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INTERNATIONAL CHURCH OF CHRIST MOVEMENT
A/K/A BOSTON CHURCH OF CHRIST MOVEMENT AUDIO TAPE
TRANSCRIPTION
Indianapolis Church of Christ Congregational Meeting 1 Week Later 3/6/94
Transcribed by Carol Giambalvo
Tape 1 Side 1
Ed Powers: ...that went behind all this, leading up to last Sunday night.
And then I also want to talk a little bit about what happened after Sunday
night. And I also, of course you know a little bit of what happened after
Sun. night.
I'd also like to deal with some -- I jotted down earlier today some of the --
any time something like this happens, there are a lot of rumors that are
floating around. And I jotted down some of those that I have heard and I want
to throw those out. And some of those I cannot account for. I cannot really
comment because I don't know where they came from. There are others that I
can comment on. And there may be other questions that you have.
So, if you have questions that I do not cover in the course of talking here,
then be prepared to ask those in a little bit. And we'll try to keep this
moving along as fast as we can. One of the things I want to do also is I'd
like to have Roger come up at some point and share about the conversation that
he and I had with Marty Fuqua and with Bob Gemple on like Friday afternoon.
And so I'll have him come up and share that in just a minute.
First of all, my thought processes and our thought process as a staff
leading up to this. As I told you, when I came back from L.A. the last time,
the day after I got back, I hurt my back and I was laid up for about a week.
And I could not move around much. And after watching TV the first day,
finally I started getting in the Word. And I was spending several hours a
day studying. And when I did, my studies started to revive really some old
convictions that I had and also brought forth some new convictions. And I
began to study out these things in a much deeper way than I ever had.
Ten years ago, when I came here, I did not come from a traditional church of
Christ, what you would term a traditional or mainline church of Christ. It
was a very untraditional church. It was one that we were not really in the
mold of a lot of other churches in that it was a very evangelistic church.
And we just dreamed and kind of went for it as far as methods and so forth
were concerned. But the doctrine was the same as the mainline church. We
taught the same plan of salvation. And when I came out here, I had been
coming to some convictions about things. And as we moved in the direction of
the discipling movement, I found it necessary to really sort of stuff those
convictions because they were not compatible with what was being taught in the
movement at that time. And, you know, I was at a point in my life where maybe
some of you have been. And, you know, you're trying to sort things out. Like
I came here because I knew that I needed to learn some things and make some
changes in my life and get discipled. And at the same time, I came here
strong in some areas. I had a strong biblical background. I have a degree in
Bible from Harding University. And I had been in the ministry for 10 years
before I moved here. And I had taught in Bible College and preached
extensively. And I had always had a real thirst for the Bible. That was
always my thing. I loved getting into the Word and studying and was very open
to learning new things. And I had been doing that when I came -- I got here,
I was trying to sort things out and especially after we became involved with
the church in Chicago, I started trying to sort things out, trying to figure
out like, okay, what are the areas that I need to change. And what are the
areas that maybe needs to change in the church -- the church here. Like at
the time, as some of you can attest to, was very, very legalistic, very
authoritarian, as far as the leaders were concerned -- and we had a lot of
fun, but some of these things were already in place in this church. So I was
going through a growth process and so was the church here. And in the
process, some of those convictions that I had just really got stuffed until I
ended up being laid up and getting into the Word and they started to be
revived.
As soon as that happened, I began to share what I was learning with the
people who were close around me, namely at first it was Roger and Andy and
Ryan. And a little later on, Greg. And then we weren't really talking to the
campus guys that are out there that much because they wouldn't happen to be
there when we were talking about it. And they were a little behind, but we
started out just, I started out just sharing -- and I wasn't really going
anywhere with this at the time. I was just sharing what I was learning with
them. And they began to study along the same lines and we were trying to
study and coming to convictions together. And after we came to convictions
about these things, we began to realize that we had a problem. And the
problem was how do we handle this in terms of really being honest, being true
to our convictions, being true to what we were learning from God's Word and
yet realizing that possibly some of these things might conflict with the
doctrine that is in place in the movement. And we realized that there was a
potential problem there. So we considered several options: The first was to
just start sharing these things with the church in messages and so forth, and
as we learn, we'll share what we're learning with the church. Of course, when
I thought about that, I quickly realized that if we just began to do that, it
wouldn't be long until there would be conflict and there would be suspicions
aroused because some people in the church would undoubtedly say "what is this?
This is not what the movement teaches." And we thought about that and we
said that's not the way to go about it.
And so the next thought that I had, quite frankly, was I had come to personal
convictions by this time that I was not going to spend the rest of my life
just not teaching the things I was learning from the Bible. And I didn't feel
good about that, guys. And that was a personal conviction. I said, "I cannot
spend the rest of my life learning things and having convictions about things
and yet not feeling free to share those things.
And so in trying to figure out what to do, my next option was I thought well
maybe what I need to do is just simply resign. And just step aside. And I
thought about that and I thought that would really be the easiest thing to do.
It would have been far easier than what I have done. Okay? And what we have
gone through. But the problem with that, folks, and I want you to really try
to understand this because I'm trying to share my heart with you and my
thought proce>
Transfer interrupted!
I knew and our staff knew
that there were many, many people in this church who shared those same
convictions. Because you had talked with your people and many of you had
talked with me. And we knew that there were a whole lot of you who shared
those convictions. In light of that, when I thought I would just resign, then
my thinking was if I resign, then what is going to happen is somebody is going
to be brought in here who is going to take the church in a different direction
-- in a direction that, quite frankly, in my opinion that many of you would
not have done well. Going in that direction may not have survived spiritually
because your convictions being what they are. So, in light of that, I ruled
out that option.
The next thing I thought of is the possibility of just -- look, let me just
go and just lay all these things out to the people who are over me, to the
people who disciple me -- namely I thought about just going straight to Marty
Fuqua in L.A. And I thought I would just go and lay these things out to him
and tell him how I am feeling about those things. And the problem I had with
that was, frankly, that I have known other people within the movement who have
had these same convictions and who have done that very thing. Have simply
gone and laid out their convictions, even some have put it in writing and gone
to the leaders and said, "look, this is what we believe." And those people,
you know, were warned "do not talk to anybody about this." And then within a
period of just a few days after attempts at straightening them out failed,
then they were simply fired immediately. And then they never really got a
chance -- I know one man in particular who was a friend of mine years ago, a
man who preached in the church here years ago -- Ron Gholsten -- perhaps some
of you remember him -- a little short guy with a great big voice and he
preaches a long time, even longer than me. And Ron, years ago he was a leader
in the Boston Church. And he had some of these same convictions that I now
have. And he went to the leaders with those convictions and he just laid them
out and he had brought with him around 30 people when he had moved to Boston
from Florida. He had brought 30 of his people from the congregation where he
was working. And these people were his best friends. And they worked side by
side with him. And, obviously, they thought enough of him to follow him to
Boston. And they formed a group there in one area of the city which he led.
So he was really leading his own people that he brought with him from the
church that he had been in previously. And when he went and laid out his
convictions, he was fired. And really had much the same experience I have had
this past week. It was a very painful experience. The people that were his
closest friends there in that group, none of them have called him or
contacted him to this day. And we had the same experience -- Bobbi and I had
the same experience this week. Out of all of our friends in the movement over
the last 10 years -- friends in other places and other churches, the other
Midwest evangelists, the people that we discipled in Chicago, the people who
discipled us, the other staff people in Chicago that we were so close to --
and we had numerous and many, many relationships. And the only people who
contacted me were Roger Lamb and John Mantle. Those two gave me a call to
find out what was going on. And then later Nick Young called me. We have
been friends for a long time. And I had called him first, he didn't know
anything about it and I told him about it. And then later, when he got back
in town, he called me back to check. But other than those, what happened was
the word was put out for no one to talk to Bobbi and me. This was even before
that we were marked and disfellowshipped. And the word was put out "do not
talk to Ed and Bobbi." And so friends of ours, friends that we considered
very dear, have not spoken to us since. Knowing that this is the way that
things are handled, I feared that if I did not share my convictions with you
and, of course having in mind the many of you who I know share these same
convictions, fearing that I wouldn't get that opportunity, I made the decision
-- we really made the decision as a staff -- I mean it was not one that I
made. In fact I told every staff person, "look if there is anybody that
doesn't feel like we're doing the right thing here, then you have veto power.
I mean, I'm not going to do it if any one of you feels like we're doing the
wrong thing, you say so and then I will just resign. I'll feel good about
resigning in those circumstances. But if we all agree that we're doing the
right thing, then what we need to do is go before the church and, number one,
make it clear up front that we have no desire to be separated or divided from
the discipling movement. And this was a very key element in this because I
think this is the thing, guys, that really separates what we have done from
what maybe others have done in the past. And I think it's the thing that
turns it from something bad into something good. Because we never, at any
point, did we have the desire to say to the movement "you need to change, you
need to be like this, we don't agree with you, if you don't change these
things, then we're out." We didn't call upon them to change anything.
We simply asked them to give us the right to practice our convictions in a
spirit of unity and cooperation, which of course, was the basis on which this
relationship with the movement began back in 1988. This relationship began on
the basis of cooperation and relationship with one another. And, of course,
since then, it has turned into something different than that. And that was
the root of many of our concerns.
There are, you know, I guess probably one of the complaints that has been
made most has been that you handled this in the wrong way. And I'll grant you
that is a judgment call. And you are certainly free to have the opinion that
this was handled in the wrong way. I respect your right to have that opinion.
I talked to somebody today and he was saying, well you should have done this
and you should have done that. I said, "Hey, that is easy now because the
game is over. You can look back and say you should have ran on third down
instead of passing after the game is over. But we were in it and that is why
I am trying to share with you the thought process, because I want you to know
that we were thinking through everything and we were trying to handle this is
a righteous manner. Obviously, we did want to be able to make our case to you
and then, as a unified church, which by the way we were last Sunday night.
Last Sun. night all these other chairs were full and everybody was unified.
(that's right) The division that has taken place, the families that have
been divided, have taken place, in my opinion, not because that had to take
place. Even if we didn't handle this in the right way, I still don't think
that would have had to have taken place if there would have been a different
response. If someone would have said, "look, you didn't handle this right
and we're upset that you didn't handle this right, but, look, let's get this
work out. Let's sit down and deal with the issues and let's see if we can get
this worked out." But that's not what happened.
As soon as this -- what happened is when I left the meeting here last Sunday
night and people -- guys, last Sunday night in here there was a spirit and a
unity and excitement that I haven't seen in a church here in probably 8 or 10
years. I mean it was just incredible. And there were people back there, back
then, who were solid as a rock and who agree and still agree with these
principles. And if we had been able to just stay together as a church and not
do what others have done and say "we're against the movement." We believe,
and I think we made it clear that there are some things going on in the
movement that we feel are not good. And I don't feel it is divisive to say
that. I think that's just analytical to say that there are some things that
are not good. But that, in itself, does not mean that we want to have
division. It does not mean that we want to break away. The division has
occurred as a result of people not being willing to allow us to have certain
disagreements with their system, even though we teach the same plan of
salvation, even though we are on the same wave length, you know, in most
areas. But they did not want to give us the right to do these things, even
though these things in many cases are matters of opinion. Of course, some of
them are doctrinal issues. And the Bible says that even when it comes to
doctrinal issues, that there is room for disagreement in the kingdom of God.
That's what Romans 14 and 15 is all about. That you can have a different
opinion on doctrinal issues and you can both be approved by God. You can
both be right with God. You can both work for God. You can both have the
same goals. And that was our desire. And that was my thought process.
And there has been a lot of speculation about what my thought process was.
Some of that speculation has included the accusation that I was systematically
getting rid of some staff people so that I could do this coupe de tat here in
the church. The accusation has been made that I got rid of Spicers (?), that
I got rid of Todd and Patti Assad. The truth was that Spicers came to us and
expressed that they felt the need to get out of the ministry. And we did not
even initiate that at all. They came to us. And they will tell you that, I
think, if you ask them. Beg pardon?
Woman: They told me.
They told you, good. So we didn't move them out. I did concur with them at
that time that it might be a good thing for them to do because I knew that
they were feeling a lot of frustration. The other accusation is we moved Todd
and Patti Assad. That we moved them out to get them out of the way so we
could do this. And though I will admit that the timing looks suspicious
because they did not move that long ago, the truth is that when they moved,
there was no thought of this taking place. This was a rather quick thing that
happened. I have had problems and misgivings about certain things in the
movement for years. And that has been no secret. That is one of the things
that has been thought of, too. "You know, Ed has problems with the movement
for years." Well, of course, I have. And, of course, I have been open about
those things over the years. And that has been no secret. I think I have
been more open about those things than probably anyone else. I think most of
the leaders in the Midwest would tell you that. They would probably say,
"he's one the verge of irritation over the last several years because he keeps
being bothered by things." But I was trying over the years to be open. And I
would voice my disapproval about whatever I thought was wrong based on the
scriptures, but then I didn't deliver ultimatums and I would say I'm going to
still try to get behind this and keep working. But there was no thought of
this at the time that Todd and Patti moved. Todd and Patti have wanted to
move to Chicago for a long, long time. For the simple reason, and he told me
this, that he felt like the people who were in the ministry in Chicago had a
better opportunity to advance and maybe go out and lead their own churches
than somebody in Indianapolis or one of the other Midwest ministries. And so
he wanted to go to Chicago for a long time.
So what happened, Chicago -- somebody in Chicago, one of the Sector Leaders
up there needed a couple to be in their ministry. And they called and asked
about Todd and Patti. They specifically requested Todd and Patti. And
usually I fight to hang unto our staff. But knowing that Todd and Patti -- or
that Todd, at least -- had wanted this for quite some time, I approached Todd
about it and I told him that the decision was his. He could go or he could
stay. And that is exactly what I told him. And he thought about it. We
talked about it. I really didn't encourage him one way or the other. We went
through the pro's and the con's and after talking through it at a restaurant
downtown the night we had the big snow was the night we talked about it, and
we talked it through. They went and thought about it, came back to us and
said "we've made the decision that this would be a good thing to do." And so,
they made the decision to move to Chicago.
Before Todd left, he was very complimentary of our relationship. He didn't
have a lot of complaints about our relationship. He told me I was one of his
closest friends, that he loved me, he thought we were always going to be
close. We were going to stay in touch with one another. I had helped him. I
had helped him so much in his life. He said all these things to me before he
left. So he left on a totally great basis.
Which really brings me to another point -- something that I want to get out
here and help people to understand. What has happened here since we did this
and since they felt we did it in the wrong way, their response included, among
other things, the telling people -- not only telling people not to talk with
us, which people did not. Now Todd did call me. I want to make you aware of
that and fast. Todd called me. I was on a long distance phone call when he
called. I said "give me your phone number, I'll call you right back." When I
got off my long distance call, I called him back and I got his answering
machine and no one picked up. I assumed he had left. And we have not spoken
since then. I left a message on his machine and he did not return my call,
so we have not spoken. But he did try to contact me in the early stage of
this. And I appreciated that very much.
But what happened was they told people not to talk with us. And which they
did. And the other thing -- (inaudible question) when did they do that?
How did they do that? I have no idea. I don't know by what means they did
that but I do know that they did that. (inaudible question) Yes, I talked to
the elders in Chicago. They told people we are telling you as an elder that
you are not to talk to Ed Powers. So this is a fact. And I want you to
understand that.
Other accusations that have been made -- one accusation is that we would not
talk. That's a big one that was out there. "We want to talk but Ed does not
want to talk. He won't talk." I spoke to Marty Fuqua after this meeting last
Sunday night. I went to a telephone back in the office. I called him. I got
his machine. I left a message to have him call me when I got home. Later on
that night, he returned my call. I picked it up and we talked. I told him at
that time. I told him what our convictions were, what my convictions were and
our staff and the church -- the majority of the church, the vast majority who
were present that night. I told him what we are feeling. I made it very,
very clear to him that we did not want to leave the movement. Several of the
staff people were sitting in the room when I had this conversation and heard
me say that. And I didn't say it once, I said it at least two or three times.
And I was very specific in what I said. I said we do not want to leave the
movement. We want to give special contributions. We want to help plant
churches. We want to be discipled. We want to give people to go on the
plantings. We want to give leaders as we can. In other words, essentially
there was nothing per se that we had been doing that we didn't want to
continue doing. It was just that we had some convictions about some things
that we considered personal convictions from God that were not disunifying in
themselves, did not need to be disunifying in themselves. And we wanted the
right to follow these convictions because we want to make changes in our
church.
And I want to make this clear, guys, we were not setting out -- our primary
objective here is not to change the movement or to ask the movement to do
anything or change anything. Our focus was this church, the people in this
church. It was the fact that what we were seeing in this church that needed
to be addressed. I wanted to get that out there to the people in the
movement and hope, in the hopes that they would accept us on this basis.
I talked to Marty that night. We talked. I went through the various issues
with him. The next day we talked for the second time. I went through the
issues again. He said that he was going to have to talk to Kip and to the
elders. And I said, "Marty, when you talk to Kip and the elders, please make
sure that you communicate to them that we do not want to leave the movement.
We do want to help with missions. We do want to" -- and I went through all
the things we want to do. And I said that to him. (inaudible question) Was
that Monday night I said that? Sunday night. And then Monday we talked and
he wanted me to go over the issues with him again and we did. We talked
through those issues. I shared them all with him, but he really didn't
question any of them that I recall, except the first one -- the issue about
authority. And he made the statement to me -- and when I told him that I did
not believe from my studies of the movement in the first century was tied
together in an authoritarian structure like we have in the movement tied
together today -- he did disagree with that. And when he did, I asked who led
the movement in the first century. And he told me that Paul led the movement.
And then I pointed out to him Galatians 1 & 2 which shows that 17 years into
Paul's ministry that Paul did not have a whole lot of knowledge about what
was going on in the work among the Jews. Even 17 years into his ministry.
For the first 3 years of his ministry, Paul did not have any contact with
anyone. He did not consult anyone. And I pointed that out and then that
conversation kind of broke down.
And the conversation, I think, was cordial. We were trying to, he was trying
to understand the issues. The next day he called me. I came in and I had --
or maybe it was later on the same day. This was Monday. Later on Monday, I
got a call on my answering machine and Marty said "give me a call when you get
in." I called to set up a time when we could get together and talk. I called
Marty when I got in. I set up a time when we could talk. But in the
meantime, it had come to my attention that people -- that the plans were being
made to send people into Indianapolis to begin to contact our members for the
purpose of getting them to come out to a meeting where they could be addressed
for the purpose of getting people out of this. And the reason for that, I do
understand the reason for that. The reason for that is that the discipling
movement does not believe that anyone who is not under their authority, that
any group who is not under their authority is a part of the kingdom. So the
fact that we were not wanting to be under the authority, even though we were
willing to cooperate and have relationships and be unified in our purpose, the
fact that being plugged into their system was hurting us in many cases as a
church, in their minds excluded us from being in the kingdom. And I think you
have got to understand their thought process. Since they believe that nobody
who is not under their authority is in the kingdom, then they felt probably
almost duty bound to come in here and try to rescue as many of you as they
could.
How many of you received calls? Thanks. And that's not the people who are
no longer here, who I am assuming most of them received calls as well. When I
became aware of the plan, when I became aware that they were going to send
people in to do this, I asked Marty not to do this.
Tape 1 Side 2
And of the hundreds of people I am told who were brought -- or somewhere in
that neighborhood -- who were brought into Indianapolis, people were brought
in who anybody who had relationships with any of us were brought in. They
were working the telephones. They were setting up appointments. They were
talking with people and trying to pull them out. Which obviously they would
do because they believe since we are no longer under the authority of the
movement, that we are lost.
So I became aware of that and asked Marty not to do it. He would not agree
not to do it. I said, "Marty, we cannot talk in good faith while this is
going on. I am not going to get together under these circumstances." And I
want to point out here that I did not refuse to get together. I refused to
get together under the circumstances. And the circumstances were that you
are pulling our members. And as long as you are pulling our members away,
then I don't believe that represents a good faith discussion. (that's right)
If you stop pulling our members away, then we have a good faith discussion
where we can both have the confidence that we can maybe sit down and work some
things out.
I have used this illustration: if a man came into my house and laid all my
family down on the floor and began to shoot them one at a time and while he
was shooting them, he turned to me and said, "let's talk about this." And if
I said, "Look, stop shooting my family and I'll talk." And he says "no, but I
am willing to talk." And that's how I felt, guys. I felt like, "look, we're
taking your members." "Stop taking my members and we'll talk." "No, I'm not
going to stop taking your members, but I'll talk." Now I understand why they
were taking our members. But I believe, guys, if you think this thing
through, that the division here did not occur when we made the decision to
follow our convictions from God's word. (that's right) I don't believe that
the division occurred even if we made a mistake in how we handled this by
coming to the church first, because that still would not have meant that we
had to have division because we didn't want division.
The division occured when the plan was placed in motion to pull our members
away. That is when families were split. That is when confusion came. I have
been accused of disunity. I have been disfellowshipped, marked by the
disicpling movement for disunity. And when Roger and I met with Bob Gemple
and Marty Fuqua for 3-1/2 hours last Fri. afternoon, I reminded them on that
occasion that the last time I had spoken to the church, that we did not have
disunity when I got done speaking. What we had was probably the greatest
unity that we have ever had. And the greatest joy and enthusiasm. We were
not disunified with one another. We were not disunified with the movement
after I got done speaking. (that's right)
I know that we initiated the action. And I know sometimes that when the
person who initiates the action may be the person who gets blamed for causing
the disunity. But if the action that is initiated is not in itself a sin or
does not in itself call for or promote disunity, then even though we initiated
the action, I do not believe that we caused the disunity. I believe their
response to the action is what caused the disunity. That is when the disunity
occured. And I want us to be, I really want to get that point out to you,
guys, because I know that it looks to people like we are disunified. I told
Marty, I said "Marty, we do not want to be out of the movement." It was not
more than hours later until the reports started coming back that Ed Powers had
left the movement and has taken as many people with him as he can. That is
the message that was coming back. And that was contrary, totally contrary to
what I was saying and what I was calling for.
There was also another accusation that was circling and this was told in the
church in Chicago. It was implied by one of the elders that Jerry Jones, I
guess Jerry Jones was in Indianapolis the weekend that this took place.
(laughter) I mean that's my luck. So it was implied that Jerry Jones and I
were in cahoots here and that we were cooperating together. And I would like
to clear the record on that. I have not talked to Jerry Jones for years. I
have not talked with Jerry Jones since Jerry was an elder in the Boston
Church. Now whether he was in town or not, I do not know. But I do know that
I have not talked to him since he was an elder in the Boston church. And so
I would like to lay that one to rest.
I have also been accused of lying about our stats and, in particular, I have
been accused of -- I don't know whether I can say I have been accused or
whether it was just strongly implied, okay? Let me just say it was strongly
implied in fairness. It was strongly implied that I had misrepresented
statistical information when I made the statement to the church last Sunday
night that the Indianapolis church had grown more in 1993 than any other
church in the Midwest. That was refuted, or an attempt made to refute that by
Kip on Thursday night when he read our average attendance for each month for
the year 1993. And he read these numbers: 914 was our average in Jan. Feb,
912; March 903; April 968; May 917, June 883, July 912, August 988, Sept.
961, Oct. 965, Nov. 964 and Dec. (which is always every month a low month
because that is holiday season and everybody's attendance goes down in Dec.
and everybody knows that) Dec. 928. So if you look at 914 in Jan and 928 in
Dec. -- if you look at attendance, it would leave the impression that the
church really didn't grow that much. Guys, attendance in every church goes
up and down on a monthly basis. It doesn't just grow steadily like this. It
goes up, then it goes down and it may go down again and then up again and up
again. And the only way you get a true picture of your increase in attendance
would be to average all of the numbers together and compare then with the
average of all the numbers of the previous year. Now if that were done, that
would have shown that our attendance average for the year increased in the
neighborhood of 100. If I had thought of it, I would have added it up before
I came tonight. But our 1993 attendance increased about 100's over 1992.
However, I did not make any statement about attendance to the church last
Sunday night. I said we grew more than any church in the Midwest. And they
understood that we grew more.
I have here -- well, I had here -- where are they, Rich? Oh, I gave them to
you. I'm going to give you a copy of this. This was passed out -- this was
produced by the L.A. church of International Church of Christ West U.S.,
Canada, Scandinavia, Commonwealth of Independent States 1993 growth analysis.
Okay? Let me give you a copy. I didn't put the front page on it. I just
copied the pages of interest to you. But if you will look at this, the
Midwest family, which includes the church of Champaign, Chicago, Cincinnati,
Cleveland, Detroit, Indianapolis, Louisville, Milwaukee, Minneapolis and
Syracuse. Now here's the point I want to make because this has some bearing,
guys on this whole situation. You know, one of the statements that I made
last week was that this thing, this system that we have had in place is not
working in the older established churches. I made that point. When you get
this sheet, what you are going to see is that in 1993 if you add up the growth
of all the Midwest churches, which consist of some 4,542 disciples -- that's
the total number of disciples in all of these 10 Midwest churches. 4,542
disciples had a total combined increase in 1993 of 17. And I say that because
part of the reason why I wanted to make changes in this church is that I felt
that the system that we were in was one that was damaging to us and to other
churches. Other churches have been damaged more than us. The church in
Cincinnati, I have made this point before, the church in Cincinnati ten years
ago was a little larger than we are. Now we are -- we were -- about twice the
size of them. We are still bigger. We are still bigger.
No, I don't want you to clap. I'm not trying to get you to clap at that.
That is not anything to clap about. You see, I am trying to make the point
here that I wanted to make changes in the church here. I have tried to
protect the church from the legalism and authoritarianism that I feel like
has been damaging. And I think to the degree that we have been successful, we
have done a little better over the years than the other ministries. If you
will look at that first column, the membership column, you will see that the
Champaign church grew by 42 disciples in 1993. The Chicago church ended up
with a -27. The Cincinnati church increased by 4. The Cleveland church, 29.
Now the Cleveland church, part of that 29 represented the original team that
went in. There was a planting that year. The Detroit church, another
established church that has been there a few years, increased by 7. The
Indianapolis church grew by 62. The Louisville church grew by -3. Milwaukee
was -157 -- that was due to the fact that Chicago requested that in the
neighborhood of 100 of their members move to Chicago to help out with the work
there. And so, actually in reality, Chicago would have been lower and
Milwaukee would not have been that low had that not taken place. But I
wanted you to understand why the big number there. Minneapolis church grew by
9 and the Syracuse church grew by 51 and again, a portion of that number
represents the original team that moved in because that church also was
planted in 1993.
This is what I said last Sunday night. I said we grew more than any other
church in the Midwest. And we did. These stats are compiled in L.A. That's
not what was shared.
(inaudible question) Okay. How you get net growth -- net growth. Okay, get
that microphone, we want to get the questions.
Male: The question was out of that number, do you know how many of those
people who were from the Midwest that were sent to L.A. or other churches
outside. Because those numbers would not -- would those numbers have been
calculated in the net growth?
Ed Powers: Those numbers are calculated into net growth. The move-ins
and your move-outs are calculated into net growth. And, I mean, I don't have
that information in front of me, but I can give you that information of the
Indianapolis church. Last year the Indianapolis church we had moved into the
church 32 and we had 31 move out. So it was within one. The year before, we
had 30 more move out than moved in. Last year for us it was about a wash.
Okay? The larger churches, we have people move in who get jobs. Maybe they
get transferred here or whatever. And they move here for that reason. The
larger churches have move-ins -- for example, the church in L.A. the last
three years have sent over 200 leaders from the Chicago church to the church
in LA. So the larger churches are more the recipients of the move-ins. But
you get net growth by adding baptisms and restorations and move-ins and then
you subtract from that number fallaways, move-outs, deaths. Those are the
only three ways to get out of the kingdom. And that's the only 3 ways to get
in that I know of, too. That's how we arrive at net growth.
So my point is, I made the point and I want to get this information out,
guys, because there are a lot of people who are getting misinformation. I
made the point that this church grew more than any other church in the
Midwest. Statistics were read relative to our attendance, which at a casual
glance would appear that we did not grow. An averaging of these and comparing
them to the previous year would have shown that we did increase even more in
attendance than we did in net growth. But I believe the impression was left,
folks, that we didn't grow and, hence, the rumor is now circulating even by
people -- I know I found out by one young man who left the church year and
went with the other group and the reason he gave was because I lied about
stats. Well, I want to get this information out that I did not lie about
statistics.
Another -- some of these things, guys, I'm looking here at the things I wrote
down and in all honesty, there are some of these rumors -- there is at least
one here that I am looking on, the next one on the list, that I really cannot
dispel without really confessing someone else's sin. Okay? And so I am not
going to mention that one. I will just let it go on circulating. I was
going to tell it, but I am thinking that probably I should not do that one.
The fourth one here that I wrote down, it was circulated that Bobbi and I had
to be moved to Chicago back in 1988 because we were having severe marital
problems. Now, Lord knows, we have had our share of problems over the years.
But that was not the purpose of our moving to Chicago. Our marriage at that
particular point was going as well as it had. It's hard to remember how your
marriage was doing in 1988, but that was not the reason for our moving to
Chicago.
The accusation has been made that I was emotionally unstable, that I have
always been emotionally unstable and I guess my response to that is why did
they have someone emotionally unstable leading the fastest growing church in
the Midwest? (applause)
It has been told that I -- and this was an interesting one -- it's has been
circulated that I hung up on John Mantle and that I hung up on Marty Fuqua.
In reality, I did not hang up on John Mantle or Marty Fuqua. I did hang up on
my sister. Now I don't know if you have ever hung up on your sister or not,
but I did get angry at my sister and I did hang up on my sister. Okay? So I
will own that. We got back in touch and I apologized for that and so on. But
the way the rumors start about hanging up on John Mantle was kind of
interesting. John Mantle and I were talking on the phone and at one point in
the conversation, there was a lull in the conversation and neither of us was
saying anything. And we have call waiting on our phone. And when there was a
lull in the conversation, a call clicked in and I heard John go "huhhhhhh" and
hang up. He thought -- he heard the click and he thought that I had hung up.
And I had been given information on where he was staying. I was told that he
was staying at the Courtyard Marriott, I think. And I had the number and I
called it back real quick because I wanted to make sure that he knew that I
did not hang up on him. And they said "we don't have anybody by that name
staying here." I did not know where he was staying. I did not find out where
he was staying until the next day. You say, "well, why didn't you find out?"
Well, the situation was, guys, that I was getting phone calls just like this.
We have 2 lines in our house and it was not uncommon to have 4 phone calls at
one time. We have one we're talking to, one comes on call waiting on this
line and Bobbi would be talking to someone on the other line and one on call
waiting on that line. And we were just going (sounds of shooting). And
there was not really time at that time to go. You have no idea. You have no
idea how hectic it has been for the last several days. It wasn't the kind of
thing where. I was like, well, look I'm in deep trouble already. What is a
little more trouble. So I didn't get back, I didn't find out where he was
and get back with him until the next day. I did call him back then the next
day and explained to him what happened. However, before I was able to get
back with him and explain to him what happened, I was already getting calls
from Chicago coming back, being told that you hung up on John Mantle.
I mean rumors were circulating. Now I know that is a legitimate
misunderstanding, okay? He thought that I hung up on him. I did not. Later
on the rumor, Mantle's name got taken out and Marty's name got put in. I
mean, they both start with an M, so I guess I can understand that. Rumors are
going to be spread, I guess it is easy to understand how that mistake could
be made. But the rumor started to circulate that I had hung up on Marty. I
did not hang up on Marty or anyone else other than my sister. And I
apologized to her.
It has also come to my attention, it was circulated that I cussed out John
Mantle. And again, I did not cuss out John Mantle or anyone, including my
sister.
Another rumor that was told and circulated, and this hurt me. This was
circulated by people that I considered dear friends of mine who did not call
me, who did not check this out in any way, but in an attempt to pull people
away, there are people here in this audience -- at least one person that I
know -- who was told that I had to, you know, that he had to get counseling
one time. And it is true. About five years ago, after I went to Chicago,
when I was up in Chicago going through the same kind of stuff that you were
going through down here, I got distraught enough that I wanted to go and get
some counseling and get help and get back on track. The counseling resulted,
guys, I had never gotten -- I had made it for 38 years and had never had to
get any counseling or anything in my life. The counseling came about as a
result of going through the life talks and the discipleship groups back then
where the people were ganging up on one person and just unmercifully,
unmercifully raking them over the coals. And some people, I guess, can
benefit from that. My self image at the point in my life was not such that I
could benefit from that. It came close to pushing me over the edge, some of
the stuff that I went through. And yes, yes, so I did go get counseling.
But I guess my question would be, you know I'm not ashamed of the fact that I
got counseling. A lot of people get counseling. I don't think that is
something that -- I have not tried to hide that or cover that up or anything
of that nature. But I guess the question is what bearing, what bearing does
that have on this situation. The only bearing it has, guys, is this is what
is happening. And I want you to understand this. The approach that was taken
by the church in L.A. to combat this problem from their point of view was to,
it appears to me, and this is my opinion, but it appears to me that the
process was one of directing or focusing attention on my character verses
focusing attention on issues. (that's right) I feel like, guys, that there --
I know, and I'm not saying that there have not been attempts made to address
the issues. Because I know there have been. But I am saying the predominant
thing that has come back to me have not been discussions about the issues.
That is not what is going around. It is not like, the latest talk is not what
do you feel about this authoritarian issue and how do you feel about the
giving -- that's not what is being talked about. What is being talked about
is Ed and his character.
And I just want you to imagine for a minute if every friend that you had in
the last 10 years with the exception of 2 or 3, if every friend in the last 10
years suddenly totally stopped talking to you. And then if you were put in a
situation where anybody who has known you for the last 10 years were to be put
in a position to get up and say something that would be somewhat negative
about you or to cast you in a negative light, I want to ask any one of you
what could be told about you and your life in the last 10 years by virtually
everyone who has known you? I mean, over the years, you have said things, you
have said things in anger that you were later sorry for and repented of.
Over the last 10 years you have said things that probably slipped out of your
mouth that you wished you could take back. I know that has probably never
happened to you, Jim, but it happens to me.
Over the years you shared things in confidence, you share your heart with
people, you share how you are feeling at the time. Let me give you this
illustration. Last week at probably the lowest ebb that I was, I was so hurt
and beaten and angry and the phone rang. And I picked it up and I started
talking to the guy on the other end and during the course of the
conversation, I mean I was feeling like man, you have these moments in your
life, you just feel like "man, I have had it." And I said, "I'll tell you,
the way I am feeling right now, I feel like I would rather be dead than be in
this movement. I may feel differently later on, but that is how I am
feeling." And, of course, I did feel differently later on. I went through
those stages where I was so hurt and so beaten up, I had a guy on our staff
today call me and say, "Look, I feel like stepping out of the ministry
because I am so tired of this. So tired of being beaten up." You have your
ups and downs, guys, when you go through a process. You keep trying to bring
yourself back to right thinking and you are tempted with wrong thinking. But
what gets told from a situation like that? It's not, "well, he had a moment
when he was very distraught and he said this but he also said I may feel
differently later." No, that's not what was told. It was, "I heard him say
that he'd rather be dead than be in this movement."
What I am saying is, guys, that does not, in fairness, leave a proper
impression of this whole process that I was going through. I mean, you can
imagine what I was going through. And I was not perfect. But I'll tell you
what. I am being totally, totally honest with you tonight. I am laying it
totally out. I mean, I didn't have to tell you that I hung up on my sister.
I didn't have to tell you that I got counseling. I am being honest with you
and trying to help you see that a lot of this stuff that is being said are
either half truths or total lies or taken out of context or misunderstandings
as in I hung up on John Mantle. Half truths are being told. He won't talk.
That's only half the truth. The other half is under the circumstances. I
lied about stats, that impression was left. That has been dispelled. You are
going to have to take my word on the marital problem thing. Getting rid of
... I mean all these things I want you to see and I want you to understand how
things transpire when a situation like this comes about.
I would like to have Roger come up right now and I would like to just have
Roger share with you briefly the conversation that he and I had with Marty
Fuqua and Bob Gemple on Saturday afternoon. Or Friday afternoon.
I'm really grateful that I have the opportunity because I feel like I have
had the privilege to really know the truth. And I want you guys to know the
truth. And that is what the Bible says the church is built on. And that is
what we talked about today. The truth will set you free.
I had the privilege of being involved in this whole process. I wanted to
back up just a bit and I hope Ed will let me do that, but I was there when Ed
was sharing these convictions that he had come to. And we, as a staff, talked
about them. And I know that I took a day of praying and fasting and studying
over the scriptures to really come to a conviction about what I believed was
true and what I believe was best for this congregation. Did I know that these
decisions might have repercussions? Yes, I did. But I believe that if we
communicated to Los Angeles and Chicago that we wanted to continue to be in
the movement, that we wanted to continue to cooperate in every way, I believed
that we would talk. And I was prepared to sit down with Marty Fuqua and Kip
McKean and anyone to talk. And so I felt good about the decision to bring
these things to the congregation last Sunday night.
Then I had the privilege to be in the -- I went back with Ed when he called
and left a message on Marty's machine. I was a witness to that. And he just
said, "Marty it is very important that we talk tonight. Call me back at my
home." And Jane and I drove over to Ed and Bobbi's house because we just
wanted to be there. I knew this was important for this church. And so, I
followed over there and we sat in Ed's office and soon enough, the ring came
in and it was Marty and Ed picked it up. And Jane and I and Andy and Leslie
and several others were in the room at that time, listening to the
conversation. And I heard Ed lay out the four principles there with Marty --
what happened at the congregation meeting. And I heard Ed say two or three
times "we do not want to leave the movement. We want to continue to
cooperate. We want to continue to be dicipled by Chicago, attend the
seminars, give special contribution. We just want to observe and obey these
principles from God's word."
Tape 2 Side 1
I left that night feeling real excited. We had communicated. We
communicated the congregational decision. And I believed the conversation was
going to begin. Went to ( ? ) and picked up my kids, came back the next day.
By 11:30 that morning on Monday I had already talked to someone from
Cincinnati who said that we had voted as a congregation to leave the
movement. I was shocked. Because I had been present at the meeting. I had
been present on the phone conversation. And then to hear false reports
returning was very disappointing to me.
I then continued to get phone calls like all of you. One day we got 62
messages on our answering machine. In spite of the calls that we did pick up.
And I know many of you had the same experience. It was unbelievable. I have
still not been able to return all the calls. It's not that I don't want to.
I just can't get back to all the people.
So, I really wanted -- at that time my sister from Cincinnati called,
expressed as many of you got calls that she feared I was going to be lost and
I was going to go to Hell. And I said, you know, that's not the way it was.
And so, I wrote a letter to John Mantle, expressing that I was willing to
communicate and she handed it to him personally. He did call me back this
afternoon. I got notice of that. But the thing that I really wanted, my
sister appealed to me and I know many of you have had in your heart, I know
that I love this church. As I know that we all do. And I want very much for
this church to be unified. (yes) And I kept thinking about Ephesians 4:1-3
"make every effort to keep the unity of the spirit to the bond of peace." And
I wanted as a person who had been involved in this decision making and I had
been there present at the meeting, I had been there present during the phone
conversation, I wanted to try to clear this mess up. Everything I could do.
At the same time, I wanted to try to do it through the proper channels because
I felt that there had been a breakdown from what I heard Marty communicate --
I mean Ed communicate to Marty -- and then what came back. And so I called Ed
on Friday morning, after all these phone calls and said, "Ed, I would like to
get involved in talking to Marty." And Ed said, "I've already got it set
up." I said, "Can I come?" And he said, "yes." So we got together Friday
afternoon at 3:00. It was...Ed initiated that meeting. Ed initiated it.
Now I'm going to share a little bit more about some other things that I have
verified from my talk with Marty. But in that meeting, it was Marty Fuqua who
leads the L.A. church or Associate Evangelist and leads the Western Sector;
Bob Gemple who oversees HOPE and is one of the World Sector Leaders, myself,
Ed and Ed's dad, Dave Powers were all present there at that meeting. I prayed
all afternoon. I prayed not afternoon, but I prayed a lot of the afternoon,
praying for that meeting. And I love this church. And, boy, you hear
accusations being thrown that you have been just divisive and like many of
you, I have by nature an accused conscience and I wanted to make sure if I
have done anything wrong. I have a clear conscience, but you know, if I have
messed up unknowingly. And so I prayed, "God, show me the truth." And I
said, "God make it overwhelmingly obvious." So my time with Marty and Bob, as
I sit there and I wrote out twelve questions that I wanted answers for. I
didn't get to ask all those questions, but I think I got to ask the most
important questions. I also took the afternoon and I read through some of
Kip's document, "Revolution Through Restoration" that was printed in Upside
Down Magazine in 1992 because I wanted to see what is the real issue here. I
also read over my notes, went through the book of Acts, looking at how
churches cooperated together. I really went into that meeting prepared that
I wanted to know the truth.
Ed and I prayed and Dave prayed before the meeting, prayed for humility,
prayed for wisdom and prayed that we would be gentle. And I can report that
the meeting was very cordial. There was not tempers. There was no outbursts
of anger. There was a very -- in fact as I came in the house -- it was in
Ed's house, there were hugs. It was a warm meeting, greeting each other.
Bob Gemple began the discussion, the conversation. And Marty actually was
really quiet. I don't think he spoke for about the first 45 minutes - 1 hour.
Besides just the initial greeting. And Bob -- and I really appreciate our
feeling, Bob Gemple was really seeking to be a peace-maker, trying to really
bring what had become two sides, together. And I appreciate that. (amen)
And he started out and he started talking about the thought process of how Ed
came to the decision to bring these things to the congregation. And Ed shared
with him what he shared with you tonight. Okay, I don't think I need to
rehash that. Just how he shared how he came to the thought process, the
study, bring it to the staff and bring it to the congregation.
Then they began to ask, and I don't know if I have got this exactly
chronological, okay? But I'll do my best. And I've got some notes jotted
down and I've shared this with many other people. Is then, I think at that
point they asked why Ed had not thought to bring it to the L.A. church
leadership, the Chicago church leadership before bringing it to the
congregation. And Ed shared with them what he shared with you tonight, that
his options as he saw them was to resign or to sneak up on the congregation
and begin teaching this without really letting the congregation know what his
convictions were or to bring it before the congregation like he did on last
Sunday night, or if he brought it to the attention of the leadership the fear
was that he would be fired and never have an opportunity to share it.
I spoke up and I said that I, too, felt like as a staff member had to come to
a judgment and I really believe from my experiences in this movement, from the
experiences that I had from knowing that this was going to possibly be
controversial, that I believed, too, that there was a great possibility and
probability that Ed would be fired as well. I said I did not know that but I
had to make a judgment. And I told them at that point in light of the
response from churches outside Indianapolis this week, in light of the swift
and very dramatic action, I said, I believe -- let's say that my judgment was
wrong. But I said I believe that based on the reaction, that I believe that
it was right. (that's right) So there was a fear there and I believe that
fear has been confirmed. (that's right) And I told Marty at that point, I
think I said this 2 or 3 times that evening, I said I was very disillusioned
with the reaction of the Int'l Church of Christ leadership. (that's right)
I also -- at that point, they began to ask Ed about his relationships that he
had within the movement. And Ed shared about the four relationships he had
with Roger Lamb, Marty Fuqua, Bruce Williams and Ron Drabot. If I could go
ahead and go through the whole thing, that would help me. I'm trying to keep
my thoughts and then I'll answer the questions you have. I'd appreciate
that. But what they began to do is they began to ask Ed about his
relationship with Ron Drabot and Ed said "I feel like it's strained now
because of some of comments that have been made in Chicago this week. But
before that I liked Ron and considered him a friend."
Then they asked him about -- Bob asked him about his relationship with
Marty. And Ed said "I really have always loved Marty. I like Marty and I
always loved him. I felt like he has always loved me." And then Bob said,
"well, the truth is, Ed, your relationship with Ron has been terrible and your
relationship with Marty has not been much better." That didn't make sense to
me because why would Marty, overseeing the Sector, have had Ed move here to
lead this church if the relationship had not been good. (that's right) But,
it also became obvious to me as I was sitting over at the side, they were not
dealing with the principles at hand here. (that's right) We're talking
about Ed's relationships -- that's a very subjective comment coming from Bob
Gemple, evaluating the relationships. So, I thought that was strange.
Then they asked Ed why -- I forget how this came out -- Ed shared that one
thing that he felt in all his relationships in the movement that there was a
certain structure in this movement whether there is a hierarchial structure
that in the relationships when being discipled, that when there was a
difference of viewing things, when there was a difference of opinion or
difference of doctrine, that the way it was settled was by the person that was
being discipled by the other person basically yielding and they way they would
come to unity was if you just said, "well, okay, I'll go with your plan." And
Ed shared there was one exception to that was when he was in Chicago and Marty
Fuqua had come to the staff and said let's raise the budget by having
everybody in the church give $5 more a week. And Ed went to Marty and said,
"Marty, I don't think that's biblical because that's not fair to cross the
board." And so Marty changed the policy and said "Okay, we won't do that."
So Ed recognized that as one exception. But he said that the truth was also
that later, Marty, you went ahead and did it anyway. Okay?
So that was what we talked about then. Then, also I forgot to mention that
when we talked about, when I shared that I was disillusioned with the way the
leaders of the Int'l CoC had reacted to what we had requested, Bob Gemple said
"well, that's because there was a breakdown in conversation and that Ed was
not willing to continue to talk." And Ed asked Marty "what did I say to
you?" And Marty said, "you said that at this point you didn't see any reason
to continue to talk." And Ed said, "was there anything else I said?" And
Marty just kind of sat there and then Ed said, "I also said while you are
actively stealing members away from the present leadership of this church, I
don't believe that there is any reason to continue to talk." Marty did not
refute that. I think that's important. That was important to me, because
that has been one of the reports. Marty did not refute that at all.
Therefore, I believe that he was acknowledging that was true.
Then I raised a question because the charge of divisiveness. And I read --
and I actually wish we had copies of this, but I read from the "Revolution
Through Restoration" that was printed in Upside Down Magazine in 1992 where
Kip wrote "when we built these churches, we taught against the unscriptural
church government system practiced in the traditional churches of Christ.
They believe that each congregation was independent and totally autonomous
from all the others. We showed from the Bible how congregations were
connected through the relationships and how evangelists directed other
evangelists in the region (field) they influenced. (The word "autonomy" is
not even in the Bible.) We also taught that the lead evangelist worked with
and for the most part, led and discipled the elders to direct the affairs of
the local church (Titus 1:5; I Tim. 5:17). In all, we preached one worldwide
brotherhood (1 Peter 2:17) for we observed that independent autonomy violated
the command and spirit of Scripture." I read this to them. And I shared
with them at that time -- and I've looked up these verses also and it still
didn't explain this paragraph. And so I said, "this is something that I see
as a very basic structure of the Int'l CoC. This is a very basic teaching.
Thus we have Kip McKean and then we have the world sector leaders under him
and then under them are the churches throughout this movement." And I said,
"now, I grew up in the traditional church of Christ and so when you use the
word "autonomy"" -- and we all heard that word this week --" but when you hear
the word autonomy and if you are communicating with that in that
independence..." And I said this to them, okay? This is what I said, I said
"if you are communicating independence, I agree that is not in the spirit of
the New Testament, to have the attitude saying, 'listen, this is our church,
we don't want any input or anybody outside this church. We're going to do it
the way we want to do it. We don't want any direction or influence.' That is
not the spirit of the New Testament. I agree with that. But if you are
talking about freedom, then I have never seen in the N.T. where freedom of the
local congregation to do what is best for that church -- I've never seen shown
to me in the Bible that's not there." And I opened my Bible to a passage that
Ed shared in the congregational meeting last Sunday in 1 Cor. 16:12 "now
about our brother, Apollos, I strongly urged him to go to you with the
brothers. He was quite unwilling to go now, but he will go when he has the
opportunity." I shared that it was obvious to me that Paul, as an apostle,
strongly urged Apollos, but yet Apollos felt, and therefore had the freedom
to say no at this point, he was quite unwilling. I said, "that's all we have
requested. That's all we have asked. I have heard Ed say to Marty that we
want to be apart. We simply said we want to be able to say at times we are
quite unwilling to do this at this time because it is not best for this
congregation. And I shared with them that. I said, "I don't believe that God
would have recorded that in the scripture if that wasn't an okay attitude to
have." And I asked that.
And then I said, "can you show me from the Bible where this paragraph of the
structure of this movement -- can you show me where there is a biblical model
for this?" And at that point they said, "well, you know, you guys have been
in this movement for some time. You've not had a problem with this before."
I've been a part of this movement for 7-1/2 yrs. Jane and I moved to Chicago
in 1986. You know, Ed was being discipled by Roger Lamb here, but when he
moved to Chicago in 1988. They said "why have you not had a problem with this
before?" And Ed said, "well I was leading this church when I came into this
movement." They said, "Ed, you've been placed to lead a church in this
movement. You knew this was the structure."
"But I was leading this church before it became a part of this movement."
(Ed)
And I shared with them at that time, I said, "I have seen this change. When
I moved to Chicago in 1986 and when I even moved here in 1988, I would tell
people that we are a movement of churches that are linked together by
relationships." I stated that after moving here. I have taught that. Some
of you maybe heard me say that because I really believed that. But I shared
with them that I have seen it change. I have felt it change. I shared with
them how we moved here. I said I was excited to move to Indiana because I'm
from Indiana originally. I was excited about planting churches throughout
Indiana. I said when we first moved here, we started dreaming about planting
churches all over the state. Some of you remember that.
But I said then we were told that, you know, we really needed to put those
dreams aside and help plant the bigger cities. I said that made sense to me,
okay. The big cities need to be evangelized. I said, when we first moved
here, all we reported to Chicago every month, at the end of the month, was how
many baptisms we had. That was in 1988. I said, that's fine, we can report
how things are going. I said, then it went to net growth and I said I
understood that because we don't want to get faked out because we had a lot of
baptisms and we had a lot of fallaways. So I understood that. But now it's
gotten to the point where every week we report what the attendance per zone,
by this church, to Chicago. And I said that way I have to keep track of
visitors and visitors' kids and members' kids and members. What does that
mean to Joe Bible Talk Leader to go to him and say "how many kids do those
visitors have?"
And Bob Gemple admitted that all this was a problem in the structure. And I
said, "well, all we have requested is that we are quite unwilling to do that
because we feel that's not best for this church." So then I came back to this
question. I said, "can you show me the biblical model for this?" Because in
my mind -- I didn't share this with them -- but in my mind before the
meeting, I had not ever had the intent or heart of being divisive. I love
this church. I love this movement. And I believed that this movement was the
hope of evangelizing the world that I wanted to be a part of.. But I also
knew that there were some practices that were hurting people. And I had come
to the conviction that they were unbiblical and that they were hurting people,
so I have wanted simply the freedom as a staff member to say that at this time
we are quite unwilling, as Apollos said to Paul, to do this. And so, as I
thought through this, I thought if I can see where there is a biblical model
for this, where one evangelist is over another evangelist and that truly in
God's word this structure that we have in this movement is biblical, then I
thought maybe then I'll need to evaluate it somehow that I've done something
divisive.
So I really pressed this point. And I asked again, "can you show me the
biblical model for this?" And I don't remember if both of them said it, but I
know that one said it and the other affirmed it. They said and I quote,
"there is no biblical model for this." To me that was very significant.
(that's right) Because, you see, we have been called divisive because we have
spoken out against a structure that there is no biblical model for in the
scriptures.
So then, we got started talking about relationships and Bob Gemple said, and
I quote, "authority is inherent in relationships." And Ed and I both said we
don't agree with that. We believe that we can have relationships in the
church without one person having authority over the other person. (that's
right) They never backed off of that stand when we said we disagree. In
fact, the illustration was used -- they asked, "you believe this, Ed -- Roger
is a member of your staff. If Roger just didn't show up at the staff meeting,
you'd have authority." And Ed said, "well, I wouldn't mark him. And I
wouldn't withdraw fellowship from him." Okay?
And they said, "but, Ed, you know..." they were trying to press this point.
And I spoke up and said, "I believe from working with Ed for three years, I
believe that if I had 105 temperature, he'd say stay home. I believe if I
didn't show up for some good reason, he would come talk to me. Because that's
the kind of relationship that we have worked with." And so then I said to
them, "can you show me in scriptures where authority is inherent in
relationships?"
And Marty said, "Roger, I don't need to show you a scripture because in any
organization, there is authority." Now I wish I would have thought -- Jane
and I were talking about this later -- I wish I would have asked the question,
"but, Marty, I've always been told the church is an organism, not an
organization." I think it is significant, at the same time very
disappointing. I don't say this to be critical. I just say this is the
truth. It is significant that for 3-1/2 hrs. we sat down with two World
Sector Leaders and I opened my Bible, that I asked them to show me things in
the scriptures and they never opened their Bible once. I was disappointed. I
was disappointed.
I shared with them that I was disillusioned with the leadership and the
response of leadership this week. Then Bob Gemple at that point really began
to make a point of good faith that he felt like it would be a sign of good
faith if Marty was allowed to preach this Sunday to the entire church. And Ed
said, "no. Not while you are still actively trying to steal members away
from the present leadership."
At that point, I spoke up and I said, "I have to be honest. Marty, I love
your preaching. You are one of my favorite preachers. But I have fear that
at this point, Marty, you will stand up in front of the entire church and say
that Ed has been divisive. I have that fear. Could we put that on hold and
we can continue to talk and work toward unity, to continue to study these
things out. Marty, I will personally pay to fly you back here so you can
preach to the church at a later time."
I forgot to mention this. Marty said, "do you mean, Ed, you're not going to
let me preach at your church?" And Ed said, "Marty, I have had you preach at
this church before." I think it was last summer or the summer before Marty
preached. He said, "it's just that while you are in this process of trying to
take members away from the church." Then Dave Powers, who used great self
control and did not say much during the meeting -- because I feel like he had
some things to share, but he let it be between us -- at that point he said,
"Marty, maybe it would help these guys if they knew what you were going to
preach about." Okay? And Marty at that time said, "well, I don't know.
I've not thought about it. It was Bob's proposal." Now to me that was very
significant. I felt at that time that it was never really Marty's intentions
to preach to the entire church because I felt like it was even said -- it was
only Bob's proposal.
Question: Roger, I've seen both sides, okay? I'm here because I love you....
Okay, let me share this, if I could.
Another voice (Stan): I've got good news to share. I think we're a lot
more closer, the things that unite us are much more numerous than the things
that divide us. Okay? I think that -- "the movement" -- the movement, well
the brotherhood of believers we put ourselves with, right? We still have
fellowship with them? Do we still have fellowship? Okay. They still have
fellowship with us. You have not been disfellowshipped. Ed has not been
disfellowshipped. That's not what I heard. You've been marked. There is a
difference. It means you have been warned.
Excuse me, could I continue sharing this.
Other voice (Stan): I'm sorry. What was the last point you just made?
Ed Powers: Let me share something. And this was stated at the meeting,
Stan. I have been marked and people have been instructed not to talk with me.
Now I mean, I don't know what -- does that mean they can write me letters?
Or...
Stan: Yes. I was encouraged to do so. I'm talking with you now and I
was encouraged to do so. I'm here, encouraged to talk to you.
Ed Powers: Well, in the meeting with Bob Gemple and Marty Fuqua, we were
told -- my father was there, Roger was there -- that we had been marked. They
did say you have not been disfellowshipped, but they said you have been marked
and we have told people not to talk to you. I don't know the difference. I
was not told that by John Mantle this morning.
Stan: I've been there at the church, my wife was down there. We
pulled this thing together. Give up. It's going to come out.
Ed Powers: Listen, here's my point. This is what we were told. And I'm
just making the point that I don't know the difference between people not
being allowed to talk with me and being disfellowshipped. That seems to be
one in the same to me.
Woman: ...absolutely not correct. I think we were instructed to ....not
to speak to any member of the staff unless they routed it through John or
another source. We were specifically instructed to talk to John Mantle first
before talking to any staff member.
Stan: I did that. I routed through John Mantle. (laughter)
Roger: If I could continue this conversation. Well, I just want to
share the rest of the conversation, if I could. And if you have any
questions... What the point is the passage that kept going through my mind
and I feel like that maybe some of these questions by the statements -- maybe
not some of you, but I feel like some of the questions maybe my motive here
has been questioned, but what I am sharing is what scripture kept going
through my mind during the meeting is Eph. 4:1-3 "make every effort to keep
the unity of the Spirit." I want you to know I love this church. I want this
church to be united. Lines have been drawn. I do not believe that I have
drawn them. That's the point. And that's what I want you to understand.
That I have not drawn those lines. And I want to share with you that I sought
to seek unity.
I asked Marty, I said "I will fly you back, just give us more time to deal
with these issues, these principles in scripture." He said, "well, we'll need
to talk to Kip." And then Marty asked would Ed and I be willing to fly to
L.A. to meet with Kip. And Ed said he didn't feel comfortable at this time
because in process, they're still trying to divide this membership away from
the present leadership. At that point I said I would personally pay to fly
Kip here so we can study this out and come to unity.
What I want you to understand that I have a clear conscience. I have made
every attempt to seek unity. I have made every attempt to have unity. I
continue to want to have unity. But I believe that they have continued with
their plan to start a new congregation. (that's right) I think that's
obvious. From the point that we establish that they agree that there is no
biblical model for this structure, which is what we mean is simply the
structure that we have been in this movement is not based on a biblical model.
As far as I remember, they did not use the word "divisive" again. They used
the words that it would have been the decent thing to do for Ed to go talk to
Marty first. They said it was highly irregular.
And Ed asked them, "so have I been marked for being highly irregular?"
And, see, this is where we began to talk about the principle here. The
charge of divisiveness was dropped in the meeting. They did not use that word
again as far as I remember. Ed? They did not use that word again. So that's
why I don't understand why there was a new church started this morning.
Then at that point Bob Gemple said that he felt like he had part
responsibility in this confusion that has been created. And I think that's
significant because we believe that. I believe that. I believe the reaction.
And Ed did say in that conversation, he told them, he said "Marty, the last
time I preached to this church, it was unified. The last time you preached to
it, it was divided. I do not believe I have divided this church. I do not
believe I caused division. I have simply stated what I believe in my
convictions." And then we said that we wanted to be a part, we wanted to
continue to work toward unity.
And we shared with them that we did not believe in our hearts that we have
drawn lines. But that we had definitely felt that they had drawn lines.
At the end of the meeting, after 3-1/2 hrs., they needed to leave. We hugged
each other and Ed said, "I'm sorry." He acknowledged that he hated this
happened. And that was the end of the meeting.
Side 2:
...saying that we wanted the freedom to say we were quite unwilling to agree
with everything, to question the authority of that model. And I also have a
very clear conscience that Ed and I have made every effort to keep unity. As
far as I know, they have told us they would call us back. As far as I know,
they have not called back to continue talking.
And I believe that we are still willing to do that. It's just that they have
continued the process of beginning a new church, which I believe has brought
the division. I just want to share this and you can -- this is from my heart
and I hope that this is okay, Ed, for me to share -- is that I have had great
hope in this movement in the past that this movement would evangelize the
world. I would continue to want and to seek unity with this movement. At the
same time, I cannot violate my conscience to practice something that is not
set in scripture. (amen)
I personally have had to deal with feelings of being deceived this week. And
I don't think anyone wants to believe that they have been deceived. But as I
shared with both of them that I have been very disillusioned with the leaders
of this movement. What I have shared with you today is the truth. It's the
truth of what I have heard in the congregational meeting. It's the truth of
what I heard Ed share with Marty on the phone. It's the truth of what I
witnessed and participated in the conversations with Marty and Bob. And I
want you to believe the truth. I have heard so many things come back that are
not true. But I want you to know the truth. And I just ask you to have the
courage to believe the truth because we have got to hold unto the truth,
brothers and sisters. That's what the foundation of the church is -- is
truth. And what I have shared with you tonight is the truth. Thank you.
(applause)
Ed Powers: What I would like to suggest that we do because of the
lateness of the hour, and I know if we get into a question and answer
sessions, we are going to be here for at least another hour or hour and a half
probably. What I'd like to suggest we do is that you write your questions --
any question that you have that has not been answered tonight -- just write it
on a piece of paper at this time. Pass it to the aisle. Please sign your
name to it. And we will take these questions and then Tuesday night we will
meet together as an entire group again instead of meeting in Zones, we'll meet
together here on Tuesday night and we'll answer the questions at that time.
I think in doing it that way, we'll be able to do justice to the questions
instead of trying to hurry over them tonight. It's a school day tomorrow and
I know that some of you have to go home.
I really didn't anticipate that this portion would take this long. But
hopefully what we have shared tonight has answered a lot of your questions.
But if there are others, please write them down and pass them to the center
aisle at this time.
As you are doing that and as we collect them, I just want to share this one
thing. I have been getting letters and phone calls from various churches:
from people in the church in New York, to people in the church in L.A. --
there are a lot of people who have the issues that we have raised on their
hearts. I received this letter just today -- and it's addressed to you too:
Dear Ed and all the church in Indy:
(This is from somebody in NY) Last night I learned of your bold and godly
step forward. As disciples for six years now, my wife and I were ecstatic to
hear the answer to prayer. We immediately began praying for you, the church
there and other leaders in our movement and will continue to pray and fast on
your behalf. Thank God for your courage. Love in Christ, (and I will
withhold the name here so that this person will not be marked.)
We have -- folks, this has been tough. What we have gone through, what we
are going through is tough. But we are raising issues that can change the
face of this movement. And I just want to say that is the desire of all of
us. That is our desire. Our desire is still to be unified with this
movement. But we have to have unity on a different basis than what we have
had in the past. When you look at 4,500 and some disciples in the Midwest
growing by a total of 17 all last year, it is time that somebody calls for
some changes to be made. (yes) And we're didn't even do that. We didn't
call for them to change anything. Somebody has said "well, you know, this was
a Matthew 18 issue and if you had something against them, you should have gone
to them." Folks, we did not call upon the movement to change anything or to
repent or any sin. Therefore, this is not a Matthew 18 issue. This was an
issue involving our church. In fact, I just want to add this and then
hopefully we'll close. Our intention was to bring our case to you as a staff
and if you recall, we told you last Sunday night that if you, as a church, did
not feel this way, that then our intention was not to create division, but our
intention was to resign and to give you the leadership that you wanted.
Guys, in Acts 1, in Acts 6 and in Acts 15, we have examples in all those
passages of local churches being involved in the making of important
decisions. From the 120 disciples before Pentecost in Acts 1, who were
involved in the decision to, along with the eleven apostles, they were
involved in the decision to select a replacement for Judas. 120 were involved
in that process in the casting of lots. In Acts 6, the multitude, the church,
was involved in the process of selecting the deacons. It wasn't just the
leaders who appointed them. The church was involved. The same thing was
true in Acts 15 when you had the church in Antioch and the church in
Jerusalem, cooperating together, not just the leaders, the church was called
together to participate in the decision in solving the problem that existed
over things that were being taught. The church was involved.
We involved you in that decision. We did that with a good conscience. We
did that not to create division. We did that because that is biblical and we
did it because, in fairness to you, instead of just leading you in a direction
that you would not want to go -- because we had come to some real convictions
here -- instead of just starting to lead you in that directions, we said
"look, this is our intention. If you don't want to go in this direction, then
let us know and we will resign." And I think you would need to think about
that and remember that it was not our intent to divide.
Have those been collected? All right. Let's do this. We're going to go
ahead and dismiss and you get them to Rich Farkas in the back if you haven't
turned them in yet.
Okay. This has been raised. Number one, we are going to, as we said this
morning we are going to go ahead and take the contribution tonight. And so
hopefully you came prepared to do that. If you forgot, then maybe you can do
it on Tuesday night. But the usher is going to come and just pass the trays.
While we are doing that, the question has been asked about the tapes of last
Sunday night's session and also tonight's session. We do have tapes. We're
talking. And we're open to input. We're talking about whether or not to make
those available. Whether or not those are going to get out and I struggle
with this. I don't believe that the people in the movement would necessarily
want those tapes to fall into the hands of their people. And we have not been
trying to cause them a problem in any way. That has not been our intention.
So we're thinking about that. And we'll make a decision by Tuesday night and
we'll let you know whether or not we plan to release the tapes.
Woman: I think a lot of what has been going on has been half truths, half
of what has been said, whatever. And if you make a decision not to release
the tapes to at least with the understanding we're not going to send them out
to other congregations for sale. That's just going to raise another (?) that
the church didn't want anything put out about what they did.
I'm sure that you would like to have those tapes released. I'm sure you
would. And I understand that. I don't want our good to be evil spoken of, as
the Bible says. That's what I am struggling with. So, we are going to pray
about it. I appreciate your input. We'll probably do it, okay? I mean we
will probably just do it. But I am hesitant because I don't want to be
accused of creating further division.
Inaudible comment.
Well, yes, again actually they are going to be available. I mean there is no
doubt about that. What we are talking about here is timing. I mean, do we do
it right now or try to work things out?
Inaudible question.
He raised the question, he said I said a little bit ago that the position of
the discipling movement is that if you are not under the authority of the
movement, then you are not in the Kingdom. And the question he asked is "what
Kingdom?" Their kingdom or God's kingdom. And I am referring to God's
kingdom, of course. Their position is that if you are not under the
authority of the movement then you are not a part of God's kingdom.
Woman: That's not biblical, is it?
No. Go ahead and say something and then we'll be dismissed. This is a
friend of mine that I have known for 30 years. We went to high school
together, we started double dating together before either one had drivers
licenses. And he is now in Denver. And when he heard about this, he came in
just to be with me. I didn't invite him, okay? I didn't bring him in. I
want to make than clear. And I didn't ask him to speak either. But -- will
you keep this brief?
Eddie Howard: I never do anything brief. My name is Eddie Howard and I
really hesitated to get involved because I am the real outsider here. But I
have probably known Ed longer than anyone else in this auditorium other than
his father and mother and family. And if you really want to know some good
stories about Ed, you should have come to me. (laughter) I could have come
up with a lot better stuff than what he shared tonight.
I want to tell you something about this man. And most of you probably
already know this. But he is a man of integrity. Even when we were kids, I
never stepped out of line without my conscience confronting me. And, Ed, I've
always loved you for it. You are always honest with me. And I believe that
God has been able to use me a lot because of a friend like you.
I have learned some real hard lessons in the 23 years that I have been
preaching the gospel. One of those is that if you ever get in to the mindset
of who can destroy the other's character the best, everyone loses. And I
really learned this the hard way. The sins of my past and the sins of his
past and the sins in your past that God has already forgiven -- God have
mercy, we don't need to bring those up again. I'm thankful they have been
nailed to the cross, aren't you?
And I want to encourage you with just a short passage of scripture. I hope
you have your Bibles with you. Because so often when there is disagreement
among brothers, we try to see who can hurt the other the most rather than
going to the authority -- the word of God -- and learning from Him. I have a
brother than encourages me with this passage over and over again. It's
Isaiah 48. I just want to read 2 verses and I'm done. I work primarily with
teenagers (cheers) and have for over 20 years. You know, a lot of times to a
teenager and even to some of us adults, the word of God doesn't make a whole
lot of sense. It seems like God is trying to put us in a box and keep us
from having a good time. But I want you to take a look at this passage and
share this with your lost friends: Isaiah 48:17. It says "this is what the
Lord says. your redeemer, the Holy One of Israel, I am the Lord your God who
teaches you what is best for you." Isn't that a great God? "... who
teaches you what is best for you and directs you in the way you should go."
And then he says to Israel in verse 18, "if only you had paid attention to my
commands, your peace would have been like a river, your righteousness like the
waves of the sea." Brothers and sisters, I want to encourage you on two
things: #1 love this man. He has put his life on the line for the gospel.
I was with him in India when he nearly died. He was in my arms. He loves
lost people. He loves you. Don't abandon him. And #2 don't abandon the
word. (applause)
Bobbi Powers: I just want to say something really quickly. I just really
appreciate the love we have felt from you all this week. Most of my message --
unlike Ed, were very, very encouraging. My machine was filled up with
"Bobbi, we love you." More of that. And finally the fourth time she called I
picked it up and said, "aren't you getting a little obsessive with the
positive comments here?" But she just called and called and encouraged us.
We got calls, I mean my kitchen looks like a forest. People brought us baked
bread. I mean it's been great. Ed lost 10 pounds this week. No more cake,
you know. And I haven't cooked this week. My sister, not the one that I
hung up on, but Ed's other sister that's here, mopped my kitchen today. I
mean, a mouse could have lived in my kitchen an eternity, literally. And I
just appreciate the support from everybody. This has been the hardest thing
for both of us. We love this church. We've dedicated our lives to this
church. It has been very, very hard. But we really appreciate the support
that we have gotten from you and the love that we have felt. And I couldn't
leave tonight without saying that. Thanks so much.
Okay. We have had quite a time tonight. Love you all. Stay strong. Great
things are going to happen, guys, if we hang in there and persevere. Let's
close out with a word of prayer.
Father, thank you so much for loving us. Thank you God for blessing us.
Thank you for giving us your Word. And, Father, please help us to be men and
women who really do long for unity. Father, help us to be willing to have
unity on the right basis. Help us to have unity on the basis of what your
word teaches. Father, that's our desire. Keep that desire ever in our
hearts, we pray in Jesus' name. Amen.
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