I've been sitting on this post for several days, though I have had some conversation with people in my, uh, "network" about the Jim Moss memo and the new New Strategic Plan as the conversation heats up.
I, of course, wasn't on the mailing list of people who received the memo. I'm thankful to my friend who sent it to me.
I've been trying to be careful, during the time I've had the memo, to allow my many thoughts and emotions to settle so that what's consistent with my spiritual gift and calling may become more clear.
What we prophets do is see issues of truth in the big picture. And, I've been trying to relax to allow myself to see clearly what there is for me to see that serves the Kingdom...and our community.
Big picture: The ERC leadership culture has, to use a boxing metaphor, come out swinging.
Or, switch sports, this memo is an all-out blitz...
...a full-court press.
It is, perhaps, an aggressive, at the very least, assertive, first step, right out of the batter's box to take control.
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A crucial New Testament principle is that it is what one does that is all that really matters.
Certainly, it is faith that saves us.
But, after Jesus began His ministry calling on all people to believe the gospel, He made it clear, in Matthew 25, for instance, that it's how one lives in faith that will determine whether s/he will stand before Him among the sheep or the goats.
And, after Paul says that we are saved by grace through faith, he adds that we are God's workmanship created in Christ Jesus to do good works. (Eph. 2:8-10)
So, what the ERC leadership culture actually does to begin the conversation about the new New Strategic Plan in its first post-Kevin communication is important.
What the ERC hierarchs really want is to get the new New Strategic Plan approved.
And, Jim Moss himself is the incarnation of their intention, as he himself makes clear.
Jim was chosen to be the ERC's Interim Executive Director because he strongly supports the plan...
...and, he even helped design it!
He's in place so that...
...when...
...WHEN...
...the plan is approved, the Conference will save four to six months in getting the plan going.
I believe Jim, in the memo, when he says that he didn't seek the job, as Interim Executive Director. Hiring him was the idea of a whole group of hierarchs.
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One note of theological interpretation:
These guys are doing what they can to CONTROL the process and the Conference gathering in January, not to SERVE the Eldership.
The CGGC is a conference, an eldership. Humanly speaking, our highest authority is the community when it is gathered.
We are not led by bishops. We truly believe that the Spirit speaks to us through the community.
The hierarchs are attempting to taking control. They are not allowing the Spirit to be in control. They are trying to lead. They are not functioning as servants who are in place, at the pleasure of the Eldership, to carry out the ministry of the Conference...
...they are behaving as if the Conference exists to accept and carry out their wisdom...
...to be led by them, not by the Spirit speaking to them through, well,...
...our community.
It truly has always been the official belief of the Church of God that the Spirit speaks to the body through the community of the called, i.e., the Conference, the Eldership,...
...and that people who hold staff positions or hold commission membership serve the Conference,...
...not LEAD it.
I am sure that Jim, and the rest of the hierarchs, have only the best of intentions but the tone of Jim's memo defies the covenant we have with each other in the ERC and CGGC.
Thinking theologically, Jim Moss, as Jesus explained it, has been chosen to be the ERC's Interim Slave-To-All, not the hierarchs' key man in getting the new New Strategic Plan approved.
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The truth is that attendance at those Round Table Meetings was very low and, based on the PDF, many of the people who attended them have reservations about the plan.
If our hierarchs were true to what we believe about our community, they'd be taking the initiative in serving the Eldership. Jim would not be thinking about getting the plan approved and implemented. He'd be thinking about increasing knowledge about and understanding of the plan...
...then allowing the Spirit to speak through the community.
I believe that the Conference does not need to be convinced to rubber stamp the new New Strategic Plan. It should be invited into an informed conversation.
It should be called to prayer so that the Spirit can be heard...
...so that He will speak...
...and we will hear...
...as the community of the called.
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