Major Interruption / Time to Reflect

When the summer of 2007 ended, my intention was to begin regular blogging again. On October the 26th, while I was enjoying a weekend with a couple of vacation days tacked on, my entire billing department was laid off from my company.

When I returned the next Wednesday, a co-worker said: "Are you okay? they just moved the entire accounting function to Atlanta."

I looked at him and said: "Well, I'm certainly not going with them!"

I found out very quickly that all of our jobs had been eliminated. Blogging would have to wait while I used my home computer for a more urgent need: Finding a new job.

Well, my new job at Western Union starts on Thursday, January the 10th. I'm home sick today, so it's time to break the ice and throw this update out there.

There are two Bible Studies going on near Parker at the current time: A women's Bible Study attended by my wife has four regular attendees. The men's Bible Study is being hosted on Thursday evenings at my house and is being led by a fine fellow from my parish. We had three men in attendance the last time.

There is a verse which states "Do not despise the day of small beginnings." That's one I'm hanging on to at the current time.

My dreams for a thriving and vital Western Rite Orthodox parish in Parker are still alive. I really want to break the mold and have a Ransomed Hearts flavor to this parish while maintaining Orthodox forms and piety.

I just saw a special on the Black Entertainment Network about one Bishop Ken Ulmer, a black pastor of a Los Angeles mega-church. His denomination is a Full Gospel denomination where he was recently ordained as a "bishop."

There are many aspects of Full Gospel Theology that parallel Orthodox Theology. One aspect of this is Lordship / Conditional salvation. Another aspect is Synergy. The gospel of the Full Gospel crowd and leaders like Jack Hayford, for instance is closer to Eastern Orthodoxy than other branches of Protestantism. In my pre-Orthodox days, I ran into bedrock truths through the Full Gospel movement that paved the way for my eventual recognition of and conversion to Orthodoxy.

The Reverend Ken Ulmer not a bishop in the Eastern Orthodox sense, but he struck me as a humble and God fearing man who is very genuine.

How can we as Orthodox Christians capture the zeal of such men and, from our perspective, heterodox ministries, while retaining our orthodoxy?

I think that it's important that we find a way to bridge these two worlds and get it done. Looking in on a Black Church made me aware of how much work remains to be done. Orthodoxy needs to be more than a "white person's church."

Orthodox Navel-Gazing is not an option that Christ and the Trinity will appreciate come judgment day.

I've mentioned John Eldredge on this blog before, too. These "pre-orthodox" Christian believers are frequently more faith-filled and more expectant than we are.

God fills all things and He will use humble and faith-filled heterodox Christians if we as Orthodox Christians fail to step up and step out. They will get invited to the wedding feast with proper wedding garments while those of us who ostensibly should have our proper Orthodox wedding garments on get shown the door.

I've come to the following conclusion: Heterodox Christians who have a deficient christianity will nevertheless do more with their deficient christianity if they have more faith then we do and more humility than we do. God will work in this world with or without our Orthodox cooperation.

We have to trust and expect God to work in our lives and in the world through us. Faith IN God is just as important as faith about the facts of God.

May God bless Bishop Ulmer and bring him slowly and surely to a place where Orthodox Catholic Christianity enters his frame of reference and converts his heart more deeply to Him. And may God convert our Orthodox hearts to as deep a level as the heart of Bishop Ulmer's.

If you add his real zeal to even better knowledge, look out!

We need to pray for this to happen in the lives of the best heterodox christian leaders. They can be even more effective for Christ than they are, and help the rest of us, too. Some of these men and women can become the future Saints of the Orthodox church. They just need to be introduced to it.

Christ is in our midst!

Columba Silouan