The C3I Values – God and people, another perspective

Looking at the video from the previous post,’The C3I Values – Not People!‘, it is apparent that Phil Pringle indeed gives mention, often, to God and people as being the main reason for the existence of C3I, so I have noted some of the things Phil said, including the ten points, and added a short note for context, including his own words in inverted commas, but I encourage you to look for yourself, because it would be incorrect to give viewers of his blog the wrong impression of a movement, its vision and its leader.

I took the time to post this because I think sometimes we ignore watching a YouTube clip and take at face value the comments of a critic. Here are the ten points in a nutshell:

Ten Values of C3 Culture:

1. A people of prayer – ’seeking God for everything’ – “We seek the Lord, and build the House on a foundation of prayer”. Definitely God-centric!

2. People who worship and praise – again the focus is on God

3. People of faith and vision – so, again, faith in God, and people ‘having a constant hope of a great future ahead of us’.

4. We are involved in the Presence of God – ‘All of our services, our lives, our lifestyles are to have the Presence of God – the anointing – over our lives’… ‘allow for the moving of the Holy Spirit’. Focus again on God!

5. We believe in successful living – people can prosper in life! Whether we agree on prosperity or not is irrelevant, the focus is on people and their well-being in this life as well as the life to come!

6. We develop disciples and leaders – again, disciples and leaders are people being trained to lead people!

7. We are a discipleship movement – ‘People who live with liberty in their lives, but by a set of values and discipline…’ ‘We raise up people – help them follow Christ and disciple them in our small groups – our Connect Groups’. All about people!

8. We connect – ‘people of relevance, who relate to the world [people] around us, look after their needs, meet their needs’. Again, all about people!

9. We believe in servanthood – ‘We raise up great numbers of volunteers in our churches… out to serve God, serve his kingdom, serve one another, and honour the people that we serve’. People serving God and people!

10. Freedom – ‘We believe we need to lead a free life, a liberated life…(not) license (for sin or excess)…we have been set free by the power of the Holy Spirit to be involved and engaged in a myriad of different areas…not alarmist people; people who are free in the Holy Spirit’.

You may not all agree with the vision or methodology of C3I, but Phil Pringle, in the YouTube clip, is clearly pointing people to God and people, and has outlined the culture of C3I as being God-centred and people oriented.

The C3I Values – Not People!

Ten Values.

Sounds noble.

All on works. None on people. None on God.

What did you expect?

The Purpose-Driven Herd

It was only a matter of time.  Rick Warren’s Purpose-Driven techniques are so effective in managing the flocks within churches, that they are now being used to manage other herds of dumb animals.

This article in the Cattlenetwork (“The source for Cattle news”) shows how Rick’s techniques are being used to manage Cows.  Apparently its not a joke.

Luckily Rick has hired Ken Blanchard to advise him for his new initiative, a global peace plan.  Ken is the author of such trashy pop-leadership pamphlets as “The One-Minute Manager” and “Who moved my cheese?”  Ken also encourages an unquestioning herd-mentality in workers in a business environment, so he should be a good fit for Rick’s modest new venture : “The Second Reformation”.

Dukebox – Europe, Halfway To Heaven

Anxiety and Depression among Pentecostals

Tanya Levin in her book “People in Glass Houses” quoted studies showing an incidence of anxiety and depression among Pentecostals as three times higher than other Protestants.

There appears to be some support for this in the literature.  This 1994 study by Harold G Koenig states <i> ”Among the baby boomers, Pentecostals had significantly higher six-month and lifetime rates of depressive disorder, anxiety disorder, and any DSM-III disorder. “</i>  Koenig seems to be a major researcher in this area, conducting several studies on similar themes.

There could be many reasons for this discrepancy with other Protestant denominations.  One theory put forward is that Pentecostal denominations in general are composed of lower socio-economic communities and these communities have higher incidences of anxiety and depression anyway.  

Other theories point to some element of the belief system as being the cause, perhaps the focus on end-times prophecy.

My own view is that the incidence of these disorders could be caused in a number of cases by the social environment built up in these churches.  More than any other denomination, Pentecostal churches tend to be quite heirarchical with a very strictly delineated system for achieving social status.  At the top of the social tree is the head-Pastor, with his family directly below him.  One achieves greater or lesser social status in the church depending on how attuned one is to the “vision” of the leader.  It is to a certain extent natural for young people to identify moving up this social ladder with growing in Christian faith, so they often put considerable resources and efforts into this endeavour.

But the Pentecostal church can have only one leader and it is inevitable that lesser leaders have to exit to make way for others.  It is this exit that causes loss of status teamed with the resulting loss of self-esteem that I believe causes great anxiety and depression.