The World According To Chris Brewer

WARNING: Those who love the Church of God of Prophecy to death; work at International Headquarters; are good friends with some people at Headquarters; dislike me referring to Cleveland, Tennessee as Mecca; completely approve of the way things are run at HQ; face Mecca and pray to it for guidance and deliverance; or still suck on binkys should proceed with caution. Consider yourself forewarned and please move forward with eye protection, and have medical personnel readily available. If you have a cell phone, punch 911 in now so all you have to hit is the SEND button.

—–

At Youth Conference, I was asked what I would do if I were a pastor in the Church of God of Prophecy. I then asked Mrs. X (I withhold identities of those who ask me objectionable questions) if she wanted me to give my complete and honest answer, and if she could handle her ears bleeding. She said yes so I gave my diatribe. Now since many of you have asked me the same question, I will post my reasoning publicly. As mentioned above, make sure you are within access to medical personnel, because my answers might give you a heart attack or make your eyes water–I mean bleed.

Here goes.

If I were a pastor in the COGOP…the three most important things to me would be….

1. I would only be as affiliated with Headquarters itself as necessary. Which is to say, I don’t want any continued interaction with the folks down in Mecca. I’m trying to minister to people at my church and I don’t need a bunch of people telling me how to run things. I am more concerned with relational ministry among the people with my church…..if someone is saved, who are we to say they can’t join our church or even minister. Who cares about their circumstance as long as they are, and I will use the COGOP’s own words here, “walking in the light to the best of their knowledge and ability”? I don’t care if someone is divorced and remarried, looks weird, etc. If God has called them to ministry I plan to utilize them. So my only interaction with HQ would be for General Assembly, possibly Youth Conference, and sending in my ministry reports. Other than that, hey, I’ll see you all in heaven someday.
2. Our outreach would be team-oriented and concentrate more on the Word than what the church has to offer. This only makes sense, since you can’t get people to come to church by just sitting in a church building. If we’re gonna evangelize and go out and about and get people, why not just hold church services in public venues. That way, it will pique people’s interest and they might come…just a thought. On that same note, outreach would be team oriented. We would send teams of people into different areas…and no, our main focus would NOT be “come to my church, here’s a flyer, have a good day.” We would go out and tell people about the Word instead of what we have to offer as a church. Then as you build a personal relationship with the person, invite them to church….that way, they won’t feel as awkward as your regular church newcomer; they already know some people from the church.
3. Each ministry would have a specific focus that all the leadership would work together 100% to achieve. The main problem I see plaguing the COGOP today is a lack of central focus. We want people to come to church, but why. Is it the good thing to do or is there a better reason behind it. My personal take on this is that Christ ordained the church to reach out and minister….which basically means if you’re going to church for yourself, it’s for the wrong reason. So in order to minister, we need to be sharply focused on one major goal we want to achieve in each ministry: i.e. children, youth, college, adult, etc. Even ministries such as home groups, homeless outreach, public relations, etc. need to have a specific focus of what should be achieved. Without a vision, the people perish, and many of our churches are dying right now.

I will post more on this later, but I want your thoughts. I’m off to lunch…part 2 coming up sometime within the next couple of days.