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!
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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.
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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.
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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.
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