Letter from a GCM staffer

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[Linda]

A few posts up, I mentioned the issue of "pride". For those not familiar with Terry's blog post, I wanted to make it clear that he was not talking about an individual pastor and accusing him of pride. He made that clear in his post. He was referring to a "corporate" personality that can develop in groups. And, he was merely trying to somehow categorize his observations.

It is interesting to note that GC itself categorized these same things under the label of "Prideful Attitude".

I wanted to make it clear that our issue isn't with individuals in the sense that we are publicly accusing them of some type of sin. Our issue is with some error that has entered their teaching that will never be removed if the people who are trying to help them see that error and correct it are constantly being accused of slander, rebuked, asked to leave, and/or shunned.

I'll leave you with the GC statement and an excerpt from Terry's post.

We confess that, especially in our early years, we had a prideful attitude about the ways we believed that our churches were distinctive from others in the body of Christ. And while, to the best of our knowledge, it was never expressly taught that we were better than other churches, it was very much implied by our too narrow view of how God accomplishes His purpos­es through the church.  For many years, we believed that because we were commit­ted to reaching the world with the Gospel in the way we believed was mandated by the Scriptures and that had been virtually aban­doned by most Christians since the first century, that God would use our churches in a special way.  This allowed a prideful attitude to develop toward other churches, para‑churches, and organizations, a sinful attitude we deeply regret. It is difficult to know just how pervasive this attitude was, but we believe it was common, especially during the early years of our history.  Our pride manifest­ed itself in a variety of ways, which we now turn to.

We came to believe that in Great Commission Association of Churches (Evergreen’s association) there was and still is something besides the gospel going on, a thread running through the DNA of the organization, so not right, that when we recognized it we could no longer be comfortable there. What is it? My blunt answer is a culture of pride. Sounds a little harsh, I know. I don’t know how else to describe it. A more complete explanation will take some digression and a few more paragraphs.

But before I go any further, let me qualify the bluntness and offer a disclaimer. I am not saying that Evergreen pastors are all proud men. I still count some of them as my friends (at least until this post) and would not want to be so strident and insulting as that. The same holds true for members. It has been observed that organizations in their corporate existence develop personalities of their own—characteristics and a culture that aren’t necessarily represented perfectly by any one individual. I operate on that assumption here as I attempt an analysis of Evergreen and Great Commission. I suppose you could say I’m challenging entrenched theology, philosophy, policy and assumptions, not people.

[EverAStudent]

...on the thread "Now you have seen testimony of GC abuses..." Excellent questions. I didn't want to post a comment there and bump your questions...

Very, very, kind.  

But, really, I think everyone who has a question that a potential GC recruit can legimately pose to a GC elder and have the answer shine light on whether that assembly is among those that are "abusive," I would very much encourage such a person to add their question to the list.  All will benefit.

[theresearchpersona]

It is interesting to note that GC itself categorized these same things under the label of "Prideful Attitude".

I still saw a ton of pride in GC-members, especially anyone who was placed in "leadership", though it's usually called other names; often times someone would slip and show their pride, and then try to call it something else, "I didn't mean...".

I wanted to make it clear that our issue isn't with individuals in the sense that we are publicly accusing them of some type of sin. Our issue is with some error that has entered their teaching that will never be removed if the people who are trying to help them see that error and correct it are constantly being accused of slander, rebuked, asked to leave, and/or shunned.

It still isn't changing, and things have just been getting worse so that the messages of twisting scripture to subject people even more to their authority and they even now say one must even if they're wrong, scripturally, and say it's "your responsibility to be subject to your leaders and obey". Their messages are getting more frequent and more desperate. More, though, GC is more interested in being relevant to the world "for the kingdom" (er?) than faithful in handling the scriptures, and I just recently I kept witnessing the "pastors in training" and other expected-to-be-made-teachers/pastors horribly mauling the scriptures and ignoring the intent of passages: which is to be expected because poor handling has been what was demonstrated to them. When a GC college student tells GC leadership "I think I want to become a pastor" AND that person fits their purpose-driven-mixed-with-GC-criteria (i.e. business-principles + authoritarian power-safeguards, and the PD stuff already had some of that so just made it worse) the pastors aren't unlikely, for instance, to tell that person to start studying something like philosophy: I've heard this from their own mouths. Thus we get philosophers and ideamen rather than teachers and preachers of the word rightly divided (this little sermon/vid applies perfectly to GC: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Q4sNhFpXj0&eurl=http://realchristianity.wordpress.com/2008/05/20/is-your-pastor-a-bible-teacher-or-a-philosopher/).

GC won't repent because its current teachings and practices are necessary for its own vision; it talks of ideas from leaders rather than the leadership simply teaching God's word as commanded, as if men and women were their property and sheep rather than the Lord's.

And for its history of deception, twisting, false leading and teaching, self-proclaimed apostles, authoritarianism, and fad-following, it will probably die: oh maybe not organizationally, but it will cease to be truly relevant to He who it should have been striving to be relevant to all along: God and Christ--focusing on the head rather than its strategy to implement a vision it had for the world upon principles of philosophy which are directly contrary to scripture. I say it will probably die, because it's already happening: GCM is now the sponsor of "missionaries" who are followers of purveyors of false gospels (Brian McLaren, Dallas Willard, etc.) and Churches that do the same: oddly enough you'll find books in GC bookstores by men who've desperately been trying to warn the Church, begging it to wake up, and mark and avoid such men (such as by John MacArthur, etc.). The "O2"/Kairos/etc. "churches" fit these bills: committing the same errors such as those you find among the messianic judaizers that focus on evangelizing Jews, rather than preaching nondescriminately and letting God do His work rather than mutating the message and method (because the message is dependent on the method/s) trying to target certain, more practical, demographics. [You'll notice that when a "church" neglects one group or another, strategizing after "strategic" groups (like youth) they ALWAYS (I've never been able to find an example otherwise) cease to be churches and become false movements full of perverse things, and its' really really tragic. I don't mean there shouldn't be entities that exist to learn about certain particulars...for instance we might learn a bit about Mormonism in order to un-teach the false teachings Mormons get: I've had to sit and explain to an ex-mormon about the trinity and Jesus a bit vs. who he thought Jesus was; I've had to sit and explain to a "jew" that heritage does not make one a Jew just as it does not make one a Christian {OT says this}: but belief, faith, and practice do, and, of course, Judaism is misleading and its adherents need the Messiah)].

I've had other pastors tell me how many of these kinds of groups they've watched fall into irrelevance and dissolve, oddly enough, when I messaged them, warned them about GC groups in their area, and provided the evidence (teachings, pointing them to this site or others, or sometimes just asking advice about certain things GC was undertaking and about what scripture said about such a thing--and funny thing is these men aren't legalistic, closed-minded, uneducated backwards po-dunk traditionalists: and I'd hear the reply "I'm aware, you're not the first one to warn me about them, and their not the first I've watched do this and fall apart").

So long as GC's commitment is to its vision it will likely continue down this road. I'm hoping to return, openly, publicly, and oppose things, read scripture, and exhort repentance, because I have bros and sisters being trained in this stuff that really robs Christians of Christ's riches (if they weren't merely deceived that they're saved and assured by men of salvation rather than God). The hard thing is, is that it's what they know and love, and since they've seen and are accustomed to scripture being twisted, sometimes visibly but oftentimes very subtly, trying to reason from scripture becomes very difficult.

[EverAStudent]

...since they've seen and are accustomed to scripture being twisted, sometimes visibly but oftentimes very subtly, trying to reason from scripture becomes very difficult.

One of the finest books I have ever read about how to use Scripture legitimately is: Hermeneutics--Principles and Processes of Biblical Interpretation.  Author: Henry A. Virkler.

If I could convince evey Sunday School teacher, pastor, GC elder, and Bible college student on the planet to read this book, I would consider it a service to Christ's Kingdom.  The book is used in seminaries, but it is relatively short and written so that any lay person can read it.  And it is far superior in practicality and content to similar books by MacArthur and Veerman.

In GCI we were often told that the "more mature" one is spiritually the better his intuitive insights and his intuitive interpretations of Scripture.  I particularly appreciate Virkler's comments regarding whether good Bible interpretation is a product of spiritual intuition, or, a product of principled study and hard work, "If we rely on the spiritual intuitions of fellow believers for added insights we soon end in a hopeless babble of confusion because we no longer have any normative principles for comparing the validity of one intuition with another" (Virkler, page 29).

[steelgirl]

ex-shep wrote:

Tim,

Thanks for your insights and apologies. One of the blogs made comment about the judgement whether one is in GC or not. I must say I have had mixed reviews with 1991 Apology. The fact that you had a dickens of a time trying to get a copy does not bode well. I received an unsolicted copy from Linworth with a post-it “______ wanted you to see this”. I would have thought I could dialog with the friend I had in GC. The response I got was the caged, “Unless you repent [join GC] and stop slandering the brethren, I cannot talk to you” and she hung up. It was a poor effort at damage control.

Of course I have had positive conversations viz the Apology. In the long term, it has produced some good results. The judgementalism even between GC churches is curious. To be honest, I wonder the incident is indicative of GC or unique to that person. I had received a third hand comment that “Grace [Community Church, Plano, TX] is not a GC church, is dangerous, and I should be fearful of my salvation”. I ran the incident past the pastor, who started out during the Blitz years. He was quite honestly dumbfounded. I look at him, “Well, it makes feel good we are on the same page.” There was an uneasiness when I attended a service at Linworth. Considering I was in Cult Awareness Network, spoke out against shepherding groups, and had an acrimonious disagreement with an apparently former member; that would certainly explain the anxiety.

I never attended a service a Linworth.  When did you attend Linworth?  I have a friend whose dad went there, they had a coffee haus ministry 8 yrs ago which I helped serve in.  I could tell you stories, including this one guy who was there who I ended up turning down on eharmomy.

[steelgirl]

ex-shep wrote:

Tim,

Thanks for your insights and apologies. One of the blogs made comment about the judgement whether one is in GC or not. I must say I have had mixed reviews with 1991 Apology. The fact that you had a dickens of a time trying to get a copy does not bode well. I received an unsolicted copy from Linworth with a post-it “______ wanted you to see this”. I would have thought I could dialog with the friend I had in GC. The response I got was the caged, “Unless you repent [join GC] and stop slandering the brethren, I cannot talk to you” and she hung up. It was a poor effort at damage control.

Of course I have had positive conversations viz the Apology. In the long term, it has produced some good results. The judgementalism even between GC churches is curious. To be honest, I wonder the incident is indicative of GC or unique to that person. I had received a third hand comment that “Grace [Community Church, Plano, TX] is not a GC church, is dangerous, and I should be fearful of my salvation”. I ran the incident past the pastor, who started out during the Blitz years. He was quite honestly dumbfounded. I look at him, “Well, it makes feel good we are on the same page.” There was an uneasiness when I attended a service at Linworth. Considering I was in Cult Awareness Network, spoke out against shepherding groups, and had an acrimonious disagreement with an apparently former member; that would certainly explain the anxiety.

I never attended a service a Linworth.  When did you attend Linworth?  I have a friend whose dad went there, they had a coffee haus ministry 8 yrs ago which I helped serve in.  I could tell you stories, including this one guy who was there who I ended up turning down on eharmomy.