It's a question I'm asking, based on what I've seen in notes from ERC new New Strategic Plan Town Hall meetings published in the ERC PDF and in a report I've received from one of the people who attended a Town Hall meeting.
The ERC hierarchs are saying that the CGGC mountaintoppers have their own Strategic Plan and that it is...
..."quite similar to ours."
I just quoted the ERC PDF.
I received an email describing a different Town Hall meeting than the meeting from which this quote comes, in which a hierarch claimed that the CGGC has its own Strategic Plan and that plan closely resembles what the ERC mountaintoppers have come up with.
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In 2003, Reggie McNeal wrote the book, The Present Future, which took the CGGC by storm, to so great an extent that Reggie was booked as the keynote speaker at the next year's IMPACT, which met in the Pittsburgh area, and was very well attended.
I attended. It was clear that Reggie is more impressive in person than in writing.
He absolutely dominated that gathering. All of his sessions were absolutely packed!
In, The Present Future, McNeal identifies six wrong questions that the church has been asking and which he argues has been driving its decline and he identifies six matching tough questions which Jesus followers can begin asking in order to change the Kingdom's fortunes in the future.
Fans of strategic planning take note: One of McNeal's wrong questions is,
How do we plan for the future?
In response to that McNeil says
"The better (and biblical) approach to the future involves prayer and preparation, not prediction and planning."
And, of course, he's right. The Book of Acts is filled with stories of disciples gathering together in prayer. It's a joke to suggest that they organized Strategic Plan Town Hall meetings.
So, what's the corresponding tough question?
How do we prepare for the future?
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It disgusts me, but doesn't surprise me, that the ERC would plug away with strategic planning.
The current batch of ERC hierarchs spent much of the time Reggie has resourced the Missional Leadership Initiative as if participating in it is a sure-fire way of contracting leprosy.
To my limited knowledge, one ERC staff member eventually participated. But, his involvement clearly hasn't impacted how the ERC hierarchs function.
ERC hierarchs are still devoted giving A+ answers to the wrong questions.
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But, if the suggestion that the CGGC has its own Strategic Plan and if as is being claimed, its plan is similar to the ERC's, I'm stunned and heartbroken.
Lance and now this new Brandon Kelly guy present themselves as disciples and besties with Reggie.
They're telling us that they're with Reggie in following a different and future-focused way.
But,...
...if they've done a strategic PLAN...
...and, if...
...as ERC hierarchs are claiming, that plan is quite like the pastor dominated, church focused disaster designed in Harrisburg,...
...there is no hope left for the CGGC.
Is it really true that the CGGC has done its own Strategic Plan?
Say It Ain't So, Joe!
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