The fancy word is dissonance.
Inconsistency or conflict between what one believes, or claims to believe, and what one actually does.
No walking of the talk.
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One of my Characteristics of the CGGC Brand is, To Talk is to Walk-ism.
In the previous decade, that characteristic pointed to our leaders' ability to speak boldly and radically, easily and without shame,...
...then to follow after fads and to develop tepid, tradition-bound programs.
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Today, under different leadership, that, well, hypocritical, type of Talk-ism has disappeared.
In the recent effort of General Conference leaders to promote APEST ministry, there is a powerful and very subtle form of Talk-ism that,....
...I'm prophetically certain, will lead to failure.
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If you haven't been following, Brandon Kelly, CGGC Director of Transformational Ministries, is doing a year-long series on APEST in BOTH The CHURCH ADVOCATE and the CGGC eNews serving as a journey of discovery, intended to help the people of the CGGC body understand the five APEST, uh, "leadership" roles.
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If you know this blog at all, you know that I'm all about APEST.
Years ago, I gave up trying to jam my gifts and calling into the pastor-as-parish-priest way of being a leader of the church...
... in order to live in the Spirit as an APEST prophet seeking, not to lead anyone, but to serve the Lord of the Kingdom and my brothers and sisters who are fellow subjects of the Kingdom.
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I support Brandon, and the others on the Findlay mountaintop, in their desire to advance APEST.
Yet, how they're doing it that amounts to Talk-ism.
It's how they're doing it that will absolutely doom what they're doing to failure.
I see many problems. Here are only four:
1. Our current APEST push is yet another of many delayed CGGC jumpings on bandwagons...of our denominational /conference leaders going whole hog over a churchly fad that was in vogue a decade, or more, earlier.
The truth is that there were informed and passionate calls for doing APEST on Brian Miller's blog...MORE THAN A DECADE AGO.
Lance, as some will remember, was peripherally engaged in that conversation.
Isn't it reasonable to ask: "If APEST wasn't worth doing ten years ago, why's it the bee's knees now?
2. Brandon (and the others with him on the Findlay leadership team) are promoting APEST from their office complex, from above the CGGC community, as denominational hierarchs.
They are not doing it in community with the CGGC body.
Brandon's writing articles on APEST in denominational publications.
3. Precisely to the point, Brandon (and the others on the Findlay leadership team) are not doing APEST.
They are actually only talking APEST. They want us to do it, but aren't doing it themselves.
4. Therefore, and very simply, following what Findlay leadership is actually doing with APEST would amount to more talking APEST, but no action.
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I've been writing this post during the time that many of you call Holy Week.
Here's a crucial truth of the Christian faith:
We believe in Jesus because of what He DID, far more than because of what He said.
The gospel:
Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures.
He was buried.
He was raised on the third day.
He appeared...
Is about what Jesus DID.
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In the CGGC, we remember John Winebrenner, and the other founders of our movement, because of what THEY did.
Winebrenner, and others, wrote books and, from time to time, you can pick one of them up in a rare book store...
...but what we know today, what matters to us now, is what these men and women did...
...nearly all of what they wrote and said is long forgotten.
What we follow today, what we emulate, is their action.
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One reason that the CGGC today is decaying spiritually and declining numerically is that our leaders today think of leadership in terms of their words, either written or spoken.
Jesus didn't take an office in Jerusalem and create a magazine and send out newsletters.
Everything Jesus taught He did before and after He spoke it.
It was the same with the leaders of our movement. They were turning their world upside down long before they put pen to paper.
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Brandon, Lance,
If you want us to do APEST, do it yourself in the General Conference office for, say, a year.
Then, come to us and tell us about it.
Tell us how the Lord blessed you. Invite us to join you on the journey. Ask us to do what you already are doing.
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Jesus is known, first and foremost, by what He did.
We remember the men and women who started our movement by what they did. Most of what they wrote and said is long forgotten.
But, we know your commitment to APEST only by your words...because you're not doing APEST yourselves.
You don't seem to believe in it enough to do it among yourselves.
We know you for your dissonance--for saying one thing and for doing something else. For talking without walking.
And, at the very best, we will follow your lead. We will talk, but not do, APEST.
Most CGGCers, though, will, simply, roll their eyes and practice good, old-fashioned, CGGC cynicism.
And, we all accept that as normal behavior. Woe is we.
We, all of us, must repent.
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