I'm still struggling with a nasty case of plantar fasciitis. I work three 10 hour days every week, on my feet on a hard tile floor and our condo is built on a concrete slab.
So, a sore foot is a very unpleasant matter.
I decided to get a comfortable pair of shoes for work because everything I have that I've tried at work has my feet, especially the sore one, screaming by the end of the day.
As it turns out, and much to my surprise, the store I went to has a shoe department with a guy in it who impressed me as really knowing how to fit shoes.
He put me on a Brannock devise. You've all seen them and used them but probably don't know that they have a name. I learned the name from a trivia question.
Anyway, he measured me for shoe size and then measured my ARCH size.
I have extremely high arches.
He showed me, on the Brannock devise, that I'm a size 10 for a shoe but my arch measures at size 12. That explains why I have painful feet.
(This is actually the second time I've had plantar fasciitis.)
So, he suggested size 10 1/2 shoes with a size 12 arch support insole. With all my pain, I was an easy sale.
Actually, I was willing to pay $100 for something I think will work. And, the shoes will probably outlast me and that brand was marked down. So, even with the special insole, I paid less than $90.
Now, will it help?
Friday, May 25, 2018
Sunday, May 20, 2018
Two Thoughts about Lance's, MINISTRY IN A POST-CHRISTENDOM WORLD, eNews Article
1. I see some tension, if not conflict, between what Lance advocates in this article and what he praised a few weeks ago in his article on the death of Christendom.
In that first article, Lance envisioned the church as the church engaging the world as the world so that churches could impact their neighborhoods and communities to, among other things, change their trajectory.
In this article, Lance envisions individuals living as followers of Jesus in the world and making a difference.
Lance calls on the church to value, as an example, the ministry of those who teach in public schools in the way they value Sunday School teachers and to understand that the work of public school teachers is really ministry even if its value can't be acknowledged in the church "scorecard."
Lance highlights the value of ministry in the kingdom as opposed to ministry for the church.
He's actually radical, going so far as to say that kingdom ministry doesn't require a title or a credential (though I can't see Lance walking that talk).
Obviously, I agree with this second article. I commented on the blog with fairly harsh criticism of the first one.
2. I am not too self-conscious, nor am I ashamed to say, that years ago I was on the cutting edge, living out the vision that Lance describes...
...to the point that I abandoned paid church ministry to find employment in a setting in which I could function as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God.
I did it. DO it!
And, the congregation in which I participate was expelled by my Conference so, as it was explained to me, the Conference could be true to its polity.
No big deal.
The people in the congregation wouldn't have left on their own but they made no effort to retain their connection to the CGGC.
And, my way of living...right out of the Lance Finley handbook...wasn't altered for even a nanosecond.
But, Lance never supported me or us. Nor, did he defend me or us. Nor did he ever encourage me or us.
Based on my/our experience, I question Lance's commitment to the principles he touts in this second article.
Easy talk. As I learned, in the CGGC, rocky walk.
In that first article, Lance envisioned the church as the church engaging the world as the world so that churches could impact their neighborhoods and communities to, among other things, change their trajectory.
In this article, Lance envisions individuals living as followers of Jesus in the world and making a difference.
Lance calls on the church to value, as an example, the ministry of those who teach in public schools in the way they value Sunday School teachers and to understand that the work of public school teachers is really ministry even if its value can't be acknowledged in the church "scorecard."
Lance highlights the value of ministry in the kingdom as opposed to ministry for the church.
He's actually radical, going so far as to say that kingdom ministry doesn't require a title or a credential (though I can't see Lance walking that talk).
Obviously, I agree with this second article. I commented on the blog with fairly harsh criticism of the first one.
2. I am not too self-conscious, nor am I ashamed to say, that years ago I was on the cutting edge, living out the vision that Lance describes...
...to the point that I abandoned paid church ministry to find employment in a setting in which I could function as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God.
I did it. DO it!
And, the congregation in which I participate was expelled by my Conference so, as it was explained to me, the Conference could be true to its polity.
No big deal.
The people in the congregation wouldn't have left on their own but they made no effort to retain their connection to the CGGC.
And, my way of living...right out of the Lance Finley handbook...wasn't altered for even a nanosecond.
But, Lance never supported me or us. Nor, did he defend me or us. Nor did he ever encourage me or us.
Based on my/our experience, I question Lance's commitment to the principles he touts in this second article.
Easy talk. As I learned, in the CGGC, rocky walk.
The Eastern Regional Conference and Its College of Cardinals
I remember where Eastern Regional Conference delegates met to choose its Executive Director when Dr. Kevin Richardson was selected. I even remember the margin of victory in percentages.
And, being a geezer, I even remember being a delegate when the members of the Conference assembled in the, uh, sanctuary of the New Providence Church of God and selected Ed Rosenberry to be the successor to Dr. A. Gail Dunn. I also remember who the delegates chose between when Pastor Ed was elevated to be what then was called the Conference Minister.
------------
And, I remember the section of the Book of Acts, though the exact chapter doesn't come to mind, where the apostles appointed a Search Committee to choose the person whom the early church would designate as the Apostle to the Gentiles.
And, I recall that all those interested in the position submitted resumes and filled out questionnaires and that the Search Committee narrowed the field of candidates and ultimately selected a man whose name they submitted to the apostles for their approval.
And, I vaguely recall the text of the letter, written by the apostles to the churches and included in the Book of Acts, announcing the choice of Saul (AKA Paul) of Tarsus, of the Tribe of Benjamin, to the position, Director of Gentile Ministries. Though, I can't cite chapter and verse, I know it's in there.
----------------
As a member Region of the CGGC, the ERC commits itself to "establish churches on the New Testament plan" and holds the Bible as its "only rule of faith and practice."
So, we all know that Search Committees must be integral to the operation of the Kingdom of God in the New Testament.
And, we know that the current plan, as I understand it, to have the selection of the new ERC Executive Director lie in the authority of the Administrative Council...
...not in the hands of the Eldership...
...has to be modeled in the Word...
...because there is no hypocrisy in the CGGC.
In the ERC we scrupulously walk our talk.
So,...
When the General Conference in session creates a Mission Statement and when it sets forth not only a Doctrinal Statement but also a Statement of Faith declaring obedience to the authority of the Word, and especially the New Testament, the hierarchs of the ERC take the authority of the Word...
...and the power of our body's highest human authority, the Eldership, to heart!
And, our leaders submit...
...to the Word...
...and, to the wisdom of their brothers and sisters in the Eldership, the community of the called.
---------------
NOT
----------------
So, the ERC hierarchs are searching for their new Executive Director...
...through a process entirely divorced from what the Word teaches and demonstrates.
And, as a person of the Word, who honestly does buy into the New Testament plan idea and the Bible as our body's only rule of faith and practice, I'm appalled.
And, I'm convinced that the Lord of all authority and power and blessing will not bless these very human, hierarchical and institutional plans and schemes.
----------------
But, more than that, I want to make the point that, in the years since Ed and Kevin were selected to lead the Conference, the Conference has actually moved further than ever away from Word-rooted ways...
...and toward ways that have their roots in Roman Catholicism in the Middle Ages.
And, please observe the hypocrisy.
Since Kevin was selected, the CGGC has seriously hyped up its Bible talk.
It's in those years that we put John Winebrenner's "New Testament plan" language in a Mission Statement.
It's since then we freshened up We Believe and created that Statement of Faith and proclaimed the Bible as our ONLY...RULE...of faith and...
...PRACTICE.
----------------
Two thoughts and then I'm done:
1. The large number of cynics in the ERC...the people who either mumble in favor of every one of the hierarchs' schemes or remain silent, and then do nothing...see the radical Bible talk of recent years matched with the move toward an even more tradition-bound, Middle Ages walk...and they will be more convinced than ever that cynicism is their best, and only realistic, choice. They will, again, nod and do nothing. But, be more disgusted than ever.
2. Paul says, in Romans 14:23, "For everything that does not proceed from faith is sin."
Sin.
It's important to look at this from a spirtual point of view.
We're sinning.
This Bible talk matched with Middle Ages Roman Catholic, Ad-Council-as-College-of-Cardinals walk is exactly and precisely sin.
It's typical twenty-first century CGGC behavior.
And, it's sin.
The Lord of all authority and power and blessing doesn't bless sin.
He hasn't been blessing us.
He will not bless this.
We must repent.
And, being a geezer, I even remember being a delegate when the members of the Conference assembled in the, uh, sanctuary of the New Providence Church of God and selected Ed Rosenberry to be the successor to Dr. A. Gail Dunn. I also remember who the delegates chose between when Pastor Ed was elevated to be what then was called the Conference Minister.
------------
And, I remember the section of the Book of Acts, though the exact chapter doesn't come to mind, where the apostles appointed a Search Committee to choose the person whom the early church would designate as the Apostle to the Gentiles.
And, I recall that all those interested in the position submitted resumes and filled out questionnaires and that the Search Committee narrowed the field of candidates and ultimately selected a man whose name they submitted to the apostles for their approval.
And, I vaguely recall the text of the letter, written by the apostles to the churches and included in the Book of Acts, announcing the choice of Saul (AKA Paul) of Tarsus, of the Tribe of Benjamin, to the position, Director of Gentile Ministries. Though, I can't cite chapter and verse, I know it's in there.
----------------
As a member Region of the CGGC, the ERC commits itself to "establish churches on the New Testament plan" and holds the Bible as its "only rule of faith and practice."
So, we all know that Search Committees must be integral to the operation of the Kingdom of God in the New Testament.
And, we know that the current plan, as I understand it, to have the selection of the new ERC Executive Director lie in the authority of the Administrative Council...
...not in the hands of the Eldership...
...has to be modeled in the Word...
...because there is no hypocrisy in the CGGC.
In the ERC we scrupulously walk our talk.
So,...
When the General Conference in session creates a Mission Statement and when it sets forth not only a Doctrinal Statement but also a Statement of Faith declaring obedience to the authority of the Word, and especially the New Testament, the hierarchs of the ERC take the authority of the Word...
...and the power of our body's highest human authority, the Eldership, to heart!
And, our leaders submit...
...to the Word...
...and, to the wisdom of their brothers and sisters in the Eldership, the community of the called.
---------------
NOT
----------------
So, the ERC hierarchs are searching for their new Executive Director...
...through a process entirely divorced from what the Word teaches and demonstrates.
And, as a person of the Word, who honestly does buy into the New Testament plan idea and the Bible as our body's only rule of faith and practice, I'm appalled.
And, I'm convinced that the Lord of all authority and power and blessing will not bless these very human, hierarchical and institutional plans and schemes.
----------------
But, more than that, I want to make the point that, in the years since Ed and Kevin were selected to lead the Conference, the Conference has actually moved further than ever away from Word-rooted ways...
...and toward ways that have their roots in Roman Catholicism in the Middle Ages.
And, please observe the hypocrisy.
Since Kevin was selected, the CGGC has seriously hyped up its Bible talk.
It's in those years that we put John Winebrenner's "New Testament plan" language in a Mission Statement.
It's since then we freshened up We Believe and created that Statement of Faith and proclaimed the Bible as our ONLY...RULE...of faith and...
...PRACTICE.
----------------
Two thoughts and then I'm done:
1. The large number of cynics in the ERC...the people who either mumble in favor of every one of the hierarchs' schemes or remain silent, and then do nothing...see the radical Bible talk of recent years matched with the move toward an even more tradition-bound, Middle Ages walk...and they will be more convinced than ever that cynicism is their best, and only realistic, choice. They will, again, nod and do nothing. But, be more disgusted than ever.
2. Paul says, in Romans 14:23, "For everything that does not proceed from faith is sin."
Sin.
It's important to look at this from a spirtual point of view.
We're sinning.
This Bible talk matched with Middle Ages Roman Catholic, Ad-Council-as-College-of-Cardinals walk is exactly and precisely sin.
It's typical twenty-first century CGGC behavior.
And, it's sin.
The Lord of all authority and power and blessing doesn't bless sin.
He hasn't been blessing us.
He will not bless this.
We must repent.
Friday, May 18, 2018
Was John Winebrenner a Parish Priest?
I've blogged this before. But, I'm right. And, it's important to the future.
It's a matter of history and it's black and white, not a matter of interpretation.
----------------
I got the question this week, off-the-blog, "Was Winebrenner a parish priest? As you apply the term?"
The answer, clearly, is no.
Nearly 50 years ago now, Richard Kern published a study of the life of John Winebrenner.
Kern devoted a chapter to the conflict between Winebrenner and, especially, the Harrisburg German Reformed congregation, mediated by the German Reformed Synod, which led to Winebrenner's separation from the German Reformed church and, ultimately the formation of the Church of God.
The reasons for the conflict are apparent and well-documented by Dr. Kern:
The Harrisburg congregation was dissatisfied with Winebrenner because was not a healthy pastor. He was not doing the things a parish priest does. He was not functioning as a provider of religious products and services to be consumed by a passive laity.
Winebrenner was cavorting with lowly Methodists. He was traveling around the area preaching in various pulpits--even in camp meetings, behaving as an evangelist, calling unchurched people to be converted to Christ, and never, ever offering comforting and encouraging homilies to the crowd in Sunday morning worship service attendance at the church.
-----------------
John Winebrenner was many things but he, most certainly, was not a parish priest. He was never a healthy pastor.
More importantly, the way Winebrenner functioned was the prototype for how a minister in the Church of God operated in Winebrenner's generation...the era in which the Church of God was a growing movement. None of those men and women were healthy pastors. None were parish priests. Not one of them settled for merely providing religious products and services to a passive laity.
As important as that, and even more relevant to the current state of the CGGC, the parish priest, healthy pastor, leadership model, which is, for instance, at the core of the ERC's new New Strategic Plan, came into vogue gradually as the vision of the Church of God movement devolved but, and I've also said this many times before...
...it became dominant as a result of a shepherd revolution that took place 80 years ago and has produced nothing but numerical decline and spiritual decay...
...to the point that even the CGGC shepherd mafiosi are now desperate.
-----------------
So, no. Obviously.
John Winebrenner was not a parish priest, especially as I understand the term. He was not a pastor. He certainly was not the sort of leader current hierarchs think of as being a...healthy...pastor.
What we need to do is repent, and to be converted...from what we now believe in and have become...
...to what we once were, which the Lord of all authority and power and blessing, blessed.
It's a matter of history and it's black and white, not a matter of interpretation.
----------------
I got the question this week, off-the-blog, "Was Winebrenner a parish priest? As you apply the term?"
The answer, clearly, is no.
Nearly 50 years ago now, Richard Kern published a study of the life of John Winebrenner.
Kern devoted a chapter to the conflict between Winebrenner and, especially, the Harrisburg German Reformed congregation, mediated by the German Reformed Synod, which led to Winebrenner's separation from the German Reformed church and, ultimately the formation of the Church of God.
The reasons for the conflict are apparent and well-documented by Dr. Kern:
The Harrisburg congregation was dissatisfied with Winebrenner because was not a healthy pastor. He was not doing the things a parish priest does. He was not functioning as a provider of religious products and services to be consumed by a passive laity.
Winebrenner was cavorting with lowly Methodists. He was traveling around the area preaching in various pulpits--even in camp meetings, behaving as an evangelist, calling unchurched people to be converted to Christ, and never, ever offering comforting and encouraging homilies to the crowd in Sunday morning worship service attendance at the church.
-----------------
John Winebrenner was many things but he, most certainly, was not a parish priest. He was never a healthy pastor.
More importantly, the way Winebrenner functioned was the prototype for how a minister in the Church of God operated in Winebrenner's generation...the era in which the Church of God was a growing movement. None of those men and women were healthy pastors. None were parish priests. Not one of them settled for merely providing religious products and services to a passive laity.
As important as that, and even more relevant to the current state of the CGGC, the parish priest, healthy pastor, leadership model, which is, for instance, at the core of the ERC's new New Strategic Plan, came into vogue gradually as the vision of the Church of God movement devolved but, and I've also said this many times before...
...it became dominant as a result of a shepherd revolution that took place 80 years ago and has produced nothing but numerical decline and spiritual decay...
...to the point that even the CGGC shepherd mafiosi are now desperate.
-----------------
So, no. Obviously.
John Winebrenner was not a parish priest, especially as I understand the term. He was not a pastor. He certainly was not the sort of leader current hierarchs think of as being a...healthy...pastor.
What we need to do is repent, and to be converted...from what we now believe in and have become...
...to what we once were, which the Lord of all authority and power and blessing, blessed.
Thursday, May 17, 2018
Open Heart Surgery
About 25 years ago, we had a very good family doctor who, I suspect, always regretted he didn't specialize in cardiology. He was obsessed with the heart and, in every initial exam, he did an EKG which he studied carefully in the patient's presence.
He noticed that something was not right with Evie's heart.
After testing, she was diagnosed as having a bicuspid aortic valve.
In a normal heart, the aortic valve has three "leaflets." In Evie's heart, two of those are fused, her heart doesn't function efficiently and a number of complications develop.
Since she was diagnosed, we've known that she'd eventually need to have surgery.
The condition of the valve has been declining in recent years in a way that was fairly normal for someone of her age.
However, two years ago, there were some red flags. One was the formation of an aneurysm as a result of the malfunction of the valve. This concerned me, apparently, more than it did her.
About two months ago, she had her regularly scheduled echocardiogram and there were more concerns.
Last week was her follow-up to that test and I accompanied her and met her new cardiologist...who looked like a college-age cheerleader. (Yikes! I'm getting old.)
The cardiologist talked with Evie about symptoms she's been experiencing and immediately suggested another echo, the next day if possible, which the doctor would supervise herself.
All the technical stuff aside, the doctor determined that, due to her rapidly deteriorating condition, Evie needs to have open heart surgery to have the valve replaced.
This is a disappointment for a number of reasons. One is that open heart surgery is very traumatic and a new procedure is being developed which would not require open heart surgery to replace this valve but we're not going to be able to wait.
----------------
I know that the Word says, "Do not be anxious in anything but, in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God that transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
Yet, I'm struggling.
We're still emotionally raw from dad's ordeal with dementia.
We're eight years past the cancer trauma and God was faithful in many wonderful ways during that entire walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
But, still, in some way, this feels different.
And, I suspect that Evie's struggling more this time around, too.
----------------
Evie has more testing on the 29th. She's been referred to a very highly respected doctor in Philadelphia who specializes in aortic valve replacements but who has a waiting list.
We're doing our best a day at a time.
He noticed that something was not right with Evie's heart.
After testing, she was diagnosed as having a bicuspid aortic valve.
In a normal heart, the aortic valve has three "leaflets." In Evie's heart, two of those are fused, her heart doesn't function efficiently and a number of complications develop.
Since she was diagnosed, we've known that she'd eventually need to have surgery.
The condition of the valve has been declining in recent years in a way that was fairly normal for someone of her age.
However, two years ago, there were some red flags. One was the formation of an aneurysm as a result of the malfunction of the valve. This concerned me, apparently, more than it did her.
About two months ago, she had her regularly scheduled echocardiogram and there were more concerns.
Last week was her follow-up to that test and I accompanied her and met her new cardiologist...who looked like a college-age cheerleader. (Yikes! I'm getting old.)
The cardiologist talked with Evie about symptoms she's been experiencing and immediately suggested another echo, the next day if possible, which the doctor would supervise herself.
All the technical stuff aside, the doctor determined that, due to her rapidly deteriorating condition, Evie needs to have open heart surgery to have the valve replaced.
This is a disappointment for a number of reasons. One is that open heart surgery is very traumatic and a new procedure is being developed which would not require open heart surgery to replace this valve but we're not going to be able to wait.
----------------
I know that the Word says, "Do not be anxious in anything but, in everything, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God that transcends all understanding will guard your hearts and minds in Christ Jesus."
Yet, I'm struggling.
We're still emotionally raw from dad's ordeal with dementia.
We're eight years past the cancer trauma and God was faithful in many wonderful ways during that entire walk through the valley of the shadow of death.
But, still, in some way, this feels different.
And, I suspect that Evie's struggling more this time around, too.
----------------
Evie has more testing on the 29th. She's been referred to a very highly respected doctor in Philadelphia who specializes in aortic valve replacements but who has a waiting list.
We're doing our best a day at a time.
Sunday, May 13, 2018
Leadership in the Church: Going Biblical
Two realities:
1. Leading and leadership development are major emphases these days among people atop the hierarchies of the American institutional church.
2. I have been critical of all of this leadership stuff, which I see as a fad, perhaps to the point of obsession. (But, prophets are like that.)
I'm a member of a, well, denomination, which has, fairly recently, created a first-time-ever Statement of Faith. It also "refined" its Doctrinal Statement, which it entitles, We Believe.
In both documents, my brothers and sisters declared that the Bible is, quoting the new Statement of Faith, "our only rule of faith and practice."
I may be in error here, but in my group, I'm not aware that the Bible ever has been cited as a source of authority for our hierarchs thinking of themselves as leaders nor for their efforts to develop other leaders.
----------------
I just read 1 Corinthians 12.
It seems to me that, in that discourse, Paul smashes the leadership/leadership development fad to smithereens.
In that chapter, as I read it, Paul is addressing the problem, created by the belief of some in Corinth that, because of their spiritual gifting, they are superior to others.
Paul answers their claim by comparing the church to a body in which each member is equally dependent on all of the other members.
On this blog, and elsewhere, I have repeated, ad nausem, my contention that Jesus came announcing the coming of the Kingdom of God...
...and that, in a kingdom, the only leader is the King.
So, in Paul's description of the church as a body of interdependent members, where is the leadership? Who is the head of the body?
Certainly, no person is head. There is only one head on a body and, in the Body of Christ, if you're human, the head ain't you.
The head of the church is not a human being.
Neither is the king of the Kingdom of God.
-----------------
I see nothing in the Bible, which is my authority, my only rule of faith and practice, to justify the human leadership/leadership development fad.
----------------
However,...
I confess here and now that what I've stated is nothing more than my, sincere, bible-oriented, opinion.
My biggest problem with the leadership gang in my denomination is that, as far as I can tell, they all defy our claim to be people of the Word.
They, in reality, are ones who are insubordinate...
...insubordinate to the authority of the Bible.
Would someone please at least attempt to justify the leadership thing from the Word?!??!!!!
1. Leading and leadership development are major emphases these days among people atop the hierarchies of the American institutional church.
2. I have been critical of all of this leadership stuff, which I see as a fad, perhaps to the point of obsession. (But, prophets are like that.)
I'm a member of a, well, denomination, which has, fairly recently, created a first-time-ever Statement of Faith. It also "refined" its Doctrinal Statement, which it entitles, We Believe.
In both documents, my brothers and sisters declared that the Bible is, quoting the new Statement of Faith, "our only rule of faith and practice."
I may be in error here, but in my group, I'm not aware that the Bible ever has been cited as a source of authority for our hierarchs thinking of themselves as leaders nor for their efforts to develop other leaders.
----------------
I just read 1 Corinthians 12.
It seems to me that, in that discourse, Paul smashes the leadership/leadership development fad to smithereens.
In that chapter, as I read it, Paul is addressing the problem, created by the belief of some in Corinth that, because of their spiritual gifting, they are superior to others.
Paul answers their claim by comparing the church to a body in which each member is equally dependent on all of the other members.
On this blog, and elsewhere, I have repeated, ad nausem, my contention that Jesus came announcing the coming of the Kingdom of God...
...and that, in a kingdom, the only leader is the King.
So, in Paul's description of the church as a body of interdependent members, where is the leadership? Who is the head of the body?
Certainly, no person is head. There is only one head on a body and, in the Body of Christ, if you're human, the head ain't you.
The head of the church is not a human being.
Neither is the king of the Kingdom of God.
-----------------
I see nothing in the Bible, which is my authority, my only rule of faith and practice, to justify the human leadership/leadership development fad.
----------------
However,...
I confess here and now that what I've stated is nothing more than my, sincere, bible-oriented, opinion.
My biggest problem with the leadership gang in my denomination is that, as far as I can tell, they all defy our claim to be people of the Word.
They, in reality, are ones who are insubordinate...
...insubordinate to the authority of the Bible.
Would someone please at least attempt to justify the leadership thing from the Word?!??!!!!
Thursday, May 10, 2018
Multiple Off-the-Blog Dialogues on Leadership, etc.
I'm not blogging a lot these days but I am busy.
I've got a few ongoing chats running...two that are very similar to each other...on leadership and my rejection of the concept as it applies to people of the Kingdom that Jesus announced.
I find the conversations edifying but I don't think I've convinced anyone.
----------------
And, I know that very few people read the CGGC eNews blog. So, for those who don't know, I replied to Lance's latest. The "administrator" "published" my comment...
...and, again, no one responded.
Lance commented on the death of Christendom and suggested that that death is a good thing.
He also defined his vision for the future.
My reply was, in my opinion, rather articulate by the standard of the things I write.
It described something I've been thinking since I was still in MLI. Lance's vision for the future comes right out of the MLI handbook.
And, I wrote on the blog that that vision is really little more than Christendom 2.0. Lance sees churches engaging their neighborhoods and communities to change the trajectory of their neighborhoods and communities in the future.
I see nothing even close to that in the New Testament.
But, I do see the organized church engaging the world as the essence of the original version of Christendom.
I described my hope that the people of the Kingdom would release apostles, prophets and evangelists to live out and proclaim the gospel in the world with fire and without fear...
...just as the Church of God did in its movement days.
I'm certain that I'm correct on this one.
What I did not say on that blog is that I see what Lance envisions as a function of the sin of Ecclesiolatry...the sin of making everything about the church...and not the Lord of the church.
Oh, how we need to think Jesus and Kingdom!
Oh, how we need to back off on our obsession with the organized and institutionalized church.
I've got a few ongoing chats running...two that are very similar to each other...on leadership and my rejection of the concept as it applies to people of the Kingdom that Jesus announced.
I find the conversations edifying but I don't think I've convinced anyone.
----------------
And, I know that very few people read the CGGC eNews blog. So, for those who don't know, I replied to Lance's latest. The "administrator" "published" my comment...
...and, again, no one responded.
Lance commented on the death of Christendom and suggested that that death is a good thing.
He also defined his vision for the future.
My reply was, in my opinion, rather articulate by the standard of the things I write.
It described something I've been thinking since I was still in MLI. Lance's vision for the future comes right out of the MLI handbook.
And, I wrote on the blog that that vision is really little more than Christendom 2.0. Lance sees churches engaging their neighborhoods and communities to change the trajectory of their neighborhoods and communities in the future.
I see nothing even close to that in the New Testament.
But, I do see the organized church engaging the world as the essence of the original version of Christendom.
I described my hope that the people of the Kingdom would release apostles, prophets and evangelists to live out and proclaim the gospel in the world with fire and without fear...
...just as the Church of God did in its movement days.
I'm certain that I'm correct on this one.
What I did not say on that blog is that I see what Lance envisions as a function of the sin of Ecclesiolatry...the sin of making everything about the church...and not the Lord of the church.
Oh, how we need to think Jesus and Kingdom!
Oh, how we need to back off on our obsession with the organized and institutionalized church.
Plantar Fasciitis
I developed it in my left foot about a month ago.
It's rather painful and working at a job in which I'm on my feet on a hard floor for as much as 10 hours a day, it's not a lot of fun.
My doctor tells me that there's a little I can do about it but not much and that I should be clear of it in about six months.
Getting old's not a fun process.
It's rather painful and working at a job in which I'm on my feet on a hard floor for as much as 10 hours a day, it's not a lot of fun.
My doctor tells me that there's a little I can do about it but not much and that I should be clear of it in about six months.
Getting old's not a fun process.
Thursday, May 3, 2018
The Nail That sticks up gets Hammered Down
I'm on vacation.
Evie and Laddie and I are staying in a remote and fairly rustic cabin near Cook Forest State Park in Pennsylvania.
We take these vacations to rest and restore.
I brought five best seller-ish novels along. A Harlan Coben and a Michael Connelly, both definitely best sellers and a Lisa Scottoline and a Phillip Margolin, both of whom I usually enjoy, but are of the ish level and the newest Robert B. Parker, Jesse Stone series novel being continued by other authors since Parker died eight years ago.
I polished off Coben's, Don't Let Go, first. Yesterday, I ploughed through Connelly's, The Late Show.
The Connelly intoduces a new character, Renee Ballard, a highly motivated, idealistic LAPD detective who is a bit of a renegade, who sometimes goes too far in the pursuit of justice to please her superiors and, because she disregards department politics, has already been assigned to a unit from which career advancement will be virtually impossible.
In the novel, one of her fellow officers quoted this Japanese, uh, proverb? to her:
The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.
The point being that in a conformist society, such as the highly politicized department for which she works, anyone, like Ballard, who, even in a good cause, fails to fall in line, is singled out and treated harshly and strenuously resisted and, if that person doesn't conform, destroyed.
In one of the several off-the-blog chats I'm in at the moment, I've mentioned the freedom that followers of Jesus have as subjects of the Kingdom of God.
Paul notes to the Galatians that they were called to freedom and instructs them to use their freedom, literally, to slave one another...the word slave is used as a verb.
In my opinion, one of the most destructive failings of institutional Christianity is that it defies the gospel and the work of the Spirit to create a conformist society, one which, to put it mildly, enslaves people and certainly, doesn't empower them to walk by the Spirit and to live out their freedom in Christ.
In Christ, we are called to freedom, not institutional conformity.
More often than not, when the powers that be atop the institutional hierarchy spot a nail that is sticking up, they make certain that it gets hammered.
And, repeating the observation I make so often: The Lord of all authority and power and blessing is not blessing. We decline and decay.
We must repent.
One way that today's church must do that is to confess the sin of enforcing conformity and imposing institutional slavery on the people of the church and turn from those wicked ways and to free people, to empower them to be who the Lord gifts them to be as people living in the Spirit and subjects of the Kingdom.
Evie and Laddie and I are staying in a remote and fairly rustic cabin near Cook Forest State Park in Pennsylvania.
We take these vacations to rest and restore.
I brought five best seller-ish novels along. A Harlan Coben and a Michael Connelly, both definitely best sellers and a Lisa Scottoline and a Phillip Margolin, both of whom I usually enjoy, but are of the ish level and the newest Robert B. Parker, Jesse Stone series novel being continued by other authors since Parker died eight years ago.
I polished off Coben's, Don't Let Go, first. Yesterday, I ploughed through Connelly's, The Late Show.
The Connelly intoduces a new character, Renee Ballard, a highly motivated, idealistic LAPD detective who is a bit of a renegade, who sometimes goes too far in the pursuit of justice to please her superiors and, because she disregards department politics, has already been assigned to a unit from which career advancement will be virtually impossible.
In the novel, one of her fellow officers quoted this Japanese, uh, proverb? to her:
The nail that sticks up gets hammered down.
The point being that in a conformist society, such as the highly politicized department for which she works, anyone, like Ballard, who, even in a good cause, fails to fall in line, is singled out and treated harshly and strenuously resisted and, if that person doesn't conform, destroyed.
In one of the several off-the-blog chats I'm in at the moment, I've mentioned the freedom that followers of Jesus have as subjects of the Kingdom of God.
Paul notes to the Galatians that they were called to freedom and instructs them to use their freedom, literally, to slave one another...the word slave is used as a verb.
In my opinion, one of the most destructive failings of institutional Christianity is that it defies the gospel and the work of the Spirit to create a conformist society, one which, to put it mildly, enslaves people and certainly, doesn't empower them to walk by the Spirit and to live out their freedom in Christ.
In Christ, we are called to freedom, not institutional conformity.
More often than not, when the powers that be atop the institutional hierarchy spot a nail that is sticking up, they make certain that it gets hammered.
And, repeating the observation I make so often: The Lord of all authority and power and blessing is not blessing. We decline and decay.
We must repent.
One way that today's church must do that is to confess the sin of enforcing conformity and imposing institutional slavery on the people of the church and turn from those wicked ways and to free people, to empower them to be who the Lord gifts them to be as people living in the Spirit and subjects of the Kingdom.
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
The CHURCH ADVOCATE Article on Apostles
The CHURCH ADVOCATE is devoting articles to APEST in each of its issues this year. In addition, the CGGC eNews plans to carry an article on APEST each month in 2018. Apparently, all of these articles will be written by CGGC Director of Transformational Ministries, Brandon Kelly.
This month's CA APEST article focuses on apostles.
Prophetically, the CA article made me sad. The article in the eNews made me angry.
A characteristic of CGGC thinking about everything, but particularly about APEST, is that it is church, not really Kingdom, focused.
Within that context, the mountaintoppers seem to know, in their hearts, that this is a Kingdom issue and they seem really to want to focus on Kingdom matters but, in the end, they just can't get themselves to do that.
So, typically, this article on apostles begins with references to the Kingdom but, in the end, it focuses on what to do about the problems connected to having apostles IN YOUR LOCAL CHURCH.
Reading the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, I can't see how this focus could be more off-base.
And, Brandon's vision seems to be more about tweaking declining and decaying CGGC parish priest dominated religion than living out the "New Testament plan" which is demanded by the CGGC Mission Statement.
----------------
Apostles, in the New Testament, were, to use the term employed by the CGGC Shepherd Mafia in their credentialing document, translocal. Apostles' ministries function on the level of the Kingdom. Their involvement with a local gathering of disciples, in the New Testament, came from above and beyond the local gathering.
As I've said here and on the eNews blog, this is how the Church of God functioned in its early days when it experienced God's blessing and grew rapidly.
From a New Testament plan perspective, the importance of apostles to kingdom ministry in the CGGC today will be realized when apostles are empowered, by people like Brandon, to operate above and beyond the local church...
...AND ABOVE AND BEYOND THE AUTHORITY OF INSTITUTIONAL HIERARCHS LIKE BRANDON HIMSELF...AND LIKE LANCE AND LOCAL CONFERENCE HIERARCHS.
So, yeah.
As the article suggests,...
...Someone in your local church who always has ideas for new ministries and who chafes against your church's status quo may have a spark of apostolic calling,...
... but the way to empower, to DISCIPLE, those people is not,...
...as the article suggests,...
...to give budding apostles freedom to be themselves within your local fiefdom. It's to connect them to a broader community of apostles beyond your local church...
...in the same way apostles functioned in the Book of the Acts OF THE APOSTLES in the Word.
For that broader community of apostles to exist in the CGGC world, our institutional hierarchs are going to have to be willing to decrease so that ministry in the Spirit can increase.
They are going to have step back to empower apostolic ministry. They are going to have to practice, in their own context, what they're telling people in our churches to do.
They are going to have to live what they preach.
This is what, for most of the past generation, CGGC hierarchs have not done.
Our churches will not practice what the hierarchs preach...
...until the hierarchs walk their own talk.
Brandon and the CGGC staff in Findlay are not living APEST.
They are foolish to think we will embrace apostles when they aren't embracing apostles in their world.
We, all of us, must repent.
This month's CA APEST article focuses on apostles.
Prophetically, the CA article made me sad. The article in the eNews made me angry.
A characteristic of CGGC thinking about everything, but particularly about APEST, is that it is church, not really Kingdom, focused.
Within that context, the mountaintoppers seem to know, in their hearts, that this is a Kingdom issue and they seem really to want to focus on Kingdom matters but, in the end, they just can't get themselves to do that.
So, typically, this article on apostles begins with references to the Kingdom but, in the end, it focuses on what to do about the problems connected to having apostles IN YOUR LOCAL CHURCH.
Reading the Gospels and the rest of the New Testament, I can't see how this focus could be more off-base.
And, Brandon's vision seems to be more about tweaking declining and decaying CGGC parish priest dominated religion than living out the "New Testament plan" which is demanded by the CGGC Mission Statement.
----------------
Apostles, in the New Testament, were, to use the term employed by the CGGC Shepherd Mafia in their credentialing document, translocal. Apostles' ministries function on the level of the Kingdom. Their involvement with a local gathering of disciples, in the New Testament, came from above and beyond the local gathering.
As I've said here and on the eNews blog, this is how the Church of God functioned in its early days when it experienced God's blessing and grew rapidly.
From a New Testament plan perspective, the importance of apostles to kingdom ministry in the CGGC today will be realized when apostles are empowered, by people like Brandon, to operate above and beyond the local church...
...AND ABOVE AND BEYOND THE AUTHORITY OF INSTITUTIONAL HIERARCHS LIKE BRANDON HIMSELF...AND LIKE LANCE AND LOCAL CONFERENCE HIERARCHS.
So, yeah.
As the article suggests,...
...Someone in your local church who always has ideas for new ministries and who chafes against your church's status quo may have a spark of apostolic calling,...
... but the way to empower, to DISCIPLE, those people is not,...
...as the article suggests,...
...to give budding apostles freedom to be themselves within your local fiefdom. It's to connect them to a broader community of apostles beyond your local church...
...in the same way apostles functioned in the Book of the Acts OF THE APOSTLES in the Word.
For that broader community of apostles to exist in the CGGC world, our institutional hierarchs are going to have to be willing to decrease so that ministry in the Spirit can increase.
They are going to have step back to empower apostolic ministry. They are going to have to practice, in their own context, what they're telling people in our churches to do.
They are going to have to live what they preach.
This is what, for most of the past generation, CGGC hierarchs have not done.
Our churches will not practice what the hierarchs preach...
...until the hierarchs walk their own talk.
Brandon and the CGGC staff in Findlay are not living APEST.
They are foolish to think we will embrace apostles when they aren't embracing apostles in their world.
We, all of us, must repent.
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