One Core CGGC Dysfunction

Gang,

I engaged in the following email conversation, slightly edited to shield identities, regarding the CGGC Bishop post.  The person writing to me's words are in bold, mine in italics:


We've had a bishop for a couple years. You're late to the party.  

 

--- ------was upset about it awhile back.  

 

In reality though it's a black church thing not a high church thing.  There are many bishops in the black church but no pope.  

 

I think you're right to question the use of the title but you should do it for the right reason.  High church isn't where Victor is leading.

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I think it's for the right reason.  For the reason of polity.  There are no overseers in an Eldership.

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Sure there are.  It relates to the use of the KJV by much of that community.  Elder overseer and bishop have all been translations of 1 Tim 3:1.   KJV is the most well known English translation historically. 

 

Bishop is a pastor in many black churches.  

 

I think it's a poor choice because of the connotations with high church but I know that Victor claims no higher role than you or I.

 

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I will probably blog this but this is the core dysfunction of the CGGC.  We have principles to which we agree.  Terminology has always been crucial to us.

We, by principle, don't use that term in that way.  But, in order to assist in mellow relationship, we set aside principle.

This exactly why, in the end, we stand for nothing.

Relationship ALWAYS trumps truth in the CGGC.

Always

 

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Think, for a moment, based on what you know of Winebrenner and the early Church of Goders.  Can you imagine that they would have allowed a person with the authority of the Eldership serving a congregation to use the title "Bishop?"  (BTW, Winebrenner did use the term Bishop in the Church of God in another context, though, I believe, he did it only briefly.)

Of course not.

In that day, the Church of God was highly principled.  And, where there was firm principle, there was no compromise, no matter what relationship might have been at stake.

These days, I can't think of any principle that guides the CGGC that would not be trumped by the perceived need to set it aside for the sake of mellow relationship.

In the CGGC these days, there is a high degree of cynicism and very little genuine sense of community.  Why?  Because there are no firm principles among us that are unassailable, or beyond compromise among us.

If you can name one such principle, please do on or off the blog.

We are dying precisely for that reason.  We, in the end, stand for nothing.  There is nothing that we all know we can commit to, nothing all of us would fight the good fight over.

Of this, we must repent, if it's not already too late.