Recalibrating the CGGC's Focus: GREATNESS

I have been following Lance's eNews articles on recalibrating the CGGC's focus from church-obsession to God's Kingdom with great interest.  In principle, I support it with all my heart.  I have been using this blog to call for that change since I wrote my first post here.

It is clear to me that much that is going on among Lance and the members of his staff is going to have to change if we are going to make the change he is calling for.  They will have to do it first.  If they don't no one else will.

One change that touches the foundation of what Lance and the others are doing has to do with the difference between what is understood to be greatness in the church and what Jesus says about greatness in the Kingdom.

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One goal of the people in Findlay who consider themselves to be leaders (and for me, in the ERC, in Harrisburg) is Leadership Development.  Please understand, from the teachings of Jesus, that nothing could be more futile, worldly, heathen or theologically corrupt.

Consider these words from Mark 10:

⁴² And Jesus called them to him and said to them, “You know that those who are considered rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great ones exercise authority over them. ⁴³ But it shall not be so among you. But whoever would be great among you must be your servant, ⁴⁴ and whoever would be first among you must be slave of all. ⁴⁵ For even the Son of Man came not to be served but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many.”

The people of the world seek leaders.  Those people exercise authority over others.  And, if they want to prosper in what they do, they seek to develop more leaders who will, of course, look to them as leaders among leaders.

In much the same way, the institutional church seeks leaders.  Those church leaders exercise authority over others in the church.  And, if the people of the church want the institutional church to prosper, they seek to develop more church  leaders who will, of course, look to them as church leaders among church leaders.

Jesus' take on that, as far as God's Kingdom is concerned?  "...it shall not be so among you."

Jesus Himself, as He says in this passage, did not come to lead.  He did not come to be served.  He came to serve.  He came to give His life. And, for Jesus, greatness in the Kingdom is built on the pattern He established.

He could not have been more clear about what greatness in God's Kingdom means.  Jesus says that to be great in the Kingdom is not to lead, but to serve.  And, among those who aspire to be the greatest in the Kingdom, the goal must to become "slave" of everyone.

Yet, we have a guy on staff in Findlay who has, as an essential task in his job description, not the creation of servants and, even more importantly, slaves, but the development of leaders.

Here in the ERC, we don't have a Servanthood/Slavery Commission, we have a Leadership Commission.  And, we have an ED and staff specializing in leadership development.

Is it any wonder that the Lord refuses to bless what we are doing?

Grab a Bible and look up Romans 1:1 and note how Paul introduces himself.  He doesn't see himself as a church leader.  Instead, he calls himself, "Paul, a. . .."

In Galatians 5, Paul assures us that we were called to freedom but, in verse 13, English translations tell us that he commands us to serve one another.  But check out that verb translated as serve in that verse.  Its root is the same as the Greek noun for a slave.  We are called in the body to slave each other, just as Jesus said those who want to be greatest among us would do.

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If we are going to recalibrate, very early on, we are going to have to set aside the idea that greatness among us has to do with leadership.  Greatness in the institutional church has everything to do with leadership.  But, in the Kingdom, greatness has to do with service, even slavery.

We must go to the very core of what we think and believe.  And, we must repent and turn.