There are several insights I've had and have been working through and holding on to for some time. All of them seem important to me.
I've tried blogging these things in the past, but have not succeeded because they seem too big for me to fit into a blog post.
So, I'm going to simply lay them out with broad brush strokes. Perhaps I'll add detail later.
One of these has to with the waste of time and resources that has been the disaster the CGGC calls, the Missional Leadership Initiative.
Please understand that what follows describes broad principles and that I'm certain that my observation is essentially correct.
----------------
I was one of the participants in the first cycle of MLI. I recall the excitement and expectation that accompanied that program's launch.
Yet, not a single thing that was in my mind regarding what MLI might achieve has come to fruition.
Certainly, some individuals within the CGGC now have a new understanding of what it means to follow Jesus. And, the ministries of some churches have been altered.
Yet, as Brandon Kelly recently acknowledged in his fill-in-for-Lance eNews article, becoming missional is not adding to Sunday morning numbers and it, certainly, has not made disciples of Jesus out of people served by CGGC missional activities.
Reggie envisioned to us in the first cycle of MLI his hope that MLI would create three realities in the CGGC:
Frustration,
Agitation, and
Critical Mass. (Critical mass being the smallest amount of material necessary to maintain a nuclear reaction.)
Ironically, in the eNews article, Brandon acknowledged that people are frustrated WITH MLI and its failings.
Sadly, MLI has not created frustration over the CGGC's broken and dysfunctional ways. It has not sparked the existence of a critical mass remnant to push the whole body to transformation.
And, I see now that this tragic reality was always inevitable...
...because CGGC leaders and CGGC people are not interested in repenting of CGGC sin.
----------------
Reggie McNeal changed my life through his book, The Present Future.
It is the vision described in that book that lays the theological foundation of MLI.
However, Reggie is a Baptist. As such, his polity...his understanding of how the Kingdom functions...is centered on the local church.
In MLI, the application of the truth priniples is very much centered on the church.
According to Reggie's vision, it is the CHURCH that should be outward focused and Kingdom oriented.
In MLI, Reggie planted the seeds of missional living among the churches of the CGGC. However, while CGGC soil may resemble Baptist Congregational soil, CGGC soil is neither Baptist nor is it Congregational.
CGGC soil is not actually CHURCH focused...
...as much as it is PASTOR and FLOCK oriented.
So, the failure of MLI can be understood as being the result of this real-life equation:
Baptist Congregationalism + CGGC Flockism --> Disaster
----------------
In the end, what has worked marvelously and has transformed many Baptist (and other) congregations has failed in the CGGC...
...as has every other CGGC program and strategy.
----------------
To tweak the parable of Jesus, the failure of MLI is not with the seed that has been sown. It is with the CGGC soil on which the seed landed.
The Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing is not blessing us. And, He will not.
WE are the problem.
We must repent.
No comments:
Post a Comment