"It's easier to get forgiveness than permission" is a pet saying of the guy who is the most successful pastor and most effective leader I, personally, have ever known.
Some of you who read this may know, instantly, who it is that I am quoting.
Two truths about that saying and that guy come immediately to my mind.
One is that the saying is true. Getting permission in any context can be difficult. In the institutional church, it is especially difficult to receive permission to do anything not already dictated by what is, at any given time, understood to be tradition. And, if what you do works, forgiveness will come quickly.
The second truth about that guy and his saying is fascinating to me: I never knew the guy with the saying to actually ever DO anything without permission that would require forgiveness.
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I've been remembering that guy and his saying as the ERC Ad Council plans to meet this week.
According to the notes the ERC hierarchs have published from the Town Hall meetings, the hierarchs' plan to have the Ad Council rubber stamp their intention to implement the new Commission structure that will be essential to the new New Strategic Plan, effective January 1, 2018...
...even though only a two-thirds majority of the delegates to a properly called gathering of the Conference has the authority either to dissolve current commissions or create new ones.
From the notes of the Town Hall meetings, the propriety of what the hierarchs plan to do has been raised at least twice and, if I'm reading the notes properly, dismissed out of hand.
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It is a fairly normal thing for ERC hierarchs to put themselves and their plans above the authority of the Eldership.
Numerous times in past decades, my friend Stanley Cordell took the floor during Conference sessions to point out that an action planned by ERC leaders, sometimes even already implemented by them, violated the covenant of the ERC community because it defied the Constitution or By-Laws. In every case when I was present, Stan was demonstrated to be correct and it was agreed that leadership truly had either ignored or defied the ERC covenant.
My interpretation of those past events is that, for decades, ERC hierarchs have had a disdain for the ERC covenant and, honestly, for the ERC community.
They have behaved like Bishops and Popes authorized to lead Christ's Holy Church, not like people employed by the Conference to carry out its Kingdom ministry.
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So, and there can be no doubt about it based on the Town Hall meeting notes, in spite of concerns for the Constitution raised at least twice, the plan is, when the Ad Council meets this week, for the Council to rubber stamp someone's plan for the search for Kevin's successor...
...and for the Ad Council to, without authority, authorize the dissolving of existing ERC commissions and to create the new commission structure necessary to carry out the new New Strategic Plan.
Why?
Because the hierarchs do seem to think of themselves as leaders Bishops and Popes leading God's Holy Church, not as servants of the Conference...
...well, because...
...it's easier to get forgiveness than permission.
The idea is that they will dump the Constitutional stuff on the Conference next spring, suggesting that this is "a little official paperwork" that needs to be attended to...
...because the new New Strategic Plan is already up and running and, by the way,...
... YAY GOD!...
...everything is going perfectly, just according to plan.
As they do this, the hierarchs will be slightly concerned, but ultimately confident, that they will get their forgiveness...
...which will also be their permission.
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If that happens, in my opinion, it will be the worst thing for the future of the Conference as far as participation in the work of the Kingdom of God is concerned.
For that to have happened, the apathetic will have remained apathetic and simply moaned when told, "All in favor, say, 'yay,'" and all the cynics will have done their normal thing and groaned during the vote but without any intention of embracing the plan.
AND, all of this rising group of skeptics will have either been charmed or bought off in the way the hierarchs compromise young and sincere critics...
...or they will have been beaten down and surrendered...
...and business as usual...
...albeit under a new Strategic Plan, which only the hierarchs think will work but, as will soon be clear, even to the hierarchs themselves, is merely words on paper.
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To those of you on the ERC Ad Council who read this,...
...if the hierarchs do, indeed, push for the implementation of the new Commission structure in January, the issue is not the new New Strategic Plan.
The real issue has to with the people of the Conference...and with the covenant we have with each other.
The real issue is the question of whether we are people who love each other and submit to each other and who respect the details of our shared covenant, (which...
...the hierarchy are currently treating as if the covenant itself is nothing more than...
...words on a page).
The real issue is if the people on staff and other hierarchs are servants of the Conference and its covenant...
...or if they are, as their behavior suggests,...
Bishops and Popes leading God's Holy Church.
We must repent. Oh, we must repent!
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