GC History rewrite

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[exshep]

It is not  the first time I have posted  on GC history rewrite.  I alluded to how the Columbus church in the 80’s slid past reference to Solid Rock Fellowship.  I also mentioned how a  Columbus church elder, who I  deeply respect and enjoy his teaching denied there was  a church in Athens, OH  (1982-1984) and how his church did not send a missions team when I actually preached with them and had dinner with them.  What I was not expecting was a version of GC rewrite from what I considered to be a healthy church.  Grace Community Church, Plano, TX,   went to great lengths to detach themselves from the GC milieu which  is usually topics of discussion.  I have no axe to grind today nor am I in any hurry to get my masters degree in muckraking. Still I cannot help but wonder if somebody at Grace  just played a rendition of GC history rewrite.

 There was a former associate pastor from sometime in the Nineties. His existence and reasons for his departure seem to have been brushed over.   The time I first heard of the former staff member was when I preparing coffee for the volunteers who ushered for the Saturday evening service.   A member of the church mentioned his name and then suddenly changed the topic and moved on to another conversation.  At the time I did not think anything of it.  That was then; it was now fall 2005 and understandably ancient history.  I brought the coffee to the room where the ushers met before service and that was the end of it.  

I had lunch with a coworker on a temp assignment last summer. She was a former member at Grace who left with a group of other members when the then associate pastor left. For her and others in the group, it was an apparently acrimonious split. I listened to her story and went back to work. I thought nothing more of the story until a former Columbus church member blasted me third hand about my involvement at Grace. What was really puzzling was the fact the member alluded to the same shake up which evidently occurred around 10 years ago from  a  location 1068 miles away from Grace.    I did email the former member to come forward with his concerns. The member never did. When it became apparent that no response was forthcoming, I quietly let the issue drop.

I thought nothing of the response from the staff at Grace until posting to an off forum private message . I will give myself the benefit of the doubt. Perhaps I did not fully pose my question. I did,  to the senior pastor, allude to the fact that a Columbus church member was aware of the split in the Nineties. The response was an excellent and helpful discourse on the history of the 1990s Dallas church and the current incarnations today. I just realized nearly nine months later that the staff member at Grace slid past the question.

It is symptomatic of GC wanting to rewrite history and gloss over the bad parts. How a GC member several states away knows more about than the local church is something of mystery for me.

Is this all that important-- or will that and $3.76 get one a venti non fat one sugar latte? If it is, there will be more threads and food for thought. If there is no substance, it will buried in archival status with a cursory glance by a reader.

[lone gone]

I beleive that Scripture teaches what will happen at the Last Judgement.
The books will be opened and the deeds of men will be revealed.

Everyone will know everything.

The quest for knowledge that began in the Garden of Eden( but was cut short before the fruit of eternal life was eaten) will finally be complete.

Imagine for a second, the feelings of every human being who is confronted with all of their actions and motives.

 Everyone will know everyone else's dirty laundry. What has been hidden will be revealed.

Then will come the final judgement.  Those that are declared righteous by God will enter into the peace and joy of eternity knowing that they are forgiven in spite of all that they did. Those that were declared unrighteous will enter into an eternity of living with a complete knowledge how wrong they were.  

Imagine living for all eternity with that burden. total torture.

God's righteous mercy will be revealed, and also God's righteous judgement.

Remember,  whatever is kept a secret will be revealed to the shame of the person who keeps it a secret.

[exshep]

I always like Jesus  that nothing shall be hidden, but  shouted from the housetops.    Good take on the post.  

I have discovered over the years that if it is important enough I will find out with little exertion on my part.  It is important enough, it will be revealed. If not,  my wife and I can go bowling.  

The best unsolved mystery and worth the wait was the abrupt closing of the Athens OH church  April  1984.  It was pronounced with considerable fanfare that 'It was God's will that the church close".   I could have lived with "it just was not the Lord's will" and it was time to move on.  The incongruity of the "going out of business, lost our lease" pitch was a bit too implausible for me.  What actually happened was Paul Martin just so happened to open Wellspring the next county over in the spring of 1984.  Curiously the Columbus church today denies there was actually a church there and that mission teams from Washington were routinely dispatched.  A trip to University archives, Alden Library, Ohio University, Athens has folders of information on Ohio Christian Fellowship.    There were routinely ads for OCF events in THE POST.  If the elders can stand before the Lord with integrety, all power to them.