General Director's open letter

Hopefully you've been too preoccupied with Christmas preparations to keep up with everything online. If so you may not have noticed the lengthy open letter that General Director Jim Lyon posted to Facebook yesterday. In many ways this is his year-end message to the Church, and it he talks about his first 140 days in the job, and specifically more reflections on the recent announcements pertaining to the 2014 Convention and the new logo, both of which have generated considerable attention across our movement in North America.

Jim points out that "the Church of God as we know it is near death", and that visionary leadership and action are required for us to enter a new day. For those wanting to preserve status quo or some idealistic notion of our past changes are threatening, as they are for a growing number of American Christians who feel our religious foundation shifting under our feet. It's much easier to get all worked up over the Duck Dynasty controversy than to commit ourselves to being part of Jesus' mission in the world.

I appreciate Jim's open and direct communication, and look forward to 2014 as the Church of God boldly moves forward.

And, by the way, Merry Christmas!