24 January 2013

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02 January 2013

How to Lead a Christian Organisation

By Dean TB

1. When taking office immediately begin to explain how the former leaders were incompetent and put the organisation in jeopardy of severe fines from the Charity Commission, HMRC, Companies House and "Health and Safety". None if these allegations have to be true or valid.

2. Immediately offer your "expertise" and ability to bring the organisation into compliance.

3. Make sure you are in control of "administrative" matters.

4. Ensure your spouse is in control of the finances.

5. Ensure that only people you know and control are hired or consulted regarding any financial, legal, and administrative advice.

6. Make sure that the "External Auditor" is in your control and that you are able to review any reports before anyone else

7. When you are asked questions always use technical jargon, insert references to important people and places you claim to have been involved in, make your work and your spouse's work sound more important and critical than it really was. Always answer with condescension and and attitude that "anyone who is professional knows that" as to make the members feel dumb and incompetent so they stop asking questions.

8. In smaller groups mock former leaders and other members to keep the attention away from your own plan to control ever step of the process.

9. Constantly badger others by email and point out any and all spelling, grammar, punctuation and formatting issues to wear them down so they will give in and let you write it.

10. Offer to "help" by writing letters and emails for others. Be sure not to sign them so you are not legally responsible and it makes someone else look mean or demanding.

11. Attempt to play other members against one another. Always create conflict between others so you can offer advise to both sides and manipulate the outcome.

12. Occasional make short comments to plant the idea that others are incompetent or not educated or is too "English" or "Latvian" or "African" so that the opinion is dismissed.

13. Encourage people "on you side" to serve in voting positions if they can help you. Feel free to use people who you think are idiots, but will support your position.

14. Make the nominations process for serving as a Trustee very complicated with multiple deadlines, forms and requirements. Never remind the members of these rules or deadlines so no one but your hand chosen trustees will serve.

15. Create all the documents, rules and regulations. Registered those documents with the appropriate agencies well before the members even are aware that a change is coming. Create a false urgency so that members will vote even if they have questions or concerns because "we will be heavily penalised" if we don't pass this immediately.

16. The second the vote passes, the new structure is in motion allowing no time for second thoughts or changes.

17. Make sure that the new rules and regulations make it impossible to change anything without a vote of the Trustees you now control, the ones you hand picked and the ones who believe you and your wife are experts.

18. Have "Executive Meetings" which are not provided for in the rules and regulations. Have the "Executive Meeting" make important decisions because you control half the vote (you and your spouse). You only need convince one person to get your way.

19. Extravagantly spend money on legal fees to stop anyone from questioning you in the future.

20. Attack anyone who questions you with every means possible. Stop at nothing. Force members to do morally questionable actions to dispose of your "enemy". Consider damaging their reputation, causing harm to families, calling the police with false charges, calling other agencies to besmirch their credibility, refuse any and all attempts at dialogue or conversation. YOUR AIM IS COMPLETE CONTROL OF THE CHURCH NOT LIVING LIKE A CHRISTIAN OR PRACTICING CHRISTIAN LIVING.


21. Cover your tracks. Make sure no one gets the emails and letters you have written. Never let anyone record your meetings. Someone might publish those letters, emails and recording on the Internet. Then what would happen?

The Best Use of Time and Resources?

From the Lutheran Church in Great Britain Trustees Report for 2011:

Unexpected legal fees were incurred to safeguard the organisation during a disciplinary case amounting to approximately £27K and this resulted in a deficit this year. Trustees took steps to replenish these funds by appealing to donors and a grant has now been received (on 31st January 2012) which replenished the funds in full.

Dear Interim Bishop

Dear Interim Bishop,

Please be careful. Two of the Trustees of the LCiGB have been waging a campaign to take over the LCiGB. They show no mercy and have no hesitation crushing anyone who challenges them. They are crafty. They always convince people that they are the experts and know everything about finance, employment law, charity law and how to properly run an organisation. They insisted that the previous could not chose her assistant on her own but chaired the search committee. They made sure that the previous Bishop sign all the papers to attack pastors and congregations. They carefully craft letters so that they are "writing on behalf of" the chair or Bishop. They never take responsibility for their actions and plans, they get other people to do the deeds so they can't be held liable or legally responsible.

Bishop J did their bidding despite the damage it did to her reputation, to her family, to her friends, and to the church.

If you want to make them angry, just point out that the Charity Commission advises that husbands and wives should NOT be Trustees on the same board. That is the one rule from the Charity Commission they will even deny exists. Why? They control the money and the Rules and Regulations - that's complete power and control.

They even control who audits the books. Who knows if those audits are true? What have they hidden? What money has not been sent to the people it was intended for? We will never know as long as they have all the power.

For the sake of the people in your care, remove them from power before it is too late.

By the way, one of them loves to do a mocking impression of you.

01 January 2013

Royal Cornwall Yacht Club

Is the place to celebrate your accomplishments on New Year's Eve!

What a fantastic year!

- Forcing the retirement of a Bishop.

- Suing fellow pastors.

- Forcing congregations to give up their rights as members and submit to the will of the Dean and Trustees.

- Helping a congregation figure out a way out of a contract with an African Pastor.

- Keeping power as Dean and Treasurer against the advice of the Charity Commission.

- Delighting in power and control without regard for those in need or the consequences of one's actions on children, families and the elderly.

Raise a glass to successfully taking control of the LCiGB and devising a plan to move that pesky Polish Bishop out of the way so the Dean can become the biggest fish in the small pond called the Lutheran Church in Great Britain.

31 December 2012

A Sermon - A Verbal Expression of Hypocrisy.

"So many other small, but powerful things. The Kingdom of God starts with small things. We can help – in our own small ways. We can’t bring peace to Syria, or comfort to grieving families in Connecticut. We cannot resolve growing tensions between Christians and Muslims, even in Tanzania. But we can still do loving and gracious acts. Perhaps a Christmas message to someone we have lost contact with, a small gift for someone we know is lonely, a donation to our own church or to a charity for those who have nowhere to stay this Christmas: the Kingdom of God starts with small things."

16th December 2012 - Swahili Carols
Bishop Emerita Jana Jeruma-Grinberga at St Anne's Lutheran Church in London

"But we can still do loving and gracious acts."

She should have added:
"Unless a person challenges me. Unless I have decided a person is in my way. Unless I feel threatened by someone. Then I will tell lies, make up new rules, call government agencies and forget the words I preach and claim to believe."

29 December 2012

What Is Happening in the LCiGB?

There is an Advent Message from the Interim Bishop on the Lutheran Church in Great Britain website but no explanation of what happened to Bishop Jana.

There has been no new newsletters "The Forum" since January of 2012 even though the website says the LCiGB prints these quarterly.

The "News" on the website, with the exception of the Interim Bishop's Advent Message, is mostly from 2011.

The only up to date content is from the Lutherans Up North.

Why??

24 December 2012

Values Show Clearly in Actions

The Lutheran Church in Great Britain offers "Resources for Congregations" on the Lutheran Church in Great Britain's website. The resources include:

- The latest guidance from the Charity Commission
- How to prevent fraud in your congregation
- Information on CRB reports
- Rules and Regulations of the LCiGB
- Guidelines for planning an event which primarily focus on finances
- Finance resources for congregational treasurers

Finances, Rules, Guidelines and Regulations are apparently the values of the leaders of the LCiGB or, more accurately, the values of the Dean, Treasurer and Chair.

Not one congregational resource offered for:

- Bible study
- Christian Education
- Worship
- Prayer
- Spiritual Growth
- Lutheran Confessions
- Evangelism
- Social Justice

Why? Because the LCiGB is a "small church" unable to provide such resources? If there are limited resources why spend all the time, energy and money ONLY on finance, rules and regulations?

19 December 2012

Racism? Ethnocentrism?

The Lutheran Church in Great Britain is again pressurising a congregation to dismiss an ordained Lutheran Pastor. Once again the Lutheran Church in Great Britain is creating new rules in order to claim that a Pastor who has served faithfully and was Ordained by Bishop Jana is not really an LCiGB pastor. Why?

Could it be racism or ethnocentrism? The Pastor is non British or European. This is the third non-European Lutheran Pastor attacked by the Lutheran Church in Great Britain. This is the third non-European Lutheran Pastor who suddenly is not Ordained correctly, Examined Correctly or Not Licensed properly.

The Trustees of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain are all white Europeans (two of which lost their US Citizenship) and one person from Asia. The majority of the members of the congregations in the LCiGB are of African descent. The most vibrant congregations are people from African countries. 

As the Dean regularly remarks: "The Africans aren't professional."


12 December 2012

Beggar's Bowl

Dean TB complained endlessly that the Former Bishop of the LCiGB, now the Interim Bishop of the Lutheran Church in Great Britain, always traveled around the world begging for money from other Lutherans.

The Dean also enjoyed imitating the Interim Bishop with a fake Polish accent and saying, "Come over! I ordain you!"

The Dean complained that the Interim Bishop ran the LCiGB poorly and that his task was to clean the mess.

I wonder if the Dean will do his imitation for the Interim Bishop now?