Paying for the Sins of our CGGC Fathers

This post derives from a point I made in my eNews blog comment to Lance's June 22, 2018 article.

Lance suggested that CGGC people are afraid to fail and that it's our fear of failing that prevents many of our, uh, churches from engaging in Kingdom oriented activities such as ministering to the children in their neighborhoods.

In my comment, I actually defended the people of the CGGC. I argued that the CGGC people I know love the Lord and are faithful to Him and are serving Him according to their callings.

And, I also suggested that the problem that Lance points out is a real problem but that the cause of the problem is not fear.

The problem, I said, is that, in the CGGC, we've been doing two things wrong for a long time and that we now have to pay the price for what we've done:

1. We've overvalued the shepherd and teacher gifts to excess and
2. We've created a culture which is frustrating for apostles and prophets and evangelists so that men and women with those spiritual gifts have left us.

I said that the people who remain, at least the people I know personally, are, truly, walking in the Spirit and doing the things that the Spirit gives them the vision to do. But, because nearly everyone left is a shepherd or a teacher, what these people do when they walk in the Spirit is church, not Kingdom, focused.

And, of course, I noted that we must repent.

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In the CGGC, in 2018, we are in a difficult place. The, almost exclusively, men who went before us have thwarted the Spirit for generations.

The Word says that the household of God has been built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets. But, our CGGC fathers have built their church on the ministry of shepherds and teachers functioning in the role of the parish priest.

As a body, we are not what we might be.

Our forebears began digging the hole we're in a long time ago.

No doubt at all, they were sincere. No doubt they were well-intentioned.

I'm certain that the men who began digging the hole, all those years ago, believed they were doing a good thing.

But, the testimony of history is that they were wrong.

We are in the midst of an era of numerical decline and spiritual decay that threatens our very future.

Today, we are not writing on a blank slate.

We are standing at the bottom of a deep pit.

And, because of the sins of our CGGC fathers, we lack people who live confidently and self-consciously as apostles and prophets and evangelists...

...and, they normally oppose any who attempt to DO what apostles, prophets and evangelists do.

We are led, across the body, by people who fall into two categories.

First, people who are shepherds and teachers, of course.
Second, a very, very few who are apostles, prophets and evangelists...

...but who have been domesticated by the shepherd/teacher culture and hide their calling under a bushel.

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So, what can we do? Is it too late? Is there anything at all we still can do?

Honestly? Prophetically, I'm not certain.

But, we must try.

It may be too late but the Lord is a God of mercy.

In my eNews comment, I said that current and past CGGC leaders must confess their error (sin) in creating a church culture that is overloaded with shepherds and teachers.

That, I believe, is essential.

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Do they believe that they've sinned? I don't think so. Not yet.

And, until they begin to believe it...and feel godly sorrow over it...and act on that...I can't see a reversal of the current state of decline and decay in the CGGC.

I could write a book about this. I couldn't write a book on much. But, I could write a book on this.

We must repent.