Leading a Herd of Cats

By Dr. Gregory Wiens

If you have ever owned a cat or a dog, you quickly realized that you never own them; they own you! Cats, unlike dogs, are pretty independent animals. This isn’t bad or good, just a reality. This independent culture of our movement for the last fifty years has clearly leaned much more in this direction than it did the first fifty years of our movement. This is a result of many factors, some of which are good, and some are bad. The reality is this is what we have inherited, so we need to embrace it and move forward. The challenge for me, in leading a state with this culture has been great. If you add to this fact that we only meet once a year; it is even a bigger challenge.

Several years ago, Leigh Anderson told me (the outside consultant who advised our National movement on its restructuring 15 years ago) that the Church of God, Anderson is one of the denominations (his word, not mine) that is afraid of leadership. I really don’t believe we are afraid of leadership. I believe we are afraid of giving up our autonomy (which looks the same). This is why we continue to struggle to build momentum as a movement; we don’t see our success resting on the success of others. This past year our movement in Florida Church of God Ministries grew at a 25% decadal growth rate…this is unbelievable! God is doing great things here in Florida. It is happening because contrary to our DNA for the past fifty years, many of you are truly working with others and seeing your success depending on others succeeding as well. This is why our Annual Fall Ministries meeting on October 15 is so critical.

Our Annual Fall Ministries Meeting is at Crossings Community Church’s new facility from 10:00 am till 3:00 pm. Our concern every year has been to provide an agenda that adds value to the great diversity of congregations and leadership present in this state. During these past ten years, we have brought in some of the best authors and speakers that we could find. I know you liked some of them and some, you didn’t like. Every year we sought feedback and have tried to improve our time together.

For the first time in ten years, I am going to talk about lessons on leadership from leading in the life cycle of a church in the morning session. As many of you know, we do not spend much time voting. This year (as in years past), there will only be about 5 minutes given to pass out ballots and votes taken. Our by-laws (which are on our website) provide for accountability and discussion to be done in our Elders meetings. Then we are going to have a 1½-hour lunch to provide adequate time for each of us to catch up, relate and connect with others that we don’t see often. We have added this critical time for you to bond, so sit with people you want to hook up with; not just those who you see all of the time.

After lunch we have 10 breakout sessions, which are listed elsewhere in this newsletter. These are intended to stay small (less than 15 in each), to allow for an in depth treatment. Let me encourage you to look these over and then sign up in advance for each session. Seating is limited, so please choose ahead of time. We will then come together for a time of worship, prayer and acknowledging those who will be ordained this year. We have set the time to be done at 3:00 to ensure everyone can get back home before the traffic crush of Orlando hits.

Every year, I am amazed at no matter what time we end, people split before the end. We have experimented with the ending time and find pastors do this no matter what is the ending time. Let me ask you to please stay to the end. This meeting will be significant and important to the life of this state Church of God and the Kingdom of God.

I actually like leading cats because I am one. I do not like to follow the path everyone else takes, I would much rather take the path less taken. However, I do know we can accomplish so much more together than we can as 140 scattered congregations around this great state. Let me ask you to clear your calendars to be part of a movement much bigger and more impactful than any of us alone could be.