Why 3D Movements Discipleship will NOT Work in this Neck of the CGGC Woods

I am in the very eastern part of where CGGC congregations are in Pennsylvania.  I've lived here most of my life and I've been connected with the CGGC in these parts for more than 40 years.  What follows is specific to the CGGC in my area.  Having said that, I strongly suspect that it fits nearly all of the CGGC, if not every last bit of it.

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Many of the first CGGC congregations to be organized are in my area.  Nearly all of these congregations are in decline in attendance of the Sunday morning show.  From what I know, in most of these churches, if Evie and I attended a service as visitors on a typical Sunday we, both being 61 years old, would be among the youngest attenders.  In some cases, we would be the Youth Group of the church present on that day.

If you read the eNews, you know that Mike Breen of 3 Dimensional Ministries will be a keynote speaker at the General Conference sessions.

On December 4 of last year, Lance wrote,

One of our keynote speakers is Mike Breen, some of you may recognize his name. Our theme this year is "On One Mission—Discipleship," and I was in a meeting a few years ago with Al Hirsch, which some of you probably recognize Alan Hirsch's name. . And Al said, "Mike Breen and his folks at 3 Dimensional Ministries. They're probably ahead of most of the folks I know." And so we're going to have Mike Breen with us for three different keynote addresses, talking about the importance of discipleship and what that looks like in a post-Christian context. And I think you'll be really blessed just by the interaction with Mike and the time to hopefully hear some things that help us move forward and actually make disciples, not just talk about making disciples.

(It is interesting that, at the end there, Lance seems to acknowledge our "To Talk is to Walk-ism.  Does he want us to want to repent of it?)
I have been saying for years that another of the core characteristics of the CGGC "Brand" is faddism, that is, we are always jumping on to a recent church-oriented hot idea, enthusiastically beating its drum, failing to make a success of it, then looking for a new hot idea to take its place, then beating the drum for that idea.  If you've been in the CGGC for even a dozen years you can cite several examples.

I've been checking out the 3 Dimensional Ministries material.  Here is what seems to be the main emphasis:  The key thought is "Putting Discipleship and Mission Back into the Hands of Everyday People."

Here's why that emphasis will not take hold in my part of the CGGC:

For at least the last 40 years, the people of our churches have had the exact opposite Gospel preached to them.  And, the people of those churches have been wholeheartedly convinced.

 For many years, people around here have been taught that their role in their church is to attract a good pastor and to pay him/her a fair salary and, in exchange, their pastor will perform the tasks they hired him/her to perform.  For the most part, long and peaceful pastorates here have been conducted, mostly by men, who placed their emphasis on taking care of the old people well.  Many of them have been able to preach a reasonably interesting Sunday sermon, but many have not been good preachers.

Though the word righteousness is rarely if ever spoken except in the reading of a Scripture passage, the unspoken definition of righteousness for a church attender has been to:

1. Attend worship.  And, optionally, after that to,
2. Put at least a little change in the offering plate.
3. Go to Sunday school. Then, for the super-righteous,
4. Teach Sunday School.
5. Be a Youth Leader/Worker.
6. Be an usher.
7. Work in the nursery or Junior Church.
8. Be in a small group.
9. Invite the right sort of person to attend worship.

(None of these are, of course, definitions of the righteous life in the Word.)

In the churches around here, it may be considered optional for attenders to invite new people to church, but the task of discipleship, if it is done at all, is placed firmly into the hands of the pastor.  And, honestly, if the pastor merely brings enough new people into the "worship service," s/he is deemed successful in that task.

This has been the gospel proclaimed by Conference leadership around here for many decades.  And, that gospel have been reinforced many times in each church. by Conference mountaintoppers.



Since that understanding of what it means to be a Christian is so deeply-rooted in our people's thinking, and because in each of these churches, people have seen many fads come and go, what do you think will happen if the emphasis, "Putting Discipleship and Mission Back into the Hands of Everyday People," falls on their ears?

The people in these churches will do what they have always gotten away with doing in the past:

1. They will ignore it.  And, if their pastor embraces it and preaches it and expects the people to live it,
2. They will tell the Conference that they want a new pastor and the Conference will give them a new pastor who will not threaten the old, established Gospel--as it has done literally hundreds of times in recent decades.

From what I know, in this neck of the CGGC woods, the General Conference gang might as well save the money they have promised to Mike Breen because, no matter how much truth there may be in the message he preaches, in the end, this Conference will not make his truth reality....

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....unless leadership repents in tears in each congregation and confesses that it has lived and reinforced in their very church a false truth built on an unbiblical definition of the Gospel.

This is, of course, the very act of repentance I have been calling for for a long time.  Without it?  We are merely seeing the embrace of the next failed fad.
Before anything new and obedient happens in our churches, our Mountaintoppers must repent.