My Note to the Participants of the WE BELIEVE and Credentials Sympoia

The CGGC Mission Statement

(Gang,

This is a copy of a note I sent to everyone registered to participate in the Symposia on We Believe and credentials.)

Friends,

In October 1830 John Winebrenner and others gathered in Harrisburg. In their meeting, Winebrenner cast his vision for the Church of God in a message based on Acts 5:38 and 39. By the end of that day the Church of God established itself as an Eldership committed to John Winebrenner's vision. From that day on, authority in our body has been 'Presbyterial.' In the CGGC, authority rests, not in congregations nor in the hands of denominational or regional employees such as Executive Directors or Directions, but in the body of elders--the community of the called.

The highest authority in the CGGC today is the General Conference in session. When that body is not meeting, the highest authority is the General Conference Administrative Council. Every person, Commission, gathering or employee of the CGGC functions under the authority of the General Conference and its Administrative Council. In September 2008, the General Conference Administrative Council approved, for the first time in the history of the Church of God, a Mission Statement. Because we are an Eldership, all of the people of the church are obligated to submit to and to carry out the Mission Statement. This is that statement:

As witnesses of the Lord Jesus Christ we commit ourselves to make more and better disciples by establishing churches on the New Testament plan and proclaiming the gospel around the world. (Matthew 28:18-20, Ephesians 3:8-11, Acts 1:8)

That statement did not arise out of thin air. It is based on the outline of John Winebrenner's Acts 5 message preached in 1830. At the conclusion of that message, the delegates of the first Eldership voted us into existence. Our Mission Statement employs, in a direct quote, the antiquated words of John Winebrenner himself. It claims Winebrenner's vision for the CGGC today. Because we are Presbyterial, the Mission Statement commits all of us to the vision of establishing churches on the "New Testament 'plan,'" not the New Testament model or pattern, as we might say today. The Mission Statement requires us to submit to and to embrace the vision of John Winebrenner himself.

Through that Mission Statement, the CGGC Administrative Council has articulated a radical vision. In his message Winebrenner defined, with great clarity, what he believed the New Testament plan to be. He said at one point,

"Agreeably to the New Testament, churches should be formed...With no creed and discipline but the Bible (Ps 19:7 Mt 28:20 Ac 2:42 2Jo 1:9)"

Perhaps the most intimidating component of Winebrenner's definition of the New Testament plan is its view of the Reformation. Winebrenner believed that the Reformation had failed. He called the Church of God into existence precisely because the Reformation had failed. According to Winebrenner, the Church of God movement is not Protestant and its roots are not in the Reformation. In defining the New Testament plan, Winebrenner expressed hope that God would do a new work, beyond what the Protestants did. He said,

"To accomplish all this will require another great reformation. But, under God, it can be achieved."

Understand clearly: John Winebrenner actually intended the Church of God to be a movement that was not Protestant. No reading of our Mission Statement that I can imagine can interpret Winebrenner's words in any other way.

Winebrenner's understanding of the New Testament plan also must be understood for it radical view of the authority of Scripture. According to Winebrenner, Scripture holds authority over the Church of God in a way that Luther's sola scriptura could not have imagined. In the same account of the history of the Church of God in which he presented the outline of his message from Acts 5, Winebrenner said this of the authority of the Word:

"The Church of God has no authoritative constitution, ritual, creed, catechism, book of discipline, or church standard, but the Bible. The Bible she believes to be the only creed, discipline church standard, the test-book, which God ever intended his church to have."

In September 2008 when our Administrative Council approved our Mission Statement and quoted Winebrenner's phrase, "New Testament plan" it reclaimed for the CGGC the vision upon which the first Church of God Eldership was established.

That vision is one of the most radical visions cast by any movement in all of Christian history. It rejected the Reformation. It also rejected sola scriptura for something more extreme.

The CGGC General Conference met in session in 2010. It approved the minutes of the Administrative Council and, therefore, accepted that radical Mission Statement for all of us. Because we are presbyterial, all of the people who have taken membership and ordination vows in the CGGC exist under the authority of that Mission Statement.

In 1983 and 1986 the General Conference published We Believe--The Doctrinal Statement of the Churches of God, General Conference. In doing so, it did something John Winebrenner would never have done. It published a Doctrinal Statement. Winebrenner would have never condoned the creation of such a document for the Church of God. For Winebrenner, the Word was all. In 1983 and 1986, the General Conference had every right to do what it did, despite the principles upon which our movement was created.

However, because of actions of the Administrative Council in 2008 and of the General Conference in session in 2010, We Believe no longer has place in the CGGC. As long as the CGGC has this Mission Statement, we are, once again, people of the "New Testament plan." We have reclaimed, in his very words, John Winebrenner's vision of a church whose only authority is the Scriptures without creeds or disciplines or statements of faith or doctrinal statements.

I was not on the Administrative Council that approved the Mission Statement. While I generally agree with part of the Mission Statement, I do not think it characterizes the spirit in which the people of the CGGC wish to carry out ministry. However, this is a presbyterial body. I have taken vows to the Lord and to the CGGC and I will submit to the authority of the Administrative Council and of the General Conference and of the Mission Statement. As a matter of conviction and of conscience, I will carry out and defend the mission, even though I don't entirely agree with it and would change it if I could.

On February 21, 2011, members of the CGGC will assemble in symposia on We Believe and credentials. It is my hope that, when these symposia are convened, conversation about the authority of the Mission Statement will be the first point on the agenda.

In Him and for Him.