For me personally, there were two big items of news from the 2015 ERC Conference sessions.
One was that the Conference UNANIMOUSLY approved a new Strategic Plan which I alone publicly opposed, though due to commitments to my job, I was unable to oppose it on the Conference floor.
AND, as Conference was shutting down, near the end of the third day, upon the recommendation of the Standing Committee, the Conference Administrative Council, also unanimously, voted to recall my ordination.
I have suspected here, on this blog, that my vociferous, passionate, relentless and lone-voiced opposition to the 2015 old new Strategic Plan may very well have been the straw that broke the camel's back and inspired the mountaintoppers to take their action against my credentials.
In all of that, in 2015, those things felt normal.
----------------
Since I'd embraced the New Testament message that Jesus prepared apostles to be chief servants, even slaves, in God's Kingdom, not pastors to lead the church, and since I'd noticed His teaching that it would be normal for prophets to function in the Kingdom, so much so that He gave instruction on how to distinguish true from false prophets...
...and, after some prayer, began to live as a prophet,...
...I'd known nothing but powerful churchly opposition in the CGGC along with only a smidgen of curious interest, yet no support.
I do remember one person, back in 2015, writing to me, very privately, that he also had deep reservations about the Strategic Plan but, to my knowledge, he only confided that in me.
Back then, I was a lone wolf, a voice crying in the wilderness.
As, at that time, I always was about everything.
In 2015, that felt normal. But, what was the emotion of the normal feeling?
Earlier in my prophet walk, the strongest emotion was anger. By 2015, sadness over the state of the Kingdom/church was as strong as an emotion, but loneliness was also present...
...though, by then, I had accepted the fact that I'd probably always be alone, humanly speaking.
----------------
Since 2015, everyone from Dr. Richardson on down has apparently come to the same opinion about the 2015 old new Strategic Plan as I expressed back in the day.
I'm not sure that anyone, even those in closest contact with me, is actually saying, "You were right, bill."
But, the 2015 old new Strategic Plan has been placed on the ERC's trash heap precisely as, in 2015, I said it should be.
No one is defending the 2015 plan. Or said another way, these days...
EVERYONE IS AGREEING WITH WHAT THE LORD WAS SAYING TO ME AND THROUGH ME IN 2015.
How does that feel to me? Actually, and interestingly, I have no feeling about it.
===============
So, now it's 2017.
The hierarchs have announced that the 2015 Strategic Plan failed and became words on a page.
THEY decided, on their own, that it's time to create a new New Strategic Plan for the Conference. They held two rounds of meetings and planned to have the Ad Council rubber stamp it.
As in 2015, I spoke passionately against this new new plan...
...but, unlike 2015, when the plan was promoted in those Round Table Meetings, some expressed the same sort of concerns I'd been expressing.
And, though the hierarchs were adamant that the plan would be rubber stamped in November and implemented this coming January...
...the Ad Council didn't take out the rubber stamp, as it ALWAYS has done for decades.
----------------
In 2017, more than a few people are openly thinking what I think...
...but, and, understand, I get this...
...it's not that they agree with me.
As puny as this blog is, I suspect that almost no one who thinks what I think knows what I think.
The level of my influence is so minute that it is, essentially, nonexistent.
But some people are now thinking what I've been thinking, and saying, for years.
-----------------
How does that feel? I've been asking that of myself.
Do I wish that people were writing me and calling me to say,
"You were right, bill. Thanks for being true to the Word and courageous in the Spirit. Thanks for remaining true, even when nearly everyone who now thinks what you thought and think, pooped on you. Thanks for being ahead of your time."
Surprisingly, no. If that happened, I suspect I'd be uncomfortable.
And, I'm honestly wondering why.
----------------
I'm still really trying to figure out this prophet thing. I'm guessing I'm about 10% there. I certainly believe in it but don't really understand it.
I know that, for me, it's about the Lord and the Word. Being faithful in the moment is my measure of success. That's hard to measure, especially when, most of the time, I'm out of step with almost everyone around me.
-----------------
If you study the lives of the prophets of the Bible, you'll probably conclude that, emotionally, they were all a mess.
And, certainly, I am like them in that way.
No comments:
Post a Comment