Now that I have your attention...

Now that I have your attention, I must explain...

Did the pastors call a meeting for the purpose of telling T & L Dugan to leave? NO.

Did a pastor tell the Dugans, in effect, to leave? YES.

Here's how.

Over the course of 2 years, we believed that some wrong decisions were made by ECC leadership. Decisions that put the church between parents and their children (like LUX) and teachings that put pastor's between church members and God (like Fanning the Flame and commitment for LIFE to your local church).

We spent many hours (all totaled, Terry took over a week of personal vacation to try to resolve our differences) meeting with pastors because loyalty mattered to us. In addition, we listened to countless messages from national and local GCAC pastors, read hundreds of pages of articles by GCM leaders and former GCM leaders (we were told they couldn't be trusted since they were part of a "conspiracy theory").

We really thought that the leaders were underinformed about the concept of the priesthood of the believer and that things could be set right through reason and careful explanation using Scripture.

We were wrong.

In the meantime, Terry found several books written about GCM, including a book on Leadership by founder Jim McCotter that presented us with some very sobering information.

As you can imagine, this process took much of our time and energy. It also revealed some very dark things.

We had thought that the problem was a lack of understanding on the part of the pastors of how to lead a church and that unwise decisions were made because of this. We came to realize that things were there by design.

So, in an effort to "get on the same page" with the leadership and make peace, one pastor suggested a final meeting with one of the founding pastors. This was to be a final meeting in the sense that it would put to rest all our fears and concerns. Interestingly enough, this pastor we were to meet with was not currently a pastor at Bloomington (although by GCAC standards, all ECC pastors are pastors to all ECC members). I barely knew the man...had spoken hello to him a handful of times over 10 years.

He listened attentively as we talked about the dark history of the movement, but more importantly to the current things that troubled us and how the leadership structure (heavy handed, top down)left no room for the concept of the priesthood of the believer and put the pastors as head of the Church instead of Christ. And, left zippo room for the body.

After hearing our concerns, he said, (and I didn't have a tape recorder going so I am paraphrasing) "I understand that you believe church members should have more of a say in how the church is run. We don't believe that is Biblical. We aren't going to change, so we would ask that if you can't agree with us, that you would not stay and try to change things here, but that you would go and find a church that believes what you believe and worship there."

So, the concept of unity is this. Agree with us. Or leave.

Now, of course, the bigger question for me is why do I care so much? Why do I still go to the web sites and read the articles?

I think it has to do with all the dear people who we have since heard of that have one by one, kindly, thoughtfully, and prayerfully gone to the leadership with their concerns and have been turned away who are now being viewed as traitors. Godly people who are being compared to Judas as they seek to put God first. (The article I mentioned in the previous post says, "We have lost a few and yes, it hurts and yes, there have been challenges. All movements of God have lost men. Even our Lord lost a few.")

And as I read things like this written by GCAC leaders, I just get kind of sick:



"If someone is going to “cross over” in their heart and join us, the steps are still the same. In our local church, in our region, in our movement.

1. They show up. And they keep showing up.
2. They begin to process and understand what our core beliefs are.
3. They hold to our beliefs, and begin to speak up for them.
4. They ‘roll up their sleeves’ and get involved in serving.
5. And they begin to be faithful in sharing their time, their money, their
home and resources - in our shared vision, our common cause.

This is how someone joins our ranks in a local church. This is how someone joins our region. This is how someone joins our movement. The steps are exactly the same. This process is what we are looking for in our local church and it is what we are looking for across this movement of churches."




What does that even mean? Cross over in their heart and join US! That's creepy.

I think I'm done now. And, will soon get back to posting recipes and fluff.

We remain on friendly terms (as far as I know) with all ECC leaders. They have told us in a letter signed by all Bloomington pastors that we missed the mark, were unfair, were inaccurate and borderline defamed them.

So, in essence, we think they are wrong and they think that we are wrong.

And, now you know the rest of the story....