Father’s Day

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

June 16 is Father’s Day in the USA. As it approaches, I find myself reminiscing about both my dad, Joseph Tkach, Sr. and my wife’s dad, Don Hall. I look at pictures of them as well as my grandfathers, all of whom have joined with God in eternity.

Though I have visited Greece where my mother’s father was born, I have not yet visited Eastern Europe or Russia from where my dad’s folks immigrated. Doing so is on my “bucket list.” I want especially to visit the St. Petersburg Hermitage Museum to view Rembrandt’s famous painting, The Return of the Prodigal Son. This masterpiece (pictured below) is over eight and a half feet tall and six and a half feet wide. Apparently, this gives the viewer an experience similar to a Cinemax movie—you are invited into the action rather than just watching from outside. Some people spend hours looking at the painting.

Rembrandt van Rijn, The Return of the Prodigal Son, c. 1661–1669. Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg — Rembrandt van Rijn, *The Return of the Prodigal Son*, c. 1661–1669. Hermitage Museum, Saint Petersburg.

Rembrandt’s painting captures, in a remarkable way, the essence of Jesus’ well-known parable recorded in Luke 15. While the wayward son in the parable was “still a long way off,” his father saw him and “was filled with compassion” (verse 20). The Greek conveys the idea of an inward movement of concern and mercy. This moved the father to run to his son where he “threw his arms around him.” Rembrandt’s picture vividly portrays this warm embrace, which was extended to the son before any words of repentance could be spoken.

The God portrayed by Jesus in the parable and by Rembrandt in the painting has a heart that is quite different from that shown by many religious folk. They are like the older son in the parable who was jealous of the gracious affection showered on his returning brother.

Rembrandt depicts this “unprodigal” older son as a drab, almost ghostly figure, lurking in the background, almost out of the picture. He is upset at the extravagant outpouring of love and grace on someone who surely does not deserve it. He feels alienated, not only from his brother, but from his father too.

My dad had a favorite saying, “If you don’t feel close to God, you must ask yourself—who moved?” Our Father in heaven is one who is always working to close the distance—in fact, he runs to close the distance. This is the Father who Jesus came to reveal.

Jesus taught us to think that way. Peter, reflecting an attitude like the older son once asked Jesus, “Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?” Jesus said to him, “I do not say to you, up to seven times, but up to seventy times seven” (Matthew 18:21-22 NASB). This is forgiveness without limits.

God’s grace challenges our sense of righteousness and calls us all to respond, whether we think of ourselves as the repentant sinner or his (self) righteous brother. God’s incomparable, limitless grace obliterates our need to judge who is more worthy to enjoy the benefits of God’s kingdom. We all need mercy and grace rather than the justice of rewards and punishment.

Please receive this painting by Rembrandt as my Father’s Day card to you. May it help you appreciate more deeply the love between a father and his children. May it also encourage us to seek to repair any damaged relationships. In doing so, we will come to understand even more the deep love our Father in heaven has for us. All of us.

Your brother in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

PS: In next week’s Update, we’ll publish the final installment in Gary Deddo’s helpful series on interpreting Scripture. I hope this series is a blessing to you. I know that many pastors make copies to share with their members.

Mark McCulley

The day after Christmas in 2007, Mark and Joanne McCulley packed a truck and moved from Southern California to Arvada, Colorado to serve GCI’s Denver North and Colorado Springs churches. “It was both the fulfillment of a lifetime dream and the scariest thing I’d ever done,” Mark said. “Some five years later, I think both descriptions still apply!”

Mark’s journey toward ministry began at about age eight. “I grew up near Wichita, Kansas and started attending the local congregation—then called the Radio Church of God—with my family in 1961. I remember praying one night, without knowing how, but realizing that I wanted to obey God (whoever he was) and needed him to take care of me.”

It was during his teen years that Mark became convinced he was to be a minister. “My first rude shock was that I was not accepted to Ambassador College like I was supposed to be and had to apply a second time. My second rude shock was, at the end of my junior year, two senior faculty members told me I wasn’t cut out for “the field.” So my senior year and graduation were a bit of a blur, because if I couldn’t be a minister, I really couldn’t think of anything else I wanted to do. Two years later, I was able to land a job with the church’s Festival Office.”

Mark worked in the Festival Office for 19 years helping organize the fall festivals for WCG. After being laid off due to downsizing, he started his own business, organizing conferences for churches and other clients.

Mark has two children from his first marriage, Patrick and Heather. “I have no grandkids yet, but I’m keeping my knee ready for dandling, whatever that is.”

Mark met Joanne (whom he calls “The Lovely Joanne”) at church late in 2000. “We went from five-minute phone calls to two-hour calls to 1600 minutes per month on free mobile-to-mobile. We seriously thought about sending a wedding invitation to AT&T when we married in 2002. We still would rather talk to each other than anyone else. Joanne taught me (the native of a state with no discernible bodies of water) to enjoy the beach, and has even taken me on a scuba diving trip, on which I enjoyed watching her and the others dive. I also became a fairly decent snorkeler by the end of the week. She wants to retire by the beach, so I have to work on my metal-detector skills too.”

Mark says his most significant journey in GCI was “trying to comprehend and follow along with our denomination’s shift from legalism to grace. I learned what joy really was by being convinced, finally, that I’m saved by grace because of the immeasurable love of my Savior. But letting go of convictions I’d had since childhood was like letting go of one trapeze, not being sure I could catch the other one. As grace began to make more sense, and the more I’ve learned to focus on Jesus, the clearer everything else has become. I’ve described our experience as a denomination to be something like childbirth—those watching rejoice in the miracle, while the mother is screaming in distress!”

Mark had avoided talking to anyone about pastoral ministry for a long time “because I didn’t look forward to being turned down again. But in 2007, my wife and my dear friend Ken Williams both convinced me to ask to be considered for pastoral ministry for GCI. Soon we were buying airline tickets for Denver to visit two churches and see if moving there was the will of the Lord. Joanne had traveled to Colorado for business and was more than ready to move. It didn’t take us long to fall in love with the people in the churches there.” After praying with the leadership teams and all agreeing to seek God’s will, Mark and Joanne returned home. “When we landed back in California my phone had two voice-mail messages asking us to please come back. So nine weeks later, we waved goodbye to Los Angeles and started driving.”

Ken Williams continued to play a key role in Mark’s pastoral ministry by coaching Mark during his first year of ministry. Mark says he’s been blessed to have a number of good mentors in his life. “One of my bottom-line principles in ministry was given me by my dear friend Mel Dahlgren. ‘Love the people,’ he said. ‘You can’t change them, you can’t fix them and you can’t do anything else to help them except to love them.’” Mark also gives credit to Joanne. “She is about 97% of any wisdom I have in ministry. She loves on people in ways I wouldn’t have thought of, helps me figure out how to word difficult things and reminds me fairly often to follow Mel’s advice.”

Mark says he loves “reading the Bible and finding some nugget—usually with someone else’s help—that the Lord hid there to show me how much bigger his mind and love are than I realized. I love finding a way to explain that bigness to people by using stories or cartoons or physical examples.” Mark said finding that new nugget makes him feel like a kid in a candy store who just found a new flavor. “I wrestle with God in prayer, but I run and play with God in study. (Wow, I just realized that, and I’m blown away!).”

Being a pastor is hard work but quite rewarding, Mark shares. “Preaching is hard work. Sitting with people as they go through life’s challenges is also hard work, especially when I forget to wait on Jesus to say something first. Reading all the books I’m supposed to read is just impossible. But it’s all worth it when someone calls and says they’ve had a breakthrough in their walk with Jesus and others. It’s even better when that didn’t even result from something I said, because then I’d try to say it again. But I live for those breakthroughs! At the end of my time, I think the sweetest sound I could hear is that I somehow helped another person see Jesus better.”

PS: The Denver North GCI church is part of an inter-denominational group of over 50 churches in Arvada (www.artofneighboring.com). The group started five years ago and is focused on getting to know our neighbors and loving them in Jesus’ name. “We pastors are becoming friends and allies, helping each other find better ways to be the kind of neighbors we should be, doing kingdom work together.”

David Dizon speech

GCI member David Dizon, son of GCI pastor Bermie and Carmelita Dizon, was named valedictorian of his class at John Muir High School in Pasadena, California. David delivered a keynote speech at his graduation (watch it below). He was trained in public speaking through speech clubs in his GCI home church and through leadership training in GCI camps and short-term missions.

http://youtu.be/2rcvvYx08wA

SEP Philippines

In May, 51 campers from the Philippines participated in the SEP Visayas camp held at the Wuthering Heights beach resort in the city of San Jose.

The campers were served by 35 enthusiastic staff members from GCI churches located in the Philippine provinces of Visayas and Mindanao. The staff was led by camp director Sarah Lynn Bahinting.

Camp activities were designed to develop the camper’s body, mind, social skills and spiritual health. With assistance from GCI Generations Ministries, the staff used these activities to help campers come to know and serve the God who loves them all as his dear children. GCI Philippines national director Eugene Guzon conducted a baptism class. As a result, 15 campers were baptized.

Church trends

Here are some interesting church development-related trends compiled by Mission America.

Creation Views Shift

46% of Americans believe in the creationist view that God created humans in their present form at one time within the last 10,000 years. The prevalence of this view is essentially unchanged from 30 years ago when Gallup first asked the question. 32% believe humans evolved, but with God’s guidance; 15% say humans evolved, but that God had no part in the process. (ToddRhoades.com 5/15/13)

Nomads

Nomads is a term assigned by the Barna Group to 18- to 29-year-olds with a Christian background who walk away from church engagement but still consider themselves Christians. A person in this group typically has trouble identifying with a church or a particular “brand” of Christianity, but would consider themselves, broadly, a Christian. 43% of young American adults with a Christian background believe going to church and having Christian friends is optional. 25% say faith and religion just aren’t that important to them. 23% say they used to be very involved in their church, but they just don’t fit in anymore. This is the group most likely to say they love Jesus but not the church — or that they are “spiritual but not religious.” (Barna Group 5/9/13)

Prodigals

Prodigals is a term assigned by the Barna Group to 18- to 29-year-olds who have lost their faith. They used to claim a personal faith, but no longer claim any Christian belief. Many say they are as fairly certain they won’t ever return to the Christian faith. 21% of Millennials with a Christian background say Christian beliefs don’t make sense to them. 20% admit to having had a negative experience in church or with Christians. 19% say their spiritual needs cannot be met by Christianity. This group often gets lumped in with the “Nones,” even though they might not be totally opposed to faith and spirituality. (Barna Group 5/9/13)

Exiles

Exiles is a term assigned by the Barna Group to 18- to 29-year-olds who struggle with the Christian faith. They have a tough time finding a place in a church setting but choose to remain within an institutional church context. They feel “lost” somewhere between their commitments to church and their desire to stay connected with the world. They struggle to connect their faith or church with their everyday lives, and yet they continue in their Christian faith despite these hurdles. 21% remain Christian and continue to attend a church but find church to be a difficult place for them to live out their faith. 38% say they desire to follow Jesus in a way that connects with the world they live in. One-third say God is more at work outside the church than inside the church, and they want to be a part of that. 32% of American 20-somethings with a Christian background says they want to be a Christian without separating themselves from the world around them. (Barna Group 5/9/13)

Multisite Churches and Leadership Development

Two movements among Christian congregations in the U.S. today continue to gain momentum; churches with multiple locations (multisite) and leadership development (discipleship). In addition, a growing number of churches are intentionally developing a culture of generosity, an effort to help carry the gospel message outside the church, says the director of new media and technology for the Leadership Network. Todd Rhoades, of Leadership Network said, “We’re seeing new waves of innovation in the movement itself: including international campuses, online campuses, the move from big cities to rural environments, and more churches partnering to redeem facilities and struggling churches through church mergers.” (Christian Post 5/15/13)

Developing Leadership Qualities

According to a new Barna Group survey, 82% of Christian adults believe the U.S. is facing a crisis of leadership because there aren’t enough leaders. 58% of Christians in this country identify themselves as leaders (58%). The survey asked leaders what they would most like to improve about their leadership. The area where they said they want the most help is courage (27%), followed by a desire to grow in terms of discipline (17%), vision (15%) and passion for God (13%). Evangelical leaders want to grow in courage (27%), discipline (25%), passion for God (14%) and vision (9%). (Barna Research 4/18/13)

Floods in Europe

This prayer update is from Santiago Lange, one of GCI’s missions directors for Europe and national director in Germany.

In recent days, parts of Germany, Austria and eastern Europe have been experiencing some of the most severe flooding on record as the rivers involved have not been able to contain the rising water. In Germany the southern and eastern regions have been particularly hit hard. Significant cities like Passau and Halle have suffered considerable damage. About 26,000 people in the city of Magdeburg have been evacuated. Several German dikes have been under heavy pressure and the overall situation is still considered by experts to be quite serious. In Austria several towns and cities were partly under water. In Hungary, Budapest is in danger. According to the news there have been several casualties and the physical property damages will be in the billions of Euros.

Thankfully, at this point, we have received no reports of any church members in the flooded regions having been directly affected.

Please, do join me in praying for the victims of this natural catastrophe.

Dizons become grandparents

GCI pastor Bermie and Carmelita Dizon are thrilled to announce the birth of their first grandchild, Amelia, born on May 26 to their daughter Carmel and son-in-law Matt Benavides. At birth, Amelia was 8 lbs, 3 oz and 21 inches long. The family is doing well. They live in Littleton, Colorado.

Mays’ second grandchild born

GCI elder and ORM director Curtis May and his wife Jannice are pleased to announce the birth of their second grandchild, Bryce Curtis May. He weighted in at 7 lbs and 2 ounces. As shown in the picture below, “big sister” Jaden couldn’t be prouder.