Millennials

There is one crucial reality related to Dave Williams's videos on the ERC 2017 new New Strategic Plan that I have observed but not mentioned as of yet.

Key to the creation of the "Connextion" pastors Safe Space groups that the hierarchs see as the core of their plan to create healthy, life-giving churches led by healthy, life-giving pastors is learnings the ERC hierarchs gleaned from a Lily Foundation study conducted...

...TEN YEARS AGO...

Ten years ago!

---------------- 

When all is said and done...

TEN YEARS FROM NOW...

...if the ERC/CGGC is going to be viable and, perhaps, even exist as an institution at all, it will be because it has succeeded in making itself relevant to the people who are, at this moment, 35 years old and younger.

And, more than that, it will have to turn those people into genuine disciples of Jesus--people who radically live out the Gospel, who do more than sit their fannies down in an ERC Sunday Morning Show.

To have a chance to be doing that in ten years, they have to be refocusing NOW.

The truth about the current leaders--and the plan they have devised--is this:

They are the very people who, for the past decade, have been following their own deeply held convictions and have continued the trend of driving millennials, and their families, away from the ministry of the ERC.

And, this plan will continue that trend.

These people have no ability to reach people younger than their own generation. They've been proving that since they took over the hierarchy.

Now, they're hitching the ERC wagon to the wisdom of a ten year old study defining how--TEN YEARS AGO--pastors could be more effective.

Doesn't this seem outrageously foolish to anyone but me?

Can't anyone else see that this plan is geared to making the ERC comfortable to over-the-hill Baby Boomers and their Builder parents?!

----------------

Millennials don't want what this plan provides.

We have to stop enabling the dysfunction of our geezers and reach out, in the power of the Spirit with the truth of the Gospel and proclaim Jesus.

We must repent 

Jesus and the Twelve "LIFE-GIVING" Pastors

It was nearly a decade ago that I began using the terms theologically bankrupt and theologically corrupt to describe the the work product of CGGC leadership.

It's easy to criticize the hierarchs for their faddish Johnny-come-lately adopting of hot ideas in the church world. But, honestly, belatedly jumping on bandwagons is some of the best work CGGC hierarchs have done in recent generations.

At least, a fad that's about to fade is likely to have at least a smidgen of theological respectability.

But, when the titans of the CGGC Shepherd Mafia come up with plans and programs of their own?

Theological disaster.

Heteropraxy...

...even heresy.

Take 35 000 X 2000 with its definition of a disciple as a person who attends a Sunday morning show.

And, now, in the ERC, the new New Strategic Plan centered on the notion that, in the spiritual realm, there is such a thing as a...

life...giving...pastor.

Really?

The CGGC is a church denomination. Right?

CGGC abreviates Churches of God, General Conference, right?

The CGGC operates in the realm of things spiritual, does it not?

I'm not aware of precisely what Dr. Richardson and Dave Williams mean in those videos when they talk about healthy, life-giving churches being led by healthy, life-giving pastors...

...but, reading the Word, and understanding what the word "life" means in a spiritual context...

...this looks to me as if it has to be heresy...

BLASPHEMY.

----------------

Again, on or off the blog,...

...please speak to me, and the readers of the blog, about this.

And, understanding that people who are unconvinced by what the hierarchs are doing come here for insight...

...please consider doing it in public, on the blog.

It is true that the Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing has not been blessing the ERC and the CGGC. No one can dispute that. No one does.

As I am currently understanding the words of Dr. Richardson and Dave Williams, the Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing will not bless this.

Nothing possibly could make me happier than for someone to show me that my take on this is off-base.

If you can set me--us--at ease, please do.

Being a Folk Hero?

When the ERC Commission on Church Renewal approached me, explaining that it had decided to begin the process which ultimately resulted in the expulsion of Faith Community from the Conference, their rationale which, as I've noted in the past, played fast and loose with the facts,...

...argued that the issue at stake was ERC "polity."

At Faith, we, to this day, embrace CGGC doctrine and its Mission and Vision Statements. More to the point, in practice, we live out the lifestyle implied in those statements as we understand them, and to the best of our ability.

Yet, in the end, Faith was expelled to preserve, according to what the Commission communicated to me, the integrity of the ERC's what? political system? its governance?

In an off the blog conversation about the new New Strategic Plan, the person writing to me questioned what the writers of the new New Strategic Plan see as a "win" in one particular aspect of the plan.

Good question.

To all of you...

...on or off the blog...

I ask, very seriously...

...WHAT DO THINK THE HIERARCHS SAW AS THE "WIN" IN:

+Challenging my credentials? and,
+Expelling Faith from the Conference?

----------------

I've been working, on and off, for months now, on reassessing the current Characteristics of the CGGC Brand for 2017.

I'm reaching some big picture conclusions, the most significant of which I don't really want to articulate at the moment. I think it's true but, to take the core question of this post, I can't see what the win is in publishing it, at the moment, at least.

Most of the characteristics of the CGGC brand have to do with the impact the hierarchs have on the Body. Therefore, reassessing the CGGC brand has meaning at this point in time because the regime changed in Findlay two years ago.

One characteristic of the CGGC brand that still seems to be relevant, and more crucial now than ever, because it has to do, not with the attitude and actions of the hierarchs, but with what's happening with the whole body, mountaintoppers and valley dwellers alike...

...is Cynicism.

---------------- 

As I've been noting for years, there is a high level of distrust and even disdain and disrespect in the Body, among a relatively high percentage of pastors and churches toward any initiative developed by leadership.

The CGGC is not a blank canvas on which leaders can paint.

If a new plan or program is to work in the CGGC, certainly in my ERC, the cynics will have to be won over...

...and, honestly, the cynics have not been won over by leadership any time recently, perhaps ever.

No doubt it is this cynicism that caused the old New Strategic Plan of 2015 to become mere words on paper.

It is this cynicism that will be, on a human level, the greatest challenge to the designers of the new New Strategic Plan. If the cynics are not won over, what chance does this new plan have?

If no one follows it, it wouldn't matter if it was the greatest strategy ever devised.

----------------

So, what was, as Stephen Covey points out, the end the ERC mountaintoppers had in mind in challenging my credentials and in expelling Faith?

What was the win?

If there was a principle at stake, what was it?

Never in this drama was there the suggestion, by the hierarchs, that CGGC doctrine or mission or vision were at stake.

So, what was it all about?

And, as the ERC moves forward...

...how has the relationship between the hierarchs and the cynics been impacted?

-----------------

Here's what I think:

It's not like someone is going to be writing a folk song about me,...

"Hang Down Your Head, bill Sloatey..."

But, among some people already predisposed to react to what the hierarchs do with distrust, the mountaintoppers have not helped themselves.

The word I've received from the ERC underground is that, when the good old boys of the ERC in-crowd had the opportunity to vote, Yay, on the challenge my credentials, they erupted with a shout that would shame beered-up Philadelphia Eagles fans after a last second, game-winning touchdown.

And, the blood-lust that produced its fruit in that raucous moment was offensive to some...

...and the impression of that moment lingers...

...as the hierarchs depend on the support and participation of a Body that is probably more cynical about Conference leadership than it has ever been.

----------------

We all must repent...

...the cynics...

...the hierarchs...

...and, their good old boy insider network.

A New Schedule on my Job

Yesterday was my first day back on the job after my stay in the hospital.

The doctor offered to give me an excuse for the rest of the week but I asked for only one day after my release. I wish I'd taken the extra day. Vertigo is much more exhausting than I imagined.

So, I went to the HR guy and said that I am exhausted and I think extreme fatigue caused the vertigo and asked for an easier schedule and said I'd be willing to step back from my managerial position if the store thought I should.

He was hearing nothing about me stepping down as manager. He asked me what I wanted and I told him.

He discussed it with the lead manager of the front end and they gave me, with slight tweaking to make schedules fit, exactly what I wanted.

There are no evaluations on this job and it's hard to know just how your work is appreciated. Other employees say this to me as well.

And, I was concerned that my Bible talk and theology talk as an ambassador of the Kingdom might be a simmering problem. The owners of the store are disciples but not all of my coworkers are.

What I found out is that the HR guy and the lead manager were determined to make me happy and keep me as far into the job as possible.

Both said, "You do a good job, bill."

It was nice feedback.

I said to Evie this morning that I feel like I'm in ministry on this job more than I ever did when I was a pastor.

It's good to know that it's working out for the company as well as it is for me.

Practical Problems with the Safe Space/"Connextion" Groups

Generally speaking, the function of the prophet is to bring a 40,000 foot perspective to the things of the people of God, i.e., to articulate, as well as a human can, what the Lord sees from the vantage point of eternity.

Prophets, generally, are uninvolved with the nitty gritty. They are not gifted to do that. They deal with big picture issues. Read Isaiah or Jeremiah or study the Gospels' accounts of the ministry of John the Baptist.

As I've commented on Dave Williams's videos, my perspective has very big picture.

What I'll do here is different. I'll consider, as best I can, nitty gritty, rubber meets the road, issues.

I've been thinking about how these groups would impact me if Faith had not been expelled from the ERC and if I still qualified to participate in the groups.

----------------

Dave's plan will be cumbersome, at the very least, for bivocational parish priests.

I'm imagining Dave's plan being foisted on me with the life I have now.

I have a job that is full-time, consumes my passion and which I see as, itself, a ministry.

In addition to that, I have my obligations to the community here at Faith, which are different--and LESS demanding--than the obligations of typical ERC parish priests, due to the fact that we actually do practice the priesthood of all believers here.

But, in my opinion, far more important than the ministry on my job and my ministry to the congregation...

I HAVE A FAMILY!

I have a wife whom I love and, as hard as it might be for hierarchs like Dave and Dr. Richardson to understand, enjoys my company, especially in those rare moments that I have energy to invest in our relationship.

And, while we don't have kids and grandkids, I have a mother and father whom the Word commands me to honor.

Both mom and dad have dementia. The quality of their lives, at this point, demands we be connected to the people who care for them at the home.

And face it, most bivocational pastors do have parents AND children in addition to our family obligations!

----------------

So, now the hierarchs are telling bivocational pastors, like I would be if they hadn't trashed me...

...that the core of our new New Strategic Plan is bringing you into Connextion Groups so you can be a healthy pastor and lead a healthy church.

This can not work!

What world are Dave and Dr. Richardson living in?

----------------

The fruit of what the hierarchs have done demands a return to the days of Leave it to Beaver in which:

-the church is at the center of the culture,
-every parish priest has a full-time living,
-the clergy/laity divide was taken for granted as a good thing,
-people aged 18-35 years embrace church as a central part of life and
-the wisdom of monsignors and Bishops was regarded as having authority on the level of Scripture.

Those days, and even Dave knows this--watch the first video--are gone...

...and they are not coming back.

And, we shouldn't even want them back...

...but the ERC hierarchs passionately do want those days to return...

...and the new New Strategic Plan seems to assume that the hierarchs can cause those days to return.

----------------

A few years ago, the ERC staff created a goal of traveling to every church to meet with the pastor and church council.

The feedback I've gotten from that leadership program is that the ERC staffers left the churches with the message that the one thing that makes a good church is...

...a church that pays to the Conference, its FULL CONFERENCE TITHE. 

Apparently, the ERC hierarchy does not exist to serve but to BE served!

As in the case of that leadership activity, these Connextion Groups are, in the end, for everyone who is not a full-time pastor--and for every church not being served by a full-time pastor--all about the churches and pastors being around to justify the existence of the Conference staff.

For many, probably most ERC pastors, these Connextion Groups will be an unacceptable burden.

Involvement in them will demand sacrifice from pastors who are living in the 21st century world and are already overwhelmed.

Many of them simply won't be able to participate, even if they want to, and, if they sacrifice to participate, other obligations, probably to family, will have to be sacrificed.

The plan is unhealthy, unworkable and impractical for many ERC pastors who are already overburdened.

The ERC should Hire Me: Reason 3

To be honest, this may, in truth, be more about how poorly Dr. Richardson is suited to provide, uh, leadership during a time in which radical change is called for.

---------------- 

Before I give more detail regarding what I will do during my first 100 days as ERC E. D., I'm going to mention a third reason the ERC should hire me.

Courage of conviction.

If, for just one moment and for only one moment, I accept the unsubstantiated gossip that back on April 19, 2016, the ERC of the CGGC in session voted to recall my credentials...and if I've done the math correctly...

...it has been more than 490 days...

70 X 7 plus...since that action was taken.

If, for just this brief moment, I accept the heretofore, unsubstantiated gossip as fact, don't we have to question the courage of Dr. Richardson?

----------------

If it's all true, the delegates of the ERC in session unanimously instructed Conference leadership to retrieve, from me, my ordination certificate.

The truth of the matter is, though, that 490+ days out from that action, Conference leadership has not been subordinate to the unanimous instruction of the Eldership.

I still possess my ordination certificate...

...and I've heard nothing about it from the Conference leader of leaders, Dr. Richardson regarding my credentials.

In addition, if all of this unsubstantiated stuff is true, 490+ days ago, Dr. Richardson stood in front of Conference delegates and claimed to have confronted me face to face and specifically, to have detailed my sins to me and to have implored me to turn from my wicked ways.

Now,...to confront a hot-headed firebrand such as myself...and to have done it face to face, as Dr. Richardson has reportedly told the Eldership he did, would be an act of considerable courage. It would be the act of a man who can act boldly when the situation requires.

Here's what I know about that, though:

1. I don't recall being confronted by Dr. Richardson as he described, and,

2. I still possess my ordination certificate--because no one has come to me to ask me, face to face, to return it!

--------------

Disagree with me as much as you like, I do have courage in my convictions.

The issue of the status of my credentials simmered for a year from the time I received a letter telling me that the ERC Administrative Council had voted unanimously to recall my credentials until 490+ days ago when, according to unsubstantiated gossip, the Eldership unanimously recalled my ordination.

During that year, I could have been cowed and backed away from my beliefs and begged forgiveness for whatever offense it is ERC leaders thought I had committed.

But, and this blog is the evidence, I continued to live in my prophetic ministry, calling the people of the ERC and the CGGC to repent.

Whatever else is true about me, I remain focused and committed to my convictions, even in the face of stern and powerful opposition.

----------------

Serving a large group of people who are in crisis and who need to change is difficult.

There will be many unavoidable difficult and painful moments when the key person working for change will need to stand for principle, to confront opposition and to remain steadfast, even when the opponents of change are powerful and willing to fight against change.

Dr. Richardson is not the sort of man who will do that.

---------------

If the gossip is accurate, the vote to recall my credentials was raucous. It rattled the rafters. And, there was no voiced dissent.

Still, with all of that unanimous and passionate support, 490+ days out from that day, Dr. Richardson still has not made the phone call and said, to me, "Bill, we need to talk."

How can anyone think that he will face down the inevitable conflict that comes with the sort of radical change the ERC will need to make to reverse its failing fortunes?

On the other hand, read this blog. When the Lord gives me a vision, I will not be dissuaded, no matter who or how powerful or how many oppose that vision.

Difficult days are ahead for the ERC. Of that, there can be no doubt.

If the ERC has any hope at all, it will go through many painful moments in which opposition will have to be addressed and through which unity is created where cynicism and opposition had reigned.

We must change and being the point person for change takes a different sort of servant than the ERC has had since the early days of the Church of God movement.

Dr. Richardson has demonstrated that his strengths do not match the challenges of the days in our immediate future.

The ERC should hire me.

Dave Williams's Second Video: Grrrrrrrr

I just watched Dave's second video.

It is well done and it scares the bejeebers out of me, for the future of the ERC.

Dave's a sharp guy. I've noted that he's the thinker among members of the ERC staff and, because of that, he can be far more offensive than Kevin can dream of being.

In the wake of Dave's first video, I offered eight observations. This video provoked me even more than the first.

However, rather than include numerous observations in one post, I'll start small and expand, as God is willing, by adding more observations as comments on this post.

So, first of all, I'll note that Dave has announced that the 2017 ERC new New Strategic Plan will be implemented beginning this fall, before the Eldership has approved the specifics of the plan by adopting the constitutional changes that are the meat and potatoes of the plan.

What's the word for this?

Arrogance?

Disrespect?

Haughtiness?

I'd appreciate other suggestions.

I love this one because the word is so relevant, yet so obscure: Heteropraxy?

As someone who understands that the ERC is presbyterial and that earthly authority in the Conference rests with the Eldership, not with the hierarchs, ultimately, I see this as:

Insubordination.

I think someone, besides me, should comment on the theological underpinnings of the Safe Space groups that are the focus of what Dave plans to implement prior to approval of the new New Strategic Plan.

More, if God is willing, later.

Hospital Stay

I was awake, enjoying the blessings of insomnia, in the very wee hours of Tuesday morning when I rolled over to find a more comfortable position and the room began to spin.

I lay on that position for a few minutes and the room settled...until I moved again.

Over the course of the next few hours, I found it more and more difficult to keep the room steady.

I knew, in theory, what was going on. My dad's had chronic vertigo for more than five years and Evie was hospitalized with it last year.

For dad, vertigo was the only symptom of the mini strokes that are the core of his vascular dementia.

So, I kept wiggling fingers and toes to see if I could tell if I was having a stroke but all of that seemed fine.

At daybreak, I couldn't move safely and couldn't open my eyes without being overwhelmed by nausea.

Evie got me dressed in clothes that would not be cumbersome and she drove me, at buggy speed and on the straightest roads possible, to the Reading Hospital ER.

The people in the ER were great, as they were when I broke my wrist.

I had numerous tests.

No sign of stroke.

I recovered quicky, compared to others who have had symptoms as intense as mine according to the physical therapist who signed off on my release.

Evie drove me home about noon today, after a HORRIBLE night in the hospital.

I had my first MRI and I hope I never have another one...ever...of my head, at least, and without the aid of powerful drugs.

Bottom line: The doctors have determined no cause and gave me the exclusionary diagnosis, which is what happened with my dad, until years later, when doctors who specialize in dementia placed the onset of the vertigo with his more general decline.

Dad was in his 80s then.

I'm guessing my case is different.

The brain is such a very complex thing.

Right now, I'm completely exhausted.

What I will Do during My First 100 Days as ERC E. D.

This blog generates much more conversation than you'd imagine from reading the blog itself.

My posts here do, from time to time, get commented upon in a public way that anyone who looks at the blog can see, so that others can note who is reading and thinking about what I'm writing.

Yet, no one who comments here, even fairly regularly, has anything to lose if the eagles who soar above CGGC mountaintops note that they read and think about...and even agree with...what I write.

The truth is that I am blessed by the reality that there are some sincere and thoughtful people who respond to my blog posts privately, mostly in emails, and that meaningful conversation, based on what I write, takes place. 

---------------- 

The fact that most comments about what I write here are private fascinates me.

No one who comments privately should have anything to lose by commenting on the content of this blog publicly. These are all people who, as I do, fully and enthusiastically embrace CGGC doctrine and Mission and Vision...

...but, then, maybe that's precisely the reason.

I am living proof of what can happen in the CGGC these days to someone who, fully and enthusiastically, embraces CGGC doctrine and Mission and Vision. 

No doubt, all of these people respond privately for their own reasons...

...but I have to wonder if all this private participation is evidence that there is the perception that ERC, at least, leadership is, to use a term bandied about in recent days...

FASCIST 

...in the sense that fascism involves strong, centralized, autocratic, dictatorial leadership.

I dunno. It would be self-serving for me to say that.

What I do know is that people whom I know to be good, devoted people in the CGGC/ERC, people who are serious in support of CGGC talk...

...talk to me, but do it secretly. 

---------------- 

Anyway, one of those people asked me, after my first, The ERC should Hire Me post, to declare what I would do if the ERC did hire me.

I'm not certain that I even responded to that comment. 

Then, yesterday, after my second, The ERC should Hire Me post, that reader of the blog wrote again wanting to hear what I'd do "during my first 100 days," then adding a 

:-)

...but, then, saying "...seriously,...I would like to know what you'd actually do - nitty gritty - if you were hired as Executive Director."

---------------- 

And, there is something I have in mind to do but, I'll, for the moment, say two things about why the question is not the perfect question. 

1. No matter what I have in mind now, I would walk, moment by moment, in the Spirit. 

One of the atrocities of the idea of a strategic plan is the notion that leaders believe they know, far in advance and in detail, how the Spirit will direct. 

And, we do have a boatload of history to prove that ERC leaders haven't known that to this point. 

2. My guess is that, for Dr. Richardson, the hope is that the new New Strategic Plan will work and that he'll be able to pull down that hefty Executive Director salary and benefits package until he retires in comfort.

So, let me be clear, when the ERC hires me as its E. D., my tenure will not last much longer than 100 days.

I know enough about how things work, and about my own geezerly energy level to understand that my program will probably take longer to accomplish than I think.

But, I'd go into my tenure thinking I'd do it all in six months but expect that what I do will be accomplished in a year. 

I'd ask my current employer for a leave of absence for six months to perhaps a year and promise to return to my job as soon as the Conference work is completed.

---------------

And, I'll add this, as far as ERC people are concerned: If I succeed, when I complete my task, there will be no need to pay an Executive Director or a staff of Directors. 

There will certainly be people serving the ministry of the Conference, but not leading it--we will trust the Spirit to lead. 

The people of the Conference may wish to support the labors of those who serve the Conference by taking offerings to cover the expenses of their servants. 

But, there will be, as a matter of principled obedience to the "New Testament plan," no professional and salaried people making a career off of the tithes and offerings of the people of ERC congregations. 

The Conference may, though, decide to retain paid clerical staff at least for a time. That is a decision others, a part from me, will make. 

The ERC should hire me. 

Buggy Whips, 8 Track Players or Embracing the Future

Of all the ERC eNews videos, I'm, by far, most impressed with the 8/17/17 edition featuring Dave Williams.

The video provides an intellectual foundation to justify a changing of ERC ways.

Dave explains, clearly and simply, that leadership by pastors functioning in the role of parish priests is no longer respected in our culture.

Then, bafflingly, he gives a preview of the new New Strategic Plan, explaining that it centers on the leadership that healthy pastors provide to healthy churches.

I've received some feedback on the sort of Safe Space group Dave has in mind from someone who is aware of how these groups will work. And, the person writing to me gives a mostly positive assessment and, certainly, favors these safe space pastors' groups.

However, a compelling truth of the decline of the ERC is that the plans, dreams and schemes of its leaders have, since I entered the Conference 42 years ago, ALWAYS failed.

Two truths about where we are in 2017:

1. Pastoral leadership is not biblical.

Jesus trained the twelve apostles, not the twelve pastors.

Jesus taught rather extensively about people having the gift of prophecy and how to tell true prophets from false prophets. Clearly, Jesus did that with the understanding that He would always been empowering prophets and that the devil would always be creating counterfeits.

The Book of Acts highlights the ministry of apostles and prophets. There's not a pastor/parish priest to be found anywhere in the whole book.

Paul actually says that it is Jesus who gave APESTS and that He will continue to do so "until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God..."

Yet, nowhere is the a hint of leadership by pastors functioning in the role of the parish priest.

Parish priest leadership, the core of the new New Strategic Plan, is not in the Bible.

2. While there was a time when the culture accepted parish priest leadership, Dave makes a clear and convincing case, that, in the culture today, the pastor/parish priest is no longer respected.

And, certainly, the millennials whom we've lost and hope to win back, do not groove on parish priest led ministry.

Truly, some of them love Jesus. But, a pastor led ministry? No.

The millennials with whom I'm in conversation want to bypass the middle man.

Peter says that all disciples are a royal priesthood. That is what millennials want.

The very idea of the clergy/laity separation of the priestly class from the rest of Body makes the millennials I know want to hurl.

And, they will never, EVER accept it!

It repulses them more than anything else about the traditional, organized, institutional church.

---------------------

What the new New ERC Strategic Plan wants to do just, very simply, can not work among people in their 20s and 30s. It certainly can't work among their children as they mature.

ERC hierarchs are attempting to produce the perfect buggy whip, the ideal boom box.

Their plan will, no doubt, do nice things for people older than Dave and Kevin and Chuck...

...but for millennials and the people who will come after them, it can't work.

The people who have written the plan are people who have thrived in ministry among Boomers and Builders...

...they are also the people have lost us the Xers and their kids and grandkids.

There's a way in which what the hierarchs have come up with could have worked. But, that day has passed and it is gone for good.

We must begin again to walk in the power of the Spirit.

We must repent and turn from our failed ways that the Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing is not blessing.

Dave Williams's eNews 8/17/17 Video

If you didn't catch it, the latest ERC eNews video features Dave Williams, ERC Director of Congregational Care.

Here are a few thoughts:

1. It's not a YAY GOD video, as Dr. Richardson's recently have been. That's a good thing.

2. It does take a stab at making the case for change. That is also highly commendable.

3. It acknowledges a core problem facing traditional seeker-sensitive churches in 2017: The role of what Dave calls the "pastor"--really the parish priest--is not respected in the real world as it was when Leave it to Beaver was cutting edge TV entertainment.

4. The video makes it clear that the new New Strategic Plan doubles down, with greater emphasis than ever, on parish priest leadership. Dave is superb in defining the problems facing parish priest oriented ministry and then explains that the new New Strategic Plan will focus on the parish priest more than ever, in spite of the fact that the culture has moved on from the parish priest.

5. Dave describes the plan to enhance the effectiveness of our parish priests as if the concept is new and revolutionary, and, perhaps, he thinks it is. However, as I watched, I saw him describing the old ERC LEAD Teams, which I participated in, in which only a small percentage of ERC pastors participated in and which came to nothing.

6. Dave describes the new New Strategic Plan as already being adopted, attempting to foist that myth on the people of the ERC. As I've demonstrated, the plan has yet to be approved.

7. I was fascinated to hear Dave speak, in almost these exact terms, of creating "safe spaces" for pastors, very similar to the safe spaces colleges and universities created for its snowflakes who couldn't deal with the real-world result of last year's election.

8. I've known for years that Dave is the thinker among members of the ERC staff. He demonstrates that again in this video. It's what he believes in that has been failing for all these years and, it seems to me will continue to fail.

----------------

I've predicted that it is the cynicism of the body of the ERC/CGGC that will be the cause of its ruin, unless the hierarchs break down that cynicism.

Dave demonstrates a crucial weakness of the new New Strategic Plan in that it will depend on the parish priests of the ERC entering the safe spaces the hierarchs will be creating for its hurting, snowflake parish priests.

I suspect that only the hierarchs and the parish priests already in their good old boy network will enter into those safe spaces.

The ERC should Hire Me: The Practical Reason

One word: Millennials.

In the accounts I've received about what was said and done at ERC Conference in 2017, I picked up this sense of the tone or general message:

A key leadership reasoning for why the Conference needs another New Strategic Plan came from a (sudden?) awareness that the Conference has failed to reach people of the generation who are now young adults. And, now, we need to change.

Practically--PRAGMATICALLY--those things are true. Those reasons are far from the best reasons for change and would not come to the minds of Kingdom people who actually love the LORD with all their hearts.

(The first and only legitimate reason to make radical change, from the perspective of people who love God is that the Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing is not blessing the ERC. We are out of relationship with Him.)

Yet, from the perspective of people who practice Ecclesiolatry, i.e., love of the church not of the Lord of the church, awareness that we have not reached a generation is powerful motivation for change.

So, from the ERC hierarchs' perspective, even, the ERC should hire me.

What I say next, will sound self-righteous, though I don't mean it that way: I don't care about having followers. I want to follow.

By that I mean that, from a theological perspective, I reject the idea of leadership. In a kingdom there is only one leader: the King. I don't want to lead. I'm happy to be a follower of the King.

But, the ERC hierarchs do want to be leaders. They want to be followed. Under the current new New Strategic Plan, they even have a Leadership Commission.

And, the generation who are now young adults, by the admission of the ERC hierarchs, have rejected our hierarchs' leadership.

------------------

What amazes me about what I think is how relevant it seems to be. People of my generation, in the CGGC anyway, hate it. They attack me for it.

But, the people of the generation who are now young adults...

...MILLENNIALS...

...listen to what I say and read what I write...

...and seem to think it makes sense in their lives.

The things I love and value align with the desires and values of many people who follow Jesus and are 30 or 40 years younger than I am...

...and, we also despise many of the same things.

I've said before that the ERC should hire me because I've been right about...and the mountaintoppers have been wrong about...all the fiascoed plans and schemes of recent years that have been presented, by current staff and leaders, to the Conference as a sure-fire hope for a bright future.

A second reason that the ERC should hire me is that I, as I already am, already connect with the same millennials the mountaintoppers have lost and now hope to win back.

Dr. Richardson wants to be the guy who leads the new New Strategic Plan but to do that...and succeed by reaching millennials...he will have to completely, totally and in every way, reinvent himself.

I can't see how you can make a Dr. Richardson who can reach millennials out of the Dr. Richardson who's been leading the ERC in the losing of millennials for the last decade. Millennials despise what Dr. Richardson has given the last ten years of his life to create.

Millennials groove on authenticity...

...And, that's precisely where Dr. Richardson is cooked.

No matter how polished a Dr. Richardson 2.0 may be, millennials will see that for what it is at a glance.

----------------

Now, the 90Something ladies who live in the home where my parents reside would eat Dr. Richardson up. If he'd show up wearing that cross on the chain around his neck and smile his gentle, grandson smile, they'd follow him to heaven.

But, their granddaughters?...grandsons?...great-grandchildren...and their families?

Nah.

No. No. No. No. No.

It will, it CAN, never happen.

If the ERC is going to reach millennials, it will be through someone who reaches millennials...

...and does it with authenticity.

I don't have to reinvent anything to reach millennials.

For reasons of practicality,
The ERC should hire me.

35,000 X 2000: History Repeats Itself

As the details of the ERC new New Strategic Plan of 2017 trickle my way, I get the feeling that I've seen this all before.

Mark Twain reputedly said that history doesn't repeat itself but it does rhyme.

There are two ways that what ERC hierarchs are doing with the new New Strategic Plan rhymes with events that were taking place 25ish years ago.

There will be a third. Take it to the bank...unless we repent.

The two ways the new New Strategic Plan already channel 35,000 X 2000:

1. Both were born from moments of despair.

I was not around for the very beginning of 35,000 X but I've talked to several people who were on ground floor of that fiasco.

They've told me that the plan came about from a moment of realization, that borders on panic, that the trend in the Churches of God was disastrous and that, if leaders didn't change course, ultimately the institution would crumble.

That, from what I'm hearing, is the also the story of the new ERC New Strategic Plan.

Can you who are ERCers remember 2015? Remember the fanfare, that accompanied the unveiling of that Strategic Plan? Remember the confidence and conviction of the people who developed it? Am I not correct in remembering that you of the ERC approved it UNANIMOUSLY?

And, we know that, only a few months ago, at 2017 Conference, ERC hierarchs stood before their minions casting vision for a new New Strategic Plan, confessing that the recent plan, vaunted only two years ago, had become mere words on a page, yet claiming excitement about the new plan that matched their confidence in the 2015 plan hatched only two years earlier.

They were in panic mode, praising a new plan which they, apparently, didn't have time to polish up enough to present it in finished form.

Both 35,000 X and the new New Strategic Plan of 2017 have been born of despair and panic.

2. Both, while they're presented as being radical, are attempts merely to tweak the institution.

Key to 35,000 X was the shepherd-oriented, and theologically corrupt, belief that a disciple is a person who sets their fanny in a pew for a church's Sunday morning show and is counted in the annual average attendance figure of a church.

In the same way, the 2017 ERC new New Strategic Plan relies even more passionately than the ERC ever has on the clergy/laity, pastor-as-parish-priest model of church which is, of course, absent from the New Testament and is, essentially, an invention of the Roman Catholic church in the Middle Ages.

As I hear it from multiple and trusted sources, key to the new New Strategic Plan, is the conviction that healthy pastors lead healthy churches.

I've pointed out in the past that CGGC hierarchs draw a line in the sand as far as the institution, hierarchy and parish priest leadership are concerned.

They say:

"Lord, we are yours. We ask you to bless us. Just to let you know, though, our love for the church as an institution is powerful. All we ask of you is that you let us keep our organizational structure, our belief that ministry revolves around the role of the pastor and the laity's attendance of the Sunday morning show and our positions in the hierarchy. Other than that, Lord, we are yours."

Even in moments of despair, both 35,000 and the 2017 ERC new New Strategic Plan begin and end with the institution and, in effect, tell the Holy Spirit, "Get over it."

The third rhyme? The one that will take place in the future?

3. Failure.

The Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing did not bless 35,000 X 2000. In fact, the rate of the decline of the CGGC has increased as a result of that fiasco.

If delegates of the ERC empower the hierarchs to put this plan into action, the Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing will stand aloof as He has done with our body for all the time shepherds have been in control.

The ERC 2017 new New Strategic Plan is more of the same and it will end as the plans and dreams of the hierarchs have always ended. In failure.

But, it's not too late.

We can repent. We MUST repent.

Wearing Herself out for One of the Least of These

Our gathering is different than any other I personally know of...and in many ways.

It is different, perhaps most of all, in what our people actually do in real life as far as difficult, dirty, smelly, uncouth, socially misfit people are concerned.

In even the most open traditional seeker-sensitive church I've been involved with, the seeker had to be pleasant and clean to be genuinely welcomed and encouraged to participate in the church in a meaningful way.

Certainly, the unwashed, literally and metaphorically, were tolerated. They were welcomed to be a number in our attendance stats and they were smiled at and handshook and encouraged to come again. But, to become one of us?...

...they'd have to stop being difficult, smelly and/or uncouth, even if they truly believed the the message of and about Jesus.

And, that was in the, by far, most open traditional seeker-sensitive church I've been involved with.

In most traditional churches I've been a part of, the clear, but unwritten, rule was that the least of these could expect, at best, a begrudging handshake and a grimace in the place of a smile.

One of the essential principles of our gathering is that Jesus meant what He said about righteousness and, because of that, we must obey Him...literally.

----------------

In the case of the topic of this post, our view of the difficult, dirty, smelly, uncouth and socially misfit is absolutely dictated by the teaching of Jesus in the Sheep and Goats description of the Day.

Speaking for myself, I don't like difficult people or the dirty or smelly or uncouth or socially misfit.

But,...

...Jesus is my Lord. I let Him tell me what to do and not do...

...and, honestly, compared to Him, I myself am difficult, dirty, smelly, uncouth and socially misfit.

And, Jesus said when you feed the hungry, house the stranger, care for the sick, etc., the issue of who is difficult and dirty and smelly and all of those things becomes crucial.

We Believe that when you feed the hungry, welcome the stranger, etc. and do it for someone not among the people Jesus calls the least of these, your kind act is not an act of righteousness...

...and, that it won't be counted on the Day.

---------------

Evie's worn out these days, physically, emotionally and, probably, to a degree, even spiritually.

One of the people we have been driving here from the home is declining physically. She's in her mid 70s and has not been well for years. Her name is Marian.

Marian is totally impoverished. She is supported by government benefits. She literally has no family and is so shy and reserved that she will never speak unless spoken to and then only in a nearly indistinct mumble.

And, when her most recent physical ailments surfaced, she was also diagnosed as suffering from dementia.

She ended up in a local hospital and Evelyn, because the poor woman was sick, visited her. That is, after all, right out of our playbook.

Two days ago, Marian was moved to a nursing home and both the hospital and the home, believe it or not, had Evie sign some of the paperwork!?!?

And, Evie is just absolutely worn out.

I believe that what we are doing for my parents counts for little, if anything, for eternity.

Jesus pointed out that even sinners love those who can return your love.

It's what Evie is doing now that reflects the love and mercy of Jesus Who gave Himself for people who had no right to ask and didn't deserve mercy from Him.

I'm blessed.

Our talk is radical.

Evie walks our talk.

She's wearing herself out for one of the least of these.

But, she needs, as even Jesus did, to go off to a quiet place and get some rest.

Jesus and the Twelve...uh...Healthy Pastors

My mind boggles when I read what ERC hierarchs are writing these days.

I'm scratching my head when I inspect the fruit of the ERC mountaintoppers' interpretation of the Bible. 

Based on what I'm reading from the eagles who nest on the highest ERC mountaintop, their understanding of the New Testament Gospels is this:

Jesus discipled...

Twelve people...

To be leaders...

Of healthy churches. 

As prominent clergymen of the CGGC who accept the Bible as their only rule of faith and practice, ERC hierarchs have developed a new Strategic Plan which reworks the focus of ERC ministry around the conviction that:

Healthy pastors...

Lead...

Healthy churches. 

Scary.

Does anyone else see any of that in the Word?

When I read the Gospels, I find Jesus calling and equipping people to be apostles, not pastors. 

I see Jesus teaching His apostles that the greatest of them will be the slave of all, not leaders of churches. 

And, I see Jesus announcing the coming of the Kingdom of God, not the creation of congregations. In fact, on one of the two occasions Jesus taught what the church is, He said any time two or three gather in His Name, He is with them.

The first principle of the belief of the CGGC is that the Bible is our only rule of faith and practice. 

From what the ERC hierarchs have already made clear, one of two things are true. Either:

1. They are terrible Bible students, or...

2. They are foisting their opinions on the Conference over the authority of the Bible. 

----------------- 

Any kid with a Junior High Sunday School understanding of the the Bible knows that Jesus trained apostles to go into all the world making disciples. 

Sadly, when the mountaintoppers of the ERC produce fruit, they make the essence of the Gospel Jesus training healthy pastors to lead healthy churches. 

Give me any 14 year old Sunday Schooler as our chief mountaintopper!

At least, we'd get the Bible story right.

We must repent!

ERCers: You did NOT Approve the new New Strategic Plan

I don't know nuthin about nuthin as far as the ERC is concerned.

I do read the ERC Newsletter and watch Dr. Richardson's eNews videos and I read the Healthy Church Checkups and I get the inside scoop from a handful of friends and others who are chagrined over the abuse Faith and I have received at the hands of the hierarchs...

...but I only get the official line plus observations from others.

I know nothing first hand.

So, its interesting to read responses to what I write here.

I often learn more from that responses to the blog than any other source.

I've had a conversation about my post regarding the ERC Mountaintopper who described the new New Strategic Plan as having been adopted.

The person writing to me is a careful thinker who was present at ERC Conference Sessions and who pays close attention to what goes on and who also understands more than some others might.

S/He thought back to Conference sessions and read over docket stuff and personal notes and concluded that there might, on one level, be justification for saying that the Conference in session approved the strategic plan but, to say that with the finality that it was proclaimed in the Healthy Church Checkup was premature.

And, having had that conversation, I agree.

----------------

Let me just say this about that, and let me be perfectly clear:

If you're a member of the ERC, you did N-O-T approve the new New Strategic Plan. But, the ERC hierarchs will insist that you did.

In the future, there will be informational meetings.

Then, probably at next year's Conference, they will say that, at Conference in 2017, you approved the new New Strategic Plan and, now, there are some Constitutional changes you will have to make so that the plan you already approved can go forward.

They won't actually say that the approval of constitutional changes is merely a formality but they'll want you to think that.

But understand:

The new New Strategic Plan of 2017 won't be approved until the Conference in session approves those changes to the ERC Constitution. 

Perhaps I'm naive, but I'm not accusing the hierarchs of being intentionally dishonest.

I've known most of these guys in the past and, in spite of everything, I still don't believe that they are evil and manipulative. I think they believe in who they think they are and in what they do.

The hierarchs can believe what they want to believe about the authority they think they possess, but the truth is that the ERC is presbyterial.

Human authority in the Conference is held by the Eldership.

Proof of that is that the delegates to Conference must approve the plans of the hierarchs.

The hierarchs are servants, not leaders, of the Conference.

In the CGGC, we believe that the Lord speaks through the will of the Eldership. And, we believe that the members of the Eldership are responsible to exercise their authority in a Christ-like way.

A sin of the ERC Eldership in the past, has been to have allowed itself to be hornswoggled by the hierarchs into thinking that it is duty bound to submit to the plans and dreams of its staff...

...that to be Christ-like means to rubber stamp the leaders' plans.

But, the truth is precisely the opposite.

----------------

Anyway,...

...don't believe the Healthy Church Checkup. It contains a lie.

The new New Strategic Plan has not been approved. It will only be approved when its specifics are presented to the Eldership in black and white...and when those specifics are approved.

Remember how incredible has been the disaster that is the 2015 old new Strategic Plan.

Essentially the same minds that created it are responsible for the 2017 new New Strategic Plan.

We can't afford another one just like the other one.

We must repent.

ERC Mountaintopper Claims Strategic Plan Adopted Months Ago

Yesterday, I was catching up on my reading of the wisdom being proclaimed from the ERC mountaintop.

And, I found the August 2017 Healthy Church Checkup.

It's a thoughtful, well-composed article written by guest author Dr. Stephen Dunn. The article is introduced by Dr. Richardson.

In his introduction, Dr. Richardson explains that Dr. Dunn's article had already been posted on Dr. Dunn's blog "just a few months ago."

In that article, already a few months old, Dr. Dunn notes, in passing, that he's part of the CGGC and adds, "...my regional Conference has adopted a strategic plan..." Note the tense of the verb, "has adopted."

So, doing the math, just a few months ago, by the publication of the August 2017 Healthy Church Checkup, the Conference had already, according to Drs. Richardson and Dunn, adopted the ERC's new New 2017 Strategic Plan.

Oops!

----------------

Could Dr. Dunn have been merely sloppy and thoughtlessly and mistakenly described the adoption of the new New Strategic Plan as being a done deal?

Highly unlikely.

As I have observed, the article is thoughtful and well-composed.

It is concise, well-crafted, focused and carefully reasoned.

Read it yourself, please. Not a word is out of place.

Dr. Dunn is precise. From first word to last, he says precisely what he means to say.

He means to say, "my regional conference has adopted a strategic plan."

And, as Dr. Richardson says, Dr. Dunn published those words on his own blog a few months ago.

----------------

I receive information from a number of sources from within the ERC. All of my sources reside on a perch at least as far up the ERC mountain as I was when I reached my highest height a number of years ago. These people are themselves privy to information much more specific than the typical ERC parish priest gets.

And, they are unanimous on one point: They are hearing that the Strategic Plan is still being formulated and that it will be presented to the Conference so that it will be adopted by the entire body of the Eldership of the ERC. 

None of the people informing me have the slightest idea that, at least as early as "a few months ago," the ERC new New Strategic Plan had already been adopted.

-----------------

Here are some musings about this.

1. All of this is fact:

-Dr. Richardson says Dr. Dunn wrote this a few months ago.
-Dr. Dunn wrote several months ago that his regional conference had already adopted the strategic plan.
-People informing me are being told that the strategic plan is still being worked on and, certainly, has not already been adopted BY DR. DUNN'S REGIONAL CONFERENCE.

One point of reference: ERC Conference sessions were also "just a few months ago." 

Was the Strategic Plan already adopted by Dr. Dunn's regional conference by the time the real ERC Conference met in session during the spring?

2. Read the Healthy Church Checkup.  Dr. Dunn's understanding of the content of the new New Strategic Plan is highly detailed and specific, implying that, at the time he published his article, this important piece of the plan was already in place.

3. The fact that Dr. Richardson uses the article by Dr. Dunn to give meaning to one specific aspect of the new New Strategic Plan makes it seem that, to Dr. Richardson, that part of the plan has already been chiseled into stone.

4. I've noted in the past, that ERC mountaintoppers have trouble with truth.

Doctrinal truth gives them fits so that they can vote for radical doctrines such as "The Bible is our only rule of faith and practice," and then ignore the authority of the Bible as they did in the old New Strategic Plan of 2015, which cites no Scripture. And, as Dr. Dunn does in his article which states many specific truths that are foundational to the strategic plan, yet has not even one reference to the Word.

Here, however, another aspect of their problem with truth surfaces: ERC MOUNTAINTOPPERS FIND IT IMPOSSIBLE TO TELL THE TRUTH. It seems clear to me that they think of the new Strategic Plan as having been ADOPTED, not even merely written in a final form, while leaving the impression that it the the Eldership that will adopt it. As Shakespeare said in HAMLET, "Something is rotten in the state of Denmark."

5. As I've been reflecting on the Characteristics of the CGGC Brand recently, I've come to a few preliminary conclusions about present state of the CGGC and of its future. About the future: It is the characteristic CYNICISM that will, probably, in the end, kill the ERC/CGGC as institutions. It is the cynicism of the mountaintoppers toward the body that has them talking about the Strategic Plan as if it had already been adopted. But, it is the cynicism of the body toward the hierarchs that will ultimately prove deadly and make it a done deal that only a small handful of conference insiders will take ownership of the new New Strategic Plan.

6. There is very little chance that the new New Strategic Plan will reverse the CGGC's failing fortunes but if there is even a remote chance that it will, the mountaintoppers will have to become transparent. I'm not certain anyone at all, besides me, has even read the Healthy Church Checkup and, if people did and are concerned and aware, they most likely also noticed that Dr. Dunn published an article declaring that the new New Strategic Plan had already been adopted. Now, that I've presented the facts regarding what the Drs. Richardson and Dunn have written, more than a few in the ERC and CGGC will know it. And, due to the rampant cynicism embedded in the DNA of the CGGC, many will be fuming and waiting--silently--for an explanation from the mountaintop.

7. Here's what I think actually happened:

The Drs. Richardson and Dunn accidentally let slip, into public view, their definition of the term "Conference." To them, the Conference is the Executive Director and his chosen band of insiders. 

And, with that understanding of who the Conference is, the statement that the Conference had already, a few months ago, adopted the Strategic Plan is absolutely true. It is also, well, offensively arrogant. (It also explains the cynicism of the body toward the mountaintoppers and why so small a group will own the new New Strategic Plan.)

8. We must repent.

How many will take Ownership of the new, New 2017 ERC Strategic Plan?

At this point, I think that that's a critical question.

Who's going to be willing to die on the hill that will be the new New ERC Strategic Plan?

How is ownership of the new New Strategic Plan being passed on from Kevin to his Committee and then to the ERC parish priests and finally to the people of the ERC?

----------------

Because I'm a geezer, I was around when the first ERC Strategic Plan was launched in the early 2000s.

Ed and his team created a first-class brochure in color on high quality, shiny paper and scheduled meetings at a number of locations across the Conference.

EVERYONE who was part of an ERC congregation was encouraged to attend and was welcomed.

At that time I was still a trusting member of the CGGC Shepherd Mafia. Back then, I believed in things like strategic plans and parish priesthood and a churchly hierarchy.

Six of us from Faith eagerly attended the meeting on a Thursday night at the Mt. Joy Church of God.

And, the five, uh, members of the Faith laity were absolutely dazzled. Inspired. Excited by the future that they could see for our church when the plan was implemented in our ministry.

On that night, they bought in.

They bought metaphorical stock in the Strategic Plan and they were perfectly willing to sacrifice to see it become reality in the ministry of Faith Community Church of God.

What happened in the future regarding the implementation of the plan is another story to be told, perhaps, on another day. That, too, is an important story.

I lunched yesterday with a friend who is a CGGC pastor and I asked him questions, because he is a member of the ERC Eldership, about how ownership of the new New Strategic Plan was being passed on.

What I didn't do, was put him on the spot as far as his own ownership of the plan is concerned.

And, I told him, in some detail, my story of that decently large crowd from Faith attending Ed's informational meeting and of the ownership of the leadership's vision it created.

Here's what I'm thinking:

Current leadership is blowing it.

I'm not excited about what I'm hearing as far as the content of the plan is concerned.

But, I'm stunned, so far at least, at the HORRIBLE job ERC leaders are doing in promoting the plan.

I asked my pastor friend how many non parish priests attended the informational meeting he participated in.

He explained that only parish priests were invited and that only parish priests attended.

----------------

And, I'll say this: Back in the day, it was the others from Faith who were pressuring ME, asking ME when and how what we learned in that meeting would be put into practice.

Now, I'll acknowledge that the meeting my friend attended was so that Kevin could gain input for the creation of the new New Strategic Plan and there will be opportunity for ERC leaders to promote the plan among the people of ERC congregations later on.

But,...

...how much good will could Kevin have created by encouraging anyone and everyone in the Conference to give input into the plan?

And,...

...can anyone but me see the lost opportunity in Kevin's YAY GOD videos?

He's essentially telling us all that things are going so well in the ERC that the difficult process of change is one we don't need to endure.

What's up with that?!

If anything, Kevin is encouraging ERC parish priests and the consumers of their religious products and services not to buy into the very change he hopes to lead.

Who's going to buy in to this thing?

How the Spirit of God Agitates us "to embrace what He's doing now"

The quotation marks in the title of this post highlight Lance's words in his most recent eNews.

Check it out: The title of this post is a fair characterization of what Lance tells is he is praying for and wants the rest of us to pray along with him.

In his most recent eNews, Lance talks at length about the Holy Spirit. He prays that the Spirit will "stir us up," that He will "agitate us."

And, biblically, Lance is on the right track.

In the Old and New Testaments, revival came about when the Spirit of God moved among the people of God and agitated them and stirred them up.  He made them despise their sin and turn from their wicked ways to love and obey Him.

That's what Lance says he is praying for. It is what Lance wants all of us to pray for.

Lance's wish, certainly, is true to the Word.

Lance points out that there is no "magic bullet." There is no program that can redeem the CGGC. Lord knows that if programs were the answer, the CGGC would be on top of the denominational world.

Lance is correct.

The Spirit of the Lord is the One on Whom we must rely. It is He alone who is our hope and our salvation.

What Lance is not entirely clear about is how he believes the Holy Spirit stirs up and agitates God's people.

Having read his email over a few times, it seems to me that Lance may believe that the Spirit stirs up and agitates through a mystical process in which He moves in the hearts of people. Lance quotes John 3:5-8, "...the wind blows where it pleases..."

The Holy Spirit certainly could do that but, read your Bible, that's not the way the Spirit of the Lord has normally moved to call God's people back to Him.

The Spirit of the Lord normally empowered people to live differently than others and to speak truth in a startling and, usually, confrontational way to stir up, and to agitate. Among many others:

Nathan
Elijah 
Isaiah 
Jeremiah
Malachi. 

Prophets.

How did the ministry of Jesus begin?

With the ministry of a forerunner, the prophet John the Baptist.

And, no matter what else you can say about these people the prophets, they served the role that Lance now sees as essential to the future of the CGGC. They stirred up. They agitated. In fact, more than anything else, they stirred up and agitated.

And, when people among the people of God embraced what the prophets said and did, they experienced the godly sorrow that produces the repentance that leads to salvation. And...

...the Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing blessed.

----------------

Think about recent CGGC history for a moment.

If you read this blog, you know that CGGC leaders now think what I thought long before they did.

The ERC 2015 Strategic Plan is a tragic bust.

I proclaimed it to be a debacle before the Conference in session unanimously adopted it!

The unsettledness, restlessness, fearfulness, discontent Lance now asserts are blessings, and first step toward "true" "repentance?"

Thank the Lord that Lance is saying that now, in 2017.

But, gang!

I was becoming blue in the face, begging for godly sorrow in the CGGC when I was posting on Brian Miller's blog and, then, on walt's forum.

And, I was being confrontational. I was agitating. I was do what I could to stir up the people of the CGGC.

If anyone embraces what I do, it should be Lance.

----------------

I may be too close to this, but the obvious truth to me is that, if the people of the CGGC had accepted my claim to speak for the Lord...

...the ridiculous and foolish 2015 ERC "only words on a page" Strategic Plan would not have wasted these years of ministry and extended ERC decline...

...these out-of-touch-with-reality YAY GOD videos from Dr. Richardson would not be happening...

...and Lance would have been BEGGING us to pray that the Holy Spirit would stir us up and agitate us...

...in his first eNews...

...two years ago!

----------------

As mystically as the Lord may choose to stir us up and agitate us, He has normally chosen to call and empower prophets to confront His people, to describe to His people the error of their ways and to call them to repentance.

-----------------

It's actually hard for me to say this, but I believe that the people of the CGGC must acknowledge that the Lord has been speaking to them, stirring them up, AGITATING them, through me.

They need to heed me as an instrument through whom God is working among them.

----------------

As many times as I have asked people why the ERC mountaintop challenged my credentials, the only, and unanimous, reply is that no charge was ever mentioned has but I have been disruptive.

I've been an agitator.

Bingo!

Their leadership fails.

The Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing is not blessing the things they say and do...

...and I am agitating.

I tell leadership that Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing will not bless.

He never blesses.

----------------

I'll say one other thing that I see as a problem for the CGGC.

Those on the mountaintop, for years, have only granted to the Lord, the ability to work among them on their own terms.

They, for instance, are willing to allow the Lord to bless, "But, Lord, the hierarchy and the institution that supports it, are off the table."

In this case, Lance seems to be saying, "Lord, you may stir us up. Please agitate us, if you want. But, we'll accept agitation only if you move us mystically, in the depths of our hearts. Prophecy is off the table."

One essential regarding repentance is that repentance that is, to use Lance's word, TRUE, only happens when human submission and self-denial is absolute and God's way is accepted without reservation.

We must repent, truly repent.

"...but worldly sorrow produces death."

I've called Lance's latest eNews amazing, and I think it is for many reasons.

I've also said that, if I'm reading him correctly, one one point, the differences between us are deadly.

Lance talks in a positive way about unsettledness and discontent, fearfulness and restlessness among people he meets in the CGGC, about true repentance and about the Holy Spirit agitating--as if being agitated is a good thing.

The fact that Lance welcomes these is, I think, a counter-revolutionary way of thinking compared to the way Ed wrote the eNews and to the way Dr. Richardson of the ERC has been creating his recent YAY GOD videos.

Understand this: Lance's openness to negative emotion is a profoundly good thing.

----------------

Many times here, I've either quoted or alluded to 2 Corinthians 7:10 and Paul's words, "...godly sorrow produces a repentance that leads to salvation..."

However, I rarely finish my quote of what Paul says, which is, "...but worldly sorrow produces death."

----------------

Here at Faith, we have practiced the New Testament command to confess our sins to each other and we've done it in our gatherings. It's never been a regular aspect of life in our community, but it's happened several times.

And, in that setting, I've seen godly sorrow that produces repentance and I've seen worldly sorrow leads to death.

Based on Lance's words and my experience, what I'm seeing in the CGGC is the worldly sorrow that produces death, not the godly sorrow that produces repentance.

As I understand it, godly sorrow focuses on a broken relationship between, as is the case in 2 Corinthians 7, a church body and the Lord.

What Lance describes is restlessness, even fearfulness, over the failure of the CGGC institution. Excuse the harshness of this observation, but Lance describes narcissism, the notion that it's all about us, not the Lord.

WE're not attracting and keeping young people, 
WE're losing the culture war,
...if WE don't do something quick, WE're not going to be here much longer.

When I've seen sorrow at Faith, and I've had time to see the fruit it has produced, what Lance is describing resembles the worldly sorrow that produces death.

On this blog, especially lately, I've been going to great lengths to frame the state of the CGGC union in terms of its standing before the Lord.

"THE LORD OF ALL AUTHORITY AND POWER AND MERCY AND GRACE AND BLESSING IS NOT BLESSING THE CGGC."

I've written those words over and over again. That is the central CGGC truth in 2017.

And, Lance is not telling us that he meets CGGC people who are talking about our disconnection from the Lord's blessing and power.

I'm not seeing it either.

----------------

Is all lost for the CGGC?

I've said it before and I repeat it now:

No. Things are not too late but we must repent in a way that, as Paul says it, "leads to salvation."

We are on track to living in a sorrow that produces death.

----------------

One final observation:

I've seen the sorrow that leads to salvation and I've seen the sorrow that produces death.

The most fiercely emotional sorrow I've seen personally appears to have been worldly sorrow and has, at least at this moment, produced death.

In the CGGC, we need to refocus ourselves on the greatest of all the commands. We must love the Lord, not the CGGC institution.

If we do that, we may find the godly sorrow that produces a repentance that leads to salvation.

Pray that we do.