Off the top, two thoughts come to mind:
1. The complicated, 99 word explanation of how to count worship attendance, which was included in last year's instructions, and which I noted last year as a mark of CGGC ridiculousness, is absent from this year's instructions.
2. As I recall was the case last year, the CGGC mission, which was adopted under the authority of the CGGC's highest earthly authority, the General Conference in session, has been altered by the Findlay church bureaucrats, something that they, of course, have no authority to do. This insubordinate act is barely worth noting, in my mind, because the bureaucrats do this sort of thing as easily as they draw breath. And, they never are made accountable for these actions.
We must yada yada yada.
3. Back in the day, at the height of the Natural Church Development fad, the height of the fad in the ERC anyway, it became apparent that the standard flaw in most of our churches was in so called Functionality Structures which means, in part, that there is no consistency organizationally between what we say we are about and how we are organized to act and how we, in fact, do act. My description of this is, To Talk is to Walk-ism.
ReplyDeleteIn my opinion, the Ministry Report pretty seriously disregards our Mission and Vision Statements. Par for the course. And, reason for why we never advance and continually decline.
Have you noticed:
ReplyDeleteTHE WORD OF GOD HAS NO PLACE OF AUTHORITY IN THE CGGC MINISTRY REVIEW?!
There is not a single biblical reference for any quantity the Review asks CGGCers to count. For example, Why, based on the teachings of the Word, should we be counting weekly worship attendance? Or, the number of Child Dedications?
Also, there is no biblical authority for any ministry quality or the misnamed "mission metrics" the Review wants metered. Just picking at random: Why, according to the Word, should a church measure its "intentional leadership development plan." Where in the Word, it is suggested that a "church" should intentionally engage in leadership development? Where in the Word, is that activity modeled? (I, personally, have looked for that teaching or example and have not found it. I say, in all humility, if you find it in the Word, please show it to me.)
Have you noticed that the bureaucrats who have authored the Ministry Review took the reference to the New Testament out of the CGGC Mission Statement which exists under the authority of the General Conference delegates?
Their revised (without authority) Mission Statement goes,
As witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ the Churches of God, General Conference is “ONe Mission” to make more and better disciples by establishing churches and proclaiming the gospel around the world.
There are several alterations of the actual Mission Statement here. The most offensive alteration to me is the bureaucrats' removal of the historic Church of God determination that it establishes churches, using Winebrenner's passion, "on the NEW TESTAMENT PLAN." What is the current plan?
This is an offense again the Church of God's founding vision, against Winebrenner's passion and against the CGGC Constitution, which doesn't give the bureaucrats the authority to change our Mission Statement created by the General Conference itself.
In all honesty, it seems to me that there are no biblical references in the Ministry Review because there is no biblical authority for what CGGC leadership wants to accomplish.
Does it offend anyone other than me that the Word plays no role whatsoever in the Ministry Review? (This is not a rhetorical question.)