Very much against my will, I was essentially forced to write my dissertation, not on any topic that interested me, but on the practice of Feet Washing in the Churches of God, General Conference. That project was distasteful to me and it was a struggle of many years to complete it and the result was dismal: A piece of writing I don't recommend to anyone.
Fifteen years after its completion, the only insight I drew from the project that still edifies me is a comment made by my third reader during my dissertation defense.
He had asked, "If you could boil your understanding of Feet Washing in the Churches of God down into one sentence, what would it be?"
Actually my answer was one I was happy with because it was an insight of the moment. I said, "It has evolved." But he immediately corrected me.
He said pointedly, "It is evolve-ING."
Bingo!
And, I have come to understand that that reality: "It is evolve-ing," is true of the CGGC--and much more so in 2014 than it has been at any time in the CGGC's history. The rate of our evolution [or, perhaps, de-volution] is increasing exponentially under the reign of the current leadership team.
Sadly, the change that leadership is shepherding propels the CGGC back toward the Middle Ages, not into a risky, Spirit-empowered and blessed, Word-informed future that is characteristic of movements participating in revival.
There are two major changes in my assessment of the CGGC Brand in early 2014 compared to my 2103 assessment. First, I have kept the list of characteristics intact at thirteen but I have removed,
A Rodney King: "Can-We-All-Just Get-Along?" Doctrine of the Church.And replaced it with,
Ecclesiolatry. (I explore the depths of this sin on my Ecclesiolatry blog.)I believe that that word came to me as a prophetic insight, though I have recently discovered that the word has been existence for years.
I still believe that can-we-all-just-get-alongism is an essential part of the CGGC's DNA in 2014. However, it is not nearly as important in describing what defines the CGGC's uniqueness as is its choice to substitute veneration of the church for obedience to the Lord of the church. Also, this characteristic is closely linked, in the CGGC micro-universe, to characteristic number 4, i.e., Traditionalism.
Second, I have tweaked,
Flock-focused RighteousnessSo that it becomes,
This tweaking highlights my increasing conviction that the CGGC is preparing the people who, blindly, accept its definition of Christian living to be numbered among the goats on the Day. This breaks my hearts for the innocents in the CGGC's pews and fills me with rage toward the preachers of this false righteousness.False, Flock-focused Righteousness
Here's the revised description of the CGGC Brand as it, and my own understanding of it, evolves:
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1. Decline. In the first sixty years or so of its history the Church of God began from scratch and grew to approximately 800 active congregations. From that peak, the CGGC has declined to far less than half that number, losing a total of 60 congregations between 2001 and 2010 alone!
2. Institutionalized "Churchianity," not Christianity. With increasing fervor, the CGGC focuses on an institutionalized, parish priest-centered view that church is with parishes or flocks, led by clergymen, with an ecclesiastical elite ruling over all. The CGGC now only pays lip service to what Jesus commands of His disciples. The CGGC today renews churches, makes transformational churches, adopts churches and plants churches yet only goes into the world to make disciples after all the headquarters and local parish work is thoroughly finished, therefore, never.
3. Ecclesiolatry. Ecclesiolatry is the creation and veneration of the church as an idol, as opposed to love of and obedience to Jesus Christ, the Lord of the Church. Idolatry is creating objects of worship to suit our own passions and prejudices. The CGGC substitutes love for the church for love for the church's Lord. Hence the obsession with planting, adopting, transformationalizing and renewing local churches while the Church's Lord's talk was about and His prayer and passion was to establish a His Father's Kingdom. The church is the CGGC's Golden Calf.
4. Traditionalism. What the CGGC does is, no longer, rooted in love for, nor obedience to, Bible truth. These days, CGGC practice derives from the way of thinking that led to the rise of the church as an institution in the Middle Ages. The CGGC's founder, John Winebrenner, who saw even the Protestant Reformation as a failure, wouldn't recognize what has become of the movement he began.
5. Faddism. The CGGC shifts direction according to what is fashionable among other religious denominations. Hence, today, the people with offices in headquarters buildings fret over the CGGC 'brand.' Most recently, with other trend-driven denominations, the CGGC has sought to embrace the 'transformational church' fad. Currently fads such as this, not biblical truth, drive CGGC change.
6. Mellow Relationships over Truth. The CGGC has serious issues with truth primarily because it values, to the extreme, human relationships rooted in tolerance of others but does not value hunger and thirst for righteousness. The CGGC no longer holds, as the most important relationship, love for the Lord, which Jesus called the greatest commandment. The CGGC no longer takes firm stands on any biblical truth, as the recently adopted revision of We Believe makes clear.
7. A Middle Ages Approach to Leadership. Perhaps the most harmful achievement of CGGC elites is the creation of a 'laity.' In its early years, the Church of God had significantly attained the priesthood of all believers. Recently, however, CGGC higher ups have transformed the typical participant in a CGGC congregation into a mere consumer of religious products and services supplied by the parish clergy and their higher ups.
8. Strong Central Planning Coupled with Lower Level Clergy and Congregational Rebellion. It is not enough to suggest that the CGGC is becoming clergy and higher up dominated. (See item 7) Even in the expanding CGGC clergy world, there are extremes in power from the bottom of the clergy pyramid to its peak. Higher ups in denominational headquarters and in regional offices act from a sense of power that no Roman Catholic Pope would dream of. However, in response, many pastors outside of the good-old-boy leadership network, and most local CGGC congregations, ignore and sometimes defy (always without consequence), the authority of the leaders located in the denomination's central planning offices. (See also, item 13.)
9. Cynicism. As much as our higher up are shepherds seeking peace, calm and quiet among the pastors and congregations of the CGGC, there is a stifling atmosphere of cynicism among our pastors and congregations toward those in CGGC seats of power. (See item 7.) There is also cynicism flowing from leadership down into the body. This cynicism flows in every direction: From the top down, from the bottom up and horizontally among factions in the body.
10. To Talk is to Walk-ism. According to the New Testament, a follower of Jesus is one who possesses a faith that organically produces acts of obedience to God's will. (Matthew 7:21-23, 24-26, 25:1-46; John 14:15; 2 Cor. 5:10; Eph. 2:8-10; Jas. 2:12-26; Rev. 2-3). However, CGGC faith is disconnected from action. It is possible to talk CGGC talk without walking it. Hence, for example, the GC Mission and Vision Statements that are not lived out--and virtually no one notices.
11. Cheap Grace. The CGGC calls people to easy-beliefism. Jesus said that anyone who doesn't hate his father and mother isn't worthy of Him. There was a time, in its founding generation, that the Church of God called sinners to a radically changed way of life. Dietrich Bonheoffer (who coined the phrase, cheap grace) could have been viewing today's CGGC when he wrote: "...cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."
12. False, Flock-focused Righteousness. One need only read the first part of the Sermon of the Mount to understand that right living, as radically defined by Jesus, is key to discipleship. In the CGGC, however, righteousness is defined as a local parish, or flock, achieving consistent growth in parish/flock-oriented activities such as 'worship service' attendance not, as Jesus taught, disciples serving each other and caring for the least of the brothers and sisters of Jesus and going to all nations making disciples.
13. Organized Hypocrisy. There is illogic and outright contradiction among the things the CGGC claims to be true about itself. This illogic and contradiction is, in reality, deeply rooted, highly intentional and carefully executed. A hypocrite is an actor: "...a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings." It is a positive and essential value of the CGGC to speak one message and to, without qualm, act out another that is entirely disconnected from that avowed principle.
4. Traditionalism. What the CGGC does is, no longer, rooted in love for, nor obedience to, Bible truth. These days, CGGC practice derives from the way of thinking that led to the rise of the church as an institution in the Middle Ages. The CGGC's founder, John Winebrenner, who saw even the Protestant Reformation as a failure, wouldn't recognize what has become of the movement he began.
5. Faddism. The CGGC shifts direction according to what is fashionable among other religious denominations. Hence, today, the people with offices in headquarters buildings fret over the CGGC 'brand.' Most recently, with other trend-driven denominations, the CGGC has sought to embrace the 'transformational church' fad. Currently fads such as this, not biblical truth, drive CGGC change.
6. Mellow Relationships over Truth. The CGGC has serious issues with truth primarily because it values, to the extreme, human relationships rooted in tolerance of others but does not value hunger and thirst for righteousness. The CGGC no longer holds, as the most important relationship, love for the Lord, which Jesus called the greatest commandment. The CGGC no longer takes firm stands on any biblical truth, as the recently adopted revision of We Believe makes clear.
7. A Middle Ages Approach to Leadership. Perhaps the most harmful achievement of CGGC elites is the creation of a 'laity.' In its early years, the Church of God had significantly attained the priesthood of all believers. Recently, however, CGGC higher ups have transformed the typical participant in a CGGC congregation into a mere consumer of religious products and services supplied by the parish clergy and their higher ups.
8. Strong Central Planning Coupled with Lower Level Clergy and Congregational Rebellion. It is not enough to suggest that the CGGC is becoming clergy and higher up dominated. (See item 7) Even in the expanding CGGC clergy world, there are extremes in power from the bottom of the clergy pyramid to its peak. Higher ups in denominational headquarters and in regional offices act from a sense of power that no Roman Catholic Pope would dream of. However, in response, many pastors outside of the good-old-boy leadership network, and most local CGGC congregations, ignore and sometimes defy (always without consequence), the authority of the leaders located in the denomination's central planning offices. (See also, item 13.)
9. Cynicism. As much as our higher up are shepherds seeking peace, calm and quiet among the pastors and congregations of the CGGC, there is a stifling atmosphere of cynicism among our pastors and congregations toward those in CGGC seats of power. (See item 7.) There is also cynicism flowing from leadership down into the body. This cynicism flows in every direction: From the top down, from the bottom up and horizontally among factions in the body.
10. To Talk is to Walk-ism. According to the New Testament, a follower of Jesus is one who possesses a faith that organically produces acts of obedience to God's will. (Matthew 7:21-23, 24-26, 25:1-46; John 14:15; 2 Cor. 5:10; Eph. 2:8-10; Jas. 2:12-26; Rev. 2-3). However, CGGC faith is disconnected from action. It is possible to talk CGGC talk without walking it. Hence, for example, the GC Mission and Vision Statements that are not lived out--and virtually no one notices.
11. Cheap Grace. The CGGC calls people to easy-beliefism. Jesus said that anyone who doesn't hate his father and mother isn't worthy of Him. There was a time, in its founding generation, that the Church of God called sinners to a radically changed way of life. Dietrich Bonheoffer (who coined the phrase, cheap grace) could have been viewing today's CGGC when he wrote: "...cheap grace is the preaching of forgiveness without requiring repentance, baptism without church discipline. Communion without confession. Cheap grace is grace without discipleship, grace without the cross, grace without Jesus Christ."
12. False, Flock-focused Righteousness. One need only read the first part of the Sermon of the Mount to understand that right living, as radically defined by Jesus, is key to discipleship. In the CGGC, however, righteousness is defined as a local parish, or flock, achieving consistent growth in parish/flock-oriented activities such as 'worship service' attendance not, as Jesus taught, disciples serving each other and caring for the least of the brothers and sisters of Jesus and going to all nations making disciples.
13. Organized Hypocrisy. There is illogic and outright contradiction among the things the CGGC claims to be true about itself. This illogic and contradiction is, in reality, deeply rooted, highly intentional and carefully executed. A hypocrite is an actor: "...a person who acts in contradiction to his or her stated beliefs or feelings." It is a positive and essential value of the CGGC to speak one message and to, without qualm, act out another that is entirely disconnected from that avowed principle.
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