I recently received the April/May 2006 edition of ONEvoice! the bi-monthly magazine of the Church of God in North America. Here a few observations:
1. Ronald Duncan, in his one-page "FRONTline" column, addresses "Change in the Church of God". (Taken alongside Jeannette Flynn's recent ponderings, it sounds like this is a hot issue in the Anderson offices right now). While Duncan covers some predictable territory, there are a few noteworthy thoughts as starting points for honest reflection that hopefully can lead to change:
"Meaningful change happens when present reality is honestly acknowledged""We have ignored or shunned major problems because of our polity (governance).""We must address, with divine reflection, a tweaking of our polity in order to nurture the growth and maturation of the church. We have to find ways to confront and overcome corporate dysfunction. Led by the Holy Spirit, we have to find mentor leadership for the future. We have to find ways to carry out worldwide ministries to the dispossessed, disenfranchised, discouraged, and diseased. We have to find ways to work in the kingdom of God with all our brothers and sisters to confront evil."Ronald V. Duncan, "Change in the Church of God", ONEvoice! April/May 2006, p. 6
2. Merle Strege tackles holiness in his heritage column, and correctly tries to get us to move beyond our individualistic, legalistic and moralistic orientation, and towards a mission focus. Strege reminds us that Warner and other pioneers believed that holiness is the prerequisite necessary to bring about unity, which ultimately is "the means by which nonbelievers would come to the knowledge that God had sent Christ into the world." The implications are that "such holiness will identify the church as a catalyst for reconciliation and mercy in the world rather than mark it as a community preoccupied with what Christians do not do." Merle Strege, "The experience of holiness", ONEvoice! April/May 2006, p. 27.
3. Obviously, we have some individuals in our movement who are prompting us to re-examine and our thinking and practice. That is encouraging. And, certainly there are congregations moving beyond status quo and engaging in outward focused ministry (for example, read the articles regarding First Church of God in Kokomo, IN, and Sixth Avenue Church of God in Decatur, AL). Exciting! But, notice the church news clips in the EXTRAvoice! insert. In almost every instance, the news being reported is on internal church accomplishments, like building programs, fundraising successes, and programs. Not to undermine these occasions for thanksgiving, but why so few reports of churches ministering in the world? I know that these 17 congregational reports provide a very small sampling of all that goes on in our 2000+ churches, but it makes me wonder if these might be an indication of the general culture within our movement. What do we really value? Have we lost our vision, passion and calling for holiness that can truly impact the world?
2 comments:
"In almost every instance, the news being reported is on internal church accomplishments, like building programs, fundraising successes, and programs."
My first thought was ...well, when ONEvoice! first started it was supposed to be about the accomplishments about the church of God. Then I read the part after the sentence and the rest of the paragraph ... but it's supposed to be about the accomplishments of the Church of God and how it's reaching the world, with in and without it's walls ... in the area of ministry and lives changed not walls erected and dollars raised.
can Onevoice! change what we find important? If this is the only info that we send in - $ and #s, what does that tell you about where our treasures are. Or is it a catch 22? We are trained to report certain things, we see those things, we report more numbers. We are patted on the back by our collegues for more _____.
[I can't believe you called Jeannette Flynn's ponderings "recent" :)]
I think we, as humans, especially with western/modern mindsets or up bringing, want to make this more efficent or stream lined. So we have tried to set up structure rather than manintain relationships. ["We have ignored or shunned major problems because of our polity (governance)."] Because that is as loose as our sturcture is, relationship. Sometimes it takes long, hard, looks and discussions to heal, correct, rebuke, etc. So if we are going to have a relational structure, lets really do it.
So if we are not seeking holiness together [creating unity] than is the world seeing Jesus? Ouch Dr Strege "The implications are that "such holiness will identify the church as a catalyst for reconciliation and mercy in the world rather than mark it as a community preoccupied with what Christians do not do." When our journey of holiness looks more like judgment or a check list [holiness manifesto] we look more like the latter. Gotta go, I need some coffee.
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