THREAD 2: An Innovative, Constructive, Positive, Specific and Practical Apostolic Proposal--One Plan for Repentance

Gang,

I mentioned that I am engaged in two private conversations in response to my blog entry on the liberal Democrat model that CGGC leadership has adopted.  I call them THREADS 1 and 2.  To avoid chaos, I'm going to enter the conversation of THREAD 2 as a separate blog.

As you will see, THREAD 2 presents a specific, 8 point, proposal regarding how our body might correct the abuses coming from the unbiblical and highly secular leadership model General Conference staff has adopted.  Note, in this proposal, actual reference to biblical truth, something absent from communication from leadership.

As I sometimes say, there are people who see what's going on in the CGGC who feel more passionately and speak more strongly than even I would.  I am not alone.  Indeed, I am not even the  most passionate or outspoken.  AND, as you will see, the truth is that there are others who are more radical in rejecting what goes on in Findlay than am I.  THREAD 2 comes from one of those people.

What follows is an an email I received.  Below it I will include a preliminary response to that email.

I invite public (on the blog) or private (by email) conversation centered on this proposal.

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Here's what I was thinking as I read your blog which, by the way, was spot on, as usual.  Let me set forth an acid test that I think will determine whether there is a biblically mandated need for the CGGC to have a separate level of "elite spiritual leadership" beyond the local church level.  Here is that test: 

• Have all the full-time executive directors, assistant directors, leaders, and paid staff at both the denominational and regional level take a one-year unpaid leave of absence from their positions (this will be hard, but the Lord does challenge us to make sacrifices for the glory of His name and the building up of His church).  It may also help those displaced from their church-supported paid positions to have to wake up each day and labor in the world among the unbelievers (1 Peter 2:11-12), using their talents and skills to find and hold onto a job (hopefully with some kind of health benefit package that's remotely affordable...), much like all the members of the flock must do on a daily basis.
• Have a new approach to spiritual leadership integrated into the life and fabric of the churches based on the APEST model.
• Have local congregations identify and set apart those who are gifted and called to serve as apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherd-teachers in the churches in their particular geographic area.
• Have all decision-making authority returned to the local churches throughout the denomination.
• Have all the money that would have been spent on staff salaries, benefits, and expenses invested in feeding and clothing the poor, supporting our apostles and evangelists, and providing for those in financial need at the local church level. 
• Have no new church-growth, church-health, or church-anything initiatives emanate from Findlay or any regional office throughout the denomination for the next 12 months.
• Have the local churches (members and elders and deacons) assume full-responsibility for the spiritual life and ministry of that church.
• Have an assessment done at the end of the 12-month period to determine if the churches are spiritually stronger or weaker as a result of not having full-time, paid executive directors, assistants, and staff dictating to all the local churches what should, or should not, be done to further the cause of Christ in the world.  Bottom line: Will the congregations be better off, or worse off, as a result of not having the spiritual elite macro- and micro- managing the Body of Christ????  Would the hierarchical-based denominational leadership structures even be missed????

I think that at the end of 12 months we would see a fulfillment of that classic adage: sometimes less is more.  Perhaps the time has really come in the CGGC to stop talking about how good Reggie's recommendations are (The Present Future- 6 Tough Questions For The Church), and to begin a concerted effort to put them into practice ("Now that you know these things, you will be blessed IF YOU DO THEM" --John 13:17).  

Just one person's thoughts...

 

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(My reply:)

 

My friend,

 

Thanks for the careful reading of what I wrote and for the investment of time and passion in formulating this response.

 

As you know, I think of you as being gifted with the calling to be an apostle.  In my opinion, what you have sent me is fruit of that calling.  It is innovative, constructive, positive, specific and practical.  Those five fruit, are, in my opinion, among the fruit of an apostle walking in the Holy Spirit and in his/her calling.  At this point, no other apostles connected to the CGGC are producing that fruit.

 

Apart from commenting on the specifics of your proposal, I will, first, offer this observation:  The very nature of your response is fruit of the difference between you and all of the other apostles contributing to the CGGC today.  It is fruit of how they need to repent.  What other CGGC apostles are doing is fruit of a foolish submission to the values of the CGGC's human shepherd-dominated leadership and not to the Lord.  The CGGC's leadership is moving to strengthen the CGGC as an institution and to enhance its top-heavy leadership hierarchy.  What those apostles are doing is not intentionally attuned to the truth of the Word--at least, they never mention the Word's teachings as authority for what they do. 

 

Thank you for adding this proposal to the conversation. What the body does with it, is between it and the Lord.

 

I will enter it on the blog as a separate blog entry to highlight its importance.