Wednesday, December 31, 2014

CGGC Trivia Question

There are currently six people in the CGGC holding the humanly-devised and unbiblical position, "Executive Director."

One of them once threatened me with legal action if I didn't remove him from my mailing list.

Which of them would you suppose it is?

Responses on or off the blog are welcome.

Monday, December 29, 2014

An Offer to Buy Faith a Church

Recently someone who doesn't know my history with the traditional church but who knows me through my job to be, using his words, as a person of "peace"--and who has some moolah--actually hinted that he would be willing to provide my "group" with a church building to be an actual church in.

He was literally willing to commit hundreds of thousands of dollars to support our ministry and actually called his real estate broker.

What an absolutely generous offer!

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I've had so many thoughts about the offer.

First, I've been trying to figure out the best way to explain to him how repulsive the idea of having a church building is to the group.

Also, this offer has served to help me understand how far I have moved from what people normally think of as living the Christian life.  I've been musing over the headaches we no longer have and the blessings that now are ours because we no longer possess property.  And, also thinking, "Ick!" over the prospect to going back to all of that stuff.

And, there is the realization that many people assume that we'd want to be a real "church" and to be that we'd need to have a sanctuary and a steeple and a pulpit and a set of pews.  For you New Testament plan people, where do you find those things in the New Covenant?

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Interestingly, this same guy DESPISES "organized religion" yet he would invest heavily in the mission of our group which is devoted to living out mercy and practicing the love Jesus commands.

For him apparently, seeing people follow Jesus simply and primitively is inspiring!

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If the offer had come when we were still practicing progressive Christendom-ism, I certainly would have taken it as an answer to prayer.

Thank God, it didn't.

Sunday, December 28, 2014

Gathering 12-28-14

Wow. Lots to note.

Today was Ward's seventy fifth birthday. Ward is intellectually disabled enough that he has been on SS disability for years, lives in a low-end assisted living facility on the dole and has a power of attorney, a sister who has been fed up with him for years.

Ward is one of those people who can--and regularly does--turn lemonade back into raw lemons. The people of Faith have been showing him mercy for years. Having said that, Ward is the sort of person who is responsible for the fact that our number has declined. Many grew tired of loving this quirky and bristly man

Look up the word curmudgeon in your dictionary. That sketch. It's Ward.

He's not a lot of fun to be around. He is one of those "least of these" who will determine where you and I will spend eternity.

We ended our gathering time giving him a party. He was pleased but I didn't hear him say thanks once. Our people oozed grace and mercy toward him. Neither are anything unusual.

I was so proud of our people. And, concerned about the lack of joy in Ward's heart.

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On another level, we had a sort of business meeting in which we confirmed among ourselves that this would be the last Sunday that we take an offering. We no longer will have a budget or a Treasurer, though we may take offerings in the future to care for specific needs among the poor. Individuals among us expressed interest in contributing to the needs of pastors' widows in the Conference and in contributing to the Conference to defray some of its losses when the congregation defaulted on its mortgage.

Lots of questions about who and what we will be on the future.

Saturday, December 27, 2014

Ed's Carefree and Defiant Insubordination...to HIMSELF: What Does it Say about Him?

Did you read the December 26 eNews?

Ed details his evening joyfully cavorting with his High Church CGGC and WTS buddies leading an Anglican Advent Mass on the Scotland campus of WTS.

And, remember who Ed is: Ed's the guy who bullied the new WE BELIEVE and the 2013 Statement of Faith through General Conference sessions in 2013--both of which declare the Bible as the CGGC's "only rule."

Strong and radical words. Words that other denominations usual omit from their own, well, Creeds.

Yet, for five years, Ed worked to put those words into our updated WB and our brand-spankin' new Statement of Faith.

Ed's also the guy who created the 2009 "New Testament plan" Mission Statement.  Where, in the New Testament, do you see the celebration of Advent Masses?

Jesus talked about the importance of the fruit a person's life produces (Matt. 7, John 15).  So, using Jesus as way of understanding Ed, what do you suppose is the truth about Ed?

What do you suppose this contradictory behavior is fruit of in Ed?

Sunday, December 21, 2014

Gathering 12-21-14

I've been sick for more than a week and I had a bad night last night and wasn't sure I would even take in today's gathering. In the end, I did go.

I'm glad I did.

In a twist from the normal pattern, I, the guy who despises the whole idea of celebrating Advent, asked people to mention favorite parts of Scripture dealing with God becoming flesh. The comments were remarkable and exciting. And, our time in the Word ran longer than your sermon. AND, everyone was sitting on the edge of his/her seat up to the moment we had to cut off our time in the Word to respect obligations that some in the group had to keep.

Each passage mentioned had to do with the disciple's lifestyle of obedience to Jesus based on the Father and Son's actions in the incarnation.

So often when we gather, my mind reflects on what we used to do when we were, for example, celebrating Advent and what you are doing if you are typical of Advent celebraters. And I am both sad and angry.

What we do has become focused on what the New Testament says about gatherings. Today, as is normal, we didn't worship God. We provoked each other on to love and good works. We now understand, as the NIV says, "true and proper worship" is celebrating the Lord by offering our own bodies as living sacrifices out of love for Him and His incarnation and atonement.

Another great day for us in His Kingdom.

Thursday, December 18, 2014

Coming Soon: My 2015 Update on the Characteristics of the CGGC Brand

I have been working on this for some time.

While little that I see has changed, I do think that the departure of the current CEO adds texture to the question of what our brand actually is.

If you have preliminary feedback, as always, your comments are welcome on and off the blog.

Feedback on My Incarnational Ministry at Weaver Markets

If you read this blog regularly, you probably have figured out that I consider myself to be reasonably faithful to the founding vision of the Church of God and to the talk of the Rosenberrian CGGC, though I despise and reject the Rosenberrians' walk.

I am still an ordained CGGC pastor, though I use the powers and privileges of that ordination in about the same way that Paul used his Roman citizenship--merely as a tool to enable him to have a greater impact as he took his gospel into the world.

I am not currently pastoring a church.  In fact, I reject, with all the passion I can muster, the pastor dominated leadership culture that has taken over the CGGC--and most of contemporary Western evangelicalism. 

As far as the so-called church is concerned, I now participate in two gatherings of disciples which have devolved out of what was the very traditionally seeker-sensitive ERC CGGC congregation called Faith Community Church.

I do not really serve in a leadership role in those gatherings.  Others are more verbal in the gatherings and provide more direction to the groups than I do.  I endeavor to be great as a servant in those gatherings and not to be a leader in the Christendom way.

If I do have a ministry, it is a viral one as one of the employees of Weaver Markets in Adamstown, PA.  In that ministry, I'm just bill.  I do several jobs in the store.  And, despite what my employers consider my tasks to be, I consider my real job to be that of embodying, as the Spirit gives me opportunity, the teachings of Jesus in the Sermon on the Mount.

To leave the pastorate and to take on such a ministry is risky.  It's not always a pleasure, though, by the end of the day, it is usually a joy.  And, I often wonder if I make a Kingdom difference in what I do.  I usually feel that I don't, though I learned a long time ago to distrust my emotional take on how I impact others.

Recently, I received an email from a coworker which contained these observations about me personally:
You definitely have a wonderful way about you that draws people to you. Your level of intelligence and personal inner peace are what made me want to get to know you better as a friend. I think you are a terrific person, and a rare man among men and I don't even know you that well yet. The world needs more Bill Sloats! :-)
Oivey!

I never made that sort of impact while I was tucked away in my study for hours on end preparing sermons and running from house to house doing pastoral visits to shut ins or visiting the hospitalized members of my church.

Maybe there is more to this sort of Kingdom ministry than I could have dreamed.

Sunday, December 14, 2014

House Gathering 12-14-14

Our gatherings are intensely spiritual, believe me when I say that. No two have ever been alike since we began to follow the biblical pattern of gathering which we have gleaned from several New Testament passages.

In some ways, today's was from another dimension. It fit the usual pattern in only the most vague way.

Today was very musical. I guess singing time last nearly an hour. We sang songs focused on the nativity and the incarnation, despite my personal desire to avoid Christendom Advent traditions. As we have before, we interrupted singing to read Scripture related to what we had sung and, then, to reflect on the significance of the Scripture.

As always when we meet in a home, we ate a meal provided by many of the people present and, as a part of the meal, took the bread and cup to remember His atoning sacrifice and love.

So, our gatherings really are profoundly spiritual and are led by the Spirit. I do have to admit that I was surprised, when I had stepped away for a moment, to hear, in the distance our group singing JINGLE BELLS, and, after I rejoined, FROSTY THE SNOW MAN and RUDOLPH THE RED-NOSED REINDEER.

I can only tell you that, in some strange way, it all fit together.

I'm sure you doubt that, as would I were I not there at the time

Thursday, December 11, 2014

What the CGGC Claims to Believe about How to Remember that Jesus Came into the World

As Winebrenner Seminary invites the people of CGGC to travel to Scotland to consume its Anglican Advent mass, consider this:
What the CGGC claims to believe is that it is the Ordinance of Feet Washing and obedience to the New Command of Jesus to love one another is the proper celebration of our Lord's incarnation.
 To Talk is to Walk-ism rears its ugly head yet again.

Monday, December 8, 2014

The Second Annual Winebrenner Theological Seminary Anglican Advent Mass is Approaching. Watch Your Step

Gang,

I rarely comment on the happenings at the seminary because of my personal history with it as a past staff member. 

(As you will see, this post is only peripherally about the seminary.  Directly, it is about the members of the CGGC clergy who have an obligation to submit to the radical CGGC Mission Statement and faith documents.) 

I believe that an important part of my call as a prophet is to speak for the Lord to our church, not to or about the seminary.

Since the days I was on the seminary staff, however, it has seemed clear to me that, under its current leadership, it does not intentionally support the Churches of God.  In fact, what the recent first edition of the Scotland Campus Newsletter makes clear is that the seminary makes no bones that it supports "broad evangelical unity" generally and not the CGGC specifically.

Now, for the second year in a row, the Scotland Campus will be presenting an Advent Mass from the broad Anglican tradition.

Talk about capital B, Broad evangelical unity! 

Think of the history of the Reformation.  Which Protestant tradition was, by far, most distant from the beliefs that the Church of God has held most dear from its earliest days?  Which tradition held on to more Roman Catholic beliefs and practices?  By far!

As far as the seminary is concerned, I say, more power to you in your pursuit of evangelical ecumenism.  You are precisely on mission as you welcome and practice Anglican piety and present this traditional Anglican Mass.

However, as members of the CGGC, we, in recent years, have gone out of our way to embrace a way that is radical and highly focused. 

We are people committed by our new Mission Statement (2009) and We Believe (2013) a new animal, a 2013 CGGC Statement of Faith, to be people, as Winebrenner himself said it, of the "New Testament plan" and to have beliefs and practices dictated by the Word of God because the Bible itself is our "only" "rule."  This is harsh and extreme theological language.  Language that I did not compose.  Language that came for the mountaintop!

So, with the Word as our ruler, show me an Advent Mass in the Book of Acts or in the Epistles and I will be the first person in line at the Scotland Campus to consume the religious products and services purveyed that night.  If you can show me an Advent Mass in the Word, please do.  Because, I've looked and I don't see one there.

As the people of the CGGC, we are now a people who talk a radical talk.  That talk demands a radical walk.  Winebrenner Theological Seminary is mismatched with the CGGC because both its talk and walk are hyper moderate and, at their core, extremely ecumenical.

I say this:  To attend, or worse participate in, this Advent Mass is perfectly appropriate if you are an Anglican or if you are a supporter of the seminary who is not bound to the churchly authorities to which all CGGC people are bound.

But, if you are a CGGC member or clergy person, to even sniff that Advent Mass, will make you insubordinate to the radical things we now believe and claim we practice.

I didn't write the Mission Statement.  And, when I had the opportunity, I opposed the new We Believe.  As far as I'm concerned, the Statement of Faith was foisted on me through the popish behavior of the current regime in Findlay.  In itself, it makes my skin crawl!

But, as long as I hold CGGC membership--and more importantly, ordination--I am bound by our radical talk.  And, I will walk that radical walk.

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I believe that any CGGC person holding ordination who participates in the Advent Mass on the Scotland Campus should be defrocked on the grounds of insubordination to the authority of the General Conference in session.

Sunday, December 7, 2014

Our NonGathering 12-7-14

One of the biggest lies that the Shepherd Mafia would foist on the disciple of Jesus is that "going to church" is an act of righteousness that matters to God and that He blesses it.

Hogwash.

The Word commands that we not neglect meeting together. That's it.

There are times when an introvert is profoundly blessed by moments in the Lord away from the noise and mayhem of the crowd.

This will be one of those days for us.

Friday, December 5, 2014

CGGC CEO Search/Winebrenner Thought Experiment. Fourth Thought Experient.

1.  The current CGGC leadership culture, which is--in its behavior-- theologically moderate, practices institutional churchism and which values mellow relationships over the radical love for God and one another modeled and commanded by Jesus, is controlling the search for the next CGGC CEO.

2.  In recent years, that very same leadership culture has called our church to recapture the spirit of its founder, John Winebrenner, is his most radical years, from 1829 to 1844, by imposing on our body the authority of Winebrenner's pursuit of the "New Testament plan" and the adoption of his extreme devotion to the Bible as our "only" "rule."

3.  It has assembled a search committee to find, for the CGGC, its next Executive Director who will, by definition, function from a corporate business model as a CEO, not from the New Testament model of Spirit-empowered, APEST giftedness.

Two questions:
  • Will the CGGC College of Cardinals, AKA the search committee, elevate someone in the radical early Winebrenner mode in submission to We Believe 2013, the 2013 Statement of Faith and the 2009 Mission Statement who would have sided with Winebrenner in the 1820s, 1830's and 1840s or will they elevate an institutionalist happy to function as a CEO in the image of Ed Rosenberry?
  • Should they elevate a Winebrenner type or a Rosenberry figure?