As I said in another post, I think the latest issue of THE CHURCH ADVOCATE is one for the ages because it IS mature Rosenberrianism.
Ironically, Ed doesn't appear in it. His disciples carry the ball for his vision from cover to cover.
In the issue focus is on the church. Jesus is mentioned but He is not central. The Kingdom is mentioned but mostly as a function of the work of the local church and the institutional success of the denomination.
Reading the issue, it strikes me that one important priority of the CGGC in 2015 is that its churches be externally focused churches.
It strikes me, though, that Jesus never-not even one time-taught or commanded His disciples to establish externally focused churches.
What Jesus taught and modeled was disciples living out the reality of the Kingdom of God in the world. He rarely even spoke the word church.
There was a time, during the Boyer era, when there was vigorous conversation about the people of the CGGC coming together in the Spirit to pursue the growth of God's Kingdom. Now, to use the term employed in latest issue of the CA, we value the forming of congregations each of which would be a "church family."
And, it's not that I want to disparage that vision. Many fine church people pursue that vision. (Those people are, though, primarily church people, not Kingdom people, not primarily Jesus people.)
And, be honest. That was not what Jesus was about. Not at all. Not even a little bit. There is none of that church focus in the Gospels.
And, in an era when the CGGC has recently reclaimed Winebrenner's phrase, "the New Testament plan" and reasserted that the Bible is its "only" "rule," let's be honest with ourselves. Winebrenner never saw being a church family as what the Church of God is about.
The great failure of the CGGC in recent years is that it has abandoned passion for the Kingdom and replaced it with the desire to be a really good church, which is an externally focused church. Those visions are not the same.
We must repent.
It seems to me that we are going to have to devote serious energy to the reading of the Gospels. As of now, everything we do ends up centering on church and, in our hearts we have to know that can not be right.
ReplyDeleteJESUS ALMOST NEVER EVEN TALKED ABOUT THE CHURCH AND HE DIDN'T PLANT ONE AND HE NEVER ATTENDED ONE.
For people who obey Him, Kingdom is everything. Church is almost nothing.