Old Wineskin-ism: The Well-Intentioned Rosenberrian Error

As the CGGC moves forward and attempts to fill Ed Rosenberry's sasquatch-sized shoes, I have been trying to assess what are the most important changes the body needs to make.

(I have been very clear about my conviction that we need to eschew the big-business model upon which our current leadership scheme is built and not to follow recent tradition and have the CGGC Ad Council appoint another person to sit behind the huge desk in the corner office whose task is to be its "CEO." 

But, as Isaiah understood from the beginning [see chapter 6], I am resigned to the reality that this message will not be received and that leadership will continue to defy the "rule" of Scripture.  Therefore, the CGGC certainly will soon have its next CEO.)

Viewing Ed's tenure from the 40,000 foot perspective that prophets have, I see several things that, I suspect, few, if any, others see.

One of them is that Ed attempted always, and in many ways, to put new wine in the old, decayed CGGC wineskin.

There is much dysfunction and sin at the core of what the CGGC has become.  Ed has, at the same time, enabled that dysfunction and attempted to introduce new energy into a body that is diseased and dying.  This practice is schizophrenic and destined to failure.

It seems to me that Ed has always been too kind-hearted, too fearful of conflict and too much of a shepherd to confront the many sins that are killing us and has hoped to bring change to the CGGC core by tweaking and adding what is new to what is decayed and tradition bound.

The Word makes it clear that this is unwise and, in fact, impossible.  God's apostles and prophets have never done this and the Lord never blessed this strategy when the institutionalists and traditionalists of the Bible attempted it.

The Lord's correction has always involved a first step of confronting sin and calling for confession and repentance.  "If my people who are called by my Name..."  These are things Ed has consistently refused to do.  In fact, it seems outside of his nature to even consider them.

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Four thoughts:

1.  As a result, even the CGGC institution is faltering--as the most recent financial report from Bob Stephenson, the financial plea from Jim Thomas for assistance for those in the pension and, in the ERC, as a recent communication from the financial gurus have made clear.

2.  The new CEO will have to do what shepherds find difficult--probably impossible--and confront core sins using Jesus in the temple as his/her model.  Hence we will need someone as our next CEO who is not gifted to be a shepherd who is also someone who will "uproot and tear down [and] destroy and overthrow" (Jeremiah 1:10) the shepherd dominated leadership culture.  (This will probably result in the spilling of metaphorical blood--most probably the metaphorical blood of the CEO.)

3.  We must repent on the big picture level.  Tweaking has been shown to fail both in Scripture and in our own story.

4.  The best way to move forward really is to cast aside the CEO leadership model that has been failing since the first days of the 35,000 by 2000 campaign.