Opportunity in Blackhawk Presbytery

Kopp Disclosure

(John 3:19-21)

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"The church is always trying to get other people to reform.

It might not be a bad idea to reform itself a little

by way of example."

Mark Twain

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    People leaving the PCUSA from around the globe have been writing to me.

    I'm shocked.

    They're angry because I've been rather, uh, salty about people who leave as being fainthearts and hardly in the spirit/Spirit of Matthew 10, John 10, John 17, etc., etc., etc.

    They get really angry when I laugh at their hermeneutical navel-gazing and ___tion and eisegesis as prooftexting outta context.

    They have not liked me talking about guys like Luther, Bonhoeffer, King, contemporary martyrs in the Middle East, and...

    They have not liked me mocking them for their "sufferings" in a franchise irretrievably apostate under current management.

    Oh, Oh, Oh,...poooooor babies.

    They have not liked me talking about...

    Well, if you've been reading, and most have not, you know...

    Anyway, I did hear from a few, a very few, an overwhelmingly small sample of the exception to the rule, noting exceptions to the rule are called exceptions to the rule because they occur so infrequently that they are called exceptions to the rule, that, uh, admittedly, make sense.

    Summarily, they go like this, "It's easy for you to say you're not leaving because you're in a presbytery that's not going after pastors and sessions and churches that still hold to the faith and forcing them to comply with their infidelities and pay for them or else."

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    True.

    Blackhawk Presbytery is exceptional.

    Our left and right and up and down and sideways seem to overcome the lesser stuff because we're bonded in/through/for Jesus.

    Yeah, we've had some folks leave from the right and we've had some ___ from the left who've tried to...

    Buuuuuuut, overwhelmingly, we kinda get along and, uh, weather the...

    True.

    If you're one of those my-way-or-the-highway-on-everything-speck-inspectors, you won't be happy in Blackhawk Presbytery; and you probably wouldn't be comfortable in heaven either because...

    :)

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    I've often thanked God for the privilege to be in a presbytery without as many litmus tests as too many other ones.

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    Having said that, we're like other presbyteries in allowing congregational miscreants get away with...

    You know what I mean: "Preachers come and go; but the miscreants remain to keep doing what they've always done."

    It's an increasing plague.

    Right now, I'm O.K. after about 11 years in Belivdere.

    I've weathered the...

    But anyone who's seen Mass Appeal or lived it knows that could change in the...

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    I'm not one of those Doris Day clergywomen/men who long for the way things never were or maybe were but are no more.

    I just can't sit around and watch clergy and members get emotionally, intellectually, spiritually, and...raped by the same miscreants...over and over and over...

    I'm tired of the good guys confessing their sins; but not given a chance to repent for restoration.

    I'm tired of the bad guys getting away with it.

    Sooooooo whenever we release or dissolve or...pastoral relationships...and I don't hear any accountability/discipline-to-redemption about the miscreants...I'm gonna get up and ask...

    Yeah, I'll hear the groans: "There goes Kopp again...Please, Bob, sit down, 'cause we wanna go home...And as long as we're not..."

    How Christian?

    Me, me, me...

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    Actually, I'm hopeful; because I'm in Blackhawk Presbytery.

    I know our officers and membership, more than less, really care about each other.

    We don't want to shoot our wounded.

    We want to model Someone better in this area...just like we've done with the left, right, up, down, and sideways.

    I think it'll catch on.

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    Apart from asking questions, I'm thinking about working on a process that holds everybody accountable to confession and repentance for restoration when churches are tempted to release, dissolve, and...

    I'm thinking about a process that does not allow churches to call another pastor unless they've disciplined-to-redemption everyone involved in...

    I'm serious.

    I don't mind being called a fool...if it's for the right...

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    While this should be a selflessly agapeish attitude for anyone more-than-posing Christianity, I'd also suggest those who don't care and don't wanna get involved get out that Niemoller quote.

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Blessings and Love!

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