San Francisco Meeting

(notes from a member of the San Francisco church)

A Letter was read. Lights were completely blacked out so I took the best notes I could:

Letter to Gods Church in San Francisco

SFCOC has been a Pillar Church since 1987, Churches like Seoul, Hong Kong, the Philippines and Tokyo were mentioned. There has been constant leadership change during those years. In June of 93 Russ came from DC. God has done many great things from Women's Days to Shore Line Services and we have felt your support and it has been a privilege to serve you in the Pac Rim World Sector. Each of you have made financial sacrifices, but you have never listed relational sacrifices. We did this so that LA could reach great heights. You know you are in the Kingdom of God. You have also supported the poor and the needy in Cambodia, the SFCC Spiritual resources Ministry, E Soccer, with your time and service and financial sacrifice.
Heb 12:4 "don't make light of the lords discipline. Leaders with global stature have been removed. Instability, letters, emails, voices of influence call us to open communication during these tumultuous times. 2nd Cor 7:13-14. There can be no revival w/o repentance, w/o humble turning to God.
Areas we have failed in:
* Not having a Spiritual Heart
Being motivated by stats and not wanting people to move
*Not being quality builders
taking short cuts, being selfishly ambitious not wanting to listen, especially to marrieds w families. We have demanded too much of your schedules and have neglected the campus and singles ministries.
*Not having Unifying hearts
We created and allowed for too much disunity. Non ministry staff was not allowed to help. We did not value older Christians. We led w/o explaining.
*We did not have loving hearts
We ignored the problems, or we listened but didn't help and resolutions did not occur. Relationships were business like.
*We did not have courageous hearts
We had man-focused hearts. We realize these sins have damaged and hurt you.
We make a sincere apology and want your forgiveness.

Then Scott Colvin came up and talked about his history with the church, how he loved the church, his sins - please forgive him. He talked about his great relationships and that they hadn't taken Stats in 2 years He talked about rolling out the Coaches program - peer discipling....and he apologized that the church hadn't been more fruitful.

Then they brought in all these people who talked about their history with the church..

Most interesting was Tom Shaffernaw who said he was disturbed by the fact that people were reading the letter and getting the courage to speak up - because he had had his bible for 11 year and that was where he got his courage. (This seemed to imply that people who read the letter weren't reading their bibles) (All who spoke were party line....) Lots of people went up on stage - but only 2 talked - as shaffernaw took up all the time. (henry never mentioned by name)

Dave Weger came up - talks about his history with the church - (I was wondering who was paying his kids college tuition as he spoke)

Then Jay Schmidt - did Spin control taking about these things have always happened in the church he read Acts 15:1-2 - lets talk about another letter that was written (Ist Corinthians was referenced)...Acts:20:29 savage wolves will come in among you and will not spare the flock...(you get the gist)

Then Russ He said he was grateful our church had not lost itself in emotion, and "fighting in the Aisles". We are not going anywhere everything is going to be ok. And we have not stopped doing Gods work. Heb 12? we need to keep our eyes on Jesus. He felt like he was being humbled. He apologized for his arrogance and pride and asked for forgiveness.(However he didn't seem too humble when he was talking about it)

He mentioned that the one central church model was in error. Even 2 years ago we were fighting to keep the movement/Kingdom unified. We should forget about the terminology the movement - I use it as a reference only. As a church we have not clearly communicated what we were doing. Then he got slightly emotional and said not a day goes by when our home is not influenced by you, you have become family. Then he said he had tried to be on top of every event, but it was time for others to care for you. He talked about being one of the few former WSL left standing and said he had never been more ashamed of the church because of the information on the internet (hee hee). Mat 18 was mentioned and we need to move on. He told us we could flee, fight or forgive - then told a story about a wife whose husband had been unfaithful and how she took him back.

The whole evening seemed hollow and artificial to many. The service ended with 2 Baptisms. Business as usual...

If anybody who was there wants to add anything - please do as I wrote fast - but probably missed some things.