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Friday 4 March 2016

If knowledge is power...

If knowledge is power, Joe isn't sharing
Time for a quick quiz, brethren.

Section 1

(a) What is the name of GCI's outreach magazine?

(b) What is the name of GCI's member magazine?

Section 2

(a) Does GCI have a Facebook account for members to follow?

(b) Does GCI have a Twitter account for members to follow?

Section 3

How do GCI members stay current on church news and developments?

There, that wasn't so hard. Five simple questions, 20 points each to provide a nice percentage-like score out of 100.

Answers

Section 1: (a) there is none, Christian Odyssey no longer exists, not even as an "online only" publication. (b) there is none.

Section 2: (a) no. There is a GCI page - here - but it's "automatically generated based on what Facebook users are interested in and not affiliated with or endorsed by anyone associated with the topic." (b) no.

Section 3: apparently whatever the pastor decides to tell them at church services, plus whatever carefully curated items appear on the church's webpage under the heading 'GCI News'.

What's going on here?

If knowledge is power, Joe isn't sharing.

But wait, you cry, there's Joe's online Weekly Update! Not really. Joe uses the Weekly Update to ramble on in sermon mode. The March 2 version, for example, is entitled "Beware historical revisionism". Not a scrap of news about GCI in it anywhere.

So how do GCI members stay informed about developments in their church? Easy. They don't. UCG, COGWA and LCG do a much better job.

There are blogs; Ted Johnston, Tammy Tkach (last updated in August last year). But that's not news. Whatever "in-reach" GCI provides is woefully lacking in content or substance. It's true that some GCI congregations have their own local FB pages, but that hardly counts.

And outreach? What outreach?

It's all a bit gulag-like. Have Joe & Co.

(a) just given up?

(b) a Machiavellian (or Orwellian) method in their madness?

(c) both of the above

Sorry, I don't have an answer for that one, but I suspect 'c'.

So, how was your score?

2 comments:

Unknown said...

I like your pic of Joey. Has kind of a Beatles Album feel to it.

Anonymous said...

@ Connie,
Yeah, sort of a Sergent Pepper psychedelic feel. Maybe he's actually the fifth Beatle? Okay, so we now know who broke up the Beatles. Heck if he can break up a church - just sayin'