Another COS-related conviction: that the Church exists on this earth to be a conduit for mission, whch is the natural outgrowth of “the gathering” of the People of God. The Church exists to train members in doing ministry. Any “profesisonal” ministers should treat their call as “to train the non-professional ministers to BE ministers — which involves helping them discern what their CALL is. Further, this “discernment” hjappens in community, and is a crucial responsibility of the Church community.

Shame on those congregations and professional ministers who “oppose” this movement of God among the people, and in particular people. It sounds funny to imagine that professional ministers would oppose the affirmation of CALL, but they tacityly do so constantly by failing to aid in this crucial process, or to even acknowledge that this is their role.

The problem with so many “professionals” and “ordained” is that they see themselves as God’s specially endowed conduit of wisdom, to the extent that many “lay ministries” are threatening to them.

I must admit that I often feel resentment to ward the Church for failing to more fully affirm my sense of call to be an “Apostle for the Online Community”. I have done little else in the past 10 years with my spiritual energies than focus it on the things happening in the world of online technologies, and this entire Web site and its Weblog(s) are written account of much of that. My former fulltime job equipped me with tools and further clarifications and “focusing” of that call that moved me beyond the uses from which these tools came into my hands, and away form the job that allowed me to acquire them. But then, that very role repudiated the future of those tools within that structure, and stood opposed to the CALL which I was following. Tihis was a “Church related” enterprise, and as such, failed the Church as an agent of that Church.

There were also instances of local Church failings to respond or even welcome the clear sounding of a call; a call for which I have been seeking expression in some structure as mission. One could argue that the “lack of a response” is evidence that this is not really a CALL, since it of necessity derives from a community endorsement and discernment. But also, there are stories of prophets who face resistance and continued discouragement and oppostion. All I know is that it didn’t come to fruition AT THAT TIME and IN THAT PLACE. It may yet. I may have “PLANTED A SEED”, but I also tend to see it in terms of a failure of leadership to be an enabler of call. There were a few who stood with me and encouraged me, but the level of turmoil in the community over the leadership drove many people away (this turmoil was unrelated to this failure to be an encourager and enabler and advocate for my call, but was symptomatic of the whole problem of a failure to allow the voice of the congregation to be heard.)

The above is intentionally vague inorder to protect some privacy, but the theme is one of failure to be an enabler of ministries longing to be utilized. In both cases, the root problem is one of “control” and institutional and/or individual tendencies to hold onto it under the rubric of “leadership” and “management”, and missing/blocking the attributes of “a called People” by failing to respond to clear movements of the Spirit moving and calling among the people.

But that DOES lie behind me. And the above is NOT the final word, either from the perspective of my own remaining resentment, or as an inditement of the validity of my CALL. I must take a somewhat apocalyptic view (one dominated by the HOPE dimension). There ARE powers and principalities that work in society (and Chuch) that oppose us. An d so my major theme is one of MOVING ON and forging ahead, and there are plenty of SIGNS that the way extends on from where I am headed: Old Saint George, Church of the Saviour, Sojourners, and related technologies (such as Weblogs and Databases and Technologies that allow things to grow from the bottom up (Emergent Technologies)