Division: Part Two

Because blogger still will not let me upload more photos of our trip and because of a couple of e-mails Terry has received over the past two weeks in response to his blog by people who have been many years removed from GCM churches, I have begun to ponder. Here are a few more ponderings.

Many of you probably don't know this, but early on in the GCM movement there were many people (starting with an elder) who were excommunicated (from GCM churches AND from the worldwide body of Christ) by elders. The reasons given were faction and the scripture used was Titus 3:10 which says, "As for a person who stirs up division, after warning him once and then twice, have nothing more to do with him."

I think, by the way, what I am typing in this post would qualify me as divisive and open me up to excommunication.

An interesting aside is that according to Matthew 18, if your brother sins against you, go and tell him his fault, between you and him alone. If he listens to you, you have gained your brother. But if he does not listen, take one or two others along with you, that every charge may be established by the evidence of two or three witnesses. If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church. And if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a Gentile and a tax collector. So, even if someone is to be removed from fellowship it is to be done by the CHURCH, not elders. But, I digress...

All of this has gotten me to thinking that error in the early teaching of GCM about authority, submission and leadership has resulted in many believers being everything from confused to horribly mistreated.

And, so, I would like to be bold and refer you to a web site that Terry found in early May. It contains a lot of information that is "analysis" of GCM over the years so you can write it off as "factious, divisive people who are bitter and trying to harm the church" if you want. (FYI, we find the site credible and done by people who have given careful thought to "the movement")

But, you may want to read the statement of error under "resources" that was written by GCM. It is supposed to be available for discussion to all who ask. After all, the statement says, "If anyone has questions or concerns about this statement, or about any of the issues ad­dressed in it, please contact a pastor at your local Great Commission church or write to Dave Bovenmyer." So, you might want to check out the statement.

The site is www.gcmwarning.com