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.