Ed Rosenberry and the CGGC First National Bank

Gang,

A few years ago, in calmer days, I told Ed Rosenberry that I read what he writes as carefully as I read the writings of Isaiah and Jeremiah, of those of Peter, Paul and John and of my greatest heroes of the history of the Christian movement.

He replied by saying, "I wish you wouldn't."

In the last two months Ed has written items in his CGGC eNews that absolutely infuriate me as he details the brazen and light-hearted manor in which he defies the highest CGGC written authorities: The CGGC Mission Statement, We Believe and the 2013 CGGC Statement of Faith, all of which he had a significant hand in framing.

His January 17, 2014 eNews angered me so intensely that I couldn't read it through from beginning to end.  I had to stop reading and wait two days before I could be calm enough to start over and get from the beginning  to the end of it.  Even now, my heart is pounding.

Here's a summary of his words:

Tuesday this week Linda and I participated in the Global Leadership Summit gathering at Winebrenner Seminary.  The main event happened last August. . .but since then the Seminary has been hosting a quarterly luncheon for participants in the area to focus upon various aspects of leadership culture. . ..

Later on in the article, what Ed says begins to border on outright defiance of the CGGC written authorities to which he, as the Executive Director of the CGGC General Eldership, must submit.  He says (with my emphasis),

At the luncheon on Tuesday when the panel was asked as leaders how to implement change in a pre-existing institution like the Church, the University, or business they offered some key insights  It boiled down to genuinely caring for people (listening) and patiently presenting the need and the benefit of the proposed changes. . ..

That Ed would so enthusiastically accept the contention that the church is an institution at all indicates that what Ed believes rejects the Mission Statement, We Believe and the 2013 CGGC Statement of Faith. 

At least as disturbing to me is his (very shepherdy) assertion that implementing change in the church boils down to "caring for people."  This is theologically corrupt.  According to Jesus, everything among those who follow Him "boils down to," as Jesus says it, doing "the will of my Father who is in heaven." (Mt. 7:21)

Ed's is dangerous theology at the most destructive level.  It is theology that, according to Jesus can result in people hearing Him confess, "I never knew you.  Away from me you evildoers." (Mt. 7:23)

Most importantly, and most offensively, is the way Ed begins his concluding paragraph (again the emphasis is mine):

I cite these few observations to highlight the merits of the whole. Linda and I sat at a table of bankers and it was quite interesting to learn that the leadership challenges in banking are not that much different than those in the Church.

I have no comment on this, only two questions:

1. Can the people of the CGGC think carefully about that remark based on what Jesus teaches regarding what it means to live in community as His disciples? 
2. Can anyone (with the apparent exception of Ed) imagine the Book of Acts being the story of the founding of a bank? 

Human Beings are Fascinated by and Drawn to Repentance

It is tragic that the verb repent and the noun repentance are absent from the teaching, preaching, discipling and general conversation of the Western church in the twenty first century, despite the fact that that verb and that noun were constantly on the lips of the people of the New Testament.

The unwillingness of Western churchers to speak of repentance and to call people to repentance is tragic, particularly in light of the fact that human beings are innately aware of the need for repentance, and are attracted to stories of human repentance.

Repentance is, and always has been, a popular theme entertainment media.  As humans, we acknowledge that repentance must be an important part of becoming who we can be.

Below are examples of repentance in arts and media in recent centuries:

One of my favorite secular songs is an early Eagles song and it's one of my favorites because it is a call to repentance.  The song is Desperado:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kCdjvTTnzDU

"Desperado, why don't you come to your senses... 

...Now it seems to me, some fine things
Have been laid upon your table
But you only want the ones
That you can't get...
And freedom, ohh freedom. 

Well that's just some people talking

Your prison is walking through this world all alone... 

Desperado, Why don't you come to your senses?
come down from your fences, open the gate
It may be rainin', but there's a rainbow above you
You better let somebody loooooooooove you...ohhh..
before it's too..oooo.. late."

As the decades-long popularity of this song makes clear, human beings understand that it is a normal human need that we must "come to (our) senses" and "open the gate."  We must have that attitude of heart that leads us to change the way we live, "before it's too...ooo...ooooooo late."

This is repentance.  This is what Jesus and the apostles--all New Testament voices--call for.

The call to repentance is highlighted in all popular entertainment, not only in popular music.

One of the traditions many people embrace during the Christmas season is to read or to watch one or more TV or movie versions of Charles Dickens' most familiar story, A Christmas Carol.  Who can fail to recognize that Dickens describes how what Paul calls 'godly sorrow' resulted in the repentance of one of the best know characters in English literature: Ebenezer Scrooge?

My favorite childhood movie, Mary Poppins, is the story of Mary, an apostle of repentance, leading a whole family: George, Winifred and Jane and Michael Banks, to see their error--their dysfunction--and to seek to live a new way in being a family.  In the film, Mary works to accomplish what John, Jesus and the apostles tout:  Repentance.  And, note that powerful scene, before repentance comes, when George Banks is a broken man, nearly paralyzed by sorrow.  Note that it is from his sorrow that change blossoms.  Then note the joy that is the fruit of George's sorrow-wrought change.

In the 1990s Harold Ramis directed and Bill Murray starred in a movie that was masterpiece on repentance: Groundhog Day, in which TV weatherman Phil Connors is caught in time until he, though an ongoing process of many decisions to change, achieves a new way of living.

A new way of living? The goal of repentance.

Evelyn's favorite novel, the Jane Austen classic, Pride and Prejudice, depicts dual repentance when Mr. Darcy, in abject despair, turns from his pride and Elizabeth Bennet  rejects her prejudice and, in the end, they live 'happily ever after.'  The book remains relevant today because it ends happily yet depicts spirit-crushing despair from which true joy and happiness must come.

Isn't this change what Jesus would want for the haughty? 

Repentance.

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Yet, repentance is what American Christianity, for the past 80 or so years, can not bring itself to call for. 

It strikes me as being ironic, beyond measure, that the secular mind is fascinated by stories of repentance and that the institutional American church won't even use the word.  Clearly, the fascination with repentance, even in the secular mind, is fruit of the essential human conviction that change for the good is good--even if that change is hard to choose and even harder to achieve.

It should be a lesson to the leaders of American denominations that Pride and Prejudice and A Christmas Carol are still continually reprinted and made and remade into movies and TV shows.  Jane Austen is certainly far more popular than she was during her lifetime.  And, wasn't there a 2013 Tom Hanks/Emma Thompson movie about the making of Mary Poppins entitled Saving Mr. Banks?

The testimony of the past century is that the Western Church is rapidly losing the world Jesus calls and empowers it to reach.  That reality cannot be disputed.

Why is it losing?

In part, it is losing because it won't call people to repent when it is a truth that people are predisposed to accept the importance of that call.

We must, well, repent of repentaphobia.

My Least Read Blog Post

Since the time that my posts took a decidedly prophetic tone, strenuously calling people in the body I serve to stark and specific acts of repentance, I have been told by numerous people that they actually agree with me but hate the tone of what I am writing.

Normally, those people then urge me to go back to my old style of writing which they describe in a variety of ways but which they characterize as fresh and innovative teaching.

Recently, I've felt led by the Spirit to include those sort of posts among my blogs.  In fact, only a few days ago, I sent one of those posts out and noted to my mailing list that its intention was to teach, not prophecy.

That blog post has received the smallest number of hits on this blog.

So, to those of you who promised that people would welcome my teaching?  You misread the CGGC.

I do plan, if the Lord is willing, to post future writings of a teaching nature--no matter how faithfully they are read.

Oh, and incidentally, the post that has received the most hits?  "A Classic Democrat Party Leadership Model."

Why I Say What I Say and Do What I Do

Not long ago, I was invited to lunch by two members of the ERC, both of whom hold positions of immense authority and power within the Conference.  They were very cordial during our meeting but they were also careful to report to me that there is ongoing concern, in the highest ERC leadership circles, about the way I talk and walk. 

They told me that there is one very highly placed person in the ERC who regularly suggests that my credentials be removed. 

One of the two people with whom I lunched asked me (in reference to my walk and talk), "What do you want to accomplish?" 

To my surprise, I stumbled for a moment in answering the question.  However, I didn't stumble because I didn't immediately know the answer. 

The answer I eventually gave was true and precise. 

I said, "I want us to repent."  (If you read this blog regularly you've probably noticed that I normally end a post saying, "We must repent.")

After lunch, when I had some thinking time, I mused over why I stumbled in answering the what-do you-want-to-accomplish question.  It didn't take long for me to figure it out. 

I stumbled because what I hope to accomplish is far less important to me than why I do this.

I do this for the salvation of the souls of the people who sit trustingly in the seats and pews of CGGC churches.

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A continuing theme in the teaching of Jesus is that, on the day of Judgment, many who confidently considered themselves to be saved by Him will be horrified to discover that He rejects them and will send them away to eternal punishment.  For example:

²¹ Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father who is in heaven. ²² Many will say to me on that day, ‘Lord, Lord, did we not prophesy in your name and in your name drive out demons and in your name perform many miracles?’ ²³ Then I will tell them plainly, ‘I never knew you. Away from me, you evildoers!’ (Matthew 7)

And,

⁴¹ “Then he will say to those on his left, ‘Depart from me, you who are cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. ⁴² For I was hungry and you gave me nothing to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me nothing to drink, ⁴³ I was a stranger and you did not invite me in, I needed clothes and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not look after me.’
⁴⁴ “They also will answer, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or needing clothes or sick or in prison, and did not help you?’
⁴⁵ “He will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did not do for one of the least of these, you did not do for me.’
⁴⁶ “Then they will go away to eternal punishment, but the righteous to eternal life.” (Matthew 25)

Note, in both passages, the shocked tone of the people whom Jesus sends away.

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When I take stock of the way things are in the CGGC (and, for that matter, much of Western Christianity) today, two things concern me:

1. The way our General Conference leaders and (for me as someone in the ERC) ERC leadership define what it means to live as a Christian. 
   
     As I see it, they preach and practice Cheap Grace--a Cheap Grace which never, ever calls for repentance and implies that church attendance is intimately connected to salvation, though that notion is absent from the Word.
     As I examine what they write and say and do, our leaders define righteousness as "accepting" Christ, attending worship services and actively participating in a congregation which, then, potentially signs on to programs such as the Transformational Church denominational program or the program that involves reading the Seek God for the City Lenten devotional or (in the ERC) participating in the Dare to Dream program.
     While I can not ever recall reading words like righteousness or holiness or obedience or repentance in the communications or Ed Rosenberry or Lance Finley, Don Dennison or Kevin Richardson, Dave Williams or Chuck Frank, I see that the Gospels and Acts and the writings of Paul and Peter and John are absolutely packed with those words.
     Roughly a year ago, I received what I believe to be a prophetic word.  I have examined and reexamined that word in the murky and rippled mirror Paul, in 1 Corinthians 13, says prophets see into.  After that effort, I am convinced that it is a word from the Lord.  As best I can put it in human language, the prophecy is this:
     "The way CGGC (and most Western Church) leaders define righteousness is just as theologically corrupt and tradition-bound as were the ways promoted by the Pope and his Bishops to which Martin Luther objected when he posted his 95 Theses in 1517."
     When I read the Word of God, I see the path to salvation defined very clearly.  Yet, as I view the "Gospel" promoted by CGGC leaders, I see false doctrine that is found nowhere in the Word.
     What our leaders preach and teach--and the righteousness they promote--scares me!  It is false.  It imperils them for all eternity.
2. The fact that many thousands of people fully trust--without doubt--their leaders' definition of what it means to live the Christian life.  
     When their CGGC pastors and their pastors' leaders' tell the people of the CGGC that "accepting" Christ, church attendance and, perhaps, congregational outreach and/or Transformational Church and/or Seek God for the City and/or Dare to Dream and, before those schemes, Natural Church Development and 35,000 by 2000, etc., etc. are God's way for them, they trust and follow those errors. 
    Thousands pin their hopes for the moment of the "Rapture" and the Day of Judgment on a definition of righteousness that is absent from the teachings of Jesus and the apostles and prophets.
    Before Jesus said, "Not everyone who says to me 'Lord, Lord,' will enter the Kingdom of Heaven...," He said, "unless your righteousness exceeds that of the Scribes and Pharisees you will not enter the Kingdom of Heaven."  In between those two statements Jesus defined, with laser precision, what true righteousness is.
     His definition of righteousness and what comes from CGGC headquarters offices have nothing to do with each other.
     Also, when Jesus predicts separating the people of the world in the way a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats, He is specific about the righteous acts in a person's life that will make the difference between who stands to His right and who stands to His left.  
    CGGC leadership simply doesn't pay attention to Jesus.  It doesn't proclaim His way.  It preaches a false, flock-focused righteousness.
     I am convinced, without doubt, that our leaders are preparing the people who trust them and learn from them to be placed with the goats on the Day! 
   
    I say what I say and do what I do because I care about those trusting people.
   
     I fear for the souls of the thousands of people who innocently accept the tradition-bound wisdom that comes down to them from Findlay and Harrisburg--and, perhaps, the other headquarters locations.
   
    How many thousands of souls are being led astray?!
   
    How many will be surprised as they spend eternity weeping and gnashing their teeth?

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What do I hope to accomplish?  Repentance.  Repentance from what, when I read the Word, I have to see as a false definition of righteousness coming from CGGC leadership and too easily consumed by the CGGC body.

Why do I do it?  For the salvation of innocent and trusting souls who might one day, because of what they are being taught, hear Jesus confess,  "I never knew you.  Away from me you evildoers."

I honestly believe that our leaders are leading to destruction the people who trust them.

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Even people who are open to the things I say and do occasionally accuse me of hating the people who lead the CGGC.  I do not hate them.  I love them. 

But I do hate, with every fiber of my being, what they stand for.

I am certain that they preach, teach and live a false gospel.

We absolutely must repent.

"What is Repentance?"

I have been calling for repentance for some time.

Years ago, I began to notice that the call to repentance was central to the preaching, discipling and evangelizing in the New Testament, and, I began to point out the sad truth that a call for repentance is absent from the teaching and preaching of the Western church (and, specifically, among the leaders and people of the CGGC, with which I am affiliated). 

What immediately follows is a severely abridged summary of what I discovered in the New Testament in regard to repentance:

In those days John the Baptist came, preaching in the wilderness of Judea and saying, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Mt. 3:1-2)

From that time on Jesus began to preach, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven has come near.” (Mt. 4:17)

Then Jesus began to denounce the towns in which most of his miracles had been performed, because they did not repent. (Mt. 11:20)

For John came to you to show you the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes did. And even after you saw this, you did not repent and believe him. (Mt. 21:32)

After John was put in prison, Jesus went into Galilee, proclaiming the good news of God. “The time has come,” he said. “The kingdom of God has come near. Repent and believe the good news!” (Mk. 1:14-15)

 Calling the Twelve to him, he began to send them out two by two and gave them authority over impure spirits. . .. They went out and preached that people should repent. (Mk. 6:7 and 12)

Jesus answered them, “It is not the healthy who need a doctor, but the sick.  I have not come to call the righteous, but sinners to repentance.” (Lk. 5:31-32)

(Jesus) told them, “This is what is written: The Messiah will suffer and rise from the dead on the third day, and repentance for the forgiveness of sins will be preached in his name to all nations, beginning at Jerusalem. You are witnesses of these things. (Lk. 24:46-48)

Peter replied, “Repent and be baptized, every one of you, in the name of Jesus Christ for the forgiveness of your sins. And you will receive the gift of the Holy Spirit. (Acts 2:38)

When Peter saw this, he said to them:..."Repent, then, and turn to God, so that your sins may be wiped out, that times of refreshing may come from the Lord, and that he may send the Messiah, who has been appointed for you—even Jesus." (Acts 3:12a, 19-20)

When they heard this, they had no further objections and praised God, saying, “So then, even to Gentiles God has granted repentance that leads to life.” (Acts 11:38)

When they arrived, (Paul) said to them:..."I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus." (Acts 20:18a and 21)

...now I am happy, not because you were made sorry, but because your sorrow led you to repentance. For you became sorrowful as God intended and so were not harmed in any way by us. Godly sorrow brings repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. (2 Cor. 7:9-10)

I have given her time to repent of her immorality, but she is unwilling. So I will cast her on a bed of suffering, and I will make those who commit adultery with her suffer intensely, unless they repent of her ways. (Rev. 2:21-22) 

(As I said, this summary is severely abridged.  But, it characterizes the messages and ministries of John the Baptist, Jesus, Peter, John the Apostle and Paul.)

From the moment John the Baptist began to prepare the way for the coming of the Messiah through the time John the Apostle wrote down the words Jesus dictated to him to be sent to the seven churches of Revelation 2 and 3, the message of the New Testament is that the first action in loving God, obeying Him and living in righteousness is to repent.

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Shortly after I became a preacher of repentance, a friend asked me the question that is the title of this post:

 

What is repentance?


At the time, I answered him with what I have come to believe was a lame and lifeless answer.  Since that time, I have been humiliated, even haunted, by the realization that I am convinced that repentance is necessary if a man or woman is to become a disciple of Jesus, yet I don't know, precisely, what repentance is.

So, what is repentance?

I do have an answer today, however, my answer remains provisional and developing.

Here are some pieces of an academic, theologically-oriented and inadequate answer:

1. Repentance is essential for salvation.
2. It must be both an ongoing attitude of heart yet it also involves specific acts set in specific places and times.
3. It is the fruit of godly sorrow.
4. It produces fruit in human action.
5. The call for it among all people without exception is the Gospels' way of teaching that all of us have sinned and need a savior.

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After much study and meditation, I have come to think of repentance when thought of generically, not theologically, as little more than to think, with passion and conviction, the heart-rending thought:

"I am naturally flawed and I must change my ways!"

Repentance itself is not change.  It is the conviction: I am wrong and I must change.

Repentance is the way of thinking about self --i.e., it is the philosophical point of view-- that fuels the attitude of heart that is necessary for change to become a reality in a person's life.

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One final observation--as far as following Jesus is concerned: 

I believe that the greatest danger posed to the Western church is that it follows the values of a shepherd-dominated leadership culture. 

By virtue of the manner in which the Holy Spirit gifts shepherds, shepherds will always resist the intense, negative, powerful and painful emotion--as Paul calls it, the "godly sorrow"--that leads a soul to repent. 

Paul says that it is that 'godly sorrow (which) produces a repentance that leads to salvation.' 

Shepherds, by their calling and spiritual gift, bring comfort to those in pain.  They, in the spirit, would quell the godly sorrow that leads to repentance and produces salvation.  In fact, quell godly sorrow is what they often do. 

Therefore, I believe that repentance will never happen with shepherds and their values dominating the church.

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The role of shepherds in APEST, is to provide the care and nurture and comfort and love and grace and compassion that creates Christian community.  Community in the Body of Christ is not possible without shepherds.

According to Ephesians 2, however, the ministry of shepherds comes after. 

It come after, humanly speaking, the ministry of prophets and apostles.  It is through the gifts the Spirit gives to apostles and prophets that a person experiences the godly sorrow that produces repentance.

Because this is true, a person who has not yet repented should be isolated from unfettered shepherd influence until godly sorrow has produced the repentance that leads to salvation to the point, as Paul says, there is "no regret!"

As long as shepherd values supersede APEST in the Western church, it is a well-document historical fact, that the church will not call sinners to repent.

The church must, very gently, put the people of our shepherd-dominated leadership culture into roles subservient to the work of apostles and prophets.

We must repent.