A Facebook Debate between George Jensen and Me

Gang, 

More than a week ago now, Enola First Church of God clergyman, George Jensen, entered a timely and provocative post on Facebook. Among many others, I replied and a spirited exchange ensued between George and me. 

I often think that the best conversation I have, and the most perceptive writing I do, is off of this blog.

I emailed George and let him know that I plan to highlight our Facebook posts on my blog. He'd added his final comment while my email was on its way to him.

I see important CGGC and Western church realities at stake in the issue George raises.

George's post and our interaction is copied below.

As is often the case, the comments become increasingly lengthy. And, they are now more appropriate to blog comments than Facebook anyway. 

The last comment copied in is George's. 

I hope he'll continue the conversation...

...and, for that matter, I hope you will join in as well.

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George: the original Facebook post. 

So let me get this straight - Christianity Today publishes an article calling for Trump's removal from office claiming they were patient in revealing this information yet they conveniently wait until the day after the impeachment vote to let the cat out of the bag.  Franklin Graham, the son of Billy Graham, who founded Christianity Today, rebukes the magazine's leadership for the article accusing them of leaning to the left and he reveals for the first time that his father voted for Trump.  Is anyone else out there, besides me, concerned that the evangelical Christian world appears to be going to war against itself over all of this?

And yes, I am concerned with both sides aiming their political guns at each other.  I wonder how this squibble-squabble is helping, from a human effort perspective, to advance the Kingdom and draw unbelievers to the one true faith in the Son of God (Yes, I know that is ultimately the Holy Spirit's job but we have been given our marching orders too)?  We as evangelicals are doing a great job at making the "faith that was once for all delivered to the saints" look like a kangaroo court.

Folks, I'm telling you that at the present moment, biblical, orthodox (small "o") evangelical Christianity is DYING in the west.  We cannot bury our heads in the sand about this.  We ARE dying!  Now to be sure, ultimately God's church is NOT going to die.  In fact, just the opposite is going to happen.  The promise from our Lord in Matthew 16:13-19 guarantees that one way or another, God is going to build His church.  But what WE need to do here and now is get busy and make these things a top priority:  #1  - EVANGELISM & DISCIPLESHIP, #2 - EVANGELISM & DISCIPLESHIP,  #3 - EVANGELISM & DISCIPLESHIP.  Anyone want to take a guess what #4 is?  You will notice that aiming our political guns at one another is not in the list so don't worry, it's not #4. So here it is, 5 days before Christmas, the day recognized by most Christians to commemorate the First Advent and Incarnation of our Lord, and we get all of THIS from the evangelical world.  What a MESS!  It sure isn't helping to make my job any easier!

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Me. George (and others),

Please understand that what follows is not necessarily rhetorical, though it may seem like it is.

George, it seems to me that you bring as much understanding of the history of the Kingdom to your ministry as anyone I know.

You know Church of God history.

You know, from the study of our history, that evangelism and discipleship and the aiming of political guns at others in the body, are not mutually exclusive.

In fact, in our greatest generation, when the Church of God was practicing evangelism and discipleship as it never has since, and expanding rapidly, that our body was fully engaged in the war church people were fighting against each other. Even, ultimately, engaging in a military war, the Civil War.

And, oddly, curiously perhaps, that squibble squabble empowered the expansion of the Kingdom of God in a way that is rare in the entire history of the Kingdom so much so that we normally refer to that time as a Great Awakening.

I, for one, am distressed by the conflict that is developing among brothers and sisters.

But, I'm not convinced that, in the end, it will prevent the expansion of the Kingdom.

I don't know what to think.

But, and especially for CGGC people, I ask: Are you forgetting our history?

Are you turning your backs on who we once were?

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George. I will cite a quote from One Who holds more weight, in my opinion, than CGGC history:  “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me.” - The words of Jesus in
‭‭John‬ ‭17:20-21.

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Me. It's Curious, George, that you chose to respond to my questions in the way you did.

I carefully framed my questions in reference to today's CGGC people's attitude toward the legacy the first members of our body left for us...in a day when we were practicing evangelism and discipleship and being profoundly blessed.

As I said, I know your ministry to be informed by a keen understanding of our history. So, you, for one, can't be forgetting that history.

Am I correct, then, that you are saying that you are turning your back on who we once were?

Is your quotation of John 17:20-21 intended to condemn John Winebrenner and his colleagues in our founding generation? If so, Yikes, brother!

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George. Is your accurate depiction of the CGGC’s historical evangelistic methods intended to take precedent over our Lord’s prayer where He prays for unity among believers so that the world may believe in Him?  If so, Yikes, brother!

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Me. George Jensen, you have a way of not answering the questions presented to you that rivals the most slippery politician's.  :-)

I was not describing the Church of God's evangelistic "method," only the historical context in which it took place.

As you know, in those days, Church of God people were passionate and fearless in everything they did, including and especially, their first principle, articulated by John Winebrenner on the day our body was formed, i.e., "the conversion of sinners."

Let me say clearly, though, that I see no conflict between the prayer of Jesus for unity among disciples and what our founders' did.

Are you saying that you do?!?!!!

The truth is that the unity experienced by the Father and Son was forged, at times, from unspeakable tension between them, so much so that, on the night when Jesus was betrayed, Jesus begged the Father, "Take this cup from me!" In that moment, the tension between them was so great that Jesus's sweat was as drops of blood.

You seem to forget that genuine unity is, often, fruit of worked through tension.

You seem to want the end product without acknowledging the hard work sometimes required to produce it.

I see no conflict at all  between our founders' passionate preaching of the gospel...and their struggle on behalf of the oppressed...and the prayer Jesus prayed.

I believe that our founders, unquestionably, had that prayer of Jesus in mind.

And, they were willing to pay their part of the price to achieve the unity among disciples Jesus prayed for. They didn't oppose it. In fact, some even died struggling to achieve it.

As the Word makes clear, even the unity between the Father and the Son involved moments when the angst and tension between them was horrendous.

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George. Fair enough, you did not declare what happened throughout CGGC history to be the Church of God's "historical method."

However, your accurate "descriptive" account of how God has moved among our body cannot be equated with his "prescriptive" initiatives that He calls us to embrace.  I believe that what Jesus pleaded for from the Father in John 17 was "prescriptive" - "that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me."

So the prescription is that we as believers are to be one so that the world may believe.  However, would even concede that God can work through this CT/Franklin Graham flap regarding Trump in a way that will cause growth in the Kingdom.

However, that does not mean that these two parties are acting according to God's "prescription" as it is recorded in John 17.

Any time we try to operate outside of God's "prescriptive" will, we are playing with fire!  And that fire can cause harm!  But sure, God can sovereignly move and grow His church in spite of our stupidity and disobedience to His "prescriptive" will.  And I must vigorously disagree with your notion regarding the tension within the Godhead.

You can argue, as you did, that unity in the Godhead is fruit of the worked through tension (as you noted from our Lord's Gethsemane prayer).  I can cautiously concede to that point.  But where your argument fails in regards to the comparison between what appears to be forged tension in the Godhead leading to unity and the CT/Graham flap is this:  There has never been and there will never be a case where one Person in the Godhead casts aspersions upon, devalues or speaks negatively against another.  I am convinced of this because of the words of our Lord in Matthew 12:31-32 - "Therefore I tell you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven people, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven. And whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age or in the age to come."  The CT/Graham flap is not a case of "forged tension leading to unity."

The two parties, directly or indirectly, are casting aspersions on each other (especially Graham as he aims his comments directly at CT).  For these reasons, I respectfully submit that your argument on this point does not hold up.

==============

(And this is where the exchange of Facebook posts ends. What follows is new.)

Me. 

George,

I'm still not certain that you've answered the question I raised in my first comment,  the second question, the one that applies to you, (At least, I hope you haven't.):

Are you turning your back on who we once were?

I'm trying very hard not to, well, accuse you of that, but, with each new post you write, it becomes harder not to raise that accusation.

When you say, "...when the description is different, such as in CGGC history, when there are bickerings, squibble-squabbles and all other kinds of divisions, God can work through that,..."

You seem to be saying that the Church of God was born in sin and that, in spite of the sin of John Winebrenner and his colleagues, God worked through the evil of our founders.

If that's the case, I have two concerns.

1. As much as I don't want to, I have wonder why you are a member of the CGGC.

We continue to embrace our roots.

We cling to the faith of our earliest brothers and sisters.

And, not so very long ago, in an eNews article, even Lance praised the practice of prophetic ministry of John Winebrenner and the people of our founding generation.

You, on the other hand, seem to see our founders as bickerers, squibble-squabblers and makers of all other kinds of divisions.

Can you tell me how you are not turning your back on who we once were?

2. In my opinion...speaking only for myself...it seems to me that you have a diluted understanding of unity.

The unity shared by the Father and the Son truly can't be separated from the prayer of Jesus begging the Father take that cup from Him. Their perfect unity can't be detached from the moment when the sweat of Jesus became like great drops of blood dropping to the ground.

Their unity with each other includes the moment when the Spirit drove Jesus into the wilderness to meet satan.

It can't be separated from the moment when the unity between Father and Son drove Jesus into the temple, snapping a whip He made with His own hands, to remove the money-changers.

Their unity is perfect, yet it is also dynamic and fierce and passionate. The unity Jesus prayed for for us, I believe, must share those same qualities.

The unity being forged among Kingdom people in the first days of the Church of God shared those intense qualities.

And, as I pointed out, our movement has never engaged in evangelism and discipleship in the way it did in those days of fierce passion. We have never experienced God's blessing as we did then.

I may be wrong, but, based on your condemnation of the controversy taking place now connected to the CHRISTIANITY TODAY editorial...

...I fear that you may be confusing bland tolerance for unity. Please clarify and explain to me how I am wrong.

Certainly, there can be excess, i.e., sin, as humans seek to live out the dynamic, fierce  and passionate unity of the Father and the Son. I'm not excusing or defending that.

But tolerance among Kingdom people is, in my opinion, always sin.

Bottom line: I agree with your diagnosis that evangelical Christianity is dying but not with your prescription for its healing.

I'm sorry that this one is so lengthy.

Blessings.

Xmas 2019 with the Sloats

Before noon it was all over.

Evie and I really like our apartment in Independent Living at Fairmount Homes but we've been saying that, as nice as it is, it still doesn't feel like home.

I said that we don't have memories set here.

We do now.

The plan, from before the move, was that my brother and sister-in-law would pick up mom from the Mennonite Home and bring her here...there's an elevator, no steps.

About a week ago, the Mennonite Home called to say that mom has a bad cold and their goal was for her to be well enough to be visited on Christmas. She isn't.

Mom has a URI and, somehow has COPD, though she never smoked or did anything associated with developing COPD...and, at her age, an upper respiratory infection is a serious issue along with the chronic lung problems. The Physician's Assistant who's treating her is starting her on Prednisone and is confident she'll recover soon. However, normally when she comes out of one of these illnesses, her dementia has advanced. We'll see.

So, it was my brother's family and Evie and me...at total of 7.

Our apartment was adequate in size for this small gathering.

We are, essentially, silly, uninhibited people, capable of doing sober what many people would need several shots to achieve...and no hangover...and cheaper!

We were together for about two and a half hours and had a nice time.

We started a tradition several years ago...whenever we get together...of playing a card game that ends with everyone getting a gag gift. Each person contributes one gift...maximum $5. We're getting good at picking the gifts. At the conclusion of the game we all unwrap our prize in the order in which we finished the game.

Lots of smiles and laughter. We took pictures of everyone wearing the deer antlers which were my gift. Everyone who is really uninhibited agreed to have their photo posted on Facebook. You can see us there.

We contribute to a brunch meal. All the food was good.

Dad died just before Christmas two years ago. That sadness was probably lessened by the fact that mom wasn't with us. She misses him more than ever, if that's possible.

It seemed to me that I enjoyed this more than I usually do. I'm not sure what that's all about.

My Side of an Off-the-Blog Chat about Church

Readers,

Recently, I've been engaged in several meaningful exchanges off the blog. One is with someone who shares my understanding of the importance of Kingdom living and of what righteousness is, as well as concern about what the church has become today. 

I've copied one of my messages to him here. 

I've edited it slightly to shield my friend's identity. 

---------------

I've continued to give thought to your note.

As I wrote to you, I shared it with Evie. She has so much wisdom about these things.

The first thing she said to me about it is, "You should tell him that Sunday morning is not church."

Evie has a perspective on this that extends to the early years of her life. She's never read the books we've read. Yet, she walks this walk with profound conviction.

Her father was a very highly respected deacon in the Church of God congregation they attended.  He, most likely, would have been elected as an elder except for one thing: He rarely attended church on Sunday morning.

Evie has never been enthusiastic about the so-called worship service. When I was a pastor, she, of course, had little choice but to attend.

But, when I was in grad school, she almost never attended a church service. Many Sundays when we were living in New Jersey, I attended a church alone. She didn't mind that I attended but felt no need for herself.

It took me many years to appreciate how profoundly biblical her way is.

We know that Jesus didn't start a church and He didn't create worship services. When He defined righteousness in the Sermon on the Mount, He never addressed the issue of corporate gatherings. In Revelation 2 and 3, He used the word church, but never in terms of the weekly gathering.

Hebrews 10:24-25 tells us to consider how we may provoke each other to love and good works and adds that we should not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing.

I see that as a fair description of life among Kingdom people in the early years.

Gathering was not central to life among early disciples in the same way that Jesus didn't empathize it. In fact, according to Hebrews, some actually gave up meeting together.

While the writer of Hebrews discouraged the giving up of meeting together, he also didn't make a strong argument for the gathering as a core component of the life. He'd only go so far as to say, don't give it up.

As I said, our gathering meets sporadically and rarely these days...and (Evie and I) rarely meet in any other format. The virtual dissolving of our gathering has been, essentially, our decision.

A few days ago, a coworker--a sort of co-ambassador--who does attend a fairly traditional evangelical-ish, uh, church, asked me if I'd like to attend their Christmas Eve service.  I rolled my eyes and said, emphatically and sarcastically, "No!", and she, waiting for my response, smirked at me. She knows.

Evie and I have come to emphasize the daily walk and care less and less about gathering.

We tenaciously invest energy in the walk, not the gathering.

And, as I look to the New Testament, that seems to fit, even if it's out of phase with the spirit of our times.

Why am I writing this to you?

You are a man of conscience. As am I.

I, of course, share your dissatisfaction with, as you say, "what we do as a current expression of church." Knowing how that dissatisfaction has emerged in your life, as it has in mine, it will probably not change.

If you read my blog on Jerry's memorial service, you know how I chafe at Christendom meetings.

I'm in a position in my life in which I'm almost never forced by circumstances to attend a Christendom gathering. That reality spares me a ton of grief and vexation.

But, it's a secondary issue, really.

What I write to you is big picture.

I wouldn't presume to understand the dynamics of your family.

Were I you, I'd probably not fight (your family on) church relationships. That's the decision my friend Jerry made. His family and he achieved detente over their differences.

Jerry pursued his convictions intentionally through several friendships, like the one we shared. It wasn't perfect for him, but it worked well enough for him...for decades.

It seems to me that you have a wonderful resource in your workplace (and friendships.)

My heart truly goes out to you.

It's a difficult walk we walk. But, speaking for myself, all the more meaningful.

Blessings as you serve Him and love Him.

bill

Retracting an Old, Obnoxious Claim...

...and replacing it with one that may be more objectionable.

Back in the days of Brian Miller's blog, in discussing APEST, I made the claim,

"I don't have a shepherd bone in my body."

As I recall, I wrote that when I was railing against the church's pastor-dominated leadership culture. When I wrote that, I believed it without doubt.

As even the title of this blog suggests, I work in a, uh, secular, job in which I see myself functioning as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God, yada, yada, yada.

I've been doing this now for more than six years and I'm still learning what it means to live this life.

I've certainly never been mentored in this way of life. If anything, I've encountered opposition.

One way that my ministry is bearing fruit is that believers on the job come to me for biblical and theological knowledge (not surprising), advice (understandable) and comfort and encouragement (scary!!!!!).

When the comfort and encouragement part began to happen, I cringed. Up until recently, I believed what I'd said on Brian's blog, i.e., I don't have a shepherd bone in my body...

...but, when the need to be shepherdy arose in my ambassador role, I faked it with, as Paul says, with fear and trembling and, very cautiously, did my best. And, to my surprise, I seemed to be useful to the cause of the Kingdom even in offering comfort and encouragement...the stuff of shepherding.

Honestly, I was a tad flabbergasted...

...and, I began to question how I was wrong all those years ago on the Emerging Church blog.

Here's what I'm coming up with.

I can shepherd. I do have some shepherd in my spiritual DNA.

What I don't have in me, however, is parish priest.

It seems to me that people who are gifted to be shepherds can adapt to the parish priest role fairly well.

No doubt, the decline and decay of Christianity in the West is due, in large part, to what happens when shepherds are permitted to thrive in a way that diminishes other gifts and be elevated to positions of influence because,..

...when shepherds dominate, they create institutions and think of themselves as leaders, when apostles, as an example, I believe, envision themselves as servants.

If you doubt that, read the early verses of the New Testament Epistles. Nowhere do Paul or the others introduce themselves as leaders of the church. But, they do describe themselves as servants of Jesus Christ.

Anyway,...

...in the New Testament, there were people gifted to be shepherds but, there were no parish priests!

It has to be that being gifted to be a shepherd and functioning in the role of parish priest are not synonymous.

Based on my recent success in shepherding in a setting divorced from the institutionalized church, when the role of parish priest is not in play,...

...it strikes me that the institutional church has messed with the spiritual gift of shepherding as much as it has with all of the other gifts, so much so that, I, for one, avoided opportunities to use the shepherd gifting I have because I don't have the ability to function as a parish priest.

So, I do have a shepherd bone or two,

What I don't have is the inclination to do the parish priest thing.

Jerry's Memorial Service

I haven't detailed all of the death that has touched our lives recently, but we're geezers and, it's just a fact of life that one reaches a point when contemporaries and friends and relatives begin to die.

And, I have a job in which many people depend on my presence. This the fourth close death for us in six months but only the second memorial service I attended.

The only person in the department ranking higher than I rank volunteered to work a double shift ON SATURDAY to free me up to attend Jerry's service. (I've written in the past about this guy and his unbelievable leadership. He never, ever talks to the managers about leading, but he walks leadership constantly and inspiringly.)

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We drove more than an hour in a pounding rain to get to the service. At one point, I almost turned around.  But, I'm glad we made it...for many reasons.

We've known Jerry's wife, Nancy, since the mid 1970s and it was good to see her and to see that she is well.

We'd not seen Jerry's surviving children for many years, and it was good to touch base with them...they're all 50ish years old now and they're all doing well.

Since Evie and I moved back to Pennsylvania, Jerry often spoke to me about one of his daughters-in-law, Ann. Clearly, he adored her as a person, and as a Jesus-follower. I got to meet her yesterday and immediately liked her and understood Jerry's admiration for her. Interestingly, when I introduced myself to her, her eyes sparked and she exclaimed, "Mr. Sloat!" I can only guess that she'd been hearing stories about me as well.

And, Jerry had a beloved nephew who became a Pennsylvania State Trooper. He gave a eulogy of sorts and was introduced as Captain.... It was good to see that he's done well.

Jerry's sister battled breast cancer shortly after Evie did and, during that time, Evie shepherded Anna through the journey via email but they'd never met. As soon as Anna realized who Evie was, she responded to Evie in the way Ann did with me. It was a sweet moment.

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The service itself was described, as it began, as a worship service. There were moments focused on Jerry, of course. But there were songs and hymns and Scripture readings and an invocation and benediction and a pastoral prayer and an evangelistic sermon in the way Calvinists preach evangelistically. Incidentally, based on the sermon format and vocabulary, I'd rate the sermon as being preached to college graduates or grad school graduates. Does that still go on in the CGGC?

The service was long. I got, well, squirmy. I briefly recalled my dad squeezing my leg when I was an eight-year-old and shouting in a whispered voice, "Sit still." And, I tried to sit still.

I'm no longer accustomed to being in a situation where one group of people, as it was in this case (I think there were five, uh, "pastors"),  providing the religious products and services and the rest of the gathering consuming those religious products and services. It's been a long time since I was a passive consumer.

I rarely am a part of the provider/consumer paradigm and, of course, I don't believe in it, and whenever I can, like now, I rail against it...passionately.

So, as a matter of conscience and principle, and sqirminess, I hated the service itself.

But, I nit pick too often. So, apart from what I figured I'd write here, I was determined to keep my mouth shut...

...until, on the drive home when Evie said, in her own way, and from her heart, all of those things I'd been thinking about the service. She's a gracious person, but she knows what she doesn't like and what she thinks is not right. She probably wouldn't say it to anyone but me, but her opinion was clear.

I know more than a few people who believe what I believe about the failings of today's institutional church. I'm the only man I know whose wife shares those convictions...perhaps even more deeply, and also, of  course, with greater wisdom and maturity.

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One other comment about the service itself.

It was held at the, uh, "church" Jerry had most recently been attending. He jumped around a lot. (As I said in my previous post about his death, I take that to be fruit of his apostolic gifting.)

As we walked into the edifice, I noted that it was decorated, rather tastefully, for Advent. This is a Bible Fellowship Church, about as low church as the CGGC in its its history, perhaps, even more low church.  And, as I would guess, decorated to roughly the same degree that a CGGC building would be for this high ecclesiastical season.

My first thought, which I was determined to keep to myself, apart from what I'd write here, was that I'm so glad that I'm not involved in a group that feels the need to devote Kingdom resources to this purpose. I think that I may have actually sighed at the thought.

On the drive home, though, Evie asked if I'd noticed the decorating. I said that I had.

Then she began her sermon:

How many turkeys could you buy for hungry families with the money they spent on that?!!!!!

And, truly, in the Sheep and Goats teaching, Jesus says, "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat..."

Neither He nor His disciples ever decorated for a religious event or season.

This Advent stuff is so Middle Ages, and so un-Jesus.

What would Jesus do? Well, not decorate for Advent, that's for certain.

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Still, I'm so very glad that we attended.

The likelihood is that we'll never see these people again.

But, this was the sort of relationship where you don't see each other for many years  but immediately pick up as if you seen each other yesterday.

A person has so few of those relationships. I rejoice in renewing the connection one more time.

Would Lance Hire John Winebrenner?

The latest eNews announced the search for a new General Conference Director of Communications.

This job announcement interested me especially because, back in the day, Evie held the position of General Conference Director of Communications. This is, with some evolution in the job description, her old job.

Things have changed tons since Dave Draper hired Evie in the mid 1990s. We are not who we were even then.

Our decline and decay has advanced for more than two decades since then.

Since then, Wayne Boyer then Ed Rosenberry and now Lance Finley have assumed the institutional corner office.

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Anyway, I looked over the documents Lance attached to the announcement of the job opening, the last document being, Director General Expectations.

In recent years, as I do the, "to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow" part of my calling, I think about the tragic shift in our paradigm, from servant-based to leadership-obsessed, from primitive movement to polished institution, etc.,...

...and, initially, as I read the document, I thought about what Lance and today's "leaders" are looking for in the person who will sit behind the desk in that office.

At first, as a student of revivals, the question in my mind was, "Is this the sort of person who would be valued in a dynamic revival movement?"

Read the documents at the end of the eNews article. Read this particular document.

Clearly, the answer is, no.

Of course, movements don't have human Directors at all. Movements follow the Spirit.

Movements, from the human point of view, are erratic. Movements are rough and untidy. And, the people who rise to positions of influence in them are, often, unwashed and unsophisticated and grossly unacceptable to the humans who people and lead institutions...the sort of people the first apostles are described as being.

A moment of self-analysis, here. I've been a student of revivals since the mid 1970s, since I was a young man, since I was new in the faith.

I fell in love with the history of the Church of God in those days. Later, I studied revivalism at the school whose campus houses the United Methodist Archives. 

My training and orientation is from both perspectives. 

Curiously, when I think of revivalism in a general sense, I think of it in Methodist terms. When I think of it specifically, I think in Church of God terms. 

So my initial question:

Is this the sort of person who would be valued in a dynamic revival movement?,"...

...is a Methodist question, i.e., would John and Charles Wesley and the earliest Methodists have valued such a person?

After I asked and answered that general question, my mind immediately shifted into the specific, i.e., Church of God, realm and asked:

Would Lance (and the Search Committee) hire John Winebrenner?

There can be no question in my mind about it. The answer is no.

The person described in the Director General Expectations is not John Winebrenner.

John Winebrenner is not the person Lance has in mind...by a long shot.

If you could have extracted DNA from Winebrenner's corpse and cloned him so that he'd be of an appropriate age today, if he'd submit a CV for this position, he'd not even have a chance to survive the first cut. He wouldn't get an initial interview.

Think about who they want. Then, think  about who Winebrenner was.

From the introductory paragraph of the document, Winebrenner wouldn't possess the highly valued "administrative competencies."

Certainly, Winebrenner lacked the "Ability to create and articulate Vision and Strategy for ministry department." Vision? Perhaps, though his vision was precisely at odds withtoday's vision.

Strategy? Rotflol!

Could John Winebrenner, "Create systems which enable the work to be done in an efficient and timely manner?" Bahahahaha!

Read the, brief, document with a Spirit-empower person like John Winebrenner in mind. (Warning: Have a barf bag to hand.)

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I, sometimes, listen to a Philadelphia Sports Talk radio station on my drive to work. One of the members of broadcast team is, sometimes, described as having the ability to "polish a turd." And, that's what I thought when I read the General Expectations document.

Understand what is at stake here!

This document charts the future Lance and the other people holding institutional authority in the CGGC today have for us.

They want to raise up people who are gifted administrators...polished bureaucrats...to create our future.

Theirs is the value system that took hold more than 30 years ago when the framers of our current Constitution described the Executive Director of the CGGC as our CEO.

The people who possess institutional authority in the CGGC today love that way of thinking. They have no intention of turning from it.

Lance and his team are fixin to extend that vision into the 2020s, 30s and 40s.

And, the John Winebrenners of the Kingdom today need not seek a place of influence in the CGGC.

Woe is we!

We must repent.

We Have a Groupie/Stalker

I don't know if I even blogged this before but, after we signed the paperwork to move into independent living, the marketing director of the home asked if they could interview us and put an article about us in their newsletter.

Our response was to chuckle with each other and say, in effect, "If you really want to."

We set up an appointment to be interviewed by the editor of the newsletter. We chatted for about two hours, all but about ten of those minutes she talked to Evie.

Another day we showed up and she took, we're guessing about 80 pictures of us in front and around the new apartment building so she could pick a decent one for the newsletter. (Evie's very photogenic. I ain't.)

The picture they used was nice, actually. It's my Facebook profile picture these days.

The article was, uh, interesting. It quoted me saying things Evie said and vice versa. And, at least one thing neither of us said. It had me saying that I love the ethos of the place. I'd never spoken or written that word in my life! At least, before the article.

About two months later, the General Manager of the store passed me in an aisle and said, "Hey. Bill, you're famous." I recall mumbling something like, "Yeah, really. "

He was merely the first. About a dozen times that day coworkers and customers acknowledged my fame. One of them, eventually, told me that they saw my picture in the newsletter.

I'm still being told that I'm famous.

Since the publication of the newsletter, our images have appeared in a number of publications as part of a marketing  campaign, including, at least twice, the Lancaster (PA) Sunday newspaper...a big deal here in Lancaster County, along with the slogan?, "Bill and Evelyn can't wait to move into their new apartment."

It's all been an incredible hoot.

However, the other day, the marketing director called Evie and told her that one of the women in the personal care part of the home has said that she'd like to meet Bill and Evelyn Sloat. He was confused but passed on the message. I was working but Evie was free so she went to the office and then the two of them went to personal care and he introduced Evie to Nancy.

After the introduction, Nancy started rooting through drawers and found the newsletter and showed Evie her picture in the newsletter. The marketing director said, "Ah ha."

Apparently, the staff here has no idea how much that article has had legs.

Anyway, Evie invited Nancy to see our apartment the next day.

From the beginning, we knew that this might not go well.

Yesterday, my cell phone rang at the store. The screen told me it was from the home. I can't take calls on the job. I only break the rule if the call's from Evie or the home my mom lives in. I let this call go to voicemail. I got a voicemail. It was Nancy. I have no idea how she got my number. The message itself was indecipherable.

Evie says that Nancy seems a little autistic. The behavior is not surprising.

The question here is, What Would Jesus Do?, a very timely question when much of our culture is in full Xmas hysteria and others are acknowledging the incarnation of God.

What is grace and mercy here? What is wisdom?

Life, by the grace of God, is always teaching lessons.

My Calling to Uproot, Tear Down, Destroy and Overthrow

The prophet Jeremiah's calling is recorded in Jeremiah 1:10, which says,

See, today I appoint you over nations and kingdoms to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow, to build and to plant.

And, what Jeremiah did for the remaining years of his life, fit that pattern.

He did a lot of uprooting and tearing down and destroying and overthrowing.

Certainly, he was not effective in bringing the people of Judah to repentance and, as a result, the bulk of the building and planting he did was to pass on the promise, from the Lord, to restore the nation after 70 years and to provide a sketch of a New Covenant.

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Shortly after I discovered APEST, I began to believe that I am gifted to be a prophet.

The APEST thing was new to me and I didn't have a lot of human help in exploring its implications, apart from reading a few books.

In fact, people I knew at the time, were coming to ME with questions when I had questions myself.

In those first years, I revisited the question, What is my gift, if I have one?, virtually daily. And, in time, I became comfortable with the conviction that I am a prophet.

As I was in the midst of that search, I was also praying about and reflecting on my calling.

As I did that, I found Jeremiah's calling compelling for me and became convinced that it was the pattern that the Lord wanted me to follow.

As I recall, all of this was taking place when Wayne Boyer was still the CGGC ED. Certainly, it was when Brian Miller's blog was still functioning.

That has been, by now, quite a number of years.

And, as much as ever, I'm comfortable in my belief that I'm gifted to be a prophet and the understanding of my calling has remained essentially the same.

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I've blogged about my calling several times over the years.

There are three biblical verses/passages that are at its root:

Romans 1:1
Jeremiah 1:10
Ephesians 4:11-13.

I know precisely in exact repeatable words what I believe my calling to be...

...because, back in those days, I formed it into a prayer which has become my single most repeated item of prayer in my prayers and in my meditation.

I don't think I've ever blogged the prayer itself.

Normally, I meditate on it, as I pray it.

Here's the prayer...(this is so intimate a thing, I'm uncomfortable even typing it out):

Help me to be bill Sloat, a servant of  Christ Jesus, called to be a prophet, and set apart to uproot and tear down and to destroy and overthrow the church's pastor dominated leadership culture and to build and to plant a servant community in which apostles, prophets, evangelists and shepherds and teachers are all empowered to live within their callings and, therefore, to prepare the saints for works of ministry. 

I can't imagine how many times I've repeated those words and mulled them over and meditated on them.

My guess is that, less than half of the times I start it, I don't make it to the end. I get caught up, in the Spirit, over one part of it or another.

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Lately, I've gotten caught on the uproot, tear down, destroy, overthrow part.

When I began to believe this was my calling, I understood the implications fairly well.

Biblical prophets were not people who were invited to parties.

They inspired some. They fascinated many. And, during their lives, they were the topic, it seems to me, of speculation and gossip and rumor. Normally, they were marginalized. They weren't people you'd invite to your house for a friendly chat over tea and crumpets.

I got that from the beginning.

I didn't look forward to it but John the Baptist had his head chopped off. So, losing a few friends in the CGGC?,...all that was likely to happen to me I thought, I can take that...and I can. I have.

Being defrocked...if that actually happened?...(no one from the ERC has asked me to return my Ordination Certificate) and what's it been now, three?, four years? I didn't expect that. But, still, prophets often deal with much worse.

(One of my heroes from the history of the Kingdom is Jan Hus. I admire him and identify with him. He was burned at the stake by the people of the institutional church in his day.)

How bad can it be for a prophet in the ultra-tolerant, warm-fuzzy, shepherd-obsessed, talk-but-don't-walk CGGC?

Anyway, by now, I've lost all the friends I'm likely to lose and paid all the consequence I'll probably pay, and that's all fine. The human, relational part is good.

For me, living my calling is, truly, about loving the Lord more than any person, and serving Him.

Here's the problem for me, as I've been praying my calling prayer lately.

I'm tiring of the emotional and spiritual violence of it. I don't enjoy it.  I never have.

Jesus went into the temple with a whip He'd made with His own hands. He physically threw people out of the temple. Now, that is violence!

But, He did that only once, some think twice.

I've been seeking to be faithful to the uproot, tear down...thing for well more than a decade, and, it gets old.

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Every brilliant new scheme the CGGC holders of institutional authority have attempted in those years has nosedived. Scheme by scheme, I've uprooted, etc.

What the institutional authorities are planning now comes from the same spiritual place as the other non-blessed plans...and it will end in the same place as the others, without repentance on our part.

Still, when I pray my calling prayer, the "to uproot and tear down and to destroy and overthrow" part makes me just...weary.

I have never expected to be heeded. I don't now. That's not part of it.

I'll still do it.

But, spiritually, it makes me feel old...and worn...

... and so sad for the people unable to turn from fallen ways...and for the people experiencing the numerical decline and spiritual decay our institutional authorities are leading.

Colonoscopy

I had a colonoscopy on Thursday.

I'd put off far too long.

When I had the last one, the doctor told me to come back in three years. I hate the prep so I was slow in making the appointment and finally made one for the summer of last year. Then Evie's chronic heart problem began to become critical, her health became very bad and surgery to replace her defective heart valve was scheduled and I canceled my procedure.

Her surgery was on August 17, 2018 and it took me this long to have the colonoscopy.

I absolutely hate the prep.

I get nauseous easily. One time, several procedures ago, I puked up the gunk they made me drink and I had to reschedule. That time, they ordered an antinausia medication, which helped enough.

This time the doctor allowed me to choose to do the "over the counter" method, which involves taking OTC laxatives and drinking Gatorade G2.

You can't drink a purple or red color and I only like grape, so that was a problem. I finished with orange and what came out at the end was a weird florescent color.

When I set up the procedure, the appointment setter upper I talked to said nausea is not a problem with this method. I didn't believe her but she wasn't going to set me up with anything for nausea, so I took my best shot.

I did get nauseous but I only gagged once and nothing came up.

Sorry for all that detail.

Anyway, the procedure itself wasn't bad. The anesthesia was okay. It didn't make me sick. General anesthesia always does.

I simply woke up, and was having a dream. I was groggy and lightheaded all day afterward but Evie drove me home and I was fine. The next day at work, I had some trouble concentrating. If I ever have another one, and I'm still working, I'll take the day after off, too.

Anyway, the doctor found, and removed, four polyps. They're being biopsied. In my grogginess, it seemed that the doctor wasn't too concerned, but we'll see.

Unless they find cancer, or pre-cancer, I'm supposed to return in three years.

Yuck.

Jerry Rasmus

Only those of you in the CGGC who are geezers will know the name.

Jerry Rasmus was my best friend.

We met in 1977 when we were students in seminary and we traveled a long and winding road, wandering in and out of each other's lives, for more than 40 years.

In the last decade plus, Jerry fought three types of cancer, and ultimately, lost the battle this past Monday.

Jerry helped plant the seeds in me that significantly formed me into the Jesus follower I am today.

He was a profoundly gifted man and a passionate believer in Jesus who tried for a time, but failed, to be a congregational pastor.

Jerry was a good preacher but an absolutely superb teacher. His pastorates were successful, but always short lived.

Ultimately, and long before me, he lost faith in the institutional church but he was never really comfortable separating himself from it.

Jerry and I discovered APEST at about the same time.

We both dabbled briefly, exploring the potentials of the Emerging Church, and embraced what was, then, called missional.

Both of us were changed by Reggie McNeal's The Present Future and by Frost and Hirsch's, The Shaping of Things to Come. 

Jerry was an apostle.

Because I knew him so intimately and for so long, I can say that Jerry possessed the inclinations and passions of an apostle as purely and powerfully as anyone I've ever known.

Jerry was a born paradigm changer and he was restless...so very, very restless. He was intense and focused and effective...but always restless.

I have often wondered how much Jerry might have done to expand the Kingdom if he'd lived in a faith culture that mentored him, embraced his gifts, empowered them and was apostle-dominated, not parish priest focused.

Up to the day of his death, I sent Jerry a link to every post I entered on my blogs.  As I wrote my posts, I always wondered what Jerry would think of them. In a very real sense, I wrote everything to him, wondering, even, how he'd critique my sentence structure and comma placement.

I don't think Jerry ever figured out how to reply on the blog, but he often responded privately and in personal conversations.

In addition to all those truths, and to be honest and truthful, I have to add this:

I've never laughed harder with anyone than I laughed with Jerry.

Beyond everything else, Jerry was a fun and funny guy who had an appreciation of the absurd that bordered on the genius, though few people saw that side of him.

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One gets to the point in life when people start to die on you...and, I've seen enough of that. But, this one hits so very hard.

The other day, I made arrangements to be able to be off of work to attend Jerry's memorial service. I was talking to the manager who does scheduling, behind closed doors. And, I thought I was doing it in private.

When I walked out of the office, a sweet 20 year old young woman who is a college student and who was working at the store during her Thanksgiving break, approached me and told me that she'd just heard what I said about my best friend dying. She told me how sorry she was and, in the moment, I said to her, "Yeah, next to Evie, he's the person I relied on most over the years."

And, as I was saying it, I was thinking, "Wow, that's true."

So, there's an emptiness that will never be filled.

I thank God that, for more than 40 years, it was filled.

But, Jerry's gone. The emptiness is there. It's here.