Let's assume for a moment that we are indeed in need of fixing. The problem with even making that statement is that if we ask 100 members what needs to be fixed, we'd like get a lot of different answers, some of them with obvious solutions (e.g., if they think the problem is transparency)...and others without an obvious solution (e.g., we need to go back to our holiness ways--something many of us might agree on, but which is not doable outside of a miracle).To ME, the fix I want is to somehow reclaim the old Church of God, without again taking on the perceived extremes. That cannot be done denominationally. First, because that would entail a holiness stance that the majority absolutely reject if it touched upon apparel, outward adornment, jewelry, worldly amusements, etc. In effect, we ALREADY have a fixed Church of God. Check out the Dallas Church of God in North Carolina. I have never set foot in the wonderful church, but that is the very church I grew up in (if you know what I mean). In fact, many of us grew up there. Conservative dress, anointed singing, moves of the Spirit, on and on.What we have are (at least) TWO Churches of God within the same denomination. Those that are old school and those who aren't. BOTH love and worship Jesus. But if I am being very honest, I have to think that the old school churches have a little something that the rest of us may have lost (or at least do not see regularly). It is MY thinking that part of this comes from the fact that the old school Church of God, for any of its mistakes--and there were no doubt many--was willing to set aside ANYTHING to be pleasing to God. It may not have been the actual setting aside of jewelry and makeup, etc. that brought about the blessings we seemed to regularly seemed to experience in church, but rather the WILLINGNESS to set aside anything. That willingness is not as evident in the new Church of God (and I say this having lived in both worlds). I have zero doubt that the members of this latest version of the Church of God would absolutely lay aside anything...so long as they were SURE that God said it in scripture or in the Spirit. Contrast that with our earlier incarnation. In the old Church of God, plenty of folks quickly and willingly set aside worldly things NOT because there was some clear statement in the scripture or Spirit, but simply because, I think, they loved the Lord and didn't need it signed in triplicate before they complied. It may be that the old Church of God was too quick to comply...while the new Church of God is too slow to do so.Of course, this all has a rose-colored glasses thing going on. In truth, the Church of God of yore, as golden as it may be in our memories, was not nearly a denominational utopia. We likely reflect too fondly upon it, brushing aside some of the more troublesome aspects.However, the old Church of God was not nearly so rotten as some remember it. If I recall correctly, Eddie once recounted the hard time he (or his mother?) had with an uber-conservative Church of God. I hear and recognize that. Indeed, harshness was often conflated with holiness, when nothing could be further from the truth.But despite many of those things, the old Church of God was, in general, I believe, one of the most positive ecclesiastical events ever, and was a blessing that shaped many of our leaders today.
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