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Just a note of historical reference.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?
Sunday, March 8, 2020
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.
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.
Friday, March 6, 2020
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.
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.
Thursday, March 5, 2020
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...)
---------------
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.
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...)
---------------
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.
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.
Sunday, March 1, 2020
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.
---------------
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.
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.
---------------
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.
---------------
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."
---------------
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.
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.
---------------
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."
---------------
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.
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