"A time to mourn"

Being the geezer I am, the Byrds 1965 hit, TURN! TURN! TURN!, is a compelling earworm dancing through my head as I think about CGGC delegates gathering for General Conference business sessions and to remember the origin of the Church of God in 1825.

(BTW, the Church of God Eldership was formed in 1830 and the 50th anniversary was celebrated in 1880.)

TURN! TURN! TURN!, is a 1950s folk, anti-war protest song written by folk music mega-star Pete Seeger. Seeger adapted Ecclesiastes 3 for the lyrics:"... a time for every purpose under heaven..." 

For many boomers, it's a classic. 

Anyway,...

I know how things go in the CGGC. John Winebrenner will appear at Conference sessions. Delegates will receive, from him, the message that we have a proud history. All of us should be glad. 

Here's the thing: The Church of God has an awesome history of walking in the power and blessing of the Spirit and of calling, to use Winebrenner's word, "sinners" to "repent and believe the Good News."

Our history is thrilling but our present is tragic. 

At General Conference you will be encouraged to cheer, but you should weep and wallow. 

Today, we are not walking in the power and blessing of the Spirit. Many of our churches are declining, many others have already closed. Our membership is aging. We are not raising up "leaders." We have to beg people from outside our body to pastor our churches.

This General Conference is a critical moment when, instead of looking to our early days to celebrate, we should examine our present and mourn. 

We are failing the Lord, but He loves to forgive. 

Jesus began the Sermon on the Mount: "Blessed are the poor in Spirit... Blessed are those who mourn." Later, He challenged, "Come to Me all you weary and burdened, then He promised, "I will give you rest." 

Later, after Paul challenged the Corinthians to repent, after they did repent, Paul explained: "godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret."

My dear friends, 

The CGGC is dying but it can once again, experience the power and blessing of the Spirit as it did at the beginning. 

This is, as the song says, "a time to weep,... a time to mourn..."

Pope Francis

I woke up to the news that Pope Francis died during the night.

I despise institutionalized Christianity. There's nothing in the Gospels that allows for the creation of a clergy class among disciples, let alone a multilayered, hierarchical elite class of "leaders" in the Body of Christ that provides religious products and services to a passive class of consuming lay people. 

As time passes, our own CGGC becomes less a vibrant body of Spirt-empowered followers of the Way in which the greatest is the servant of all and, where leaders "equip the saints for works of service." (Eph 4:12) And, the CGGC declines. 

For Roman Catholics, Pope Francis was a baby step in the right direction. True, he embraced the pomp of the institution, yet, he, at least, didn't see institutional trappings as his end all and be all.

Francis was a "least of these," Matthew 25 guy: "I was hungry and you gave me something to eat. I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink..." Francis practiced John 13, not as ritual but as life.

Francis moved Catholics toward raw obedience. 

The CGGC has needed someone like him for generations.