CGGC Talk-ism in the Finley Era

Relatively early in the development of my Characteristics of the CGGC Brand , I described "To Talk is to Walk-ism."

Prophets are obsessed, ultimately, with what people actually do. And, at the time, it became clear to me that one reality that describes our entire body that there is a stark and raving disconnect between what we say and what we do.

In fact, we've done nothing noteworthy in more than ten years.

But, at the time I first described Talk-ism in the CGGC, we were talking as big as the Church of God talked in its movement days, when it was doing the big things that matched its talk.

I first described Talk-ism when Ed Rosenberry was CGGC Executive Director.

Talk-ism in that day had a very distinct quality. It seems to me, to this day, that, during that time, we believed that talk is walk.

Our General Conference Administration Council unanimously approved a Mission Statement saying that we commit ourselves to "establishing churches on the New Testament plan." The General Conference in session approved that Mission Statement without objection.

And, that, apparently, in the mind of CGGC leaders, was job done.

We'd said it.

And, just as the Lord spoke the universe into existence by His word, so, it seems, we had churches functioning as New Testament churches, simply because we said so.

Not one thing was actually done to define, in community, what the New Testament church is in the 21st century. Nothing was done to change anything in our churches.

Why was nothing done to align talk with walk? I'm convinced that, in the Rosenberry Era, we believed that talk is walk.

All we ever did was talk. And, we talked AMAZING talk!

Yet, other than the talk, nothing changed...including the increase in the rate of our numerical decline and spiritual decay...and the fact that the Lord of all authority and power and blessing wasn't honoring our walk-less talk. If anything, He was cursing it.

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It was my hope that, when Ed resigned and Lance became the CGGC E.D., that Lance would use his authority to translate our truly excellent talk into action.

Sadly, he's not done that.

It's been three and a half years now since Lance set up shop in the corner office on Melrose Avenue in Findlay.

Ask yourself: What has the CGGC actually done in Lance's time?!

The most read post on this blog last year, in 2018, was on why Brent Sleasman's call, in some CGGC eNews articles, for CGGC people to engage people who don't follow Jesus in important conversations will "come to nothing."

What Brent wrote, as wise and articulate as it was, has, precisely as I predicted, come exactly to what I predicted it would.

NOTHING.

Everything comes to nothing these days from CGGC leadership.

Why?

Because CGGC leadership never does anything.

What did Lance do to follow up Brent's articles? How did he provide the people of the CGGC with helpful and practical strategies intended to assist them in doing something new and different, something that certainly would be worthwhile but certainly is difficult, particularly when it's first attempted?

Nothing.

This is a precise real-life depiction of Talk-ism in the Finley era.

I used to joke that Ed talked as if he believed that what early disciples accomplished, by the power of the Spirit, in the first chapters of the Book of Acts, couldn't hold a candle to what was happening in the CGGC under his leadership.

Talk-ism today works in a different way.

Lance is the man with a billion brainstorms.

And, I'm convinced that many of his ideas are good. However, there is never, EVER follow through.

This year long APEST push? Typical. Lots of ideas. But, nothing practical, beyond the ideas in the articles, for discipling the body into implementing the ideas.

More tragically, there's no reason to think that Lance and Brandon believe their own ideas enough to put them into practice in their own ministry.

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If you read this blog regularly, you know that I am normally careful to make a practical suggestion to implement changes that I see as being necessary...

...even if it's always the same suggestion: We must repent.

That's precisely where Jesus and the apostles began. "Repent and believe..."

One other specific practical suggestion in this context:

Encourage Lance by letting him know that you think an idea is a good one and then demand that he either help you implement the idea or put you in touch with others who can.

These days, we have too much talk. Way too many ideas...good ideas. But, even the best idea, if it is not carried out, comesto nothing.

But, and this is where my heart breaks for the CGGC, and all of Western Christianity, it is righteousness that is the fruit of a living faith that saves a person and makes him/her a disciple of Jesus.

We are producing lots of talk but little, or no, righteousness.

We must repent.