Last week millions of people around the world were glued to their television sets to watch the drama unfolding from the Vatican as the conclave of cardinals sent up a plume of white smoke announcing the election of Jorge Mario Bergoglio as the next head of the Roman Catholic Church.
This week the Church of God Ministries Council is meeting and will likely affirm the next General Director as secretly chosen by the selection committee. Except in this case there will not be thousands in Anderson watching a chimney or waiting for the public presentation of the man or woman that will lead our church organization here in North America over the coming years.
Obviously, apart from the coincidental timing, there is very little similarity between what has happened in Rome and what will unfold in our relatively obscure movement. For the most part the comparisons are amusing more than anything. In any case, I like our process much better, and am far more at home in the Church of God for all that we believe and stand for.
Yet, there is one aspect of these two appointments that is striking: leadership.
The Church of God is at a critical point in its history, and our next General Director will have tremendous influence on whether or not we continue devolving into a fractured group of churches and mindsets, or are revitalized into a movement of profound Kingdom significance. Obviously, within our polity this doesn't just fall on the General Director, but we cannot overestimate the importance of leadership for casting vision and mobilizing our collective structures for the changing world in which we find ourselves.
I encourage all of us to pray for the important decision that is being made in Anderson this week, and that will unfold leading up to the General Assembly in June. May the choice for the new General Director be clearly within God's will and purposes.
This week the Church of God Ministries Council is meeting and will likely affirm the next General Director as secretly chosen by the selection committee. Except in this case there will not be thousands in Anderson watching a chimney or waiting for the public presentation of the man or woman that will lead our church organization here in North America over the coming years.
Obviously, apart from the coincidental timing, there is very little similarity between what has happened in Rome and what will unfold in our relatively obscure movement. For the most part the comparisons are amusing more than anything. In any case, I like our process much better, and am far more at home in the Church of God for all that we believe and stand for.
Yet, there is one aspect of these two appointments that is striking: leadership.
The Church of God is at a critical point in its history, and our next General Director will have tremendous influence on whether or not we continue devolving into a fractured group of churches and mindsets, or are revitalized into a movement of profound Kingdom significance. Obviously, within our polity this doesn't just fall on the General Director, but we cannot overestimate the importance of leadership for casting vision and mobilizing our collective structures for the changing world in which we find ourselves.
I encourage all of us to pray for the important decision that is being made in Anderson this week, and that will unfold leading up to the General Assembly in June. May the choice for the new General Director be clearly within God's will and purposes.
2 comments:
Lloyd, good blog. I just came across it today and have been doing some reading back over the years.
In terms of today's post, I think the big difference is not in the leadership of our very disparate groups but in the followership. Most Catholics I know waited in hopes of getting a great leader--a papa--whom they could follow. There was great cheering over the man they chose--but I sensed the same would have happened over most any man they may have chosen.
In the CHOG we do not have anywhere close to this level of followership. There is a mild curiosity from many pastors about our next leader but most parishioners have no idea we have a general director or even care. In the end most of us believe that even a great leader cannot make a significant difference in our movement.
And in the end, I am afraid, this self-fulfilling prophecy from the "followers" will be proven true once again.
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