Big ticket item for COGIC may cost souls

According to TD Jakes website, he is scheduled to speak at the 101st COGIC convocation. At a reported $50,000 per appearance, he is what you would call a “big ticket item”. Money isnt the issue, COGIC can easily pay Bishop Jakes fifty thousand dollars if it wanted to, but is it worth helping to spread the influence of a man who is in serious dereliction of duty?

Something’s definitely rotten here. Bishop Blake has already made one mega mistake by giving the pulpit over to openly gay cleric Peter Gomes at West Angeles in 2003. He said that he didn’t know.

But with the massive amount of very public information on TD Jakes’ blatant false doctrine, ungodly associations, and highly questionable personal character (Im not even going to link to it all)  what will Bishop Blake’s excuse be this time? Has the convocation selection committee properly vetted its speakers? Is there a vetting process at all? Have they asked Bishop Jakes the hard questions before he mounts the platform in Memphis? Or is this just a tangible sign of what many people see as the beginning of the end for COGIC?

Pastor Harvey Burnett at Dunamis Word blog asks additional questionswhich should be answered openly and succinctly by COGIC officials. But they most likely won’t. The grinding machinery of church business has little concern for honest dissension. There are voices of dissent in COGIC but most seem afraid to acknowledge openly what they feel in their hearts. That’s called “fighting leadership”  one of the top sins in COGIC.

LOUD PRAISE, QUIET INJUSTICE

Many have indeed questioned why the nation’s largest black pentecostal denmonination is so quiet, passive and complicit in its dealings with more and more homosexual clergy peeking out of the closet and more cases of clergy sexual abuse. But I learned something the other day. COGIC bishops seem to be administratively impotent and have very little power to correct moral, doctrinal, legal and sexual misconduct in the ranks of its clergy.

Unlike say, the AME church where a bishop has considerable governing autonomy, COGIC’s rules, and processes of appeal make it almost impossible for someone to face real justice within the organization. This maze of rules and appeals are backed by the influential General Council of Pastors and Elders. A ranking source within the church told GCM Watch that the rules have so many holes and loopholes, its quite possible that a person may never be brought to so-called “church justice”.

He cited several ongoing cases, one of which has been going in for over 10 years and the pastor is still violating the church rules and “direct orders” from his bishop. But he has manipulated the system over and over, thus prolonging any real resolution.

It provided greater perspective as to why nothing was done when parents reported murdered Pastor Ronald Paigein Arkansas to Bishop LT Walker. Walker might as well have been a Chinese citizen. The source said that COGIC bishops are, for practical purposes, ecclesiastical figureheads with no real authority when it comes to serious matters. The sad thing is that the rank and file of COGIC arent aware that their bishops have only minor ecclesiastical authority when pastoral sexual misconduct is reported to them. That’s precisely why Sherman Allen of Fort Worth could do what he is accused of doing while his bishop —who knew of the crime for over 17 years— did little to nothing.

We did just that in 2002 when Bishop Walker and State Secretary Jewel Withers were presented with specific evidence of an ordained elder in their charge who had organized an online group of black homosexual ministers.  But a decade later, Elder Ronald Kimbrew, an elder at Greater Trinity COGIC in Little Rock who founded the group is still on staff at the church. Look for yourself (scroll down).

No, its not just the Methodists and Episcopals who are being outwitted by homosexual clergy. COGIC is just starting its journey to fully accepting homosexual men and women as clergy. Impossible you say?  Just a few years ago, we all though it a fantasy that our country could legalize gay marriage. But its a shocking reality now. Just like in the other churches, it was a private issue whispered about for many years.  But now, with the advent and unassuming ascension of the gay christian movement, those inside denominational walls are actively pursuing a recognized place in leadership.

So that’s why TD will mount COGIC’s platform and preach one of his usual emotionally charged, super-exposited sermons, the people will scream back at him and then “shout”. Its not like anybody would actually challenge him on his false doctrine anyway.

If youre a member of COGIC and this news make you upset and angry go ahead and let it all out…here. Reporting to your superiors will only hit the stained glass celing and possibly cause you a concussion.