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?
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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.
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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.
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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?
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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.
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We all must repent...
...the cynics...
...the hierarchs...
...and, their good old boy insider network.
Pastor Bill,
ReplyDeleteHonestly....forget these charlatans and money changers. From everything I have read in your blogs and elsewhere about the CGGC, they are much more concerned with public image and filled coffers than they EVER were about the spiritual well being of those in their enclave. If I were in your shoes, I would go to them and calmly hand them your frock with a smile, have Evie sew you a better one, and continue your ministry as always. Anytime you allow a governing body to get its' hands on something, this is always the result, and the corruption that ensues destroys many good folks, including TRUE ministers and flock leaders like yourself. There are so very, very few out there who honestly and truly care for the spiritual health of those they serve, any more these days, that it is refreshing to know a Pastor like you. So thank you. It has always been those, just like the CGGC, and all those who pretend to be preachers, rabbis, and ministers of every cloth who have chased me away from being a church going man. It happened again just recently. I opened a dialogue with a local minister, asked him some of my typically tough spiritual questions, and had him promise me he would get a bible study guide into my hands. That was over a year ago, and i still have no study guide, and haven't seen or heard from him since. This is how it has always been between me and those who supposedly run and operate the local faiths, and ever since I was around 17!! You, on the other hand, I talk to just about every week or so! that should tell you and the CGGC something important. Keep up the good work, my brother. You don't need them or any other ecumenical body to be the good and caring minister you are!
Matt,
DeleteAs I said to you recently in another context, the CGGC is not all bad. It's what you make of it.
The off-blog conversations I reference are proof that the hierarchs aren't the whole body.