If you are a faithful reader of the CGGC eNews, you are, apparently, part of a very small number of people. But, if you are, you know, from a posting a couple of months ago, that the CGGC theme this year is, "On One Mission--Discipleship."
As you might imagine, I have quite a few thoughts about that relating to Faddism among our leaders, and throughout the entire CGGC system.
Along with the massive jumble of thoughts, is the question: Do we, in the CGGC, agree about what a disciple is?
Twenty years ago, during 35,000 by 2000, we did seem to agree. Back then, a disciple was understood to be anyone whose attendance in CGGC worship contributes to the annual average attendance total.
I think that most, if not all of us, reject that understanding and many of us, these days, are even embarrassed by it. But, as far as I know, that understanding is the latest on our books.
So, our theme this year is discipleship--something for which we have not gone to any effort to define.
So typical of everything we do using the current CGGC wineskin.
And, I believe that it points to a serious problem in the CGGC. We are so unconcerned about truth that we don't have a common understanding of anything we claim to be core to who we are and what we are committed to doing. What's worse is that we don't seem to care.
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Paul's letters frequently have him writing about "my gospel," an acknowledgement that, in his day, there were many takes on the essential Christian message and that many were dangerously false.
Proclaiming the gospel around the world is a part of our Mission Statement. What, then, is our gospel?
Our mission asserts that we establish New Testament churches. What is our understanding of the New Testament church?
Disciples.
Gospel.
Church.
Do these concepts actually have concrete meaning in our community? From what I know? No.
So, we will spend this year talking about making disciples without knowing what we are talking about.
We need a new wineskin.
We must repent.
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