Tuesday at the North American Convention marks the start of General Assembly.
My blow by blow account of the GA can be seen at my twitter log (twitter.com/chogblog). Probably the biggest "news" today concerned the budgetary struggle that Church of God Ministries is facing. Giving is down and for 2008 there will be a 10% spending reduction. But this is more than a one-time occurrence. It is part of an ongoing downward trend and obviously this could have severe long-term implications projected forward. Apart from this, the GA was positive. Although, in some ways it felt like we were all just going through the motions - our annual ritual.
Of course, the most touching moment of GA is the annual memorial service. This year saw almost 80 individuals recognized, including some very well known ones of our movement such as Gerald Marvel, Horace Sheppard, Gilbert Stafford, and Oral Withrow.
It was fitting that Rod Stafford (Gil's brother) was tonight's preacher. Sharing the pain he experienced over the past year, he gave a forward-looking message that included an audio segment from Gilbert's last sermon. This led to a conclusion centered around an annointing service, something led at the NAC last year by Gil. We all left experiencing grace and hope.
My blow by blow account of the GA can be seen at my twitter log (twitter.com/chogblog). Probably the biggest "news" today concerned the budgetary struggle that Church of God Ministries is facing. Giving is down and for 2008 there will be a 10% spending reduction. But this is more than a one-time occurrence. It is part of an ongoing downward trend and obviously this could have severe long-term implications projected forward. Apart from this, the GA was positive. Although, in some ways it felt like we were all just going through the motions - our annual ritual.
Of course, the most touching moment of GA is the annual memorial service. This year saw almost 80 individuals recognized, including some very well known ones of our movement such as Gerald Marvel, Horace Sheppard, Gilbert Stafford, and Oral Withrow.
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