How the mighty have fallen, and by the mighty I mean two groups I have a lot of sympathy, the geeks and the Presbyterians. Let’s start with the geeks: github used to be a useful thing, full of distributions of Linux. Less so now: OpenSUSE uses its open build service, and the Arch based distros, akin to the Debian ones, have to curate their own repositories. In the meantime, virtue signalling has taken over, and things such as a Nazi List exist.

The PCUSA, however, is dying. For it is not reforming. Instead it is converging: it cares more about diversity and social justice than the gospel. It has lost its salt. It no longer preserves, but rots, and the rhetoric of reform has been subverted.

The rot is starting to affect the local kirk. I hear more American accents in leadership, and they are reliably liberal. To the point where someone tried to rewrite the LORD’s prayer in a responsive, converged, prayer for others. I left, quietly — because if I had talked to the Pastor my comments would have had the stench of the pit. The snark and sarcasm were on me. For I know that these people will demand our convergence.

A Song of Ascents.

To you I lift up my eyes,
O you who are enthroned in the heavens!
Behold, as the eyes of servants
look to the hand of their master,
as the eyes of a maidservant
to the hand of her mistress,
so our eyes look to the LORD our God,
till he has mercy upon us.

Have mercy upon us, O LORD, have mercy upon us,
for we have had more than enough of contempt.
Our soul has had more than enough
of the scorn of those who are at ease,
of the contempt of the proud.

(Psalm 123 ESV)

And when he entered the temple, the chief priests and the elders of the people came up to him as he was teaching, and said, “By what authority are you doing these things, and who gave you this authority?” Jesus answered them, “I also will ask you one question, and if you tell me the answer, then I also will tell you by what authority I do these things. The baptism of John, from where did it come? From heaven or from man?” And they discussed it among themselves, saying, “If we say, ‘From heaven,’ he will say to us, ‘Why then did you not believe him?’ But if we say, ‘From man,’ we are afraid of the crowd, for they all hold that John was a prophet.” So they answered Jesus, “We do not know.” And he said to them, “Neither will I tell you by what authority I do these things.

“What do you think? A man had two sons. And he went to the first and said, ‘Son, go and work in the vineyard today.’ And he answered, ‘I will not,’ but afterward he changed his mind and went. And he went to the other son and said the same. And he answered, ‘I go, sir,’ but did not go. Which of the two did the will of his father?” They said, “The first.” Jesus said to them, “Truly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the prostitutes go into the kingdom of God before you. For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the prostitutes believed him. And even when you saw it, you did not afterward change your minds and believe him.

(Matthew 21:23-32 ESV)

Last night we were subverting Youtube. We were watching worship videos and fiddling around with fretted instruments. Of qll the videos that we watched, the ones that were most real and (from a craft of music point of view) well constructed came out of a certain Aussie church that the elite hate.

It is worth noting that the elite always over-estimate the effectiveness of intelligence. They know not the first law of the Vox” At a sufficient level of intelligence it is indistinguishable to most from madness.

However, the Hillsong bunch (and that journo is agin them, as are most of the commentators on twitter) are growing, including in South Africa, but worried. For they know that growth depends of God. It is not our doing, and it is not for us.

It is for others. Our accountability, the mana we have, the influence or status, the growth and wealth we have, must be for others.

I’ve been reading a book called ‘Extreme Ownership’ written by two navy seals. They tell the story of a combat scenario in which they almost opened fire on a building occupied by their own men. At the official enquiry, various people tried to explain what had gone wrong until one of the authors, who was the commanding officer on the day, got up and said, “It’s my fault. I was the commander in charge. I should have communicated better. I should have understood this better”. Extreme ownership means never blaming anyone else, but taking personal responsibility for everything that’s happening in our teams and in our worlds.

What we’re part of is pretty special. I don’t know if what God is doing in our midst around the world is happening anywhere else. We have to own it with everything we have in order to build the church like it has never been built before. If we’re going to keep on growing and being fruitful we have to take extreme ownership.

Finally, fruitfulness is never about what we can get out of the whole deal. Jesus says, “I chose you and appointed you so that you might go and bear fruit ­ fruit that will last” (John 15:16 NIV). Fruit that lasts is always for others and the next generation. The apples on a tree are for others. The seeds in the apples are for the next generation of apple trees. I measure fruitfulness in my own life against those two criteria. Because that’s the bottom line ­ it’s all about others and the next generation.

I find this time bleakly funny. We have politicians and journalists and their antifa shock troops telling us we must converge with their queer theologies and ideologies — following them into perdition. I’ve met too many of such. They lust for power. They lie. They do not take responsibility, but set up structures that absolve them from wrong.

The street whores, pimps and thugs know better. For they know good from evil. I have more time and sympathy for them.

Though I acknowledge they can be a threat. But the greater threats are in our pulpits, our parliaments, and in the quiet committees that have the delusion we can be regulated to salvation. Do not with them be.