As the hierarchs of the Eastern Regional Conference of the CGGC contemplate the implementation of their new New Strategic Plan, I think it's important to remember that the ERC is a large and diverse community...
...and that the ERC community has created a covenant which guides the behavior of all of the members of that community.
A significant part of the covenant which guides the behavior of the members of the ERC community exists within the Constitution and By-Laws of the Conference.
The entire Conference community joined together in the creation and approval of those documents...
...and the integrity of the community itself is based on the trust of all of the members of the community...
...that everyone in the community will submit to, and obey, the covenant.
Clearly, some of the people within the Conference are, very openly, planning to abuse the trust upon which the ERC community is built.
At stake is the desire of ERC leaders to implement a new Strategic Plan.
Understand that the existence of a strategic plan is something that the Constitution and By-Laws are not concerned with. Leaders are, justifiedly, empowered to plan whatever, in their wisdom, they want to plan...
...unless and until their plans require them to do something that the ERC covenant doesn't give them the authority to do.
It is essential that the members of the ERC community understand that ERC leaders are planning to violate the ERC covenant in their rush to implement the new Strategic Plan.
Leaders have determined that a next step in making the new Strategic Plan a reality will involve two actions:
1. Dissolving Commissions whose existence is demanded by the ERC covenant in its Constitution and By-Laws.
2. Creating new Commissions, which Conference leaders, according to the ERC Covenant, do not possess the authority to do.
The notes on the ERC Strategic Plan Town Hall meetings make it clear that leadership intends to dissolve all of the Commissions whose existence is required by agreement of the Community and to authorize four other, new, Commissions beginning January 1, 2018.
There can be no question.
Only the Conference in session can dissolve Commissions it created by its authority...
...and only the Conference in session has the authority to create new Commissions.
Incidentally, these actions can be accomplished only by a two thirds majority of delegates of a properly called gathering of the Conference.
Town Hall meeting notes, simply, that this is what Steve Dunn believes.
Yet, the Constitution and By-Laws are clear that there is only one way they can be amended. They can be amended only by the two-thirds vote just described.
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It seems to me that ERC leaders are going to do what they dern well want to do.
They are going to dissolve Commissions and create others on their own authority, apart from the authority of the Body.
According to the notes, there is an Ad Council meeting on November 1 at which the Ad Council, it is assumed, will rubber stamp this plan.
The ERC Ad Council doesn't have the authority to do what it is expected to do.
But, based on conversations I've had, I'm getting the impression that members of the Ad Council aren't concerned about where the authority comes from to do what they're being asked to do.
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In the end, though, what matters for the future of the Kingdom as far as the ERC's concerned, is not when the new New Strategic Plan is implemented or even if it is implemented at all.
What matters is that the people of the ERC walk together in the power of the Spirit in God's will.
There are reasons for the widespread cynicism and apathy among the people of the ERC.
If cynicism and apathy are going to be overcome before it is too late, leadership is going to have to submit to the covenant that binds the ERC community.
It cannot implement the new Commission structure apart from the process dictated by ERC covenant described in the Constitution and By-Laws.
We are at a place where ERC leaders may win a battle they didn't need to engage in...
...and lose the war.
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