I dream of walking boldly and wildly in my faith among people who obey 1 Corinthians 12. Sadly, I believe, I don't.
In that critically important passage from the writings of Paul, Paul says that those of us who are in Christ are a body made up of many parts, where the foot won't say, "Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body," (v. 15) and where the eye can't say to the hand, "I don't need you." (v. 21)
All who are in Christ are unique members of something larger than themselves. All of us have our own role. Therefore, we need to respect the other parts of the body and, more importantly, submit to and recognize our dependence upon the other members of the body.
---------------
I know very well that I'm unusual among the community of people who follow Jesus.
I'm content with who it is that I am in Him. I accept the reality that He's made me to be who He has made me to be...and I, certainly, don't want everyone else to be like me.
No doubt, it's because I am so much unlike most other Christians that I'm so focused on 1 Corinthians 12.
With that in mind, attempt to consider what it would be like for me to read the following passage from the latest eNews in which Lance is discussing the CGGC's ministry in the nation of Kenya. Pay special attention to the part I highlight:
The ministry of the CGGC in Kenya works under the name of Voice of the Gospel Ministries. Several years ago, a group of pastors reached out and sought to affiliate with the Churches of God, General Conference. You might wonder why the different name in a different country? My understanding is that there is significant baggage around the name Church of God and its connection with the prosperity gospel in that part of Africa: thus, the need for a different name to identify this group of churches working with the CGGC. I’ve often thought that John Winebrenner might have landed on a different name for our body if he had started it a different era than 1825: today we have a much more difficult time explaining which “church of God” we are or aren’t.
Wow. Just wow!
Gang,
John Winebrenner (along with the entire movement associated with his ministry) was consumed by a desire to make New Testament Christianity come to life in his time and place.
Winebrenner called this vision, "the New Testament plan," and he outlined that plan on the day our body was formed in Harrisburg in October 1830. The Church of God organized around that vision and brought it to life.
An essential...foundational...fundamental element of our body's understanding of the New Testament plan is that it is biblical for a group of followers to be known as "the Church of God."
Believe it or not, the conviction that a group of believers should be called the Church of God held an importance among the first people of our movement along side their belief that Jesus is the Son of God.
---------------
As a matter of cold, hard historical fact, Lance could not be more wrong.
John Winebrenner was, more than anything else, a man who sought truth and who didn't compromise on what he considered to be the truth, no matter what his belief cost him, or the difficulty it created for our movement.
If, at a time later on than 1825, John Winebrenner was convinced that the correct name of a group of believers is the Church of God, he would not have, could not have "landed on a different name for our body," no matter how difficult the marketing and branding issues might have been.
For the Church of God, in the days that it was a dynamic, growing, blessed movement, truth was all. It wouldn't be compromised...for any reason.
As much as I love the holders of institutional authority in the CGGC, in my opinion, this difference over something as seemingly trivial as our name, explains why, in Winebrenner's generation, we couldn't manage our rapid growth and why today's CGGC can't reverse its numerical decline and spiritual decay.
---------------
As I said, I know I'm unusual among Jesus followers. I don't want everyone to be like me. But, I also believe that who I am, I am in Him.
With that in mind, I'll say this:
What Lance has "often thought" is misguided and it's lack of concern for biblical truth out of interest in superficial issues of marketing and branding is one important factor in our increasing numerical decline and spiritual decay under his regime.
---------------
And...
...If, in the CGGC, we were people of 1 Corinthians 12, three things would be true that are not now true.
1. I could say what I just said without paragraphs of introduction.
2. I'd be respected for my out of the mainstream opinion. And,
3. I'd realize that I'm offering my opinion as only one part of a very diverse and highly interdependent body.
---------------
I've hesitated in writing this for days because I'm torn.
Most who read this, if they've gotten this far, think I'm making a huge point out of nothing.
(And, if Lance had not written, "I've often thought...," I'd have probably moaned and grimaced and dropped it. But, I believe Lance. He's honest. He has, no doubt, thought that about the founding of our movement. And, he's wrong. Lance is completely disregarding the role biblical authority once had among us.)
If we were people of 1 Corinthians 12, I could have written this freely and without inhibition.
I could walk in my calling and say, in an honest way, that I believe that Lance is way off base here and that his brief, passing comment is more important than it might appear at first...
...I'd be very well prepared to be told that I'm overdoing things...and, that I'm doing it AGAIN...
...I'd be prepared to laugh about that...
...I'd smile. I'd explain myself and, in a loving, interdependent, mutually submissive community, we'd work it out on way or the other.
But, that's not a possibility in today's CGGC.
---------------
I'm convinced that this is how New Testament era disciples functioned. I'm convinced that this is the practical living out of 1 Corinthians 12.
But, we don't live as a wildly diverse and interdependent body. We don't love in the New Command, "as I have loved you" way. We don't live, "submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ."
What we do is disobedience. It's unrighteousness.
And, the proof is that we are in the midst of generations of numerical decline and spiritual decay.
We must repent.
Friday, February 28, 2020
Sunday, February 23, 2020
My Five Greatest Heroes from, uh, Church History
I received an interesting response to a recent post. I was discussing my understanding of my performance as an achiever of followership on my job where I function as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God.
The comment was both insightful and challenging. And, I hope that the serious, theological, part of exchange continues off of the blog.
Here's the comment:
I replied, in part, and in a more trivial way, that people who happen to be of the Lutheran tradition have inspired me. I said:
Two of those three Lutherans, perhaps all three, may be unknown to you, though I know I've mentioned Kierkegaard on my blogs over the years.
I've been a student of revivalism for many years and I became inspired by Francke, and his mentor Spener, as a result of those studies.
While I'm critical of what the organized and institutionalized church of my day has become...and does,...I also know the power of the "communion of saints." Community is important among the followers of Jesus.
Hebrews 11 and Acts 7 make it clear that the community we exist in is one that spans the ages.
With that truth in mind, who, among the people of the past, inspires and encourages you?
(I'm aware that those of you who are of the CGGC may still be cautious about interacting with me in a public way. Please feel free to respond off the blog.)
The comment was both insightful and challenging. And, I hope that the serious, theological, part of exchange continues off of the blog.
Here's the comment:
You’re showing a little bit of Lutheran type theology in the fallen / sinful you vs the Jesus in you.
If you’re going to embrace the 2 Corinthians ambassador model, you’ve got to accept the new creation you.
Yes there is the flesh to crucify, but the good is not just Jesus, it’s legitimately bill in the reality of your truest, forever self. Yes, through his grace working so powerfully within you.
I replied, in part, and in a more trivial way, that people who happen to be of the Lutheran tradition have inspired me. I said:
Interestingly, three of my Top Five Heroes of the Kingdom (or as others have it: Church History) happen to be Lutheran. They are:
1. Søren Kierkegaard
2. August Hermann Francke
3. Philipp Jakob Spener
4. Tertullian
5. John Winebrenner (of course)
Two of those three Lutherans, perhaps all three, may be unknown to you, though I know I've mentioned Kierkegaard on my blogs over the years.
I've been a student of revivalism for many years and I became inspired by Francke, and his mentor Spener, as a result of those studies.
While I'm critical of what the organized and institutionalized church of my day has become...and does,...I also know the power of the "communion of saints." Community is important among the followers of Jesus.
Hebrews 11 and Acts 7 make it clear that the community we exist in is one that spans the ages.
With that truth in mind, who, among the people of the past, inspires and encourages you?
(I'm aware that those of you who are of the CGGC may still be cautious about interacting with me in a public way. Please feel free to respond off the blog.)
Does Today's Church ABUSE the Word?
Speaking only from my experience, the answer is that, yes, the church absolutely abuses the Word...and that the entire Western world, at least, suffers for it.
I will add that, in my opinion, the abuse is unintentional and well-meaning.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 is powerful:
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (NIV)
My experience in the organized and institutionalized Western church in the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries is that, while the Word is clear about what it is useful for, in practice, the church abuses the Word by ignoring it's full purpose, even, perhaps, frowning when disciples embrace the full usefulness of the Word.
Scripture is "useful" for:
A. Teaching.
B. Rebuking.
C. Correcting.
D. Training in righteousness.
Thinking of the sermons I've heard over my many years, and of the sermons I preached when I still believed in the preaching of sermons, it seems obvious to me that the church abuses the Word by failing to use it for all of the purposes for which it is designed.
This abuse of the Word provides a perfect explanation of the inability of the church to reach the Western world.
The Word, according to this brief passage, has those four uses. But, it has one purpose:
That the servant [literally man, or person] of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
This "every good work" drum is beat over and over again in the New Testament.
After Ephesians 2:8 & 9 make it clear that it is by grace you have been saved through faith, verse 10 explains that we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works.
Hebrews 10 declares that the end result of the gathering of disciples is for Jesus followers to provoke each other to "love and good works."
Today's church doesn't produce saints, disciples, followers of Jesus who live as salt and light in the world and, as Jesus said, in the so-called Sermon on the Mount, let their light so shine that people may see their good works and glorify their father in heaven.
Why is Christianity today so bland, so limp, so lifeless?
Why are churchgoers so dim, so lightless? Why do people who come in contact with church people not glorify the church's Father in heaven?!
Certainly, the church's Lord has not lost His power, or love, or grace or mercy.
A prime reason for the numerical decline and spiritual decay of the church is today's church's abuse of the Word which is, truly, living and active...a two-edged sword. (Hebrews 4:12)
---------------
If you are a parish priest/preacher, honestly ask yourself, based on the sermons you deliver, what percentages of your sermon time fits the following uses of the Word:
A. Teaching,
B. Rebuking,
C. Correcting,
D. Training in righteousness, or,
E. Other.
If you're laity, a consumer of sermons, ask yourself what you are listening to, compared to the four ways the Word is to be used.
To be honest, back in the days when I believed in sermons, I'd guess my output was:
A. 40%
B. 0
C. 10%
D. 40%
E. 10%
...and, all that while, I was gifted to be a prophet...struggling with seeing life with a prophet's passions. (I can recall fighting with myself to do more rebuking and correcting, but I'd been convinced that somehow such preaching was unseemly unless unusual circumstances existed.)
I'm convinced that, across the American church today, among the tens of thousands of sermons that will be delivered on this Sunday, the usefulness of the Word will be abused profoundly and pathetically by the lack of the use of the Word for two of its basic and foundational purposes, i.e., to rebuke and to correct and that, again, the parish priests of the organized and institutionalized church will fail to prepare God's people for every good work.
I believe that the misnamed "worship service" is, most often, at worst a time in which consumers of religious products and services are entertained and that it is, at best, a time in which the laity consumes nurturing and/or encouraging products and services.
Today's church doesn't provoke. There's little to no rebuking or correcting.
For too many parish priests and the members of their laity, attending the worship service is itself an act of righteousness, not a time to be provoked to acts of righteousness.
That is the case because today's church abuses the Word.
Striking a chord that I often play, my knowledge of times of revival shows me that the people of the Kingdom were blessed and empowered by the Spirit when the Word was used for all that it is designed to accomplish: for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.
We must stop abusing the Word.
We must, very seriously, repent.
I will add that, in my opinion, the abuse is unintentional and well-meaning.
2 Timothy 3:16-17 is powerful:
"All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work." (NIV)
My experience in the organized and institutionalized Western church in the late twentieth and early twenty first centuries is that, while the Word is clear about what it is useful for, in practice, the church abuses the Word by ignoring it's full purpose, even, perhaps, frowning when disciples embrace the full usefulness of the Word.
Scripture is "useful" for:
A. Teaching.
B. Rebuking.
C. Correcting.
D. Training in righteousness.
Thinking of the sermons I've heard over my many years, and of the sermons I preached when I still believed in the preaching of sermons, it seems obvious to me that the church abuses the Word by failing to use it for all of the purposes for which it is designed.
This abuse of the Word provides a perfect explanation of the inability of the church to reach the Western world.
The Word, according to this brief passage, has those four uses. But, it has one purpose:
That the servant [literally man, or person] of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.
This "every good work" drum is beat over and over again in the New Testament.
After Ephesians 2:8 & 9 make it clear that it is by grace you have been saved through faith, verse 10 explains that we are God's handiwork created in Christ Jesus to do good works.
Hebrews 10 declares that the end result of the gathering of disciples is for Jesus followers to provoke each other to "love and good works."
Today's church doesn't produce saints, disciples, followers of Jesus who live as salt and light in the world and, as Jesus said, in the so-called Sermon on the Mount, let their light so shine that people may see their good works and glorify their father in heaven.
Why is Christianity today so bland, so limp, so lifeless?
Why are churchgoers so dim, so lightless? Why do people who come in contact with church people not glorify the church's Father in heaven?!
Certainly, the church's Lord has not lost His power, or love, or grace or mercy.
A prime reason for the numerical decline and spiritual decay of the church is today's church's abuse of the Word which is, truly, living and active...a two-edged sword. (Hebrews 4:12)
---------------
If you are a parish priest/preacher, honestly ask yourself, based on the sermons you deliver, what percentages of your sermon time fits the following uses of the Word:
A. Teaching,
B. Rebuking,
C. Correcting,
D. Training in righteousness, or,
E. Other.
If you're laity, a consumer of sermons, ask yourself what you are listening to, compared to the four ways the Word is to be used.
To be honest, back in the days when I believed in sermons, I'd guess my output was:
A. 40%
B. 0
C. 10%
D. 40%
E. 10%
...and, all that while, I was gifted to be a prophet...struggling with seeing life with a prophet's passions. (I can recall fighting with myself to do more rebuking and correcting, but I'd been convinced that somehow such preaching was unseemly unless unusual circumstances existed.)
I'm convinced that, across the American church today, among the tens of thousands of sermons that will be delivered on this Sunday, the usefulness of the Word will be abused profoundly and pathetically by the lack of the use of the Word for two of its basic and foundational purposes, i.e., to rebuke and to correct and that, again, the parish priests of the organized and institutionalized church will fail to prepare God's people for every good work.
I believe that the misnamed "worship service" is, most often, at worst a time in which consumers of religious products and services are entertained and that it is, at best, a time in which the laity consumes nurturing and/or encouraging products and services.
Today's church doesn't provoke. There's little to no rebuking or correcting.
For too many parish priests and the members of their laity, attending the worship service is itself an act of righteousness, not a time to be provoked to acts of righteousness.
That is the case because today's church abuses the Word.
Striking a chord that I often play, my knowledge of times of revival shows me that the people of the Kingdom were blessed and empowered by the Spirit when the Word was used for all that it is designed to accomplish: for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness.
We must stop abusing the Word.
We must, very seriously, repent.
Saturday, February 22, 2020
Update on my Retirement from Full-time Employment
As I noted, I informed my boss three days ago that, in July, I'd be cutting my hours at work in half. He told me that he'd keep me on the management team, even as a part-time employee, but that he'd replace me as second in command.
The next day was my day off, so Justin had a day to reflect on how he wanted to move forward, and we stepped aside for a chat as I was beginning my shift when I returned to work yesterday.
To my surprise, he backtracked on my demotion. He told me that he'd like to have me share the position as his second in command with someone who will be transferring from the other store owned by the company.
I was surprised but gratified by his, apparent, high opinion of my contribution to the team.
He explained briefly.
By way of background, I say repeatedly that I do the job itself less effectively than any of the four others on the management team. And, I'm not joking or being humble.
Justin explained that he thinks that the strength of the current group of managers is that they have high EQs as well as high IQs.
Justin has a business degree from a very nice private liberal arts college. He's really wasted as a manager in a supermarket, though he is the rising star in the organization. He's well versed in the literature of leadership.
I know the term EQ but know very little about the concept.
Justin was saying that my value to the team is that, in his opinion, I have a very high EQ. (I'm not accustomed to being told that my IQ is limited but there are many ways of being smart and the technical part of this leadership position is an area in which I'm not smart and I know that.)
Justin went on to explain that all of the current managers sacrifice and, in that, we show a high EQ.
My value to the team is that I provide leadership in the EQ dimension of leadership.
His comments bowled me over.
I go on and on here about doing the job as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God and conducting myself as a servant.
Two thoughts about that.
First, obviously, that's what people see.
Second, the servanthood from me is not genuine. That is, it's a function of my self-denial as a person who submits to Jesus as Lord. In other words, people seemingly see a fair approximation of Jesus in me and not the fallen, sinful me.
Justin's take on me is powerfully affirming. I want to show Jesus and what he sees in me is, apparently, more Jesus than bill.
So, in Justin's mind, I achieve followership and help create a culture of followership throughout the whole team. And, I know that I do that by obsessing myself with the idea that I must do the WWJD thing, to walk in His steps.
---------------
So, I agreed to maintain my place as second in command on a part-time basis.
I do have mixed feelings based on what I said in my previous post. Being second in command creates more tension between fulfilling my responsibilities to the job and being an ambassador of the Kingdom of God than I would like but, apparently, based on the EQ comments, I do the ambassador thing well enough, even as second in command.
And, I hope that, working fewer hours, I'll have more energy to do both at the same time.
Anyway, getting the feedback from Justin was helpful. It gave me a sense of what I'm accomplishing.
The next day was my day off, so Justin had a day to reflect on how he wanted to move forward, and we stepped aside for a chat as I was beginning my shift when I returned to work yesterday.
To my surprise, he backtracked on my demotion. He told me that he'd like to have me share the position as his second in command with someone who will be transferring from the other store owned by the company.
I was surprised but gratified by his, apparent, high opinion of my contribution to the team.
He explained briefly.
By way of background, I say repeatedly that I do the job itself less effectively than any of the four others on the management team. And, I'm not joking or being humble.
Justin explained that he thinks that the strength of the current group of managers is that they have high EQs as well as high IQs.
Justin has a business degree from a very nice private liberal arts college. He's really wasted as a manager in a supermarket, though he is the rising star in the organization. He's well versed in the literature of leadership.
I know the term EQ but know very little about the concept.
Justin was saying that my value to the team is that, in his opinion, I have a very high EQ. (I'm not accustomed to being told that my IQ is limited but there are many ways of being smart and the technical part of this leadership position is an area in which I'm not smart and I know that.)
Justin went on to explain that all of the current managers sacrifice and, in that, we show a high EQ.
My value to the team is that I provide leadership in the EQ dimension of leadership.
His comments bowled me over.
I go on and on here about doing the job as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God and conducting myself as a servant.
Two thoughts about that.
First, obviously, that's what people see.
Second, the servanthood from me is not genuine. That is, it's a function of my self-denial as a person who submits to Jesus as Lord. In other words, people seemingly see a fair approximation of Jesus in me and not the fallen, sinful me.
Justin's take on me is powerfully affirming. I want to show Jesus and what he sees in me is, apparently, more Jesus than bill.
So, in Justin's mind, I achieve followership and help create a culture of followership throughout the whole team. And, I know that I do that by obsessing myself with the idea that I must do the WWJD thing, to walk in His steps.
---------------
So, I agreed to maintain my place as second in command on a part-time basis.
I do have mixed feelings based on what I said in my previous post. Being second in command creates more tension between fulfilling my responsibilities to the job and being an ambassador of the Kingdom of God than I would like but, apparently, based on the EQ comments, I do the ambassador thing well enough, even as second in command.
And, I hope that, working fewer hours, I'll have more energy to do both at the same time.
Anyway, getting the feedback from Justin was helpful. It gave me a sense of what I'm accomplishing.
Friday, February 21, 2020
I Signed Up for Social Security Benefits Yesterday
One reason that it is even possible that I could adjust my work schedule to part-time is that I'm about to reach the age that a person born in my year can apply for full Social Security benefits.
We've been living on a reduced income for several years, and getting by because we have virtually no debt and few expenses beyond what's required for basic living...and we're content with that, mostly.
Evie applied early for Social Security three years ago, and gets reduced benefits, plus worked part-time, until recently.
Still, the payments we receive will amount to a slight reduction in our income. We'll have to pick up Medicare Part B, which will require buying supplemental insurance.
Even with the part-time manager's pay, we'll probably end up having less to live on than we did before.
From time to time, I think wistfully about what would have happened if I'd set aside my principles and played the CGGC parish priest game after I stopped believing in it and moved on to another church, say 10 years ago. Faith, then, could have remained an institutional church with new parish priest leadership.
I'd have had a much higher income, even if I settled for a small church and gotten all the tax benefits parish priests get.
But, that doesn't last long.
There are things much more important than money, especially to an idealist. We have the peace that comes with an uncompromised life...which is, probably, more important to an idealist like me than it is to others.
Idealism definitely has its issues, as, say, John the Baptist eventually found out.
And, I must say that the Lord has taken care of us. We have a place to live that is comfortable and secure.
Still, more and more, I'm remembering that our number of tomorrows in this life are limited.
The Social Security thing was something out there that I used to think of in a sort of abstract, theoretical way...but no more.
It's about to become my reality.
---------------
Incidentally, I applied on line. I'm not great with stuff like that, and it was a little frustrating but, in the end, the Social Security Administration confirmed that my application was received and I can check up on the progress of my application at my leisure.
Getting older: I wish I could repent of that.
We've been living on a reduced income for several years, and getting by because we have virtually no debt and few expenses beyond what's required for basic living...and we're content with that, mostly.
Evie applied early for Social Security three years ago, and gets reduced benefits, plus worked part-time, until recently.
Still, the payments we receive will amount to a slight reduction in our income. We'll have to pick up Medicare Part B, which will require buying supplemental insurance.
Even with the part-time manager's pay, we'll probably end up having less to live on than we did before.
From time to time, I think wistfully about what would have happened if I'd set aside my principles and played the CGGC parish priest game after I stopped believing in it and moved on to another church, say 10 years ago. Faith, then, could have remained an institutional church with new parish priest leadership.
I'd have had a much higher income, even if I settled for a small church and gotten all the tax benefits parish priests get.
But, that doesn't last long.
There are things much more important than money, especially to an idealist. We have the peace that comes with an uncompromised life...which is, probably, more important to an idealist like me than it is to others.
Idealism definitely has its issues, as, say, John the Baptist eventually found out.
And, I must say that the Lord has taken care of us. We have a place to live that is comfortable and secure.
Still, more and more, I'm remembering that our number of tomorrows in this life are limited.
The Social Security thing was something out there that I used to think of in a sort of abstract, theoretical way...but no more.
It's about to become my reality.
---------------
Incidentally, I applied on line. I'm not great with stuff like that, and it was a little frustrating but, in the end, the Social Security Administration confirmed that my application was received and I can check up on the progress of my application at my leisure.
Getting older: I wish I could repent of that.
Thursday, February 20, 2020
Asking a Prophet not to Prophesy to You
I noted a few days ago that I received an email from someone asking me not to send them links to my blog posts.
I said to that person that I'll pray about it, and I am. I sent him a link to my last post and he'll get this one, too, as will another person who made that request.
This has been a genuine challenge to me.
In spite of what you might think about me and about what I do, I'm a rather obliging person. I enjoy being polite and my conviction that I am commanded by Jesus to live as a servant means that, in most cases, I deny myself to accommodate you, no matter what.
But, I really do believe that I'm gifted to be a prophet and that an important part of being obedient and living as a faithful steward of my calling is to create these posts and, at least, to make them known.
I think that the fact that the Lord gifts prophets and that Satan gifts false prophets calls God's people to take seriously the presence and power of the Holy Spirit and also to take into account the truth that "our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world..."
What a person does in the presence of prophecy is an important matter in their walk with the Lord.
Jesus commands, "Watch out for false prophets...." He doesn't allow for the please-don't-bother-me-with-your-drivel option.
Part of the phenomenon of prophecy is the responsibility all of God's people have to take it seriously, and to judge it faithfully.
Asking to opt out ain't in the Word.
---------------
So, I'm still working through the request not to send out the links to my posts.
Honestly, I want to honor the requests. But, some day I will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and I want to be judged to be faithful.
I feel as if I am wedged between a rock and a hard place.
It's uncomfortable.
You can feel free to pray for me about this.
I said to that person that I'll pray about it, and I am. I sent him a link to my last post and he'll get this one, too, as will another person who made that request.
This has been a genuine challenge to me.
In spite of what you might think about me and about what I do, I'm a rather obliging person. I enjoy being polite and my conviction that I am commanded by Jesus to live as a servant means that, in most cases, I deny myself to accommodate you, no matter what.
But, I really do believe that I'm gifted to be a prophet and that an important part of being obedient and living as a faithful steward of my calling is to create these posts and, at least, to make them known.
I think that the fact that the Lord gifts prophets and that Satan gifts false prophets calls God's people to take seriously the presence and power of the Holy Spirit and also to take into account the truth that "our battle is not against flesh and blood but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark world..."
What a person does in the presence of prophecy is an important matter in their walk with the Lord.
Jesus commands, "Watch out for false prophets...." He doesn't allow for the please-don't-bother-me-with-your-drivel option.
Part of the phenomenon of prophecy is the responsibility all of God's people have to take it seriously, and to judge it faithfully.
Asking to opt out ain't in the Word.
---------------
So, I'm still working through the request not to send out the links to my posts.
Honestly, I want to honor the requests. But, some day I will stand before the judgment seat of Christ and I want to be judged to be faithful.
I feel as if I am wedged between a rock and a hard place.
It's uncomfortable.
You can feel free to pray for me about this.
I'm Retiring from Full-time Employment
Yesterday I told my boss that I intend to give up my full-time position at the store and work half time...beginning in July. (I'd told him previously that I'm taking off the whole month of June.)
Working where I work, in this small company (about 300 employees, but family owned) is different; I'd even say unique.
It's very much normal within this work culture for an employee to tell the company that s/he is changing their work status from full-time to part-time. I even told my boss the number of hours I'll work. That number might be tweaked slightly, but my desire will be honored.
A few thoughts.
First, as I was telling my boss that I planned to cut back, I found myself thinking, "This is me formally announcing that I am old." I'm about to become a geezer working a part-time job! That was an important moment for me. And, not a happy one.
Second, my boss assured me that I will still be permitted to function as a part of the management team but that someone who is a full-time employee will be put in my current position, i.e., I will be demoted. I knew that. I'm fine with it. I understood that I was requesting a demotion.
Third, I'm saddened to lose this position of authority because I enjoyed that part of this job. After I step down, I will have less freedom to choose what I do and how I do it on the job.
Also, and this seems important to me, because I always go out of my way to function as a servant of everyone on the job, the fact that I have a fairly high management position gives my testimony more meaning, more punch. I'll lose that sense of dichotomy about my role. I enjoy having the ability to possess the position of a leader, yet to choose to live as a servant. I'll still have that, of course, but to a lesser degree.
Fourth, on the other hand, I'm relieved and feel released in that the job I had, along with the authority came with a high degree of responsibility. While I'm still in the current job, there's a real struggle for me between the need to do the manager job well and, at the same time, to focus on what I consider to be my real job...to be an ambassador of the Kingdom of God. Too often, I am obligated to be the efficient manager first and Kingdom ambassador second. With the reduced responsibility, I should be able to do my real, ambassador, job better.
Finally, physically, the move was necessary. Currently, I work overtime almost every week, on a concrete floor. The work can be more strenuous than you might imagine. Since I began working in the store, I've had plantar fasciitis in both feet. I'm currently in physical therapy for it and have had two cortisone shots in my right foot.
Also, I struggle with vertigo. I've undergone all of the standard medical tests to determine the cause without an explanation for the symptoms. My doctor's two best guesses are that its a type of a migraine or that it's a type of seizure. In any event, if I push myself physically, the vertigo rolls in and I have to shut down.
Between the two ailments, it's impossible for me to do this job full-time.
So, in a few months, I'll be cutting back on my time on the job and focusing more intensely on the ambassador thing when I'm there.
I'm hopeful that this will work out, but I know enough now to know that you never really know until you're there.
Working where I work, in this small company (about 300 employees, but family owned) is different; I'd even say unique.
It's very much normal within this work culture for an employee to tell the company that s/he is changing their work status from full-time to part-time. I even told my boss the number of hours I'll work. That number might be tweaked slightly, but my desire will be honored.
A few thoughts.
First, as I was telling my boss that I planned to cut back, I found myself thinking, "This is me formally announcing that I am old." I'm about to become a geezer working a part-time job! That was an important moment for me. And, not a happy one.
Second, my boss assured me that I will still be permitted to function as a part of the management team but that someone who is a full-time employee will be put in my current position, i.e., I will be demoted. I knew that. I'm fine with it. I understood that I was requesting a demotion.
Third, I'm saddened to lose this position of authority because I enjoyed that part of this job. After I step down, I will have less freedom to choose what I do and how I do it on the job.
Also, and this seems important to me, because I always go out of my way to function as a servant of everyone on the job, the fact that I have a fairly high management position gives my testimony more meaning, more punch. I'll lose that sense of dichotomy about my role. I enjoy having the ability to possess the position of a leader, yet to choose to live as a servant. I'll still have that, of course, but to a lesser degree.
Fourth, on the other hand, I'm relieved and feel released in that the job I had, along with the authority came with a high degree of responsibility. While I'm still in the current job, there's a real struggle for me between the need to do the manager job well and, at the same time, to focus on what I consider to be my real job...to be an ambassador of the Kingdom of God. Too often, I am obligated to be the efficient manager first and Kingdom ambassador second. With the reduced responsibility, I should be able to do my real, ambassador, job better.
Finally, physically, the move was necessary. Currently, I work overtime almost every week, on a concrete floor. The work can be more strenuous than you might imagine. Since I began working in the store, I've had plantar fasciitis in both feet. I'm currently in physical therapy for it and have had two cortisone shots in my right foot.
Also, I struggle with vertigo. I've undergone all of the standard medical tests to determine the cause without an explanation for the symptoms. My doctor's two best guesses are that its a type of a migraine or that it's a type of seizure. In any event, if I push myself physically, the vertigo rolls in and I have to shut down.
Between the two ailments, it's impossible for me to do this job full-time.
So, in a few months, I'll be cutting back on my time on the job and focusing more intensely on the ambassador thing when I'm there.
I'm hopeful that this will work out, but I know enough now to know that you never really know until you're there.
Sunday, February 16, 2020
Chat on Why the Nones don't Fit in Today's Church
Gang,
A useful email conversation developed in response to my Comment on Another Blog post.
Here's a question I was asked followed by my reply.
---------------
Do you have a grasp on what the deepest longings are of these folks? When they show up or consider a congregation, how would they express their longings? Maybe you could answer the question for yourself anyway.
Well, we're talking about a very diverse group and we're defining it by a negative characteristic, i.e., not being edified by today's institutional church.
A useful email conversation developed in response to my Comment on Another Blog post.
Here's a question I was asked followed by my reply.
---------------
Do you have a grasp on what the deepest longings are of these folks? When they show up or consider a congregation, how would they express their longings? Maybe you could answer the question for yourself anyway.
Well, we're talking about a very diverse group and we're defining it by a negative characteristic, i.e., not being edified by today's institutional church.
Nevertheless, two groups of people are coming to mind as I reflect on the issue.
First, from a CGGC perspective, consider, if you can, the number of APEs who have come and gone over my years, since the 1970s. We've had our share. Those people tend to be impatient with institution and intense about...well, whatever their gifting pushes them to be and do.
And, the CGGC body has effectively gotten rid of them through one strategy or another. Who can deny that? The common element in all of those stories is the institutional, shepherd dominated, CGGC culture.
Over the course of my nearly 50 years, the fact that He gives apostles, prophets, evangelists and shepherds and teachers and that we have no APE presence says to me that our body needs to examine itself. WE need to repent and turn from fallen ways. We need to produce different fruit.
Second, I think it's useful to have compassion on, and to treat with respect, people who hop from one church to another. Certainly, many of those people are dysfunctional but I'm convinced that not all of them are...far from it.
Before my APEST days...(I wish you could have known me then, as someone trying to swallow my prophetic gifting to fit in in the CGGC institution)...
We had a couple become involved at Faith. She was extremely gifted, became involved with the youth, quickly was recognized for her passion and giftedness, rose to the position of youth leader and the ministry absolutely flourished. Then, what I now recognize as prophetic tendencies surfaced in her and she began to apply her truth-based 40,000 foot insights to the whole ministry at Faith.
As you can imagine, what was considered to be negativism offended people in the church. Everyone became frustrated. And, she, and her husband, left the ministry.
I still see her from time to time at the store. She's cordial enough with me because I know others in her family. But, as far as I know, her husband and she have no church involvement, and no testimony...probably no faith.
You have no idea how often I've wished I could redo that one, and I wonder what APEST bill would do.
---------------
Later on:
Can you think of an example of something the woman you are talking about said back in the day that was received poorly by others and led to her increased frustration?
It was a while ago and I only have impressions in my memory...and now, armed with APEST, a different way of understanding those events.
Later on:
Can you think of an example of something the woman you are talking about said back in the day that was received poorly by others and led to her increased frustration?
What might a characteristic comment have been?
Or maybe closer to home, if you walked into a typical congregation today and the elders there said, we want to take you and your perspective seriously, what are one or some of the things that could happen to make you feel that the congregation was moving in a direction that would meet your needs spiritually?
It was a while ago and I only have impressions in my memory...and now, armed with APEST, a different way of understanding those events.
She, as I recall, came across much like I suppose I come across to many in the CGGC as someone who can only focus on what's wrong. And, as I recall, it wasn't so much that people disagreed with her. Most simply wanted her to lighten up.
OTOH, me walking into a typical congregation?
The one thing, above all, that would make me feel the congregation was moving in the right direction is the open and obvious trashing of the parish priest focused, producer/consumer model of ministry and the aggressive empowering of the so-called priesthood of all believers built on Ephesians 4:12.
---------------
I really appreciate the question about what a typical congregation could do to make me feel that it was moving in a direction that would meet my needs spiritually. I had to think it through before I responded.
Reflecting on my recent visits to "typical" churches, the pastor (or staff) as provider of religious products and services to be consumed by the laity, way of being church infuriates me and, at the same time, breaks my heart.
There's nothing of that in the New Testament.
There's nothing of that in the New Testament.
For all the trendy and faddish concepts in the first-ever CGGC Strategic Plan, I don't see the Ephesians 4:12 notion that the people who hold positions of authority and influence in the church are to "prepare the saints for works of service."
In fact, the Strategic Plan goes in the old and unblessed direction, conceiving of the holders of institutional authority in the CGGC as leaders among leaders, not in the New Testament mold of APESTs as servants preparing disciples to serve.
In fact, the Strategic Plan goes in the old and unblessed direction, conceiving of the holders of institutional authority in the CGGC as leaders among leaders, not in the New Testament mold of APESTs as servants preparing disciples to serve.
In fact, the very existence of a Strategic Plan puts the holders of institutional authority in the CGGC in the position of providing yet another religious product to be consumed by the people of the body. It extends the ministry provider/consumer way of being church.
We need Ephesians 4:12. We need Romans 12:1 and its admonition that "true and proper worship" in the New Covenant has nothing to do with what happens in a gathering, but that it is a way of life. And, we need 1 Peter 2:9 and its reminder that every disciple is a member of the royal priesthood.
But, mostly, for now, we need the people at the top of the CGGC pyramid, to see themselves, not as institutional leaders of leaders, but as down in the trenches equppers of ministry. We need Ephesians 4:12.
Followership and Culture
I've continued to think...to muse... about the issue of followership since my post a few days back and my thinking is now a bit more refined...
...concerning my ability to create followership on my job.
I do think that, more than anyone on the leadership team, I create followership.
However, having thought about it, I don't think I can claim as much for myself as I described in the previous post.
---------------
I am, truly, startled, and humbled, by the degree to which followership takes place when I'm the manager in charge at the store but, upon further reflection, I now praise myself for that reality less enthusiastically than I have.
What we have in my department of the store is a work culture that generates followership.
By that I mean this: The way all the pieces of what we do fit together empowers leaders to lead well and the people under their authority to contribute to the team in a positive way and, therefore, to produce followership.
Now, to my credit, I do buy into the culture. I believe in it and, definitely, live it to the best of my ability. In fact, I'm enthusiastic about it to the point that I suspect that I enhance the power of the culture.
But, my ability to generate followership, it seems to me, is less connected to me personally than I implied in my previous post. It is a matter of something that exists beyond me. It's a function of the work culture.
---------------
I am, of course, both fascinated and chagrined by the fact that, in my part of the institutional church, followership is virtually nonexistent.
And, I think, I'm getting in touch with a part of that story.
The culture in which the institutional church, as I know it, exists, is dysfunctional.
My work culture generates followership. The culture around which the church operates actually seems to discourage followership.
Again, as I often say, the people who hold institutional authority in my part of the organized church are good, nice and sincere people yet they're profoundly ineffective in getting people to follow them.
Participating in a functional work culture as I do, it seems that our church's leaders' failures are fruit of disobedience in the church culture.
The problem in the church is not the weakness of its leaders as much as it is the culture, the system.
---------------
Here's the thing, though. The work culture at the store hasn't been functional all of my years on the job.
The newest manager brought changes to the work culture through his own approach to leadership and by gently...yet forcefully...confronting old, bad ways...and by living out a new way.
---------------
That's an option for leaders of the institutional church.
The good, nice and sincere people who lead my church have chosen an easy way, that of accepting and carrying on dysfunctional values. The result is that virtually no one follows them, no matter how much we may like them as individuals.
As much as I have affection for the holders of institutional authority in my church:
I, personally, don't practice followership as far as they are concerned...
...and, I don't intend to start practicing followership.
On the other hand, I'm excited to practice followership on my job.
Still, as much as I love my church and like its holders of institutional authority, I refuse to do followership of the church's leadership.
And, obviously, I'm not alone.
The story of my church is that its leaders dart to and fro, following one fad after another and the rest of the body does the, "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" thing.
No one follows.
---------------
The holders of institutional authority in my church had the same option open to them that the new manager at the store had when he assumed the position:
When the regime changed, the current holders of institutional authority in the church could have confronted the old, failed, unblessed ways.
They didn't.
Curiously, on the job, I don't think anyone else has realized that the new guy set out to, well, "uproot and tear, to destroy and overthrow" the old ways.
He and I talk privately about his leadership philosophy and, from those chats, I've figured out what he's doing...what he's done.
The holders of institutional authority in my church could have done the same thing when the regime changed. They could have set out to change the culture. They didn't grasp that opportunity.
Is it too late for them?
Probably.
They are now known as advocates of the old, unblessed ways.
Sad.
An opportunity lost.
We must repent.
...concerning my ability to create followership on my job.
I do think that, more than anyone on the leadership team, I create followership.
However, having thought about it, I don't think I can claim as much for myself as I described in the previous post.
---------------
I am, truly, startled, and humbled, by the degree to which followership takes place when I'm the manager in charge at the store but, upon further reflection, I now praise myself for that reality less enthusiastically than I have.
What we have in my department of the store is a work culture that generates followership.
By that I mean this: The way all the pieces of what we do fit together empowers leaders to lead well and the people under their authority to contribute to the team in a positive way and, therefore, to produce followership.
Now, to my credit, I do buy into the culture. I believe in it and, definitely, live it to the best of my ability. In fact, I'm enthusiastic about it to the point that I suspect that I enhance the power of the culture.
But, my ability to generate followership, it seems to me, is less connected to me personally than I implied in my previous post. It is a matter of something that exists beyond me. It's a function of the work culture.
---------------
I am, of course, both fascinated and chagrined by the fact that, in my part of the institutional church, followership is virtually nonexistent.
And, I think, I'm getting in touch with a part of that story.
The culture in which the institutional church, as I know it, exists, is dysfunctional.
My work culture generates followership. The culture around which the church operates actually seems to discourage followership.
Again, as I often say, the people who hold institutional authority in my part of the organized church are good, nice and sincere people yet they're profoundly ineffective in getting people to follow them.
Participating in a functional work culture as I do, it seems that our church's leaders' failures are fruit of disobedience in the church culture.
The problem in the church is not the weakness of its leaders as much as it is the culture, the system.
---------------
Here's the thing, though. The work culture at the store hasn't been functional all of my years on the job.
The newest manager brought changes to the work culture through his own approach to leadership and by gently...yet forcefully...confronting old, bad ways...and by living out a new way.
---------------
That's an option for leaders of the institutional church.
The good, nice and sincere people who lead my church have chosen an easy way, that of accepting and carrying on dysfunctional values. The result is that virtually no one follows them, no matter how much we may like them as individuals.
As much as I have affection for the holders of institutional authority in my church:
I, personally, don't practice followership as far as they are concerned...
...and, I don't intend to start practicing followership.
On the other hand, I'm excited to practice followership on my job.
Still, as much as I love my church and like its holders of institutional authority, I refuse to do followership of the church's leadership.
And, obviously, I'm not alone.
The story of my church is that its leaders dart to and fro, following one fad after another and the rest of the body does the, "everyone did what was right in his own eyes" thing.
No one follows.
---------------
The holders of institutional authority in my church had the same option open to them that the new manager at the store had when he assumed the position:
When the regime changed, the current holders of institutional authority in the church could have confronted the old, failed, unblessed ways.
They didn't.
Curiously, on the job, I don't think anyone else has realized that the new guy set out to, well, "uproot and tear, to destroy and overthrow" the old ways.
He and I talk privately about his leadership philosophy and, from those chats, I've figured out what he's doing...what he's done.
The holders of institutional authority in my church could have done the same thing when the regime changed. They could have set out to change the culture. They didn't grasp that opportunity.
Is it too late for them?
Probably.
They are now known as advocates of the old, unblessed ways.
Sad.
An opportunity lost.
We must repent.
Another Request that I JUST SHUT UP
1,397
Within the past few days, I received this note. This note is like others I've received over the years:
---------------
These notes are hard for me because I honestly do believe that I'm called to be a prophet and that the Lord gives me Words for the people of the CGGC.
I think that what I put on this blog fits into three categories:
1. Prophecies. Actually messages from the Lord to someone, usually the people of the CGGC.
2. Prophetic comments. Thoughts or musings that feel to me to be prophety. These are not formally prophecies but have a prophetic flavor. ( I plan to enter three posts today. All of them fit this category.)
3. Journal entries and miscellaneous thoughts. I enter these for my own benefit. I try to be clear when a post is in the category and send these posts out to a different list than the others.
Many, but certainly not all, of the people to whom I send links to my posts are people with whom I am friendly, or have been friendly. For them, I assume, even posts of the third category are of value, or, at least, of interest.
But, the prophecies and the prophetic comments? They are of a different nature. I consider them not to belong to me. As far as I am concerned, they are between the Lord and the people for whom He has his message.
Perhaps, most importantly, the posts that fall into the first two categories are a type of Performance Art.
By that, I mean that, in spite of their content, they have a value in the fact that they exist.
During the last regime of CGGC leadership, our Mission Statement asserted that we establish churches specifically on the New Testament Plan.
Even under this regime, the claim for our body is that the Bible is our only rule of faith and practice.
Jesus is very clear about what to do about people who claim to be prophets.
People who follow Jesus have the command to watch out for false prophets.
Jesus gives a very stern warning about the danger of false prophets to His disciples.
As I say, over the years, I have received several notes like the one I copied near the beginning of this post.
On the level of what I do as a type of Performance Art, notes like this illuminate disobedience.
If I'm a false prophet, what I write and say is far more than "drivel" or a "rant." If I am a false prophet, what I write and say is a Satanic attack against the people of the Kingdom...against brothers and sisters of the writer of that note.
If I'm truly a prophet, thinking that what I write and say, is a waste of time is not an option.
Jesus leaves no wiggle room. You may disagree with APEST. You may choose to think I'm deluded. But, I'm claiming, among others in the body of disciples, to speak for the Lord.
According to Jesus, that's a serious matter.
On the level of what I do as Performance Art, where the broad notion of what I do is itself a challenge, the guy who wrote that note is failing Jesus and the Kingdom and, that a serious matter.
---------------
Back in the day, when my now unconsummated defrocking was being perpetrated, I asked numerous people who witnessed the events that took place during ERC Conference Sessions, what I was accused of doing.
No one I asked had a specific answer. They all shared the same general impression. But, no one could recall that a specific charge was laid against me. Certainly, I know of nothing in the record.
If the people of the Conference believe that I am a false prophet, that was the time to make that charge.
However, I suspect that the writer of the email speaks for the whole of the ERC. They'd had enough of my driveled rants. They wished to declare that what I do is a waste of their time.
Despite the command of Jesus regarding what to do about people who falsely claim to speak for Him, my sense that I've become merely a nondefrocked, defrocked nuisance. That's not a category that Jesus provides for in the battle between darkness and light.
And, if I correct, it makes the case that community doesn't exist in the ERC and that, certainly, the love described in the New Command is not alive.
---------------
In my response to the note, I promised to pray about the request and I noted that that is the best I can do.
It will sound audacious, but how do you suppose that Isaiah or Jeremiah or John the Baptist responded to similar requests? I'm certain that they received them.
Please understand: I'm not comparing myself to those great people of faith.
What I'm suggesting is that prophecy itself, true or false, is a powerful tool for the Lord,...and for the devil.
Within the past few days, I received this note. This note is like others I've received over the years:
Bill,
Please, please, please remove me from your email list. I really don't want to read your drivel and/or your rants.
I have not read any of them for quite a while and just send them to the spam folder or delete them.
You are wasting your time with me.
---------------
These notes are hard for me because I honestly do believe that I'm called to be a prophet and that the Lord gives me Words for the people of the CGGC.
I think that what I put on this blog fits into three categories:
1. Prophecies. Actually messages from the Lord to someone, usually the people of the CGGC.
2. Prophetic comments. Thoughts or musings that feel to me to be prophety. These are not formally prophecies but have a prophetic flavor. ( I plan to enter three posts today. All of them fit this category.)
3. Journal entries and miscellaneous thoughts. I enter these for my own benefit. I try to be clear when a post is in the category and send these posts out to a different list than the others.
Many, but certainly not all, of the people to whom I send links to my posts are people with whom I am friendly, or have been friendly. For them, I assume, even posts of the third category are of value, or, at least, of interest.
But, the prophecies and the prophetic comments? They are of a different nature. I consider them not to belong to me. As far as I am concerned, they are between the Lord and the people for whom He has his message.
Perhaps, most importantly, the posts that fall into the first two categories are a type of Performance Art.
By that, I mean that, in spite of their content, they have a value in the fact that they exist.
During the last regime of CGGC leadership, our Mission Statement asserted that we establish churches specifically on the New Testament Plan.
Even under this regime, the claim for our body is that the Bible is our only rule of faith and practice.
Jesus is very clear about what to do about people who claim to be prophets.
People who follow Jesus have the command to watch out for false prophets.
Jesus gives a very stern warning about the danger of false prophets to His disciples.
As I say, over the years, I have received several notes like the one I copied near the beginning of this post.
On the level of what I do as a type of Performance Art, notes like this illuminate disobedience.
If I'm a false prophet, what I write and say is far more than "drivel" or a "rant." If I am a false prophet, what I write and say is a Satanic attack against the people of the Kingdom...against brothers and sisters of the writer of that note.
If I'm truly a prophet, thinking that what I write and say, is a waste of time is not an option.
Jesus leaves no wiggle room. You may disagree with APEST. You may choose to think I'm deluded. But, I'm claiming, among others in the body of disciples, to speak for the Lord.
According to Jesus, that's a serious matter.
On the level of what I do as Performance Art, where the broad notion of what I do is itself a challenge, the guy who wrote that note is failing Jesus and the Kingdom and, that a serious matter.
---------------
Back in the day, when my now unconsummated defrocking was being perpetrated, I asked numerous people who witnessed the events that took place during ERC Conference Sessions, what I was accused of doing.
No one I asked had a specific answer. They all shared the same general impression. But, no one could recall that a specific charge was laid against me. Certainly, I know of nothing in the record.
If the people of the Conference believe that I am a false prophet, that was the time to make that charge.
However, I suspect that the writer of the email speaks for the whole of the ERC. They'd had enough of my driveled rants. They wished to declare that what I do is a waste of their time.
Despite the command of Jesus regarding what to do about people who falsely claim to speak for Him, my sense that I've become merely a nondefrocked, defrocked nuisance. That's not a category that Jesus provides for in the battle between darkness and light.
And, if I correct, it makes the case that community doesn't exist in the ERC and that, certainly, the love described in the New Command is not alive.
---------------
In my response to the note, I promised to pray about the request and I noted that that is the best I can do.
It will sound audacious, but how do you suppose that Isaiah or Jeremiah or John the Baptist responded to similar requests? I'm certain that they received them.
Please understand: I'm not comparing myself to those great people of faith.
What I'm suggesting is that prophecy itself, true or false, is a powerful tool for the Lord,...and for the devil.
Thursday, February 13, 2020
My Comment on Another Blog...about the Church and "Nones"
Gang,
Below is a comment I entered on another blog in response to a post, in part, on being very serious about faith in Jesus but finding it impossible to be comfortable in any church. (I think I express myself most clearly in conversation.)
For years Evie and I have known a similar struggle.
And, as my comment mentions, this is an increasingly common phenomenon among Jesus followers in America.
The number of Americans with strong faith in Jesus who have given up on what the "church" has become and are unaffiliated is large, and growing.
None of the "Nones" I know personally are happy about their struggles to live in Christian community, but continue to be Nones because they're unhappier when they try being in a church.
And, the institutional church's answer to us seems to be, "Take it or leave it." That's probably not really its answer, but it feels that way.
Anyway, here's what I wrote.
---------------
My heart truly goes out to you over your inability to find a "church" where you, as you say, fit. As you know, I/we are at a similar place.
The social worker from the home who works with Independent Living residents did a sort of initial interview with us a few weeks ago and raised the issues of religious faith and church affiliation. We said that our faith is the most important thing in our lives.
And, regarding church attendance, we described ourselves as "nones."
I'm not up on all of the latest stats, but my guess is that the Nones is the fastest growing religious group in America.
I/we believe more passionately than ever. We LOVE the Lord more than ever...
...could it be that this is why we're finding it so hard to find a comfortable place in an increasingly institutionalized and consumer-based, uh, church world?
I remind myself that what presents itself as the church is entirely foreign to the community that formed around the first disciples. (Read Acts 2:42-47 & 1 Corinthians 11, 12 and 14.)
There are MILLIONS in this country like you,...us. That's the reality for a reason.
Inclinations such as your "Beer and Hymns" may actually resemble New Testament community more than what is available in any so-called "church" near you.
Certainly, to be faithful, we must "not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing,"...
...but going to "church?"
I dunno.
---------------
Some reflections:
1. The church has multiple mission fields.
One of them is among an increasingly large group of people who already believe in Jesus. This group consists, almost exclusively, of people were once a part of the church but find that today's church interferes with their relationship with Jesus. These people, from my experience, for the most part, want desperately want to actually be involved in the church. You'd think that, with a little humility and some compassion and love...along with repentance by the church, these people would be easy pickins for the church. Yet, my honest belief is that many of these Nones get the message from the church that we can "take it or leave it."
2. I can't help concluding, and excuse me for singing the same old tune, that this is a problem with shepherd domination in the institutional church. Shepherds are gentle and moderate. By contrast, the person on whose blog I commented, really, really loves Jesus and is extremely serious about his faith and his lifestyle. Other Nones I know, are like him. They want community that pours fuel on the Spirit fire that burns inside them and they don't get that from contact with the institutionalized local churches they attend which, they often feel, dampens fire. The Nones I know get bored by church. They are unfulfilled. They become frustrated. My sense of awakening movements in the history of the Kingdom is that they were APE centered and that experiencing community in them was specifically intended to pour fuel on fire.
---------------
3. Could it be that the CGGC could reach the Nones by commissioning a, well, subdivision, which empowers APEs to function and to operate almost entirely separately from the current body? Why not allow apostles freedom to be entrepreneurial? Why not set aside all the standard categories assumed by shepherdized, institutionalized churches and allow men and women living in the subsidiary to create new paradigms, that may not even seem like church to the old gang? Require orthodox belief and let everything else alone.
Below is a comment I entered on another blog in response to a post, in part, on being very serious about faith in Jesus but finding it impossible to be comfortable in any church. (I think I express myself most clearly in conversation.)
For years Evie and I have known a similar struggle.
And, as my comment mentions, this is an increasingly common phenomenon among Jesus followers in America.
The number of Americans with strong faith in Jesus who have given up on what the "church" has become and are unaffiliated is large, and growing.
None of the "Nones" I know personally are happy about their struggles to live in Christian community, but continue to be Nones because they're unhappier when they try being in a church.
And, the institutional church's answer to us seems to be, "Take it or leave it." That's probably not really its answer, but it feels that way.
Anyway, here's what I wrote.
---------------
My heart truly goes out to you over your inability to find a "church" where you, as you say, fit. As you know, I/we are at a similar place.
The social worker from the home who works with Independent Living residents did a sort of initial interview with us a few weeks ago and raised the issues of religious faith and church affiliation. We said that our faith is the most important thing in our lives.
And, regarding church attendance, we described ourselves as "nones."
I'm not up on all of the latest stats, but my guess is that the Nones is the fastest growing religious group in America.
I/we believe more passionately than ever. We LOVE the Lord more than ever...
...could it be that this is why we're finding it so hard to find a comfortable place in an increasingly institutionalized and consumer-based, uh, church world?
I remind myself that what presents itself as the church is entirely foreign to the community that formed around the first disciples. (Read Acts 2:42-47 & 1 Corinthians 11, 12 and 14.)
There are MILLIONS in this country like you,...us. That's the reality for a reason.
Inclinations such as your "Beer and Hymns" may actually resemble New Testament community more than what is available in any so-called "church" near you.
Certainly, to be faithful, we must "not give up meeting together as some are in the habit of doing,"...
...but going to "church?"
I dunno.
---------------
Some reflections:
1. The church has multiple mission fields.
One of them is among an increasingly large group of people who already believe in Jesus. This group consists, almost exclusively, of people were once a part of the church but find that today's church interferes with their relationship with Jesus. These people, from my experience, for the most part, want desperately want to actually be involved in the church. You'd think that, with a little humility and some compassion and love...along with repentance by the church, these people would be easy pickins for the church. Yet, my honest belief is that many of these Nones get the message from the church that we can "take it or leave it."
2. I can't help concluding, and excuse me for singing the same old tune, that this is a problem with shepherd domination in the institutional church. Shepherds are gentle and moderate. By contrast, the person on whose blog I commented, really, really loves Jesus and is extremely serious about his faith and his lifestyle. Other Nones I know, are like him. They want community that pours fuel on the Spirit fire that burns inside them and they don't get that from contact with the institutionalized local churches they attend which, they often feel, dampens fire. The Nones I know get bored by church. They are unfulfilled. They become frustrated. My sense of awakening movements in the history of the Kingdom is that they were APE centered and that experiencing community in them was specifically intended to pour fuel on fire.
---------------
3. Could it be that the CGGC could reach the Nones by commissioning a, well, subdivision, which empowers APEs to function and to operate almost entirely separately from the current body? Why not allow apostles freedom to be entrepreneurial? Why not set aside all the standard categories assumed by shepherdized, institutionalized churches and allow men and women living in the subsidiary to create new paradigms, that may not even seem like church to the old gang? Require orthodox belief and let everything else alone.
Sunday, February 9, 2020
Musings on Followership
1,390
I've been thinking a lot about followership lately, and talking some about it, too.
So, I've decided to do a post about it. This may turn out to be random thoughts or maybe something more coherent. If it ends up on the blog, you'll know I didn't delete it.
---------------
More and more, I think it's important to realize that Jesus didn't offer Himself to the world as a leader. He did, very directly, challenge people, "Follow me." He didn't come to lead. Rather, He came to be followed. The two are very different things.
If church people want to walk "in His steps," (1 Peter 2:21) they will need to stop trying to be leaders and start being disciples who walk in a way that creates an example people will follow.
---------------
I've been thinking about the leadership/followership thing in terms of what I achieve in my job because my job is to be a leader.
As I often repeat, I have a job on the management team in a supermarket. Ultimately, as I say ad nauseam I use the job to function as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God.
However, to do the ambassador thing, I actually have to do the job the store pays me to do.
I hope you don't judge me as being self-aggrandizing, of praising myself. What follows is genuine.
As a matter of self-analysis, I'm pretty certain that I do the job well, though there are never job performance reviews in the store. One can guess they're doing well by receiving a raise or being offered a promotion.
I've been promoted to a higher position than I wanted to be in. And, the position I'm in has been elevated in its influence since I became the person holding the job, and that is both humbling and mystifying to me.
I've said before, I don't do the technical part of the job as well as any of the four managers in the department. As hard as I try to improve, I know that, in terms of doing the job itself, I've hit my ceiling. I'm adequate, obviously, but no more than that. Management colleagues and the people I lead seem to accept me for my shortcomings.
What I seem to do well, I think, though, is achieve followership. Or, as most choose to think of it, lead. Bafflingly, in this context at least, I appear to be a good leader.
The people I, uh, "lead," shock me by the degree to which they willingly do whatever I ask. In fact, they frequently do more than I would ever ask. Stunningly, knowing my various shortcomings, they volunteer to do for me what I don't do well, or can't do at all.
I can't tell you how many times I've tried to think this through.
There's a degree to which I think it may be a matter of my personality. I don't take myself seriously even though when I am in charge what I say must be taken seriously. It was my expectation that, because I'm not serious about myself, others wouldn't take me seriously.
I honestly guess that, on the job, people take me seriously precisely because I don't take myself seriously, though I don't understand that.
I also believe that my "theology" of work creates followership.
I'm very serious and highly intentional about the theology of what I do and how I do it.
There are two components of how I think about what I do. They're very Jesus-oriented.
First, in every difficult moment in interpersonal interaction, I picture Jesus on the cross. I'm reminded that there was no limit to His self-denial and sacrifice offered to people who did not deserve to be shown mercy. How, then, can I not deny myself and sacrifice for others?!
Second, I think of Paul's description of the attitude disciples should have: The same as that of Christ Jesus who...made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant...and humbled Himself....
I suspect that it is because I have this theology of work that I was promoted to the leadership role.
I must also be very clear. Imagining Jesus on the cross and reflecting on Paul's description of His attitude are ideals...goals...I set for myself...
...and fail to achieve numerous times every day.
Thinking this way is exhausting. Encountering the inevitable, repeated failure can be discouraging on the inside but it gets rave reviews from people on its receiving end.
Additionally, I think that my sincere, failed struggle to be like Jesus aids me in achieving followership, even, maybe especially, among people who don't believe.
I don't know why or how, really. But, I'm often stunned by the degree to which I achieve followership on my job.
One thing is certain. I don't envision myself to be a leader nor do I ever attempt to lead.
---------------
It seems to me that, in the parts of the institutional church I know, there is no effective leadership precisely because there is no followership.
By definition, one is not leading unless people are doing the action of following. Leading is reflected in what others do, not in whether or not they agree with you or think well of you. In this way, I see no leadership.
As I think about this in a big picture way, I think that an essential problem is the provider/consumer culture that people who hope to lead the church buy into.
The people the people church leaders want to lead get a seriously mixed message from them.
On one level, as providers of religious products and services, the people the people church leaders want to lead have been taught that their role as the laity is to faithfully consume the religious products and services provided for them.
I believe that many in the laity are convinced that they ARE following by virtue of the fact that they are consuming.
So, for example, a consumer of religious products and services can consider themselves to be following by listening carefully to a sermon on following church leaders, i.e., the consuming is itself, not following in the real world, is the following.
Therefore, as a concrete macro example, to vote to approve a Strategic Plan is thought to be following, even if the people who vote to approve it have no intention of putting the plan into action.
My guess is that the people who want to lead in the church are going to have to very seriously repent of the clergy/laity way of being church for genuine followership to happen.
Remember the clergy, laity idea is entirely foreign to Jesus and His first followers. Jesus called people to follow, not consume.
This is enough musing for one post.
I've been thinking a lot about followership lately, and talking some about it, too.
So, I've decided to do a post about it. This may turn out to be random thoughts or maybe something more coherent. If it ends up on the blog, you'll know I didn't delete it.
---------------
More and more, I think it's important to realize that Jesus didn't offer Himself to the world as a leader. He did, very directly, challenge people, "Follow me." He didn't come to lead. Rather, He came to be followed. The two are very different things.
If church people want to walk "in His steps," (1 Peter 2:21) they will need to stop trying to be leaders and start being disciples who walk in a way that creates an example people will follow.
---------------
I've been thinking about the leadership/followership thing in terms of what I achieve in my job because my job is to be a leader.
As I often repeat, I have a job on the management team in a supermarket. Ultimately, as I say ad nauseam I use the job to function as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God.
However, to do the ambassador thing, I actually have to do the job the store pays me to do.
I hope you don't judge me as being self-aggrandizing, of praising myself. What follows is genuine.
As a matter of self-analysis, I'm pretty certain that I do the job well, though there are never job performance reviews in the store. One can guess they're doing well by receiving a raise or being offered a promotion.
I've been promoted to a higher position than I wanted to be in. And, the position I'm in has been elevated in its influence since I became the person holding the job, and that is both humbling and mystifying to me.
I've said before, I don't do the technical part of the job as well as any of the four managers in the department. As hard as I try to improve, I know that, in terms of doing the job itself, I've hit my ceiling. I'm adequate, obviously, but no more than that. Management colleagues and the people I lead seem to accept me for my shortcomings.
What I seem to do well, I think, though, is achieve followership. Or, as most choose to think of it, lead. Bafflingly, in this context at least, I appear to be a good leader.
The people I, uh, "lead," shock me by the degree to which they willingly do whatever I ask. In fact, they frequently do more than I would ever ask. Stunningly, knowing my various shortcomings, they volunteer to do for me what I don't do well, or can't do at all.
I can't tell you how many times I've tried to think this through.
There's a degree to which I think it may be a matter of my personality. I don't take myself seriously even though when I am in charge what I say must be taken seriously. It was my expectation that, because I'm not serious about myself, others wouldn't take me seriously.
I honestly guess that, on the job, people take me seriously precisely because I don't take myself seriously, though I don't understand that.
I also believe that my "theology" of work creates followership.
I'm very serious and highly intentional about the theology of what I do and how I do it.
There are two components of how I think about what I do. They're very Jesus-oriented.
First, in every difficult moment in interpersonal interaction, I picture Jesus on the cross. I'm reminded that there was no limit to His self-denial and sacrifice offered to people who did not deserve to be shown mercy. How, then, can I not deny myself and sacrifice for others?!
Second, I think of Paul's description of the attitude disciples should have: The same as that of Christ Jesus who...made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant...and humbled Himself....
I suspect that it is because I have this theology of work that I was promoted to the leadership role.
I must also be very clear. Imagining Jesus on the cross and reflecting on Paul's description of His attitude are ideals...goals...I set for myself...
...and fail to achieve numerous times every day.
Thinking this way is exhausting. Encountering the inevitable, repeated failure can be discouraging on the inside but it gets rave reviews from people on its receiving end.
Additionally, I think that my sincere, failed struggle to be like Jesus aids me in achieving followership, even, maybe especially, among people who don't believe.
I don't know why or how, really. But, I'm often stunned by the degree to which I achieve followership on my job.
One thing is certain. I don't envision myself to be a leader nor do I ever attempt to lead.
---------------
It seems to me that, in the parts of the institutional church I know, there is no effective leadership precisely because there is no followership.
By definition, one is not leading unless people are doing the action of following. Leading is reflected in what others do, not in whether or not they agree with you or think well of you. In this way, I see no leadership.
As I think about this in a big picture way, I think that an essential problem is the provider/consumer culture that people who hope to lead the church buy into.
The people the people church leaders want to lead get a seriously mixed message from them.
On one level, as providers of religious products and services, the people the people church leaders want to lead have been taught that their role as the laity is to faithfully consume the religious products and services provided for them.
I believe that many in the laity are convinced that they ARE following by virtue of the fact that they are consuming.
So, for example, a consumer of religious products and services can consider themselves to be following by listening carefully to a sermon on following church leaders, i.e., the consuming is itself, not following in the real world, is the following.
Therefore, as a concrete macro example, to vote to approve a Strategic Plan is thought to be following, even if the people who vote to approve it have no intention of putting the plan into action.
My guess is that the people who want to lead in the church are going to have to very seriously repent of the clergy/laity way of being church for genuine followership to happen.
Remember the clergy, laity idea is entirely foreign to Jesus and His first followers. Jesus called people to follow, not consume.
This is enough musing for one post.
My Unkind Words in the "Legitimate New Testament Concept" Post
I began this post a few days after the Leadership is a Legitimate New Testament Concept post. But, obviously, I didn't publish it immediately.
I have mixed feelings about the unkindness I displayed in its opening sentences.
-----------------
I rarely mince words here. But, I began that recent post with words that disturbed even me.
As I reread the post several times before publishing it, each time, I considered deleting the words, but, each time, I concluded that it was important that I let them stand. The words?
"The current holders of institutional authority in the CGGC are confused. I love them, but they are certainly confused.
I have mixed feelings about the unkindness I displayed in its opening sentences.
-----------------
I rarely mince words here. But, I began that recent post with words that disturbed even me.
As I reread the post several times before publishing it, each time, I considered deleting the words, but, each time, I concluded that it was important that I let them stand. The words?
"The current holders of institutional authority in the CGGC are confused. I love them, but they are certainly confused.
The holders of institutional authority in the CGGC certainly are sincere but they are as muddle-brained as ever."
These are unkind words, but they come from me honestly. I think they're true.
These are unkind words, but they come from me honestly. I think they're true.
I've made the point several times lately that I think the people who are holders of institutional authority in the CGGC are good people. They are nice. They believe in Jesus sincerely. They love the church.
Yet, they are on losing streak.
This current crew of holders of CGGC institutional authority, took over from several generations of CGGC institutional authorities who failed, yet were equally as nice and sincere as is the current crew.
(Has it occurred to anyone that the adjectives that describe John Winebrenner are not good person and nice? Winebrenner would have been known as a man who loves the Word before he was thought of as loving the church?)
Early in our losing streak, generations ago, our institutional authorities, created the value system that still drives CGGC spiritual decay and numerical decline.
It seems to me that it's accurate to say that they fought a high church-ish revolution in the Churches of God in North America. They executed a coup...but in the quiet and gentle way budding high church institutionalists fight a revolution and execute a coup. In the end, they won a decisive victory.
What they did has become self-sustaining.
Our body now raises up, to positions of institutional authority, men and women in the emotional and temperamental image of the soldiers of that institutional revolution: the designers of our decay and decline.
Though I try to avoid using the term as much as possible these days, the CGGC is run by a Shepherd Mafia that was organized in the 1930s.
Recently, a kid I work with reminded me of the definition of insanity sometimes attributed to Einstein, i.e., doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. That certainly fits us.
Until the Shepherd Mafia is broken up, the CGGC will experience nothing but the numerical decline and spiritual decay that is the fruit of shepherd domination.
What we need is a body that is not led by holders of institutional authority but served by men and women walking in mutual submission and in the New Command's love for one another as Jesus loved us...
...walking in the Spirit, living out their gifts to be apostles, prophets, evangelists and shepherds and teachers.
However, we'll never have that until the Shepherd Mafia is broken up.
Since the beginning of our demise, shepherds have ruled.
Where are the men and women in the CGGC who are producing the fruit of being apostles?
Where are the prophets?
The evangelists?
At best, these people are few and far between.
--------------
There are two reasons there is no APE presence in our body.
It is not that the Spirit doesn't call and empower APEs. He certainly does.
The CGGC has few APEs because either:
1. The Shepherds who run the institution force them to the fringe of the body and, sometimes, force them out of the body, or
2. The APEs become so impatient and frustrated by the institution and its shepherd leaders that they leave us.
And so, we, in what we do, we are confused, muddle-brained...or, as the supposed Einstein quote suggests, insane.
We attempt, over and over again, the institution-based solutions that a shepherd- dominated leadership culture knows.
Always with failure.
Always with increased frustration across the body which heightens the grip of cynicism on the body.
---------------
I say all of that by way of introduction to the thought that prompted me to note that the current holders of institutional authority in the CGGC are confused and muddle-brained:
Their idea that we will expand the Kingdom by sending out leaders.
Contagious Awakening: By our 200th anniversary (2025), we will equip and release thousands of spiritually charged leaders to every man, woman, and child to whom we are sent. This will happen by positioning ourselves for a movement of the Holy Spirit through repentance, reconciliation, and prayer.
Very simply and clearly, greatness in the Kingdom is achieved when Jesus followers go into the world as servants who aspire to be the slave of all.
Greatness in the church is accomplished by leaders.
In our first-ever CGGC Strategic Plan, our holders of institutional authority, well, plan to build the Kingdom using church methods.
Same old, same old.
Confused, muddle-brained, insane.
It's precisely what we've been doing, without the Lord's blessing, for generations.
In APEST terms, shepherds and teachers are gifts from the Spirit whose purpose is, primarily, to nurture and edify the Kingdom community...the church. Their role in the Kingdom is important, but it is secondary.
The Word is clear. To me, the language is stunning:
The household of God is built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets...
...with Jesus Himself as the chief cornerstone.
-----
Imagine what might have happened on the day when the shepherd/teacher holders of institutional authority in the CGGC came together in a Task Force meeting to consider the Contagious Awakening section of the Strategic Plan.
Imagine people living in their gifts as apostles and prophets, Kingdom-focused people, being in the room.
When I first read those words I was immediately disturbed by our generations old church/Kingdom, leader/servant error.
Had I been in the room, I would have been concerned at the very least, probably offended.
THE CGGC WILL NEVER SHARE IN A MOVEMENT OF THE HOLY SPIRIT BY SENDING LEADERS ANYWHERE.
I suspect that men and women living in their gifts as apostles and prophets, the foundation of God's household, would have seen the CGGC's age old error:
Attempting to build the Kingdom using church methods.
---------------
To say that the holders of institutional authority in the CGGC are confused and muddle-brained and acting insane makes even me uncomfortable.
Yet, I said it. I say it.
Until there is Spirit-empowered gift balance, mutual submission and New Commandment love among us, we will never participate in the building of the Kingdom.
Will the CGGC ever change course? Will we ever drop our church-is-the-center-of- God's-universe error?
Will we ever repent?
Will will ever become people of the Spirit and of the Kingdom?
We must repent.
Friday, February 7, 2020
My Transexual Same Sex Married Lesbian Friends
(Excuse me if my use of terminology is imprecise.)
---------------
My guess is that incarnational living that produces fruit for the Kingdom has two major components:
1. Genuine, heart felt belief in the concept of living the life in the world as a follower of Jesus.
2. A gift mix that empowers a believer to live in the world as a follower of Jesus in a way that bears positive fruit.
A few years ago, I began to believe in the lifestyle with strong conviction.
And, honestly, often to my surprise, my life in the world as a Jesus follower seems to be productive.
The very title of this blog suggests that my belief is very strong...and honestly, it is.
I have a job in which living as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God is what I do, no matter what my bosses pay me for.
But, something has developed in my life recently that boggles my mind.
---------------
For nearly 20 years, I have participated in an online discussion forum. I come and go as I please as do the other participants.
You probably know how those things can go. People can be belligerent and obnoxious on those boards, and I probably have been guilty of that myself to some degree.
Though, I'm almost certainly more forthright about my opinions on my own CGGC blogs, than I am on that forum.
I've gotten to know about some of the other longtime participants on the forum over the years.
One pair has a very unusual story.
They are in a same sex marriage as women. Both, however, were born male.
About six months ago, one of the two sent me a private message on the forum asking if I wanted to be Facebook friends. And, we became Facebook friends.
Sheri is very progressive politically and very political on Facebook so I rarely respond to her there but she is constantly liking and commenting on my Facebook posts, which are normally centered on family and work. She's a very faithful Facebook friend.
Her, uh, well, wife? always seemed to be a more prickly person. In fact, recently, on the forum, I called her an "evangophobe," i.e., someone prejudiced against evangelicals. And, honestly, I think she is.
Much to my surprise, though, a few weeks ago, she also sent me a Facebook friend request, which I accepted.
They know me pretty well from the forum. They know that I'm a Christian and of my strong opposition to same sex marriage. I'm pretty sure that they know that I've been a parish priest in a fairly conservative Protestant denomination. They also know my politics very well, something that never comes up here.
Just how we've become so friendly baffles me. We share genuine affection for each other.
We live about 3,000 miles apart so it's unlikely that we'll ever meet face to face.
But, we are invested in each other's lives in a way that I am, at the very least, planting seeds that others could water.
---------------
There's no real message to this post. More than anything else, I wanted to write about this because writing sometimes clarifies my thinking and because I wanted to create a journal entry of sorts.
I do think that when a follower of Jesus puts themself out there in the world, there's no telling what will happen.
The challenge, once one is out there, is to be faithful. Knowing exactly how to be faithful can be its own challenge.
One thing is for certain, the incarnational life is not a boring one.
---------------
My guess is that incarnational living that produces fruit for the Kingdom has two major components:
1. Genuine, heart felt belief in the concept of living the life in the world as a follower of Jesus.
2. A gift mix that empowers a believer to live in the world as a follower of Jesus in a way that bears positive fruit.
A few years ago, I began to believe in the lifestyle with strong conviction.
And, honestly, often to my surprise, my life in the world as a Jesus follower seems to be productive.
The very title of this blog suggests that my belief is very strong...and honestly, it is.
I have a job in which living as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God is what I do, no matter what my bosses pay me for.
But, something has developed in my life recently that boggles my mind.
---------------
For nearly 20 years, I have participated in an online discussion forum. I come and go as I please as do the other participants.
You probably know how those things can go. People can be belligerent and obnoxious on those boards, and I probably have been guilty of that myself to some degree.
Though, I'm almost certainly more forthright about my opinions on my own CGGC blogs, than I am on that forum.
I've gotten to know about some of the other longtime participants on the forum over the years.
One pair has a very unusual story.
They are in a same sex marriage as women. Both, however, were born male.
About six months ago, one of the two sent me a private message on the forum asking if I wanted to be Facebook friends. And, we became Facebook friends.
Sheri is very progressive politically and very political on Facebook so I rarely respond to her there but she is constantly liking and commenting on my Facebook posts, which are normally centered on family and work. She's a very faithful Facebook friend.
Her, uh, well, wife? always seemed to be a more prickly person. In fact, recently, on the forum, I called her an "evangophobe," i.e., someone prejudiced against evangelicals. And, honestly, I think she is.
Much to my surprise, though, a few weeks ago, she also sent me a Facebook friend request, which I accepted.
They know me pretty well from the forum. They know that I'm a Christian and of my strong opposition to same sex marriage. I'm pretty sure that they know that I've been a parish priest in a fairly conservative Protestant denomination. They also know my politics very well, something that never comes up here.
Just how we've become so friendly baffles me. We share genuine affection for each other.
We live about 3,000 miles apart so it's unlikely that we'll ever meet face to face.
But, we are invested in each other's lives in a way that I am, at the very least, planting seeds that others could water.
---------------
There's no real message to this post. More than anything else, I wanted to write about this because writing sometimes clarifies my thinking and because I wanted to create a journal entry of sorts.
I do think that when a follower of Jesus puts themself out there in the world, there's no telling what will happen.
The challenge, once one is out there, is to be faithful. Knowing exactly how to be faithful can be its own challenge.
One thing is for certain, the incarnational life is not a boring one.
Sunday, February 2, 2020
1,383: My Unconsummated Defrocking
1,383
April 19, 2016...1,383 days ago, as of today.
I've been thinking about entering a post like this for months. Why I'm doing it today, I can't say. There is nothing special about this day. Apparently, it's time.
It was, as of today, 1,383 days ago that the delegates to the 2016 annual sessions of the Eastern Regional Conference of the CGGC instructed the leadership of the Conference to recall my ordinance certificate.
That certificate remains in my possession. (We moved last November 5, and, since then, I haven't actually laid eyes on it, though I'm certain that it's somewhere in the apartment, or in our storage space.)
Back in the day, for a time after it occurred to me that ERC holders of institutional authority didn't plan to submit to the authority of the Eldership and to recall my ordination certificate, I put a number at the top of each post on my A Layman's Log blog.
For example, 75. The 75 represented the number of days that the ERC's holders of institutional authority were guilty of insubordination to the authority of the church by not obeying its instruction.
Today, it's 1,383.
---------------
Here's a brief history of those 1,383 days:
Several of my friends across the Conference informed me of what was happening at Conference in April 2016.
In the days, then weeks, then months that followed, I waited to hear from Conference staff, presumably the Executive Director.
Nothing.
Several months after the Conference instructed it's leaders to recall my ordination certificate, I received a businesslike email from Pastor George Jensen on behalf of the ERC Commission on Church Renewal asking me to cooperate with the Commission in some matters related to the gathering at Faith.
George explained that the request was being made, based on the reality that I'd been defrocked and the Commission needed to deal with the reality that an ERC congregation didn't have, well, a pastor.
I replied to George that I was not aware that my credentials had been removed because the Conference had not recalled my ordination certificate.
As a result, I noted, it would not be appropriate for me to respond to the Commission as if I was no longer a credentialed member of the Eldership.
Some time not too many weeks later, I received a notice from my mail carrier that there was a piece of mail waiting for me at my local post office which had been sent from ERC in Harrisburg, PA. I would be required to sign a form stating that I'd received the letter. About a week later, a second notice arrived and, later on, there was a final notice along with a warning that the mailing would soon be returned to its sender. I can only assume that it was returned.
I, of course, have no idea precisely what was inside the envelope.
---------------
Why didn't I retrieve the letter?
I could guess what it said. I'd received a similar notice in 2015 and did retrieve it.
That first letter notified me that the ERC Administrative Council had met at the conclusion of 2015 Conference Sessions and voted to recall my ordination certificate. According to the Constitution of the ERC, if I didn't return the certificate, the act of the Council would become effective upon the approval of Ad Council minutes at the following Conference sessions.
Instead, in 2016, a brother in ministry called the issue to the attention of the Conference in session, that article in the minutes was extracted for specific action and the whole Conference actually voted to instruct ERC staff to recall my ordination certificate.
---------------
Anyway,...
...why didn't I retrieve the second letter?
I didn't retrieve it to call the ERC to be true to its word.
Back then, the ERC web page linked, it still does, to the CGGC's We Believe. That document announces that, in our body, the Bible is our "only rule of faith and practice."
I, personally, embrace that item of our shared faith and I do my best to live that principle in my own life. As a member of a CGGC congregation, I was...am...asking no less of the rest of the body.
When I criticize holders of institutional authority in the CGGC and ERC, it is over that essential element of our belief.
---------------
Discipline among followers of Jesus is an issue addressed several times in the New Testament. It's clear how it should be undertaken in the "New Testament plan."
Certainly, discipline, in the New Testament plan, is not something that can be addressed through the exchange of letters.
According to Jesus, if your brother sins, go and show him his fault just between the two of you.
That personal, face-to-face, encounter is essential to the love for one another necessary to the carrying out of discipline in the New Testament plan.
What's more to the purpose of discipline in the New Testament Plan, among the people of the Kingdom, discipline is to achieve reconciliation, the redeeming of the broken relationship.
I didn't retrieve the letter for that reason: Reconciliation, the redemption of broken relationship...
...and, secondarily, of course, to live with the Bible as my only rule of faith and practice.
I didn't retrieve the letter because I hoped to call my brothers and sisters to a face-to-face reconciliation-focused encounter.
I didn't retrieve the letter in the hope that, as we obeyed the "love one another as I have loved you" command of Jesus, there might be reconciliation, redemption, even restoration.
Of course, there's been no reconciliation. No redemption of relationship. No restoration.
There was no face-to-face encounter. There was, in my opinion, no Bible as our only rule of faith and practice.
The person who was under obligation to submit to the authority of the Eldership, at the time, didn't submit. After I didn't retrieve the letter, nothing was done.
I still have my ordination certificate because it has not been recalled. I have not been asked to return it.
I haven't refused to return it. I wouldn't refuse. I was never given the chance to refuse.
---------------
What does the fact that I'm still, by virtue of the fact that I possess my ordination certificate, an ordained pastor in the ERC say about the ERC?
What does it say about me? (I'll allow others...I even invite others...to assess the me issue.)
But, what is the commentary on the ERC?
My emotion about all of this has long since evaporated. Even in recounting the events in this post, recalling and describing the tale, I felt little.
As a prophet, my vantage point is from 40,000 feet in the air.
Here is some of what I think these events reveal about the ERC:
1. Truth matters very little. The system of church government in our body, from our first day in 1830, has declared that it is the church, the body, organized as a Conference or Eldership, that is our ultimate human authority.
Certainly, we claim that the Bible is our "only rule of faith and practice," but, in the CGGC, it is the body, the Eldership, that determines what we do in real life in response to what the Word teaches.
Interestingly, these days when a man or woman seeks credentials among us, the people who are guardians of the ERC gate go to great lengths to determine that a candidate shares our belief about the church.
Yet, in my case, the fact that we believe in the authority of the Eldership hasn't moved ERC staffers, who are servants of the Eldership, to action.
ERC people talk our church government talk, but there's no action. Clearly, what we believe to be truth about the church doesn't matter in real world action.
2. Relationship matters very little. This is the shocker. In the end, no one cared enough about what is demanded of them for the sake of the body to do what they were responsible to do for the sake of the body. And, no one held others accountable to do their duty for the sake of the body.
3. There is a vast divide separating official faith and practice. In our first days, the Church of God was known first and foremost by what it's people did.
Much was written in those early days about what we believe, but those books and pamphlets and magazine articles came along to describe what was already being lived out. That is no longer the case in the body, at least in the U. S..
In my case, the Conference, which we agree is our ultimate human authority, instructed the holders of institutional in the Conference to obey its directive.
The holders of institutional authority in the Conference didn't submit to ERC authority initially, and only did so months later...and then only after being confronted publicly by me,...and only then in a legally justifiable way that would pass muster with an attorney, but not with the Lord...and they still haven't completed the task.
Very significantly also, the Eldership itself doesn't care that its directive to Conference staff goes uncompleted.
I've been clear about that here, in this forum. Several people of position in the ERC read this blog, and interact with me regularly.
We have faith but no real world practice.
4. Cynicism rules. All across the American CGGC body no one follows anyone.
Some want to imagine themselves to be leaders, but no one does anything that can be followed. We have no followership at any level in our body.
In my case, ERC staff didn't follow the Eldership and, for nearly four years, no one has cared.
There is no mutual submission in the CGGC.
There is no mutual submission because we don't obey the love one another command of Jesus. Instead, we wander around, occasionally bumping into each other and, as was the case during the time of the Old Testament Judges, everyone does what is right in his own eyes.
As a matter of what we do in real life, we disregard the Word and the will of God.
And, of course, we decline in number and, in the Spirit, we decay.
What we need to do is love each other as Jesus loved us and, as Paul admonished the brothers and sisters in Ephesus be "submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ."
But, cynicism, not love nor submission, is our way. We all do what is right in our own eyes. We have no real community.
We decay spiritually because we are already spiritually decayed.
5. We must repent.
--------------------
So, we are at day 1,383.
My defrocking remains unconsummated... and for all the worst possible reasons.
April 19, 2016...1,383 days ago, as of today.
I've been thinking about entering a post like this for months. Why I'm doing it today, I can't say. There is nothing special about this day. Apparently, it's time.
It was, as of today, 1,383 days ago that the delegates to the 2016 annual sessions of the Eastern Regional Conference of the CGGC instructed the leadership of the Conference to recall my ordinance certificate.
That certificate remains in my possession. (We moved last November 5, and, since then, I haven't actually laid eyes on it, though I'm certain that it's somewhere in the apartment, or in our storage space.)
Back in the day, for a time after it occurred to me that ERC holders of institutional authority didn't plan to submit to the authority of the Eldership and to recall my ordination certificate, I put a number at the top of each post on my A Layman's Log blog.
For example, 75. The 75 represented the number of days that the ERC's holders of institutional authority were guilty of insubordination to the authority of the church by not obeying its instruction.
Today, it's 1,383.
---------------
Here's a brief history of those 1,383 days:
Several of my friends across the Conference informed me of what was happening at Conference in April 2016.
In the days, then weeks, then months that followed, I waited to hear from Conference staff, presumably the Executive Director.
Nothing.
Several months after the Conference instructed it's leaders to recall my ordination certificate, I received a businesslike email from Pastor George Jensen on behalf of the ERC Commission on Church Renewal asking me to cooperate with the Commission in some matters related to the gathering at Faith.
George explained that the request was being made, based on the reality that I'd been defrocked and the Commission needed to deal with the reality that an ERC congregation didn't have, well, a pastor.
I replied to George that I was not aware that my credentials had been removed because the Conference had not recalled my ordination certificate.
As a result, I noted, it would not be appropriate for me to respond to the Commission as if I was no longer a credentialed member of the Eldership.
Some time not too many weeks later, I received a notice from my mail carrier that there was a piece of mail waiting for me at my local post office which had been sent from ERC in Harrisburg, PA. I would be required to sign a form stating that I'd received the letter. About a week later, a second notice arrived and, later on, there was a final notice along with a warning that the mailing would soon be returned to its sender. I can only assume that it was returned.
I, of course, have no idea precisely what was inside the envelope.
---------------
Why didn't I retrieve the letter?
I could guess what it said. I'd received a similar notice in 2015 and did retrieve it.
That first letter notified me that the ERC Administrative Council had met at the conclusion of 2015 Conference Sessions and voted to recall my ordination certificate. According to the Constitution of the ERC, if I didn't return the certificate, the act of the Council would become effective upon the approval of Ad Council minutes at the following Conference sessions.
Instead, in 2016, a brother in ministry called the issue to the attention of the Conference in session, that article in the minutes was extracted for specific action and the whole Conference actually voted to instruct ERC staff to recall my ordination certificate.
---------------
Anyway,...
...why didn't I retrieve the second letter?
I didn't retrieve it to call the ERC to be true to its word.
Back then, the ERC web page linked, it still does, to the CGGC's We Believe. That document announces that, in our body, the Bible is our "only rule of faith and practice."
I, personally, embrace that item of our shared faith and I do my best to live that principle in my own life. As a member of a CGGC congregation, I was...am...asking no less of the rest of the body.
When I criticize holders of institutional authority in the CGGC and ERC, it is over that essential element of our belief.
---------------
Discipline among followers of Jesus is an issue addressed several times in the New Testament. It's clear how it should be undertaken in the "New Testament plan."
Certainly, discipline, in the New Testament plan, is not something that can be addressed through the exchange of letters.
According to Jesus, if your brother sins, go and show him his fault just between the two of you.
That personal, face-to-face, encounter is essential to the love for one another necessary to the carrying out of discipline in the New Testament plan.
What's more to the purpose of discipline in the New Testament Plan, among the people of the Kingdom, discipline is to achieve reconciliation, the redeeming of the broken relationship.
I didn't retrieve the letter for that reason: Reconciliation, the redemption of broken relationship...
...and, secondarily, of course, to live with the Bible as my only rule of faith and practice.
I didn't retrieve the letter because I hoped to call my brothers and sisters to a face-to-face reconciliation-focused encounter.
I didn't retrieve the letter in the hope that, as we obeyed the "love one another as I have loved you" command of Jesus, there might be reconciliation, redemption, even restoration.
Of course, there's been no reconciliation. No redemption of relationship. No restoration.
There was no face-to-face encounter. There was, in my opinion, no Bible as our only rule of faith and practice.
The person who was under obligation to submit to the authority of the Eldership, at the time, didn't submit. After I didn't retrieve the letter, nothing was done.
I still have my ordination certificate because it has not been recalled. I have not been asked to return it.
I haven't refused to return it. I wouldn't refuse. I was never given the chance to refuse.
---------------
What does the fact that I'm still, by virtue of the fact that I possess my ordination certificate, an ordained pastor in the ERC say about the ERC?
What does it say about me? (I'll allow others...I even invite others...to assess the me issue.)
But, what is the commentary on the ERC?
My emotion about all of this has long since evaporated. Even in recounting the events in this post, recalling and describing the tale, I felt little.
As a prophet, my vantage point is from 40,000 feet in the air.
Here is some of what I think these events reveal about the ERC:
1. Truth matters very little. The system of church government in our body, from our first day in 1830, has declared that it is the church, the body, organized as a Conference or Eldership, that is our ultimate human authority.
Certainly, we claim that the Bible is our "only rule of faith and practice," but, in the CGGC, it is the body, the Eldership, that determines what we do in real life in response to what the Word teaches.
Interestingly, these days when a man or woman seeks credentials among us, the people who are guardians of the ERC gate go to great lengths to determine that a candidate shares our belief about the church.
Yet, in my case, the fact that we believe in the authority of the Eldership hasn't moved ERC staffers, who are servants of the Eldership, to action.
ERC people talk our church government talk, but there's no action. Clearly, what we believe to be truth about the church doesn't matter in real world action.
2. Relationship matters very little. This is the shocker. In the end, no one cared enough about what is demanded of them for the sake of the body to do what they were responsible to do for the sake of the body. And, no one held others accountable to do their duty for the sake of the body.
3. There is a vast divide separating official faith and practice. In our first days, the Church of God was known first and foremost by what it's people did.
Much was written in those early days about what we believe, but those books and pamphlets and magazine articles came along to describe what was already being lived out. That is no longer the case in the body, at least in the U. S..
In my case, the Conference, which we agree is our ultimate human authority, instructed the holders of institutional in the Conference to obey its directive.
The holders of institutional authority in the Conference didn't submit to ERC authority initially, and only did so months later...and then only after being confronted publicly by me,...and only then in a legally justifiable way that would pass muster with an attorney, but not with the Lord...and they still haven't completed the task.
Very significantly also, the Eldership itself doesn't care that its directive to Conference staff goes uncompleted.
I've been clear about that here, in this forum. Several people of position in the ERC read this blog, and interact with me regularly.
We have faith but no real world practice.
4. Cynicism rules. All across the American CGGC body no one follows anyone.
Some want to imagine themselves to be leaders, but no one does anything that can be followed. We have no followership at any level in our body.
In my case, ERC staff didn't follow the Eldership and, for nearly four years, no one has cared.
There is no mutual submission in the CGGC.
There is no mutual submission because we don't obey the love one another command of Jesus. Instead, we wander around, occasionally bumping into each other and, as was the case during the time of the Old Testament Judges, everyone does what is right in his own eyes.
As a matter of what we do in real life, we disregard the Word and the will of God.
And, of course, we decline in number and, in the Spirit, we decay.
What we need to do is love each other as Jesus loved us and, as Paul admonished the brothers and sisters in Ephesus be "submitting to one another out of reverence for Christ."
But, cynicism, not love nor submission, is our way. We all do what is right in our own eyes. We have no real community.
We decay spiritually because we are already spiritually decayed.
5. We must repent.
--------------------
So, we are at day 1,383.
My defrocking remains unconsummated... and for all the worst possible reasons.
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