I frequently think back to the days when the "Emerging" blog was active as the good old days in the CGGC.
Among other things, conversation there contemplated what was then the cutting edge among people yearning to see God's Kingdom come.
Key to that conversation was the conviction that APEST, that is, that He gave some to be apostles, others to be prophets, others to be evangelists and others to be shepherds and teachers, is how God has chosen to equip the saints for works of ministry.
Since then, some of the people who participated in that conversation have become mountaintoppers and, curiously, the mountaintoppers' conversation has been oriented toward all that is of the institution.
So, what happened to APEST in the CGGC?
It was overwhelmed by a strident and viciously traditional parish priest dominated leadership culture. The Shepherd Mafia is powerful!
In the CGGC, APEST succumbed to shepherd-created faddism. It was discarded as if it itself was a fad.
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We need to resume the APEST conversation before it's too late.
Here's to praying that Lance will lead that conversation.
Paul begins his letter to the Romans calling himself a servant of Christ Jesus and then claiming to be called to be an apostle.
ReplyDeleteIt is Paul's understanding of himself that sets him apart from today's church leaders, in this case in the CGGC, and explains what may be our most damning error which condemns us to continued decline:
In Paul's mind, he was a servant of the Lord of the Kingdom. He was a servant. And, as a servant, he was called to be an apostle.
Our guys in Findlay and on other mountain tops think they are leaders. Their focus is on the church. They style themselves as leaders of the church who develop church leaders, not, first and foremost, subjects of a Kingdom, serving the King and calling others to be servants.
How could they possibly be further from the truth?!!?
What happened to APEST? Leadership. The notion that men occupy the mountain top and that the Lord doesn't.
APEST died in the CGGC when our mountaintoppers chose church over kingdom and leadership over servanthood.
This is no small thing.
We must change the way we think.
I was pleased to read of Lance's commitment to seeking His kingdom and His righteousness in his eNews message.
ReplyDeleteI know, with a certainty, however, that if he is to be successful in bringing kingdom focus to the CGGC, he will have to begin with himself and stop leading and learn what it meant to Paul and other early apostles to be servants of Christ, not church leaders and he will have to repent, in tears of godly sorrow, of this leadership development concept he himself has been leading.
And, he will have to repent of his role as CEO and redefine the position of head mountaintopper in the CGGC in terms of chief servant.
Then we can talk and begin to live kingdom, not church.