Looking back—and forward

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I have had a busy week. I began it in Indianapolis, joining our church there for their 50th anniversary celebration. The Indy church is one of our oldest congregations, established in 1962. A few of the people who attended that first meeting were present – including yours truly. My parents were attending in Chicago at the time, and we all drove down for the inaugural service. I was a just a young teenager at the time and would never have believed I would be coming back half a century later as guest speaker.

Jamaica VBS David Perry painting — Pastor David Perry

Indy’s first pastor, Carn Catherwood sent an inspiring video message. Pastor David Perry also gave a short but effective presentation highlighting the past, present and future of the church. Under the leadership of David and Jonnie Perry, the Indianapolis congregation is active in outreach, enthusiastically supporting projects in Haiti, Mozambique and many other places.

After Indianapolis, I drove across to Cincinnati, Ohio, where I was able to spend some time with Rick Shallenberger and the local ministry. Greg and Susan Williams were also visiting. One of Greg’s responsibilities is to coordinate our Pastoral Intern Program, so we were able to spend some time in an impromptu and informal conference, discussing several aspects of the future of GCI.

I flew back to California on Wednesday, in time for a conference with Gary Deddo, Russell Duke, John Halford, Nathan Smith and Michael Morrison. We work together in various media-related projects, often via email. Email has transformed the way we collaborate on projects. It is no longer necessary for people on the same team to be in close proximity. However, I have learned that for this collaboration to work well, occasional “face time” is important to maintain positive relationships. We spent two constructive days, including time to laugh, reminisce and enjoy meals together. This was also an opportunity to introduce Gary to our Glendora staff.

One of the reasons we met together was to discuss the contribution Gary would make now that he is full time in our employ. Gary’s long experience as an editor with InterVarsity Press will help us take advantage of the innovations and advances that are transforming media. He came with a long list of ideas, which can open up some exciting possibilities. We discussed “all kinds of ideas for all kinds of projects using all kinds of media.”

Although many of us are older, we must never forget our responsibility to the younger generations who one day will take over the leadership. In that regard, Ted Johnston sent me an interesting blog post from Thom Rainer, president and CEO of LifeWay Christian Resources. Thom notes that whereas the majority of the younger generations in the U.S. are not actively interested in Christianity at this time, those who are interested are really turned on. They want to be active in their faith. Thom also notes that parents and churches had a vital role in nurturing and building the faith of young people. I think you will find this post to be particularly thought-provoking. You can read it at http://www.thomrainer.com/2012/08/the-parental-factor.php.

The varied activities of this last week reinforced in my mind the fact that GCI is not only multi-national and multi-cultural. We are also a multi-generational church. We have people who have been members for over five decades, and also younger folk just starting out on their Christian walks. Anthony Mullins, who leads our Generations Ministries summer camp program, has sent positive reports from the directors of this year’s U.S. camps (we have featured several of these reports in recent issues of Weekly Update). These reports indicate that we have many hundreds of young people who are eager to play their part in our ministry with Jesus. We must invest time and resources preparing them for their future, even as we remember our past, as we did last week in Indianapolis.

These are indeed challenging and exciting times to be involved in ministry with Jesus. It’s a joy for me to to share this journey with all of you.

With love, in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

Becky Deuel

Becky Deuel, co-pastor of the Appleton, Wisconsin congregation, is a long-time GCI member. “I started attending the Radio Church of God in 1959 in the little white church on 8th Street in Eugene, Oregon. Raymond Cole was the pastor.” Becky and her family lived out in the country and she says it was not unusual that the only time she wore shoes during the summer was when she went to church.

By the time Becky was six years old, she determined to go to Ambassador College, which she did in 1971. After graduation from Ambassador, Becky moved to Georgia and got married. “Fifteen years and three children later, we moved to Wisconsin for a better job opportunity for my husband.” Becky is now employed at Point Beach Nuclear Plant as a Human Resources Consultant. She said her job in personnel development has proved to be a good fit for her responsibility as a pastor.

Becky has been married to Steve for eight years and between them they have four adult children, but no grandchildren – yet! She and Steve love to travel and to scuba dive. They make a special trip each year on their anniversary, often to a place where they can dive. They’ve been to Hawaii, California, Bonaire, the Caymans, Spain, Australia, and most recently, on an Alaskan cruise.

Becky became a member of the Appleton pastoral team in January 2002 (she serves as co-pastor with Steve Cole). “I have felt so welcomed as a female pastor and have been given incredible opportunities.” In addition to pastoring, Becky serves on the chaplain teams at GCI’s Northern Light camp in Minnesota and Heartland SEP camp in Illinois.

When asked about her passion, Becky said pastoring is a fulfillment of her passion of “sharing the love that the Father, Son and Spirit have for all of their beloved creation,”… sharing “how much he wants to have a relationship with all of us.” Becky also loves putting sermons together and presenting the message. One of her most memorable moments as a pastor was performing her oldest son’s wedding ceremony.

Becky gives credit to her mentoring and training from GCI district superintendent Dave Fiedler (now retired) and current district pastoral leader Doug Johannsen. “He and his wife Betty are amazing at modeling how to share the love of the Father, Son and Spirit.”

Becky, who is finishing her master’s degree at Grace Communion Seminary, is excited about the future of GCI. “I love the inclusion factor of Trinitarian theology… I am so looking forward to where we are going in the future… Being part of this denomination gives lots of opportunity for networking and travel – whether it is to a pastor conference, a GenMin Summit, a Church Multiplication Summit or training… It is great fun.”

L.A. merger: Leaving a legacy

This update is from Eric Shaw, pastor of Community Life Fellowship (CLF), the GCI congregation in Altadena, California. CLF recently merged with New Hope Christian Fellowship, one of GCI’s congregations in nearby Los Angeles. This update tells the story.

CMM_DPLQuad-300 — Pastors working together in a district church planting network. Left to right: Bermie Dizon, Glen Weber, Heber Ticas and Eric Shaw.

As a congregation, we were experiencing the decline of our resources. We had not been able to draw new people and it became evident that our reserves would be depleted in a couple of years and our members would disperse or we would need to reconfigure into a small-group format.

As we considered our options, we began holding discussion forums after our worship service about once each month. We shared meals together and searched for ideas and vision. As we did so, it became clear that our best option was to merge with New Hope Christian Fellowship, a nearby GCI congregation, and place our remaining cash reserves in the GCI Southwest District church planting fund.

Although merging with another GCI congregation is not often an option for other GCI congregations in similar circumstances, we learned that open communication is vital. Even though people may not say much, it gives them time to process their thoughts and go through the grieving process that typically comes when a congregation faces closing. Indeed, the closing of a congregation is typically experienced as a great loss by those remaining to the end. However, we came to see ours as an opportunity to further our experience and maturity as disciples of Jesus and to leave a legacy toward our denomination’s future.

As we discussed these matters, we realized that our ministry is not over just because the doors of our congregation shut. We believed that God will open new doors. We focused on this concept at our final worship service, where we watched the movie, The Road to Emmaus. The movie emphasized the vital lesson that as long as we have Jesus, we have everything.

We also learned that it is important that communication continue following the closing. I still write my monthly letter to stay in touch with our members. We plan to continue to have gatherings (“reunions”) on a somewhat regular basis. We were a family and we don’t want to lose that. Many who had left before the closing still want to stay in touch and get together.

With the moving of our financial reserves to the GCI Southwest Districts church planting fund (which is coordinated by the GCI pastors pictured above), we are already able to provide support for the Filipino missionary couple planting a church in the Eagle Rock area of Los Angeles. We hope to see another new church develop soon. My hope and prayer is that this fund will not be depleted as we continuously replenish it through appropriate fundraising so that when God calls someone to our district vision for church planting, we will be able to offer them our support. By investing in this new opportunity, our congregation and its legacy live on and continue to impact the lives of others.

Rather than looking at the close of our congregation as a death, we look upon it as giving birth to new life. And rather than looking at it as failure, we see it as completion of an important aspect of the mission that God had, and continues to have, for us. Indeed, the journey is not over. The book is not completed. We have merely finished one chapter and now it’s time to begin another.

Cultivating, planting and reaping in Ohio

CrossRoads Christian Fellowship (CCF), GCI’s congregation in Tipp City, Ohio, has for the last several years emphasized outreach to unchurched people living in the nearby community. As a result, many new relationships have begun, and the new friends have been invited to the congregation’s various discipleship gatherings, which include the Alpha program and classes using The Hope of Jesus, a small-group curriculum based in Trinitarian theology written by CCF’s pastor Jim Valekis. One of the wonderful results of these cultivating, planting and reaping activities was a special CCF service held last Sunday at which 12 people were baptized! Here are pictures:

Baptism 1 — Left to right: John Boone (ministry leader), Jim Valekis (pastor), Chris Sayson (pastoral intern), Becky Valekis (discipleship coordinator)

Here is a comment about this service from Pastor Jim’s wife Becky Valekis, who coordinates CCF’s discipleship programs:

What a blessed and powerful day we had last Sunday! We are all still “glowing.” We baptized 12 people; some have been journeying with us for a few years and others are new to our fellowship. These baptisms are a result of much prayer and teaching over the last few months. Our next step is to help these people become “grounded in faith” – please pray for them.

Here is a letter to Pastor Jim from one of the women who was baptized:

What a wonderful day, Sunday! I just wanted to thank you again for yesterday’s baptisms, a day filled with such great joy that is difficult for me to express in words. What a great church service you provided for us in preparation for the baptisms. And to have so many attend and participate in the baptisms at the river was truly a unique and a very spiritual experience. You conducted everything in such an inspiring and spiritually moving way. Praise God for He, you and Becky made it happen! I thank Him for you two, for our little church, and for all the people He has put into our lives and continues to do so. I feel God’s grace is upon us all.

For disciplemaking tools, including those used by CCF, see GCI’s FaithTalk resource website at http://faithtalkgroups.blogspot.com/.

Children’s sermons

Some congregations include a short children’s sermon as part of their worship service. Listed below are links to five-minute long discussion-based sermons for children (PDF format). They were written by Sarah Strub who ministers to children in GCI’s congregation in Big Sandy, Texas. These and other resources for discipling children, teens, young adults and older adults are available on the Youth and Family Ministry resources page of GCI’s Generations Ministries website.

Hurricane Isaac

As we post this issue of GCI Weekly Update, hurricane Isaac has made landfall in southeastern Louisiana. The cities of New Orleans and Baton Rouge, where GCI has congregations, and in the path of Isaac. Fortunately, its severity is less than predicted. However, Isaac is still quite powerful and many people are in harm’s way, with flooding a major concern.

Please pray for all those being impacted by Isaac, including GCI pastors Mike Horchak (Hammond, LA); Anthony Rice (Baton Rouge, LA); Richard Young (Lake Charles, LA); John Novick (Hattiesburg, MS); Leonard Tillotson (Natchez, MS); Andrew Britton (Mobile, AL); Phil Nichols (Monroeville, AL); and GCI ministry developer Ted Johnston (Foley, AL).

Despite these concerns, there is some good news. Over the next several days, it appears that as Isaac travels north, it will bring badly needed rain to the drought-stricken areas in the Mississippi and Ohio River valleys (see the map above). Please pray about this situation as well.

Surgay Kalamaha

Here is an update on the previous prayer request.

Surgay’s wife Jan tells us that he is being moved to a smaller facility in Mandan, North Dakota that is equipped to do the rehab he needs. He’s somewhat improved but has lost lots of weight.

As to long term, the current thinking is that Surgay will need most of the winter to recover but may be able to resume farm work by spring.

Please continue to remember the Kalamaha family in your prayers.

LaVerne Wyatt-Paige

Here is an update from Michael Wyatt-Paige concerning his wife LaVerne (click here for the last update).

Thank you for praying for my wife and family. Knowing that so many brothers and sisters in Christ are doing so is encouraging.

LaVerne has begun chemotherapy. So far, she is tolerating the process well. She attended church services this past Sunday, for the first time in two months. Praise God.

Chicago Southside 50th

This announcement is from Willard High, the pastor of Shepherd’s Community Church, a GCI congregation in South Holland, Illinois.

Come celebrate the 50th anniversary of the congregation that began as Chicago Southside!

Over the years the church has existed under several names: Chicago South, Chicago South-Southeast and presently, Shepherd’s Community Church. Whatever we were called, certain things remained – like warmth, friendliness, fellowship, good food, an appreciation of quality music, a love of social events and stimulating conversation.

Come enjoy all these and more.

Save the date of July 5-7, 2013 for a celebration that will warm your heart and bring a smile to your face. The event will be held at the Tinley Park Convention Center in Tinley Park, Illinois. There will a Friday night meet and greet, services with guest speakers on Saturday and dinner dance Saturday evening, ending on Sunday with a Gospel/Jazz Brunch. Pricing and more details will follow.

Album by pastor’s wife

Deborah Glenister, whose husband Gary pastors a GCI congregation in Wales, recently released a worship album titled Stepping Out in Faith.

Deborah was interviewed on August 26 on Radio Cardiff, where she talked about the album and her background, both musically and spiritually. This was a great opportunity to share the message of hope that we as a denomination have for the world.

Deborah’s album is a mixture of musical styles, written in the context of GCI’s Trinitarian theology. Deborah wrote all the songs and they are sung by professional singer Amy Sinha.

The album is available on CD Baby, Amazon and iTunes. Samples can be heard at http://soundcloud.com/deborah-glenister/stepping-out-in-faith.