A Report on the Spring Clergy Retreat for the CEC Diocese of the West

Submitted by Anna Younce

“The CEC is booming in the rest of the world,” Bishop Douglas Kessler addressed the assembled clergy of the Diocese of the West and their wives at the opening service of the semi-annual diocesan clericus. However, growth has slowed in the USA. Our Patriarch, Archbishop Craig Bates, estimates a mere 2% of the ICCEC is represented in America.

The Charismatic Episcopal Church will be 20 years old in a matter of a couple months and in its relatively short life it has already seen its share of turbulence. Though I’m a member of Church of the Advent, my enrollment in the Christian Academy at Saint Michael’s Church for the better part of my childhood and moderate attendance of Wednesday night and Laudate services means that I had the privilege of growing up within the epicenter of the CEC’s initial boom. It’s so easy to think of those times as the “good old days” or a sort of “golden age” when everything was new and beautiful and it seemed at every turn, God was doing something fantastic in us and we couldn’t help but be caught up in His glow. And it didn’t stop with us, oh no. That fire He started here surged outward, over state lines and eventually oceans. “We built a world-wide movement right on top of your backs,” said Bp. Kessler.

“And we may not see the fullness of it. We seem like we’re really being defeated here in America. We’re not at all. I’ll tell you another interesting fact.” He went on to recall the time surrounding the initial plateau and decline of the CEC in the US. One bishop in particular returned from a seminar where the largest denomination in the Pentecostal church in America was studied over a thirty year period. When they first sprung up, they boomed for about three years then seemed to go dormant. However, in the rest of the world, the movement was gaining momentum and continued to do so for about twenty years, going on to be the largest denomination in that sphere of the Pentecostal movement. Bp. Kessler remarked, “I remember that gave us such hope because it’s almost identical to what’s happening with us.”

This is only one example, but there are countless others which tell a similar story. The question becomes, of course, why, if God is running the show, does a decline ever occur? Surely, if we’re following Him, our numbers should only ever grow. One of my favorite of Jesus’s parables gives some light to such a decline and why church growth seems to be the biggest issue in Western Christianity. It is perhaps best recounted in Matthew 13:1-23 and known commonly as the Parable of the Sower. Jesus speaks of a farmer scattering his seed over four types of ground – the path, rocky ground, among the thorns, and the good soil. The seed which fell on the path was snatched up by the birds. Where the seed fell on the rocky ground, the soil was shallow, so the seed sprang up quickly, but withered at once, scorched by the sun, because it had no root. The thorns got the better of the seeds scattered among them, choking the plants as they grew. The seed that fell on the good soil, however, yielded crops of thirty, sixty or even a hundred times what was sown.

Jesus explains the story beginning in verse 18. “Listen then to what the parable of the sower means: When anyone hears the message about the kingdom and does not understand it, the evil one comes and snatches away what was sown in their heart. This is the seed sown along the path. The seed falling on rocky ground refers to someone who hears the word and at once receives it with joy. But since they have no root, they last only a short time. When trouble or persecution comes because of the word, they quickly fall away. The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful. But the seed falling on good soil refers to someone who hears the word and understands it. This is the one who produces a crop, yielding a hundred, sixty or thirty times what was sown.”

Now, don’t assume I’m saying everyone who has left the CEC in the last twenty years is shallow or unfruitful. Not at all. God has legitimately called many into other churches and other places to do His work there. Do not confuse God’s redistribution of His faithful with those who fall away for various reasons. People who are in the Church, in whatever denomination, are not those to whom I refer when talking about church growth.

It’s important to note that the word does not always fall on good soil. The Western World, by and large, is full of shallow, rocky soil and, even sadder, where the Word does take root, there are weeds and thorns aplenty. Bp. Kessler put it well when reflecting on the move of God among the ICCEC churches in Brazil, specifically speaking about their plans to attend the Convocation in Madrid this July despite the fact that the overall average salary in Brazil is somewhere around $20 per day¹. “These people are so excited. America? We’re Americans. Everybody wants to be their own Pope.”

In the Western World, we’re ever so enlightened. To the secularly-minded, we can never be tolerant enough, except when it comes to those labeled as intolerant – they, apparently, should be burned at the stake. Social change and cultural revolutions are on the rise as more and more people marvel in the physical. Technology advances at a mile a minute. Science discovers something new every day. More and more, we stuff our heads with facts about the world around us. More and more, we seek to celebrate who we are in the flesh, glorifying our sin nature and calling it personality. Rather than walk out our salvation, we rejoice in practices that have stemmed from our brokenness, asserting that we were “born this way.” What Paul said in his letter to the church in Rome still holds true: “They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator.” (Rom. 1:25)

The bulk of humanity has set aside the Wisdom and loving whispers of God for knowledge. We have fallen in love with our own bodies and out of love with the Body of Christ. We have set aside a Gospel of Love for a gospel of tolerance, because no one wants to hear that what gratifies them is sin. Secularly-minded people have a hard time grasping the idea that there can be a “perfect law that gives freedom” (James 1:25), because there are so many examples throughout history of imperfect human laws putting limitations on freedom. This is the battle we wage as Christians in the world. We’re called to be a light in the darkness, to be Christ to a lost and broken world – a world so deceived and utterly convinced that there is no one right way of living, that a life lived without glorifying the desires of the flesh is no life at all, and that everyone is wholly qualified to be their own God.

How do we, not as citizens of the world but as the people of God, even begin to respond to this? It starts with each of us making sure we aren’t the rocky ground, where the soil is only shallow. Paul reminds us in Romans 10:17 that “Faith comes by hearing, and hearing by the word of God.” So then our first task should always be to meditate on the Scripture and anchor ourselves to it, for it’s easier to have faith in someone we know and if Jesus is the word made flesh, the easiest way to get acquainted with Him is to become acquainted with the Scripture.

In the closing service of the clericus, Bp. Kessler’s message echoed, “Attitude is everything.” So how do we go about getting the right attitude? The Apostle Paul’s letters are such a source of encouragement to us even now, having been written to churches struggling with the same issues we are still facing today, always reassuring them of God’s enduring faithfulness and urging us toward Christ-likeness for the benefit of all to the glory of God. “We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed.” (2 Cor. 4:8-9)

How is it that under hardship and persecution for preaching the Gospel of Christ in a world where so many hearts were hardened to such a message, did the apostles have such confidence? “It is written: ‘I believed; therefore I have spoken.’ Since we have that same spirit of faith, we also believe and therefore speak, because we know that the one who raised the Lord Jesus from the dead will also raise us with Jesus and present us with you to himself. All this is for your benefit, so that the grace that is reaching more and more people may cause thanksgiving to overflow to the glory of God. Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.” (2 Cor. 4:13-18)

Bp. Kessler pointed out, that far too often we’re “looking for love in all the wrong places.” It’s natural to get weary and need refreshing, but the important thing is to seek rest in Him rather than looking to the world. “Be renewed by the One who renews,” Bp. Kessler put it. He went on to speak about humility, which is the attitude in which we should always operate, and used John Wooden as a testimony to being open to instruction regardless of age and the importance of mentoring and of being mentored. Perhaps the most impressive statement made was, “We can’t afford to do this in the flesh.” We can’t be the Body of Christ, nor can we successfully introduce people to Christ, from our own intellect. We need to be tuned in to what He is calling us to do in each moment and stay focused on what is “unseen,” the fruition of what God promised us when he first scattered the seed.

God is so infinitely good to us and we can’t even begin to grasp how He cares for us. When God gives his people a vision it isn’t like a boss delegating to his staff, “Here’s the idea; you make it work.” No, He gives us the vision so we have something to latch onto when the birds come to pluck the seed from our hearts, when the sun comes to scorch our progress, when the cares of this world wear us down and seek to choke the word. God gave the CEC a vision and has made each of us a promise. Satan can only manipulate circumstances where he is allowed and his meddling can only seek to keep us from receiving and clinging to the word. No amount of bait the devil throws our way can ever change the word itself. God is faithful and His word will remain long after we are gone and our grandchildren’s grandchildren are taking their turn in the vineyard. “Posterity will serve him; future generations will be told about the Lord. They will proclaim his righteousness, declaring to a people yet unborn: He has done it!” (Psalm 22:30-31)

Even now, we’re seeing the fruit. As Bp. Kessler said at the beginning of the weekend, the CEC is booming in other parts of the world where the fields are ripe for the harvest. The work He started in us 20 years ago is continuing to ripple outward, even if things have slowed here at home. “In all my prayers for all of you, I always pray with joy because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now, being confident of this, that he who began a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” (Phil. 1:4-6)

No, don’t think for a minute that He’s done with us. Bp. Kessler confirmed also during the opening service, “What we felt this year at the House of Bishops was we were beginning to see little buds on the tree. That was the testimony of most bishops; certainly we’re seeing it here at St. Michael’s.” His word to us was to “be encouraged,” promising that every day, we will continue to see increase. “Keep plowing, and the day will come when you will reap.”

This message obviously sunk in with those in attendance. I will leave you with a few of my favorite responses to the question: “What is the Lord saying to His people through this weekend?”

“Clearly to be open to His direction and be willing to obey it no matter what it is, to come into agreement – one mind, one heart – with His Holy Spirit, and be an instrument of blessing.” –Cn. Gary Heniser

“The message is ‘Keep on comin’ on for Jesus.’ But the one word that stuck out in one of Bp. Kessler’s talks is the word ‘obligation.’ And, yes, we all have our obligations, but our main one should be to God. ‘Holy Days of Obligation.’ As Romans taught us, you haven’t fulfilled your obligation until you’ve been the church – until you’ve been the Mass – and that’s what we, all of us, need to be doing is fulfilling our obligation to Him.” –Fr. David Hoff

“What hit me this weekend is how it related to a text message I wrote to Bishop on Holy Saturday. As it relates to Easter, how did Christ’s disciples respond to Him in that period between His death and his resurrection? Some went and hid, some were in isolation, but a few ladies faced the tomb. We all have tombs in our lives, you know – things that look like death traps to us, but the ones that were willing to face the tomb found the fulfillment of the promise. And so what I’ve gotten out of the weekend is this. The time between the promise and fulfillment may not always look like what you expect it to look like; but if you face it, no matter what it is, you’ll find the fulfillment of what God’s promised. Don’t give up.” –Fr. Victor Conkle

¹ http://www.worldcrunch.com/booming-brazil-census-shows-income-gap-persists/4115