And, Kevin proves the accuracy of that insight every time he's presented with the opportunity.
If you viewed the YAY GOD video, you saw that when he highlighted the good things that are happening across the Eastern Regional Conference, Kevin placed his laser focus, first and foremost, on churches in which baptisms are taking place where ERC parish priests have the opportunity to provide low church sacraments to a willing laity.
Kevin is a nice man. He's a sweet man. He's a good man. He's a sincere man.
He is our leading nice, sweet, good, sincere conservative Lutheran wannabe.
I read Kevin's writings carefully and I view his videos over and over again and I know, in the most general sense, Kevin is in favor of making disciples but what I see, in Kevin's thinking, is a sacramental definition of discipleship.
Here's what I mean by that:
I read Kevin's writings carefully and I view his videos over and over again and I know, in the most general sense, Kevin is in favor of making disciples but what I see, in Kevin's thinking, is a sacramental definition of discipleship.
Here's what I mean by that:
Kevin defines discipleship in terms the laity's enthusiasm in consuming low church sacraments provided by the clergy.
He demonstrates that he truly believes that with every whim.
So, left to his own devises, when he produced this YAY GOD video, he found his greatest joy in announcing past and future baptismal services.
So, left to his own devises, when he produced this YAY GOD video, he found his greatest joy in announcing past and future baptismal services.
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Now, based the information I'm receiving from my network within the ERC, the new Strategic Plan seems to be all about healthy pastors serving healthy churches and, in that way, Dr. Richardson is as good a fit to lead it as anyone.
He's probably the guy to lead a plan that envisions a Conference in which "healthy" pastors/parish priests provide first rate low church sacraments to "healthy" churches whose attenders comprise a laity which understands righteousness as consumption of its clergy's religious products and services.
And...,
...let the biblical notion that Jesus "has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father..." (Rev. 1:5) be damned!
Yet, based on what I'm hearing, that's the essence of the new New Strategic Plan.
--------------
If that's the plan, I'm prophesying, here and now, that it's time to shut down the Conference office and give pink slips to Kevin and the rest of the staff. Dismantle the Commissions.
Doom is nigh.
Cut ERC congregations loose from the oppression of the institution.
Give them the opportunity to try to make their own way without the ball and chain that is the Conference hierarchy and the tithe it siphons off the top of every congregation's budget.
Absolutely nothing Jesus taught or did empowers the hierarchs' way of following Him.
The decades of CGGC numerical and spiritual decline has been built on that very model of ministry.
Tweaking that Jesus-defying vision of church by restructuring the Conference Commission structure and rewriting job descriptions is nothing short of an invitation to disaster.
When I first heard about the plan to do a new, New Strategic Plan, I thought that Kevin was a poor fit to lead it.
But, as I hear rumblings of what the plan entails, I'm concluding that Kevin is the guy to lead it and that the plan is a sure-fire disaster in the making.
If the ERC hierarchs simply want to put lipstick on a dying pig, let Kevin be the man who superintends the makeover.
If we want to serve Jesus and make disciples, then something else must take place.
-------------
VIDEO TRIVIA:
Kevin does actually say the words "Jesus Christ."
For a vivid picture of his vision, though, count the number of times he says the words church/churches and pastor/pastors compared to his mention of Jesus.
Oh, and listen in vain for his Kingdom vision.
--------------
A practical observation:
At some point, the Conference is going to have to gather and vote to approve the Constitutional changes the new New Strategic Plan demands.
One reason that the ERC is declining as it is, is that the Conference delegates, for decades, have simply and prayerlessly, and mindlessly, rubber stamped the whims of its hierarchs.
THAT RIDICULOUS "ONLY WORDS ON A PAGE" 2015 STRATEGIC PLAN--WHICH ONLY I SPOKE AGAINST--IS BUT ONE EXAMPLE.
Now, even the hierarchs agree with me about that debacle.
If you are an ERC-er, you do have a voice that can, by the grace of God, bring change.
Now, based the information I'm receiving from my network within the ERC, the new Strategic Plan seems to be all about healthy pastors serving healthy churches and, in that way, Dr. Richardson is as good a fit to lead it as anyone.
He's probably the guy to lead a plan that envisions a Conference in which "healthy" pastors/parish priests provide first rate low church sacraments to "healthy" churches whose attenders comprise a laity which understands righteousness as consumption of its clergy's religious products and services.
And...,
...let the biblical notion that Jesus "has made us to be a kingdom and priests to serve his God and Father..." (Rev. 1:5) be damned!
Yet, based on what I'm hearing, that's the essence of the new New Strategic Plan.
--------------
If that's the plan, I'm prophesying, here and now, that it's time to shut down the Conference office and give pink slips to Kevin and the rest of the staff. Dismantle the Commissions.
Doom is nigh.
Cut ERC congregations loose from the oppression of the institution.
Give them the opportunity to try to make their own way without the ball and chain that is the Conference hierarchy and the tithe it siphons off the top of every congregation's budget.
Absolutely nothing Jesus taught or did empowers the hierarchs' way of following Him.
The decades of CGGC numerical and spiritual decline has been built on that very model of ministry.
Tweaking that Jesus-defying vision of church by restructuring the Conference Commission structure and rewriting job descriptions is nothing short of an invitation to disaster.
When I first heard about the plan to do a new, New Strategic Plan, I thought that Kevin was a poor fit to lead it.
But, as I hear rumblings of what the plan entails, I'm concluding that Kevin is the guy to lead it and that the plan is a sure-fire disaster in the making.
If the ERC hierarchs simply want to put lipstick on a dying pig, let Kevin be the man who superintends the makeover.
If we want to serve Jesus and make disciples, then something else must take place.
-------------
VIDEO TRIVIA:
Kevin does actually say the words "Jesus Christ."
For a vivid picture of his vision, though, count the number of times he says the words church/churches and pastor/pastors compared to his mention of Jesus.
Oh, and listen in vain for his Kingdom vision.
--------------
A practical observation:
At some point, the Conference is going to have to gather and vote to approve the Constitutional changes the new New Strategic Plan demands.
One reason that the ERC is declining as it is, is that the Conference delegates, for decades, have simply and prayerlessly, and mindlessly, rubber stamped the whims of its hierarchs.
THAT RIDICULOUS "ONLY WORDS ON A PAGE" 2015 STRATEGIC PLAN--WHICH ONLY I SPOKE AGAINST--IS BUT ONE EXAMPLE.
Now, even the hierarchs agree with me about that debacle.
If you are an ERC-er, you do have a voice that can, by the grace of God, bring change.
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