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.

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.)

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?

I appreciate it.

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:

(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 

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.

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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.

A fellow believer in the work of restoring His church back to biblical authority.

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.

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

As the Beatles sang on the WHITE ALBUM, "O bla dee, O bla dah..."

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!

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 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,

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.

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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:

Under the leadership and direction of Kevin Richardson, Executive Director

and the approval of the ERCCOG Administrative Council, the 2016 Budget

has been established.

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.

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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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.

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?

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I have two questions:

1. What would Dr. Richardson say in response to that question?
2. 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?

I, personally, am astounded, not that leadership took the action that it did against me.  (The most common response to what happened from my friends has been, "I'm surprised it took this long.") 

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.

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:

1. 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.
2. 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.)
3. Most significantly, the article's message viciously condemns CGGC leaders and all of us as a body.

I highlighted two crucial passages in the article as I read it.  First, the authors testify of their own conversions,

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.

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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.

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We need to seriously change.

We need to repent and turn from our sin.

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.

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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.

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.

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,

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!