Lance wrote an eNews article six weeks ago, entitled, What do you Seek?
The article appeared on August 24, the day I rushed Evie to the ER on the day after she returned home from heart surgery.
That was a stressful day and it began a new chapter in her struggle against heart disease...more about that at some point in the future, I'm sure.
From the first reading of Lance's article, I was struck by its poignancy and power and since then I've been determined to comment on it.
Please go into the eNews archives and find it and read it.
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In the article, Lance quotes Luke 19:10 which says that Jesus came to seek and to save the lost. Lance points out that Jesus was constantly in the presence of "people who had been told that they were beyond the reach of God."
Then he asks what about us? You? Me? He asks, "When's the last time you went looking, searching for someone who was lost?"
In this powerful article, Lance confesses, "My natural inclination is to seek comfort, safety and security."
So, no. Lance doesn't seek the lost.
In this moment of unusual honesty and transparency from a leader of our declining and decaying body, Lance compares himself to Jesus and admits personal failure.
Lance's honest confession is, indeed, poignant.
To this day, I continue to be stunned by the article and its power.
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I love Lance.
I knew him when he was a seminary student, a ministerial greenhorn.
I've seen him in his youth, in his naivete. I encountered his heart when it was still forming.
I believe I know what's underneath today's man of the mountaintop and what he's become after decades of involvement in the dysfunctioning CGGC institution.
I know him, today, to be a man who, as he confesses in his article, doesn't follow Jesus...who doesn't seek the lost...
But, whose heart is torn over that truth...
Who truly wants to follow another path than the one he's walking.
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But, here's the thing.
There was a time when our brother made the choice not to seek the lost and, instead, to seek something else in their place.
Lance chose to seek an important institutional job in which he'd sit in a corner office, in which he'd be located on the outskirts of a nice sized city, with oodles of lost people.
Lance chose to seek ex officio membership in numerous institutional councils and commissions and conferences which meet in the headquarters building and other councils and commissions and conferences scattered across the country, well, across the world, really.
When Lance made that choice, he was, at the same time, deciding to choose to be separated from the lost of his city, who'd need to get past his office staff if they even wanted to meet him.
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Yet, I'm confident that I know Lance's heart.
I'm convinced that Lance knows that he shouldn't be anchored to that corner office desk and that he should be in the world seeking the lost, following Jesus' way and teaching.
Torn.
I think that's the best word to describe the heart of the man who wrote that poignant and powerful eNews article.
I truly believe that his heart is torn.
And, I'll say this:
The root of this very real problem, this problem that, truly, is driving our denominational demise, is our dysfunctioning value system which, itself, is entirely disconnected from the way and teaching of Jesus...
A value system that created the CGGC institution which Lance loves and serves...
And which Lance chose to serve first, before he serves and follows Jesus.
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Jesus never attended a council meeting, nor a conference nor did He ever meet with a commission.
Jesus didn't create an institution.
He didn't sit in a corner office.
Jesus lived love...and grace...and mercy...in the world.
Among the lost. Among the least.
And, He defined greatness, not in terms of leadership authority or position, but in being a slave to all.
Our broken and dysfunctioning system tells its best and brightest, people like Lance...
...to seek that corner office with its staff and all the meetings and the councils and commissions and conferences...
But, Jesus would have our best and our brightest go into the world, not to work from offices in headquarters buildings.
Jesus would have our best and our brightest follow the ways of the Kingdom, not lead the institution of the church.
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I know that there was a time that Lance gave his heart to Jesus.
But, more recently and to this day, as can be seen in the way he invests his time, Lance gave his LIFE to the institutional church.
As did many others among our best and brightest.
And, we decline and decay...
And, the Lord of all authority and power and blessing isn't blessing.
We need to define greatness in the CGGC by greatness in the Kingdom, not by position and authority in our institutional church.
We must repent.
Go, Lance. Go. Seek
I'm not disagreeing with this post in general, but to be fair... I think Lance said his "natural" inclination is to not seek the lost - which I would guess is the way most if not all people are. I don't see that he ever said he DOES NOT seek them at all. I think that's a big difference, and somewhat falsely characterizes Lance. Just my two cents.
ReplyDeleteDan,
ReplyDeleteThanks for the comment. I received a similar comment off-the-blog.
Point taken.
However, Lance describes today's church as requiring the lost to seek us. And, while he clearly laments that reality, he is, today, the ultimate CGGC churchman. He's the CGGC E. D. and, as such, is empowered by the institution to seek what is comfortable to him.
It would be profoundly counter-culture for Lance to be out among the least of these with all of the institutional obligations he has.
If he was doing that, I suspect it would raise eyebrows among the many of our people who truly believe in the institution. I know of no reason to believe that he, in any way, bucks the system.
As I said though, I believe that I know Lance's heart. While his natural inclination is to seek comfort, I'm certain he, nevertheless, wants to be out there among the lost.
However, being institutionalized as we are, we urge our best and brightest to seek the title and the corner office.
And, Lance's name plate is in the door of that office. His name's not there by accident. He chose to "seek" that.
He could be working at the Y, meeting lost people every day, through a different life choice.
In our movement days, that was not the case. And, in those days, Church of God values empowered men and women like Lance to seek the lost, not institutional position.
For me, as is often the case, this is about two things:
1. Our dysfunctioning, Jesus-less, system, and,
2. What a person, any person, actually does.
Jesus said, "Let your light so shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
Peter, who heard that, and eventually bought into it, said, "Live such good lives among the pagans that, though they accuse you of doing wrong, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day he visits us." (1 P. 2:12)
I was touched by Lance's article because, I think, it reveals an earnest struggle between the life Lance believes in and the life he has.
And, my heart goes put to him.