Oozing Innovation in the ERC/CGGC

As I start typing this, my sense is that it might get personal. If it does, it's simply because, in this matter, a person or people are involved. This is not merely theoretical, theological or philosophical.  


One very important theme in the New Testament Gospels, has Jesus calling men and preparing them and, ultimately, sending them, into the world to advance the Kingdom as APOSTLES.

To focus on what Jesus taught and did, consider the fact that the word church is absent from three of the four Gospels and is mentioned peripherally in only two passages in the fourth. Consider the fact that no teaching in the Gospels focuses on the church.

The word pastor doesn't appear any place in the Gospels. In fact, the word is entirely absent from the New Testament with the definition normally attached to it today, that is, as a man or woman who serves a church as a member of the clergy or as a parish priest.

The concepts of church and of pastoral leadership are nowhere to be found in the life, teaching and ministry of Jesus.

What is found is nearly endless teaching about the Kingdom of God and the lifestyle that is demanded of a subject of the God's Kingdom.

What is found in the New Testament, is Jesus passing His authority on to Sent Ones, in Greek, apostoloi, in English, apostles.

Beyond the Gospels, the New Testament details the expansion of the Kingdom in its first generation in an untitled book which has always been called, aptly, The Acts of the Apostles.

Beyond that, in the letters of Paul, in the one to the Ephesians, where some translations slip in the word pastor, Paul says that the household of God has, as its foundation, the apostles and the prophets with Christ Jesus as the chief cornerstone.

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So, now, in 2017, the ERC of the CGGC finds itself in a state of decay so catastrophic that it has created a Strategic Plan that it announces that it is actually going to attempt to carry out so that it is, for the first time ever, not merely "words on paper."

Reports I've received from ERC sessions say that the plan calls for there to be one key person leading the implementation of the Strategic Plan.

All of the reports I've received have suggested that Dr. Richardson, as I'm hearing it, wants to be that person.

Taking for granted that there's no indication that the Lord has blessed human plans to change, particularly those drawn up by institutional bureaucrats, two questions come to me.

One is, what sort of person would be spiritually equipped to lead the reversal of fortunes about which ERC bureaucrats dream?

And...

Is Dr. Richardson a person with that spiritual gifting?

In answer to the first question, if there was any intentionality in the ministry of Jesus, any wisdom in the way the first disciples functioned in the Spirit and any truth in Paul's assertion that God's household has, as its foundation, apostles and prophets, the person best equipped to lead the reversal of fortunes in the ERC absolutely must be a person gifted to be an apostle.

In answer to the second question, and to answer the question with a question, is Dr. Richardson some who produces fruit of being called to be an apostle?

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Some may know and remember that I was an outspoken and determined supporter of Dr. R. when the current ERC E. D. was elected.

I supported him as feverishly as I did because, at the time, I believed I saw apostolic giftedness in him.

As the title of this post suggests, one trait of apostleship is being innovative.

Apostles see the future the Lord has for His people and they possess a passion to join with the Spirit in making that vision reality.

In spite of how Dr. Richardson has conducted himself as ERC Executive Director in recent years, as a devotee of old and traditional ways, while I never, for a moment, thought Kevin oozed innovation, I saw, in him, an interest in what the Spirit wanted for the Kingdom's future and certainly, no fear of new ways. His comfort about the future encouraged me.

Two truths I knew about Kevin allowed me to hope he was apostolic.

One is that, at the time, he was aware of and unafraid of the potential to be found in the Emerging Church.

The Emerging Church scared the bejeebers out of nearly all church traditionalists but, as far as I could tell, it didn't scare Kevin. Among ERC people who might have become Executive Director, that comfort about the future was nonexistent apart from Kevin.

Courage in the face of change, and openness to change are rare in the CGGC and I saw openness, if not courage in Kevin.

The second truth about Kevin that allowed me to hope he was apostolic is that he talked to and, even, listened to, me at the time.

Now, understand. I know I'm a nobody. However, for more than a decade, I have been the most insanely radical voice for the tearing to pieces of the old, lost and fallen ways of CGGC elites.

At that time, Kevin met with me regularly and openly.

Talk about courage!

So, what happened?

Where did Kevin's ability to look into the future with openness and without fear go? In recent years he has been the incarnation of old, traditional CGGC ways.

Who is Kevin?

And, how strong is he about any conviction?

Is Dr. Richardson able to be the apostle, the courageous man of the future the ERC presumes it needs now?

Bringing Jesus back into it: Jesus said that it is by their fruit people are known.

What's Kevin's fruit?

What does he actually do? What do his actions reveal about who he is and what he believes?

Does he do church and pastor or Kingdom and apostle?

Is that the stuff of the Lord's future?