If you haven't heard from Me Lately

My leadership posts have been very provocative and generated some challenging and, for me at least, thought inspiring and rather lengthy off-the-blog dialogues.

In addition, current CGGC events have resulted in several interesting and important notes.

And, I'm very busy on the job.

I'm waaaaay behind in replying to EVERYONE.

All of you who haven't heard from me read this blog sporadically at least. So, I'm sending one note to all y'all.

I will reply as soon as opportunity allows.

Thanks for sharing your wisdom and experience with me.

My most Fascinating Post Ever...

It has to be the one about the leadership ability of the manager of the Front End of the super market that I work in.

The post has spawned some interesting off-the-blog conversation.

I am steadfast in my conviction that the only leader in a kingdom is the king. I've been critical of the desire of, mostly, men who hold positions of authority in the institutional church, to declare themselves to be leaders and to set, for themselves, the task of developing other leaders.

I've pointed out that, as far as I can tell, no one actually follows those people and that they aren't inspiring anyone and that the whole leadership development scheme has been, to this point, a colossal bust.

Yet,...

...while Jesus taught servanthood, even telling the Twelve to aspire to be the slave of all, not to be like the leaders of the Gentiles...

...while He was praised, among early disciples, because He made Himself nothing, taking the very nature of a servant who humbled Himself and became obedient to death...

...He did challenge people: "Come, follow me."

While leadership is only the king's and, in the Kingdom of God, leadership...GREATNESS...is defined by self-denial and service of, even, the least of these...

...being followed is essential to the expansion of the Kingdom of God.

I've said. And, I say. This is not about being a leader in any way that people outside of the Kingdom of God speak of leadership.

Jesus didn't call it leadership.

Jesus didn't train or develop leaders.

The early disciples who were essential to the expansion of the Kingdom didn't think of themselves as leaders.

("Paul, a servant of Christ Jesus, called to be an apostle..." [Rom. 1:1])

Whatever it is that the institutional church's self-proclaimed leaders are chasing after, two things are true about it.

1. It's definitely real.
2. It's not leadership.

It seems to me that, in hoping to be leaders who are developing leaders, our self-proclaimed leaders are looking to the world for their wisdom.

They are not looking to Jesus and the early Christian movement.

And...and who can dispute this?...they are failing.

And, they will fail.

Let's turn, not to the world, but to Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith.

Let's read the Word with open hearts and minds.

Let's learn lessons from the history of the Kingdom.

Let's repent of worldly ways.

"I just want someone to bid me to come and die."

I've been in the midst of a chat with a friend. The chat is focused on the bland and benign communication that comes down from the CGGC mountaintops to the body.

Characterized in my own words, my friend actually brought this up and noted, as I'll say it, that what we get, from on high in the CGGC, is comforting and encouraging but not confronting and challenging.

This chat began a few weeks ago, and, in the wake of the latest eNews, I wrote to observe that we got more of the same bland, namby pamby stuff that we've become accustomed to and which is a profound frustration to us.

After a few comments on both sides, my friend paraphrased Dietrich Bonhoeffer in a way that made me well up with tears. Here's the whole brief remark:

I just want someone to bid me to come and die. Is that too much to ask?

I have two thoughts.

1. Yes, apparently, actually it is too much to ask, in the vision of anyone in CGGC leadership, though, the Lord is certainly screaming it in the Spirit.

2. This focus and passion describes precisely what CGGC leadership is missing out on.

We, in the CGGC, are encouraged, in this eNews issue, to be looking for beauty in this life,...

...while there are more than a few of us in the CGGC chomping at the bit to engage together in a lifestyle that, as Dietrich Bonhoeffer had it, pays the cost of discipleship.

-----------------

Gang,

Who doesn't know that we are decaying and declining?!?!?!!!!!

So, what's the message? As our ministry dies and the world around us goes to hell, let's be sure to see the beauty in that tragedy!?!

"I just want someone to bid me to come and die."

There are others, in the CGGC in addition to me, whose passion and conviction are being wasted while the people charged with leadership in our body seem to be content to keep us lukewarm and satisfied with our damnable spiritual state.

I, too, just want someone to bid me to come and die. Is that really too much to ask?

A Tension I deal with in every Prophetic Post

Before I click Publish for every prophetic post here, I struggle with two frames of reference that are, unquestionably, in tension with each other.

One of those frames is my conviction that I share, with Jeremiah, the call to uproot and tear down, to destroy and overthrow and to build and to plant. With only that orientation, in my opinion, no post I've ever entered here has been harsh or firm enough.

The other frame of reference comes from Paul's wisdom, shared in his letter to the Colossians (3:12), "Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience."

Compassion, kindness, holiness, gentleness and patience.

With this goal in mind, certainly nothing I've ever written here has been nearly as gracious as it should be.

This prophecy thing is extremely emotional. Much of the message I believe I receive from Him, I receive stewing in emotion.

It should be understandable that much of the emotion is negative. Our Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing is not blessing us. And, He's not pleased with our pursuit of church-bound traditions. And, I believe, I feel some of that.

Still, He Himself is compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

I feel His sadness and His yearning for genuine connection with us.

So, when I'm polishing off a post, I, sometimes, imagine a continuum ranging from 0 to 10, with 0 being pure uproot, tear down, destroy, overthrow and 10 being unblemished compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience.

That last one, about my friend and his suggestion that, in lieu of the new New Strategic Plan, the Conference just send everyone to Disney World, was about a 3.

How sad and angry must He be that the hierarchs simply run around in the same circles to pursue useless traditions He will never bless!

How irked must He be with the majority of Conference people who continue to approve fruitless programs and plans dreamt up by the hierarchs!

A Historically-Grounded Insight into the ERC Healthy Pastors Strategy

I had a brief exchange recently with a friend who is, let's say, not exactly wet behind the ears as far as the ways of what, back in the day, was still called the East Pennsylvania Conference of the Churches of God.

The two of us have seen a lot. Many reruns...

...but not much that is new.

My good buddy noted to me, and apparently others as well, that the strategy built into the ERC's new New Strategic Plan has been tried before.

He put it into perspective for me in this way:

If they took everyone to Disney World we would have better success. 

No doubt at all.

-------------------

One of the ongoing failings of people who are breathing the thin air atop the highest ERC mountain is their conviction that they have just invented a brand-spanking-new gizmo that they are calling the wheel.

-------------------

Note to this new batch of hierarchs:

Your new New Strategic Plan ain't new.

Integral to the staffing plan which you just dumped, was an intense focus on supporting and building up the pastors of the ERC.

There was even a Director of Pastoral Care...

...as well as a whole team of Pastoral Care Workers!

And, for that matter,...

...there was also a Director of Congregational Care...

...who, if he'd succeeded, would have already empowered the existence of a whole gaggle of healthy life-giving churches.

Nuthin new.

Nuthin new at all!

Those wheels have already been invented...

...and,...

...gone flat.

What must we do? We must repent.

Three Ways My Ministry is Received in the CGGC

I have been thinking about what I write here, and how other things I say and do, are received in the CGGC.

I see three responses.

1. The, He's a leper, response.

This was, according to still unsubstantiated rumor, the response of the delegates to ERC Conference in session a few years back.

According only to what some have told me, the motion was made, and debated and approved, on the Conference floor that my ordination certificate be recalled by the leaders of the Conference.

To this point, it has not been recalled. Still, several people tell me that the Conference in session took that action.

And, that rumored action is one way my ministry is received by some.

By some, I'm considered to be a pariah, someone worth only being cast out.

2. The, Just ignore him and maybe he'll shut up or go away, response.

I get a lot of this, though, after all these years, that sentiment has proved to be baseless and wishful thinking.

As an example? My posts on the CGGC eNews blog. So far, for the most part, comments I enter on the blog have been accepted by the administrator and have been published.

Yet, while others' comments receive a response from time to time, my just dangle out there as if, as I've said before, they are out-loud flatulence in polite society.

I have no idea how many people actually read the eNews and I don't know if more people read it than read this blog or not...

...and, of course, the mountaintoppers in Findlay don't know that either.

It's possible that this blog has a larger or, at least, more highly focused and motivated readership that the official CGGC blog.

And, I wonder if the mountaintoppers are afraid not to accept my comments for publication out of fear that more people would know they didn't publish than if they do.

Either way, there might be one comment they didn't publish. I don't remember.

But, they always ignore what they publish from me.

Across the CGGC, there's, apparently, a lot of ignoring going on.

3. Active acceptance of and engagement with me and my words.

This is, by far, the least common response.

It comes from some very high CGGC peaks as well as some deep and forgotten or nearly forgotten CGGC valleys. And, many CGGC elevations in between.

I never expose the identity of these people and always carefully protect their anonymity if I mention them in passing.

I often wonder how open these people are about being in contact with me, though I never ask.

If I'd ever be tempted to keep quiet, it is for the sake of these people that I'd always keep going, as long as I'm able and I believe that the Lord is giving me a message.

Should Lance be a Radical Voice/Live a Radical Life?

I'm still thinking about Lance's eNews article on the death of Martin Luther King, Jr., and of radicalism in the history of the Church of God and of the possibility of radicalism in the CGGC today...and of Lance's own ability, or inability, to be a radical voice and to live a radical life.

And, I'm tweaking what I said in my initial post.

It's true that, at this relatively late stage in his life, Lance has not yet spoken or lived radically. (Though I do believe that Lance often does think radically.)

I still think that there is a price to pay for being radical...the price of being willing to be hated, and to, in all probability, actually BE hated, and that Lance has not paid that price and doesn't seem to be willing to pay that price.

My tweaking has to do with this:

I suspect that Lance should not be a radical voice and live a radical life because it's probably true (I say probably) that, in the Lord, Lance is not a radical. (Again, I say probably.) And, that there's nothing wrong with that in and of itself. 

In the history of the people of God, radicals are important but their number is few.

----------------

As Lance pointed out, in his quote of Richard Kern from General Eldership sessions in 1968, John Winebrenner was a radical. As Lance also demonstrates, Winebrenner's words and lifestyle generated extreme, nasty and even violent opposition.

In its early days, the Church of God movement, as a whole, was, unquestionably, radical...

...however, while the body itself was radical, not every person in the Church of God was a radical.

In its movement days, the people of the Church of God accepted and empowered the relatively small number of radicals who were a part of the body.

----------------

And, as Lance points out in his article, it is at this point that today's CGGC is precisely unlike the Church of God in the days that it was a Spirit-empowered, dynamic and growing movement.

As Lance says it, "We don't like radicals."

In our movement days, we loved and empowered our radicals and, even the members of the movement who were not radical themselves, followed our radicals' radical ways.

----------------

It seems to me that Lance, and the others who were on the top of the CGGC mountain ten years ago, appreciated and, even loved, the radical words and ways of the first members of the Church of God.

They slightly tweaked and de-Kingdom-ified...

...and, therefore, churchified...

...the founding vision of the Church of God spoken by Winebrenner on its very first day...

...and, adopted its radical words as the official Mission Statement of the CGGC in 2010.

But, what about our founders' radical ways since then?

Lance said it well, "We don't like radicals."

We can easily adopt a slightly domesticated version of the movement's radical words...

...so long as it's understood that the words are only official CGGC Talk-ism.

But, putting those words in action?

Uh uh.

My own experience suggests that the person who attempts to walk that talk is treated harshly.

----------------

As a matter of history, Lance was high up on the mountain when the Mission Statement was penned and approved and he has been on the highest peak now for several years.

Lance has not been a radical voice nor has he lived a radical life.

And, Lance's modest and moderate talk and walk are not a problem.

The fruit of Lance's life proves that Lance is not radical.

Either Lance is not radical in the Lord or he likes being liked too much to pay the price of hatred for being radical.

Either way, Lance is a moderate, not radical voice.

His is a white bread lifestyle, not the on-the-edge life of people like John Winebrenner.

And that is obvious. And, for now, it will have to be enough.

----------------

Here, in my opinion, is what is not enough...

...and, why we will continue to decline and decay.

What Lance has not done, at least from what I can see, is empower the small number of CGGC radical voices and seekers of a radical way.

Those people languish, they are weakened, with Lance on the top of the mountain...

...and, that is the case despite Lance's appreciation for radicals which he expresses so eloquently in his eNews article.

In my opinion, it's not a bad thing at all that Lance is not a radical voice and that he fails to live a radical life.

What's bad for the CGGC and for the cause of the Kingdom is that Lance has, as far as I can tell, done nothing that would empower the radicals whom the Spirit has given to the CGGC.

We continue to be moderate and mellow. We continue to decline and decay.

We must repent.

Lance's Latest eNews Article

It's a good one. I hope you read it.

I entered a comment, which the administrator of the blog published almost immediately. I hope you read that, too.

Lance writes about the death of the Reverend Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., King's leadership of the Civil Rights Movement, radicalism in the history of the Church of God and the question of whether the CGGC can be radical today.

Lance notes at one point, "We don't like radicals."

And, don't I know that!!!!!!

Lance closes his article with a series of challenges raised in the form of questions. His first question, which he asks himself and which he doesn't answer is, "Am I willing to be a radical voice and live a radical life?"

One part of my comment on the eNews article addressed that question.

I said that, in my opinion, Lance doesn't ask that question in the best way. I suggest that a better question is, "Am I willing to be HATED?"

I met Lance for the first time a long time ago and, while I don't know Lance intimately, I know him well enough to say, for certain, that Lance is able to think radical thoughts. I have no doubt that he actually does think some radical thoughts.

Still, the obvious answer to the question Lance asks about himself, about his willingness to be a radical voice and live a radical life, is: Absolutely not!

He has shown that he's not willing to pay the price.

I pointed out, in my comment on the eNews article, that Lance is liked and loved by nearly everyone. You may be neutral on Lance if you don't know him well, but, if you know him very well at all, you almost certainly like him, and like him a lot.  I know I do.

Lance says in the article that he's not yet 50 years old. But, he has to be fairly close to it.

You don't get to be Lance's age being so universally liked without wanting to be liked and working hard at being liked. 

I believe that, as long as Lance likes being liked he'll never be the person who lives the radical life he'd like to live.

----------------

So, Lance, for now, you're not willing to be a radical voice and live a radical life because you're not willing to pay the price that comes with it. You're not willing, if necessary, to provoke hate over a matter of principle.

In his article, Lance quotes an address Richard Kern gave to General Eldership in 1968 which highlights the radicalism of John Winebrenner and details the intense, even vicious opposition Winebrenner provoked in many people.

John Winebrenner was, as Lance phrases it, "a radical voice." More than that, as many CGGC people know, Winebrenner lived a radical life.

And many people hated John Winebrenner. They absolutely despised him and everything he cared about and stood for.

Yet, over the course of several decades, John Winebrenner was the radical voice Lance admires. He lived that radical life...for a long time.

Winebrenner was able to do that because he was willing to be hated if he had to be hated for living the truth.

In my comment on the eNews article, I also mentioned Jesus.

Jesus was hated, lied about, betrayed, denied and crucified because He was deemed radical.

----------------

In John Winebrenner's day, many followers of Jesus were bold, they were radical. They were uncompromising on matters of truth.

Many people today call Winebrenner's era The Second Great Awakening. Everyone who knows the history knows that the gospel of the Kingdom spread throughout the land in a way that has rarely been equalled...

...and, that the world was turned upside down by a relatively small number of radical disciples who were willing to face hatred and opposition in the cause of truth.

In that day, loads of people hated Winebrenner and others like him. Yet, in that day, to be a Christian meant something.

And, despite the opposition, the often violent, and sometimes deadly opposition, people who had been unbelievers repented of sin and embraced the way of Jesus in large numbers.

----------------

In our day, sadly, pathetically, the church declines and decays. Lightning rod figures, like Winebrenner, who stood boldly in the face of hatred and opposition, these days, are few. And, those people have never been highly regarded in our body.

There is a cause and effect relationship here.

Lance, I hope, one day, you will be willing to be a radical voice...

...and to live a radical life.

But thinking of Jesus and of Winebrenner and of Martin Luther King, Jr., to do so, you will have to pay the price. You will have to be willing to be hated, as they were.

If you pay that price, you will be hated...

...but others will love you even more than ever.

The command to love the Lord with all your heart, soul, mind and strength entails many things. I think that a willingness to face hatred and opposition from people in order to serve Him is a part of it.

We have to be willing to pay a price.

We must repent.

The most Effective Leader I Know

He's 28 years old.

He's now the manager of the Front End of the Super Market in which I function as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God.

He's my boss...as things go now, the only person in the department with authority over me.

He leads with great skill.

And, though our work is humble, and often humbling, I consider it an honor to work for him...and WITH him.

There are 50 or so people who work in our department in any given week, ranging in age from 16 to 82.

Call him Jim, is both liked and respected...

...so much so that last summer, when he returned from a week's vacation to work a late-in-the-day shift, the other front enders, mostly high schoolers, actually applauded as he walked to the Front End.

Jim's a nice guy but, by no means, charismatic. As a person, he's nice and normal. But, he's an inspiring leader, probably because he's completely real, totally unaffected.

----------------

Because so many of the churchy people I know are, these days, seemingly obsessed with being leaders and developing leaders, I've spent some time trying to analyze Jim's leadership style to grasp what makes him effective as a leader, far more so than any churchy leader I, personally, have ever known.

Before I do that, one other comment. Jim's not hired to be a leader. He's paid, simply, to be a manager, and he manages well. A leader is who he is. It's not something that Jim does.

Here are some components of how Jim leads so effectively:

1. Jim is always himself. What he does, in any moment, flows from who he is. Clearly, Jim works on making himself a better self. But, he is always honest and natural with himself and about himself. No one ever has to spend energy trying to figure out what Jim really thinks or wants. Jim's Jim.

2. Jim always...and, I mean always...takes on himself the hardest task and the most unpleasant job. As a member of the management team, I see this more clearly than others. There are several difficult and unpleasant shifts that managers have to work each month. Jim creates the schedule and he always takes the worst and hardest work for himself. He never asks of anyone what he doesn't do himself. To paraphrase, Jim doesn't come to be a leader who is served but as a servant who gives far more than he asks or demands. We follow by choice because he seems never to think of himself as a leader. He leads by example. He rarely actually functions as a leader. He never needs to. The members of the team follow because they can't imagine doing otherwise.

3. Jim communicates more than he needs to. I never have a question about managerial concerns because he regularly initiates conversations with me about managerial goings ons that I consider to be above my pay grade. And, he almost always does it in the presence of workers who are not managers, thus, demonstrating to them that I share in his authority AND conveying to them openly that I have his blessing AND allowing them to know that they themselves are privileged to have knowledge of the inner workings of the team. Having said that, when confidential matters need to be discussed, he keeps confidences with the greatest of care.

4. Jim relates to me, and others, based on who we are. Jim's a bright guy and is college educated. He has a business degree from a very decent private liberal arts college. He knows stuff. He has, while we were working, engaged me in conversation about the thinking of Soren Kierkegaard, whom Jim knows is one of my top five heroes in the history of the Kingdom. The last of those chats he was initiated by Jim. Jim talks baseball, fantasy football, NASCAR, country music, even, on rare occasions, politics and religion.

5. Jim is very intimately involved in the lives of the least able of our coworkers. One thing I love about the store is that it hires people, who might not otherwise be employable, to do simple tasks. Among them, are the young men who push shopping carts back into the store from the parking lot. These guys are on the Front End team. Jim and I have a relationship that is restricted to the work we do. But, Jim socializes, outside of work, with some of the cart pushers. As an example, he provided the ticket for and the transportation to last night's major league baseball game between the Phillies and the Florida Marlins to one of the guys who pushes carts.

----------------

I've made it clear here that I think that, in the Kingdom of God, the only leader is the King.

Still, churchy people try to be leaders and to develop other leaders. What they do, to me, borders on or, even, achieves blasphemy.

And, as far as I can tell, those churchy leadership types are failing miserably.

And, none of them serve and live incarnationally in the way Jim does. Jim is more Jesus-like than any of them.

Jim, as far as I can tell, never tries to lead, yet he's followed. All those churchy types, so hyped up on being and developing leaders? They try their derndest to lead, yet rarely inspire and, almost never, are followed.

None of them that I know personally succeed to lead.

Maybe they should mimic Jesus, the servant, in the way Jim does.

Ageless Wisdom to help me Handle the Responsibilities of my Job Promotion

I received a fair amount of good natured, off the blog, response to yesterday's post about the change in my responsibilities on my job.

One note included advice from a historically important leadership guru, the famous, Pastor Alfred E. Newman, whom many of you are already aware is best known for his rule for life:

"What, me worry?..."

...which is a paraphrase of Philippians 4:6a.

So, thanks to my anonymous colleague for bringing leadership perspective to this new chapter in my ambassadorial mission.

Talk about leadership development!

Phillies' Manager Gabe Kapler Viewed with a Prophetic CGGC Eye

My days as a fan of the Philadelphia Phillies began, sitting in front of the TV, beside Grandpa Sloat, when Art Mahaffey was the ace of the pitching staff...so what? 1961? 57 years ago?

For the most part, rooting for the Phils is an exercise in self-flagellation.

A few years back, the Phils became the first professional sports organization to pass the 10,000 loss mark and, they're still setting that standard, achieving nearly 100 losses in each of the last few years.

So, the Phillies' fan community was abuzz, in the off season, when the team hired 42 year-old Gabe Kapler as its new manager.

Kapler is young and has virtually no managerial experience and was unknown to most fans despite a fairly long, yet undistinguished, career as a major league player.

However, as soon as Kapler began giving interviews to the press, particularly on TV and radio, it became clear why he was hired. And, optimism about the team's future skyrocketed.

The man can talk. And, he can cast a vision! He can inspire hope.

As opening day approached, it was common, in the world of Phillie Phandom, to hear experts predict that the team, which went 66-96 in 2017, would have wins in the mid 80s and complete for a playoff spot.

----------------

I, however, am a person of the Churches of God, General Conference.

I'm accustomed to hearing good, and even radical, talk. I've heard world-class vision cast many times...

...and, I've learned that talk doesn't, by any means, necessarily, equate to walk.

For two reasons:

1. People sometimes talk pretty without any intention of doing pretty.
2. People are sometimes incompetent to execute their pretty talk.

So, Gabe's talk left me unconvinced.

----------------

Five games into the season, I'm seeing CGGC-type results from Gabe Kapler's leadership.

The team is in the cellar and is competing for the distinction of having the worst record in major league baseball AND the majority of the losses are being blamed directly on Gabe's managerial decisions...

...despite the fact that it is universally agreed that the Phillies have better players, by far, than they had, at this time, last season.

-----------------

As I've been walking in the Spirit, the most recent urgency I'm picking up, is that it is what a person of Christ does, is the only thing that ultimately matters.

After Paul says, in Ephesians 2:8-9, that it is by grace we are saved, through faith, he says, in verse 10,

"For we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works, which God prepared in advance for us to do."

Jesus's Sheep and Goats teaching makes it clear that He will reject everyone who doesn't actually do exceptional acts of mercy.

In the CGGC, we are talkers...

...really good talkers...

...better talkers in the past decade or so than we have ever been.

Yet, the Lord of all authority and power and grace and mercy and blessing is not blessing us.

We need to worry more about what we do...

...and less, far less, about how well we talk our talk.

-----------------

Here's to wishing that both Gabe, and we, DO better.

A, uh, Promotion on the Job

Long story short:

There are five Front End managers in the store. Nearly two years ago, I was offered the Manager 3 position. I accepted.

It's probably a more complicated job than you'd imagine. There's definitely more to it than I expected when I accepted the position. It's far more intellectually challenging than being a pastor--for me, at least. It's a different kind of thinking.

The way that the manager positions are designed, Managers 1 and 2 do more of the thinking work than the other managers.

As time has passed, I've assumed some of the work of the first two managers...and have volunteered to do more of that work than I've been permitted to do.

-----------------

So, Manager 1 had an appointment with a doctor on Monday and, then, called Number 2 to say that she learned that she will need to have two surgeries and will not be able to return to work for as long as 8 months.

We knew that something like this was a possibility. So, we were not surprised. But, we were not as prepared as we might have been.

The bottom line is that, for all intents and purposes, I, suddenly am, in effect, Manager 2.

I am Number 2. (No doubt, I will soon know the answer to the question, "Who does Number 2 work for?" Sorry.)

Anyway,...

...I'm being initiated into the world of the Elite Front End managers at the store.

I'm an old dog to be learning all these new tricks.

-----------------

My sense is that my actual, real mission on the job...to function as an ambassador of the Kingdom of God...is compromised to a degree when so large a part of my concentration is directed toward achieving competence on the store job itself.

Pray for me, for my small role in advancing the cause of the Kingdom.

Easter Bunny Stew for the House Church Easter Meal

So, Evie and I were prepping for the arrival of the gang for our gathering on what you probably call Easter Sunday...what Evie's calling Resurrection Sunday...and, what I call this Sunday.

We were having, as the main course of our meal, barbequed beef brisket...and hot dogs, for the yung'nes who may not like the beef.

We didn't eat the meal that is traditional in these parts...ham...because ham's not popular among our people.

Saturday, when all of the ingredients of our part of the meal had been purchased, Evie and I were chatting about our nontraditional meal and, through stream of consciousness, began to contemplate what next year's meal might be.

I think that I was the one who suggested rabbit stew because it was Evie who took the thought to the place that it would logically go and said,

"And, we'll call it Easter Bunny stew!"

And, we decided to do try to do that next year.

Since neither of us hunt, getting the meat will be an issue.

-----------------

I've said, recently, that I rarely read Facebook. Evie, though, does check it out periodically.

During the past week, she'd mentioned to me which churches are talking about Easter Egg hunts and other blendings of the pagan and pure for their Easter Sunday activities...

...and, being the poor wordsmith I am, I have no adjective to describe her attitude toward that sort of thing.

Appalled and disdained don't touch it.

So, next year, if we can get our hands on some rabbit, and if she can find a way to prepare it that is appetizing, we'll spend Resurrection Sunday proclaiming the victory of Jesus over death...

...but also, what?, making our own statement on the sin of mixing pagan ritual with the most precious of all pure truths...

...that He lives.

He faced death down...

...He crushed it...

...He, as the song says, "ate it up and spit it out."

...FOREVER.

So, we'll take your Easter Bunny and we will eat it.