Due to the big deal about I've been making out of rejecting the Catholic Holy Day Christmas, I think it would be worthwhile to comment on how I spent that day.
Both Evie and I are tired and we both need down time when we can find it. So, we took it easy early in the day.
It has become a family tradition for my brother's family and us to visit mom and dad. We did that beginning at 4:00. Our gathering lasted until nearly 7:00, which made a long day for mom and dad. Interestingly, the time was very Xmasy, not Christmasish, except that mom asked me to pray over the meal. To her, I'll always be a parish priest and I'm fine with that.
The time the family spent together was extremely upbeat, much more so than usual. It was enjoyable but, in the back of my mind, I was thinking that there was something frenetic about it, as if we were trying to have fun because we don't know if the family will be intact next year.
Maybe that feeling was all me. I took a few videos of dad opening Christmas presents, which had the feel of a four year old experiencing Christmas. That was sweet, yet sad.
Anyway, the family time was nice and probably will be very memorable, especially with the aid of the videos.
However, the most precious part of the day came when we returned home. Evelyn took a moment to grab some bread and grape juice and to lead the two of us in the Lord's Supper, focused on remembrance of the incarnation, not the nativity, and of the coming return of Jesus.
I live my life in connection with people who grab, with gusto, the idea that every disciples is a priest and that is a continual blessing.
Holy Day or not, it was a merry Christmas.
Monday, December 28, 2015
Fresh Expression: 12-27-15
It strikes me that, in other settings, after the emotional build up of the Advent season, climaxing in the extravaganza that is the Christmas Eve Show, the Sunday after Christmas would probably be a bit of a let down.
That would not be the case for us.
As I have already said, we don't do Advent, the very notion of a Christmas Eve extravaganza is anathema to us and, as a community of gatherings, we don't acknowledge the Catholic Holy Day Christmas.
So, no let down.
What yesterday was for us, was, really, a hyper-typical gathering.
A key couple didn't participate due to other commitments, which is normal for us because we don't believe that gathering is an act of righteousness.
One of our least of theses, Ward, was having a birthday. We always make a big deal of birthdays of our least of theses because no one else does. So, we did that but that is also within normal range.
Normal, though it was, it was a good time. It was really a normal fresh expression of church.
What was slightly outside the normal range is that I initiated Word time. I did it by reading from Philippians 2, Paul's discussion of how the incarnation should impact the disciple's l life all the time. Of course, I was standing on my "Don't fall for the Christmas Holy Day ruse" schpeel. We truly should not let the Shepherd Mafia turn the reality that God became flesh and tabernacled among us into a worship service or a series of services. It angers me that they do it. It saddens me that so many sincere people fall for the shepherds' shtick. (I didn't say any of that Shepherd Mafia stuff. But, I did emphasize the necessity to live in the world with the same attitude that Jesus had when He gave up heaven to live among us in the flesh.
The Word I shared was well received, which blessed me.
Evie led the taking of the bread and cup. The meal was a wonderful time of fellowship and the celebration of Ward's birthday was pleasant.
All in all, no emotional letdown. A good time in the Lord.
That would not be the case for us.
As I have already said, we don't do Advent, the very notion of a Christmas Eve extravaganza is anathema to us and, as a community of gatherings, we don't acknowledge the Catholic Holy Day Christmas.
So, no let down.
What yesterday was for us, was, really, a hyper-typical gathering.
A key couple didn't participate due to other commitments, which is normal for us because we don't believe that gathering is an act of righteousness.
One of our least of theses, Ward, was having a birthday. We always make a big deal of birthdays of our least of theses because no one else does. So, we did that but that is also within normal range.
Normal, though it was, it was a good time. It was really a normal fresh expression of church.
What was slightly outside the normal range is that I initiated Word time. I did it by reading from Philippians 2, Paul's discussion of how the incarnation should impact the disciple's l life all the time. Of course, I was standing on my "Don't fall for the Christmas Holy Day ruse" schpeel. We truly should not let the Shepherd Mafia turn the reality that God became flesh and tabernacled among us into a worship service or a series of services. It angers me that they do it. It saddens me that so many sincere people fall for the shepherds' shtick. (I didn't say any of that Shepherd Mafia stuff. But, I did emphasize the necessity to live in the world with the same attitude that Jesus had when He gave up heaven to live among us in the flesh.
The Word I shared was well received, which blessed me.
Evie led the taking of the bread and cup. The meal was a wonderful time of fellowship and the celebration of Ward's birthday was pleasant.
All in all, no emotional letdown. A good time in the Lord.
Friday, December 25, 2015
Our Freshest Fresh Expression: 12-24
It was not even our radar to gather on Christmas Eve.
More than anything, we are still committed to living out what early people in our, um, faith tradition called the New Testament plan.
For those people, December 25 was merely a day on the calendar. Those people probably had an awareness that, according to the Roman Catholic church, Christmas was a Holy Day.
For those people, the fact that God became flesh was a big deal but the nativity of Jesus was merely proof of Paul's Gospel's assertion that, "Christ died for our sins ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES."
Search the Scriptures as long as you like for evidence that early disciples celebrated the nativity. Don't worry. I won't be holding my breath for a report of the finding of that evidence.
So, in our community of gatherings there was no Christmas Eve show.
What there is, however, is a year long remembrance of the fact that God became flesh and that Jesus is coming again.
Honestly, I don't know what any others in our gatherings did for Christmas Eve. Some may have actually consumed a Christmas Eve show. Probably no one else in the group is actually offended by them like I am.
----------------
As for me and my house, we traveled to Manheim to my brother's house to have what would best be described as an Xmas party, eating favorite foods and playing a silly game to see which person gets which gag gift. (You choose which definition of gag fits.)
Interestingly, several of us live intentionally as disciples but none, as far as I know, attended a show on December 24.
What makes our Expression of church fresh is that it eschews, even abhors, everything that reeks of Christendom-rooted tradition. The Christmas Eve show, is a very popular, and in its current form, recently evolved tradition in which nearly every attender merely consumes. How purely unNew Testament!
----------------------
We just got pics of the kids we bought presents for. They seem to love their new haul. It's a blessing to give them the sort of Christmas kids these days get so excited about. I think the mom and dad enjoyed it as much as the kids.
More than anything, we are still committed to living out what early people in our, um, faith tradition called the New Testament plan.
For those people, December 25 was merely a day on the calendar. Those people probably had an awareness that, according to the Roman Catholic church, Christmas was a Holy Day.
For those people, the fact that God became flesh was a big deal but the nativity of Jesus was merely proof of Paul's Gospel's assertion that, "Christ died for our sins ACCORDING TO THE SCRIPTURES."
Search the Scriptures as long as you like for evidence that early disciples celebrated the nativity. Don't worry. I won't be holding my breath for a report of the finding of that evidence.
So, in our community of gatherings there was no Christmas Eve show.
What there is, however, is a year long remembrance of the fact that God became flesh and that Jesus is coming again.
Honestly, I don't know what any others in our gatherings did for Christmas Eve. Some may have actually consumed a Christmas Eve show. Probably no one else in the group is actually offended by them like I am.
----------------
As for me and my house, we traveled to Manheim to my brother's house to have what would best be described as an Xmas party, eating favorite foods and playing a silly game to see which person gets which gag gift. (You choose which definition of gag fits.)
Interestingly, several of us live intentionally as disciples but none, as far as I know, attended a show on December 24.
What makes our Expression of church fresh is that it eschews, even abhors, everything that reeks of Christendom-rooted tradition. The Christmas Eve show, is a very popular, and in its current form, recently evolved tradition in which nearly every attender merely consumes. How purely unNew Testament!
----------------------
We just got pics of the kids we bought presents for. They seem to love their new haul. It's a blessing to give them the sort of Christmas kids these days get so excited about. I think the mom and dad enjoyed it as much as the kids.
Monday, December 21, 2015
A General Comment on My Spiritual State as the Year Ends
This has been a significant year for me. I guess that, as a person ages, the years simply become more significant because there are fewer and fewer of them remaining. Nevertheless, this has been a traumatic twelve months. It has also been stressful.
Among the stresses is my parents' situation. I am getting old myself and both of my parents are still living and I do know that that is a blessing, believe me. Still, watching them deteriorate is difficult. Last week, my dad was very distressed. He told us that he and mom were "down in the south" when the Freddie Gray thing happened, that they saw it happen and that it was a terrible thing to witness. He was deeply agitated. Mom was frustrated that her memory is so bad that she couldn't remember it at all. We called her later to assure her that they were not witnesses
It is a helpless feeling to see the emotional component of what's going on in their minds.
More than ever, I don't want to get old.
--------------------
Of course, the most traumatic thing that happened to me personally is the decision of ERC mountaintoppers to defrock me, and to do it by so unbiblical a process which, in my heart, leaves me no option other than to refuse to accept it. Who knows how long that drama will take to reach its conclusion?
Not long after I began to embrace the truth that Christ will give APESTs to the church "until we all reach unity in the faith...," that is, until He returns, I began to live in my gifting as a prophet. And, almost from the beginning, I realized that living as a prophet is an extremely emotional way of living.
As a prophet, I tend to experience two emotions strongly, sometimes to the point that I am almost overpowered by them. The two emotions are anger and sadness. Surprisingly to me, the stronger of the two is sadness.
I believe that I am called to be a prophetic voice to the CGGC. And, these days I am extremely sad for her. I've tried to come up with words to explain why I am sad. But, honestly, I have none that are worthy, other than to say that the sadness is not connected to my credentials. I believe, though, that it is in the Spirit that I am sad.
Among the stresses is my parents' situation. I am getting old myself and both of my parents are still living and I do know that that is a blessing, believe me. Still, watching them deteriorate is difficult. Last week, my dad was very distressed. He told us that he and mom were "down in the south" when the Freddie Gray thing happened, that they saw it happen and that it was a terrible thing to witness. He was deeply agitated. Mom was frustrated that her memory is so bad that she couldn't remember it at all. We called her later to assure her that they were not witnesses
It is a helpless feeling to see the emotional component of what's going on in their minds.
More than ever, I don't want to get old.
--------------------
Of course, the most traumatic thing that happened to me personally is the decision of ERC mountaintoppers to defrock me, and to do it by so unbiblical a process which, in my heart, leaves me no option other than to refuse to accept it. Who knows how long that drama will take to reach its conclusion?
Not long after I began to embrace the truth that Christ will give APESTs to the church "until we all reach unity in the faith...," that is, until He returns, I began to live in my gifting as a prophet. And, almost from the beginning, I realized that living as a prophet is an extremely emotional way of living.
As a prophet, I tend to experience two emotions strongly, sometimes to the point that I am almost overpowered by them. The two emotions are anger and sadness. Surprisingly to me, the stronger of the two is sadness.
I believe that I am called to be a prophetic voice to the CGGC. And, these days I am extremely sad for her. I've tried to come up with words to explain why I am sad. But, honestly, I have none that are worthy, other than to say that the sadness is not connected to my credentials. I believe, though, that it is in the Spirit that I am sad.
Fresh Expression of Church: 12-20-15
In the past, I used this time of year to note how the quality of my ministry had altered/evolved since the same time twelve months ago.
Clearly, over a period of five to ten years it has changed considerably.
It is more difficult to assess the change in this year than it has been in the past. There are a number of reasons for that. One of them is that we are truly on new ground now. There was no plan or vision that guided us in the past year. I have abandoned the human vision paradigm completely. I attempt, as best I can, to live in the Spirit and to be prepared, at any moment, to do what He leads me to do. And, my sense is that others in the gatherings in which we participate have the same desire. I will say that I think I am better at attempting to live in the Spirit than I am in actually living in the Spirit. But my effort is sincere.
Another reason that it is difficult for me to assess change in the past year is that my role in the gatherings is far less central, on the human level, than it has ever been. Not only am I concerned about submitting to the Spirit, I also want to submit to what I see as the Spirit moving in others in a gathering.
---------------------
If there has been a change in me in the past year, it is that I no longer believe in celebrating Christmas. Early Christians certainly didn't celebrate it. While I think the nativity of Jesus is a crucial component of the message of the Gospel, (consider the "according to the Scriptures" part of Paul's description of the content of the Gospel at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15). [I may expound on this later in a separate post.], the nativity of Jesus does not seem to have been a big deal in the early church. And, Christ-MAS truly is a high church invention.
I no longer believe in the religious version of Christmas and I won't celebrate it.
-------------------------
Considering my reduced self-chosen role in the leadership of the content of our gatherings, it stunned me that, during the nearly three hours we met yesterday, there was almost no reference to the religious holiday "Christmas" by anyone at all. The only thing we did that I can think of is sing, GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN."
Our Word time was lengthy and integrated into the an interactive preparation for the taking of Bread and Cup. There were many Scriptures read and discussed. Not one of them was connected to the birth of Jesus.
I participated in that and I was blessed by it and I was amazed by it.
-----------------------
One other aspect of yesterday's fresh expression came at a moment that the host of the Thursday gathering gave thanks for a blessing, not one he received, but one he was able to perform in the life of a least of these person. His testimony was powerful and touching and blessed me because it is fruit of our goal of spurring each other on to love and good works.
I am humbled to be blessed by this gathering.
Clearly, over a period of five to ten years it has changed considerably.
It is more difficult to assess the change in this year than it has been in the past. There are a number of reasons for that. One of them is that we are truly on new ground now. There was no plan or vision that guided us in the past year. I have abandoned the human vision paradigm completely. I attempt, as best I can, to live in the Spirit and to be prepared, at any moment, to do what He leads me to do. And, my sense is that others in the gatherings in which we participate have the same desire. I will say that I think I am better at attempting to live in the Spirit than I am in actually living in the Spirit. But my effort is sincere.
Another reason that it is difficult for me to assess change in the past year is that my role in the gatherings is far less central, on the human level, than it has ever been. Not only am I concerned about submitting to the Spirit, I also want to submit to what I see as the Spirit moving in others in a gathering.
---------------------
If there has been a change in me in the past year, it is that I no longer believe in celebrating Christmas. Early Christians certainly didn't celebrate it. While I think the nativity of Jesus is a crucial component of the message of the Gospel, (consider the "according to the Scriptures" part of Paul's description of the content of the Gospel at the beginning of 1 Corinthians 15). [I may expound on this later in a separate post.], the nativity of Jesus does not seem to have been a big deal in the early church. And, Christ-MAS truly is a high church invention.
I no longer believe in the religious version of Christmas and I won't celebrate it.
-------------------------
Considering my reduced self-chosen role in the leadership of the content of our gatherings, it stunned me that, during the nearly three hours we met yesterday, there was almost no reference to the religious holiday "Christmas" by anyone at all. The only thing we did that I can think of is sing, GO TELL IT ON THE MOUNTAIN."
Our Word time was lengthy and integrated into the an interactive preparation for the taking of Bread and Cup. There were many Scriptures read and discussed. Not one of them was connected to the birth of Jesus.
I participated in that and I was blessed by it and I was amazed by it.
-----------------------
One other aspect of yesterday's fresh expression came at a moment that the host of the Thursday gathering gave thanks for a blessing, not one he received, but one he was able to perform in the life of a least of these person. His testimony was powerful and touching and blessed me because it is fruit of our goal of spurring each other on to love and good works.
I am humbled to be blessed by this gathering.
Sunday, December 13, 2015
Fresh Expression: 12-13-15
We failed to freshly express church for the past three Sundays. And, honestly, I don't miss it when we don't gather. In fact, because I am an introvert, there are some Sundays that we don't gather that I am overjoyed to be spared the necessity of gathering.
Having said that, it was an amazing joy to welcome the other fresh expressers into our home today. I had an extremely blessed time, and the gathering was nothing extraordinary. I think I actually learned to appreciate how precious even a mundane gathering of this group is.
One thing I did realize today is how intimate our fellowship really is. Often when we pray there is no sharing of prayer requests. We say that instead of talking about prayer, we are going just to pray.
Other times, we do share and, when we do, the level of intimacy is something that would be impossible in a typical Christendom congregation. And that level of mutual trust and love is impossible to explain to someone who doesn't experience it.
One of my characteristics of the CGGC brand is MELLOW RELATIONSHIPS OVER TRUTH. When I describe the significance of that trait it is usually to note the fact that it is core to our DNA to avoid challenging truth so we can all just get along.
While that certainly is true, another reality connected to this core truth is that we only seem to want mellow relationships, not the intimate, love one another as I have loved you relationships.
Perhaps the intimacy we share is another feature of who we are that makes our expression fresh.
At any rate, the time in the Word was challenging, the singing of Christmas carols, not my favorite, was adequate and the taking of the Bread and Cup was a blessing, as usual.
The meal was tasty and the fellowship around it, sweet. Basically, a soup and salad bar. A totally vegetation meal, but not by any intention.
Having said that, it was an amazing joy to welcome the other fresh expressers into our home today. I had an extremely blessed time, and the gathering was nothing extraordinary. I think I actually learned to appreciate how precious even a mundane gathering of this group is.
One thing I did realize today is how intimate our fellowship really is. Often when we pray there is no sharing of prayer requests. We say that instead of talking about prayer, we are going just to pray.
Other times, we do share and, when we do, the level of intimacy is something that would be impossible in a typical Christendom congregation. And that level of mutual trust and love is impossible to explain to someone who doesn't experience it.
One of my characteristics of the CGGC brand is MELLOW RELATIONSHIPS OVER TRUTH. When I describe the significance of that trait it is usually to note the fact that it is core to our DNA to avoid challenging truth so we can all just get along.
While that certainly is true, another reality connected to this core truth is that we only seem to want mellow relationships, not the intimate, love one another as I have loved you relationships.
Perhaps the intimacy we share is another feature of who we are that makes our expression fresh.
At any rate, the time in the Word was challenging, the singing of Christmas carols, not my favorite, was adequate and the taking of the Bread and Cup was a blessing, as usual.
The meal was tasty and the fellowship around it, sweet. Basically, a soup and salad bar. A totally vegetation meal, but not by any intention.
Saturday, December 12, 2015
Looking Old
Can you believe that it is coming up on six years ago that Evie was diagnosed with cancer?
She approached cancer more positively than anyone I know. One decision she made at the time was to have her head shaved before she began chemo because she didn't want to be waking up to find clumps of hair on her pillow. The day her hair was shaved, I had mine buzzed to the scalp too, as a gesture of support.
Her hair has been back for years. It's different but beautiful.
I, however, have remained bald as a cue ball. In fact, some of my coworkers call me Billiard instead of Bill. I love it.
I have kept my head hairless for many reasons, the most important being that it is a reminder of the battle we went through and that that battle is never really won. (I think something like that nearly every time I look into a mirror.)
Also, though, I enjoy the effect my baldness has on others.
We live in an age in which many people, men included, try to look young and vigorous. Because I still have a goatee, and because that hair is almost all gray, most people think I am much older than I am. And, I still have a decent energy level for a person my age. So, I achieve old and vigorous. The effect fascinates me. Interestingly, one effect my apparent agedness has on people is that the millennials I work with often try to spare me from doing heavy work. I guess I remind them of their great grandfathers.
Watching the slow deterioration of my parents' minds, I've been thinking, lately, that I don't want to live long enough to be what they have become. But I do enjoy, actually, being believed to be old, even older than I am.
So, I go through life an apparent geezer.
She approached cancer more positively than anyone I know. One decision she made at the time was to have her head shaved before she began chemo because she didn't want to be waking up to find clumps of hair on her pillow. The day her hair was shaved, I had mine buzzed to the scalp too, as a gesture of support.
Her hair has been back for years. It's different but beautiful.
I, however, have remained bald as a cue ball. In fact, some of my coworkers call me Billiard instead of Bill. I love it.
I have kept my head hairless for many reasons, the most important being that it is a reminder of the battle we went through and that that battle is never really won. (I think something like that nearly every time I look into a mirror.)
Also, though, I enjoy the effect my baldness has on others.
We live in an age in which many people, men included, try to look young and vigorous. Because I still have a goatee, and because that hair is almost all gray, most people think I am much older than I am. And, I still have a decent energy level for a person my age. So, I achieve old and vigorous. The effect fascinates me. Interestingly, one effect my apparent agedness has on people is that the millennials I work with often try to spare me from doing heavy work. I guess I remind them of their great grandfathers.
Watching the slow deterioration of my parents' minds, I've been thinking, lately, that I don't want to live long enough to be what they have become. But I do enjoy, actually, being believed to be old, even older than I am.
So, I go through life an apparent geezer.
Thursday, December 10, 2015
Preaching the Word in the World
Yesterday I worked in a part of my job in which I am involved with coworkers doing customer service functions. And for about two hours I was engaged in vigorous and specific conversation about Jesus and the definition of righteousness. This, with the blessings of management.
I noticed several unbelieving coworkers listening with great interest. Numerous customers caught parts of the conversation.
Clearly, I am speaking truth to the people of the world more now than when I was a pastor.
Praise God. I would not want it any other way. I only regret that it took me this long to get here.
I noticed several unbelieving coworkers listening with great interest. Numerous customers caught parts of the conversation.
Clearly, I am speaking truth to the people of the world more now than when I was a pastor.
Praise God. I would not want it any other way. I only regret that it took me this long to get here.
Sunday, December 6, 2015
Third Straight Sunday without a Fresh Expression: 12-6-15
Two Sundays ago, we didn't meet by mutual agreement. (But we did gather on Saturday at a diner in Ephrata and then Evie and I took three least of theses shopping at WalMart.) Last week we cancelled because Evie was sick. This week we took a brief trip to Virginia Beach to check out some things concerning a timeshare week we own there. It was a long grueling weekend only half of one day was enjoyable, ending with a six hour drive home which concluded, for most of the last hour, on back roads in Lancaster County weaving through about two dozen Amish horse and buggies and driving over what seemed like two tons of horse poop.
I am very glad to be home. We will have a few quiet hours together. The world's greatest church greeter stayed with the family that rescued her from the puppy mill (and then lost their home and her to foreclosure.) She is home and we are all reunited.
I'll say what I have before. Gathering is a joy for me. We love hosting it in our home. But, since we realized that the Lord prefers mercy to religious ritual, I, at least, done fret about missing a gathering or two.
I am very glad to be home. We will have a few quiet hours together. The world's greatest church greeter stayed with the family that rescued her from the puppy mill (and then lost their home and her to foreclosure.) She is home and we are all reunited.
I'll say what I have before. Gathering is a joy for me. We love hosting it in our home. But, since we realized that the Lord prefers mercy to religious ritual, I, at least, done fret about missing a gathering or two.
Friday, December 4, 2015
12/3: The Last Fresh Thursday Expression of the Year
Off top, I don't remember the last time the Thursday group met.
It was a while back.
We met last night with the understanding that it would be a brief gathering. (It actually lasted about two hours which, by the way, is an hour briefer than the typical gathering.)
We had an edifying time with a great but brief meditation by Evie on why taking the Lord's Supper is superior to observing Advent (without even mentioning that Jesus commands one and the other is a late human tradition.)
And, we decided that we would not meet again for the rest of the year. That decision was necessitated by the strain on Evie resulting from her job change. The decision came easily because, while gathering is important to us, we understand that gathering is, in no way, an act of righteousness. And, we take righteousness seriously.
The Thursday night people will certainly be in contact but not in the gathering.
I'll miss it. But I understand what really is important.
Not long ago, I remarked in a private exchange with a mountaintopper, that Kingdom focus is subversive to a church way of thinking and doing things. It is, of course, not subversive to church in the way church functioned in the New Testament but it is subversive to the Christendom notion of church that so many aspire to today.
The ease with which we decided not to meet for the rest of the year indicates the subversive nature of kingdom focus to Christendom doing.
In this group, we are all kingdom people, i.e., people striving to live faithfully under the lordship of Jesus. For us, Jesus is so completely the focus that the gathering has no consequence unless it serves our individual submission to Him. For the moment, the gathering would be a complication for us and, so, it will cease to function for the moment.
That is not to say that we will disappear from each others' lives. Certainly, we won't. But the gathering part of our lives, on Thursdays at least, will disappear.
The only important thing that will disappear because we don't gather, is the taking of the Lord's Supper. But, we will do that in other settings.
It was a while back.
We met last night with the understanding that it would be a brief gathering. (It actually lasted about two hours which, by the way, is an hour briefer than the typical gathering.)
We had an edifying time with a great but brief meditation by Evie on why taking the Lord's Supper is superior to observing Advent (without even mentioning that Jesus commands one and the other is a late human tradition.)
And, we decided that we would not meet again for the rest of the year. That decision was necessitated by the strain on Evie resulting from her job change. The decision came easily because, while gathering is important to us, we understand that gathering is, in no way, an act of righteousness. And, we take righteousness seriously.
The Thursday night people will certainly be in contact but not in the gathering.
I'll miss it. But I understand what really is important.
Not long ago, I remarked in a private exchange with a mountaintopper, that Kingdom focus is subversive to a church way of thinking and doing things. It is, of course, not subversive to church in the way church functioned in the New Testament but it is subversive to the Christendom notion of church that so many aspire to today.
The ease with which we decided not to meet for the rest of the year indicates the subversive nature of kingdom focus to Christendom doing.
In this group, we are all kingdom people, i.e., people striving to live faithfully under the lordship of Jesus. For us, Jesus is so completely the focus that the gathering has no consequence unless it serves our individual submission to Him. For the moment, the gathering would be a complication for us and, so, it will cease to function for the moment.
That is not to say that we will disappear from each others' lives. Certainly, we won't. But the gathering part of our lives, on Thursdays at least, will disappear.
The only important thing that will disappear because we don't gather, is the taking of the Lord's Supper. But, we will do that in other settings.
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Based on My Life in the World, the CGGC is doing Worse than Many Others
It's true. The church is losing the culture. The church's decline can't be denied by anyone who is aware.
In my opinion, because of the general decline of the church, CGGC leaders are getting a bit of a pass. The thinking is, from what I can tell:
Everyone is in decline, our leaders are nice fellows and they seem to really be trying hard, so we can't really hold them accountable, can we?
And, to a large degree, I bought that myself...
...until I began to live in the world.
From where I am now, however, I'm convinced we are doing worse than many.
I work for a company that employs about 300 people. I work in two departments for the company, one of them employs about a fifth of the people who work for the company. I know quite a few of the 300. And, because I see my job as a mission field, I know many of the people reasonably well. Some are Christians, some are not. I talk to many of the Christians about their spiritual life and I observe the fruit they produce.
And, based on what I see and hear, other churches and denominations are doing a better job than the CGGC is.
From my experience on the job, I know many millennials. Quite a few follow Jesus. Some of them very openly, boldly and maturely. And far more than is the case from the typical CGGC ministry. I know many Jesus followers who are closer to my age. They live more like disciples than the typical consumers of religious products and services in the CGGC congregations I've witnessed in my 40 plus years in the CGGC.
From where I live, we're all doing poorly but in the CGGC, we are doing especially bad.
We need to repent...
...more than most.
In my opinion, because of the general decline of the church, CGGC leaders are getting a bit of a pass. The thinking is, from what I can tell:
Everyone is in decline, our leaders are nice fellows and they seem to really be trying hard, so we can't really hold them accountable, can we?
And, to a large degree, I bought that myself...
...until I began to live in the world.
From where I am now, however, I'm convinced we are doing worse than many.
I work for a company that employs about 300 people. I work in two departments for the company, one of them employs about a fifth of the people who work for the company. I know quite a few of the 300. And, because I see my job as a mission field, I know many of the people reasonably well. Some are Christians, some are not. I talk to many of the Christians about their spiritual life and I observe the fruit they produce.
And, based on what I see and hear, other churches and denominations are doing a better job than the CGGC is.
From my experience on the job, I know many millennials. Quite a few follow Jesus. Some of them very openly, boldly and maturely. And far more than is the case from the typical CGGC ministry. I know many Jesus followers who are closer to my age. They live more like disciples than the typical consumers of religious products and services in the CGGC congregations I've witnessed in my 40 plus years in the CGGC.
From where I live, we're all doing poorly but in the CGGC, we are doing especially bad.
We need to repent...
...more than most.
Monday, November 30, 2015
The Power of Love (with no Reference to Huey Lewis)
I just got off the phone with one of my millennial coworker friends.
His grandmother died suddenly yesterday of a massive heart attack. Up to the moment of her death, she was believed to be in good health for a person of her age. This young friend lost his grandfather from the other side of the family less than a month ago. My friend is extremely distraught, as you can understand.
I am touched beyond description to realize that he reached out to me with texts and phone calls and I thank the Lord for the opportunity to extend His grace and love into my friend's life in his moment of grief.
Here is how, I believe, he came to reach out to me:
In the, say, half year that I have known him, Evie and I have loved the Lord through him and the mother of his son and step daughter and have shown mercy to them several times.
It is because we are sacrificial in our financial stewardship and don't give to a local church, that we are able to give generously to the least of these people we encounter.
Twice in recent months, in other crises, we have bought gift cards from the grocery store I work at for this couple. When the woman had surgery, we paid their rent for a month.
The age of the youngest person on the Sloat side of the family is 31. Because of that, Christmas is a different sort of holiday for us. Every year, my brother's family and we adopt a family with young children and buy winter coats and Christmas gifts for the children. This year we have adopted my coworkers' children.
Be certain. My young friend and his girlfriend see Jesus and His love and mercy, not Evie and me, in these acts.
One thing that has stunned me since I repented of the Christendom thing and have devoted myself to raw obedience to the life Jesus commands in the Gospels, is the power of that lifestyle. Truly, most of my coworkers see Jesus in what I say and do. I don't understand how that works. I guess that it is the work of the Holy Spirit. But, this is new to me. I never experienced anything like this when I was a pastor. This is new. I hope it never gets old.
Oddly, I don't think that I live obediently that well in the world. So often, I fall short. Clearly, the power of love is amazing if it shines through in my pitiful life!
His grandmother died suddenly yesterday of a massive heart attack. Up to the moment of her death, she was believed to be in good health for a person of her age. This young friend lost his grandfather from the other side of the family less than a month ago. My friend is extremely distraught, as you can understand.
I am touched beyond description to realize that he reached out to me with texts and phone calls and I thank the Lord for the opportunity to extend His grace and love into my friend's life in his moment of grief.
Here is how, I believe, he came to reach out to me:
In the, say, half year that I have known him, Evie and I have loved the Lord through him and the mother of his son and step daughter and have shown mercy to them several times.
It is because we are sacrificial in our financial stewardship and don't give to a local church, that we are able to give generously to the least of these people we encounter.
Twice in recent months, in other crises, we have bought gift cards from the grocery store I work at for this couple. When the woman had surgery, we paid their rent for a month.
The age of the youngest person on the Sloat side of the family is 31. Because of that, Christmas is a different sort of holiday for us. Every year, my brother's family and we adopt a family with young children and buy winter coats and Christmas gifts for the children. This year we have adopted my coworkers' children.
Be certain. My young friend and his girlfriend see Jesus and His love and mercy, not Evie and me, in these acts.
One thing that has stunned me since I repented of the Christendom thing and have devoted myself to raw obedience to the life Jesus commands in the Gospels, is the power of that lifestyle. Truly, most of my coworkers see Jesus in what I say and do. I don't understand how that works. I guess that it is the work of the Holy Spirit. But, this is new to me. I never experienced anything like this when I was a pastor. This is new. I hope it never gets old.
Oddly, I don't think that I live obediently that well in the world. So often, I fall short. Clearly, the power of love is amazing if it shines through in my pitiful life!
Sunday, November 29, 2015
No Expression Today, Fresh or Otherwise: 11-29-15
Evie is sick. It started to hit her early yesterday afternoon and she pushed through a difficult day until she could push no longer and then had a very bad night. She is what is called in some organic church approaches, our person of peace. She is the driving force organizationally, to the degree we are organized and she provides most of the glue in relationships in our intimate fellowship. So, even if we could have met with her snoozing in the bedroom, it could not have worked so, first thing this morning, we sent out texts and made phone calls and, as the song says, called the whole thing off. (My music is very, very old.) At the moment, even before the fresh expression would have started, we are vegging in the living room staring at a fire in the fireplace, listening to holiday music on the radio and hoping to recoup from busy weeks and prepare for the next one. For me, the whole last month at the store was mega sales and very busy and stressful.
As I was walking the world's greatest church greeter on the golf course this morning, I was thinking about how different our concept of gathering is from what is normal for most churchians today.
I had an email in my mail box this morning from the Pennsylvania campus of the seminary advertising an event, asking pastors to put the note in the church bulletin. Wow! A church bulletin. What a blast from the past! Between emails and texts and the intimate nature of the connections we share in our community of gatherings, we have absolutely no need for a bulletin and I haven't thought about one literally for years.
One other observation about the bulletin is that we would never ask someone to devote kingdom passion and energy to do a bulletin. When you consider how Jesus describes what will matter on the Day from Matthew 7 and 25, don't you fear that many who thought they were pleasing the Lord by doing the church bulletin may be among the surprised to hear, "Away from me." I do have that fear. Jesus is very definite in defining righteousness. Producing bulletins for a church doesn't seem to fit into His definition.
While the greeter and I were out sniffing and stalking squirrels, I was also thinking about Lance's recent eNews questioning if we need to find new things to count.
While I definitely appreciate the question, I'll ask the question of what early disciples counted. The answer is, really, just about nothing.
My concern about counting is that doing so assumes that quantity matters in God's Kingdom. From what I see in the Word, what matters can't really be counted.
Lance suggested we could count people sent into (pastoral and other forms of) ministry. And I don't take pleasure in criticizing Lance"s theology, but it seems to me, that that idea is precisely opposed to a central teaching of the New Testament. In the Word, every follower of Jesus is a priest and there is absolutely no such thing as a clergy or a pastor.
When we gather here we don't count anything and we all send each other into ministry every time we gather.
Hmmm.
Maybe that's what makes this fresh.
As I was walking the world's greatest church greeter on the golf course this morning, I was thinking about how different our concept of gathering is from what is normal for most churchians today.
I had an email in my mail box this morning from the Pennsylvania campus of the seminary advertising an event, asking pastors to put the note in the church bulletin. Wow! A church bulletin. What a blast from the past! Between emails and texts and the intimate nature of the connections we share in our community of gatherings, we have absolutely no need for a bulletin and I haven't thought about one literally for years.
One other observation about the bulletin is that we would never ask someone to devote kingdom passion and energy to do a bulletin. When you consider how Jesus describes what will matter on the Day from Matthew 7 and 25, don't you fear that many who thought they were pleasing the Lord by doing the church bulletin may be among the surprised to hear, "Away from me." I do have that fear. Jesus is very definite in defining righteousness. Producing bulletins for a church doesn't seem to fit into His definition.
While the greeter and I were out sniffing and stalking squirrels, I was also thinking about Lance's recent eNews questioning if we need to find new things to count.
While I definitely appreciate the question, I'll ask the question of what early disciples counted. The answer is, really, just about nothing.
My concern about counting is that doing so assumes that quantity matters in God's Kingdom. From what I see in the Word, what matters can't really be counted.
Lance suggested we could count people sent into (pastoral and other forms of) ministry. And I don't take pleasure in criticizing Lance"s theology, but it seems to me, that that idea is precisely opposed to a central teaching of the New Testament. In the Word, every follower of Jesus is a priest and there is absolutely no such thing as a clergy or a pastor.
When we gather here we don't count anything and we all send each other into ministry every time we gather.
Hmmm.
Maybe that's what makes this fresh.
Saturday, November 28, 2015
More Thanksgiving Day/Weekend-ish Musings: 2015
Friday is a late, long day for me at the store and it will probably be a slow day there. Saturday will probably be busier with people who do the family meal on Sunday. The day after Thanksgiving is not a day that people come out in droves to buy groceries. I'll work from noon to ten on Friday and about four to ten on Saturday, if God is willing.
Here are some more things that are on my mind:
In the small community of fresh expressions of church with which we gather, we seem to suffer from a strain of the same virus that is slowly killing the CGGC. Most of the CGGC churches are dying from decades of shepherd domination. We seem to be suffering from prophet domination. The difference between the CGGC and us is that in the CGGC, shepherd domination is deemed to be the correct and only way, despite the deadly evidence to the contrary. Here, we believe in APEST and yearn, especially, for an apostolic and evangelistic presence. We strive for the righteousness Jesus demands in Matthew 5-7 and 25 and that James demands and Hebrews describes in chapter 11, as fruit of genuine faith. We struggle to make disciples out of each other but we don't easily bring new people into the community. Sadly, I'd love apostolic input and have asked the ERC and GC for it in the past but to no avail.
Recently, I wrote to one of the mountaintoppers that the difference between the CGGC's current crop of self-described leaders and John Winebrenner is that Winebrenner lived at least as radically as he preached but that, while Today's CGGC talk is sometimes radical, our mountaintoppers today live a very moderate, Middle Class existence. (What were the dimensions of Winebrenner's corner office? Of Jesus'?) so Back in the day, the whole CGGC was a radical prophetic community because our people imitated Winebrenner's way of living. Today, our people do imitate CGGC leaders. And we are moderating ourselves to death.
I also added that I speak and live radically, at least by this day's CGGC standards. And I am being defrocked. But, compared to Winebrenner? What would the mountaintoppers do to Winebrenner if he showed up in the CGGC today?
I have received a list of the reasons that drove the ERC Standing Committee to recommend that my ordination be recalled and the list fascinates me. I've just looked the list over again. One thing is missing and that is the suggestion that there is a doctrinal issue. What is present is a slew of accusations that I have had the audacity to disagree passionately with the direction mountaintoppers are attempting to take the body.
In fact, my take on this conflict is that most of what I do that vexes mountaintoppers is claim that THEY actually are violating and abusing CGGC teachings to which they should be submitting. (In fact, in the past, I told one of the people on the mountain that he was insubordinate. Needless to say, he didn't repent.)
While I refuse to defend myself against the charges, I will say that the reality is that I have been correct on every count that I can think of when I have been specific in challenging the wisdom of mountaintoppers. Whatever did happen with HEAR THE CALL, or TRANSFORMATIONAL CHURCH?
It seems to me that it has become a sin in the CGGC to be passionate and pointed in even questioning leaders and their embrace of the latest fads, ESPECIALLY when the person doing the criticizing proves to be correct.
But, the real life truth is that, despite the best efforts from the mountain, we are declining faster than ever. Remember the stats from 2014? Perhaps we should heed the naysayers.
It seems that I am in trouble for disagreeing with mountaintoppers and being correct and noisy about it.
I also guess that my repeated observation that there is theological bankruptcy and theological corruption on our mountains has gotten me in trouble. I stand by those claims.
BTW, I think I am beginning to understand how the defrocking thing will work out. Do with me what you will but if what I think I'm seeing happens, I am sad.
On a different note, it seems to me that I have alienated some who, in the past, have been sympathetic to my prophetic take on things CGGC over the same sex marriage issue. I'm not sure how that happened. I suspect that that some people may think that I favor same sex marriage or believe that we should be marrying same sex people. Nothing could be further from the truth.
What I see in all of this is a reflection of the theological corruption so common among all our people. We know that we need to call LGBT people to repentance but, for the most part, our churches have not ever heard the word repentance preached, or, if it's an old congregation, no one currently living has heard the word preached. Shepherd theology has been trumped. The world has called "check" on our Shepherd Mafia theology and our mountaintop Mafiosi don't know how to avoid hearing the world call "mate" with the next move.
They need to repent themselves before they can call anyone else to repent and, I'm afraid, their hearts are too hard to do that. One of most frequent prayer requests is that repentance will take place on our mountains.
We must repent.
Here are some more things that are on my mind:
In the small community of fresh expressions of church with which we gather, we seem to suffer from a strain of the same virus that is slowly killing the CGGC. Most of the CGGC churches are dying from decades of shepherd domination. We seem to be suffering from prophet domination. The difference between the CGGC and us is that in the CGGC, shepherd domination is deemed to be the correct and only way, despite the deadly evidence to the contrary. Here, we believe in APEST and yearn, especially, for an apostolic and evangelistic presence. We strive for the righteousness Jesus demands in Matthew 5-7 and 25 and that James demands and Hebrews describes in chapter 11, as fruit of genuine faith. We struggle to make disciples out of each other but we don't easily bring new people into the community. Sadly, I'd love apostolic input and have asked the ERC and GC for it in the past but to no avail.
Recently, I wrote to one of the mountaintoppers that the difference between the CGGC's current crop of self-described leaders and John Winebrenner is that Winebrenner lived at least as radically as he preached but that, while Today's CGGC talk is sometimes radical, our mountaintoppers today live a very moderate, Middle Class existence. (What were the dimensions of Winebrenner's corner office? Of Jesus'?) so Back in the day, the whole CGGC was a radical prophetic community because our people imitated Winebrenner's way of living. Today, our people do imitate CGGC leaders. And we are moderating ourselves to death.
I also added that I speak and live radically, at least by this day's CGGC standards. And I am being defrocked. But, compared to Winebrenner? What would the mountaintoppers do to Winebrenner if he showed up in the CGGC today?
I have received a list of the reasons that drove the ERC Standing Committee to recommend that my ordination be recalled and the list fascinates me. I've just looked the list over again. One thing is missing and that is the suggestion that there is a doctrinal issue. What is present is a slew of accusations that I have had the audacity to disagree passionately with the direction mountaintoppers are attempting to take the body.
In fact, my take on this conflict is that most of what I do that vexes mountaintoppers is claim that THEY actually are violating and abusing CGGC teachings to which they should be submitting. (In fact, in the past, I told one of the people on the mountain that he was insubordinate. Needless to say, he didn't repent.)
While I refuse to defend myself against the charges, I will say that the reality is that I have been correct on every count that I can think of when I have been specific in challenging the wisdom of mountaintoppers. Whatever did happen with HEAR THE CALL, or TRANSFORMATIONAL CHURCH?
It seems to me that it has become a sin in the CGGC to be passionate and pointed in even questioning leaders and their embrace of the latest fads, ESPECIALLY when the person doing the criticizing proves to be correct.
But, the real life truth is that, despite the best efforts from the mountain, we are declining faster than ever. Remember the stats from 2014? Perhaps we should heed the naysayers.
It seems that I am in trouble for disagreeing with mountaintoppers and being correct and noisy about it.
I also guess that my repeated observation that there is theological bankruptcy and theological corruption on our mountains has gotten me in trouble. I stand by those claims.
BTW, I think I am beginning to understand how the defrocking thing will work out. Do with me what you will but if what I think I'm seeing happens, I am sad.
On a different note, it seems to me that I have alienated some who, in the past, have been sympathetic to my prophetic take on things CGGC over the same sex marriage issue. I'm not sure how that happened. I suspect that that some people may think that I favor same sex marriage or believe that we should be marrying same sex people. Nothing could be further from the truth.
What I see in all of this is a reflection of the theological corruption so common among all our people. We know that we need to call LGBT people to repentance but, for the most part, our churches have not ever heard the word repentance preached, or, if it's an old congregation, no one currently living has heard the word preached. Shepherd theology has been trumped. The world has called "check" on our Shepherd Mafia theology and our mountaintop Mafiosi don't know how to avoid hearing the world call "mate" with the next move.
They need to repent themselves before they can call anyone else to repent and, I'm afraid, their hearts are too hard to do that. One of most frequent prayer requests is that repentance will take place on our mountains.
We must repent.
Thursday, November 26, 2015
Thanksgiving Day Musings: 2015
Today is one of two days in the year that the company I work for shuts down and gives employees a holiday. For the most part I'm planning a lazy day.
Here are some thoughts floating around in my mind:
---------------------
I am thankful for my job. As I've said in the past, I consider the job place and the job itself a ministry and a mission. I'm blessed to work for a company owned by a family who are Jesus followers who know what the Sermon on the Mount says and work harder to obey it than to make a profit. I have had conversations with the CEO about our shared faith and the lifestyle it requires and I am blessed to know him and be known by him.
On the job, I share my life with many millennials. I have meaningful relationships with most of them. A few weeks ago, one of them texted me from the ER. He was there with his dad, who was having chest pains. We exchanged texts throughout the day. In the end, all was well with his dad and the next time he saw me, my young friend said, "Thanks for keeping me sane yesterday."
Even when I was a youth pastor, I didn't connect to people in that age range like I do now.
My immediate boss is a woman of about my age who is a widow with a beau and is hinting that she'd like me to perform the wedding. What a great way to live out missionality, to be externally focused, eh? I don't know what I'll do about that.
The job itself can be physically demanding. Yesterday I worked wearing a back brace and a wrist brace.
As I've said in the past, I do have opportunities to share what I believe and Who I believe in with coworkers and with customers. And, as I've said, I think that Kierkegaard got a lot of things right. Much of that is appropriate to witnessing in my work setting. So, I do that, and I occasionally use Kierkegaard's name when it fits. I would honestly say that I am making disciples.
I have been offered financial aid from friends from my pastor days and I am blessed by the love and concern. For those of you who wonder, we are making it, not as easily as we were when I was pulling in a fulltime pastor's salary but, we are paying our bills. Admittedly, this has been a year with few crises.
I'm blessed by our involvement in the small community of gatherings that has (d)evolved out of the organization formerly known as Faith Community Church of God. What we are is still unknown to me. Each of the gatherings has a distinct identity, even though we are core to each and have been from the beginning. The Wednesday thing is most curious to me. I have no idea where it is or where it's going. I groove on the Sunday and Thursday Fresh Expressions of church much more I ever was blessed by a Christendom thing.
My relationship with CGGC mountaintoppers is more curious than ever. Some CGGCers continue to be incensed by the process employed by ERC mountaintoppers to take my ordination. I have been offered assistance at ERC Conference next year in fighting my fight. Recently, the ERC Standing Committee has demonstrated resolve in standing by (no pun intended) it's decision to remove the ordination.
More than anything else, I am fascinated by how the CGGC body responds to my simple effort to live out, as faithfully as I am able, what I believe to be my APEST ministry.
At this point, I feel led to stay this course, if necessary, even to the point John the Baptist stayed his. In the end, John showed Herod to be who he truly was. At this point, I imagine that many connected to my story will show who/what they are.
I currently--I can't say communicate because communication implies input from more than one direction--um, speak into the lives of four CGGC mountaintoppers. Three of them do respond with varying degrees of openness. One of them and I are in the midst of a profound, vigorous and I believe, mutually beneficial dialog. Two others listen and don't treat me in way the Amish treat someone who is being shunned.
Interestingly to me, the one mountaintopper I thought who would engage me in conversation is Lance. Do you know if someone is blocking your emails? Or, he could have just designated my emails as spam. Either way, it is as if I don't exist as far as Lance is concerned. To use the John/Herod analogy, even Herod was fascinated by what John had to say. Very, very interesting to me.
Both Evie and I have received unsolicited job offers this year. Evie is about to begin a promotion with her employer of the past nine years. As a result of the offer I received, I was able to clarify my position with my current employer.
We just returned from T-day dinner with the family at the home with mom and dad. It was also dad's 90th birthday. Dad was good, though he really didn't appreciate the significance of the day. His meal was two lettuce leaves with a drop of blue cheese dressing, at least two pieces of cake and about a half gallon of coffee. No decaf. Hey! It was his day! It was a good day for the family.
One final CGGC comment. It's obvious to all that we are in decline and have been for decades. Leadership is not inept. In fact, it is extremely, well, ept. Its shortcoming is that it is misguided. Leaders of the CGGC do institution better than ever. The problem is that the day of the institutional church is gone for good in the Western world. For Winebrenner everything was about the conversion of the individual sinner. These days, more and more, leaders are all about the church. A shepherd dominated mess.
Here are some thoughts floating around in my mind:
---------------------
I am thankful for my job. As I've said in the past, I consider the job place and the job itself a ministry and a mission. I'm blessed to work for a company owned by a family who are Jesus followers who know what the Sermon on the Mount says and work harder to obey it than to make a profit. I have had conversations with the CEO about our shared faith and the lifestyle it requires and I am blessed to know him and be known by him.
On the job, I share my life with many millennials. I have meaningful relationships with most of them. A few weeks ago, one of them texted me from the ER. He was there with his dad, who was having chest pains. We exchanged texts throughout the day. In the end, all was well with his dad and the next time he saw me, my young friend said, "Thanks for keeping me sane yesterday."
Even when I was a youth pastor, I didn't connect to people in that age range like I do now.
My immediate boss is a woman of about my age who is a widow with a beau and is hinting that she'd like me to perform the wedding. What a great way to live out missionality, to be externally focused, eh? I don't know what I'll do about that.
The job itself can be physically demanding. Yesterday I worked wearing a back brace and a wrist brace.
As I've said in the past, I do have opportunities to share what I believe and Who I believe in with coworkers and with customers. And, as I've said, I think that Kierkegaard got a lot of things right. Much of that is appropriate to witnessing in my work setting. So, I do that, and I occasionally use Kierkegaard's name when it fits. I would honestly say that I am making disciples.
I have been offered financial aid from friends from my pastor days and I am blessed by the love and concern. For those of you who wonder, we are making it, not as easily as we were when I was pulling in a fulltime pastor's salary but, we are paying our bills. Admittedly, this has been a year with few crises.
I'm blessed by our involvement in the small community of gatherings that has (d)evolved out of the organization formerly known as Faith Community Church of God. What we are is still unknown to me. Each of the gatherings has a distinct identity, even though we are core to each and have been from the beginning. The Wednesday thing is most curious to me. I have no idea where it is or where it's going. I groove on the Sunday and Thursday Fresh Expressions of church much more I ever was blessed by a Christendom thing.
My relationship with CGGC mountaintoppers is more curious than ever. Some CGGCers continue to be incensed by the process employed by ERC mountaintoppers to take my ordination. I have been offered assistance at ERC Conference next year in fighting my fight. Recently, the ERC Standing Committee has demonstrated resolve in standing by (no pun intended) it's decision to remove the ordination.
More than anything else, I am fascinated by how the CGGC body responds to my simple effort to live out, as faithfully as I am able, what I believe to be my APEST ministry.
At this point, I feel led to stay this course, if necessary, even to the point John the Baptist stayed his. In the end, John showed Herod to be who he truly was. At this point, I imagine that many connected to my story will show who/what they are.
I currently--I can't say communicate because communication implies input from more than one direction--um, speak into the lives of four CGGC mountaintoppers. Three of them do respond with varying degrees of openness. One of them and I are in the midst of a profound, vigorous and I believe, mutually beneficial dialog. Two others listen and don't treat me in way the Amish treat someone who is being shunned.
Interestingly to me, the one mountaintopper I thought who would engage me in conversation is Lance. Do you know if someone is blocking your emails? Or, he could have just designated my emails as spam. Either way, it is as if I don't exist as far as Lance is concerned. To use the John/Herod analogy, even Herod was fascinated by what John had to say. Very, very interesting to me.
Both Evie and I have received unsolicited job offers this year. Evie is about to begin a promotion with her employer of the past nine years. As a result of the offer I received, I was able to clarify my position with my current employer.
We just returned from T-day dinner with the family at the home with mom and dad. It was also dad's 90th birthday. Dad was good, though he really didn't appreciate the significance of the day. His meal was two lettuce leaves with a drop of blue cheese dressing, at least two pieces of cake and about a half gallon of coffee. No decaf. Hey! It was his day! It was a good day for the family.
One final CGGC comment. It's obvious to all that we are in decline and have been for decades. Leadership is not inept. In fact, it is extremely, well, ept. Its shortcoming is that it is misguided. Leaders of the CGGC do institution better than ever. The problem is that the day of the institutional church is gone for good in the Western world. For Winebrenner everything was about the conversion of the individual sinner. These days, more and more, leaders are all about the church. A shepherd dominated mess.
Sunday, November 22, 2015
A Fresh Expression of Church: 11-21-15
[FYI, I'm renaming my "Gathering" posts. Some of you may recall how the expression "Fresh expressions of church" entered the CGGC conversation. Actually, my friend Dan Horwedel noted the importance of the phrase to this chapter of the CGGC story on his blog a few months ago. In the CGGC these days, what we do and are in our neck of the woods is certainly one fresh expression of church.]
Last week, we agreed not to meet this Sunday but Evelyn and I also mentioned that we would be going to the home to pick up our three friends there to take them out to lunch and then to, as one of them says it, the local "Walmark."
We let it be known that anyone else who wanted participate in any way was welcome. And, when we showed up at the diner and began to help the "kidz" pile out of the Buick, we saw the hosts of the Thursday, uh, Fresh Expression walking toward us to join the gathering.
It was a blessing that they did. Each of the three kidz has unique challenges and, as much a blessing as they are, they are all high maintenance. They would have been perhaps too much of a challenge for the two of us in the diner. But, the Thursday couple are both first class servants. Watching them treat our least of these friends like Jesus was a very serious blessing to me.
Walmark was its own challenge.
We have a saying that an act is not an act of mercy unless it pinches. By that standard, the Walmark part of the day was an act of mercy, for me at least. A busy Walmark on Saturday afternoon!
Still, at each moment of frustration, I was able to understand again how I frustrate the Lord with my own folly.
If, as Paul says, worship happens not when you sit your fanny in a pew but when you offer your body as a living sacrifice, we worshipped yesterday.
A blessed day!
Last week, we agreed not to meet this Sunday but Evelyn and I also mentioned that we would be going to the home to pick up our three friends there to take them out to lunch and then to, as one of them says it, the local "Walmark."
We let it be known that anyone else who wanted participate in any way was welcome. And, when we showed up at the diner and began to help the "kidz" pile out of the Buick, we saw the hosts of the Thursday, uh, Fresh Expression walking toward us to join the gathering.
It was a blessing that they did. Each of the three kidz has unique challenges and, as much a blessing as they are, they are all high maintenance. They would have been perhaps too much of a challenge for the two of us in the diner. But, the Thursday couple are both first class servants. Watching them treat our least of these friends like Jesus was a very serious blessing to me.
Walmark was its own challenge.
We have a saying that an act is not an act of mercy unless it pinches. By that standard, the Walmark part of the day was an act of mercy, for me at least. A busy Walmark on Saturday afternoon!
Still, at each moment of frustration, I was able to understand again how I frustrate the Lord with my own folly.
If, as Paul says, worship happens not when you sit your fanny in a pew but when you offer your body as a living sacrifice, we worshipped yesterday.
A blessed day!
Friday, November 20, 2015
My Dad's Dementia as the Model of CGGC Ministry
I love my dad more than I ever have.
Yesterday, I babysat him while my mom was having a stress test. As a result, the state of his mental health is vividly fresh in my mind.
Dad is experiencing some form of dementia, though not Alzheimer's.
These days, dad lives entirely in the present. He has no short term memory. What happens in one moment seem to evaporate from his consciousness almost as soon as it takes place. Dad also has no conception of the future, even a few minutes hence. And, I can see how stressful living with him is for my mom, who has virtually full-time care of him, though she loves him deeply.
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Thinking how it felt to be the one caring for him for about two hours yesterday, I am struck with how much being a part of dad's life resembles being a part of the CGGC.
It seems to me that, in the CGGC, we possess the same total orientation to the present moment that is characteristic of my dad's failing brain.
Think, for example, about the response to the same-sex marriage thing. At the moment that decision was published there was an incredible brouhaha from leadership down in the CGGC about it.
Yet, what are we doing about the ministry challenges--and OPPORTUNITIES--the Supreme Court decision has created?
In the immediate aftermath, some leaders published commentaries. My Region held a seminar that touched on the issue, as a part of other concerns.
And, now?
Nothing.
Typical.
Life entirely in the present: A characteristic of ministry dominated by shepherds.
One positive thing I can say about being a part of the CGGC for all these decades is that it has prepared me to observe the decay of my dad's mind.
I desperately love dad and the CGGC. But, I'm saddened by the dementia that is destroying both.
Yesterday, I babysat him while my mom was having a stress test. As a result, the state of his mental health is vividly fresh in my mind.
Dad is experiencing some form of dementia, though not Alzheimer's.
These days, dad lives entirely in the present. He has no short term memory. What happens in one moment seem to evaporate from his consciousness almost as soon as it takes place. Dad also has no conception of the future, even a few minutes hence. And, I can see how stressful living with him is for my mom, who has virtually full-time care of him, though she loves him deeply.
--------------------------
Thinking how it felt to be the one caring for him for about two hours yesterday, I am struck with how much being a part of dad's life resembles being a part of the CGGC.
It seems to me that, in the CGGC, we possess the same total orientation to the present moment that is characteristic of my dad's failing brain.
Think, for example, about the response to the same-sex marriage thing. At the moment that decision was published there was an incredible brouhaha from leadership down in the CGGC about it.
Yet, what are we doing about the ministry challenges--and OPPORTUNITIES--the Supreme Court decision has created?
In the immediate aftermath, some leaders published commentaries. My Region held a seminar that touched on the issue, as a part of other concerns.
And, now?
Nothing.
Typical.
Life entirely in the present: A characteristic of ministry dominated by shepherds.
One positive thing I can say about being a part of the CGGC for all these decades is that it has prepared me to observe the decay of my dad's mind.
I desperately love dad and the CGGC. But, I'm saddened by the dementia that is destroying both.
Sunday, November 15, 2015
Gathering 11-15-15
One thing I've learned from gathering the way we do now, having been so involved in parish priest-driven "worship" for so many years is that the more you plan and prepare the more you quench the Spirit and drive Him away.
These days, the extent of our planning amounts to setting the time and place of our meeting and how we are going to do the meal. (We are evolving toward having a salad bar or soup and salad every week. The salad bar creates a very community building meal and it makes for healthy eating.)
Anyway...
...today the gathering felt very good to me perhaps precisely because its rhythms we so outside what has become our norm.
Lately I have been jotting down notes to record what we do during the gathering and I did that today but it is still hard to characterize what we did. We did a lot of talking about our individual walks as people devoted to obedience to the love commands of the Word.
Central to that conversation today was a bold act in obeying the "love your enemy" command in the Sermon on the Mount by a couple in our gathering.
It is too long to relate here. But, I will say that I was pleased and proud to be a part of the lives of people who would be Christ like in the face of hatred and mockery.
Despite the glowing reports of our gathering that appear here, we have serious shortcomings. I thought I might journal some of that today but I can't.
Walking in the Spirit in community is an exciting way to be a part of the Kingdom and it is never boring. It's filled with surprises.
Today we had a vivid conversation about Isaiah 53 and Hebrews 12:2 which led to a powerful time taking the bread and cup.
The soup and salad bar-based meal led to challenging and sweet fellowship.
What an amazing time with each other and in the Spirit!
These days, the extent of our planning amounts to setting the time and place of our meeting and how we are going to do the meal. (We are evolving toward having a salad bar or soup and salad every week. The salad bar creates a very community building meal and it makes for healthy eating.)
Anyway...
...today the gathering felt very good to me perhaps precisely because its rhythms we so outside what has become our norm.
Lately I have been jotting down notes to record what we do during the gathering and I did that today but it is still hard to characterize what we did. We did a lot of talking about our individual walks as people devoted to obedience to the love commands of the Word.
Central to that conversation today was a bold act in obeying the "love your enemy" command in the Sermon on the Mount by a couple in our gathering.
It is too long to relate here. But, I will say that I was pleased and proud to be a part of the lives of people who would be Christ like in the face of hatred and mockery.
Despite the glowing reports of our gathering that appear here, we have serious shortcomings. I thought I might journal some of that today but I can't.
Walking in the Spirit in community is an exciting way to be a part of the Kingdom and it is never boring. It's filled with surprises.
Today we had a vivid conversation about Isaiah 53 and Hebrews 12:2 which led to a powerful time taking the bread and cup.
The soup and salad bar-based meal led to challenging and sweet fellowship.
What an amazing time with each other and in the Spirit!
Friday, November 13, 2015
Gathering 11-12-15
For our Sunday gathering, we drive to a low end assisted living facility, pick up and drive three of the residents to our home. Each of them have nothing and no family that is supportive. They live off of public assistance.
It has become a habit, or tradition, of our Thursday group to go to the home and have a private birthday party for each of the three on their day.
Last night, we went to the home to celebrate Marian's birthday. Marian is a sweetheart. She's very shy and timid. Yet, if you ask her if she likes a gift you gave her, if she doesn't, she will tell you no without qualm. We love her.
She loves pumpkin pie so we brought one to her and a balloon and cards and gifts. Then we watched FAMILY FEUD with her. She enjoyed the stuff but more than that, the celebration.
After the party, and on the wrong side of the end of visiting hours, we had brief visits with the other two residents from our Sunday group.
For better or worse, our community of gatherings is very truth driven. The truth that drove us last night was the "least of these" principle from Matthew 25.
I believe each of us had a lovely evening.
It has become a habit, or tradition, of our Thursday group to go to the home and have a private birthday party for each of the three on their day.
Last night, we went to the home to celebrate Marian's birthday. Marian is a sweetheart. She's very shy and timid. Yet, if you ask her if she likes a gift you gave her, if she doesn't, she will tell you no without qualm. We love her.
She loves pumpkin pie so we brought one to her and a balloon and cards and gifts. Then we watched FAMILY FEUD with her. She enjoyed the stuff but more than that, the celebration.
After the party, and on the wrong side of the end of visiting hours, we had brief visits with the other two residents from our Sunday group.
For better or worse, our community of gatherings is very truth driven. The truth that drove us last night was the "least of these" principle from Matthew 25.
I believe each of us had a lovely evening.
Thursday, November 12, 2015
The ERC Standing Committee/Administrative Council vs. The Spanish Inquisition
The Spanish Inquisition is one of the greatest embarrassments in the history of the church. It was a spiritual reign of terror that lasted for centuries.
However, since the day I picked up that certified letter from the ERC explaining that my ordination had been recalled, I have been thinking about the similarities and differences between what the ERC did to me and the Roman Catholic Church's reign of terror that was the Inquisition.
And, I say, give me the Inquisition.
Here, very briefly, are seven differences between the Spanish Inquisition and the process employed by ERC Mountaintoppers to recall my ordination.
So, give me the Spanish Inquisition.
Can you appreciate in any way from the very darkest moments in church history, what ERC mountaintoppers have done?! The Spanish Inquisition was a Love Feast by comparison.
When I inspect the fruit CGGC leadership has been producing in recent years, I am stunned and shocked. The truth is that, on its worst days, the Roman Catholic Church's Popes and Bishops never approached the abuses of power that take place within the CGGC, as is demonstrated in the manner the ERC Standing Committee and Administrative Council have dealt with me.
The perpetrators of the Inquisition would never, on their most intolerant day, have dreamed of doing what ERC mountaintoppers have done.
More tragically, to the best my knowledge, only one person has actually confronted the mountaintoppers over what they have done in my case, though I have received several private notes of support.
It is now standard operating procedure in the CGGC to allow mountaintoppers to abuse their power and the teachings of the Word without opposition. Even without comment.
The greatest guilt in the CGGC, in my opinion, is with those of you who allow these abuses to take place.
The CGGC is experiencing decline at an increasing rate. Who, honestly, can question why.
Who can imagine that the Lord would bless what we have become and what we do.
We must repent.
However, since the day I picked up that certified letter from the ERC explaining that my ordination had been recalled, I have been thinking about the similarities and differences between what the ERC did to me and the Roman Catholic Church's reign of terror that was the Inquisition.
And, I say, give me the Inquisition.
Here, very briefly, are seven differences between the Spanish Inquisition and the process employed by ERC Mountaintoppers to recall my ordination.
- The Spanish Inquisition was open and public. The ERC process that ended in the recall of my ordination was kept a secret from me until it was completed.
- The goal of the Inquisition was to preserve the purity of Christian truth. I have a list of the reasons the Standing Committee recommended that my ordination be removed. Not one of them even remotely touches on issues of doctrine.
- In the Inquisition, the accused was provided with counsel. As far as I know, no one spoke for me at any point in the ERC process.
- In the Inquisition, the accused was permitted to be present at his/her trial. Needless to say, due to the secretive process, I was denied even the opportunity to listen to the charges being level against me.
- In the Inquisition, the accused was given ample opportunity to respond to charges leveled against him/her. As I have said, I honestly believe that I am innocent of every charge that the Standing Committee and Administrative Council convicted me of. The members of those groups have no idea of my understanding of these issues--by their own choice.
- In the Inquisition, even guilty parties were offered the opportunity to repent of fallen and sinful ways. ERC leaders provided me with no such opportunity.
- The goal of the Inquisition was reconciliation: the restoration of the lost soul. Based on what ERC Mountaintoppers did, their goal was to condemn me and to separate me from the flock.
So, give me the Spanish Inquisition.
Can you appreciate in any way from the very darkest moments in church history, what ERC mountaintoppers have done?! The Spanish Inquisition was a Love Feast by comparison.
When I inspect the fruit CGGC leadership has been producing in recent years, I am stunned and shocked. The truth is that, on its worst days, the Roman Catholic Church's Popes and Bishops never approached the abuses of power that take place within the CGGC, as is demonstrated in the manner the ERC Standing Committee and Administrative Council have dealt with me.
The perpetrators of the Inquisition would never, on their most intolerant day, have dreamed of doing what ERC mountaintoppers have done.
More tragically, to the best my knowledge, only one person has actually confronted the mountaintoppers over what they have done in my case, though I have received several private notes of support.
It is now standard operating procedure in the CGGC to allow mountaintoppers to abuse their power and the teachings of the Word without opposition. Even without comment.
The greatest guilt in the CGGC, in my opinion, is with those of you who allow these abuses to take place.
The CGGC is experiencing decline at an increasing rate. Who, honestly, can question why.
Who can imagine that the Lord would bless what we have become and what we do.
We must repent.
Sunday, November 8, 2015
Gathering: 11-8-15
Typically deep and joyful.
It's usual among humans to establish habits. What can be dangerous is when those habits are granted authority and become traditions.
We have been at this for long enough to have established habits. To this point, the habits have no authority among us. No traditions yet.
One habit of the Sunday morning Gathering is to reflect on the words of the songs we sing. We did that twice today.
On one occasion we sang the words, "Billows his will obey." And, that reminded me of an exchange I had this past week with Matt, our friend who now lives in South Carolina, about the fear of God and I mentioned the story of the storm at sea with Jesus asleep on the boat. He was awakened and told the storm to chill, it did and it after that that the disciples were terrified. We decided today that they realized how great He was and how puny they were in His presence.
That theme became the basis of our reflection for the taking of Communion.
Later, we reflected on the difference between the rich young ruler (Luke 18) and Zacchaeus (19).
The meal was lively and joyous.
And a good time was had by all.
It's usual among humans to establish habits. What can be dangerous is when those habits are granted authority and become traditions.
We have been at this for long enough to have established habits. To this point, the habits have no authority among us. No traditions yet.
One habit of the Sunday morning Gathering is to reflect on the words of the songs we sing. We did that twice today.
On one occasion we sang the words, "Billows his will obey." And, that reminded me of an exchange I had this past week with Matt, our friend who now lives in South Carolina, about the fear of God and I mentioned the story of the storm at sea with Jesus asleep on the boat. He was awakened and told the storm to chill, it did and it after that that the disciples were terrified. We decided today that they realized how great He was and how puny they were in His presence.
That theme became the basis of our reflection for the taking of Communion.
Later, we reflected on the difference between the rich young ruler (Luke 18) and Zacchaeus (19).
The meal was lively and joyous.
And a good time was had by all.
Friday, November 6, 2015
The Drop Off in my Blog Production
Last month I published only 11 threads here. Over half of them were journals of Gatherings.
If you wonder why the lack of production, rest assured, I am no less active than I have been.
At the moment, I am in off line conversation with several people who occupy lofty positions on various CGGC mountaintops over issues of great importance. In time, I may put updates on those conversations if doing so becomes appropriate.
If you wonder why the lack of production, rest assured, I am no less active than I have been.
At the moment, I am in off line conversation with several people who occupy lofty positions on various CGGC mountaintops over issues of great importance. In time, I may put updates on those conversations if doing so becomes appropriate.
Monday, November 2, 2015
Gathering Without Me in an Emergency: 11-1-15
Our gathering culture is so different from what we took for granted when we bought into the values of the institutional church. Yesterday was a very unusual day that could have been a crisis if we did the clergy/laity thing but, as it turned out, was just a weird day for us.
My phone rang at the very moment the last people were arriving. My dad, who can barely use a phone, was calling, saying mom was sick and he needed me to come to their condo immediately. She was experiencing abdominal pain so intense that she couldn't use the phone. I called my brother to see if he could check up on them but he was out of the house.
So, I explained to the people gathered and left--without a thought or concern about what would happen in my absence.
After I arrived at my parents', probably about an hour later Evelyn called on behalf of the gathering to see how things were going. They had stopped the meeting, before taking communion, to check in.
My brother actually made it to mom and dad's shortly after I arrived. We strenuously encouraged mom to call 911 because her symptoms were similar to those of a heart attack in women and there is lots of heart disease in her family.
In the end, we extracted from her the promise that she would call 911 if the pain returned and to call her doctor Monday morning if not. We checked on her repeatedly throughout the remainder of the day and again this morning.
All that said, the gathering was, based on what I have heard, uneventful in my absence.
One concern I have about the direction the church today is going is that it is expanding the clergy/laity distinction. And, to do so, abuses the spirit of what Jesus did.
My goal, which I believe I am achieving, is to make active priests of all of us.
My phone rang at the very moment the last people were arriving. My dad, who can barely use a phone, was calling, saying mom was sick and he needed me to come to their condo immediately. She was experiencing abdominal pain so intense that she couldn't use the phone. I called my brother to see if he could check up on them but he was out of the house.
So, I explained to the people gathered and left--without a thought or concern about what would happen in my absence.
After I arrived at my parents', probably about an hour later Evelyn called on behalf of the gathering to see how things were going. They had stopped the meeting, before taking communion, to check in.
My brother actually made it to mom and dad's shortly after I arrived. We strenuously encouraged mom to call 911 because her symptoms were similar to those of a heart attack in women and there is lots of heart disease in her family.
In the end, we extracted from her the promise that she would call 911 if the pain returned and to call her doctor Monday morning if not. We checked on her repeatedly throughout the remainder of the day and again this morning.
All that said, the gathering was, based on what I have heard, uneventful in my absence.
One concern I have about the direction the church today is going is that it is expanding the clergy/laity distinction. And, to do so, abuses the spirit of what Jesus did.
My goal, which I believe I am achieving, is to make active priests of all of us.
Monday, October 26, 2015
Two Off-Line Responses to this Blog
What follows in this post is two examples of what I hear off the blog from people who receive my blog posts.
The first is a note from someone with whom I was once very close and whom I still love and consider to be a friend of mine. What this guy says is typical of what I hear from many. I believe I am successful in preserving his anonymity.
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The second note contains a very different take on what I enter on this blog. I receive notes like this with much more frequency than I would have ever imagined. Again, I believe it will be impossible for you to guess who wrote this to me.
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As the Beatles sang on the WHITE ALBUM, "O bla dee, O bla dah..."
The first is a note from someone with whom I was once very close and whom I still love and consider to be a friend of mine. What this guy says is typical of what I hear from many. I believe I am successful in preserving his anonymity.
This was my response, something I have now said in nearly identical words to many people in recent years. This response is edited to preserve my friend's identity:I appreciate it.I'm not sure how to ask this, but I'd like to stop receiving your blog updates and since there is no unsubscribe and I do wish to call your emails spam and I'm not great at ignoring stuff, could you take me off this list?Bill,We haven't talked in some time. I long for the day long ago that (my wife and) I could have dinner with you and Evelyn. . .. (He then recalls one very sweet memory from our time together many years ago.)
As I say, I have received this sort of request from quite a number of people in recent years. In fact, it was after I denied a similar request from someone possessing an extreme amount of power in the CGGC that the ERC Administrative Council voted to recall my ordination. I am convinced that the two events are intimately connected.(My Friend),Thanks for the note. You are not the first person to have made this sort of request. When I receive these requests, I grieve.As you probably realize, I take APEST more seriously today than I did during the days (the Emerging Church blog) filled me with hope about the future of the CGGC.I review my understanding of my calling before the Lord nearly on a daily basis. And, I am convinced, more than ever, that I am gifted and called to function as a prophet and that I am empowered to call to repentance a body of people which has lost its way.Sadly, for our relationship, I believe that for me to stop sending you these notes would make me disobedient to my calling and, if I did that, I would be accountable to Him for that act of unfaithfulness on the Day. I can't do that. I hope you understand how I view this.If you don't wish to receive what I send, handle my notes as you see fit but, please, do it before the Lord. Before Him, I don't feel able to stop sending them to you.And, knowing that I am transparently presenting myself to you and the rest of the body as a prophet, if you have judged me to be a false prophet, I encourage you to behave as the Word instructs disciples to behave toward false prophets so that you can stand before Him with confidence on the Day.I, too, miss the days you mention.Blessings,bill
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The second note contains a very different take on what I enter on this blog. I receive notes like this with much more frequency than I would have ever imagined. Again, I believe it will be impossible for you to guess who wrote this to me.
Bill,
I have read your blog for some time now and realize that you have been encouraging the leadership to repent. It's my understanding that for me that truth is at the heart of church revitalization...I believe that all of us need to repent from the contribution we all have made in making the church impotent in our generation. We need to get back to Biblical Authority as Jesus allows us to take part with Him as He builds His Church of which the gates will not prevail against. That is the work of revitalization.
I would like to ask you to keep this letter confidential, but I would be interested to hear what you may think of my apostolic ramblings.
The request that I keep the identity of the writer confidential always comes with this sort of note. I have never asked why. But, the fact the people want their anonymity preserved, I believe, says something very significant about the CGGC.A fellow believer in the work of restoring His church back to biblical authority.
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As the Beatles sang on the WHITE ALBUM, "O bla dee, O bla dah..."
Sunday, October 25, 2015
Gathering 10-25-15
This was the first meeting of this group since October 4. We hadn't heard from some of the people since the last meeting. A few missed due to illness. It was good to be together again.
The day had begun stressfully for Evie. She had taken responsibility for the main course of the meal. (We used always to do a pot luck sort of thing, which I guess is more New Testamenty. But we have some picky eaters, me included, so the primary cooks have gotten into the habit of coordinating what they will provide. And, Evie was going to the main course today.) She was planning something with eggplant but found that the eggplant was rotten inside when she started to cook this morning and had to be creative. She is an amazing "pinch of this, dash of that" cook. We are doing veggie cooking these days due to health issues. We have A LOT of diabetics. She did a chickenless Chicken Cacciatore that was out of this world. Others brought fixins for a salad bar.
We began the meeting sharing things going on in our lives that we are encountering as people striving to produce love and good works and display mercy. It was a good way to catch up with each other.
Next, came what proved to be our only song, HOW DEEP THE FATHER'S LOVE FOR US, then we engaged in a lengthy conversation on two lines:
"It was my sin that held him there," and,
"His wounds have paid my ransom."
What amazing theological depth!
That conversation led perfectly into the taking of the bread and cup.
We took an intermission so one of our diabetics could deal with a health issue then had a sweet time of prayer in which any and every one was invited to pray aloud.
Then, we had the meal.
It has occurred to me that the one thing that separates what we do from a worship service is the meal and, honestly, you have to experience a gathering in which the meal is the culmination to appreciate it. The food is the least of it. It is time of mutual service and sacrifice in which much of what we strive to achieve in lifestyle during the coming week is practiced.
But, you really need to experience it as a common feature of your fellowship in order to appreciate it.
What a blessed gathering!
The day had begun stressfully for Evie. She had taken responsibility for the main course of the meal. (We used always to do a pot luck sort of thing, which I guess is more New Testamenty. But we have some picky eaters, me included, so the primary cooks have gotten into the habit of coordinating what they will provide. And, Evie was going to the main course today.) She was planning something with eggplant but found that the eggplant was rotten inside when she started to cook this morning and had to be creative. She is an amazing "pinch of this, dash of that" cook. We are doing veggie cooking these days due to health issues. We have A LOT of diabetics. She did a chickenless Chicken Cacciatore that was out of this world. Others brought fixins for a salad bar.
We began the meeting sharing things going on in our lives that we are encountering as people striving to produce love and good works and display mercy. It was a good way to catch up with each other.
Next, came what proved to be our only song, HOW DEEP THE FATHER'S LOVE FOR US, then we engaged in a lengthy conversation on two lines:
"It was my sin that held him there," and,
"His wounds have paid my ransom."
What amazing theological depth!
That conversation led perfectly into the taking of the bread and cup.
We took an intermission so one of our diabetics could deal with a health issue then had a sweet time of prayer in which any and every one was invited to pray aloud.
Then, we had the meal.
It has occurred to me that the one thing that separates what we do from a worship service is the meal and, honestly, you have to experience a gathering in which the meal is the culmination to appreciate it. The food is the least of it. It is time of mutual service and sacrifice in which much of what we strive to achieve in lifestyle during the coming week is practiced.
But, you really need to experience it as a common feature of your fellowship in order to appreciate it.
What a blessed gathering!
Friday, October 23, 2015
Gathering 10-22-15
The first gathering in two weeks for Evie and me.
The three groups with which we are connected each have their own personality and I love each of them.
The Thursday night group is the one of the three that is the most intense in provoking the gatherers on to a life of love and good works yet the meeting itself is extremely relaxed and informal.
These groups all have their own traditions/habits. In this one, the taking of the Lord's Supper--our time of "regospeling"--is crucial. Each of the members of the group leads from time to time and the focus is normally on Christ's love and good works which His followers are called to emulate.
Last night Evie led and she called us to focus on the reality that we abide in Him AND that He abides with us. For me, Paul's admonition that we "work out our salvation with fear and trembling" is connected to that second reality.
Last night's gathering was relatively brief, lasting only about two hours. The "chef" of the meal is dealing with some health issues which he is hoping to address through a change in diet. I wasn't certain that I could eat what he put on table but, in obedience to the love one another command, I was determined to do my best. I hate the fact that I am a horribly picky eater. Actually, the food was pretty good.
Another good meeting. I would not trade the most polished worship service for it.
The three groups with which we are connected each have their own personality and I love each of them.
The Thursday night group is the one of the three that is the most intense in provoking the gatherers on to a life of love and good works yet the meeting itself is extremely relaxed and informal.
These groups all have their own traditions/habits. In this one, the taking of the Lord's Supper--our time of "regospeling"--is crucial. Each of the members of the group leads from time to time and the focus is normally on Christ's love and good works which His followers are called to emulate.
Last night Evie led and she called us to focus on the reality that we abide in Him AND that He abides with us. For me, Paul's admonition that we "work out our salvation with fear and trembling" is connected to that second reality.
Last night's gathering was relatively brief, lasting only about two hours. The "chef" of the meal is dealing with some health issues which he is hoping to address through a change in diet. I wasn't certain that I could eat what he put on table but, in obedience to the love one another command, I was determined to do my best. I hate the fact that I am a horribly picky eater. Actually, the food was pretty good.
Another good meeting. I would not trade the most polished worship service for it.
Thursday, October 22, 2015
The ERC is Defunding Care for its "Greatest Resource"
At the very beginning of October, ERC E.D. Dr. Kevin Richardson published a new
Healthy Church Update, his monthly article to the people of the Conference. In it he declared his love and appreciation for the ERC's pastors.
That issue of Healthy Church Update was, in my mind, the most memorable, poignant and powerful he has written.
Dr. Richardson began sentimentally describing his regular visits to ERC "worship services." He said,
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You may, perhaps, understand when I say that I was perplexed when, a few days ago, I received a note from the Conference publishing next year's budget and which emphasized the central role Dr. Richardson played in its development:
With few exceptions, the 2016 entire budget reflects significant belt tightening. Most of the Commissions' budgets were trimmed. One was eliminated and absorbed into other Commissions.
On the other hand...
...It is worth noting that, in spite of the belt tightening foisted on nearly everyone else, as income declines, Dr. Richardson was able to find money in the 2016 budget to offer a small INCREASE in Staff Salaries and Benefits and that the money put into the "Conference Office Account" remained the same.
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I mentioned that the proposed budget perplexes me. Actually the increase for the staff and office doesn't perplex me and it doesn't surprise me. Those folks know, without doubt, that the church is an institution.
What leaders did here is perfectly consistent with the Conference leadership model I have been railing against for years.
So, the increase doesn't perplex me and it doesn't surprise me but it does infuriate me.
--------------------------------
What perplexes me, after Dr. Richardson's poignant and tender expression of appreciation for the ERC's pastors and his declaration that our pastors, apart from the Gospel and the Holy Spirit, are the Conference's greatest resource is this:
Dr. Richardson's budget removes all funding for Pastoral Care Workers and explains that "Pastoral Care Workers will be discontinued...."
I am perplexed. I don't really know how to understand this.
If the man whose leadership and direction established the budget believes that, apart the Holy Spirit and the Gospel, our greatest resource is our pastors, why doesn't his budget reflect that conviction?! Why is care designated for pastors specifically ended? Where is the foresight, the view of the future in that?
Was Dr. Richardson lying about his appreciation for the role of the pastor and his conviction that we have no greater resource than our pastors? Is Dr. Richardson, well, a liar? I've known him for more than twenty years and I can't believe that.
--------------------------------
I am, indeed, perplexed but here is my theory:
Number 15 on my list: Sixteen Characteristics of the CGGC Brand, Pre-Finley-Findlay is:
It is par for the course for CGGCers, and particularly CGGC leaders, to say one thing and do another thing that is exactly inconsistent with what is said.
Do I think Kevin lied? Do I think he is a liar? Of course not! He is a good and sincere man who loves the church and wants the best for it.
But, he certainly has also imbibed hook, line and sinker, the value system by which the General Conference and the ERC operate. Organized Hypocrisy is standard operating procedure in those worlds.
I am absolutely certain that when Kevin wrote that note of appreciation for ERC pastors and when he stated his conviction that the ERC's greatest resource is its pastors that his eyes tingled with tears. I'm certain that if he would go back and reread what he wrote about our pastors, he would say that every word of it speaks his heart.
And, I am equally certain when it was decided that the Conference's program designed to care for its pastors would be defunded, he did that with a cold heart.
------------------------------
I'm a geezer in the CGGC. I've been around. I know nearly all of the leaders of the General Conference and the ERC personally and well. I believe all of them, Kevin included, to be good people.
But, I also know them to be believers in the CGGC way, which is deeply institutional and which, I also believe, defies the Word in all of its essential values.
We need to repent on the big picture level--the level of values, the level of the system.
And, I am convinced, we need to remove every leader who carries out our unbiblical and institutional values.
Kevin is not really a liar. But, living according to the CGGC system, what he said about pastors and what is doing in regard to them does not fit.
No wonder that another CGGC characteristic is Cynicism.
We needed to repent a long time ago.
Healthy Church Update, his monthly article to the people of the Conference. In it he declared his love and appreciation for the ERC's pastors.
That issue of Healthy Church Update was, in my mind, the most memorable, poignant and powerful he has written.
Dr. Richardson began sentimentally describing his regular visits to ERC "worship services." He said,
One of my great joys as Executive Director is to worship among our churches. I love to arrive at a church early on a Sunday morning. I always take time to pray for the pastor and his family and the church before entering the building. I have found that it is hard for me to sneak into a worship service...(When I am able) I love to sit quietly and simply watch the pastor as he greets people and gets ready for the morning worship...I know how important those moments are leading up to the start of the worship service and many if not most of our pastors are using that time well.After that, Dr. Richardson recalled a moment in the past when he was asked what he considers to be the greatest resource of the ERC. He remembers that his response was immediate and required no thought,
I was asked one time what the greatest resource the Eastern Regional Conference had. The answer came quickly-our pastors. Our dedicated men and women who are serving well the people of God. Servants of the Lord who preach the Word of God and love the people of God. Pastors who long to see God's kingdom grow and multiply. Faithful men and women who like Jesus give their very all for the church. Outside of the Gospel of Jesus Christ and the power of the Holy Spirit, our pastors are our greatest resource.Later in the article, Dr. Richardson recalled his own trepidation as his preparation for ministry came to an end and as he anticipated his future life in church leadership:
When I concluded my master's level seminary education, the time came to leave school and dive head first into ministry. I confess that I was not prepared for leadership in the local church. I had heard horror stories for three years of pastors who were stressed out and leaving the ministry. As students we were consistently warned of the hazards of pastoral ministry. I felt as though I was being led to the slaughter.Yet, his fear was allayed with the reading of one very important book. Dr. Richardson testifies,
But that changed for me during my last semester by reading "The Heart of a Great Pastor." This book by H.B. London and Neil Wiseman encouraged my heart then and still does today.He includes this quote from the book:
Let's admit that every pastor stands at the center of what makes ministry meaningful for him. The springs of fulfillment are internal and personal. The whole thing starts with that first stirring in your soul about ministry; no one else heard the dialogue and debate between you and God. Because God called you, it means you measure fulfillment differently from people in other occupations or other pastors. It means you are fulfilled when God is most pleased with your ministry. (62)With London and Wiseman's insight as his backdrop, Dr. Richardson offers this sweet picture of the challenges and the joys of the life of the man and woman in ministry:
Being a pastor has tremendous challenges today-but the rewards far outweigh the challenges. Pastors have the greatest joy of all-the joy of sharing the Gospel and helping lost people find Jesus. But there is more, oh so much more. Pastors have the privilege of dedicating children to the Lord and then watching them grow up in the Lord. Pastors have the joy of officiating marriages and being the first to say, "I now pronounce you husband and wife." Pastors represent Christ in the midst of crisis and challenges, in emergency rooms and in nursing homes. And pastors have the privilege of speaking the last public words on behalf of a saint God has called home. It is in these moments that pastors are most like Christ and perhaps God is most pleased with our ministry.Then the ERC E. D. offers, from his heart, this personal, and as I've said passionate and poignant word of appreciation to the pastors of the Conference (with my emphasis):
October is Pastor Appreciation Month. To every pastor in the ERC, to every man and woman who has responded to God's call and is serving well our Lord Jesus Christ and His Church, I say thank you. You are the greatest resource we have. Remember your calling, maintain a healthy balance to life and ministry, and serve well with the smile of God upon you. Scripture says, "Here is a trustworthy saying: If anyone sets his heart on being an overseer, he desires a noble task" (1 Tim. 3:1). May you be appreciated and celebrated this month and above all may you bloom where God has planted you!Never, have I read Dr. Richardson express himself more eloquently. Never have I known him to communicate so tenderly. The power of his appreciation moves me.
------------------------------
You may, perhaps, understand when I say that I was perplexed when, a few days ago, I received a note from the Conference publishing next year's budget and which emphasized the central role Dr. Richardson played in its development:
It is probably no surprise to anyone in the CGGC that, like the rest of the CGGC, the ERC is declining at an exponential rate. And, as you would expect, money is becoming increasingly tight with each passing year.Under the leadership and direction of Kevin Richardson, Executive Directorand the approval of the ERCCOG Administrative Council, the 2016 Budgethas been established.
With few exceptions, the 2016 entire budget reflects significant belt tightening. Most of the Commissions' budgets were trimmed. One was eliminated and absorbed into other Commissions.
On the other hand...
...It is worth noting that, in spite of the belt tightening foisted on nearly everyone else, as income declines, Dr. Richardson was able to find money in the 2016 budget to offer a small INCREASE in Staff Salaries and Benefits and that the money put into the "Conference Office Account" remained the same.
------------------------------
I mentioned that the proposed budget perplexes me. Actually the increase for the staff and office doesn't perplex me and it doesn't surprise me. Those folks know, without doubt, that the church is an institution.
What leaders did here is perfectly consistent with the Conference leadership model I have been railing against for years.
So, the increase doesn't perplex me and it doesn't surprise me but it does infuriate me.
--------------------------------
What perplexes me, after Dr. Richardson's poignant and tender expression of appreciation for the ERC's pastors and his declaration that our pastors, apart from the Gospel and the Holy Spirit, are the Conference's greatest resource is this:
Dr. Richardson's budget removes all funding for Pastoral Care Workers and explains that "Pastoral Care Workers will be discontinued...."
I am perplexed. I don't really know how to understand this.
If the man whose leadership and direction established the budget believes that, apart the Holy Spirit and the Gospel, our greatest resource is our pastors, why doesn't his budget reflect that conviction?! Why is care designated for pastors specifically ended? Where is the foresight, the view of the future in that?
Was Dr. Richardson lying about his appreciation for the role of the pastor and his conviction that we have no greater resource than our pastors? Is Dr. Richardson, well, a liar? I've known him for more than twenty years and I can't believe that.
--------------------------------
I am, indeed, perplexed but here is my theory:
Number 15 on my list: Sixteen Characteristics of the CGGC Brand, Pre-Finley-Findlay is:
Organized Hypocrisy. There is illogic and outright contradiction among the things the CGGC claims to be true about itself. This illogic and contradiction is, in reality, deeply rooted, highly intentional and carefully executed. A hypocrite is an actor: "...a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings." It is a positive and essential value of the CGGC to speak one message and to, without qualm, act out another that is entirely disconnected from that avowed principle.Is this the explanation? It certainly fits what Dr. Richardson said and then did.
It is par for the course for CGGCers, and particularly CGGC leaders, to say one thing and do another thing that is exactly inconsistent with what is said.
Do I think Kevin lied? Do I think he is a liar? Of course not! He is a good and sincere man who loves the church and wants the best for it.
But, he certainly has also imbibed hook, line and sinker, the value system by which the General Conference and the ERC operate. Organized Hypocrisy is standard operating procedure in those worlds.
I am absolutely certain that when Kevin wrote that note of appreciation for ERC pastors and when he stated his conviction that the ERC's greatest resource is its pastors that his eyes tingled with tears. I'm certain that if he would go back and reread what he wrote about our pastors, he would say that every word of it speaks his heart.
And, I am equally certain when it was decided that the Conference's program designed to care for its pastors would be defunded, he did that with a cold heart.
------------------------------
I'm a geezer in the CGGC. I've been around. I know nearly all of the leaders of the General Conference and the ERC personally and well. I believe all of them, Kevin included, to be good people.
But, I also know them to be believers in the CGGC way, which is deeply institutional and which, I also believe, defies the Word in all of its essential values.
We need to repent on the big picture level--the level of values, the level of the system.
And, I am convinced, we need to remove every leader who carries out our unbiblical and institutional values.
Kevin is not really a liar. But, living according to the CGGC system, what he said about pastors and what is doing in regard to them does not fit.
No wonder that another CGGC characteristic is Cynicism.
We needed to repent a long time ago.
Monday, October 19, 2015
No Gatherings: 10/11-18/15
We took a week off, beginning Sunday the eleventh through Sunday the eighteenth.
We live pretty intense lives for two geezers, both working full-time jobs which we regard as mission fields, hosting two house gatherings and participating in a third gathering--plus the rest of what is a hectic life for people of our age.
So, we planned a week's vacation. We vacated our home and hit the highway and travelled to the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area.
All things considered, we had a good week.
Interestingly, there are people we know in that area. Our friend Matt, who lived with us for a while during the spring when he was between houses, moved to a town about 20 miles from Myrtle Beach and a woman from the church settled in that area a few years ago. We let both know that we'd be near them and met with them both two times during the week.
We spent the week with my oldest friend, Tom, whom I met at age five when we were in Beginners' Swimming Class. He now lives near Denver, Colorado and is married to Janice, a woman we adore, who dealt with breast cancer two years before Evelyn was diagnosed. Janice is a physician. She became a cancer mentor for Evelyn and made that difficult journey much easier for both Evelyn and me.
On the journey to and from, we listened to an audio version of Elizabeth George's novel, Believing the Lie. George is the author of the Inspector Lynley novels, which were featured on Masterpiece Mystery a few years back. This is a novel published after the end of the series and I've wanted to listen to it for several years. George writes in the style of P. D. James--tons of character development and not a lot of action,with, perhaps a little more humor than in James' novels. The problem with George's books is that they are very long. This book, in audio, is 22 1/2 hours long, not the longest I've ever listened to, but very challenging. We still haven't finished it. And, interestingly, about 70% of the way through it, are still not certain that Inspector Lynley is even investigating a crime.
The weather was pleasant for us every day we were in South Carolina and we loved the area.
We did a lot of the cliché touristy things during the week.
Among them, we found a nice used book store which had a large audio book section and had in stock the first book in Harlan Coben's, Myron Bolitar series. I already had three of the audio books in my library and while the first in the series, Deal Breaker, is not my favorite, it's certainly in the top ninety percentile of books I've "read." It was for sale at a very reasonable price and so I bought it.
We visited a huge garden. (Our friend Janice is an award-winning amateur photographer who specializes in flowers.) We saw more than our share of alligators and viewed the South Carolina flooding, which is draining very slowly. We hiked a bit of a State Park south of Myrtle Beach and visited an enterprise that is a cross between an outdoor shopping mall and an amusement park. We ate a variety of restaurants. Evelyn and I don't watch TV at home so, I caught up on some Law and Order reruns and Evelyn watched some episodes of her favorite HGTV programs, including House Hunters and the show featuring Chip and Joanna Gaines. And, of course, being tourists at the shore, we walked the boardwalks in Myrtle Beach and Murrell's Inlet. Neither is comparable to a New Jersey boardwalk.
Because the trip is so long, we returned in two days and spent the night on the way home in Virginia Beach, which we love and was not too far out of the way, and drove up the Delmarva peninsula, which is a more pleasant drive than the chaos of the roads around D. C..
My dad's 2006 Buick held up well and got over 30 mpg.
It was nice to go off to a quiet place and to get some rest.
Now, back to our mission fields.
We live pretty intense lives for two geezers, both working full-time jobs which we regard as mission fields, hosting two house gatherings and participating in a third gathering--plus the rest of what is a hectic life for people of our age.
So, we planned a week's vacation. We vacated our home and hit the highway and travelled to the Myrtle Beach, South Carolina area.
All things considered, we had a good week.
Interestingly, there are people we know in that area. Our friend Matt, who lived with us for a while during the spring when he was between houses, moved to a town about 20 miles from Myrtle Beach and a woman from the church settled in that area a few years ago. We let both know that we'd be near them and met with them both two times during the week.
We spent the week with my oldest friend, Tom, whom I met at age five when we were in Beginners' Swimming Class. He now lives near Denver, Colorado and is married to Janice, a woman we adore, who dealt with breast cancer two years before Evelyn was diagnosed. Janice is a physician. She became a cancer mentor for Evelyn and made that difficult journey much easier for both Evelyn and me.
On the journey to and from, we listened to an audio version of Elizabeth George's novel, Believing the Lie. George is the author of the Inspector Lynley novels, which were featured on Masterpiece Mystery a few years back. This is a novel published after the end of the series and I've wanted to listen to it for several years. George writes in the style of P. D. James--tons of character development and not a lot of action,with, perhaps a little more humor than in James' novels. The problem with George's books is that they are very long. This book, in audio, is 22 1/2 hours long, not the longest I've ever listened to, but very challenging. We still haven't finished it. And, interestingly, about 70% of the way through it, are still not certain that Inspector Lynley is even investigating a crime.
The weather was pleasant for us every day we were in South Carolina and we loved the area.
We did a lot of the cliché touristy things during the week.
Among them, we found a nice used book store which had a large audio book section and had in stock the first book in Harlan Coben's, Myron Bolitar series. I already had three of the audio books in my library and while the first in the series, Deal Breaker, is not my favorite, it's certainly in the top ninety percentile of books I've "read." It was for sale at a very reasonable price and so I bought it.
We visited a huge garden. (Our friend Janice is an award-winning amateur photographer who specializes in flowers.) We saw more than our share of alligators and viewed the South Carolina flooding, which is draining very slowly. We hiked a bit of a State Park south of Myrtle Beach and visited an enterprise that is a cross between an outdoor shopping mall and an amusement park. We ate a variety of restaurants. Evelyn and I don't watch TV at home so, I caught up on some Law and Order reruns and Evelyn watched some episodes of her favorite HGTV programs, including House Hunters and the show featuring Chip and Joanna Gaines. And, of course, being tourists at the shore, we walked the boardwalks in Myrtle Beach and Murrell's Inlet. Neither is comparable to a New Jersey boardwalk.
Because the trip is so long, we returned in two days and spent the night on the way home in Virginia Beach, which we love and was not too far out of the way, and drove up the Delmarva peninsula, which is a more pleasant drive than the chaos of the roads around D. C..
My dad's 2006 Buick held up well and got over 30 mpg.
It was nice to go off to a quiet place and to get some rest.
Now, back to our mission fields.
Friday, October 9, 2015
Update on the Recall of My Ordination
By my count it has been 171 days since the ERC Administrative Council voted, I am told, unanimously, to recall my ordination "for cause effective immediately."
Perhaps the most stunning reality to me in all of this is that, to my knowledge, no one from the Conference has been in touch with the people of Faith Community Church of God, whom I continue to participate with and serve, about the Conference's action.
That fact absolutely does stun me.
And, I'm imagining how the conversation will go when that contact is made.
-----------------------------------------------
If it took place today beginning with a phone call, it would start something like this:
"Hello, may I speak to Mr./Ms. Fill-in-the-blank.
"That's me.
"Hello, Fill, my name is Dr. Kevin Richardson, I am the Executive Director of the Eastern Regional Conference of the Churches of God. And, I'm calling you, because the people of the Eastern Regional Conference care about you and your congregation and your ministry, and to let you know that, last April, the Conference Administrative Council took an action to remove Pastor Sloat's ordination. I just want you to know that the Conference loves the people of Faith and that we want to encourage you and to offer our support to you in any way we can. Because, most of all, we want your ministry to succeed.
"Dr. Richardson, you said that the Conference took this action, what?, about six months ago, is that right?
"Uh, well, yes, Fill, that is correct, last April.
"Then, if you do care about our congregation and our ministry and if you do love our people and want to encourage us and support us and if you want our ministry as a part of the Conference to succeed, why has it taken you so long to reach out to us?
-------------------------------------------------------
I have two questions:
But that it did so in such complete secrecy that I didn't even know the status of my ordination was under review until after my ordination was recalled surprises me and speaks to me of cowardice and of defiance of the teachings of Jesus.
But, I must say that, even more than that, I am offended, on behalf of the people with whom I am living out my walk with Jesus, that the people of the Conference have ignored the trauma its action may have caused to people whom I love dearly, some of whom are still rather childlike in their faith.
Please, feel free to think of me whatever you like.
But, if the behavior of ERC leadership toward the people of the congregation doesn't bother you, it seems to me that you have a perverted understanding of the meaning of Jesus' New Command, "Love one another."
Perhaps the most stunning reality to me in all of this is that, to my knowledge, no one from the Conference has been in touch with the people of Faith Community Church of God, whom I continue to participate with and serve, about the Conference's action.
That fact absolutely does stun me.
And, I'm imagining how the conversation will go when that contact is made.
-----------------------------------------------
If it took place today beginning with a phone call, it would start something like this:
"Hello, may I speak to Mr./Ms. Fill-in-the-blank.
"That's me.
"Hello, Fill, my name is Dr. Kevin Richardson, I am the Executive Director of the Eastern Regional Conference of the Churches of God. And, I'm calling you, because the people of the Eastern Regional Conference care about you and your congregation and your ministry, and to let you know that, last April, the Conference Administrative Council took an action to remove Pastor Sloat's ordination. I just want you to know that the Conference loves the people of Faith and that we want to encourage you and to offer our support to you in any way we can. Because, most of all, we want your ministry to succeed.
"Dr. Richardson, you said that the Conference took this action, what?, about six months ago, is that right?
"Uh, well, yes, Fill, that is correct, last April.
"Then, if you do care about our congregation and our ministry and if you do love our people and want to encourage us and support us and if you want our ministry as a part of the Conference to succeed, why has it taken you so long to reach out to us?
-------------------------------------------------------
I have two questions:
- What would Dr. Richardson say in response to that question?
- What do you think the truth of the matter is? Or, what does it say about Conference leadership and its relationship to the congregations it serves that such a question could even be asked?
But that it did so in such complete secrecy that I didn't even know the status of my ordination was under review until after my ordination was recalled surprises me and speaks to me of cowardice and of defiance of the teachings of Jesus.
But, I must say that, even more than that, I am offended, on behalf of the people with whom I am living out my walk with Jesus, that the people of the Conference have ignored the trauma its action may have caused to people whom I love dearly, some of whom are still rather childlike in their faith.
Please, feel free to think of me whatever you like.
But, if the behavior of ERC leadership toward the people of the congregation doesn't bother you, it seems to me that you have a perverted understanding of the meaning of Jesus' New Command, "Love one another."
Gathering 10-8-15
It strikes me that, among Western Christians, what, in our community, we call gathering and what most others think of as worship, there is little, if any, sense of purpose.
I would say that, of all the ways what we do defies the norm, the fact that there is clear purpose about our coming together is what distinguishes us most, especially in our Thursday gathering.
The atmosphere of our Thursday gathering is both more relaxed and more intense than what takes place in typical congregations.
Because there is so high a degree of intimacy in our fellowship, we are always very at ease with each other. Yet, because we understand that we gather to spur, to agitate, each other to love and good works, there is always intensity about what we all understand to be the end game of our gathering.
That strange sense of relaxed tension is most evident in the Thursday night group.
Those diassonate elements merge most inexplicably and most intensely during the taking of the Lord's Supper, an event that is normally at the center of the gathering, is normally interactive and often takes a long, sometimes an hour or more, to complete.
How out of the norm for most others. And, what a blessing.
We often use Frost and Hirsch's term "regospeling" to describe what we do.
The gospel lived out by Jesus, and remembered by us, is, almost always, central to what we do.
Reading the New Testament, that is as it should be.
I would say that, of all the ways what we do defies the norm, the fact that there is clear purpose about our coming together is what distinguishes us most, especially in our Thursday gathering.
The atmosphere of our Thursday gathering is both more relaxed and more intense than what takes place in typical congregations.
Because there is so high a degree of intimacy in our fellowship, we are always very at ease with each other. Yet, because we understand that we gather to spur, to agitate, each other to love and good works, there is always intensity about what we all understand to be the end game of our gathering.
That strange sense of relaxed tension is most evident in the Thursday night group.
Those diassonate elements merge most inexplicably and most intensely during the taking of the Lord's Supper, an event that is normally at the center of the gathering, is normally interactive and often takes a long, sometimes an hour or more, to complete.
How out of the norm for most others. And, what a blessing.
We often use Frost and Hirsch's term "regospeling" to describe what we do.
The gospel lived out by Jesus, and remembered by us, is, almost always, central to what we do.
Reading the New Testament, that is as it should be.
Thursday, October 8, 2015
The CHURCH ADVOCATE on Same Sex Marriage
As far as I can tell, very few people read either the eNews or The CHURCH ADVOCATE. Mountaintoppers wish more people read them. I read both--carefully--and, I suspect that the Mountaintoppers wish I wouldn't.
Faith's new pack of the latest from The CHURCH ADVOCATE arrived the other day and I began to dig into it this morning. I strongly recommend that you look it over. It definitely has some things to say worth reading.
I find the lead article, SOMETHING GREATER THAN MARRIAGE, addressing the Supreme Court's legalization of same sex marriage, to be edifying personally. I also found it to be a strong condemnation of the ministry of those who lead the CGGC, and of our whole body, for that matter.
Here are a few thoughts I have about the article, having just looked it over:
No one I know preaches, to CGGC congregations, that following Jesus means "giving up everything," though that message was once universally preached.
Here is what I believe to be the central challenge of the legalization of same sex marriage:
CGGC leaders want to preach self-denial and following Jesus to LGBTers but they refuse to preach it to CGGC pew sitters.
They want to allow the people in our pews to continue to consume their spiritual products and services. They won't call our own people to the denial of self as a necessity before a person follows Jesus, despite what Jesus preached in so many words.
But...,
...they want to tell the LGBT crowd, as the article rightly does, that to follow Jesus means to deny yourself, take up your cross and, then, to follow Jesus.
This hypocrisy is core to the CGGC identity.
The CGGC will have no ministry to LGBT until it turns from this hypocrisy.
With shepherd values leading our General Conference, our Regions and our congregations, I can't see that happening. For that to happen the CGGC will have to jettison its current leaders and its leadership culture.
Also, as far as the authors saying, "... repentance meant fleeing from anything that embodied the temptations that we knew best and loved most...." is concerned, I have what I believe to be an important observation to make.
Since Lance ascended to the mountaintop, I'm hearing chatter about repentance from Lance and from others. What I am not hearing from anyone at all, Lance included, is a call for repentance.
This chatter barely qualifies as classic To Talk is to Walk-ism.
We need to be calling our people to repent and not stop calling until repentance happens. Talking about repentance is time wasted unless we preach repentance.
----------------------------
Second, I highlighted this:
This is a question I have been asking since I began to itemize the characteristics of the CGGC Brand.
Item 13 is:
We can't preach costly discipleship to the LGBT crowd and continue to enable cheap grace among the people who are currently part of the CGGC. If an LGBT person accepts our call to costly discipleship, s/he will turn tail and run as soon as s/he sees what takes place among CGGC people.
------------------------------
We need to seriously change.
We need to repent and turn from our sin.
Faith's new pack of the latest from The CHURCH ADVOCATE arrived the other day and I began to dig into it this morning. I strongly recommend that you look it over. It definitely has some things to say worth reading.
I find the lead article, SOMETHING GREATER THAN MARRIAGE, addressing the Supreme Court's legalization of same sex marriage, to be edifying personally. I also found it to be a strong condemnation of the ministry of those who lead the CGGC, and of our whole body, for that matter.
Here are a few thoughts I have about the article, having just looked it over:
- It is a reprint of an article written by people from outside the CGGC. And, to me, that's fitting. To the best of my knowledge, no one leading the CGGC is actually doing anything about the legalization of same sex marriage. Therefore, what a CGGCer would write to the body about the issue would, at best, be nothing more than empty "to talk is to walk-ism" and would be received by most CGGCers with the cynicism that is so typical of our body.
- What it says is biblically rooted, a characteristic that is extremely uncommon among articles written by CGGC authors. If you doubt that, read the articles written by CGGCers and count Scripture references. You won't need all the fingers on even one hand. (That faint rumble is John Winebrenner continuing to spin in his grave.)
- Most significantly, the article's message viciously condemns CGGC leaders and all of us as a body.
We accepted that following Jesus meant giving up everything. We understood that [note the "R" word] repentance meant fleeing from anything that embodied the temptations that we knew best and loved most.This is a message that is not spoken by anyone I read or hear in the CGGC. It's a message that was the central message of the Church of God in its founding generation but has been absent for the better part of a century.
No one I know preaches, to CGGC congregations, that following Jesus means "giving up everything," though that message was once universally preached.
Here is what I believe to be the central challenge of the legalization of same sex marriage:
CGGC leaders want to preach self-denial and following Jesus to LGBTers but they refuse to preach it to CGGC pew sitters.
They want to allow the people in our pews to continue to consume their spiritual products and services. They won't call our own people to the denial of self as a necessity before a person follows Jesus, despite what Jesus preached in so many words.
But...,
...they want to tell the LGBT crowd, as the article rightly does, that to follow Jesus means to deny yourself, take up your cross and, then, to follow Jesus.
This hypocrisy is core to the CGGC identity.
The CGGC will have no ministry to LGBT until it turns from this hypocrisy.
With shepherd values leading our General Conference, our Regions and our congregations, I can't see that happening. For that to happen the CGGC will have to jettison its current leaders and its leadership culture.
Also, as far as the authors saying, "... repentance meant fleeing from anything that embodied the temptations that we knew best and loved most...." is concerned, I have what I believe to be an important observation to make.
Since Lance ascended to the mountaintop, I'm hearing chatter about repentance from Lance and from others. What I am not hearing from anyone at all, Lance included, is a call for repentance.
This chatter barely qualifies as classic To Talk is to Walk-ism.
We need to be calling our people to repent and not stop calling until repentance happens. Talking about repentance is time wasted unless we preach repentance.
----------------------------
Second, I highlighted this:
...will we point people--whether married or single--to a life of costly discipleship pursuing the embodiment of love, Jesus Christ himself?Amen!
This is a question I have been asking since I began to itemize the characteristics of the CGGC Brand.
Item 13 is:
Cheap Grace. The CGGC calls people to easy-beliefism. Jesus said that anyone who doesn't hate his father and mother isn't worthy of Him. There was a time, in its founding generation, that the Church of God called sinners to a radically changed way of life. Dietrich Bonhoeffer (who coined the phrase, cheap grace) could have been viewing today's CGGC when he wrote: "...cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline, Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."The core problem facing the CGGC, as Western culture dumps Christian values, is that it still refuses to address the reality that the false Gospel it proclaims assumes cheap grace as its foundation.
We can't preach costly discipleship to the LGBT crowd and continue to enable cheap grace among the people who are currently part of the CGGC. If an LGBT person accepts our call to costly discipleship, s/he will turn tail and run as soon as s/he sees what takes place among CGGC people.
------------------------------
We need to seriously change.
We need to repent and turn from our sin.
Monday, October 5, 2015
Gathering: 10-4-15. "I like the 'old hymns.'"
I have a big-picture observation that I will enter in this journal.
First, though, yesterday was, from the way most 'churches' function, very schizoid.
We stopped everything we were doing almost immediately after the gathering seemed to be taking direction to pray for one of the gatherers who was clearly very troubled over some things that were interfering with her ability to engage the Spirit as we were gathering. And, all of us were blessed.
Also, the focus on truth was extremely intense, far more so than in any sermon-based setting I've ever encountered. As usual, the focus was on the righteousness our lives produce when we are living in the world. Specifically, we ended up on the topic of sexual righteousness in this culture and the question of how we have/would respond to an invitation to a same sex wedding. I left that time in the truth feeling haunted, convicted and challenged, not necessarily entertained.
I felt edified more than encouraged.
That feeling took over the bread and cup time for me, as well.
----------------------------
A note about music, which we do from the 1 Corinthians 14:26 notion that everyone comes with a hymn. Not everyone does all the time, but multiple people seem to all of the time.
I find that, like so many other people, I like the old hymns.
About three decades ago, when I was at Enola, I had to deal with a lot of griping over music. You might call it a proto-worship war, somewhat ahead of its time.
We had an older woman who was a regular complainer--about everything that came to mind. But, she was particularly crabby about the music sung in "worship."
I met with her in her home. She's the first person I ever heard say, "I like the old hymns."
So, I got out the hymnal and checked the dates of the hymns and made a list of the oldest--from the 1400, 1500 and 1600s, and I instructed the person who chose the music to pick out music from that list.
What clunkers, for the most part!
Then I talked to the complainer again.
It turns out that she didn't like the "old hymns." She liked the hymns that were popular when she was in her teens.
And, most of who have a church background that goes back to our youth are just like this woman. Most of us are not as critical and verbal about it as she was.
I've been thinking about this in terms of my own taste.
I grew up in a rather highly liturgical church and, not surprisingly, most of my favorite church music is music I learned as a child.
I've realized that much of my favorite church music comes from Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley. Hit writer number three on my list is far more contemporary: Fanny Crosby, whose songs were on gospel music albums my parents played on the stereo which was the most ornate piece of furniture in our living room when I was a child.
In our Sunday gathering, I am actually the one who has the oldest taste in the old hymns and I am free to bring an old hymn request to our gathering.
Others groove on contemporary music, much from the post 2000 era.
But, I don't sense that there is any worship war problem because, as was the case in the early church, no one has control over the music. Everyone, living in the Spirit, participates.
That was good enough for the Apostle Paul and it's good enough for us.
First, though, yesterday was, from the way most 'churches' function, very schizoid.
We stopped everything we were doing almost immediately after the gathering seemed to be taking direction to pray for one of the gatherers who was clearly very troubled over some things that were interfering with her ability to engage the Spirit as we were gathering. And, all of us were blessed.
Also, the focus on truth was extremely intense, far more so than in any sermon-based setting I've ever encountered. As usual, the focus was on the righteousness our lives produce when we are living in the world. Specifically, we ended up on the topic of sexual righteousness in this culture and the question of how we have/would respond to an invitation to a same sex wedding. I left that time in the truth feeling haunted, convicted and challenged, not necessarily entertained.
I felt edified more than encouraged.
That feeling took over the bread and cup time for me, as well.
----------------------------
A note about music, which we do from the 1 Corinthians 14:26 notion that everyone comes with a hymn. Not everyone does all the time, but multiple people seem to all of the time.
I find that, like so many other people, I like the old hymns.
About three decades ago, when I was at Enola, I had to deal with a lot of griping over music. You might call it a proto-worship war, somewhat ahead of its time.
We had an older woman who was a regular complainer--about everything that came to mind. But, she was particularly crabby about the music sung in "worship."
I met with her in her home. She's the first person I ever heard say, "I like the old hymns."
So, I got out the hymnal and checked the dates of the hymns and made a list of the oldest--from the 1400, 1500 and 1600s, and I instructed the person who chose the music to pick out music from that list.
What clunkers, for the most part!
Then I talked to the complainer again.
It turns out that she didn't like the "old hymns." She liked the hymns that were popular when she was in her teens.
And, most of who have a church background that goes back to our youth are just like this woman. Most of us are not as critical and verbal about it as she was.
I've been thinking about this in terms of my own taste.
I grew up in a rather highly liturgical church and, not surprisingly, most of my favorite church music is music I learned as a child.
I've realized that much of my favorite church music comes from Isaac Watts and Charles Wesley. Hit writer number three on my list is far more contemporary: Fanny Crosby, whose songs were on gospel music albums my parents played on the stereo which was the most ornate piece of furniture in our living room when I was a child.
In our Sunday gathering, I am actually the one who has the oldest taste in the old hymns and I am free to bring an old hymn request to our gathering.
Others groove on contemporary music, much from the post 2000 era.
But, I don't sense that there is any worship war problem because, as was the case in the early church, no one has control over the music. Everyone, living in the Spirit, participates.
That was good enough for the Apostle Paul and it's good enough for us.
Friday, October 2, 2015
Gathering: 10-1-15
As I indicated in my journal of the last gathering of the Thursday night group, I was concerned over its inability, perhaps unwillingness, to live in community in the way the first disciples did, as is described in Acts 2:42f.
To be fair to that gathering, I know of no CGGC congregation, besides our small community of gatherings, who would even consider taking to heart, "all the believers were together and had everything in common. Sharing their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need."
I had thought that this small group of people who embrace Francis Chan's challenge, in CRAZY LOVE, to live this way.
However, as of last week, they were daunted.
I did mention last week that I suspected that the issue might have been a matter of understanding the how to, rather than of submission to the example of Scripture.
I mentioned this concern to Evelyn between gatherings. And, she actually pushed the issue last night.
The conversation was good and encouraging.
Bottom line: These people are willing to submit and obey, even this very challenging standard of righteousness but are still exploring practical understanding. Since we know of no one else personally living up to that standard we, once again, feel the need for community beyond ourselves.
To be fair to that gathering, I know of no CGGC congregation, besides our small community of gatherings, who would even consider taking to heart, "all the believers were together and had everything in common. Sharing their possessions and goods, they gave to anyone as he had need."
I had thought that this small group of people who embrace Francis Chan's challenge, in CRAZY LOVE, to live this way.
However, as of last week, they were daunted.
I did mention last week that I suspected that the issue might have been a matter of understanding the how to, rather than of submission to the example of Scripture.
I mentioned this concern to Evelyn between gatherings. And, she actually pushed the issue last night.
The conversation was good and encouraging.
Bottom line: These people are willing to submit and obey, even this very challenging standard of righteousness but are still exploring practical understanding. Since we know of no one else personally living up to that standard we, once again, feel the need for community beyond ourselves.
Thursday, October 1, 2015
CHRISTIANITY TODAY: "Why We Need the New Battle for the Bible"
This is a powerful editorial by CT's editor, Mark Galli.
Galli takes me back me back to my first days as a student at the seminary I attended, the institution formerly known as Evangelical School of Theology, in 1976.
Galli recalls 1976, when Harold Lindsell's crucially important book, THE BATTLE FOR THE BIBLE, was hot off the press. Lindsell's book was controversial. Galli opines,
Lindsell was correct. And, the CGGC is a case in point. Many of today's CGGCers, even among the community of "pastors" don't realize that there was a time when Death of God theology was being taught at its seminary. In fact, in 1976, Lindsell's the battle for the Bible--for belief in the inspiration of the Bible--was being fought at the seminary and across the denomination. In 1976, that battle was far from being won, though, when the victory came, it came quickly and well within a decade of 1976.
The battle in that Galli calls for the mid 2010s is a different battle for the Bible. Galli points out that, these days, evangelicals readily pay homage to the Bible as God's inspired Word, yet, few evangelicals live under the authority of the Bible as the inspired Word of God. He says,
Here's how I have been saying it:
Can I hear a loud, "Amen!" from anyone in the CGGC?
Forget the Bible. Consider other truths. The CGGC is declining. The latest CHURCH ADVOCATE acknowledged, in strong words from the Lance, that this is so. As I pointed out here, the most recent statistics point out that our numbers last year were horrendous. We dropped nearly 4% in attendance of our Sunday morning shows.
And, as I have also been pointing out, our lukewarmness toward biblical truth achieved new heights/depths in 2013 when under our highest human authority, we made this statement (which, in my opinion, tells an untruth about our history) seriously qualifies the authority of the Word in the CGGC:
Under current "leadership" the Word has authority in the CGGC only to the extent that it doesn't infringe on someone's freedom.
Forget the rest of the evangelicals. The CGGC needs a new battle for the Bible.
Will anyone other than me, stand up for the truth and authority of God's Word?!
Please, somebody.
ANYBODY!
Galli takes me back me back to my first days as a student at the seminary I attended, the institution formerly known as Evangelical School of Theology, in 1976.
Galli recalls 1976, when Harold Lindsell's crucially important book, THE BATTLE FOR THE BIBLE, was hot off the press. Lindsell's book was controversial. Galli opines,
Decades ago, Harold Lindsell, then editor in chief of this magazine, called for a “battle for the Bible.” He took to task evangelical institutions whose definition of biblical authority was, in his view, inadequate. His book of that title was divisive and unhelpful.Despite the fact that Galli believes that Lindsell's book was "unhelpful," Galli says,
Today we need a new battle for the Bible—not for a precise definition of biblical authority that all evangelicals can agree on, but a simple return to the Bible as the final authority in matters of faith and practice—and especially Christian doctrine.Galli suggests that, in fact, among Evangelicals today, the battle for the Bible has been lost. The problem Lindsell identified nearly forty years ago was that, even among evangelicals, belief in the inspiration of the Bible had become iffy in too many circles.
Lindsell was correct. And, the CGGC is a case in point. Many of today's CGGCers, even among the community of "pastors" don't realize that there was a time when Death of God theology was being taught at its seminary. In fact, in 1976, Lindsell's the battle for the Bible--for belief in the inspiration of the Bible--was being fought at the seminary and across the denomination. In 1976, that battle was far from being won, though, when the victory came, it came quickly and well within a decade of 1976.
The battle in that Galli calls for the mid 2010s is a different battle for the Bible. Galli points out that, these days, evangelicals readily pay homage to the Bible as God's inspired Word, yet, few evangelicals live under the authority of the Bible as the inspired Word of God. He says,
When it comes to deciding how to follow Jesus Christ in our time, the Bible often takes a backseat even for evangelicals, who have long held a high view of Scripture.In centering in on the core of the issue, Galli makes the point that I have made on this blog time and time again. I have been doing it for years by identifying, as one of the characteristics of the CGGC Brand what I number as characteristic 7: "Mellow Relationships over Truth."
Here's how I have been saying it:
7. Mellow Relationships over Truth. The CGGC has serious issues with truth primarily because it values, to the extreme, human relationships rooted in tolerance of others but does not value hunger and thirst for righteousness. The CGGC no longer holds, as the most important relationship, love for the Lord, which Jesus called the greatest commandment. The CGGC no longer takes firm stands on any biblical truth, as the recently adopted revision of We Believe and the 2013 Statement of Faith make clear.Here's how the editor of CHRISTIANITY TODAY puts it:
Sometimes the desire to preserve relationships at all costs prompts us to ignore scriptural teachings. Other times, we have an ill-defined feeling of how the Lord is “leading” us, never mind that the leading contradicts scriptural teaching.Preach it, bro!
Can I hear a loud, "Amen!" from anyone in the CGGC?
Forget the Bible. Consider other truths. The CGGC is declining. The latest CHURCH ADVOCATE acknowledged, in strong words from the Lance, that this is so. As I pointed out here, the most recent statistics point out that our numbers last year were horrendous. We dropped nearly 4% in attendance of our Sunday morning shows.
And, as I have also been pointing out, our lukewarmness toward biblical truth achieved new heights/depths in 2013 when under our highest human authority, we made this statement (which, in my opinion, tells an untruth about our history) seriously qualifies the authority of the Word in the CGGC:
From its formation, the Churches of God stressed the importance of unity in essentials, liberty in non-essentials, and charity in all things. The Church seeks to uphold biblical truth while respecting personal freedom.Galli could have been reading this statement when he said, "Sometimes the desire to preserve relationships at all costs prompts us to ignore scriptural teachings."
Under current "leadership" the Word has authority in the CGGC only to the extent that it doesn't infringe on someone's freedom.
Forget the rest of the evangelicals. The CGGC needs a new battle for the Bible.
Will anyone other than me, stand up for the truth and authority of God's Word?!
Please, somebody.
ANYBODY!
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