Friday, February 27, 2015

Bagging the Gathering 2-26-15

It's been a long winter for us. I have sinus and respiratory problems nearly every year. With the cancer med Evie takes, her immune system is not what it was. She, especially, was not feeling well yesterday so we made it known that we would not join the gathering last night. The family that was bringing the main course arranged for us to have more than enough of the meal, which I actually picked up on the way home from the Wal Mart pharmacy. We spent a quiet evening watching some old Agatha Christie, Miss Marple DVDs, THE BODY IN THE LIBRARY and A MURDER IS ANNOUNCED, specifically. Very relaxing.

Of course, we don't believe that "going to church" is a form righteousness but, living in the world as we do, we need the gatherings to provoke us on to a righteous life in our worlds. And, I'm starting to feel the drain. We've missed two straight Sunday gatherings and now a Thursday. Gathering matters as a means to an end for us.

It looks, though, as if we will be starting a third gathering on Wednesday beginning next week. Hmmm. I wonder if the Church Planting gurus on the mountain tops are counting ours among churches planted?

Wednesday, February 25, 2015

The New CEO and the Bible: Questions

Should the new CEO believe in the Bible as our "only infallible rule of faith and practice?" (See the 2013 Statement of Faith)

-----------------

If so, should the new CEO be accountable to actually LIVE the Bible as absolute authority or be permitted merely to affirm it as a to talk is to walk principle?

Monday, February 23, 2015

"Join Jesus"?!?!?!????!!!!!

Gang,

I was just on CGGC.org and the huge part of me that is truth oriented was stunned and profoundly offended.

At the top of the page rolled various exhortations beginning, "Join Jesus..."

Join Jesus...on the journey/in mission/in community.

What heresy!

And, so dysfunctionally shepherd dominated.

In the CGGC these days, Jesus is your celestial buddy, your friend, your heavenly homey.

But, in the BIBLE, He is Lord. Remember the parables? He is the Son of the King.

He is the One before Whom all people will stand to be judged for all eternity. He is the One who will say to "many" "away from me."

He moved through the world saying, not "join me," but FOLLOW me.

My brothers and sisters, this is no small issue. Is this reverse blasphemy? Not making ourselves God, but making God one of the guys. Not seeing Jesus as a King before Whom we should humble ourselves and Whom we must fear and obey.

Join Jesus?

Repent and beg for forgiveness.

No. FOLLOW Him. He is Lord.

What heresy.

IMO, everyone with an office in the headquarters in Findlay must be fired over this and disciplined for the sake of their eternal souls.

Will anyone in the CGGC stand for truth!?!

Sunday, February 22, 2015

Sabbathing: 2-22-15

Yesterday we had what may actually be the biggest snow of a very cold but not very snowy season. And, that's enough to keep us home. It's also enough to inspire me to wax philosophical.

Today, we will Sabbath. We will rest.

As you probably know, in the Old Covenant, people were commanded, in the Top Ten, to devote the seventh day of the week, not to attending a worship show, but to resting. So, today, we will be like the people of the Old Covenant.

This is a day to think about how much we who participate in the gathering still called Faith Community Church of God, CGGC, are NOT church focused.

 I've been meditating on the theological flaws and bankruptcies of the CGGC scorecard. And, I'd say, at its core, its corruptions trace back to the fact that it defines the essence of discipleship in terms of a person's relationship and involvement with a local church, not directly with the Lord. This is spiritually disastrous. You can be a very good church person and not know the Lord at all. And, you can be a wholehearted disciple of Jesus who thinks little of institutional Christianity, IMO.

Remember that, according to the Gospels, the word church only came out of Jesus' mouth only three times and those all in two conversations and in one Gospel.

From the perspective of the Gospels, deciding not to meet on a Sunday is not a big deal. But, having this understanding of what it means to be a Christian makes it hard to excel on the Scorecard. Still, I will choose living according to the Gospels over scoring high by human standards.

So no gathering today. No big deal.

The NBD thing is now genuine and it feels deep seated in me. This, I believe, is fruit of my genuine repentance of institutional churchianity.

My friend Dan Horwedel, who is a philosopher and a prophet, sometimes speaks of wishing he could participate with the institutionalists and grieves over the pain of his feeling of exclusion. I am at peace with who I am and am content to take that to the Lord on the Day. But, I, too, want communion with those who will accept me only on their own terms.

Saturday, February 21, 2015

Two Updates from on High Regarding the Selection of the New CEO

This is based on what was in the eNews on February 20, 2015.

Interestingly, the Search Committee now calls itself the Transition Committee. No big deal, really, except this feels like standard popism Findlay style. The Ad Council appointed a Search Committee which, based on what we know, now fashions itself to be tasked with transition, not search--and, based on what we know, on its own authority. As I say, NBD, but classic authoritarianism. Same old same old.

The biggie, though, is that the field has been narrowed to two. We, in the Eldership, are, needless to say, not informed of the identity of those people. (What's biblical about that? As the 60's song goes, "Absolutely nothing, say it again, y'all!")

These two people have been invited to make "focused presentation" to the Ad Council at its March meeting. The decision on the identity of the new CEO will be "announced" to the "church-at-large" shortly thereafter.

So, a search for a CEO on the American corporate business model, and not from anything remotely connected to what we profess our beliefs about church to be.

Typical.

Very shepherd mafia.

Organized Hypocrisy.

There should be outrage.

What there probably will be is cynicism and the apathy that is its fruit.

Friday, February 20, 2015

Gathering 2-19-15

I love how intense and intimate and spiritual this way of living in community is.

Last night, the host guy, who runs his own business, was dealing with some crises. He was late, no big deal. The rest of us did the meal but put off taking the Lord's Supper until he arrived.

In the end, the taking of the Lord's Supper, focused around the apparent tension in Philippians between Paul commanding, "continue to work out your salvation with fear and trembling" in chapter 2 and his command in chapter 4: "Rejoice in the lord always."

How do you do both all the time?

A vibrant, honest conversation developed that took us to the time we had to break up the meeting.

I love the intimacy and transparency of these gatherings. What sweet intensity! Guess I'm repeating myself.

Thursday, February 19, 2015

Lent...

As you may know, I despise the whole idea of Lent. Unbiblical, high church tradition.

But, I think this is not too bad:

http://gs4nj.org/40-things-the-give-up-for-lent-the-list/

Proof of TO TALK IS TO WALK-ISM

Here's a quick and easy way to demonstrate two realizes related to CGGC Mountaintoppers: Read editions of The CHURCH ADVOCATE that are a year old.

When you do, you will note that most of what the mountaintoppers advocate that the rest of us do, they haven't been doing themselves since they "advocated" that we do it. IOW, you will demonstrate that, to them, to talk is to walk. There is a healthy dose of "Do what we say not what we do-ism" to be found in old CHURCH ADVOCATEs. Think, for example, of their passionate appeal for involvement with issues of social justice.

You will also be able to see what they really do believe if there is anything that they actually are doing one year after they advocate it. And, it seems to me, there is one thing they really do believe in:

That is turning the CGGC into a high church, liturgical body, one that grooves on high church Advent masses with priests decked out in clerical collars and with the laity meekly consuming their priestcraft, the observance of Lent and Holy Week.

Try it out. Reading old ADVOCATES is one reliable way of seeing what is true about the CGGC.

Monday, February 16, 2015

I Officially Adopt Every Congregation in the US and Canada into the CGGC. NOW, CAN WE WORK ON BUILDING GOD'S KINGDOM?!?

Gang,

I have just finished reading the new, February/March 2015 edition of The CHURCH ADVOCATE

At first glance, it seemed like a real snoozer--a cure for insomnia--until I began to read it in view of the big-picture issues presenting themselves to the CGGC.

I may very well write more about these issues later.  But, for the moment, let me just embrace the spirit of the Growing the Family article on pp. 14 and 15. And, let me take its reasoning to its logical conclusion.

The final paragraph suggests that, in Matthew 16, after Peter's Confession of Him as the Christ and the Son of the Living God, when Jesus spoke of building His church, He might have had in mind the building of the CGGC through the adoption of existing congregations!

Unbelievably, the previous paragraph claims, using a form of calculus that apparently only computes in Findlay, that through the adopting of congregations under the CGGC brand, "the Kingdom of God can be advanced."

The Kingdom of God!?!!!

WHAT INSTITUTIONAL NARCISSISM!!!

This borders on blasphemy!

Let me just cut to the chase, then, and simplify this "Kingdom" building strategy.
By the authority vested in me as an ordained pastor of the Churches of God, General Conference, I now adopt every congregation located in the United States of America and in Canada into this august body. They are all now part of the CGGC!
I'll leave it to the bean counters in Findlay and on the lesser mountaintops to work out the issue of tithing.

------------------

Honestly!  Can anything be more institutional and church-focused and less rooted in the life lived by Jesus and the truth He taught.

Does anyone in the CGGC care about truth?!?!!

God have mercy!

Sunday, February 15, 2015

The Mechanics and Rationales for not Gathering: 2-15-15

The first winter after we came to this ministry, the Council President (something we no longer have) told me that the previous parish priest NEVER cancelled "church" and that his own opinion of why was that the pastor didn't want to pass up the opportunity to take an offering.

And, I will be honest. In those days I saw the wisdom in that line of thinking. Today, of course, it pains me to remember that I once considered gathering with other saints primarily because it afforded me the opportunity to pass the plate. But this blog is a place for painful honesty.

As I have noted in the past, we no longer take an offering. (Though we still accept the donations of our people who equate giving money with going to church. The amounts are small and we're putting it in an empty coffee can, waiting for a reason to give it to a needy person or family.)

So when fierce weather came, wind chills about 20 below zero, there was no angst related to the budget, which we don't have.

Asking myself what biblical principles apply, it occurred to me that we are commanded merely not to neglect meeting together. Our gang certainly doesn't do that.

While we don't regard gathering as an act of righteousness in and of itself, we do value the need to provoke each other to love and good works as well as the need to be provoked to love and good works.

Still in this case, it was an easy call.

We usually take off once a month anyway. Either we will cancel our next Sunday off and meet or take two off just this time.

NBD.

I hope your rationale went as easily. And, that if you bagged your "worship service" you did it without guilt--and that there is no guilt in it for you because of what you believe about gathering. (See Romans 14.)

Friday, February 13, 2015

LEADERSHIP WARS: I Told You So

I don't remember if it was on this blog or in a private exchange but I did make a prediction about the LEADERSHIP WARS workshop organized by the ERC and that prediction was that nothing in it would be based on anything Jesus modeled or taught.

Kevin sent out a note praising the success of the event recently which, inadvertently, I'm sure, confirmed my prediction and explained that the focus was on Moses and Jethro.

Don't you get it that every time the disciples tried to discuss which of them would be the greatest leader that Jesus went ballistic and told them that to be great in the Kingdom is to serve, not lead, and to be greatest is to be the slave of all?!

I can't claim mine as a prophetic prediction. I simply take the Gospels to heart.

Gathering 2-12-15

We are so fully into this way of being disciples in intimate community that I, at least, sometimes forget the ways what we do is different from what we once took for granted.

Last night our host family was not able to meet at the usual time. So, without much difficulty, we adjusted the gathering time by about a half hour. This all happened within about two hours of the time we were supposed to gather.

No problem.

Can you imagine the difficulty you would have with this sort of thing in your setting?

The meeting itself was normal and not impacted by the later starting time, though we did break up later than usual on a very cold night.

As we do sometimes, part of our time we used Francis Chan's CRAZY LOVE as our inspiration. We are in chapter six. We took Chan to a place he probably didn't intend. We spent a lot of time delving into the ways each of us expresses love and feels loved, i.e., our love languages--and how those things work themselves our in our lives of obedience. Good stuff.

Interestingly, Chan includes the same David Livingston quote that Don Dennison used in this issue of The CHURCH Advocate-the one on sacrifice.

Bottom line: we achieved the mission of our gatherings: To provoke each other to love and good works.

Sunday, February 8, 2015

House Gathering 2-8-15

Lots of stuff.

It felt very 1 Corinthians-ish to me.

An interesting singing time, including a time of discussion about all the ways we were lying when we sang, "You are my all in all."

I came with the hymn, JOY TO THE WORLD because I wanted decomparmentalize the gospel, i.e., I wanted to bring a part of the story of redemption normally segregated into one time of year out into the open. The song is not about the nativity. It is about the incarnation. We are far enough along in our struggle against high churchism that singing it seemed comfortable. That was gratifying to me.

Word time was exciting as we taught each other in the story of the woman who fought through the crowd to touch the hem of Jesus' garment and was healed. What I love about our interactive Word time is that I get to grind my ax and also am edified by what the Lord was speaking to others as well.

How biblical!

The meal was wonderful as always, made more so by the contributions to it by so many.

Today was a rare time I led bread and cup time. This was the Corinthian time. The gathering had run long. The children were antsy. Our one talent people were losing focus and it felt chaotic. It was the sort of struggle to encounter the Lord Paul makes mention of in 1 Corinthians 11. But He was there to be found.

There is nothing like the gathering of the saints in your own home.

Much more to it than this but these are representative highlights.

Friday, February 6, 2015

No Gathering 2-5-15

I have been fighting a cold since before Christmas. It has been bad or worse from time to time but has been very bad since Monday. I actually missed time at the market for the first time on Wednesday because I didn't have enough brain to run my cash register.

I was more sick yesterday. We called off from the gathering and no meeting was held. We were responsible for the greater part of the meal so Evie cooked what we planned and delivered it to the host family.

And we watched DVDs of the BBC series MORSE and VERA. Earlier in the day, I binge watched the old NERO WOLFE MYSTERIES.

Still not feeling well. I'm scheduled to work till ten tonight. I'm not sure I will make it.

Thursday, February 5, 2015

I Finally Figured Out what the CGGC ONe Mission is

I figured it out when I was reading the instructions that came with the 2014 CGGC Scorecard.

I saw the summary of the CGGC mission contained there and immediately noticed that the mission is subtly, yet substantially, different than it is in the Mission Statement.

Then, in a moment of inspiration, I finally understood--after all these years.
THE CGGC MISSION IS, ON ANY GIVEN DAY, WHATEVER LEADERSHIP SAYS IT IS.
Nothing more. Nothing less.

In the CGGC these days, you see, truth is ever changing. We have no stable foundation within our community.

This is popish in a way that, to use the term, insults the Roman Catholic popes.

We must repent.

Tuesday, February 3, 2015

How the Search for the New CEO Should Advance Since We are an Eldership

Here's how I think the CGGC community should arrive at the CEO punch line. I think this is consistent with our theological talk, though probably out of step with the planned walk:

The Search Committee should announce to the CGGC body the name of the candidate so that the members of the Eldership may contribute to the process and to allow the Holy Spirit to speak through the CGGC body in the process.

It should give the body some time to prayerfully reflect on the choice and offer response to the members of the Administrative Council.

Then the Council should assemble and do nothing except share the reflections of the members of the Eldership. Then it should adjourn for at least a month.

After that, it should convene to consider the selection made by the Search Committee as it has been received by the Eldership.

Of course, if the mountaintoppers don't believe in the Eldership and, for that matter, the guidance of the Holy Spirit through the CGGC community. . ..

------------------

There is no model for what I recommend in the Bible...

....of course, there also is no model in the Bible for an Executive Director whose job it is to be a CEO.

Sunday, February 1, 2015

Non-gathering 2-1-15

Today was a day off for our group so we arranged to drive about fifty miles one way to visit the traditional Christendom church Evelyn's brother is the pastor of. We had a good time.

The church is an independent group. They even have the word 'independent' in the church's name. But it's like the typical  CGGC congregation: shrinking, old-most people there were older than we are, staid, quiet, very consumerist.

Dave did nearly everything. The people consumed contentedly. Dave has a sweet singing voice and perfect pitch. They turn his mike up and the singing is mostly listening to him with the rest of us singing quietly along.

Dave's a very good preacher for an older crowd. Evelyn told him he's not seeker sensitive. There was a lot of depth and truth in what he said. Lots of Scripture. And, he spoke for nearly 50 minutes. He preached a lot of righteousness as fruit of genuine faith, very much like my harangues on this blog.

It was weird being in a gathering in which I had to just shut up and be fed, even if the content was good.

Nice time with family. Certainly, we'll do it again, if we get the chance. But, I'll take our interactive, Word-modeled gatherings every day.