is fruit of who a person trusts and what that person thinks. (See Romans 4:18-22, Ephesians 2:8-10, Hebrews 11:4-40, James 2:14-26). (In the Church of God, see John Winebrenner's 27 point description of its faith and practice, first published in 1844.) More than at any time in CGGC history, today faith can be defined by empty theological pronouncements apart from a way of life. (See the 2013 Statement of Faith.)
13. Cheap Grace. The CGGC calls people to easy-beliefism. Jesus said that anyone who doesn't hate his father and mother isn't worthy of Him. There was a time, in its founding generation, that the Church of God called sinners to a radically changed way of life. Dietrich Bonheoffer (who coined the phrase, cheap grace) could have been viewing today's CGGC when he wrote: "...cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."
14. False, Flock-focused Righteousness. One need only read the first part of the Sermon of the Mount to understand that right living, as radically defined by Jesus, is key to discipleship. In the CGGC, however, righteousness is defined as a local parish, or flock, achieving consistent growth in parish/flock-oriented activities such as 'worship service' attendance not, as Jesus taught, disciples serving each other and caring for the least of the brothers and sisters of Jesus and going to all nations making disciples.
15. Organized Hypocrisy. There is illogic and outright contradiction among the things the CGGC claims to be true about itself. This illogic and contradiction is, in reality, deeply rooted, highly intentional and carefully executed. A hypocrite is an actor: "...a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings." It is a positive and essential value of the CGGC to speak one message and to, without qualm, act out another that is entirely disconnected from that avowed principle.
16. Decline. This is today's bottom line. In the first sixty years or so of its history the Church of God began from scratch and grew to approximately 800 active congregations. From that peak, the CGGC has declined to far less than half that number, losing a total of 60 congregations between 2001 and 2010 alone!
I'd actually been working on it as Ed Rosenberry's tenure was coming to an end. It was intended to provide a baseline for Lance's impact on the body.
I still stand by it as my honest assessment of what the CGGC was when Ed stepped down.
If God is willing, I will reflect on where we were and where we are now, more than four years later.
One thing is clear, from the beginning, though. Based on statistics presented during General Conference sessions in 2019, Characteristic 16, Decline, still holds.
Other than that, at an initial glance, some things have changed while others, in my opinion, have not.
At this point, I'm thinking that I'll take the characteristics one at a time and in the order that they seem interesting and important to me.
This whole enterprise seems important to me, actually. This is not a silly little game or a fun thought experiment.
We must repent.
One aspect of what leads to repentance is a willingness to be honest with oneself about oneself.
In my opinion, we've not done that well for a long, long time.
So, here's what I recorded over four years ago:
1. Lukewarm-ness. Perpetual, reality-defying self-satisfaction. Akin to the pseudo-Christianity of the Laodiceans. Built on the belief that, spiritually, we are all exactly who and what we should be (Rev. 3:14-18). Read all of the issues of the eNews. Jesus said, "You say, ‘I am rich; I have acquired wealth and do not need a thing.’ But you do not realize that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind and naked." (Rev. 3:17)
2. Institutional "Churchianity," not Christianity. With increasing fervor, the CGGC focuses on an institutionalized, parish priest-centered view that church is parishes or flocks, led by pastors, with an ecclesiastical elite ruling over all. The CGGC now only pays lip service to what Jesus commands of His disciples. The CGGC today renews churches, makes transformational churches, adopts churches and plants churches yet only goes into the world to make disciples after all the headquarters and local parish work is thoroughly finished, therefore, never.
3. Ecclesiolatry. Ecclesiolatry is the creation and veneration of the church as an idol, as opposed to love of and obedience to Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Church. Idolatry is creating objects of worship and adoration to suit our own passions and prejudices. The CGGC substitutes love for the church for love for the church's Lord. Hence the obsession with planting, adopting, transformationalizing, adopting and renewing local churches while the Church's Lord's talk was about and His prayer and passion was to establish a His Father's Kingdom. The church is the CGGC's Golden Calf.
4. Traditionalism. What the CGGC does is, no longer, rooted in love for, nor obedience to, Bible truth. These days, CGGC practice derives from the way of thinking that led to the rise of the church as an institution in the Middle Ages. The CGGC's founder, John Winebrenner, who saw even the Protestant Reformation as a failure, wouldn't recognize what has become of the movement he began.
5. Creeping High Church-ism. In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the number of CGGC clergy who don clerical collars and who sport large crosses on chains around their necks. At the same time, there has been increasingly open, unashamed, proud and passionate advocacy of the high church's celebration of Lent, Holy Week and Advent from CGGC mountaintops. This has had the effect of elevating the clergy of the CGGC as a hierarchical priesthood and stealing, from all the members of the CGGC body, their role as a universal priesthood. It also focuses the CGGC on the church that is served by credentialed priests, not the Kingdom Jesus brings.
4. Traditionalism. What the CGGC does is, no longer, rooted in love for, nor obedience to, Bible truth. These days, CGGC practice derives from the way of thinking that led to the rise of the church as an institution in the Middle Ages. The CGGC's founder, John Winebrenner, who saw even the Protestant Reformation as a failure, wouldn't recognize what has become of the movement he began.
5. Creeping High Church-ism. In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the number of CGGC clergy who don clerical collars and who sport large crosses on chains around their necks. At the same time, there has been increasingly open, unashamed, proud and passionate advocacy of the high church's celebration of Lent, Holy Week and Advent from CGGC mountaintops. This has had the effect of elevating the clergy of the CGGC as a hierarchical priesthood and stealing, from all the members of the CGGC body, their role as a universal priesthood. It also focuses the CGGC on the church that is served by credentialed priests, not the Kingdom Jesus brings.
6. Faddism. The CGGC shifts direction according to what is fashionable among other religious denominations. Hence, today, the people with offices in headquarters buildings fret over the CGGC 'brand.' Most recently, with other trend-driven denominations, the CGGC has sought to embrace the 'transformational church' fad and the coaching and leadership development fads. Currently fads such as these, not biblical truth, drive CGGC change.
7. Mellow Relationships over Truth. The CGGC has serious issues with truth primarily because it values, to the extreme, human relationships rooted in tolerance of others but does not value hunger and thirst for righteousness. The CGGC no longer holds, as the most important relationship, love for the Lord, which Jesus called the greatest commandment. The CGGC no longer takes firm stands on any biblical truth, as the recently adopted revision of We Believe and the 2013 Statement of Faith make clear.
8. A Middle Ages Understanding of Christian Community. Perhaps the most harmful achievement of CGGC elites has been the creation of a 'laity.' In its early years, the Church of God had significantly attained the priesthood of all believers. Recently, however, CGGC higher ups have transformed the typical participant in a CGGC congregation into a mere consumer of the religious products and services supplied by the parish clergy and their higher ups.
9. Strong Central Planning Coupled with Lower Level Clergy and Congregational Resistance. It is not enough to suggest that the CGGC is becoming clergy and higher up dominated. (See item 8) Even in the expanding CGGC clergy world, there are extremes in power from the bottom of the clergy pyramid to its peak. Some higher ups in denominational headquarters and in regional offices act from a sense of power that no Roman Catholic Pope would dream of. However, in response, many pastors outside of the good-old-boy leadership network, and most local CGGC congregations, ignore and sometimes defy (always without consequence--unless money going to leadership is involved), the authority of the leaders located in the denomination's central planning offices.
10. Cynicism. As much as CGGC higher ups are shepherds seeking peace, calm and quiet among the pastors and congregations of the CGGC, there is a stifling atmosphere of cynicism among our pastors and congregations toward those in CGGC seats of power. (See item 9.) There is also thinly disguised cynicism flowing from headquarters leadership down into the body. This cynicism flows in every direction: From the top down, from the bottom up and horizontally among factions in the body.
11. To Talk is to Walk-ism. According to the New Testament, a follower of Jesus is one who possesses a faith that organically produces acts of obedience to God's will. (Matthew 7:21-23, 24-26, 25:1-46; John 14:15; 2 Cor. 5:10; Eph. 2:8-10; Jas. 2:12-26; Rev. 2-3). However, CGGC faith is disconnected from action. It is possible to talk CGGC talk without walking it. Hence, for example, the GC Mission, Vision and Faith Statements that are not lived out--and virtually no one notices.
12. Empty Faith. The Old and New Testaments define saving faith as a way of living that is fruit of who a person trusts and what that person thinks. (See Romans 4:18-22, Ephesians 2:8-10, Hebrews 11:4-40, James 2:14-26). (In the Church of God, see John Winebrenner's 27 point description of its faith and practice, first published in 1844.) More than at any time in CGGC history, today faith can be defined by empty theological pronouncements apart from a way of life. (See the 2013 Statement of Faith.)
13. Cheap Grace. The CGGC calls people to easy-beliefism. Jesus said that anyone who doesn't hate his father and mother isn't worthy of Him. There was a time, in its founding generation, that the Church of God called sinners to a radically changed way of life. Dietrich Bonheoffer (who coined the phrase, cheap grace) could have been viewing today's CGGC when he wrote: "...cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."
14. False, Flock-focused Righteousness. One need only read the first part of the Sermon of the Mount to understand that right living, as radically defined by Jesus, is key to discipleship. In the CGGC, however, righteousness is defined as a local parish, or flock, achieving consistent growth in parish/flock-oriented activities such as 'worship service' attendance not, as Jesus taught, disciples serving each other and caring for the least of the brothers and sisters of Jesus and going to all nations making disciples.
15. Organized Hypocrisy. There is illogic and outright contradiction among the things the CGGC claims to be true about itself. This illogic and contradiction is, in reality, deeply rooted, highly intentional and carefully executed. A hypocrite is an actor: "...a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings." It is a positive and essential value of the CGGC to speak one message and to, without qualm, act out another that is entirely disconnected from that avowed principle.
16. Decline. This is today's bottom line. In the first sixty years or so of its history the Church of God began from scratch and grew to approximately 800 active congregations. From that peak, the CGGC has declined to far less than half that number, losing a total of 60 congregations between 2001 and 2010 alone!
The Power of a Walked Talk
Gang,
I'd try to write this in a way that masks the identity of the person who is the subject of this post, but I don't think I could succeed. Beyond that, I think it's important that I not even try.
--------------------
Two of my Characteristics of the CGGC Brand that go very far in defining our, to this point, irreversible decline and decay are:
11. To Talk is to Walk-ism.
and,
10. Cynicism.
I can see no way that the CGGC will reverse its fall and become what it once was until we repent and turn from these...I'll be honest,...sins.
The two characteristics are linked. They feed upon each other and have been doing so for the last decade, at least.
I'm beginning to be hopeful that we may, possibly, be able to repent, turn, and be forgiven of them, and, again, do the Lord's will and walk in His blessing.
--------------------
Within the past year, the ERC hired Nick DiFrancesco to be its new Executive Director.
In recent years, I have become a voice crying in the wilderness in the ERC and in the CGGC. Yet, quite a few people in the body maintain contact with me. So, while, officially, I'm persona non grata, I still am involved in and aware of things CGGC.
When Nick was being hired, was hired, and since he assumed the position, I've picked up a lot of chatter about him...and, I still do.
And, and I think this is crucial, the Cynicism and Talk-ism components of the CGGC's identity were...ARE...in the center of the conversation.
At the beginning, people were thinking that Nick was saying all of the right things but they were skeptical, if not cynical. They didn't quite trust him. They were going to have to see him actually live his words before they'd believe him.
Later on, they were expressing mild surprise that Nick actually seemed to be doing what he had said he'd do.
Very recently, from several of my CGGC connections, I've heard people ultimately, happily and joyfully, concluding that Nick is for real.
This reserve about Nick illustrates how Cynicism and Talk-ism work.
--------------------
In the CGGC, we have become accustomed to our, uh, leaders hornswoggling us.
So, no one, among the people in contact with me, was completely confident, in the beginning, that Nick would really be the person he claimed to be and do the things he promised to do.
Later on, when Nick was already proving to be trustworthy, people were still reserved, or cynical, and, with good reason, because of the past behavior of others in institutional authority across the CGGC.
From up here at 40,000 feet, I will say that it speaks well of Nick, and the people in contact with me, that Nick is already being trusted.
I see some small patch of light through the clouds of CGGC despair that repentance and a turn from our paralyzing sins may be in our future.
--------------------
Still, two notes of caution:
1. The people in contact with me are, for the most part, well-placed in the ERC and CGGC hierarchy and, therefore, are in close contact with Nick and able to see, up close, who he is and what he's doing. He's in a good position to win these people over. Others, who didn't start out so pro-Conference and who are less well connected, will be a much harder sell.
2. Nick is different. Besides him, Talk-ism still reigns among the people of the CGGC who hold institutional authority. And, because of that, there is still ample reason for people who have chosen the sin of cynicism to continue to be cynical.
--------------------
As a member of the ERC, my connection is with my Region and with the people in Findlay. Talk-ism still reigns in Findlay. By that, I mean that, as I see it, the Findlay crowd is still willing to be known, first and foremost, by what they say, not by what they do. They are known to talk well, but, in the end, not to do much at all.
There's nothing seriously evil in what they do. Yet, from what I know and from what the people I know tell me, they do, essentially, nothing meaningful. They, certainly, are not hypocrites. They, simply, are content to be good talkers.
And, because cynicism is so much a part of the CGGC identity, their benign type of Talk-ism is a serious problem.
--------------------
What I see in Nick encourages me. I know him almost exclusively by what he does.
Sadly, I still know others with institutional authority in the body only by their talk.
--------------------
Some points of reference:
We know Jesus first of all by what He did. The content of the Christian gospel is about what Jesus did: Christ died for our sins...He was buried...He was raised on the third day...He appeared. (1 Corinthians 15)
For all of the important doctrinal material in his Epistles, we know Paul, first and foremost, by what he did.
In the movement days of the Church of God, John Winebrenner was known, most of all, by what he did. Could anyone have ever been concerned that John Winebrenner was nothing more than a puff of hot air?...only a big talker?
---------------------
Thank God that there is, again, someone with authority in our body who:
1. Has a walk that matches his talk...
And,
2. Is becoming known for what he does more than what he says.
Here's hoping that rubs off.
Is it possible that we might repent?!!!?!!!?!
--------------------
In the blue print that introduced this post, I suggested that Nick is its subject. When I wrote that, I thought that he would be.
But, as I worked it out, I realized that he isn't.
As I think in New Testament terms, I'm becoming more convinced every day that leadership is not a Jesus concept but that followership is.
Jesus never said, "Come, let me lead you." What He did say is, "Come, follow me."
The thing about Nick that distinguishes him from others who possess institutional authority in the CGGC is that he is achieving followership.
In the end, this post became about people I know who are willing to practice followership in regard to Nick...those highly placed but unnamed sources for what I've written.
Nick may or may not be saying, "Follow me," but people I know, love and respect are following.
It's those people who became the subject of this post.
I'd try to write this in a way that masks the identity of the person who is the subject of this post, but I don't think I could succeed. Beyond that, I think it's important that I not even try.
--------------------
Two of my Characteristics of the CGGC Brand that go very far in defining our, to this point, irreversible decline and decay are:
11. To Talk is to Walk-ism.
and,
10. Cynicism.
I can see no way that the CGGC will reverse its fall and become what it once was until we repent and turn from these...I'll be honest,...sins.
The two characteristics are linked. They feed upon each other and have been doing so for the last decade, at least.
I'm beginning to be hopeful that we may, possibly, be able to repent, turn, and be forgiven of them, and, again, do the Lord's will and walk in His blessing.
--------------------
Within the past year, the ERC hired Nick DiFrancesco to be its new Executive Director.
In recent years, I have become a voice crying in the wilderness in the ERC and in the CGGC. Yet, quite a few people in the body maintain contact with me. So, while, officially, I'm persona non grata, I still am involved in and aware of things CGGC.
When Nick was being hired, was hired, and since he assumed the position, I've picked up a lot of chatter about him...and, I still do.
And, and I think this is crucial, the Cynicism and Talk-ism components of the CGGC's identity were...ARE...in the center of the conversation.
At the beginning, people were thinking that Nick was saying all of the right things but they were skeptical, if not cynical. They didn't quite trust him. They were going to have to see him actually live his words before they'd believe him.
Later on, they were expressing mild surprise that Nick actually seemed to be doing what he had said he'd do.
Very recently, from several of my CGGC connections, I've heard people ultimately, happily and joyfully, concluding that Nick is for real.
This reserve about Nick illustrates how Cynicism and Talk-ism work.
--------------------
In the CGGC, we have become accustomed to our, uh, leaders hornswoggling us.
So, no one, among the people in contact with me, was completely confident, in the beginning, that Nick would really be the person he claimed to be and do the things he promised to do.
Later on, when Nick was already proving to be trustworthy, people were still reserved, or cynical, and, with good reason, because of the past behavior of others in institutional authority across the CGGC.
From up here at 40,000 feet, I will say that it speaks well of Nick, and the people in contact with me, that Nick is already being trusted.
I see some small patch of light through the clouds of CGGC despair that repentance and a turn from our paralyzing sins may be in our future.
--------------------
Still, two notes of caution:
1. The people in contact with me are, for the most part, well-placed in the ERC and CGGC hierarchy and, therefore, are in close contact with Nick and able to see, up close, who he is and what he's doing. He's in a good position to win these people over. Others, who didn't start out so pro-Conference and who are less well connected, will be a much harder sell.
2. Nick is different. Besides him, Talk-ism still reigns among the people of the CGGC who hold institutional authority. And, because of that, there is still ample reason for people who have chosen the sin of cynicism to continue to be cynical.
--------------------
As a member of the ERC, my connection is with my Region and with the people in Findlay. Talk-ism still reigns in Findlay. By that, I mean that, as I see it, the Findlay crowd is still willing to be known, first and foremost, by what they say, not by what they do. They are known to talk well, but, in the end, not to do much at all.
There's nothing seriously evil in what they do. Yet, from what I know and from what the people I know tell me, they do, essentially, nothing meaningful. They, certainly, are not hypocrites. They, simply, are content to be good talkers.
And, because cynicism is so much a part of the CGGC identity, their benign type of Talk-ism is a serious problem.
--------------------
What I see in Nick encourages me. I know him almost exclusively by what he does.
Sadly, I still know others with institutional authority in the body only by their talk.
--------------------
Some points of reference:
We know Jesus first of all by what He did. The content of the Christian gospel is about what Jesus did: Christ died for our sins...He was buried...He was raised on the third day...He appeared. (1 Corinthians 15)
For all of the important doctrinal material in his Epistles, we know Paul, first and foremost, by what he did.
In the movement days of the Church of God, John Winebrenner was known, most of all, by what he did. Could anyone have ever been concerned that John Winebrenner was nothing more than a puff of hot air?...only a big talker?
---------------------
Thank God that there is, again, someone with authority in our body who:
1. Has a walk that matches his talk...
And,
2. Is becoming known for what he does more than what he says.
Here's hoping that rubs off.
Is it possible that we might repent?!!!?!!!?!
--------------------
In the blue print that introduced this post, I suggested that Nick is its subject. When I wrote that, I thought that he would be.
But, as I worked it out, I realized that he isn't.
As I think in New Testament terms, I'm becoming more convinced every day that leadership is not a Jesus concept but that followership is.
Jesus never said, "Come, let me lead you." What He did say is, "Come, follow me."
The thing about Nick that distinguishes him from others who possess institutional authority in the CGGC is that he is achieving followership.
In the end, this post became about people I know who are willing to practice followership in regard to Nick...those highly placed but unnamed sources for what I've written.
Nick may or may not be saying, "Follow me," but people I know, love and respect are following.
It's those people who became the subject of this post.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)