Good Church News & Forgiveness

Tedious business meetings of the church turned out to be more about good news last week. It may have helped that I’m understanding more of the language, but everyone seemed to remark at how well the General Assembly went with reports coming from every part of the church. Many felt they left pleased to know the good ways that God is moving in their church. Great news was that the president was re-elected to continue his faithful work, and two new members of the national board came on, who will hopefully keep the energy level up. There is positive movement in many of the areas of the church, from evangelists being sent to new places, to growth in the primary schools (with a nursing school on the way), and even outreach to new people groups that are welcoming outside connections. One of the brightest signs was more widespread participation of congregations in the cashflow to the national church, which is a good sign of trust and desire to see the larger vision go forward. 

Re-convening with a song after a break.

There was also a very interesting moment when they were discussing how hard it was to account for the drilling equipment left-over from a development program the church had done about 20 years ago (brought on by plans to do more well drilling). One of the older and well-respected pastors stepped forward and confessed that he had sold part of the equipment soon after the project had been dissolved, and asked the forgiveness of the church for this impropriety. This caused a bit of an uproar, but it was quickly moved to vote on whether the church should forgive the pastor. The assembly unanimously decided to forgive him. But then there was a passionate debate about what kind of discipline should go along with this forgiveness. They settled on him needing to pay back the money and have a meeting with a group of elders to talk about his new understanding of what he did wrong and how he can be reconciled to the church again. While it exposes past problems, it seems like this shows a shift in what people think is acceptable for pastors to do and how they should be accountable. We pray for the continued transparency and fruit to come from the church’s efforts to keep better records.

-- El Padre