Only now during my sabbatical have I had time to read and review Gilbert Stafford's Signals at the Crossroads, a new compilation of his previously released Church of God at the Crossroads and Vision for Church of God at the Crossroads, plus a small amount of new material from a book that was unfinished due to his death three years ago.
I wanted to read this since the first two books had created considerable discussion when first released eleven and nine years ago, respectively. I had read them previously, but in light of our ongoing identity crisis felt it would be valuable to re-visit them and to see whether any new insights could be gleaned. In addition, this book was given to participants of the recent Strategic Planning Conference and is again part of our dialogue.
When I first read the original two books I was less than enthused over Stafford's solution to the challenges we faced, despite his brilliance and respect within our movement. Ten years ago I had the opportunity to dialogue with him briefly over some of these issues, and while he has many valuable insights and contributions to make to this discussion I remain convinced that these writings do not really provide the path forward for us.
By his own admission, Stafford's focus is about "Church of God culture", that is, "the way we live together, our values,and the language of our faith. It is the way we go about being the church." (p. 6). His concern is that increasingly we are fractured in our self-understanding and practices. In his first two books he identified some of the challenges we face as a movement, and outlined a number of practical suggestions as to how we could re-frame ourselves as the Church of God.
Most people who have read these Crossroads books would tend to affirm Stafford's diagnosis. We are a diverse group of congregations who seem to have less and less in common. And, some of his ideas are right on target. For example, his lengthy discussion on how we could bolster the credentialing process are very sound.
My concern, however, is that Stafford deals with the symptoms of what ails us as a movement without really ever getting down to the core condition. Culture is reflective of the much deeper beliefs, values and attitudes that we carry; and working to change our culture would not necessarily change who we are. He hints at this in a few places, but it is easily missed amidst his proclaimed focus. For example, he acknowledges that "the sense of being part of a unified Church of God with common mission is missing" (page 17), but this is the last sentence of one of the chapters, and it is not picked up on again. In my thinking, this is at the core of what is missing among us, and until we deal with issues of this magnitude our culture will remain anemic.
While I remain ultimately disappointed with what I find in Signals at the Crossroads, it is still a book that is worth reading, even if to share in some discussions that may be taking place right now by those who have read the book and are grappling with its implications.
I wanted to read this since the first two books had created considerable discussion when first released eleven and nine years ago, respectively. I had read them previously, but in light of our ongoing identity crisis felt it would be valuable to re-visit them and to see whether any new insights could be gleaned. In addition, this book was given to participants of the recent Strategic Planning Conference and is again part of our dialogue.
When I first read the original two books I was less than enthused over Stafford's solution to the challenges we faced, despite his brilliance and respect within our movement. Ten years ago I had the opportunity to dialogue with him briefly over some of these issues, and while he has many valuable insights and contributions to make to this discussion I remain convinced that these writings do not really provide the path forward for us.
By his own admission, Stafford's focus is about "Church of God culture", that is, "the way we live together, our values,and the language of our faith. It is the way we go about being the church." (p. 6). His concern is that increasingly we are fractured in our self-understanding and practices. In his first two books he identified some of the challenges we face as a movement, and outlined a number of practical suggestions as to how we could re-frame ourselves as the Church of God.
Most people who have read these Crossroads books would tend to affirm Stafford's diagnosis. We are a diverse group of congregations who seem to have less and less in common. And, some of his ideas are right on target. For example, his lengthy discussion on how we could bolster the credentialing process are very sound.
My concern, however, is that Stafford deals with the symptoms of what ails us as a movement without really ever getting down to the core condition. Culture is reflective of the much deeper beliefs, values and attitudes that we carry; and working to change our culture would not necessarily change who we are. He hints at this in a few places, but it is easily missed amidst his proclaimed focus. For example, he acknowledges that "the sense of being part of a unified Church of God with common mission is missing" (page 17), but this is the last sentence of one of the chapters, and it is not picked up on again. In my thinking, this is at the core of what is missing among us, and until we deal with issues of this magnitude our culture will remain anemic.
While I remain ultimately disappointed with what I find in Signals at the Crossroads, it is still a book that is worth reading, even if to share in some discussions that may be taking place right now by those who have read the book and are grappling with its implications.
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