cogcatalyst

Engage 21 Conference

I got a call from Tony Lane in the Youth Department for the Church of God about an upcoming conference for emerging, missional pastors in the COG.  We talked about what needed to be done to connect with this group.  It was a good, engaging conversation...thought I'd pass the ad for the conference along as published in the Covenant Resource Magazine.

 

The Porn Edition of the COG Evangel

I haven't posted here in quite some time.  I have to do it now as I tip my hat to the COG Evangel for publishing what I'd like to call, "The Porn Edition of the COG Evangel."  Kudos to you guys for taking a swing at some big time real issues (even if the artwork and style seems a little stodgy).  This is a massive issue in the church, an issue that has gone untalked about for too long.  Thanks for providing some great resources.

Writers Guidelines for the Evangel
Church of God Evangel Website

Missions Dollars are for Missions ONLY

On Actscelerate, a discussion came up concerning the supposed practice of pastors misreporting their church's tithe as a way to circumvent our denominational tax or "Tithe of Tithe."  I call it a tax because it is a set fee levied on churches.  And, while I do honor this requirement, I do so out of a commitment I made and will keep and not a recognition of a Biblical mandate.  I see zero Scriptural support for a denominational tithe or a retithe. 

During the conversation on Actscelerate, someone stated that pastors who do not fully report their church's tithe receipts should be removed.  I think that anyone misappropriating funds should be removed.  I do not engage in that practice.  In fact, I do not know anyone that engages in that practice.  But, if we are going to go after pastors for skirting the system, we need to do the same for denominational departments and department leaders. 

I then referenced a report mailed out to every Florida COG pastor that showed how the state home missions' budget is allocated.  First, the report is incredibly vague.  Second, it explicitly shows that we on a state home missions level have in the past misappropriated home missions funds at worst.  At best, we have forgotten what our mission is and have severe organizational problems.  Read for yourself in the words of our denominational offices how that less than $30,000 of our $1,000,000 per year home missions budget is spent on church planting. Notice how well over $800,000 is virtually lost in a giant bucket of administrative expenses and the wonderful heading of "other"...whatever that means.

 

Download home_missions_front_page.pdf
Download home_missions_budget.pdf

As a quick note, I have to say that to my knowledge, the COG in FL is more on task now than at any point that I know off with hundreds of thousands of dollars going to start "intentional church plants."  This is an initiative of the State Office and a nearly identical plan was hashed out by Waymon Miller, Dwight Allen, and myself with the exception that the state is giving more than our proposed $100,000 per church plant.

Further, I am not writing this out of rebellion but out of a concern for the denomination of which I am involved.  My heritage is thick in the COG with my uncle Otis McCoy editing and publishing "Hymns of the Spirit" and serving as the first music minister in the COG, my great grandfather serving as Asst. GO of the COG for 21 years, my great grandmother, Ida McCoy who I believe was the first licensed lady evangelist, and my Uncle David Lemons and his father, M.S. Lemons having a prominent role in the beginnings of the COG (his ordination being the 4th ordained minister in the COG). 

I have spoken with everyone that I know to speak to, including our Presiding Bishop, Dennis McGuire.  It was an engaging and friendly conversation where I heard many great ideas from a passionate and gifted leader.  Yet, the fact remains that this unfocused, top heavy machine is wobbling off course and off mission. 

Now is not the time to focus the cross hairs on the ministry.  It is time to reform this behemoth of a bureaucracy that is totally out of control by making sure that money earmarked for missions, goes strictly to missions.  Should anyone on a denominational level like to discuss this with me, I will make myself totally available.  You may also discuss the topic here as other officials have done in the past.  I am speaking out of love and passion...nothing else.  Peace and Blessings.

-travis johnson

A Missional Denomination is an Impossibility

In a previous post , I shared that I was in Pursuit of a Missional Denomination.  I actually meant that I wanted to see the Church of God become missional in its appropriation of trust and resources.  However, thanks to Art Rogers at the 12 Witnesses blog, I have found a new expression that may more accurately reflect my heart for missionality- "A Missional Denomination is an Impossibility."  Art via his blog also introduced me to a denominational change model (pdf download) to learn from.

I've had a personal conversation with our Presiding Bishop, Dennis McGuire...
(Read the rest here)

Flickr Church of God Buildings

All of these COG building photos were found on Flickr.  There were hundreds.  They are all very interesting.  They range from this beautiful little Cayman Island chapel to the impressive Tabernaculo de la Fe in Panama City.  If you have some COG related picks or graphics, you'd like to share, upload them to the Unoffical COG Flickr Group.

Iglesia de Dios - Curacao - Tabernaculo de la Fe - Panama City - Visalia COG - Fireworks - Church of God - Georgetown, Grand Cayman - Church of Godzilla - Jordon Cooper's photo of a COG in Sakatoon - Elk City COG w/ Rainbow - Elk City COG w/ Double Rainbow - Elk City COG w/ Snow - Old North Cleveland COG - Spring at Lee University Slides - National COG - Washington D.C. - COG in Indy General Assembly - COG - New Orleans - Lighthouse COG - Orrington, ME - Church of God in a Box

Denominational Critique: Rebellion or Renewal?

In some comments on a previous post, regarding denominational missionality and critique, Sean O'Neal, State YCE Director for California/Nevada made some excellent observations and challenges.  I have the utmost respect and appreciation for Sean.  Not only is he articulate as he serves in denominational leadership, he is also engaging discussion with me here in this venue in a totally unguarded fashion.  For that, I take my hat off to Sean.  He said:

As we follow Christ we embrace the value of making room - we honor our fathers - we honor. We bless and not curse. It is easy for people to criticize the church, the denomination, other people, whatever - whoever - what is challenging is to accept the fact that perhaps at times we grieve God with our attitude or the ways we live out our attitude.  This doesn't mean that every person in an organization is right about soemthing all the time or any time, or sometimes makes errors un-intentionally or intentionally.

For me personally - I realized that God has called me to be salt and light and not a church prosecutor standing before the bench of the judge making the case against the church / denomination / orgainization. The fact is - whether a church is sold, pastor placed or not placed, decisions made - that there are always many sides to a situation / circumstance and until a person has all of the facts then any and all analysis is skewed - one sided.

Peace...

"Behold, I am going to send you And he will restore the hearts of the fathers to their children and the hearts of the children to their fathers, lest I come and smite the land with a curse" Malachi 4:6

Sean touches on an area of struggle for me.  First, get around my family and you will see that we are firey people.  I get it from the Johnsons and the McCoys.  By nature, I am given to that fire in the belly approach to life.  But, I also see things within the denomination that I feel are significant events that shape our ability to function appropriately in our Mission.

From Sean's perspective, it would seem that it is wrong to negatively critique our corporate church structure.  Functioning in a highly centralized structure, there is a vacuum of publicly owned antithetical conversation from what is considered to be the bottom on up.  On the occasion that it does take place, words like "renegade, rebel, and rogue" are employed. 

As we work toward a missional denomination, when is negative critique permissible?  The General Assembly (of which I am a part) mandated that Open Forums were to be conducted across the country leading up to this past General Assembly.  When people spoke directly to issues and expressed disatisfaction with the current financial structure, I actually heard a person make what I consider to be a threat against the profession of a minister with that minister who spoke "negatively" absent.   I personally find that offensive and counter-productive to mission.

I also ask in an environment where state office mandated property insurance premiums are skyrocketing and Florida pastors are living without health insurance or compensation and are having to close ministries so that on top of that a denominational tax can be collected and summarily wasted, are they being rebellious?  Are their hearts, the hearts of true sons and daughters turned against the heart of fathers (interpretted by Sean to be denominational leadership)?

I think not.  In fact, I feel that our system has the potential to totally squelch opposing views from godly men who have no rebellion resident in their hearts.

Is it appropriate to critique non-core, non-essential positions created to keep administrators employed in Cleveland?  Is it appropriate to mention the fact that roughly 6-7 of our present State YCE Directors are sons of corporate administrators?  Is it appropriate to question why we allow our corporate receipts to double every 7 years while we close more churches than we open?  Is it appropriate to point out abuses of authority as were glaringly obvious as in the case of the West Miami COG?  Is it appropriate to ask why it seems as if a significant number of our administrators are above pastoring?  Is it appropriate to ask if our denomination needs such a disproportionately large bureaucracy?

Not only do I say "yes," I feel it is incumbent on us all to have the courage to do so.  Now, I have failed multiple times in my presentation of disagreement.  I don't want that to be the standard for my life.  I want to honor those over me in the Lord.  I want to honor Christ.   In my passion to honor the Great Commission, I have said things in haste, without thinking them through fully.  My words and intent were right.  But, my presentation was coarse and unrefined resulting in hurt.

That is not my intention.  I receive from Sean's challenge and will do my best to be better at honoring the fathers in the church.  I also want to be true to the calling and purpose of the Church so that we will have proportionaely increasing  numnbers of sons and daughters in the next generations of the denomination.  I want to be able to strike a godly balance of clash and kindness.  No matter what is said in regard to those practices that detract from our missionality, there will be misunderstanding.  But, as I live out my calling, I want to do so with a clear conscience and a pure heart.  Thank you Sean for excellent and challenging words.  I hope I can be as receptive to your critique as I expect others to be of mine.

tagged: "church of god" - Sean O'Neil - missional denomination

by travis johnson

Introducing COG Blog Directory

When I moved from blogger to travisjohnson.net, I had difficulties with importing my old posts.  I kind of forgot about this great resource.  Its time to revive it and host it here at COG Catalyst.  I reintroduce to you, the COG Blog Directory (left sidebar).  Let us know if there are any good blogs that need to be added.  We'll be pruning the dead blogs from time to time as well.

In Pursuit of a Missional Denomination

I've been hanging on to this entry for about a week.  Its been sitting in the "draft folder" waiting to be released.  I've hesitated because I don't want to continue to be perceived as the one to bash the denominational drum.  But, when CMS linked to this same article, I felt like it was worthy discussion.  It is obviously a conversation taking place across the country in our denominations from the most loosely connected affiliations to our oldest mainline churches.  So, here goes.

As I type, a discussion regarding the future of our denomination is taking place.  A constant critique of everything from COG General Assembly observations to the state of Lee University Greek club inductions are being discussed.  It is taking place outside the COG in the SBC, the Wesleyan Church, Asbury Theological Seminary, and other denominations as well.  This is a direct result of the internet's impact on culture resulting in an expectation of inclusion, instant and complete information, and access to leaders.

In an excellent article on the Wesleyan Church, Keith Drury explains six ways the internet has affected denominations. This article is a must read especially if you are of the opinion that not only must churches see their cities through a missional lense but also believe that denominations must also have a missional focus.

At the beginning of 2006, I received a report from our state office giving a birds eye accounting of where funds designated "Evangelism and Home Missions" went.  This fund is derived from mandatory funds from the local churches in Florida totaling over $1,000,000 annually.  I was shocked to see that we had only spent and average of $24,000 per year starting new churches out of the "missions" fund.  That is ridiculously embarrassing to our purpose as a Great Commission denomination.  The stewards of these practices (Administrative Bishops, State Board members, pastors, and members) are falling down on the job and we need to change these widespread practices if we are to remain a Biblically functioning missional denomination assuming we can be called that at present.

At the same time, we have been closing and selling churches with no strategy for opening new churches.  I find this to be an insane practice on the part of our denomination.  So, I speak about it as often as possible.  I write frequently about it on Actscelerate, I spoke about it in the Tampa Open Forum, and spoke directly to our leadership about the problem.

About 3 months ago, I met with Waymon Miller (South FL Evangelism Director, Dwight Allen, and a couple other pastors regarding the sale of churches and church planting and proposed a few things.  They were:

1. When a church is sold in our state, 100% of the proceeds less expenses should go to opening new churches, period. Funds from the sale of church property should not prop up any other function of the denomination.  When I spoke about this with Don Walker, Tom Madden, and Alex McManus. Alex commented that the situation "sounded like the dying breaths of an institutionalized church."  According to Alex, he met with leaders of another denomination who were selling off properties in Miami in an almost identical situation.  It would be easy to angry with Alex for having the audacity to say that.  But, it is absolute truth.  I have been told that we have sold dozens and dozens of properties in California in past years and have zero to show for it.  That scenario is repeating itself in Florida and other states because of rising property values, rapidly increasing insurance premiums, and declining or plateaued congregations.  Accepting the truth about our current direction is paramount to refocusing on our true mission.  Once, we develop a healthy reinvestment strategy, we can reverse the trend of church closings in our American denominational churches.
2. Church plants coming from these funds should be well financed to the tune of $100,000 a piece as opposed to our traditional token financing of church plants, church splits, and new church affiliations.
3. Church planters should be assessed and bench marked in order to receive those funds as well as having a requirement of funding a significant part of the new church in order to have state funds released.  If a church planter cannot get people to give money to his church plant, he is probably not going to succeed as a church planter.

At the time, there was over $1 million in the bank from the sale of the West Miami COG (which at the time of its sale was a debt free congregation of about 50 people).  About one year ago, we were told by a state official at the South Florida ministers meeting that 100% of those funds would be used to plant churches in Miami.  I again expressed myself in the meeting with Waymon and Dwight that we needed to honor that commitment taking that bad situation where an existing congregation was disbanded and property was sold and make it right.

In the past couple weeks, I have received emails, calls, and a church visit from church planters who will be receiving very significant funding from those monies to plant new churches.  Waymon confirmed to me at the beginning of September in the middle of the South Florida's Pastor's Luncheon that we will be planting 3-4 churches per year at that funding level from the proceeds of that property as a direct result of that meeting.  I am very excited about that.  I also hope that decision can translate into a formalized policy for our denomination as we deal with these properties and the issues of mission.

I feel that we may be in the process of repairing our focus missionally here in Florida.  Waymon Miller and Martin Taylor should be strongly commended for that.  I will be contacting Dr. Taylor to express that personally as well.

I do not know how the Home Missions Budget will be treated going forward.  I have been told that we will certainly be spending more than we have in the past.  I can hardly imagine how we can spend less.  The Home Missions Budget is currently paying for things like Senior Adult Retreats and other non-missional, non-core functions.  Hopefully, we can end that by keeping the main business the main business.  I sincerely hope these developments are an indicator that we can repair a flawed denominational Great Commission priority.

So, what does this rant have to do with COG Catalyst? 

Catalyst: "A chemical substance that increases the rate of a reaction without being consumed; after the reaction it can potentially be recovered from the reaction mixture chemically unchanged."

If our denomination is to become a missional organization, we have to press these issues via questions, honesty, integrity, and respect with the expectation that we will be the ones who motivate exponentially accelerated change.  The more people that have the courage to involve themselves denominationally from outside the corporate denominational structure, the more opportunity we will have for becoming a missional denomination.  I believe that excellent role models for pursuing that aim can be found among men like Harold Bare and Mike Chapman and some other dedicated people even outside of our fellowship like Wade Burleson and others.  There are also a number of men within our corporate structure who have a heart for mission and are kicking against our growing bureaucracy.  I know I want to be counted among those who look at our mission and embrace it, fully rejecting the corporate bureaucratic slide we have fallen into.

Bloggers seeking to impact their denomination:

Wade Burleson - SBC Outpost - Wesley Blog - Ben Cole

tagged: Harold Bare - "Mike Chapman" - "Church of God" - Keith Drury - southern baptist convention - Wade Burleson

posted by travis johnson

see also: A Missional Denomination is an Impossibility
 

Target the Fringes

At the Friday pre-conference conversation at The Point Church, we were discussing the role of our churches and change in the Church of God.  I cannot remember who brought up the idea of influencing those most open to change.  But, the comments were so appropriate. 

Presently, we are closing more churches than we are opening.  There is no denominational strategy for church planting to speak of.  The sums of money spent maintaining denominational bureaucracy has never been greater.  Several states are experiencing major league insurance emergencies resulting in closed churches.  Due to the nature of our centralized governance, we are selling off those properties without any plan to reinvest those monies into establishing new churches.

So, what do we do?  First, we need to understand the heart of what was said at the pre-conference meeting.  Those words are the expression of Roger Everett's idea diffusion curve.  Godin gets it and articulates it better than the rest.  Stielstra says to burn it.  I try to sum it up leveraging the words of Burke.  The bottom line is that we have to embrace it and target the fringes, the early adopters, and live in it if we are going to see our church set up for future Kingdom growth in the USA.

by: travis johnson  tagged: seth godin - greg stielstra - idea diffusion - edmund burke - leadership and innovation - church of god

Continue the Re:Formation '06 Conversation

The COG Catalyst has not been publicized other than a bit of word of mouth at Re:Formation.  Still the traffic is decent.  I've been receiving some emails from some guys since then and thought this would be a good venue to have those conversations so we don't have to repeat them and so that we can involve as many people as possible.

I will be leaving to Orlando for two days and will not really have a lot of opportunities to add a lot of thought.  My contribution will be the conversation starter. 

• What was your take on Re:Formation?  Positives?  Negatives?
• What implications does this emerging conversation have on ministry in the COG?
• What are your thoughts on the contributions from our denominational representatives (Palma Hutchinson, Tom Madden, Don Walker)?
• What are your thoughts on the stories of the pastors (Jonathon Martin, Chuck Ramsey, Brian Hunter, and me)?
• Were there any significant moments in your table conversations?
• Were there and significant moments in discussion with anyone attending Re:Formation?
• What would you do to improve Re:Formation in 2007?

Other conversations concerning Re:Formation can be found here, here, here, and here.  I look forward to the talk.

tagged: church of god - emerging church - travis johnson - COG Catalyst