{"id":461,"date":"2006-03-23T12:34:00","date_gmt":"2006-03-23T12:34:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/03\/what_if.shtml"},"modified":"2021-05-29T02:46:46","modified_gmt":"2021-05-29T02:46:46","slug":"what_if","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/03\/what_if.shtml","title":{"rendered":"What If …"},"content":{"rendered":"

Please keep in mind that I’m still having issues with the site. Your comment will likely generate an error page, but it should go through. Please hit back and refresh to check before re-submitting your comment (you might want to compsose your words in another program so they aren’t lost). I’m working on finding a new host, please bear with me. Thanks.<\/em><\/font>
\nThere’s been some good discussion on the proposal here, thanks everyone. There are also discussions going on at Clarke’s site<\/a> and in the forums at ICOCnews<\/a> (registration required for the forums). Most of those places are pretty negative on the proposal, some more than others. I am not aware of any discussions or commentary that is primarily positive. That, of course, doesn’t mean they aren’t happening, just that I don’t know about them. I’d like to see some, frankly, because I want to hear from ‘the other side’ on why they are for it. Balance is a good thing.
\nMy wife is curious as to why this is such a big deal for me. Good question, I wish I knew. I think, frankly, that my opposition reveals a weakness in my faith, much as a strong desire for it may reveal a weakness in others’ faith. (She, on the other hand, doesn’t really care one way or another. She probably has a greater faith than the rest of us.) What I mean is, it makes me nervous and insecure knowing that there are folks in my fellowship of churches, perhaps in my own church, who think this is a good idea. What will that mean for my relationship with these folks? My church’s relationship with those churches? I need to grow up in my faith and just pursue God, trust my brothers and sisters and not worry about such things, but that’s not where I am. Lord help me grow!
\nMy church has only just begun to discuss it. Actually, there have been no discussions yet, only letting the leaders know that it’s out there and they should go read it and prayerfully consider it. The deacons and evangelist have not yet had a discussion about it. Someone mentioned that my comments may be seen as signifying the direction the church is heading on this. Nothing could be farther from the truth and I hope that I did not convey that message. Perhaps we will go the way I feel comfortable with, but it is very premature to speak to that at all.
\nWhich brings me to the title of this post:
\nDoug, what if the overwhelming opinion of your church is that you should sign on?
\nThen we will. Heck, even if it’s not overwhelming, if most of the leadership think this is good for our church, then we should sign on. Oh, I’ll speak my piece, for sure, but I’ll listen too. While I cannot see my mind being changed, I hope that I am not so entrenched in my view as to prevent myself from being swayed. In the end, whether my mind is changed or not, I will happily<\/em> sign this proposal if it’s the way most of our leadership feels we should go.
\nYou see, I am committed to God, this church and these people far more than I am committed to my ideas and opinions. Unity does not mean uniformity or everyone agreeing, it means a commitment to the team over the individual. We may not get a consensus (complete agreement, that is) on this issue, but we already have a commitment to each other, to our church and collectively to God. Commitment is more valuable than consensus, and easier to obtain.
\nHow utterly foolish we would be to allow this church and this leadership team that we have invested so much into to be divided over a Unity<\/em> Proposal.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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Your comment will likely generate an error page, but it should go through. Please hit back and refresh to check before re-submitting your comment (you might want to compsose your words in another program so they aren't lost).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":462,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/03\/romans_1516.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":1},"title":"Romans 15-16","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"March 23, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Please keep in mind that I'm still having issues with the site. Your comment will likely generate an error page, but it should go through. Please hit back and refresh to check before re-submitting your comment (you might want to compsose your words in another program so they aren't lost).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Quiet Time Journal"","block_context":{"text":"Quiet Time Journal","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/quiet-time-journal"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":71,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2004\/02\/well_here_i_am.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":2},"title":"Well, Here I am.","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"February 19, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Welcome to my weblog. You may be wondering why anyone in their right mind would start a web site entirely for their own thoughts and ideas. Well, to start with, I've not often been accused of being in my right mind. It does sound a bit egocentric, doesn't it? Who\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Salguod.net stuff"","block_context":{"text":"Salguod.net stuff","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/salguod-net-stuff"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":460,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/03\/romans_14_and_t.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":3},"title":"Romans 14 and the Unity Proposal","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"March 21, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Please keep in mind that I'm still having issues with the site. Your comment will likely generate an error page, but it should go through. Please hit back and refresh to check before re-submitting your comment (you might want to compsose your words in another program so they aren't lost).\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":389,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2005\/09\/dj_on_church_un.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":4},"title":"DJ on Church Unity","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"September 26, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"I know I said I would be rather quiet for a while, but I just spent my lunch hour reading an excellent article and thought I should share it with you. Douglas Jacoby has displayed on his web site a link to an article entitled Unity on Three Levels for\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":456,"url":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/2006\/03\/unity_proposal.shtml","url_meta":{"origin":461,"position":5},"title":"Unity Proposal","author":"Doug Schaefer","date":"March 11, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Well, the ICOC Unity Proposal Group has gotten their work done. The proposal has been drafted and is complete. Unfortunately, you can't see it yet. (EDIT: I guess it came out today, 2 days earlier than intended but still several days after some recieved it.) It was sent out to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "God and Church"","block_context":{"text":"God and Church","link":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/god-and-church"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=461"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1812,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/461\/revisions\/1812"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=461"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=461"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/salguod.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=461"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}