As the old saw states, there is nothing civil about a war, especially this one.

According to his sermon delivered yesterday, Kip is moving to LA in March 2007. I really do not believe that there will be a clear winner in this contest. However, I do think it is going to be ugly. What will happen at the big brouhaha meetings, now?

The ICC is coming to Manhattan as well in summer 2008.

His highness has also wept the loss of the Chile churches, but has gained a congregation in Estonia and another in Congo. Now he has one on every continent.

Matthew 12:43-45 seems to ring true – the LA ICC being emptied, swept clean and put in order is about to have something worse happen. So it was with Jesus’ generation, so it appears to be with ours.

Granted, generation meaning ICoC and ICC people. The whole of Christendom has little time or notice of Kip, Bruce, Al, or any of the other castaways.

I feel badly for the folks in Russia and Eastern Europe. Next to Chicago, the North and East regions of the LA church provide the most financial support to the ICoC churches in the former Soviet empire. $300K is hard to replace by a group of US churches that are very small. Then again, if the money from LA dries up, maybe the Eurasian Missions folks will not give a 25K kickback to the Chicago church while remaining underfunded. That, however, is another story entirely. (Believe it or not, I’d still send money to this organization, but only as restricted funds. Except for this one and hopefully solitary lapse of ethics by the board, the finances have been handled well. Couple this with an unheard level of openness…)

I’ve heard about ministers visiting the small churches out there and it was encouraging news. Maybe I am sentimental again, but having grown up at the very end of the Cold War, there is something about working with Christians in Siberia that is appealing to me. More importantly, when people go to actually help others it means something.

Back to the matter at hand, calling it a Civil War may be overstated. Maybe sectarian violence is a more appropriate term. However, this conflict doesn’t involve violence against blood and bone – it is the violence against mind and soul.