NO Voice

I will offer my reflections in a subsequent post, but here is important, breaking news regarding ONEvoice!

Thanks Joe Allison for sharing the news (originally left as a comment on this blog), and for your contribution toward Church of God communications.

Thanks, Lloyd, for the comments you've made about ONEvoice! in recent months, here and elsewhere. You'll soon be hearing rumors about OV, so I'd like to share an official word.
This is the text of a letter from our General Director, Ronald Duncan, which is being printed and mailed to all Church of God pastors in North America. I'm sharing it on your blog with his permission.

-- Joe Allison, Coordinator
Communications & Publishing
Church of God Ministries

Dear Pastor:
Thank you for participating in ONEvoice! magazine’s Bring It Home! subscription campaign, which ended December 31. You and other members of the General Assembly urged us to launch this magazine. You provided generous funding for it, and you have promoted it for nearly 4 years. We hoped that the subscription campaign would help ONEvoice! turn a corner toward growth.
However, the results were modest and will be offset by expirations that occur after the April-May issue. At that point, paid circulation will fall back to about 2,200 subscribers. So we have decided to end publication of ONEvoice! with the April-May issue.
We are sorry to bring you this disappointing news. However, it’s clear that few Church of God people (only about 1 in 40 households) use ONEvoice! to stay in touch with what the church is doing.
Our Executive Leadership Team and the gifted people who produce our various periodicals are considering how we can better connect with people in the Church of God. Several new communications initiatives may come out of this.
For now, we just want to thank you. Thank you for all you’ve done to support and promote ONEvoice! And pray for us as we seek God’s guidance for the next phase of our communications ministry.
In Christ,
Ronald V. Duncan, General Director

P.S. – Current subscribers to ONEvoice! will receive a refund of the unused portion of their subscriptions. They can expect to receive the refund checks no later than the end of April.

Theological diversity - part 1

Continuing on my discussion concerning diversity within the Church of God...

Previously I have examined the following realities of our diversity: ethnic and regional. Now, I want to tackle the one that is potentially most controversial: Our theological diversity.

Even to suggest that we are anything but theologically uniform can cause shivers to run through some died-in-the-wool Church of God adherents. The prospect of this being even remotely true provides more ammunition for those wanting us to beef up our arsenals with tighter doctrinal stances and explicit statements of beliefs.

Stick with me on this one. I will need a few posts to develop my argument, but hear me out before you send out the heresy police.

First, we must distinguish between doctrine and theology.

I am fairly certain that for the most part we share and express a common doctrinal basis. But, it's in the realm of theology that we really diverge. Is this merely a matter of semantics? I think not.

Doctrine literally means "teaching" and describes the core basic beliefs that we hold. Even though we have resisted (and in my opinion we should continue to resist) sacralizing these biblical convictions into a formal creed, there is a general agreement that runs fairly consistent across our movement.

But, theology builds on doctrine and reflects our interpretations and applications of these beliefs, and our worldviews behind them. It is not merely an ivory-tower, academic preoccupation. We all engage in it as we integrate faith into our lives. And, in the church preaching itself is our most common theological exercise. Certainly there is overlap between theology and doctrine, but it is the confusion of these two disciplines that results in misunderstandings among us, and which is why we do not readily acknowledge our theological diversity. We'll pick up on that in part 2.

Diversity in ONEvoice!

I want to get back to my "mini-series" on diversity in the Church of God. Before tackling my next diversity theme, I must comment on the "Statement of Diversity" under which our magazine, ONEvoice!, operates. Here's the statement as it appears in each issue:

ONEvoice! magazine celebrates the great diversity of the body of Christ as it exists in the Church of God movement. In this, the goal is to go beyond mere tokenism to true representation of the variety of regional, ethnic, international, gender, racial, congregational size, and age differences within the Church of God. The magazine's editorial staff recognizes the limitations inherent in reaching this goal. No single issue can accurately reflect the diversity of the Church of God in scope or proportion. But the goal is that, taken as a whole over time, ONEvoice! magazine will celebrate the broad spectrum of the Church of God.

Well stated.

A few reflections:

This broad spectrum approach may help explain why ONEvoice! has struggled to gain a foothold across our movement. In our highly segmented society the tendency is toward niche targeting in marketing and media. For example, take a look at the literally hundreds of magazine titles on a newsstand, or the plethora of TV channels currently available. Even Christian organizations like Focus on the Family publish a dizzying array of periodicals, each targeted to a specific audience.

The broad stroke approach of ONEvoice! does not appeal to everyone. Some want more doctrine. Others want more church news. And so on. This is one reason why a fringe publication like Reformation Witness has a faithful following.

But, is this narrowcasting tendency in the church healthy? Is it even biblical?

I would be the first acknowledge that there is a place for targeted ministry. Churches, for example, are wise to understand their giftedness and the communities in which they live in order to adjust their ministry accordingly. Reaching people according to age, ethnic, linguistic, and cultural characteristics breaks down communication barriers and is even modeled in Scripture.

But, having said all this, the church is also a new community where there is "neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female" (Galatians 3;27-28). This flies directly in the face of the growing fragmentation in our society, and it is a value and ideal that we as the Body of Christ must demonstrate in our world. Yet, far too often, in our churches we tend to parrot the divided world, keeping even the people in our own congregations from truly living out the vision of the church.

In effect, ONEvoice! is much more than just our official movement publication. It should symbolize and truly reflect the diversity that is our reality and that should be our goal within the Kingdom of God. Despite the struggle to gain acceptance, the current format of ONEvoice! is a worthy reminder of what church should be like.

I know that I have posted frequently on issues surrounding ONEvoice! Be assured that it is not only because I am a current contributor, but because its role and success is truly indicative of some larger matters confronting the Church of God today.

Good looking ONEvoice!

I have commented frequently on ONEvoice!, and not just because I am currently a contributor. I believe in the importance of such a publication, and have offered my perspective on what it will take to make it better.

I just received my Feb/Mar 2007 issue, and I must comment on the new look of the magazine that actually began a few issues ago. In the past I have been critical of the layout and design, but I think they got it right now. The publication now looks very professional and appealing. And, the content is of a high quality too ;)

I know that ONEvoice! is at a very critical stage as far as its viability is concerned. Hopefully, the recent subscription blitz along with the new look will generate greater interest in this vital tool.