Arranging the Deck Chairs, Fiddling, Fine Dining and Other Diversions from Reality
 

As we continue to wait for January to come, it's sorta entertaining to watch all of the diversionary tactics employed by those planning the Tulsa meeting, and those in power in the ivory towers of the Not-So-United-Kingdom.

So, while everyone else deals in denial, I feel it my lot in life to remind you that....

many have already left,

many more will be leaving,

and the financial impact is gonna be remarkable.

:bubble

God is in control, God is in control, God is in control.

Hallelujah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am not fiddling, nor moving the deck chairs. I do not have a deck. Now moving the gass grill on the carport/patio? You better believe it!!! :D

There is a marked difference in Filet and Tube Steak.

How about New York strip?

Leadership is strangely absent.

I have friends home from europe mission feild raising pim's.

This will make it difficult for them? What do you think?

Will missionary giving go down signifgantly?

Looking for a leader? I nominate Pastor Poster. Step up to the plate, hit one outta the park! :D

For those who think it's going to be a big deal, I think they'll be disappointed (or relieved) that it wasn't a big deal. For those thinking it won't be a big deal, I think they'll be surprised at how big it really was.

Right now it just seems like everybody's a kid waiting for Xmas. The anticipation is worse than the real affair. And once it gets here, it won't be what you expected. So just be prepared to be disappointed. Whatever your expectations are, just be prepared to be disappointed.

I find that when I anticipate disappointment that I'm seldom wrong and thus almost never disappointed. :)

Does anybody here play Fiddle ?I love Fiddle music.

What did your friends tell you?

The Missionary who is home and not on the field is not as scared as the one overseas trying to balance a budget....

:ignore

Good point, Boomer.

Can you be a little LESS specific to how you think you may someday feel after it is over and you are considering how you felt thinking about it being over?

:bubble

Nope.

As of the 16th, I will no longer be employed at Dunn RD.

Someone else will need to hit a home run!

LOL

Always the optimist?:tease

Of course, just thinking a little...one does not have to hold an office to be a leader.

"Some men lead by virtue of their office, others lead by example."

Don't remember who said that to me, but somebody did when I was young in the ministry.

What does that really mean, anyway?

It means that we must have faith that things will work as they should.

Again, leadership has been completely silent about this whole ordeal.

Strange.

Well, considering the expectations I currently have of my feelings in anticipation of the event, I anticipate that my feelings after the event will most likely be in response to the event itself. Contrariwise, upon reflection after the event I anticipate that my feelings then will be of puzzlement that I feel anything now regarding the anticipation of the event.

Maybe they are practicing what we used to sing, but very seldom followed through with:


If I hold my piece (sp), let the Lord fight my battles...

Victory, victory shall be mine....

Is your termination related to the financial losses, or anticipated financial losses resulting from Resolution 4?

I am personally amazed that people will sever fellowship and divide an organization over such a silly issue.

It means God knows everything that is going on. He has it under control. We don't have to worry.


Ps 46:1-3 God is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. Therefore will not we fear, though the earth be removed, and though the mountains be carried into the midst of the sea; Though the waters thereof roar and be troubled, though the mountains shake with the swelling thereof. Selah.

PP, I am not sure there is anything to say that will change things. The bottom line is even repealing the vote would not pacify the Tulsa crowd.

Generally, I take it to mean that the discernable laws of the predictable behavior of these chaotic events cannot now be perceived.

Thus, events appear to be random and without design or concern for the established norms of "justice;" and in spite of this we hold out confidence that things will sort themselves out in the end into a pattern reasonably acceptable as "good."

True. Many of that "crowd" have been leaving over the last several years. This Res. #4 vote was simply a catalyst for others to go as well.

I dunno, "God is in control" seems like a tautology, or a self-fulfilling prophecy, or something. It can't possibly be disproved: nothing that ever happens could possibly be bad enough for us to say, "God slipped up". We can always say that He allowed it to happen for some greater good.

And who gets to decide what is good? Humans will never agree on some things (like Res 4, e.g.). So, leave it to God, right? Well, that would be another convenient way of proving that "God is in control" -- no matter what happens, God must think it was good. He allowed it to (or made it) happen, after all.

And to say that God is literally "in control" is to point a big finger of blame right at Him! 9/11? God was in control. Hitler? God controlled him.

Sometimes I think we say things just because we've heard others say them all our lives, without really thinking about what they mean.

Just rambling. :dunno

I have no trouble saying God is in control. He is not fooled, flamboozled, turning a blind eye, mocked, or any such thing. He knows the end from the beginning and He has the big picture in view.

God is good and the Bible is clear what God thinks about the wicked and their devices. We all reap what we sow. Do you think God has any say in the wars of men? Read your Bible. There are woes a plenty from God to all the nations for their sins in the books of the prophets.

I trust God, I trust that God is good, fair, just, compassionate, righteous, etc. He has his reasons why He lets the wicked flourish at times and I trust that He knows what He is doing.

I have friends who are planning to go overseas as AIMers. They have raised their budget, but their home church has told them that the church will get them home if something happen that the org. cannot get them home when their term is over. I have also heard of a missionary couple who has been told by two different churches that they were not giving any more pledges to FM dept. I think the ripples are just being felt. I do not know how far the ripples will go.

Can you share where you are going? Are you taking a church? Evangelizing? Entering the private sector? Joining the ALCJ? Joining the AMF? Going Charismatic?

Is it possible that they believe this "purging" process will be beneficial in the long run?

Is it possible they have observed the fissure growing for years and feel that this "split" is inevitable and that trying to artificially hold it together will only prolong the inevitable?

CC1, If I am reading this and posts in other threads correctly he is not leaving by choice.

Can you get a meeting with the general board and make your case?

LOL!! There are a lot of possible reasons UPC leadership may be silent including the one I gave.

Another might be that they feel that what is going to happen is inevitable and that if they try to actively keep it from happening by speaking out it would just make it even more high profile and could cause the situation to degenerate into name calling, bitterness, etc.

I hate to hear that. He is all right for a bald headed guy.

I disagree with you. I think it greatly minimizes the history and work of the UPC to suggest it doesn't mean anything to God.

I think God greatly appreciates all persons and organizations that stand for and promote the Gospel despite any flaws they might have.

Anyone who believes that the biblical method of baptism is immersion in Jesus Name should understand the role that the UPC has played in the growth of that practice in the 20th and now 21st century. Not only within it's ranks but the many that have left and have "gone charismatic" that still baptize in Jesus name.

:yourock:yourock:hanky:hanky:bubble:bubble