As a result, my only knowledge of what's going on in the Conference is second hand at best.
What follows is rather elementary theology.
I've received several accounts now of what took place last week when the Conference gathered. One of them is Lance's eNews of May 5, 2017. The others are from pastors who are currently serving ERC congregations and participate in the bureaucracy at some level, though they are not mountaintoppers.
So, I do have some decent second-hand data.
What follows is rather elementary theology.
---------------
Based on what I know about how the Lord works, there is no chance that what ERC mountaintoppers have concocted will work.
---------------
---------------
Here are some thoughts I have early on, based on limited knowledge and my prophetic gift:
1. The essential issue facing the ERC is that the Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing is not blessing the ERC and the CGGC. From what I know, what's being planned in the ERC will not garner His blessing.
2. Based on what I know, the ERC's proposed solution to its decline is yet another in a long series of attempts to bring institutional change. In fact, it adds to the hierarchy and creates still another committee. The ERC's problem is that it has become an institution, not a spiritual body. Being an institution is the ERC problem. Tweaking the institution is not the solution to the ERC's problems.
3. God's people have been at the place the ERC is at many times in history. God is rich in mercy and has often restored His blessing lukewarm or sinful people, yet He always followed a similar pattern.
-The Lord has employed prophets to call His people back to Him and to reveal to His people the path they should travel. I know of no prophetic voice to have been invited into the ERC conversation. In fact, I don't know that any prophets who remain in the ERC. And, the fact that no functioning prophets remain is itself a problem for the ERC.
-The first act in returning to the blessing of the Lord has always involved turning from fallen ways/repenting. Read Revelation 2 & 3. (In all of the accounts I've received of ERC plans no one, including Lance, has gotten close to using any form of the word repent.)
-The Lord has rarely transformed an entire body. He normally brings forth a remnant out of His fallen people.
-There are very few instances that the Lord blesses plans for change that come from the institutional mountaintop. The one notable exception to this rule is His blessing on the people of Nineveh after the King in Nineveh responded to the message of the PROPHET Jonah and called on the people to put on sackcloth. In the past, I've called CGGC mountaintoppers to lead a "Ninevite revival." What's on the table now is not that.
-The voices who have spoken for the Lord normally come from the wilderness: Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist and John the Apostle from Patmos are examples. From where did Jesus conduct His ministry? In church history: Luther, the Wesleys, even Winebrenner, were nobodies operating far away from the centers of institutional power. From what I've heard, the voices who are calling for this brand of change in the ERC now call out from the very highest mountaintops.
4. The New Testament says that, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, the Lord will continue to give His people apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers to "prepare God's people for works of service." The Spirit's remedy to the decline of our body will involve using men and women with all of those gifts. Our leadership is comprised entirely of people with the gift of being a shepherd. This can not work! It will not work!
5. Based on what I can see, what is being proposed is too much like what was done approximately 25 years ago in the CGGC program that ended up being 35,000 X 2000. We all know that that very sincere attempt at change in our body resulted in disaster. It appears to me that we are on that same path.
6. The word says that it is Godly sorrow that produces a repentance that leads to salvation. Nothing that I have read to this point suggests that Godly sorrow is prompting this new plan. What seems to be behind it is a very simple understanding that things are not working, not a heartfelt desire to glorify and serve the Lord and, certainly, not sorrow over past and present sin.
2. Based on what I know, the ERC's proposed solution to its decline is yet another in a long series of attempts to bring institutional change. In fact, it adds to the hierarchy and creates still another committee. The ERC's problem is that it has become an institution, not a spiritual body. Being an institution is the ERC problem. Tweaking the institution is not the solution to the ERC's problems.
3. God's people have been at the place the ERC is at many times in history. God is rich in mercy and has often restored His blessing lukewarm or sinful people, yet He always followed a similar pattern.
-The Lord has employed prophets to call His people back to Him and to reveal to His people the path they should travel. I know of no prophetic voice to have been invited into the ERC conversation. In fact, I don't know that any prophets who remain in the ERC. And, the fact that no functioning prophets remain is itself a problem for the ERC.
-The first act in returning to the blessing of the Lord has always involved turning from fallen ways/repenting. Read Revelation 2 & 3. (In all of the accounts I've received of ERC plans no one, including Lance, has gotten close to using any form of the word repent.)
-The Lord has rarely transformed an entire body. He normally brings forth a remnant out of His fallen people.
-There are very few instances that the Lord blesses plans for change that come from the institutional mountaintop. The one notable exception to this rule is His blessing on the people of Nineveh after the King in Nineveh responded to the message of the PROPHET Jonah and called on the people to put on sackcloth. In the past, I've called CGGC mountaintoppers to lead a "Ninevite revival." What's on the table now is not that.
-The voices who have spoken for the Lord normally come from the wilderness: Moses, Elijah, John the Baptist and John the Apostle from Patmos are examples. From where did Jesus conduct His ministry? In church history: Luther, the Wesleys, even Winebrenner, were nobodies operating far away from the centers of institutional power. From what I've heard, the voices who are calling for this brand of change in the ERC now call out from the very highest mountaintops.
4. The New Testament says that, until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God, the Lord will continue to give His people apostles, prophets, evangelists, and shepherds and teachers to "prepare God's people for works of service." The Spirit's remedy to the decline of our body will involve using men and women with all of those gifts. Our leadership is comprised entirely of people with the gift of being a shepherd. This can not work! It will not work!
5. Based on what I can see, what is being proposed is too much like what was done approximately 25 years ago in the CGGC program that ended up being 35,000 X 2000. We all know that that very sincere attempt at change in our body resulted in disaster. It appears to me that we are on that same path.
6. The word says that it is Godly sorrow that produces a repentance that leads to salvation. Nothing that I have read to this point suggests that Godly sorrow is prompting this new plan. What seems to be behind it is a very simple understanding that things are not working, not a heartfelt desire to glorify and serve the Lord and, certainly, not sorrow over past and present sin.
7. This may have to do with the fact that I'm getting all of my information second-hand, but it strikes me that not only is the concept of repentance absent from what I'm hearing from the ERC leadership, but also I am not seeing any reference to the authority of scripture in what these people are planning. None of my sources have listed even one reference to the biblical truth from ERC leaders.
8. The goal of the proposed program seems to me to be the saving of the church, perhaps even just the church's hierarchy. But Jesus came preaching the coming of the Kingdom, He taught us to pray for the coming of the Kingdom and he commanded us to seek the Kingdom, not the saving of the church. This is a very serious flaw in what ERC leaders are planning. It's a killer. And, it's one important reason that the Lord will not bless.
---------------
These are random impressions early on.
I'm convinced that the ERC is looking at a continuing disaster.
I wrote to one of the ERC pastors who is filling me in on the details that, in all of this, my heart goes out to Kevin. The decline of the ERC and the CGGC is the result of attitudes and actions that were in place before Kevin entered seminary. He was raised up in that culture. He believed in it. He probably still believes in it. And, he is too shepherdy to superintend the trashing of the deeply entrenched dysfunction ofthe ERC.
We must repent.
8. The goal of the proposed program seems to me to be the saving of the church, perhaps even just the church's hierarchy. But Jesus came preaching the coming of the Kingdom, He taught us to pray for the coming of the Kingdom and he commanded us to seek the Kingdom, not the saving of the church. This is a very serious flaw in what ERC leaders are planning. It's a killer. And, it's one important reason that the Lord will not bless.
---------------
These are random impressions early on.
I'm convinced that the ERC is looking at a continuing disaster.
I wrote to one of the ERC pastors who is filling me in on the details that, in all of this, my heart goes out to Kevin. The decline of the ERC and the CGGC is the result of attitudes and actions that were in place before Kevin entered seminary. He was raised up in that culture. He believed in it. He probably still believes in it. And, he is too shepherdy to superintend the trashing of the deeply entrenched dysfunction ofthe ERC.
We must repent.
No comments:
Post a Comment