As I recall, Brandon Kelly was in the first cycle of MLI along with me. And, if that's so, to my knowledge, we never chatted more than to greet each other when we crossed paths.
I don't claim to know him at all. As a result, his words in that historic eNews blog last week hit me with more impact than they would have if there was a personal relationship.
Did you notice that, as he detailed the two reasons that frustration over being missional is welling up in the CGGC, he noted:
"There aren't any new baptisms taking place."
No biggie, really, except that I've been pointing out that one characteristic of the leadership culture that has charted our course during the generations of our numerical decline and spiritual decay is its Lutheran Wannabe-ism, or love for high-churchiness.
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Once, in the Church of God, we panted to see Christ's righteousness rule in the hearts of converted sinners. Now, it seems, we chagrin over the lack of observance of a sacrament/ordinance.
And, of course, you have to take Brandon at his word and accept the fact that leaders, or pastor/parish priests, are saying to him,
"Dernit, man, the people in the community just don't want to be baptized!"
If that's the case, theologically conservative Lutheran wannabe-ism has taken over the CGGC body in a way that I, residing here in this dark and distant valley, am not seeing.
So...and I understand that it will be off-the-blog...please give me some feedback:
Do you, do others, really evaluate the effectiveness of being missional by the degree to which new people participate in CGGC sacraments/ordinances?
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