On July 4, I wrote a post on reasons in our lives for sadness and discouragement.
One reason was our long-time friend I called Al had an aggressive form of brain cancer.
He'd just had surgery which was really to create more room for the tumor to grow before it ate away vital parts of his brain.
He chose not to have radiation and chemotherapy treatments and was told he probably had about six months.
He died two days ago.
I described Al as being aggressively anti-Christian. Our friendship spanned nearly 40 years.
It was a challenging relationship. We are as vigorous in our devotion to Jesus as Al was convinced that the church...he was raised Catholic and knew church much more than Jesus...was useless, if not outright evil. Al was very religious in his own way and was an active Unitarian Universalist.
In the end, we fought our spiritual battle to a draw.
While we agreed with much of what Al believed about organized and institutional Christianity, we could never get him to think of Jesus as more than a great prophet or teacher.
There were no last minute opportunities.
His mind went quickly.
We met weekly for many years and almost to the end and I recall hearing him speaking intelligently one week about a book we'd both read. The next week he could only mumble brief, meaningless phrases. Shortly after that, the tumor was discovered.
His wife told us that her greatest sadness is that his mind went so quickly that she didn't even get a chance to say goodbye.
So sad.
Thursday, August 22, 2019
Sunday, August 18, 2019
Who were You When You were Raw in Your Calling?
I've been thinking this thought for some time and wondering if I have the courage...and wisdom...to put it into human language faithfully.
Here goes.
------------------
I'm convinced that, if you have a ministry calling, your first awareness of that calling told who the Lord wants you to be in Him.
At any rate, that has been the case for me.
After many years, I found my way when I set aside the institutional training and theological education I received which prepared me to become a local church pastor.
I connected to the passions and joys of my first days, weeks and months of sensing a calling. And, I realized that those passions and joys...the vision once so alive in me...were still alive, though I had decided to suppress them in order to operate peacefully in the organized and institutional church.
I recalled, in those first moments, a joyful passion for truth above all things. And, though I didn't recognize it at the time, I connected to the passion and vision of the prophet.
I realized that, from the time I entered seminary and, shortly thereafter, was appointed, for the first time, as a local church pastor, I felt disoriented. I was an "ugly duckling," trying to do the job I was assigned to do, yet doing it uncomfortably and, usually, very poorly.
It was when I read Ephesians 4:13...not 4:11...that I began to live in a way I'd not been alive since I first began to believe I was called.
Ephesians 4:13 puts an expiration date on verse 11, "until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God..."
Ephesians 4:11 is still the way. Jesus is still giving some to be apostles...and prophets and evangelists and shepherds and teachers.
In reality, the passions and joys and visions I experienced when I first became aware of my calling aligned with the Word.
Prophets often pay a price to live in their calling among the people of the organized religion of their time and place. I've paid a price, though not the high price others have paid.
In spite of that, I feel more at peace than I ever did when I was attempting to be a faithful member of the institutional church.
------------------
It's at this point that wisdom is needed. It's because of what comes next that I've been so cautious about writing this post.
------------------
I've known Lance Finley for nearly 30 years.
When we first met, Lance was young. He was a seminary student but he was still raw in his calling.
And, he was a vastly different person than the man you probably know...the guy who occupies the corner office in the denominational headquarters building in Findlay. He was not the sophisticated, careful thinker who writes reasoned and moderate eNews articles that appear on the CGGC blog.
Two thoughts about the Lance I knew then have been floating through my mind.
1. That raw Lance was an iconoclast. (If you need to, look the word up. I know it's an unusual word, but it's the word that keeps coming to me, over and over again. The word fits perfectly.)
2. The raw Lance, I believe, might be the very person, walking in the Spirit's power and in his calling, to show us the way out of our decline and decay.
------------------
One of the Core Values talked in the Strategic Plan is, Daring Action.
Nothing about the plan is daring. The whole thing...
...including and especially the promise that, no matter who you are, you are not expected to adopt it, though we want you to talk about it...
...is daring.
The whole thing is tepid and timid.
So much so that it allows for talk about daring action but promises that no one is expected to practice anything daring.
Interestingly, the Lance I knew back in the day, lived every moment on the edge.
Back in the day, Lance was Daring Action in the flesh.
He was also charming and immensely likable in doing it. He was daring but never threatening.
He was an instigator. Lance could stir things up. He could promote change. He could make you question silly traditions, or icons.
If you're a geezer like I am, who knew him back then, you'll remember.
Lance stood out. He would, sometimes, make you feel uncomfortable as he made light of silly traditions and silly ways. But, and I'll say this only for myself. He never made me feel threatened.
That raw Lance, whom I remember so well, is gone. As far as I'm concerned, he's not forgotten.
Can today's Lance be convinced to be raw. Not immature, but real. True to who he was when his calling was fresh?
I hope so.
Because...
That Lance. That raw Lance. That guy, I believe, could be the person for this hour in the CGGC.
Here goes.
------------------
I'm convinced that, if you have a ministry calling, your first awareness of that calling told who the Lord wants you to be in Him.
At any rate, that has been the case for me.
After many years, I found my way when I set aside the institutional training and theological education I received which prepared me to become a local church pastor.
I connected to the passions and joys of my first days, weeks and months of sensing a calling. And, I realized that those passions and joys...the vision once so alive in me...were still alive, though I had decided to suppress them in order to operate peacefully in the organized and institutional church.
I recalled, in those first moments, a joyful passion for truth above all things. And, though I didn't recognize it at the time, I connected to the passion and vision of the prophet.
I realized that, from the time I entered seminary and, shortly thereafter, was appointed, for the first time, as a local church pastor, I felt disoriented. I was an "ugly duckling," trying to do the job I was assigned to do, yet doing it uncomfortably and, usually, very poorly.
It was when I read Ephesians 4:13...not 4:11...that I began to live in a way I'd not been alive since I first began to believe I was called.
Ephesians 4:13 puts an expiration date on verse 11, "until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God..."
Ephesians 4:11 is still the way. Jesus is still giving some to be apostles...and prophets and evangelists and shepherds and teachers.
In reality, the passions and joys and visions I experienced when I first became aware of my calling aligned with the Word.
Prophets often pay a price to live in their calling among the people of the organized religion of their time and place. I've paid a price, though not the high price others have paid.
In spite of that, I feel more at peace than I ever did when I was attempting to be a faithful member of the institutional church.
------------------
It's at this point that wisdom is needed. It's because of what comes next that I've been so cautious about writing this post.
------------------
I've known Lance Finley for nearly 30 years.
When we first met, Lance was young. He was a seminary student but he was still raw in his calling.
And, he was a vastly different person than the man you probably know...the guy who occupies the corner office in the denominational headquarters building in Findlay. He was not the sophisticated, careful thinker who writes reasoned and moderate eNews articles that appear on the CGGC blog.
Two thoughts about the Lance I knew then have been floating through my mind.
1. That raw Lance was an iconoclast. (If you need to, look the word up. I know it's an unusual word, but it's the word that keeps coming to me, over and over again. The word fits perfectly.)
2. The raw Lance, I believe, might be the very person, walking in the Spirit's power and in his calling, to show us the way out of our decline and decay.
------------------
One of the Core Values talked in the Strategic Plan is, Daring Action.
Nothing about the plan is daring. The whole thing...
...including and especially the promise that, no matter who you are, you are not expected to adopt it, though we want you to talk about it...
...is daring.
The whole thing is tepid and timid.
So much so that it allows for talk about daring action but promises that no one is expected to practice anything daring.
Interestingly, the Lance I knew back in the day, lived every moment on the edge.
Back in the day, Lance was Daring Action in the flesh.
He was also charming and immensely likable in doing it. He was daring but never threatening.
He was an instigator. Lance could stir things up. He could promote change. He could make you question silly traditions, or icons.
If you're a geezer like I am, who knew him back then, you'll remember.
Lance stood out. He would, sometimes, make you feel uncomfortable as he made light of silly traditions and silly ways. But, and I'll say this only for myself. He never made me feel threatened.
That raw Lance, whom I remember so well, is gone. As far as I'm concerned, he's not forgotten.
Can today's Lance be convinced to be raw. Not immature, but real. True to who he was when his calling was fresh?
I hope so.
Because...
That Lance. That raw Lance. That guy, I believe, could be the person for this hour in the CGGC.
Update on Evie's Heart Surgery
Evie's aortic valve was replaced one year and one day ago, as of today.
We knew since the early 1990s that the day would come when the surgery would be necessary.
We knew many things about the operation by the time surgery took place.
What we didn't know, really, is what to expect after the operation took place.
On her first day back from the hospital, after the operation, we discovered that Evie's heart was beating at a rate on nearly 100 beats per minute but her pulse was less than 50.
She called the surgeon whose staff told her that this is an issue for her cardiologist. So, we took her to our local hospital.
The first months post surgery were unexpected and stressful as the cardiologist struggled to get the heart to beat properly.
Evie was fatigued as a result of the poor function of her heart and because she was recovering from the trauma of open heart surgery.
In the end, she did recover and is achieving a new normal.
The cardiologist concluded that Evie recovered from the surgery more slowly than many people do but that, in the end, she did recover very well.
Her energy level is not yet what it was prior to the failing of her heart, but it has returned significantly in the past few months.
Ephesians 2:10 says that we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Evie has always lived that teaching with conviction. She's now back at the top of her game.
Again, I have to remind her that, in Galatians, Paul also warned us not to become weary in doing good. She still doesn't handle that part of Scripture very well.
I know many who read this blog prayed, and are still praying for her, for us. For that, I thank you. Others of you reached out in more tangible ways as well and did the good works in Christ's name that He created you to do. You put Jesus' words, "I was sick and you looked after me," into action.
For that, I thank you...and Him.
We knew since the early 1990s that the day would come when the surgery would be necessary.
We knew many things about the operation by the time surgery took place.
What we didn't know, really, is what to expect after the operation took place.
On her first day back from the hospital, after the operation, we discovered that Evie's heart was beating at a rate on nearly 100 beats per minute but her pulse was less than 50.
She called the surgeon whose staff told her that this is an issue for her cardiologist. So, we took her to our local hospital.
The first months post surgery were unexpected and stressful as the cardiologist struggled to get the heart to beat properly.
Evie was fatigued as a result of the poor function of her heart and because she was recovering from the trauma of open heart surgery.
In the end, she did recover and is achieving a new normal.
The cardiologist concluded that Evie recovered from the surgery more slowly than many people do but that, in the end, she did recover very well.
Her energy level is not yet what it was prior to the failing of her heart, but it has returned significantly in the past few months.
Ephesians 2:10 says that we are God's handiwork, created in Christ Jesus to do good works. Evie has always lived that teaching with conviction. She's now back at the top of her game.
Again, I have to remind her that, in Galatians, Paul also warned us not to become weary in doing good. She still doesn't handle that part of Scripture very well.
I know many who read this blog prayed, and are still praying for her, for us. For that, I thank you. Others of you reached out in more tangible ways as well and did the good works in Christ's name that He created you to do. You put Jesus' words, "I was sick and you looked after me," into action.
For that, I thank you...and Him.
Friday, August 16, 2019
Talk-ism and the CGGC Strategic Plan
I've seen some of the material published by the General Conference to support the, well, implementation of the Strategic Plan. Or, perhaps, non-implementation.
From 40,000 feet, one truth about the Strategic Plan stands out.
By design, the plan is all talk.
I've made a fuss, in the past, about the fact that there is no intention that the plan be adopted and, more to the point, put into action across the body.
However, as I reflect on the material I've read, it seems clear to me that, the plan is not intended to be walked at all.
It is be talked.
The Strategic Plan booklet is pure To Talk is to Walk-ism.
In the booklet, General Conference staff explains;
"Our expectation isn't that you'll adopt, word for word, the contents of this resource as your church's strategy,..."
The Strategic Plan booklet contains an overview of the plan and suggests many ways to generate, not action, but talk.
It contains for example, "questions to be used with your church's leadership..."
The writers suggest that possible uses of the booklet "could be with membership classes, elder or council training, leadership development, or with strategic planning processes in your church."
Talk, talk, talk. With everyone. With anyone. Talk.
------------------
Let me be clear.
I have no problem with talking about the plan. Of course a boatload of talk will have to take place if there is to be walk.
But, I've asked around. As far as I can tell, there is no vision for the plan actually to be put into action. Implemented. Walked.
In fact, the booklet makes that clear...without shame.
------------------
It's one thing to believe that, due to the high degree of cynicism across the CGGC, that, no matter how hard leadership tries to put this plan into action, it will never become a reality.
It's quite another to note that leadership isn't even trying to have the plan walked.
In his eNews articles, Lance himself notes, from time to time, that, in the CGGC, we tend to talk without matching walk to our talk.
With that understanding, how could the folks in the headquarters building in Findlay even dream of this plan becoming action without assertive and determined effort to get our people to do it?!
Yet, all that booklet considers is ways to get CGGCers to talk, something we can't stop doing in the first place!
------------------
The statistics presented at General Conference reveal an alarming decline in attendance over the in the years between 2016 and 2019 General Conference sessions, continuing a long standing trend.
We need to do something different.
We've been talking big for years. We know the fruit our talk has produced.
We must, actually, turn from falling and foolish ways. The foundation of our fall has been, and, now still is, walkless talk.
We must repent.
From 40,000 feet, one truth about the Strategic Plan stands out.
By design, the plan is all talk.
I've made a fuss, in the past, about the fact that there is no intention that the plan be adopted and, more to the point, put into action across the body.
However, as I reflect on the material I've read, it seems clear to me that, the plan is not intended to be walked at all.
It is be talked.
The Strategic Plan booklet is pure To Talk is to Walk-ism.
In the booklet, General Conference staff explains;
"Our expectation isn't that you'll adopt, word for word, the contents of this resource as your church's strategy,..."
The Strategic Plan booklet contains an overview of the plan and suggests many ways to generate, not action, but talk.
It contains for example, "questions to be used with your church's leadership..."
The writers suggest that possible uses of the booklet "could be with membership classes, elder or council training, leadership development, or with strategic planning processes in your church."
Talk, talk, talk. With everyone. With anyone. Talk.
------------------
Let me be clear.
I have no problem with talking about the plan. Of course a boatload of talk will have to take place if there is to be walk.
But, I've asked around. As far as I can tell, there is no vision for the plan actually to be put into action. Implemented. Walked.
In fact, the booklet makes that clear...without shame.
------------------
It's one thing to believe that, due to the high degree of cynicism across the CGGC, that, no matter how hard leadership tries to put this plan into action, it will never become a reality.
It's quite another to note that leadership isn't even trying to have the plan walked.
In his eNews articles, Lance himself notes, from time to time, that, in the CGGC, we tend to talk without matching walk to our talk.
With that understanding, how could the folks in the headquarters building in Findlay even dream of this plan becoming action without assertive and determined effort to get our people to do it?!
Yet, all that booklet considers is ways to get CGGCers to talk, something we can't stop doing in the first place!
------------------
The statistics presented at General Conference reveal an alarming decline in attendance over the in the years between 2016 and 2019 General Conference sessions, continuing a long standing trend.
We need to do something different.
We've been talking big for years. We know the fruit our talk has produced.
We must, actually, turn from falling and foolish ways. The foundation of our fall has been, and, now still is, walkless talk.
We must repent.
Sunday, August 11, 2019
The Latest CGGC Fad
Using the word, "aspirational."
I'm going to take the next 11 words to be purely prophetic:
The CGGC will neither repent nor thrive while we are aspirational.
I first picked up on the emerging fad to talk about what we are aspirational about...what we aspire to...what we wish to be true about us in reports I received from General Conference sessions.
And, I developed a serious case of Aspirational Poisoning reading Lance's August 9, 2019 eNews.
"Aspirational" clearly is the CGGC word of the moment, at least in the headquarters building in Findlay...in the corner office, anyway.
Lance's article introduces the new CGGC Core Values which, Lance notes, "...can't be purely aspirational."
Two thoughts:
1. In Church of God movement days, we didn't spend time considering what we wished to be true about us. We cared about what is...in the now.
Winebrenner's three descriptions of the activity of the Church of God, in his address to the Eldership on the day it formed in October 1830, i.e.,
-the conversion of sinners,
-the establishment of churches on the New Testament plan,
-supplying the destitute with the preaching of the gospel,...
...are precisely that. Descriptions.
They were not wishes. They explained what those people were already doing, not what they dreamed or hope, in some distant time, to do.
Winebrenner's 27 point description of the faith and practice of the Church of God, first published in 1844, is also, to make the biggest word possible out of it, descriptional. It wasn't aspirational.
These are 27 descriptors of what the people of our thriving movement actually thought and did.
In our first days, we were concerned with the present reality. Our thinking was not connected to some leader's dream world.
2. Repentance from fallen and sinful ways, and from corrupt thinking, comes from focusing on what is fallen and sinful and corrupt and, by the grace and power of the Spirit, seeing it from God's perspective...
...and experiencing the godly sorrow that, Paul says, produces a repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.
Being aspirational is to consume an opiate.
It numbs the very pain that the Spirit wants God's people to experience, pain that has the purpose of leading His people away from sin into a connection to Him rooted in love. And, it is Jesus who said, "if you love me you will keep my commands."
-------------------
Lance suggested that our values can't be purely aspirational.
The truth, rooted in the teaching of the Word, and demonstrated in the history of the people of the Kingdom, is that we should not aspire. We should deal with the truth about ourselves, no matter what that truth is. Especially when that truth is ugly.
We must outlaw the drug Aspiration.
The Lord of all authority and power and blessing isn't blessing us. Check out the CGGC stats. We are declining numerically. The numbers point to increasing spiritual decay.
Yet, our Lord is pure grace and mercy and blessing.
------------------
What would our Core Values be if they were honestly described?
What might happen if we focused on those ugly truths and not on what we dream might be true?
Might we find the godly sorrow that produces a repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret?
We must repent.
But, repentance is the fruit of other things. Aspiration is not in the formula.
I'm going to take the next 11 words to be purely prophetic:
The CGGC will neither repent nor thrive while we are aspirational.
I first picked up on the emerging fad to talk about what we are aspirational about...what we aspire to...what we wish to be true about us in reports I received from General Conference sessions.
And, I developed a serious case of Aspirational Poisoning reading Lance's August 9, 2019 eNews.
"Aspirational" clearly is the CGGC word of the moment, at least in the headquarters building in Findlay...in the corner office, anyway.
Lance's article introduces the new CGGC Core Values which, Lance notes, "...can't be purely aspirational."
Two thoughts:
1. In Church of God movement days, we didn't spend time considering what we wished to be true about us. We cared about what is...in the now.
Winebrenner's three descriptions of the activity of the Church of God, in his address to the Eldership on the day it formed in October 1830, i.e.,
-the conversion of sinners,
-the establishment of churches on the New Testament plan,
-supplying the destitute with the preaching of the gospel,...
...are precisely that. Descriptions.
They were not wishes. They explained what those people were already doing, not what they dreamed or hope, in some distant time, to do.
Winebrenner's 27 point description of the faith and practice of the Church of God, first published in 1844, is also, to make the biggest word possible out of it, descriptional. It wasn't aspirational.
These are 27 descriptors of what the people of our thriving movement actually thought and did.
In our first days, we were concerned with the present reality. Our thinking was not connected to some leader's dream world.
2. Repentance from fallen and sinful ways, and from corrupt thinking, comes from focusing on what is fallen and sinful and corrupt and, by the grace and power of the Spirit, seeing it from God's perspective...
...and experiencing the godly sorrow that, Paul says, produces a repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret.
Being aspirational is to consume an opiate.
It numbs the very pain that the Spirit wants God's people to experience, pain that has the purpose of leading His people away from sin into a connection to Him rooted in love. And, it is Jesus who said, "if you love me you will keep my commands."
-------------------
Lance suggested that our values can't be purely aspirational.
The truth, rooted in the teaching of the Word, and demonstrated in the history of the people of the Kingdom, is that we should not aspire. We should deal with the truth about ourselves, no matter what that truth is. Especially when that truth is ugly.
We must outlaw the drug Aspiration.
The Lord of all authority and power and blessing isn't blessing us. Check out the CGGC stats. We are declining numerically. The numbers point to increasing spiritual decay.
Yet, our Lord is pure grace and mercy and blessing.
------------------
What would our Core Values be if they were honestly described?
What might happen if we focused on those ugly truths and not on what we dream might be true?
Might we find the godly sorrow that produces a repentance that leads to salvation and leaves no regret?
We must repent.
But, repentance is the fruit of other things. Aspiration is not in the formula.
Sunday, August 4, 2019
Two Specific Thoughts about the 2019 Strategic Plan
1. The plan is absolutely nothing more than a tweaking of the old and fallen ways that have been driving Churches of God and CGGC decline and decay for about 80 years. It's the hope that, if we do the wrong thing really, really well, we'll turn this mess around. It's the insanity of thinking we can do the same old thing and achieve different results.
2. More tragically than that, it's a turning back to the ways of the 1990s and earlier. One of the six foundations of the spirit of the Missional Leadership Initiative is Reggie McNeal's assertion that the body of Christ must stop planning and, instead, begin, spiritually, to prepare, well, to join God in the work He is doing. As MLI concludes, how do we move forward? We move forward by looking back. Like Lot's wife, we yearn for old ways. But, we do it with new vigor and develop and adopt, of all things, a human, strategic plan. There's an irony that the one thing we're repenting of is the spiritual vision embodied in the teaching of Reggie McNeal and MLI...which was Lance's baby!
------------------
Lipstick on a pig.
We must repent.
2. More tragically than that, it's a turning back to the ways of the 1990s and earlier. One of the six foundations of the spirit of the Missional Leadership Initiative is Reggie McNeal's assertion that the body of Christ must stop planning and, instead, begin, spiritually, to prepare, well, to join God in the work He is doing. As MLI concludes, how do we move forward? We move forward by looking back. Like Lot's wife, we yearn for old ways. But, we do it with new vigor and develop and adopt, of all things, a human, strategic plan. There's an irony that the one thing we're repenting of is the spiritual vision embodied in the teaching of Reggie McNeal and MLI...which was Lance's baby!
------------------
Lipstick on a pig.
We must repent.
Friday, August 2, 2019
The Mark of the Least
The new CGGC logo.
I'm still picking up a lot of chatter about it on Facebook and in private communication.
The official explanation from the institutional authorities in Findlay says of the logo, in part, "The mark is comprised of individual elements...."
The "mark."
Hence, based on what I'm seeing of the response to the mark among the people of the CGGC, I think it's fair to call the new logo, The Mark of the Least.
In a Facebook thread, George Jensen says wisely, that if you are "fired up over your disappointment with the new logo more than you are over the fact that we are dying as a denomination and need to repent of our ways..., I suggest you look at your priorities."
Right on. Preach it, George.
For generations we've always found something to focus on rather than repentance. George documents his reason for suggesting that we are dying. It's compelling. We are, as this blog notes regularly, decaying spiritually and declining numerically. George's numbers tell that story.
-------------------
However, I can see that something else could be behind the outcry against the logo.
Criticizing the logo could simply be a safe, shepherdly, indirect, CGGC-acceptable way of criticizing the leadership team that produced the logo.
I can see, in the criticism of the logo itself, feelings that, at least some CGGC pastors and, uh, lay leaders have of the people who occupy offices in the headquarters building in Findlay.
The logo is abstract. It makes no sense.
And, there are comments that make light of the logo or create jokes its expense. The baseball diamond logo. The Pittsburgh Steelers' logo.
And, it would be more spiritual, and less divisive, to criticize a logo than the Executive Director and Directors of the denomination.
A question that I can't asking avoid is, why all of this brouhaha?
Why does a silly logo, as poorly designed as many of us think it is, matter so much.
We could be talking about the first-ever General Conference Strategic Plan, or the new Mission Statement.
And, I'm suggesting that, perhaps, we are talking about the Strategic Plan and the Mission Statement...
...and about the leadership team that created them...
...and that the chatter about the logo is about something more important than the logo itself.
------------------
But, what's clear is that we are not turning from the fallen and sinful ways that have been driving our decline and decay for more than 80 years.
We must repent.
I'm still picking up a lot of chatter about it on Facebook and in private communication.
The official explanation from the institutional authorities in Findlay says of the logo, in part, "The mark is comprised of individual elements...."
The "mark."
Hence, based on what I'm seeing of the response to the mark among the people of the CGGC, I think it's fair to call the new logo, The Mark of the Least.
In a Facebook thread, George Jensen says wisely, that if you are "fired up over your disappointment with the new logo more than you are over the fact that we are dying as a denomination and need to repent of our ways..., I suggest you look at your priorities."
Right on. Preach it, George.
For generations we've always found something to focus on rather than repentance. George documents his reason for suggesting that we are dying. It's compelling. We are, as this blog notes regularly, decaying spiritually and declining numerically. George's numbers tell that story.
-------------------
However, I can see that something else could be behind the outcry against the logo.
Criticizing the logo could simply be a safe, shepherdly, indirect, CGGC-acceptable way of criticizing the leadership team that produced the logo.
I can see, in the criticism of the logo itself, feelings that, at least some CGGC pastors and, uh, lay leaders have of the people who occupy offices in the headquarters building in Findlay.
The logo is abstract. It makes no sense.
And, there are comments that make light of the logo or create jokes its expense. The baseball diamond logo. The Pittsburgh Steelers' logo.
And, it would be more spiritual, and less divisive, to criticize a logo than the Executive Director and Directors of the denomination.
A question that I can't asking avoid is, why all of this brouhaha?
Why does a silly logo, as poorly designed as many of us think it is, matter so much.
We could be talking about the first-ever General Conference Strategic Plan, or the new Mission Statement.
And, I'm suggesting that, perhaps, we are talking about the Strategic Plan and the Mission Statement...
...and about the leadership team that created them...
...and that the chatter about the logo is about something more important than the logo itself.
------------------
But, what's clear is that we are not turning from the fallen and sinful ways that have been driving our decline and decay for more than 80 years.
We must repent.
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