I'm picking up chatter from, to adopt Lew's adjective, the ERC 'subversives' who are still in touch with me, getting their takes on the new New ERC Strategic Plan as well as what they're hearing from others. And, I'm factoring that into my own perceptions.
Here are some thoughts:
Few, if any, are genuinely enthusiastic. Some like some parts of the plan but no one I know of thinks that this plan contains the answer to the ERC's woes.
No one I know of is convinced that Kevin is the person who should lead the ERC into the future. I think that there is the expectation that the hierarchs will give Kevin the first shot at leading the Conference after the Strategic Plan issue is resolved but no one I know of thinks Kevin will actually make a go of it.
No one thinks the plan is genuine leadership. People seem to be saying something like, the hierarchs held those meetings to hear what the attenders desire so the hierarchs could appear to be leading when, in reality, the plan is, what?, enabling? the very dysfunction that has been driving the ERC's demise.
No one thinks this is a good plan. This is not to say that they won't become convinced after the hierarchs present the plan to groups of pastors later on but, for now, people are lukewarm at best about the quality of the plan.
The cynics are, as far as I can tell, unmoved. There may be a time when I write a post on who I think the cynics are and how they came to be, but, for now, I'll say--again--that a significant number of pastors and churches in the ERC have no intention of participating with the hierarchs in the new plan. They've ignored the movings and shakings of the ERC institutionalists in Harrisburg since before I entered the Conference in the 1970s and they are not considering repenting of their cynicism over this plan. AND, I'm picking up no intelligence that suggests that Kevin or the other hierarchs are genuinely reaching out to the people who ignore them.
(Remember, my take on cynicism in the CGGC notes that the cynicism goes in every direction and that the hierarchs are as cynical toward the people on the other side of the gulf as the cynics are of them.)
The worst thing for the future of the ERC is that the plan will be presented and accepted without serious challenge. If that happens, the new New Strategic Plan will certainly end up being, again, only words on a page. What has always happened in the ERC is that people outside of the circle of the hierarchs exercise a perverted sense of submission. It works this way: They blandly vote, Yay, for anything the hierarchs want...but without any intention of following the hierarchs' plan. That's what I think happened with the unanimous adoption of the old New Strategic Plan in 2015. It's how the ERC has worked for a longer time than I know. If it happens again, I suspect that the ERC's sunk. There's not much time left.
Even people fairly far up the ERC mountain are, at best, unenthusiastic about Dave Williams's Safe Space Connextion groups. Based on chatter I'm picking up, even from people who are far from cynical, the reviews of this key element of the plan are lukewarm. I'm hearing, from these people, that they will certainly participate at the beginning and give these groups a chance but they're not excited about the outline of what will be taking place...and they don't see these groups transforming the failing fortunes of the Conference. And, remember: This feedback is coming from people who are a fair distance up the ERC mountain.
To personalize ERC dynamics, the way the hierarchs handled me and the ministry at Faith hurts the ability of the hierarchs to lead the whole Conference. I am not a cynic. I don't perversely submit to the hierarchs by nodding and voting, Yay, and then doing nothing so that their best laid plans end up merely being words on a page. And, the hierarchs crushed me, and the ministry I participate in, like a stink bug. What's the message in that to the significant number of pastors and churches in the Conference who stubbornly and silently ignore Conference leadership when they try to lead? The message is that the hierarchs prefer cynicism...that if you are honest about your beliefs and feelings, and express your reservations, you may run the risk of being crushed like a bug, as was I. In the way the hierarchs handled me and the ministry at Faith, they were endorsing cynicism and the cynics' perverse submission.
I used Lew's word, subversive, at the beginning of the post with intention. People like me and people in touch with me are, too easily, understood to be evil and enemies among the hierarchs and their friends. This attitude among hierarchs is a serious leadership problem.
Millennials! None of the chatter I'm picking up suggests that the new New Strategic Plan will solve the problem the ERC is having in developing a ministry that reaches people under the age of 40. People I'm hearing from are concerned about the need for their churches to engage younger adults and their families but they see nothing in the plan to assist them in doing that.
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So, that's a fairly comprehensive summary of the word that's coming to me.
We must repent.
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