I was not surprised to receive, off-the-blog, some pretty strident opposition to my suggestion that Brandon Kelly was being high church and sacramental, in his recent eNews article, by describing the frustration he's picking up across the CGGC after 10 years of the mountaintoppers' push to be missional.
And, I stand by my observation.
But, I'll add three comments.
1. I entered ministry in the Churches of God in 1976 and, from the first day, noticed that people in our ministry were concerned that the attenders of our congregations were not advancing in their commitment to the Lord to the point that they were producing fruit in keeping with repentance and living righteously.
Never, however, in all of those years, was I, personally, involved in a conversation in which someone expressed their concern over the fact that our people don't walk in righteousness by lamenting that new people don't want to be baptized.
In my time, we've always had that concern, but this is the first time, in my own experience, that this concern has been expressed in terms of a sacrament/ordinance.
2. I learned decades ago that Findlay is a place where high church-ism reigns in CGGC circles to a degree that is extraordinary and rare. I believe that Brandon's connection to the CGGC has been mostly, if not exclusively, in the Findlay area. It may very well be that, in Brandon's part of the CGGC world, there is a ongoing frustration over the fact that being missional isn't bearing fruit in the form of righteousness that expresses itself in a desire to participate in the sacrament/ordinance of baptism.
Still, my sense is that, in the broader CGGC world, most of us are not, first and foremost, bleeding over the lack of baptisms when we chagrin over the failings of the press toward being missional.
3. One of my Characteristics of the CGGC Brand is Creeping High Church-ism. The essence of my concern about that trend is that, key to high church Christianity, is a stark separation between the roles of the clergy and the laity. Even though high church-ists embrace the doctrine of the Priesthood of all Believers, the historical truth is that they've never successfully empowered it. Rather, it is from high church-ism that comes the idea that the clergy produces religious products and services to be consumed by the laity.
In my opinion, baptism, as practiced in the New Testament, is not what it has become and, today, when churchmen chagrin over the fact that being missional isn't bearing fruit in people wanting to be baptized, they are expressing frustration that people don't want to become consumers of a product provided by the clergy.
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There are many ways to express concern that being missional is not bringing people to repentance. In fact, a very Jesus and New Testament apostle way of expressing it is to say just that:
"People are not repenting of sin and believing the gospel when disciples live out today's definition of being on mission."
But, to lament that being missional isn't bearing fruit in people wanting to be baptized concerns me as being too focused on the sacramental, and too concerned with involving people in the definition of church life that allows clergymen to be providers of religious products and services to be consumed by the laity.
In my opinion, we need to radically repent of the religious products and services method of defining righteousness.
Don't hear what I'm not saying:
Even if Brandon didn't mean to suggest it, I believe many in the CGGC read it that way.
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