Elitism in GCM, and having a "single eye"

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[puff of purple smoke]

I understand the wisdom of having a "home base" church. I practice this. But I think it's clear from the 'single eye' verse..

The light of the body is the eye: if therefore thine eye be single, thy whole body shall be full of light. But if thine eye be evil, thy whole body shall be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in thee be darkness, how great is that darkness." Matthew 6:22, 23

..that Jesus is most definitely NOT talking about how "evil" it is to participate in more than one ministry at a time. This is more scripture twisting and out-of-context'ing (as discussed previously in this thread.)

At GC, everything they do ties back to the Organization. The Organization is what is to be committed too for life, not necessarily God or the Body of Christ or even your specific GC church. I know non-GC bible studies/small groups that anyone is invited to. Some of them are purposefully not based around a specific church (my grandma holds one that is attended by Catholics and all sorts of other denominations, and not put on by any church), and some are put on by specific churches with an occasional straggler who does not actually attend the church putting the small group on. It's never really been a big deal elsewhere, in my experience. But at GC, it was huge. If you attend one of /their/ small groups and they find out you're attending another church on Sundays, it isn't going to be long before you get the "single eye" lecture. I know of people who were told to begin attending GC church services or to get out of the small group. You either give us everything you have (back to the "plant your flag and die with GCM" speel), or you go away. It also probably effects GC's beliefs on friendship, and how easily people who leave the movement seem to be discarded. After all, if you can't even have a bible study with someone who isn't going to your church, why would you try to pursue a friendship with someone who isn't attending your church?

[exshep]

The outside speakers and the sheep stealing do ring a bell with me.  The allegience to GC or else may have answered a question for me.  

For the most part all of the speakers seem to inhouse.  That was certainly the case with Faithwalkers.  I was not aware of the exceptions Sam noted.   The church I attended was an exception to the rule. Grace did decide to affiliate with Willowcreek and Saddleback.  The church heavily relies on Saddleback for direction.  The staff go out for conferences all the time.  

I have seen non GC literature in the tract racks at some of the churches.  Some are more locked and some play to their tune. Heritage in Columbus seems to borrow heavily from the Vineyard.  A look at the staff listings make it apparent.  There are churches which are locked into this is the way we do it, and that's that.  

The sheep stealing has always left a bad taste in my mouth, mostly because it was the norm in shepherding groups.  It happened in the groups I was in.  I was asked for information by a protestant denomination district  office on how the bible school was taking over churches and still keeping the original name of the church.  

 There was GC sheep stealing which gave the campus christian community  some  real angst.   For now I am going to resort to psuedonyms.    Anybody can PM or email for the specifics.    We had  a sister in a charismatic fellowship appointed to be a women's small group leader at Midwest State Believers.   She was well qualified. She was excited about her duties and was looking forward to serve.  We, in Belivers,  we all excited about the position she had in front of her.  

One day I came home from class.  The Fall term had just started.  My usually easy going quiet roommate was beside himself in rage.  Tammy had abruptly jumped ship to the Midwest Rock.  The leader of the group was shocked at what happened.  My roommate was upset, as was his fiance who roomed with Tammy.   The incident at the time really gave me pause.  I am not sure if I felt sucker punched.  I  definitely felt uneasy.   We quickly learned to accept and respect Tammy's decision.  Her answer of how she got in to Midwest Rock, for me, now that I think about it, did not ring true,  "They were such nice people".    It was obviously a text book case of love bombing.  She met the sisters and she was in.  It was that fast.

Over the years, I ran into Believers alumni.  The consensus is they were happy  that Tammy found a new place to serve; but still expressed some reservations about the motivations of Midwest State Rock.  The elitism was a bit disturbing for many at the time.  At least I am now not the only who felt that way.

[maranatha]

(copying from Anonymous above)

He was talking about other churches and how sometimes we can look down on other christians and be condescending or proud, or just demeaning. He said “That’s *MY* church - don’t you talk bad about those catholics, those methodists, those baptists! I’m related to them! I’m part of that body! That’s GOD’S WIFE!!! That’s my church. You should love them.”

I would love to see GCM embrace this idea. I hope someday leaders realize that loyalty needs to be directed towards God, not man, towards the body of Christ, not an organization. I’m glad at least one GCM pastor has seen it that way. It’s too bad there’s so many people with stories of the opposite kind. Thanks for posting that, Nate.

[puff of purple smoke]

Marching To Zion has some information on the "single eye" belief. From Part Three:

In contrast to this, most Blitz groups ordinarily cooperated only sporadically and minimally with other fellowships and churches, preferring instead to devote all their time and energy to their own separate activities. While other organizations have occasionally invited Blitz groups to participate with them in special activities (e.g., Campus Crusade's Josh McDowell lectures and “Here's Life, America” campaign), the Blitz rarely, if ever, reciprocated. In fact, Blitz members were strongly dissuaded from concurrent involvement with other campus groups, because that would be a failure to maintain a “single eye.”* Finally, whenever the Blitz moved into a new area it was always with a view to establishing a church of its own, never with the intent to discover which churches were already doing a good work and cooperating with them.

* This was based on a misunderstanding of Matthew 6:22, KJV. Considering the context of this verse, including the verses before and after it, and checking the standard Greek lexicons, it becomes apparent that "single eye" is an idiom meaning "generosity." The Greek word translated "liberality" in 2 Cor. 8:2 (NASV) is from the same root as "single" in Mt. 6:22.

[theresearchpersona]

In contrast to this, most Blitz groups ordinarily cooperated only sporadically and minimally with other fellowships and churches, preferring instead to devote all their time and energy to their own separate activities. While other organizations have occasionally invited Blitz groups to participate with them in special activities (e.g., Campus Crusade's Josh McDowell lectures and “Here's Life, America” campaign), the Blitz rarely, if ever, reciprocated. In fact, Blitz members were strongly dissuaded from concurrent involvement with other campus groups, because that would be a failure to maintain a “single eye.”* Finally, whenever the Blitz moved into a new area it was always with a view to establishing a church of its own, never with the intent to discover which churches were already doing a good work and cooperating with them.

* This was based on a misunderstanding of Matthew 6:22, KJV. Considering the context of this verse, including the verses before and after it, and checking the standard Greek lexicons, it becomes apparent that "single eye" is an idiom meaning "generosity." The Greek word translated "liberality" in 2 Cor. 8:2 (NASV) is from the same root as "single" in Mt. 6:22.

Actually the Scriptural idiom for "single eye" refers to faithfulness, having your eye on one thing only and not wandering; in Biblical terms, it could be applied to one's spouse, or to God himself...never, however, to the church, which corporately has its eyes on God, not a corporate group of men. This should be a lesson: don't expect to derive the meaning of a phrase from the etymology of words: you wouldn't thing a "teaspoon" was a spoon made of tea, would you?!