Mom Did Test Positive for COVID 19

We were notified by the Home's Director of Social Work in a very matter of fact way...but what can you say or do?

From what we're hearing from the Home, mom's dementia has advanced through this. She's entirely confused but still ambulatory...which makes her a danger to other residents.

Hospice is already sending a nurse who's expected to meet with mom before the morning is out.

This is a little too much too soon, but it is life in our time. 

Mom has been in love with Jesus all of my life. You probably know the comfort that brings. 

Blessed be the Name of the Lord. 

Focusing on CHURCH as the End All, Be All

In his latest eNews, Lance made the following statement. (I think that when institutionalists use the verb, 'do' with the noun 'church,' they think they're being cutting edge, you know, keen, cool, groovy...rad! In truth, I think they're exposing their sin of Ecclesiolatry.)

Lance says, innocently, honestly and sincerely:

Whether we want to believe it or not, this pandemic is going to have long reaching effects on how we “do” church.

If you're a regular reader here, you know that I think about these things in reference to great movements in the history of the Kingdom in which God has poured out His blessing and through which the Kingdom has expanded.

'Do church.'

Is this something John Winebrenner would think about? John Wesley? Even Francis of Assisi?

Certainly, in those moments, when the Kingdom has advanced, church: the nature of the gathering of Jesus followers underwent change.

Certainly, at those times, what was thought of as 'church' took a different shape and came to be understood in different ways.

Yet, here's why I think that people like the current  holders of institutional authority in the CGGC will never be a part of a movement forward for the Kingdom:

Church was never, ever the first thing in the minds of people who were used by the Lord to advance the Kingdom. 

Taking the Church of God movement of John Winebrenner and his colleagues as an example. (It would not be accurate to number the Church of God as one of those "great" movements in the history of the Kingdom. I think, though, that the Church of God possesses much in common with those movements. And, it is familiar to most of us.)

Like the notable Kingdom expansion movements, the Church of God did think about church. It thought seriously about church...

....but the place of church, that is, thinking about the gathering of disciples and of the organization of the body of disciples...was distantly second in importance to the one concern that was central.

In the Church of God, the first, the primary, focus of the movement was, The Conversion of Sinners.

For all of these Kingdom expansion movements, this was what always came first.

The first concern, by many miles, was righteousness...

...getting people whose way of life defied, as Paul calls it in Galatians 6, the Law of Christ, to live according to that Law...

...through faith in Jesus...

...as fruit of faith in Jesus.

Were the people of those Kingdom expansion movements to try to be funky, or cosmic or groovy, or rad in their use of the verb, 'do,'...

...they wouldn't have ever thought, for a micro-moment, about the effects of events on the way they "'do' 'church.'"

Were they see the need to be hip, or is hep, their minds would have focused on what is primary in the red letters of the Bible.

They'd have talked about the effects of how we, what?...

...do discipleship?

...do righteousness?

...do obedience?

...do Jesus.

But, 'do church'? No.

And, and this is essential to what the holders of institutional authority in the Western church today get completely wrong.

Church is, indeed, important but it is entirely secondary, distantly secondary, to what is truly important.

Certainly, when people who get righteousness right live in community, the way they 'do church' will be very different from what goes on in the highly institutionalized provider/consumer mess that is the numerically declining and spiritually decaying CGGC of our day.

But, those people never think that the way to move forward is about church. Those people have always thought in terms of Jesus and connection to Jesus...

...in terms of righteousness,

...in terms of obedience,

...in terms of discipleship.

The right way to 'do church' is fruit of the way the individuals in church connect to Jesus.

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

After Paul challenged the disciples in Corinth to repent...and after they accepted the challenge, after they did repent, Paul explained a universal spiritual principle:

Godly sorrow brings a repentance that leads to salvation.

He adds to that a dark side corollary to that truth. (2 Corinthians 7:10)

Worldly sorrow brings death.

Worldly sorrow is what I'm afraid is being demonstrated by the holders of institutional authority in the CGGC.

They continue to think church.

They continue to think:

Not righteousness.

Not obedience.

Not discipleship.

NOT JESUS!

They are doing what people who commit the sin of Ecclesiolatry do. They worship the church, not the Lord of the church.

They are doing what Churches of God people did, beginning about 90 years ago, when our slide into spiritual decay, followed eventually by numerical decline began.

Oh! We must repent. We must focus on Jesus and experience godly sorrow that brings salvation, not on the church to know the worldly sorrow that brings death.

The Latest on Mom...Hospice?!?!?

Mom turned 86 last month.

It has not been a good winter for her. In fact, the last few winters have been a struggle, each progressively more so.

A handful of years ago, a physical exam revealed that mom had very mild COPD. We were startled. I didn't think much of it at the time.

Mom never smoked. She never, as far as she knows, worked around asbestos. She never worked in an environment that affects people's lungs. When I was young, my dad smoked...two packs a WEEK, about six cigarettes a day, and not all of them around the house. Mom didn't hang with people who smoked. So, she didn't inhale a lot of second hand smoke.

We read recently that COPD can be a genetic thing. Who knows really.

Anyway, with each passing year, the COPD has become increasingly worse. And, apparently, as a result, mom has become increasingly susceptible to URIs. This winter, she's had one after another.

And, the COPD itself is now pretty well advanced.

Her breathing is now labored at best. Sometimes it's very difficult.

There are other ways her health is deteriorating.

She was actually swabbed for a COVID 19 test two days ago because she chronically has symptoms, because of other health issues, and she developed a fever in the range that suggests she may have contracted the disease...and at the home she's in 7 people have tested positive already.

Mom's vulnerable because, even though residents are in isolation, mom doesn't cooperate, partly because she is incredibly strong willed and, I suspect that her memory is so bad that she simply doesn't remember that she needs to stay in her room.

She's also had two incidents in which she's zoned out and become completely unresponsive and even foaming at the mouth. Epilepsy runs in her family, so these could be seizures.

So, yesterday, the nurse practitioner from the medical practice that cares for residents of the home called me while I was working. She wanted to review the latest with me.

Because I work with the public and was concerned about bringing infections to mom, and haven't been well myself, I haven't seen mom for about a month. I've been talking to her nurses.

I know mom's not well. But, as I was talking to the nurse practitioner, she began to talk about starting mom on morphine to ease her discomfort with breathing. And, it struck me: This is end of life talk!

Then she suggested taking mom off of every pill that's nonessential, and saying that mom's lack of interest in eating fits with everything else she's seeing.

Then, while my head was spinning she dropped the H word...HOSPICE. She's recommending that we consult them.

I guess I shouldn't have been blindsided.

I simply didn't realize it had gone so far.

So we called a family tele-meeting last night.

Our rule is that we will always agree about everything. Since dad began to get bad we've always been able, ultimately, to agree, and it's always worked.

Last night it was easy. We were all pretty much thinking the same thing.

We agreed to removing the nonessential pills and to consulting Hospice.

We'll call the home this morning to get that under way.

I have to admit that I'm still in shock over this.

I'm not convinced that Hospice will agree that mom's ready for their care...

...but, I also know that I'm pretty consistent about living in denial about stuff like this.

I'm off of work today simply because the vertigo takes over when life becomes to much. I'm weak and tired and emotionally and spiritually exhausted.

I've been much worse, but I'm not well. And, this could be a long haul.

Things are going on with Evie that are concerning. I work in a grocery store where germy people are all around me all of the time...

...and mom's deteriorating, and I can't visit her.

Still, we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love Him....

Leadership Is what Servanthood Does

Working in a supermarket these days means to embrace mayhem.

Most days that I work, I work a ten hour day and I leave completely overwhelmed. For someone my age, the work itself is physically and mentally challenging enough...

...but to realize I am risking COVID 19 infection for myself and,...

...more concerningly, risking exposing Evie, whose immune system is seriously compromised, the work is so exhausting that it is essentially debilitating.

Yet, the experience is also magnificent in many ways.

About a week and a half ago, on a day that was scheduled to only be a seven hour day, management asked me to come in two hours early. I actually showed up earlier than that.

The moment I walked through the door, I entered bedlam.

It was before 8:00 a.m., and there were long lines of frantic, agitated customers at every cash register. There was a long line at the Customer Service desk where even the manager of the store's snack bar was working to address the overflow of customers and to quell the potential riot. (Customers get testy at times like that, and anything is possible.)

The manager of Customer Service saw me walk in and asked me to grab a cash register drawer so I could run another register to help address the overflow. And, I did that.

When I walked to the front with my drawer, the first thing I noticed was one of the OWNERS of the store, helping out by bagging for one of the overwhelmed cashiers.

She stood by that bagger stand and bagged groceries for one customer after another for hours, until the full crew of baggers arrived to work their schedule.

Leadership? HA.

SERVANTHOOD!

The people who own the store may or may not be world-class business people.

But, what they are, without doubt, are people who believe in Jesus who DO Jesus-following in a way that fits the teachings and example of Jesus...

...who Himself came, not to be served, but to serve and to give His life as a ransom for many.

Linda, the owner who bagged groceries until no additional baggers were needed?

She understands, because she does...she walks...the servant walk...the JESUS walk.

And, amazingly, we who saw her serve, are now more inclined to follow.

In serving, she set an example that encourages followership.

As I live, I believe, more and more, that this leadership fad that institutional church hierarchs are chasing after is self-serving foolishness and that it will, of necessity, come to nothing.

I read the latest eNews. I read Lance's claim,

"we're being required to use adaptive leadership..."

...and, in the same moment, I wanted to scream and to cry.

Read the Gospels and show me the verses on adaptive leadership!

What the Kingdom of God needs is for its people to heed the foundational teaching of Jesus that to be the greatest in the Kingdom is to be slave of all, and to live Paul's Philippians 2 mandate that your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus who being in very nature God, did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage, but made Himself nothing,...

...by taking the very nature of a servant.

Lance's program to practice adaptive leadership will fail. It must fail.

There's nothing of Jesus in it. The whole idea is of this world.

The church is losing the opportunity of this moment by trying to be the best church it can be and missing the opportunity to pursue the Kingdom.

What an opportunity our high holders of institutional authority in the CGGC have to follow in His steps (1 Peter 2:21)!

But, what Lance is doing, according to his own word, is practicing adaptive leadership. He's still hoping to lead, without any followership.

We all need to serve so passionately that we begin a fracas in our fight to see who can become slave of all.

What a tragedy in this lost opportunity.

God have mercy.

If You Want Something to do, Apply for a Job in a Grocery Store

In my department of the supermarket where I work, so far nearly 20% of the workers have already decided not to work until the danger of the coronavirus has passed. (Interestingly, in almost every case, under pressure from family.)

No employee of the store has yet tested positive for the virus. Certainly some, many?, will.

And, for now, at least, the store is doing record business...by a long shot.

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

When I read accounts early believers putting on Jesus who...

...made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of servant and...humbled himself and became obedient to death (Phil 2:5f)...

...to serve and care for people suffering in the plagues that ravaged areas of the Roman Empire, I wonder about the special and rare opportunities available to people of the Kingdom at this moment.

Certainly, you can be a good and responsible citizen of this world these days by staying home.

But, if Jesus is the Lord of your life, your   citizenship is in heaven. (Phil. 3:20)

Why not be like Jesus who left heaven to live among the people of the world to live as a sacrifice?

Why not live like our early brothers and sisters who had the same attitude as was in Christ Jesus and to live in the world to serve others?!

One way you could do that is stop at the Customer Service desk of your local grocery store the next time you shop and ask for an application. I'm pretty sure that your store has openings for temporary, part time employees.

Our store is having trouble getting the merchandise we receive from our distributor on the shelves. We're stretching our Front End cashiers and baggers' ability to serve the hoards that fill our store.

You won't get rich by worldly standards. But, you will be building up treasures in heaven.

And...

... you'll be doing the WWJD thing. (1 Peter 2:21)

A CGGCer's Commentary on Lance's Video

Gang,

A few days ago, I received an email that, I believe, contains amazing insight into the response of the people of the Kingdom...and of the people of the institutionalized church...to the challenge of the spread of the coronavirus. 

The note also contained a critique of my own ministry. 

I responded to both themes in my own email.

The note to me appears first. It is edited, primarily, to preserve the anonymity of the author. 

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

Bill, 

Yesterday I went to the CGGC website and listened to Lance's devotional concerning our present crisis.

I have listened to several devotionals since Sunday.  "_____ _______ Church" went live for the first time this past Sunday. I gave them an A plus for their message. 

I went to the ______ Church of _______'s site on Facebook and felt like _______ ____'s meditation was helpful.

Then I listened to Lance yesterday.  

I was disappointed, because, Lance included no scripture and reference to finding rest or hope in Jesus. 

He repeated a number of times the need to lean on each other. It is VERY TRUE, THAT WE MUST LEAN ON EACH OTHER.

But you are talking about reaching the disenfranchised... In my opinion that is not Lances strength.

Unfortunately you may be preaching to the wrong crowd.

Your message is relevant. You may be holding services for the wrong people to accomplish your objective.

I did not go to Winebrenner. ____ ______ advised me not to come.

He knew at least two things. He knew Winebrenner and he knew me. 

Choose a new audience and you may help change Winebenner.

You will not live long enough to change the Brass...

My reply:

My friend, 

Your note contains an incredible amount of insight into the events of these times.

Your big picture take: 

That it is people who turn their eyes upon Jesus and who seek their strength and comfort in the Word who walk the true path is prophetic and timely.

When I first began to describe the CHARACTERISTICS OF THE CGGC BRAND, I noted the sin of Ecclesiolatry, or the worship of the church, not of the Lord of the church. And, the CGGC has it bad...

...as you noted from Lance's video.

Curiously, almost as a deist would, Lance talks some about God and the Kingdom of God, but not about Jesus.

Lance's talk is very this-worldly, about what the church is doing, about the church reaching out, about bringing hopeless people into the church, but not about Jesus Himself.

To be fair, Lance does quote a line from "the Lord's Prayer" near the end of his talk.

Having said that, I disagree with you on who my audience must be.

I agree with you that, in all likelihood, I will not live long enough to change, as you call them, the Brass.

But, the mercy and compassion of the Lord is great. He continues to call even the "Brass" to Him.

And, that, in part, is what the Lord uses prophets for, Old Testament and New.

I believe that my ministry is to call out to the people who are the least likely to focus on Jesus and to live as if the Word is our only rule of faith and practice. 

You commentary on Lance's video vividly demonstrates how well our Brass fits that description. 

My success will be in continuing to extend God's mercy and love to the Brass, not in convincing them, though I hope some day our Brass will live as people of the Lord and the Word.

bill

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

I struggled long and hard over whether or not to publish this post. 

My friend's take on Lance's video is negative, but who can criticize its take away. My friend's big picture take is on point. 

What's not in Lance's video is the most important part of the video. 

In fact, it seems to me that it is what is not there that defines the CGGC in our time.

We need to repent. 

We need to put Jesus and the Word back in the center of who we are and what we do. 

Pandemics in Fiction: Dorothy L. Sayers', THE NINE TAILORS

On a very different note from what usually comes up here: If you're finding it difficult to keep yourself entertained these days, you might want to consider checking out Dorothy L. Sayers' most highly acclaimed whodunnit novel, The Nine Tailors.

Sayers, in case you don't know, was a contemporary of Agatha Christie and her main character, Lord Peter Wimsey, rivals Christie's Hercule Poirot as one of the most memorable and entertaining characters of that genre.

The Nine Tailors has been judged by many to most to be Sayers' greatest novel, though it's not my personal favorite.

Two points of interest for people who'd be reading this blog:

1. A significant portion of the novel is centered around a rural Anglican parish. The novel presents a very interesting and sympathetic vision of the positive role the English church played in everyday English life back in the day. It features, as an important character, the parish's vicar who is quirky and good hearted and committed to the Matthew 25 way of being a Christian, though in a kind and gentle way, unlike the bristly way it's normally presented here.

2. The Spanish Flu pandemic is crucial to the story and the very unusual murder solved by Lord Peter and his gentleman's gentleman, Mervyn Bunter.

Another note of interest. Michael Frost and Alan Hirsch devoted a section of their outstanding 2008 book, ReJesus: A Wild Messiah for a Missional Church, to Dorothy L. Sayers, whom they describe as living a vivid life of obedience to the red letters of the Bible. Seemingly, there's a bit of Sayers vision of Christianity in the vicar character.

Actually, it was their description of Sayers' life and faith that first interested me in her novels.

The BBC did a miniseries portrayal of The Nine Tailors in the mid 1970s, and it holds up fairly well.

You can find it on YouTube.

What if "Pastors" Could Empower Words of Wisdom and Knowledge

The high holders of institutional authority in the CGGC pay lip service to APEST...

...to the reality that the Holy Spirit is alive and active in the world today that He empowers followers of Jesus with gifts.

Ephesians 4:13 is clear. There is no expiration date on the gifts of the Spirit, particularly APEST.

First Corinthians 14 is a vivid description of how early disciples behaved when they gathered.

Back in that Spirit-empowered day, there were no pastor/parish priests. There certainly were no sermons.

When you read 1 Corinthians 14, you get a feel for the operation of the priesthood of all believers, with all of its power...and, from a human perspective, its chaos.

When early Jesus followers gathered, there was speaking in tongues, which Paul attempts to regulate, and words of instruction and prophecy and knowledge, which, if anything, Paul writes to empower.

One of the great sins of institutionalized Christianity in our day its the thwarting of, or, to use biblical language, the quenching of, the Spirit.

These days, in the CGGC, we get a message from Lance, not a word of wisdom or revelation or knowledge empowered by the Spirit.

I have no doubt that the Spirit is active among us, at this very moment, and that He is providing knowledge and wisdom for God's people for the challenges of this day...through the universal priesthood He empowers.

Yet, what does the institutionalized church provide?

Everything I've seen has been a sermon or a less formal message of encouragement or a Bible Study from a pastor/parish priest or, now, a high holder of denominational institutional authority.

Most of what I've seen is intended to be a religious product or service delivered through some form of social media, which is intended to be consumed by those who receive it...

...not an empowered Word of the Spirit that has the goal of "preparing the saints for works of service." (Eph. 4:12)

Where are those raw and pure revelations of knowledge and wisdom and prophecy that drove the ministries of the first disciples?, words spoken by anyone and everyone who walks in the Spirit?

The Western church today is ill-prepared to walk in the power of the Spirit and, therefore, to thrive in the midst of this challenge.

It has all but destroyed the Lord's universal priesthood by creating an unspiritual chasm between its institutional priesthood and the laity, and turning its so-called laity into consumers, not empowering all disciples to be priests.

And, God's people...honestly, ALL people...will pay the price in our age.

We are equipped, by today's church, to demonstrate nothing more than a weak, institutional and very human response to these challenges.

Most of the church's self-proclaimed leaders have no understanding of the operation of Spiritual Gifts nor of the priesthood of all believers.

The Word promises that the Spirit is always operating and speaking to and through God's people. And, it warns us not to quench the Spirit.

The church today not only doesn't empower the people through whom the Spirit will speak and act.

It, honestly, in practice, prevents them from using their gifts.

We have a faulty and bankrupt doctrine of the church. It's nothing short of heresy and our heretical belief system has produced rotten fruit.

As I often say here, the holders of institutional authority in the church are, individually, good people.

Our problem is with the system. The system is entirely corrupt and incapable of producing genuine spiritual fruit.

We needed to repent of institutionalization before this crisis befell us.

We are now paying a very high price for our sin of diminishing the role of the Spirit as we have empowered a human institution.

Let's become people of the Spirit who walk in the Spirit.

We must repent.

Allergy Season and the Coronavirus Plague

It's been a warm and wet winter here and allergy season is off to an early launch.

For me? Watery eyes. Running nose. Scratchy throat. More fatigue than usual.

It used to be that when I sneezed, people would bless me. Now, they curse me.

I work in a grocery store that has nearly well over 200 employees and, these days especially, lots and lots of customers.

The coronavirus is affecting more people every day.

And, I have symptoms...

...because of the allergies.

I'm torn.

Evie's home from the hospital. But, I think of my job as both a calling and a ministry.

I'm struggling to know what to do about working.

The store's owners and my coworkers have been wonderful to me.

Yet, Evie's immune system is compromised...and, we're geezers to begin with.

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

Here's what I'm doing. It's imperfect, probably foolish.

When I get out of bed, I take my temperature. If I don't have a fever, I begin a normal day.

The first day I have a fever, I change course.

I wear gloves when I work. I wash my hands when I leave work and when I get home. I change clothes as soon as I walk through the door at home.

Tough times, tough times.

Save the Planet, Kill a Bagger

The supermarket I work at normally simply does business as usual as much as possible, much more than most others.

As only one example, many stores in the area have established special hours to accommodate senior citizens. Ours, not.

So, it stunned me, on Friday, when word came down from ownership that our baggers and cashiers are no longer required to handle reusable grocery bags. 

I hate those things...for many reasons. 

One is the self-righteous smugness of some of the people who use them that, because they use them, they are truly enlightened and are doing their part to save the planet. 

Another, more reality-based reason, is that those things absolutely reek of germs...even the bags that their owners clean after each use...and, almost no one does that. 

Political correctness is a powerful, and fickle, phenomenon. 

Until a few days ago, reusable grocery bags signified the saving of the planet.

Now, suddenly, the reusable grocery bag is a danger that carries and spreads the plague of the coronavirus. 

It's now politically correct to think: Save the planet, kill a bagger.

So, in our place, the new rule is that the customer may use their own bags but our baggers are freed from the requirement of exposing themselves to germs from that source. 

Most customers are saying that this is no big deal and that it's not a problem. 

Some, though are indignant, and even resentful.

Now that Evie's Home...

Evie came home from the hospital on Wednesday...amazingly. When she had her surgery, the surgeon projected a release on Saturday. She came home in half the time.

Thanks for the prayers.

I've been through cancer with her and the replacement of her aortic valve in her heart.

Both of those were hard on me as well.

But, in those times, I never really thought that I would lose her.

I thought that this time.

I'm so thankful we moved to the home.

I pulled the cord and a nurse rushed to our apartment.

Before the ambulance arrived, the nurse could not get a blood pressure and Evie's pulse was a weak 44.

When we were in the ER, she was in such pain that I could barely make myself look at her.

That was Friday. Her condition deteriorated, even though the pain medications worked, until surgery became necessary the next day.

She was miserable after that.

I spoke to her Monday evening and she was so weak and dejected that I concluded that she was at the point of giving up to go be with the Lord.

The next morning, she was still suffering.

But, by the grace of God and through the power of your prayers, by Tuesday afternoon, she experienced a nearly full recovery...so great a recovery that she was released from the hospital the next morning!

The surgery was extensive and she's still recovering from it.

And, she's weak and exhausted. And, she doesn't really know how to rest...

...and, so she is her own biggest enemy.

...but she's doing well...

...miraculously well.

Thank you for your amazingly powerful prayers.

And, please keep praying.

Worship Can't Possibly be done through Social Media

I am convinced that one of the root causes of the numerical decline and spiritual decay of American Christianity is its perversion of what it means to worship.

From what I can see, pastor/parish priests are scurrying about these days to find effective ways that they can get, at the very least, Sunday's sermon out to their flock, since the flock won't be able to come together as a flock for the Sunday morning show for a while.

You know that nothing even remotely similar to the sermon existed in the New Testament, don't you?

The word itself wasn't even invented until about a thousand years ago.

Worship, in the biblical sense, has nothing to do with the preaching of, nor the listening to, a sermon.

The New Testament speaks of gatherings rarely and of worship almost not at all.

And, the New Testament never confuses the gathering with worship.

Here's what worship is, according to Paul:

"...offer your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and pleasing to God--this is true and proper worship." (Rom. 12:1)

These troubled times are times when worship will be unbelievably easy.

Gathering may be difficult, so long as you think of gathering in the way institutionalized religion defines it. And, gathering is important among followers of Jesus.

We should not be "giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing..." (Heb. 10:25)

But, gathering isn't worship.

These days, gathering will be a challenge.

Opportunities to engage in "true and proper worship" will be a piece of cake.

My Latest eNews Comment

Finally.

For more than a decade, I've been begging the highest holders of institutional authority in the CGGC to actually DO something that matches their glorious talk.

I've got nothing against the talk. I agree with the talk. I LOVE the talk. It's the talk I talk.

But, I've often believed that our holders of institutional authority desecrate the talk by not obviously, blatantly, walking their wonderful talk.

In his latest, though, Lance's describes a walk that matches the talk.

If you haven't read Lance's latest yet, you must read it.

This is a clear and simple example of a way we can practice followership.

Thanks, Lance.

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

Here's my comment:

Lance,

I am so profoundly blessed and encouraged by what you have done among your neighbors.

In the Sermon on the Mount , Jesus commands, “Let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven.”

These challenging and uncertain days provide people who obey Jesus with opportunities to be light with few words and simple, powerful acts of mercy and love.

Thank you for setting an example in good works (Mt. 5:16, Eph. 2:10, James 2:18) that can be followed.

God's Judgment Against the Christendom Church?

I blog about my job more than any single issue. The name of the blog suggests that I believe that I am an Acting Ambassador of the Kingdom of God.

I think in Kingdom terms about much of what I do on the job.

About a week ago, I was involved in a conversation that could easily have gone in a Kingdom direction but, in the movement,  I was mute.

I was running a cash register for some reason and engaging the customer and the bagger in conversation...presumably about the coronavirus.

And, the 50something female customer said, "I'll tell you what I think. I think this is God's judgment on the nation of China."

I nodded and grunted, or something, but was at a loss for words because I was having one of those instant, in the moment, unthought through thoughts that I guess other people have too.

Often, when I have them, I think: That's crazy. And, it goes nowhere and is soon forgotten.

The thought I had at that moment probably is crazy, but I'm still thinking about it.

The thought was, "I think it's God's judgment on Christendom Christianity."

What I mean by Christendom Christianity is Middle Ages, parish priest oriented church-ism...where the pastor/priests provide religious products and services to the laity.

Honestly, I don't think that this is the function of God judging nearly all of the congregations and denominations in the United States and what's left of Christianity in Europe.

What I do think is that this is an opportunity for repentance to happen.

I've been watching, via my small connection to social media, as churches scurry through the process of finding, legal, if possible, ways of continuing the provider/consumer...having-nothing-to-do-with-what-Jesus-taught-or-did...way of being church.

And, yikes!

How is a church supposed to collect the sort of offering that will pay the pastor's salary and benefit package plus pay the other church salaries and bills if we can't collect an offering from people who physically attend a brick and mortar church facility?!!!?!!!!!! This may go on for months!

And, beyond that, have enough moolah to support all the staff people on the payroll of the Conference and the denomination!

Is the coronavirus God's judgment on all of you christendomites?

Not directly, in my opinion.

But, the coronavirus is exposing Christendom for some of its folly.

Truly, the most serious problem that I see, in a religious culture that is experiencing numerical decline and spiritual decay, is how do you Christendom Church people feed your flocks dependent on the consumption of those high quality religious products and services the laity has come to depend, and which it demands?

This is a problem.

As far as I can tell, it was not a problem among subjects of the Kingdom of God in its first few centuries.

In fact, times of plague and persecution were times of amazing growth among followers of Jesus two millennia ago.

Western Christianity today is a mess.

I don't think God's judging it. More to the point, you're bring judgment on yourself.

We truly must repent. And, this is a crisis moment when change can happen.

Driving the Corolla Hybrid

It's about two months to the day that we picked up our Toyota Corolla Hybrid.

We bought it in the hope that it would be our last, and very economical car...a hedge against the days when gas prices skyrocket.

Obviously, the skyrocketing thing is not an issue now. How much have gasoline prices dropped in the last two months?

Currently, we're getting 52-53 miles per gallon and a friend who's been driving hybrids for years tells us that hybrids do better in hot weather.

It seems as if it will be a good car. The battery is guaranteed for 8 years, 150,000 miles. And the engine is the Toyota 1.8 liter engine that has done well for decades.

The car replaced a 2006 Buick that we bought from dad, when he became unsafe to drive and which got 22 mpg. So, we're doing well there.

We also have a 2008 Honda Civic Coupe with 150,000+ miles on it, which I drive to work when Evie's able to drive. It still gets a little better than 25 mpg and has required little maintenance.

Not bad.

CGGC eNews News Update

Just moments ago, my comment in reply to Lance's eNews question, What is Discipleship?, was published. I thank the blog moderator for publishing my comment.

No other blog responses appear. Such is the state of followership, of Lance anyway.

Not being Able to Care about the Coronavirus

Starting today, in Pennsylvania, as I understand it, all "nonessential businesses" have been ordered by the governor to close until further notice...or at least strongly recommended to close.

That's what I think, though I'm not certain.

I know that I can still go to work at my job in a grocery store, where we sell toilet paper. 

(By the way, I'm still off of work but will probably return tomorrow, Wednesday. A coworker messaged me yesterday to tell me that we are out of toilet paper. Business is still perpetually as if a blizzard is forecast for tomorrow.)

But, at the moment I don't care about any of that.

This thing with Evie's ruptured colon and its continuing aftermath has consumed me.

It's amazing how perspective works.

Anyway, I'll say that I'm thankful for the readers of this blog. Readership is up since I've been journaling and updating on Evie. Thank you for your concern and for your prayers.

It's still hard to know where this will end. I'm guessing that it may come down to what the blood cultures reveal.

Evie says that her pain is way down. She's off of the opioids and doing okay with Tylenol.

She hopes to expand her activity level today to the extent she does more than get to the biffy. But she is exhausted.

She hates having a colostomy.

One way that I am aware of the coronavirus issue, is that I'm concerned that my job in a grocery store, especially in customer service, will be a problem if Evie gets home. Her immune system will be extremely compromised. And, working with the public as I do, I'll be susceptible to infection.

By the way, the owners of the store have been extremely understanding so far.

On a separate issue. I am so happy that we moved into the home. If Evie needs to be released to a personal care or skilled care facility, that's covered...and in a facility very highly rated by Medicare...and a walk of about 2 minutes from my apartment.

Prayer Update on Evie

Here's a development that doesn't come as a surprise to us. It is a concern.

We are so thankful for all of the prayers:

All along, Evie's been on IV antibiotics but has continued to run a fever. The infectious disease doctor took blood to do cultures. Today, early results from the cultures came in.

At the very least, she has staph and e-coli. For the first time, the doctor called it peritonitis. This is not a surprise, but it is not good news.

Again we ask for continued prayer.

As always, Evie has an amazing attitude and her faith remains strong.

Being Jesus among People Hoarding Toilet Paper

FYI, I was finishing this post as Evie began to experience her ruptured colon Friday morning. Shortly after I typed the draft of this post I was in my car, following the ambulance to the hospital. 

This is part journal entry and part, uh, "sermon."

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I love my job working with the public in a grocery store where I envision my real task to be serving as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God.

One aspect of this role that I don't believe I've ever mentioned is what I learn about the folly of fallen human nature, as well as the glories of what it means to be redeemed.

I'm convinced that every self-imagined leader of the institutional church should work for one month in a position similar to mine. Every day, I learn important truths about the disciples that the church shepherds as well as the people of the world who need to repent and believe the good news.

The things I've learned about people!

Oh, how it would have increased the effectiveness of my ministry when I was a parish priest.

It's an education every Jesus follower could pay loads of money for and, the store actually pays me to experience it!

Anyway, the days since people, around here at least, began to take the coronavirus seriously have supplied those who do what I do with new, valuable lessons.

I get that the virus is serious and can be life threatening, especially for geezers such as myself.

And, I understand that if one contracts it, it's important to treat the symptoms to minimize their effect...

...but hoarding toilet paper???!!!?!?

Nothing that toilet paper can be used for addresses a symptom of this illness.

Clearly, people can be irrational when fear overtakes them. It's a challenge to be in the midst of it. And, it can either be annoying or, if one works hard at it, amusing to behold. Either way, it's powerful to experience.

As a matter of coincidence I asked for a few days off in March and, though today (Friday) and tomorrow were not my first choice, those are the days off I received.

The panic was a rumble on Wednesday, my last day of work this week.

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As a Kingdom ambassador, one of my roles is to uphold and encourage...to shepherd in a non-institutional church way...other team members. My phone has been buzzing like a bee as it alerts me of texts from coworkers.

THEY ARE GOING CRAZY!

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Times like this either bring out the best or the worst in people and we are seeing the height of selfishness and greed in many people.

In my cycle of MLI, we learned that in the first few centuries of the New Testament Kingdom, the faith expanded most rapidly when believers showed Christ's love unselfishly, and often at the cost of their own lives, at times when plagues ravaged portions of the Roman Empire. When others panicked, even hated, Christians loved. 

My believing coworkers and I have the opportunity to be on the front lines of grace and mercy...as do all believers these days.

Incidentally, I just received and read Lance's latest eNews in which he addresses the challenges presented to people who love Jesus by the spread of the coronavirus. Lance says this, in part:

We live in a culture that’s already plagued by loneliness and isolation. The measures taking place right now will just increase that sense of isolation and loneliness. Jesus calls us to love our neighbor as we love ourselves. Now is one of the greatest opportunities for the people of God to live out our faith with real hope and authentic care. Reach out to your neighbors. I’m already hearing about churches exploring how to help feed vulnerable children who won’t have the benefit of hot school lunches for several weeks. Now is the time to put our faith into action. How can you put God’s love on display in the days and weeks to come? How can you demonstrate and proclaim the love of Jesus Christ in the next few days?

While I wish Lance wouldn't make this so much about what CHURCHES do, I applaud his take on the challenges of this time.

We are in the midst of an historic opportunity to live as people of the Kingdom.

"Blessed are the merciful, for they will be shown mercy."

Evie Stuff

Apologies to those of you who know parts of this from Facebook or texts or emails.

On Friday morning, Evie was taken by ambulance to Lancaster General Hospital with intense abdominal pain.

She was diagnosed with what's now being called a ruptured colon.

She was admitted to the hospital and seemed to be progressing well with IV antibiotics.

She doesn't like even me to be around her when she's in pain, so we agreed that I'd not visit her on Saturday but see her on Sunday.

Saturday morning she called to say that she was doing better and that I should come to the hospital to visit because the hospital was going to go under quarantine at 3:00 that afternoon.

I was stunned when I arrived to hear that she was being prepared for surgery because her white cell count was high and her temperature was rising.

She had the surgery late in the afternoon.

Part of her intestine was removed. She has a (hopefully temporary) colostomy. The surgeon said that there's a slight chance that she may require more surgery.

She's texted a few times this morning. She still has a fever that's higher than makes me comfortable and says she has pain when she moves. Based on how unreadable some of her texts are, I suspect that she's very heavily medicated.

She tried to describe all of the tubes coming out of her body, but that text was impossible to make sense of.

Aggravatingly, the hospital is, indeed, under quarantine due to the challenges of the spread of the coronavirus and I won't be able to see her, unless this deteriorates to an end of life situation.

It's hard to say where this is headed.

She could be running up and down the halls in a few days. Or, not.

Please keep us in your prayers.

Update on Evie

The surgeon just talked to us. Evie has diverticulitis and the infected area "popped," which is bad but there is no infection on the outside of the colon. Evie will NOT need surgery but she will be hospitalized for 3-7 days.

Thank you all for your prayers. Please continue to pray.

Evie was taken by ambulance to LGH with severe abdominal pain

Please be praying.

Proverbs 22:6 and My Appreciation of Hank Williams' Music

I had a brief follow-up, off the blog, conversation about my post on how, over the years, I have come to enjoy the music of Hank Williams.

And, it got me thinking. Proverbs 22:6 says something like, according to various traditions, if you start a child out on the way they should go that even when they are old they won't turn from it.

That's proverbial wisdom. It's true in a general sense about all of life.

And, I'm thinking that that's what happened with Hank's music and me.

As I recall, I made it clear to my mom that I didn't like her music and I can't recall that she tried to convince me that I should like it. Knowing mom, as I do now, it probably hurt her feelings that I wanted to puke over her music.

But, the point is that when I reached adulthood, I came genuinely to like that music...A LOT. I  don't like contemporary country music particularly, but, up through the 70s, I groove on it.

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Now for a spiritual harangue.

The proverb focuses on the way a child learns to go, that is, what a child sees parents do.

I suspect that, in this truth, lies a useful explanation for the numerical decline and spiritual decay of today's institutionalized church.

Perhaps, in the recent past, children learned too much about going to church and far too little about following Jesus.

It seems to me that the churchy way they were taught to go strikes them as being shallow and empty and lacking in significance and that, for many millennials, and people who are younger, the church offers them nothing that has meaning.

And, with today's emphasis, among leaders of the institutional church, on the saving of the church, and not on radical Jesus following, it seems to me that we are asking for continued failure according to the wisdom of Proverbs 22:6.

These days, I pick up a lot of impressive talking, especially from the holders of institutional authority in the institutional church, but what those folks do, is from the old way of being church.

We need a revolution in the way we go...the way we live...the example we set, in order to reverse our demise.

And, so far, that's not happening.

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One way of understanding revival movements is that they introduce a radically new way of doing Christianity, a way that works for a new generation.

I'm convinced that we need a radically new way of doing. We've got the talking down but that's not the answer.

We're not close to that now.

My Comment on Lance's eNews Question: What is Discipleship?

Okay, gang, I did it. I just now demonstrated followership of CGGC E. D. Lance Finley. 

In his eNews six days ago, he attempted to lead a blog conversation through an article entitled, "What is Discipleship?"

I have done what I can do as a member of the CGGC community and honored his request by providing an answer to the question. In recent days, I gave careful thought to the question and answered it in a way that I think is appropriate to the blog format. 

My comment is copied at the end of this post. 

A few comments about the eNews conversation that has developed in response to Lance's request for conversation: 

First, as of now, there is none. No comments have been published on the blog. There may be some awaiting moderation. However, if the request for conversation was sincere, I would have hoped that any comments would be published as soon as possible for the sake of achieving the goal of having a conversation. We know how the blog works. A new article will be entered tomorrow and finding this article will be difficult. 

Second, when I entered my comment, I noticed that there'd been 41 Facebook shares of Lance's article. This fascinates me. Apparently, many people thought Lance's article was worth spreading but not responding to on the blog. I hope that the shares of the article produced a lot of response on the various Facebook pages. But, even if they did, so far at least, there's no conversation on the official CGGC blog. I rail against the provider/consumer culture in the CGGC. What I'm afraid we're seeing is that culture doing its thing again and that CGGC people are content merely to consume Lance's latest religious product. If that's the case, we are really and truly broken and we, very seriously, must repent. 

Anyway, here's my comment:

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Lance,

This is a relevant and crucial question. I hope that you will follow it up and, in time, provoke a lively conversation which will produce fruit.

In the interim, I have three thoughts.

1. Jesus Himself provides some startling warnings about who CANNOT be His disciple. These warnings provide a baseline.  Jesus says that a person who doesn't hate their father and mother, wife and children, and brothers and sisters, even their own life cannot be His disciple.  Jesus adds that anyone who does carry his own cross and follow Him cannot be His disciple. And, that anyone who does not give up everything he has can't be His disciple.  (Lk. 14:26f)

2. In a more big picture way, I believe that, using the language of the Kingdom, a disciple is someone who makes Jesus their Lord. That is, a disciple is someone who literally and intentionally sets aside their own rights to give Jesus absolute authority over all they DO, so that the teachings and commands of Jesus become the law of their life, above everyone and everything else. To speak of Kingdom means to live with under the stark Lordship of Jesus.

3. For us in the CGGC, I think that its helpful to understand that, in our early days, there was a common understanding of what it meant to follow Jesus for the people who were members of the Church of God. John Winebrenner created a 27 point list of the faith and teachings of the Church of God. In our community, in those first years, this was our standard. It defined both doctrine and the living out of our beliefs. Certainly, times have changed. Much of what is contained in those 27 points no longer applies. However, in those days, people inside and outside the Church of God could agree that those points were not "aspirational." They described the real-world, day to day truth about who we were and what we did.  Biblical people often faced the challenges of the present, and the future, by taking stock of the faith and the lives of the men and women of God in the past. I believe that we could...SHOULD...do the same.

Thank you, Lance, for asking the very important question. I truly hope that our body will follow and enter into the conversation you propose.

Lance's eNews Question: What is Discipleship?

It's very possible that you haven't read the latest eNews.

In it, Lance recounts his presence in a meeting attended by other "leaders" in which the question was raised, "Can someone define discipleship for me?"

Lance says that he doesn't think there was a consensus in response to the question.

And, Lance goes on to define some things that are not discipleship.

Just a note of historical reference. The 2016 General Conference sessions were devoted to disciple making and four years later we're asking the question as if its never been in our conversation?

But, Lance is asking the question and he's absolutely correct, in the CGGC, we don't have a common understanding of what discipleship is.

He concluded the eNews inviting conversation, asking three questions: "So, what is discipleship? How do you define it? How do you know when you're making disciples?"

Lance is attempting to lead our body into a  important conversation.

Will anyone demonstrate followership?

Hank Williams' Songs and Mom and Me

My mother grew up poor.

She lived her early years in an area of southern Pennsylvania that strikes me as being more very rural western Maryland and West Virginia in ethos than Pennsylvania.

My grandmother and my aunts and uncles identified as "hillbillies." Proudly. Contentedly.

It was what I'd call Appalachia.

My grandparents were typical. Grandpa was 26 when they married. Grandma was 13. They had their first child, of nine, the next year. The baby was a girl. My aunt married at 13, also, and had a baby the next year.

My grandmother was a grandmother at age 28, and everything was perfectly legitimate and normal for that time and place.

Mom was born in the depression and the family was very, very poor. Mom's told me some stories, but I can't relate.

She brushed her teeth with charcoal because buying toothpaste was out of the question.

She quit school after eighth grade to work and support the family.

Dad was from very German Lancaster County, Pennsylvania from a rather poor, but wealthy by the standards of mom's family, family. He was raised to be a member of the Reformed Church. He valued wearing Sunday best clothes and shoes shined on Saturday to church every Sunday. I, like my dad, could recite The Apostles' Creed before we could read.

Dad's family was stern and respectable. And, quiet.

How did mom and dad end up together? Obviously, they did. They had an amazingly loving relationship. Mom still aches for him, now that he's gone. But, they came from two different worlds.

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

When I was young, we listened to dad's music on the stereo that was the nicest piece of furniture in our living room.

Mitch Miller. Tennessee Ernie Ford. George Beverly Shea. And, on the wild side, Al Jolson. "I'd walk a million miles for one of those smiles, my mammy." It's the music I knew.

When we visited mom's family, it was a loooong drive...into a different world. They loved their music.

Loud and blaring. Fiddles. Harmonicas. Twangy steel guitars. Foreign and peculiar. Corny. I hated it...loathed it.

Being amidst the sounds of grandma's was culture shock.

As I look back on it now, it saddens me that the best part of those trips was the leaving. Getting into the car and hearing nothing.

Later on, I warmed up to the cousins on that side of the family and though I rarely see them, love the ones I know.

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

Years later, I was 41 years old, watching the Super Bowl and I saw what is still, by far, my favorite TV commercial.

The perspective is from a black and white convenience store security camera. A Coke delivery guy finishes stocking the Coke cooler.  The strains of a steel guitar begin. The Coke guy checks that no one is looking, reaches into the Pepsi cooler removes a can of Pepsi and hundreds of soda cans pour out on to the floor while the steel guitar leads into one of the most familiar songs of the twentieth century...and Hank Williams sings, Your Cheatin Heart. (Google "Your Cheatin Heart Pepsi commercial." But, you can't possibly enjoy it as much as I do.)

The first time I saw it, I was flooded with warmth and nostalgia and I loved it.

And, I realized, I love the steel guitar and harmonicas, and fiddles. And, out of nowhere, I knew that I love the music of Hank Williams.

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

More recently, we had that visit with mom at the home when she suddenly, and inappropriately belted out, in song, off key, in public, the Hank musical phrase, "Hey, good lookin, what ya got cookin? How's about cookin something up with me?" It was a classic Alzheimer's moment.

I wrote about that visit here last October. That day with mom, we YouTubed several Hank Songs. As I said in that post, it was a wonderful moment. Mom's eyes absolutely sparkled as she sang along with Hank.

The moment has lingered for me.

Hank was much more to mom than the Beatles were to me. She was a teen when Hank was big. He died when she was 18. And, it's clear from how well she knows the words to those songs and how joyfully she sings them...and how dangerously she dances to them...that Hank connects her to happy memories from a troubled early life.

So, Hank connects me to my childhood and to my mom's childhood and, now, to happy moments in mom's decline.

And, it's really very good music that endures and continues to be recorded and performed.

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

What follows is a list of Hank Williams songs that have meaning to me.

1. Hey Good Lookin, one of Hank's best known. It's in the Grammy Hall of Fame. It's not my fave but mom sings it gleefully. It's probably her fave and, therefore, has meaning to me.

2. Move It On Over. You may not know this song. Again, I'm not crazy about the song itself. It was Hank's first hit. 1947. But, listen to it and you'll probably hear Rock Around the Clock. Move it on Over is considered to be one of the earliest examples of rock and roll music...7 YEARS BEFORE BILL HALEY'S WELL KNOWN HIT.

3. Take These Chains from My Heart. Williams didn't actually write this song and it's not of the quality of the songs that follow on this list, in my opinion. It was recorded in Hank's last session and soared to the top of the Country charts after he died and has been covered by many, including Ray Charles and Martina McBride.

4. Your Cheatin Heart, is the song that connected me to Hank's music when I saw the Pepsi commercial. It's been said that the song, "for all intents and purposes, defines country music." It, also, came out of that last, amazing recording session in 1952. It's on Rolling Stone's list of the 500 greatest songs of all time and CMT's number 5 on its list of greatest country songs. Amazingly, it was the B side on the record when it was released in 1953 after Williams died. The movie on Hank Williams' life, starring George Hamilton, took the title of this song as its title.

The next three songs vary, depending on the moment, as my favorite Hank Williams song.

5. I Can't Help It (If I'm Still in Love with You), is one of Williams' best known and, again was the B side of the record. What were they thinking!? The lyrics are pathetic and powerful. He sang the song with Anita Carter on the Kate Smith Evening Hour in 1952. That performance is sweet and tender and can be You Tubed. Linda Ronstadt covered the song, backed by Emilou Harris, in the 70s. Great stuff.

6. Cold Cold Heart. This song was also released as a B side on its record, behind "Dear John," which was a very minor hit. Tony Bennett recorded CCH in 1951. Bennett's version, which seems bland to me, stayed at number 1 on the pop charts for six weeks. The song is an in entry the Great American Songbook. There's a recording of Hank singing this song, also on Kate Smith's show where Williams acknowledges that, up to that time, CCH was his biggest financial success and had, "bought...quite a few beans and biscuits." Tony Bennett recorded it again on his first Duets album, with Tim McGraw, in 2006. Very, very nice.

7. I'm So Lonesome I Could Cry. The title says all you need to know. But, the four verses of the lyrics are anguished, pained and profound. Elvis Presley sang the song in his, 1973 Aloha From Hawaii TV special and introduced it as "probably the saddest song I've ever heard." I'm not the world's biggest Elvis fan, but he did the song proud. The song came relatively early in William's brief career.

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

So, this is it. Seven Hank Williams songs that have meaning to me and, as I said, connect me to my childhood and to my mom. This is all more important to me as I watch my mom slip away, losing her battle with Alzheimer's.

One final note. I've been thinking about writing this post almost since I wrote the post, last October, about mom singing Hank in the home.

I've been listening to the music as I've written this...

...and, man! Am I depressed.

I have a good life with many reasons to brim with joy, but those, especially last three, songs could take the wind out of anyone's sails.

Still, I'll always love Hank's music.

On the Front Lines with the Corona Virus

Yesterday was my week day day off from my job at the supermarket.

I wrote our schedule for the day earlier in the week. As I recall, the total number of baggers and cashiers scheduled for that one day was 26. Five people called off sick.

Winter is a tough time of the year for people who work around food in a store.

It's germ central.

Cashier handle gobs of paper money which is covered with a mess of germs.

And, reusable grocery bags? What a nightmare!

You can't imagine how filthy people allow those things to become. And, grocery store baggers have to stick their hands into dozens of them in a typical day.

Surprisingly, one of the horrors of bagging in reusable bags is handling bags covered with cat hair...apparently cats love to curl up in them...and, also apparently, incontinent cats often have accidents in them, because it's common enough for those bags to possess the distinct odor of cat urine.

You probably have no idea how much toxic material we handle as a matter of course.

And, now, there's the Corona Virus.

Nearly everyone I work with either under the age of 21 or over the age of 60. Nearly every geezer I work with gets a flu shot and, still, there's a lot of sickness.

Of course, this pandemic thing could end up coming to nothing, but, honestly, I'm concerned.

I have visions of a Stephen King novel becoming truth.

It's scary. Truly.

If you have compassion, say a prayer for the people who will be serving when you enter your local Kroger or Food Lion or Giant.

These days, it's not a good job.

Being the "Team" Guy in Leadership

Many of my posts here, especially lately, are about what I'm calling Followership.

I'm really discussing what others call leadership but I'm making the point that you're not leading if no one's following. And, I'm highlighting the fact that, in my part of the institutional church, people who perceive themselves to be leaders aren't because following isn't taking place.

I've been contrasting my own role in leadership in my lowly position on the management team among a crew of about 50 cashiers and baggers in a Supermarket...a group of people who, incidentally, are wildly praised by the store's owners as well as its customers...

...and the self-proclaimed leaders, or holders of institutional authority in my denomination, who talk leadership ad nauseam but who generate virtually no followership apart from the others who serve on their own Commissions, Committees, Councils and Task Forces.

How frustrating must it be for the holders of institutional authority in a heavily institutionalized religious body to think about leadership so deeply and to write and talk about it with such sophistication to have to face the fact, when they do face facts, that no one is following.

It's pleasant and fulfilling for me, in my position, where it's actually part of my job to be a leader, to create followership, to be followed so very easily.

As I've said in the past, I understand that much of my success in attaining followership is that there is a highly functional system in place. That is to say that the work culture encourages people who are tasked to lead, to lead and makes it easy for people who must follow, to follow.

I've had almost nothing to do with the creation of that highly functional culture, though I'll claim the smallest role in the development of the culture itself.

I do two things within the work culture that make me both effective and productive.

1. I embrace the values of the leadership culture with wild abandon.

2. I fill the role in leadership that I'm best equipped to do with abundant enthusiasm.

Interestingly, there's no job description that assigns my role to me. Yet, among the things that a good leadership team does, I achieve a vital task that must be done.

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

I'm the team guy.

My boss is a great leader. I've blogged about his leadership before. He gained control of the department about two years ago and immediately began to introduce cultural changes to the way the group functions. Those changes are organic in that they flow from who he is, and he is a naturally gifted leader.

The power in the changes he's introduced is that they come from who he is authentically. They didn't come to us because he read a fascinating leadership book...though he may have actually read the fascinating book...they flow from two places, and this is crucial. They flow from:

First, who he is, and,

Second, what he actually does, i.e., he actually and always, walks the talk. The change in the department came 100 percent from what he did, never ever from what he said.

Trust me, Justin is a good and gifted guy. But, he is human. Like everyone he has strengths and weaknesses.

One area where I compliment him is that I love being connected with the lives of the people we lead.

As a kid, I loved playing sports and I was not a good athlete. But, I loved being on a team...being part of something bigger than myself.

Being a team member has always been how I've want to do life. It's essential to the authentic me.

(Perhaps some day, I'll muse over how my yearning to be a part of something bigger than I am has produced the disaffection? that exists between the holders of institutional authority in the CGGC and me.)

Anyway, Justin's authentic self doesn't include knowing about the kids and grandkids and parents and grandparents of the geezers and the teens we lead...

...and I absolutely groove on that stuff.

So far today, its now 8:36 a.m., I've exchanged about a dozen and a half texts with coworkers...and, it's my day off!

Justin would be crawling out of his skin.

Even though we collaborate on most issues pertaining to human resources, I kill myself not to bother him when he's off site, because I know that I would bother him.

So, one role I have assumed in leadership is to be the team guy.

I'm good cop. Justin calls himself, "bad cop," though he's a very personable guy. He can exert authority as sternly as he needs to because I'm a presence on the team...

...and, of course, my role is authentic to me and flows from me. It pleases me. It invigorates me.

(As a side note, because of culture issues, there's never leadership burnout here. I'm a geezer and I'm burning out physically but do it hating to have to step away from the team...

...whereas, in the institutional church, burnout, well, we all know...)

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So, I'm the team guy.

Oddly, when I was a part of the institutional church, I loathed being a pastor and despised being in the role of the parish priest, provider of religious products and services.

But, in a functional leadership environment, it's natural for me to lead as the team guy.

What's the difference? Values? Culture.

Anyway, I'm the team guy and I'm lovin it. And, based on feedback, doing okay with it.

Functionality.

Culture.

Authenticity.

Creating followership.

My Mom and the Corona Virus

My mom's in her 80s and she lives in a home that gets very high ratings from Medicare. We're very pleased with the care she receives.

A geriatric medical practice serves the residents of the home but I can't remember the last time my mom saw a medical doctor.

There is a physician's assistant who is present, I'd guess full-time. And, who does see mom very regularly, and would refer mom to a doctor's care, if she deemed it necessary.

Mom has COPD. As a result she's very susceptible to upper respiratory infections. She comes down with one or two every winter.

She got sick with her second of the season about three weeks-ish ago. That was near the beginning of the time that the spread of the Corona virus was becoming prominent in the news.

When mom became ill, before we could ask, Jennifer, the PA, told us that she was not going to test mom for the virus, reasoning that the treatment is the same (as for the flu).

So, mom's sick. She seems, finally, to be recovering. And, she almost certainly didn't have the Corona virus. But, we'll never know.

And, that is a problem with knowing how many cases there have been.

No doubt, early on, people like mom who had the symptoms weren't tested. And, for a practical reason. It really  wouldn't have mattered.

Why I Quote Other People on My Blog

A recent change in the way I conduct myself as a blogger is that I, more regularly, mention off the blog conversation and, much more frequently, copy the words of others into my posts.

I do that for several reasons.

One is that I think I express myself best in those exchanges.

Another is that I want two groups of people to understand that I am not alone.

One of those groups is the very significant sub universe of people who see things in a way that is similar to the way I see life in today's Kingdom...at least to the degree that others are saying to me things that I might say myself.

The second group I want to be challenged by the reality that I am not alone is the holders of institutional authority, especially in the CGGC.

I lived in Findlay for about half a decade. I was on the staff of the seminary and was friends with several people on General Conference staff. And, I know how it can go in the General Conference office building.

On one level, they know that there are dissenting voices across the body, but the people who sit behind the desks in those spacious offices are tempted to think that the number of CGGC people who are committed to principles such as, in this case, the absolute authority of the Bible as our "only rule of faith and practice" are very few.

They are tempted to believe that almost no one shares my opinion that the holders of institutional authority in the CGGC are too moderate, too lukewarm.

They want to believe and, very often, convince themselves, that I am one of a very few...and they can easily behave as if I am, truly, a lone wacko, an extremist whom they don't need to take seriously.

And, of course, they don't take me seriously.

So, from time to time, I include conversations that take place off the blog...for the benefit of the insiders...but, even more so, for the outsiders.

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The prophet Elijah was faithful to the Lord and reached a point at which he concluded, "I am the only one left," (who is faithful to the Lord.) (1 Kings 19:10, 14)

In His tender mercy, the Lord said to Elijah, "...I have reserved 7,000 in Israel-all whose knees have not bowed to Baal." (v. 18)

If you are one of the people whose notes I've included on one of my blogs,...

...understand. You and I are not alone. You are not alone. And, among all of the rest of us, we are not alone.

The holders of institutional authority in the CGGC will continue to face the temptation to believe that you and I are lone wackos...

...but, there are many.

The Re-emergence of CREEPING HIGH CHURCH-ISM in the Latest eNews

Gang,

Since the latest eNews arrived two days ago, I've been involved in two stimulating conversations about biblical authority, high church-ism, the CGGC, and Lance. 

It began when someone...besides me...someone who holds a decently significant place in the ministry of the ERC emailed me to ask when ERC churches started recognizing Ash Wednesday. 

I hadn't read the eNews by then and at the time, didn't understand the context of the question. 

I said that Ash Wednesday observance is very recent and that, when it happens John Winebrenner rolls over in his grave. 

I asked for his view about Ash Wednesday. He said, in part, 

We don't practice or celebrate it (in our church). I see no Biblical command or precedent to do it. But I understand more COG churches recognize Lent, which again I see no Biblical command to recognize.

And, in those words, my friend defined the many issues created by Lance's passing, yet powerful, reference, in the eNews, to how deeply he was moved by his participation in last week's Ash Wednesday activities. 

Among those MANY issues?

Is the CGGC, under Lance, now a high church church?

Considering our recent Statement of Faith, how is the Bible the "only rule of faith and practice" in the CGGC?

In what way does Lance submit himself to the authority of the Word?

In what way does Lance submit to the authority of the Conference?

And, realizing that the person who wrote to me is one of many in the CGGC who takes seriously the assertion that the Bible is "our only rule of faith and practice," and that Lance, by flaunting his involvement in an Ash Wednesday service without apology or explanation: Does Lance disrespect those CGGC people?


Oddly, I'd not noticed high church-ism in Lance until the latest eNews and I was actually considering writing a post removing Creeping High Church-ism from my Characteristics of the CGGC Brand. 

Now, of course, that's off the table. Lance has brought high church-ism back into the CGGC conversation with a vengeance. 

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So, here's that characteristic:

Creeping High Church-ism.  In recent years, there has been a marked increase in the number of CGGC clergy who don clerical collars and who sport large crosses on chains around their necks. At the same time, there has been increasingly open, unashamed, proud and passionate advocacy of the high church's celebration of Lent, Holy Week and Advent from CGGC mountaintops.  This has had the effect of elevating the clergy of the CGGC as a hierarchical priesthood and stealing, from all the members of the CGGC body, their role as a universal priesthood. It also focuses the CGGC on the church that is served by credentialed priests, not the Kingdom Jesus brings.

Now, with the latest eNews, add to Lent, Holy Week and Advent...Ash Wednesday.

That first conversation I mentioned, at the beginning of this post, was initiated by a friend, the second conversation is one that I began.

As a result, I'll fold into this post only my own comments. It will be obvious that what I say is in response to an ongoing exchange. No doubt, there will be formatting issues.  I apologize. Also, understand that this is an exchange that may continue:


"Regarding the "fruit" question, to me the first question would be, "What is this fruit of?" (After that, what fruit is being produced can be a useful question.)

That's where the church calendar has problems. 

What is the church calendar fruit of? I see it coming from Middle Ages parish priest focused churchism and the provider/consumer of religious products and services way of being church focused. 

Further, it makes the parish priest a sort of religious Avon Lady who consumes a religious product from the source to be distributed to the ultimate consumers. It certainly doesn't promote the priesthood of all believers. 

And, Ash Wednesday? Priesthood of all believers? Ha! 

The laity become the ultimate and very bizarre consumers. And, righteousness becomes having a smudged forehead. (I know that is in Mt. 5-7 somewhere...or is it Mt. 25. No James 2. Or, is it Ephesians 2:11?)"

I also wrote,


"Re: Winebrenner and the Bible. 

The reason Winebrenner is in My Top Five Heroes of the History of the Kingdom is due to his deadly serious and uncompromised attempt to bring New Testament Christianity to life in his time and place.

Clearly, I don't embrace his finished product without reservation. And, I suspect that Winebrenner himself believed his 1829 A BRIEF VIEW...was a first sketch. We formed the Eldership the next year with the 1829 book as a sort of unofficial road map, but was that to be the end-all, be-all? I doubt it.

After the Civil War, the Holiness/Pentecostal movement came from precisely the same yearning to bring the New Testament to life as the Church of God came from in 1830.

Perhaps the biggest mistake of our body was to reprint A BRIEF VIEW...in 1880 as a rejection (to) and defense against the Holiness/Pentecostal movement. From that moment on, we, in effect, ceased to be New Testament Plan people and became people who had canonized St. Winebrenner of Harrisburg. 

Since then, Winebrenner's New Testament plan, in terms of what we actually DO, has come to mean nothing. Lance has even rewritten the CGGC Mission Statement to expunge those words from our conversation."

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The friend who wrote to me and raised the issues of "biblical command or precedent" raises crucial questions. And, very importantly, he is one of many.

The holders of institutional authority in the CGGC want the body to take their Strategic Plan seriously but the truth is that the holders of institutional in the CGGC don't have the trust of many in the body.

In the wake to the latest eNews, it will now be more difficult for the people who wrote the Strategic Plan to earn the trust of a significant number of the people in the body.

When I responded to the question about Ash Wednesday in the first conversation, I said, "We are a mess."

We are a mess.