pinakidion.*

This post was made after hearing messages from MOAC 2004. In essence, I considered five main issues:

1. There are lots of words and few actions.
2. There is searching to understand things that have been obvious for quite some time.*
3. There is a perceived effort to be at peace first, unified second, then try to solve problems last.
4. A perceived reluctance to outside perspective.
5. The perceived search for global answers instead of local answers.

It’s a year later and the issues appear the same. I am still amazed at the ’shock and wonder’ that some leaders have about things that occurred in my life for 10+ years. There is all kinds of conjecture at our current issues including a comparison to the minor league baseball system, insights from Family Dynamics, a look at the discipling system, and reconstruction of our past structure. It still looks like all five are going on, except for the mention of outside influence in the discipling papaer.

I can’t be so insightful that no one else has thought of it. Maybe I am oversimplifying this whole mess. It seems to be more apparent than ever that leaders were more insulated from the issues of most members, especially leaders higher up the chain. Hearing what some have said, it looks like they are still writing papers only to each other. The phrase ‘out of touch’ is like comparing paprika to habenero.

Again, I hope that the forum at MOAC 2005 will yield something. Unfortunately, it is at least one year too late. On the positive side, however, it is actually addressing things that are important.

I just want things to be different, but I am growing more fearful that they will not. Specifically, I mean the teaching of discipling as philosphical instead of biblical, cooperation with other churches that are NOT ICC, job descriptions of lead evangelists that include visitation with members, full financial disclosure of church finances (past and present), biblical instruction from the text instead of conforming the text to enforce an ideal, and staff limits on the conferences they may attend. When I look for change in these areas, there is little to none. In New Jersey, they bring in a CoC minister for some Sundays. (YAY!) Family Dynamics is replacing the old system of ’submit or else’. There are even places where the Family Dynamics family series is replacing the “Go to your room until you’re happy” system. I dunno, just seems like places the bigwigs don’t have a lot of influence, there is a disposition to try new things, but places they go are propotionately conservative to their influence.

Maybe Thomas will be able to “work on” more churches (Scent of a Woman sermon, 07/24/05) and all of this is moot.

In Feburary, I found the following exposition of John 3:5. The person posting this exposition claimed that this is a method taught at The Master’s Seminary and that he wanted feedback on what people thought. I intend to use this as an exercise of the use of logic as a tool for understanding. Although the beginning of wisdom is the fear of God, I believe the sentiment expressed by Mr. Spock that logic is not the end of wisdom. More on that later.

John 3:5 “born of water”?

There are four common views:

VIEW 1. “Born of water” refers to water baptism.
Pro – (1) Verse 22 mentions baptism. (2) The testimony of ancient church fathers.
Con – (1) No baptism is mentioned anywhere in the context of Jesus’ discourse with Nicodemus. (2) This view creates tension with a literal interpretation of vss. 14-18. (3) Does not harmonize with Ephesians 2:8-9. (4) No support elsewhere in the Bible that “born of water” = baptism. (5) In reply to Pro 2 above, some ancient church fathers were also branded heretics and the whole book of Jude warns about such false teachers in the first century. An ancient testimony, therefore, is not commended in and of itself.

VIEW 2. “Born of water” refers to physical birth shortly after the amniotic fluid is discharged from the mother.
Pro – (1) Verse 6 emphasizes physical birth.
Con – (1) John 1:13 refers to physical birth as “born of blood.” (2) “Born of water” as a reference to physical birth is a contemporary idea and not used in biblical customs. (3) Little exegetical support to commend this idea.

VIEW 3. “Born of water” refers to the word of God.
Pro – (1) Cross references in the Bible irrefutably refer to the word of God as “water.” John 15:3 lends support to this imagery as do Ephesians 5:26 and 1 Peter 1:23.
Con – (1) John 15:3 does not explicitly mention water or Spirit. It is not a strong parallel. (2) Ephesians 5:26 and 1 Peter 1:23 are vastly different contexts, different authors, and neither provide a good parallel by mentioning the Spirit. Though water may be used as metaphors for the word of God in these passages, it does not necessarily establish the same imagery in John 3:5. A “babe” in 1 Corinthians 3:1 refers to a Christian, but it does not refer to Christians in Hebrews 5:13. These cross references, therefore, are inconclusive.

VIEW 4. “Born of water” refers to the Holy Spirit.
Pro – (1) Cross references do support this metaphor of the Holy Spirit in 1 Corinthians 12:13 and Titus 3:5. (2) The figurative use of “water” is well-attested in John’s gospel (4:7-14; 7:37-39) and is explicitly identified as the Holy Spirit in 7:39. (3) The proximity of John 4:7-14 and 7:37-39 provide a closer context than passages that mention “water” being the “word of God” in Ephesians 5:26 and 1 Peter 1:23. (4) The imagery of water for the Spirit is well-attested in the Old Testament (Ezekiel 36:25-26) and would have been familiar to Nicodemus, a Pharisee who studied the Scriptures and Old Testament Law. (5) The conjunction “kai” can be used in an explanatory sense (translated “even”) as in Matthew 21:5. In this case, “Unless one is born of water, even the Spirit, he cannot enter….” (6) Verse 8 does not mention water, but the Spirit alone. Such is not out of line if “born of water” is synonymous with “born of Spirit,” for the two are one and the same.
Con - (1) There is the issue of redundancy this view creates.

CONCLUSION – View 1 has very little or no exegetical support to commend itself. The hermeneutical principle of “the analogy of faith” (Scripture interprets Scripture) places the final nail in the coffin and the force of its Con arguments far outweighs its Pro’s. View 2 has about as much support as View 1, but it too is nearly a conspicuous eisegesis. View 3 is attractive, but it lacks a good parallel close to the context of John 3:5. View 4 is clearly the superior view, especially because of John 7:39. It is commended by contextual, exegetical, grammatical, and historical support—none of which may be said for any single one of the first three views. In answer to Con 1 against view 4, redundancy is only discouraged in modern culture; biblical examples abound of cognates and hendiadys.

What are the first thing that you notice about this method of finding meaning in John 3:5? Obviously, it addresses four historical views of this passage with an eye to determine the meaning of the phrase “born of water”.

I found an item of note on the conference schedule of MOAC 2005:

Thursday, September 8
Class Session #2: 4:00 pm

Forum: Paradigms of Brotherhood & Church Cooperation
How do we simplify the criteria of effective unity? In what areas do we need cooperation? What, if any, is the role of one church mentoring another? How do we handle doctrinal and opinion differences? How can we effectively work together to continue evangelizing the world? Steve Staten & Thierry Fender will moderate a forum of several presenters, followed by question & answer, on the shape of our future unity.

I truly wish I could be there. I would want to ask two questions:

• What are we going to do about those that promote division, specifically Thomas?
• Are we only looking to cooperate with churches of the former and present ICC?

There’s a part of me that looks at the “how to deal with doctrinal differences” question and sigh. It appears that, if we follow the path we’ve started so far, the answer will be to quote Ephesians 4:29, challenge indrectly, play nice, and hope for change. When did Ephesians 4:29 become “thou shalt not raise your voice or publicly disagree with your brother”? Paul, the same person that wrote Ephesians 4:29, also publicly confronted Peter. But I digress…

Then, there’s a part of me that thinks, “this could be great”. There is a question and answer on this, not just a bunch of papers. It is a moderated discussion. It can demonstrate to Thomas and his ilk that there are many of us that have zero interest in ‘overseeing evangelists’ or being replanted or ‘one-over-another’ discipling. We can sit down and work through issues before and after the forum. For this alone, I wish I could be there.

At least I hope this will be fruitful. I pray to keep this hope because the speakers are all the same cast of characters as before. (When is Sean Wooten actually in Russia.) The other bit of discouragemnet comes from other speeches on the program:

Friday, September 9
Class Session #3: 2:00 pm
Revival: Son of Man, Can These Bones Live?—Kip McKean
Principles of faith-building revival culled from the two-year turnaround experience of the Portland International Church of Christ

and

Victory: Re-Defining the Abundantly Fruitful Church—Mike Fontenot
How do we know when a church is succeeding or struggling? As leaders, what should we pray for and expect in evangelizing and in baptizing? Drawing from the outstanding example of the Hampton Roads church of Christ, an elder & evangelist tackles the crucial topic of “success” in the church.

Lord, please help us despite ourselves.

Update: Joe Beam, the creator of Family Dynamics is coming to MOAC 2005! I actually want to go - unfortunately, he is speaking at the same time as the forum. I wish he could be at the Friday 2pm slot In any case, this is shaping up to be a good conference. A forum, Dr. Reese, Joe Beam of Family Dynamics… How about that?

I read the following article at the church report listing the 50 most influential churches as determined by a survey.

I expected number one and two. However, going through the list, I was surprised at some others.

Falwell’s church, the Thomas Road Baptist Church is number 28. I honestly didn’t know he was still preaching. He seems to be all over MSNBC and Fox News. Considering his comments made on the 700 Club shortly after 9/11 and other aspects of his message, I certainly hope that his influence drops!

An Independent Christian Church landed at number 50, the Southeast Christian Church in Kentucky.

More later. I am particularly interested in Southeast, especially as a church with the same doctrine as mine.

I revised my letter to Disciples Today due to errors I made with statistics. The full revised letter can be read here.

Hello editors of DToday! I hope the day is treating you well.

I am afraid that I made two errors in my original letter. The first was ICC membership. Were I comparing apples to apples, I would have given the numbers for US membership. Instead, I provided worldiwde membership. The second error was a mistaken source of data. I had thought that it came from the Census, but instead was a survey performed by the City Univeristy of New York. I arrived at the link from the census.gov site and mistakenly attributed the source incorrectly. In discourse, it is necessary to be accurate, and I apologize for misleading statistics.

The entire paragraph under “2. We need to learn how to water and grow mature churches.” should read:

Again, other churches outside our fellowship have found ways to mature their churches. I humbly suggest that as we listen to God in faith, we hear what he has already taught others in maturing their congregations. There is an organization of the Independent Christian Churches that work with more progressive Churches of Christ to plant churches throughout the US. They are thorough and strategic as a visit to their website will demonstrate. This organization is called Stadia - www.stadia.cc. They provide coaching and other assistance to promote healthy church growth and maturity.Other success stories of Churches of Christ are also available at the Harding Center for Church Growth. I believe that together with others, we can succesfully plant new churches without repeating the mistakes of our past.

I read about Rick Warren visiting Rwanda with quite a bit of interest. Here is someone that has been blessed with financial success and he is actively doing something good in the world. For the sake of Rwanda, I hope he is able to make a difference.

Did I cringe? Oh yeah.

The plan is remarkably similar to his book. There are five areas of concern that he calls ‘Global Giants’. This is similar to the five purposes of the church, the five puroses of your life, and the five things that can impact the community. (There are eight keys to R.E.C.O.V.E.R.Y., but that’s another story.) To address these giants, he calls for a master P.E.A.C.E. plan:

• Plant churches
• Equip servant leaders
• Assist the poor
• Care for the sick
• Educate the next generation

Verses are still mangled to fit what he wants the Bible to say. Just like Purpose Driven Life, it is a textbook example of eisegesis. The plan is still doctrine agnostic, just like Purpose Driven. The plan is a combination of marketing, optimism, and an act of sheer will.

Despite all that, at least he is doing something. I do not like the marketing feel, the lack of exposition, and I especially do not like the survey designed to gauge the health of your small groups. I thought my old church was bad. However, he is still trying to do something.

It reminds me that there is more to my faith than this blog and x minutes a day in study and prayer. I certainly hope that Rick Warren can do something positive.

An article appeared on DisciplesToday called the New Frontier asking for feedback. I am going to post what I wrote back, but before I do, I felt like some explanation is in order.

You’d probably expect that I would dive in guns blazing going after these folks like I do others. However, I did not do any such thing and I want to explain why.

There is a difference between a threat and an invitation. A threat is our divisive brother in Portland demanding discipling. It is his way or the highway. He has already sought to reconstruct other churches and create division between evangelists and elders in Atlanta. His writings are intended to show that God is on his side, but not on yours, so get in line.

An invitation is something like what Roger wrote. It explains the problem as he sees it and asks for feedback in the way ahead. This is constructive and positive. We can be civil and talk about what we need to do. I think we need to do a lot, but there’s no sense in blasting an invitation, even if I disagree with Roger in certain matters. This is the kind of invitation I have been longing to see because I still have hope that the former ICoC can be something good. As it is, there is not much good in the ICoC subculture at all, but I believe that can change. Read more…

I heard a good sermon on John 15:1-11 yesterday. Sometimes I forget that the purpose of the passage is in verse 11, that my joy may be complete.

Take a listen here

How cool is that? New fragments of Leviticus found dating from the first century AD.

Full story can be found here.

After the administration of Cajus Tigius, the senate named a new consul in late 5883. The economy was sluggish and Cajus’ military reforms caused some grumbling, but considering the cataclysm almost forty-six years before, Hesberia was considered stable.

This stability gave them adavantage when the military pushed to reclaim eastern lands. Many of the former provinces fell into chaos. Some areas formed city-states while other areas were without both law and order. This chaos prevented some eastern warlords from taking advantage of magical aspects of warfare. Against a more trained and organized army, these warlords fell quickly. Military reforms begun by Awrelius and continued by Cajus transformed the Hesberian military from a plodding infantry heavy force, to a quick, mobile force capable of attacking airborne and ground troops. Read more…

I told my wife about my fear of materialism and she has been good in reminding me of the good God has given to me. I am grateful that both of us felt a need to simplify. Some of it was financially driven, some of it was a common desire to raise our child in a place where they wouldn’t give in to the same things I had.

We got the house. We are renting, but rent is almost half of what rent is here. We moved away from the suburbs and INTO the city. You know, the area that city leaders want to improve before it gets ‘too bad’.

Anyway, we have great neighbors and I look forward to getting to know them better.

Our house is an old house. It’s in good shape, but not shiny. It’s a place where I am not ashamed to bring people and share what I have. It is a place that as I serve in the church, I won’t feel guilty about paying more in rent that some of my friends make in two weeks. Besides, we have a child coming and it is good for him or her to be raised in a place similar to where my wife and I were raised.

It is something that has made me really happy. I look forward to building our new home.

MOAC 2005 is getting in full gear. This year promises to be pretty eventful as you have staunch old school and the passive reformers together in one place. This can only mean one thing: the passive reformers will get shouted down and ignored. The old school folks will go to the old school classes, the passive reformers will go to their passive reformer classes. This, ladies and gentlemen, is what we now call unity. In other words, for the sake of avoiding conflict, we’ll all get together in the same room and “get along”. It isn’t exactly contending for the gospel as one man, but it does show progress, right?

This is nothing more than changing the rules as we go along. First, unity was defined as having the same practice and doctrine. Then it was having the same doctrine. Then it was having the same organizational structure, then it was having the same worldwide leaders. Now, it is simply defined by name, proximity, and historical association. No one wants to be the one to draw the line in the sand, except Thomas, and so in order coexist without much conflict, we let him do it.

We tell our children to stand up to bullying. We ask our school systems to deal with bullies so out children can go to school. Better school systems deal with bullies by getting the bully to see the error of their ways, ask for help, and devise strategies for managing, and taking responsibility for, their own behaviour. Failing this, the bully is isolated so that he or she can receive more professional and personal help. In Christian parlance, this is acknowledge sin, repent, ask for help, and change their ways. Failing this, they get professional and personal help.

Lest you think this is ignoring the needs of the bullied, there is more to the story than just helping the bully change their ways. Rupert Kaye, CEO of the Association of Chirstian Teachers has this to say:

Rupert says, “Helping the perpetrator seems the perfectly Christian thing to do, but we should never overlook the needs of the victim. In fact, standing resolutely with the oppressed is nothing short of a biblical imperative – it is precisely what God expects us all to do.”

“The parable of the Good Samaritan is not about helping the bandits who robbed the hapless journeyman – it is about the help which the victim received from an enemy. Interestingly, Jesus does not allow himself to become preoccupied with blaming the bullies, but nor does he take time to explain or excuse their actions.”

“Instead, Jesus uses this parable to show his disapproval of those who walk on by on the other side of the road. I think that God expects all school staff, parents and governors to do everything within their power to bind up the wounds of the victims, and provide for their safety and wellbeing.”

We allow Thomas to say that a church three hours away from Savannah doesn’t have God’s approval.
We allow him to say that he is going to replant five former icoc churches (and then allow him to do it).
We allow him to say the it is unbiblical to eliminate “overseeing evangelists” and
We allow him to claim exemption from having an ‘overseeing evangelist” over him.
We allow him to talk about how churches from all over has ‘lost the dream of discipling’ and sit by while he boasts of all the people moving to Portland.
We allow him to talk to our staff members and divide leadership groups.
We allow him to be the only one that helps people in need. We have no problem sending money to Europe and Asia, but no help to anyone in America either spiritually or financially. (There is one exception and Chicago should be commended for it.)
We allow him to say that being in a small group is a biblical mandate and that there is no such thing as a Christian without a small group.
We allow him to say that former icoc churches are lukewarm when some are not.
We allow him to speak at our conferences and naively think that everything will be okay.
We allow him to mock us, ridicule us, and tell us that we are not real Christians unless we follow his dream, his plan and his leadership.
We allow him to continue preaching his message of death and destruction unopposed for the sake of a warped sense of unity.

So forgive me if I take a pass on the MOAC 2005 this year. It sounds like MOAC 2003 (which I attended). Nothing will change, we will ‘agree to disagree’ and continue to allow him to cut a swath of destruction in our churches. We write these books on what it means to be men and what it means to be elders and then we just lay down and die.

Worse yet, we talk about unimportant things like money:

How important are material possessions to you? How important is comfort and ease of life-style? Do you have the same attitude toward these things as God does? How willing would you be to sacrifice your present life-style if doing so would further the spread of the kingdom? How sensitive are you to appeals for increased contributions in the church? Do you need help with your heart in these matters? Will you ask for it?
(Gordon Ferguson, Mine Eyes Have Seen the Glory, Discipleship Publications International, 1996, p 140.)

or we talk about doing the right thing:

Of course, if someone constituted such a threat to the flock that to say nothing would be to allow the sheep to be slaughtered, I would not hesitate to speak up. I have often done so in the past and I do not see this pattern changing anytime soon. No, I am not afraid of taking a stand.

only to hide behind fear of lawsuits

Besides, there are libel laws. To defame another person is to take a legal risk, and quite possibly to expose the trustees of the church to litigation. While 1 Corinthians 6 instructs us not to sue our fellow believers, the directive does not necessarily protect us from a lawsuit if we have gossiped, slandered, or borne false witness. We are the ones forbidden to sue our fellow Christians. (In the meantime, let’s pray that he or she will not ignore Paul’s directive and sue us!)

I have had it with being nice. I have had it with waiting for those that purport to be leaders to do the right thing. The very things we did at first, which most of us said two years ago were ungodly, are coming back with a vengenance. So while we as leaders are charged with protecting the flock, we just open the gate and let the wolf in.

Peh.

The term pituforrobotines was invented by an eBay(TM) user in Spain.

It comes from Pitufo and robotines Pitufos are the small blue TV personages called Smurfs(R) in English robotines mean little robots

So pituforrobotines refers to those small blue robots (or smurfy robots) which are living inside eBay(TM) computers & servers and are controlling everything what is happening inside eBay(TM) then sending non sense automated messages to the users, canceling accounts, etc.

Later today, I’ll have to add this to the phrasemint.

Henry Kriete has resurfaced again, here are his comments as posted: (personal messages to two others ommitted)

…For the last time, ahem, I left the ICOC in my heart-the institution, human organization, denomination, sect, cult or whatever you may call it-about 1.5 years ago. I have demonstrated this and stated this publicly and privately many times over. However, I still very much believe there are true and wonderful Christians among them. I believe Kip is delusional and arrogant. Doctrine aside, I believe he is a false teacher based on his ethical failures, deceitfulness and divisive spirit. I say to anyone and everyone involved with him or in the same camp as him-run for your lives!

Brian is miles and miles from Kip. He has nothing to do with Kip. But, he has more relationships with ICOC churches than me by a long shot. I am very uncomfortable with the ICOC leadership-current, former or whatever- for many reasons-but in particular the ongoing coward ness in publicly denouncing Kip. Like many of you, I am very alarmed. Just this week I said to an ICOC teacher, ‘What the ICOC needs right now is a Churchill, not a Chamberlain’ That’s pretty straight forward don’t you think?

Scott Green is just a couple miles away from me. We have never spoken. I never attended the recent Spokane conference-no interest at all. However, about 40 did go from Vancouver and seemed to have a great time. Good for them.

Brian has been my friend-although our relationship was anything but that when we first moved here. If Brian starts to go back to the old ways, many will leave Vancouver, I am convinced. But until now, that has not happened. I have never been asked about my contribution or my attendance and don’t have a discipleship partner (in principle I see nothing wrong with a mentoring relationship based on love and grace-with even higher accountability for those who are called to lead) I have been to NY twice a month for about 8 months now (which is 8-9 days a month). Altogether I have been going for 18 months. I do way more there in terms of ministry and teaching than in Vancouver-by far. I would say without question, between the two fellowships, my closest friends are now in NY. They know I still attend in Vancouver and that Vancouver is a reformed ‘ICOC’ congregation. Nothing is enforced in Vancouver-still. That’s two years now. What might happen later on is later on. But for now…

I don’t endorse all of Brian’s theology or his positions on things or his ongoing association with those in the ICOC-I endorse our friendship in Christ, that’s all. Brian is an excellent expositor of the Word and my family’s spiritual needs have met. Hopefully, we too have been a source of encouragement and grace.

I recently took a position as the full time minister for the Maple Ridge church of Christ. They are a small but wonderful group of Christians. Being in the full time ministry has still been a prayer of mine and I truly believe that, at least for now, that’s what God wants from me. They initiated with me about 2-3 months ago and after building our friendship, mutual trust and respect, formally asked me to be their minister last week. I am grateful and humbled and hope that I can serve them in a way that pleases Christ. My son will worship in both places for now because they are just starting to build a teen ministry.

Like I have said before, like it or not- I will worship where I want to and teach where I am invited to teach-as long as I may teach about Christ. I am very excited for this new beginning. I will still maintain many of my friendships with Vancouver. I am not leaving the Vancouver ICOC-I left the ICOC a while ago. In this regard I want to be like Jesus-he ate with the Pharisee and the prostitute. He faithfully attended the synagogue every Sabbath knowing that almost every synagogue leader was a Pharisee or legalistic. And he still sang his heart out I’m sure. He had a tax collector and a zealot among his closest friend’s. He was a demon, a glutton, a Samaritan and the Messiah all at once! I want to be like Paul-who loved the Galatians but hated their legalism, cherished the Corinthians but chastised their worldliness, left the Pharisees but still fellowshipped with Christians who remained in the Pharisee sect even after their baptism (Acts 11) Or like Peter, who still hung out with James-the brother of Christ-who was very zealous for the law and was still, I should imagine, treating Gentiles like second class citizens (Gal.2) There is only one Lord, one body, one Spirit, one God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ-why can’t most of you accept this? Not protestant, not catholic, not ICOC, mainline, hard-line or straight-line. Just the church-beautiful and glorious in Christ.

Cecil Hook’s life and spirit has profoundly influenced me. A two hour conversation with him in Portland changed my life. I’m not going to judge anyone before the time-except by what I believe is the truth. I can’t even live up to my own convictions. Mercy triumphs over judgment! I am finished with the ICOC forever as an organization and human institution. And with every human institution and movement. But I am not finished with my brothers and sisters for whom Christ died.

Anyway, I hope this helps. The Maple Ridge Christians accepted me warmly and sincerely knowing I was a ‘Boston Movement’ leader for 22 years. I only hope I can be as gracious to others.

Love,
Henry

I led the thoughts for Communion today at church. I pray that this can be of some help somehow to you.

July 10, 2005 - Communion

Joel Osteen charges $10 to get a ticket to his sermons in other cities. This is a location specific thing, trust me. When Billy Graham and Joyce Meyer go somewhere, they go to stadiums or college campuses to avoid having to charge. (I don’t know how Joyce got the BI-LO Center in Greenville, SC to allow her to speak without charging for tickets.) I don’t think that this is a good thing, but he has the right to charge a lot more.

I’m going to a conference in August that is $65 each for my wife and I. We are meeting in a hotel conference center and 500+ are expected to attend.

I’ve done these events before and I understand that it costs about $20 - $25 per person to pull off an event. $700 for the room, $1600 for the speaker, $150 for materials… I hated charging but that was the price for everything. The year before we lost money only to break even selling tapes for $3.

The event I’m going to is probably $1000 to $1500 for the space, so I guess the rest of the almost $30,000 is going to …

You may or may not know about what has happened with Joel Osteen recently. Just to catch up, here’s the official CNN transcript of the whole interview. After this interview, Joel published this apology on his website.

What strikes me is that this apology letter shares some similarites with other apologies I have heard before.

From Joel:

God has given me a platform to present the Gospel to a very diverse audience. In my desire not to alienate the people that Jesus came to save, I did not clearly communicate the convictions that I hold so precious.

Statements of fact communicated by Bob Gempel in Dallas on Oct 3, 2003:

• Donations from ICoC congregations go 100% to support overhead so that corporate donors can give 100% of the money directly to projects.
• An apology was offered for the miscommunication about Hope contributions.
• Congregations can now opt to give unrestricted donations for overhead, or program specific donations. Unrestricted donations are desperately needed or HOPE will run out of money in three months.

A minister is paid to preach the gospel. He gets a national audience on CNN only to drop the ball at the most crucial moment. What is he being paid for? (In case you’re wondering, I do know what I would say in his shoes, I have been in tougher circumstances and still spoken the truth as I understand it.) This apology sounds hollow in that these dearly held convictions melt away when questioned. At least Brian McLaren sidestepped the whole question by giving an English Major answer.

A man in charge of a charity can be held liable for things said by that charity. To allow churches to take contributions with the public declaration that the money is going to a specific project, only to have it diverted to overhead is irresponsible and thoughtless. Why would he wait until churches stopped sending money to clear up this ‘miscommunication’? Simple really, ICoC administrative policy charge a HOPE tax to each church that they were required to pay. When the ICoC corportaion went away, some churches like mine stopped sending it because it appears to be unethical (even if it is perfectly legal). Without the enforcement agency and a ‘buffer’, churches called directly and wanted answers.

However, there are also some differences between this apology and other apologies I have heard.

Again from Joel:

I will use this as a learning experience and believe that God will ultimately use it for my good and His glory.

I believe him when he says this. I may not like his theology (or lack thereof) or his message, but I do believe that he will learn his lesson from this. On the other hand, what I witnessed in Dallas was a red-faced CEO angrily denouncing churches that stopped giving unrestricted monies. We had five Adivsory Group members in the audience and two financial board members from our church. It didn’t take long to make our final decision (up to that point, we had paid last year’s tax). Based on this and subsequent actions I don’t believe that Bob has learned his lesson. Enough churches paid their fees to keep them afloat and they now appear to be doing quite well.

I wish him and HOPE well.

It just strikes me that there is a way to apologize and make up for big mistakes. I remember hearing all the apologies around the ICoC and wanting to believe them. However, I have discovered that most are based, like Bob’s, on getting caught and not on contrition. This makes me very sad, indeed.

Spam Karma loves to eat comments and I’ve had a big problem in getting it to work correctly. I’ve whitelisted my friend ip addresses and it says “sent to moderation”. In any case, I’ve tried again, so please comment to this post and tell me your results.

Finally I just got rid of spam karma. He works hard, but I can’t get ANY comments through, even my own while I am logged in. Using a different program.

It seems that Thomas has decided that he can slander the Atlanta Church of Christ. He has judged their move to separate into four congregations as ungodly.

The clip in question is here.

Transcript:
Just three hours away[from Savannah, Ga], there’s another church, a huge church, that at this moment is breaking up into different regions. You know, when things scatter, you know that’s not of God. When things gather, you know the Lord is working. And what you have right here is a great deal of confusion that’s worked it’s way through the whole batch of dough.

Why is he telling his congregation this? By what authority does he judge this breaking up as being ungodly? If you ask any of the elders why they are doing this, you will find that it is being done for the members of each region.

More to the point, why is criticizing Portland and it’s ‘World Missions Evangelist’ slander when he can critize Atlanta with impunity?

I have finally pared down the categories to eight.

• Are Belong to Us: News about pinakidion.*
• Church and/or Spirituality: Articles that deal with the Bible, faith, or various church happenings.
• Computers: Anything computers, mostly Linux.
• General: Miscellaneous
• ICoC Subculture: Any article that deals with the distinctiveness of being a part of the ICoC.
• My Life: Articles about me or my state of mind.
• Role Playing Games: Articles that deal with various RPGs.
• World of Dira: This is my alternate Roman empire campaign world.

Also, there is now a link to a collaborative writing blog called The Storyteller’s Guild

Now I can go back to my normally scheduled life already in progress.