Retired GCI-Canada pastor George Patrickson sent in this prayer request for his wife Luann:
Recently, we received some very sobering news. Luann was experiencing pain in her back, which the family doctor thought might be a urinary tract infection. When tests showed that this was not the cause of the pain, the thought was that it might be a kidney stone. Unfortunately, the cat-scan revealed it to be something more sinister. She spent a couple of days in the hospital and after numerous tests they confirmed that she has pancreatic cancer. We have seen the oncologist twice and she will be starting chemotherapy soon. As you can imagine, this has been quite a shock to the family and we would appreciate the prayers of the church for her and our family.
Cards may be sent to:
George and Luann Patrickson 1936 Hyannic Drive North Vancouver, BC V7H 2E4 CANADA
In an essay entitled “Guidelines to an Understanding of the Person and Work of the Holy Spirit,” Dr. Gary Deddo offers an incarnational, Trinitarian perspective on the doctrine of the Holy Spirit. We are publishing his essay serially in seven parts. Here is the seventh and concluding part (to read other parts, click on a number: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6).
Our response to the Spirit
It’s clear from the New Testament that the Holy Spirit works actively among us—both as a body and as individuals. Let me suggest that a primary aspect of this ministry of the Spirit among us is to enable us to make a full and proper response to the truth and reality of who God is and what he has done, is doing and will do in our church, our world and within us. Enabling us to make that response is the key.
The Holy Spirit unbinds our wills and unscrambles our minds and refashions our affections so we can more fully respond with all that we are to all that God is. The Spirit frees us to be receptive at every level of who we are. Sometimes it seems we think the Holy Spirit only enables us to respond emotionally. We’re human beings, and emotions are part of who we are, so the Spirit does enable us to respond emotionally to the truth and reality of who God is and who we are in him. That’s going to be a part of it. In worship the Spirit moves us to thanksgiving, praise, adoration, joy and even sorrow and repentance.
But we are also thinking beings, so the Holy Spirit also enables us to respond with our minds. The Spirit is called the Spirit of truth (John 14:17; 15:26). He is involved with our hearts and minds and so, for example, enables us to pray and praise not only with our spirits but also with our minds, that is, with understanding or intelligence (1 Corinthians 14:15). As Paul indicates in Romans 2:8, our minds are set free to be obedient to the truth. Throughout the New Testament, the heart and mind are not split but coordinated together when healthy. The Holy Spirit enables us to respond with all of what we are. There is no reason to think the working of God in and among us is divided, as if Jesus addresses our minds and the Holy Spirit addresses our emotions. We’re not compartmentalized like that. The whole of God interacts with the whole of our humanity.
Jesus assumed a whole human nature with all its aspects. Jesus is a full human being with body, mind and heart. In the Gospels we see him responding fully with all that he is to the truth and reality of his heavenly Father and his relationship to him and the Spirit. Jesus obeys in the Spirit and rejoices in the Spirit. He overcomes temptation by the Spirit. He overcomes evil by the Spirit and sets people free. He offers himself up on the cross to the Father through the Spirit (Hebrews 9:14). Jesus lives his fully human life in and by the Spirit.
So, when the Spirit of Jesus comes upon us, he enables us to respond fully to the truth and reality of who God is and who we are in relationship to him with all we are and have. If there’s part of us not yet responding, whether the body, mind or heart, the Holy Spirit will work to bring us to the point that we do. The Holy Spirit doesn’t divide us, but heals and makes us whole, giving us human integrity before our Lord and God.
The objective work of the Holy Spirit in us
We should not align the Holy Spirit exclusively with what is subjective, internal, or affective in human experience. Yes, the Holy Spirit works in us, works in our subjectivity but not as our subjectivity (our subjective states). The Holy Spirit cannot be identified with our subjectivity—our feelings, emotions or even our consciences, as if they were identical. There is no denying that the Spirit works in our subjectivity. If not, we would remain in bondage to our fallen, rebellious wills and hard hearts and our self-justifying and rationalizing minds. He does work in our subjectivity, but does so objectively, so that we can respond with our whole being to the truth and reality of who God is and who we are in relationship to God.
The Holy Spirit objects to our false, resistant, self-justifying subjective orientations. The Holy Spirit is not the subjective aspect of human beings that can be shaped and formed anyway we like, made to say what we want, made to reflect our own preferences, prejudices, biases and desires. The Holy Spirit has a particular character, mind, will, purpose, desire and heart, which is identical to that of Jesus Christ. We have no power over the Holy Spirit to recreate him in our own image. The Holy Spirit has his own objective reality, which works within our subjectivity to open our eyes, minds and hearts to God.
The Holy Spirit, then, is a healer who brings the whole of human being together from the inside out. He does not split us up. He does not say to us, “I’m just in charge of your emotions, your imagination and your desires. What you think and believe and come to know, the rational part, well, Jesus takes care of that. I don’t know anything about that.” The Holy Spirit does not divide up human being into compartments, but harmonizes the internal with the external, sharing with us the reestablished integrity of Jesus’ sanctified humanity.
Humanizes us
A final aspect of the ministry of the Holy Spirit correlates with his ministry to make us whole in body, soul and spirit. The Holy Spirit’s ministry is to make us more fully human, like Jesus, the one in whose image we were created and are being renewed or transformed (Colossians 3:10; 2 Corinthians 3:18). The Holy Spirit shares with us the sanctified humanity of Jesus, which makes us fully human, more completely human, more personal, filling us up with the fruit of the Spirit. True spirituality is mature humanity in full and right relationship with God.
So we can say the Holy Spirit humanizes us by making us share in the glorified humanity of Christ. In the process, he brings us to have humility before God. The transformation he brings will involve our confession that God is God and we are not; that we are entirely dependent upon God; that we need the grace of God and that we must hand over to him all our sin in repentance and our whole selves in faith. But in doing so, the Spirit will not submit us to humiliation. He will not make us feel less than human or cause us to regret we were ever human or to think that God despises our humanity and creaturely limits.
There is a huge difference between humility and humiliation. Putting it this way may be surprising since some people teach that humility in the Spirit comes by way of our humiliation. Unfortunately, it’s sometimes taught that the ministry of the Holy Spirit not only focuses exclusively on the subjective side of human being, but requires that we set aside our rationality or intelligence and act in less than human ways, perhaps like an animal or a person who has lost self-control (like a drunk person). It would be strange indeed for the Spirit to lead persons to lose self-control and act in ways beneath human being, since part of the fruit of the Spirit is precisely self-control (Galatians 5:23). The Holy Spirit is the Spirit of Jesus, who came to bring us into conformity with himself. He was indeed humble before the Father and the Spirit. But he was never treated in a way that denigrated his humanity. Nor did he respond to God in ways that denied a healthy and whole humanity. Rather Jesus’ humanity came to be glorified. He fulfilled human nature and showed us what it really means to be a human being.
Given who the Spirit is and what we know of his ministry, we can affirm that the Spirit does not dehumanize or depersonalize us. Yes, we will be led into humility before God. But humility is a deeply personal and human thing. It’s not alien to humanity, but a fruit of human maturity in relationship to God. In contrast, being humiliated involves being treated as less than a person, less than fully human, and that kind of relationship is really the opposite of the kind of ministry Jesus performed in the power of the Spirit. Abject humiliation does not represent the kind of relationship Jesus had with his heavenly Father. Even though his enemies, especially at the end, attempted to humiliate him to the fullest extent they could, the end result was not his humiliation in the sense of him collapsing into a dehumanized heap of regret and shame for taking on humanity. Rather, Jesus was “the pioneer and perfecter of our faith, who for the sake of the joy that was set before him endured the cross, disregarding its shame, and has taken his seat at the right hand of the throne of God” (Hebrews 12:2). Jesus was exalted in his bodily (human) resurrection and ascension. He calls us his brothers and sisters and is not ashamed of us (Hebrews 2:11). Jesus shares with us his glorified and perfected humanity by the Spirit.
Rather than denigrating us, the Holy Spirit humanizes us. To be fully spiritual is not, on the one hand, to become non-human, or on the other, to become super-spiritual disembodied ghosts, vapors or ethereal gasses distributed throughout the universe. We should get our idea of spirituality in and through the life of Jesus lived out in the Holy Spirit. True spirituality is a human being fully responding to the truth of who God is, firing on every cylinder, responding totally to who God is and who we are in relationship to him. True spirituality means responding in praise and prayer and in every other way of service and love. The Holy Spirit is the humanizing Spirit, sharing with us the perfect humanity of Jesus. His presence and working in our lives demonstrates just that kind of spirituality and not another.
What about the Spirit in those not yet repenting and believing?
So far we’ve addressed the Spirit’s ministry to people who are responsive to his work in their lives. But what about nonbelievers? Does the Spirit work with those who are not Christians? The answer must be yes. No one becomes a believing person except in response to the Spirit’s ministry. Without contact with the Spirit there is no conversion to Christ. If no one comes to the Father except by the Son who sends the Spirit and it is the Spirit who opens eyes, convicts of the need for forgiveness and life in Christ, then no one becomes a conscious member of the Body of Christ except the Spirit draws them. The Spirit must work on those not yet believing and responding or no one would ever become Christian, no one could enter into their salvation. The Spirit goes out after people to bring them to Christ and so to the Father. That is essential to the Spirit’s mission in the world. We can see this in the conversion of Saul/Paul in the book of Acts in a dramatic way. The Spirit has a ministry to those not yet believing as well as a ministry to those who are believing.
A related issue is whether we can say that the Spirit is “in” everyone. While there is not a lot about this in Scripture, there is enough for us to address this issue. If by “in” everyone we mean in the deepest most personal and intensive way that the Spirit ministers, I think we have to say no. Jesus told some of those following him that the Spirit was “with” them, but soon would be “in” them (John 14:17). At one point in the upper room, Jesus breathes on the disciples the Holy Spirit, leading to their having the Spirit in a way they didn’t previously. But Jesus also tells them to wait for the coming of the Spirit in Jerusalem, indicating that there is more yet to come involving the Spirit. The Spirit became present at Pentecost in a new and different way. So the Spirit can be present in a variety of ways, with a range of intensities, and we could say at a number of different levels of depth.
Inhabiting, or dwelling in
One of the ways of speaking of the Spirit’s presence in the New Testament is through use of the word that can be translated “dwelling in” or “inhabiting.” This coming and indwelling of the Spirit in persons is viewed as the fulfillment of the promise God made through the prophets Joel (Joel 2:28) and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 18:31; 36:26) as indicated by Peter in Acts 2:17. The biblical notion of the Spirit’s “dwelling in” or “inhabiting” is exclusively applied to those who are believing, receptive and responsive to the leading and working of the Spirit (Romans 8:9, 11; 1 Corinthians 3:16). The idea of this indwelling has to do with the most intense, personal and abiding presence of the Holy Spirit in persons individually and in the community of believers collectively.
But this special presence of the Spirit does not mean that the Spirit is absent from everyone else. Clearly the Spirit was with those in ancient Israel, and sometimes in special ways upon the prophets and even some of the skilled craftsmen who worked on the Tabernacle and Temple. But that kind of presence of the Spirit did not represent God’s ultimate promise of the Spirit’s indwelling. That only occurred at Pentecost in the lives of those who were receptive to the gospel and the presence and working of the Spirit. Further, we can see that the dynamic nature of relationship to the Spirit continues even at the deepest level of indwelling. In that regard, note the teaching that those who are part of the believing body are not to quench or grieve the Spirit (1 Thessalonians 5:19; Ephesians 4:30) but rather are to be continually filled with the Spirit (Ephesians 5:18).
Clearly, we can say the Holy Spirit can be present to anyone and everyone. He is God’s presence throughout the creation. We also can say that the Spirit can work in anyone and everyone. His ministry is to open people’s minds, soften their hearts, open their eyes to truth, unbind their resistant wills and convict them of the need for forgiveness and the life of salvation that only comes from God by grace. The Spirit delivers to unbelieving people the gift of repentance and faith, hope and love. Doing so requires working within them, within their persons, in their subjectivity. So we can say that the Spirit works in them and so is present to them in that way. However, that kind of inner working does not represent the promised indwelling that comes only through receiving Christ in faith in response to the promptings of the Spirit.
In Christ, united to Christ by the Spirit
This seems to explain why in the New Testament only those who are receptive to the Spirit, not resistant, and those who respond with repentance, faith, hope and love to the gospel of Jesus Christ are said to be “in” Christ, or to dwell “in the Lord.” They alone are said to be united to Christ (1 Corinthians 6:17). This relationship of Christ with his people is compared to marital unity (Ephesians 5:23; Revelation 19:7; 21:9; 22:17). The most intense, intimate, deep and personal unity described in the New Testament is reserved for those who as believers are said to be members of the Body of Christ, united to Jesus as the head, just as the body of a living being is united to its head.
So, by means of the use of certain words and images, the New Testament makes a distinction between the Spirit’s relationship with those who are receptive and open to the ministry of the Spirit (believers) and those who are not yet responsive (non-believers). How the Spirit is present (whether or not he is indwelling or inhabiting a person), will involve whether or not that person is receptive to the gospel and the ministry of the Spirit to receive it and welcome it. How one responds to the ministry of the Holy Spirit does make a difference in the kind or quality of relationship they have with the Spirit and thus with the Father and the Son.
But such a distinction should not be construed as meaning that the Holy Spirit is not for all persons, is not capable of ministering in and to all persons at the deepest level, speaking to their individual human spirits. The Holy Spirit is “for all” in just the same way that Jesus Christ is for everyone who was created through him. The Father sends the Spirit for the same purpose as he sent the Son. But the Spirit is able to be present in a range of ways. This fact is represented in biblical understanding and so we have to account for it in our understanding as well.[1]
What about the Spirit in other religions?
What can we say about the Holy Spirit’s ministry in other religions? As an extension of what we have just covered, we can say that no religion itself can keep the Holy Spirit out or away from people. The Holy Spirit is God’s sovereign grace at work. He can be present to anyone, anywhere without becoming polluted, just as we see take place in Jesus presence among sinners. The Spirit is present to bring to bear all the fruits of reconciliation, accomplished for all humanity in Christ. So in those situations where the official religion being practiced is hostile to the gospel and unreceptive to Christ, the Spirit will nevertheless be present and working within against those points of resistance. The non-Christian religion itself will not be responsible or earn any credit for the presence and working of the Spirit. If hostile, the religion is actually an impediment to the Spirit’s working, an obstacle to receptivity to the ministry of the Spirit of Jesus. However, that does not stop the Holy Spirit. He will work to bring individuals and groups out of bondage to false ideas about God and about their relationship to God. The Spirit will work to open people’s minds and hearts to be receptive to God’s grace, love, faith and hope. He will work to draw people to a humble repentance and a dependence upon some kind of grace.
Individuals and groups can be drawn by the Spirit even while remaining outwardly a part of their non- or anti-Christian religious community. In that case, the Spirit will be making “heretics” within that religion. He will be leading individuals or sub-groups within such groups to take exception to at least some of what they have been taught by their religion. These persons may not know that they have become willing to follow the Spirit of Jesus. The Spirit may be anonymous to them, especially at first. But they, in their spirits, will have become responsive and receptive to the promptings of the Holy Spirit of Jesus.
People in this state can be said to have implicit faith, not explicit faith. There can be made an analogy between these people and those of faith in the Old Testament, whose faith in Jesus was not explicit. Although they did not know Jesus by name, nor of the nature of his future work, they nevertheless lived by faith and repentance and trusted in the covenant love and free grace of God to renew it when they broke it. They didn’t know exactly how God’s covenant was going to be fulfilled, but they knew and trusted and hoped it would somehow be fulfilled. That’s how the New Testament depicts these Old Testament persons of faith. And on the other side of their death, they will see how the promises they had hoped in were explicitly fulfilled. These persons are not excluded from God’s salvation. So too, if through no fault of their own, persons responsive to the even anonymous ministry of the Holy Spirit do not come to have explicit faith, there is no reason to believe that they will not be included in God’s ultimate salvation. Such persons have not committed the absolute and complete repudiation (blasphemy) of the Spirit, but have been welcoming and receptive. Their implicit faith will become explicit as soon as it is made possible.[2]
It is normally God’s will for all who have implicit faith to come to have explicit faith in this life. After all, is it not true that everyone who comes to have explicit faith, first had, at least for a moment, implicit faith? But faith becomes explicit, it seems, only if and when there is a conscious and explicit proclamation of the gospel so that in the hearing of it, it is welcomed and received. And where there is implicit faith, the gospel is always welcomed and received, since there has already been a responsiveness to the Spirit that is working even as these individuals hear an explicit announcement of the gospel. There are numerous missionary stories that corroborate this kind of scenario. People have somehow become ready to receive the proclamation of the gospel before any missionary arrived. So when the explicit gospel is proclaimed, it is recognized as fulfilling what they have been waiting for. Well, we know how this comes about—by the Spirit. That’s how they were prepared.[3]
But it may be the case that in not every instance where there is implicit faith engendered by the Holy Spirit that God brings about an opportunity for that faith to become explicit in this life. It could be that God sees to it that this never comes about. It could be that in every case where there is genuine implicit faith, God may send dreams or angels or miraculously appearing evangelists, like Philip with the Ethiopian, so that their implicit faith can become explicit through a conscious testimony to Christ.[4] But we cannot know about these situations. Knowing how God works in every case does not practically concern us. We do not need to know about situations in which we have no part to play. We do not need a final theory as to how things will necessarily play out in situations in which we have no part. Rather, our ministry is to serve in ways that count on the working of the Holy Spirit within people so that implicit faith can become joyfully explicit. In that way, our and their joy and thanksgiving will be increased. They will become members of the Body of Christ (Christians) and be able to join in explicit worship and consciously bear witness to God so that others can also come to have explicit faith as well. But in every case, we can rest assured that God will, one way or another, take care of all those situations where faith is implicit because he is merciful and faithful. He always acts on the basis of his sovereign grace, operating through the faithful working of the Holy Spirit.
We now come to the end of this series on the Holy Spirit. Not all questions have been answered. Not all the explanations given have been complete. But hopefully, additional understanding has been gained of some of the fundamental concerns we have regarding the person and work of the Holy Spirit.
Endnotes
[1] Sometimes it is said that by virtue of the Incarnation, all humanity is “united” to (or “in union with”) Christ. While true in a certain way, this can be misunderstood. It must be noted that the different kinds of relationships described in Scripture involve different kinds of unity/union that should not be confused. First, there is the unity between the eternal divine Persons, the Trinitarian unity. Second, there is the unity of the Son of God with all human nature forged by the grace of God in the Incarnation, called in formal theology the hypostatic union. This unity is a completed, once-and-for-all connection between Christ’s human nature and the human nature of all persons. That is why Jesus is identified as the new Adam. Third, there is the unity of human persons with Christ brought about by the Spirit but fulfilled only as human persons are receptive to the ministry of the Holy Spirit and respond to the promptings of the Spirit to welcome his grace and repent and share in the faith, hope and love of Christ.
The important point to remember here is that the incarnational union does not automatically or mechanically or causally guarantee everyone’s personal and spiritual union with Christ by the Spirit. The incarnational union is the basis (or call it the platform), the foundational reality for the spiritual union that comes as people receive the gift of the Spirit and share in the glorified human nature of Christ and so become more and more like him. So there could be no personal, spiritual union were there not the union of Christ with human nature forged in the Incarnation. But the one doesn’t cause or absolutely guarantee the other—they are distinct kinds of union.
[2] On this topic there is controversy that can get rather heated. There are churches and teachers who insist that faith must be explicit in this life for anyone to enter into eternal life. But on the other side, there are those who affirm that there is no significance to the difference between implicit and explicit faith and that the Holy Spirit works positively in many religions with no interest in bringing persons to explicit faith in Jesus, either now or in eternity. This later view has little to no support in orthodox Christian teaching grounded in Scripture and held down through history. The view expressed in this article is different from both of these views.
[3] However, it should be noted that the position expounded here does not mean that every claim and practice in every non-Christian religion is evil or entirely wrong. There may be partial reflections of truth that do coincide with the revelation in Jesus Christ according to Scripture. This coincidence too, may be a product of the working of the Spirit. But note, it is on the basis of the biblical revelation that we can discern what will need to be set aside and what preserved and seen as fulfilled in Christ. Without that normative revelation, it is impossible for anyone to authoritatively discriminate between what is true and what is false and misleading. However, as noted above, the Holy Spirit can lead persons to be discriminating anyway, although their sense of judgment will likely seem to them to be personal, esoteric and perhaps simply subjective since they won’t have access, at that point, to the explicit, objective revelation in Christ according to Scripture to ground and validate their moral/spiritual discernment.
[4] This must be the case if explicit faith in this life is an absolute requirement for receiving salvation, as some believe. Otherwise, creaturely limitations limit God’s grace and mercy. God could not, then, be more faithful than we are! If that is the case, then there is no such thing as grace and God cannot exercise sovereign grace, cannot be faithful in every situation. God is, in that view, dependent upon and limited to creaturely limits and obstacles, since there would be people he would want to receive eternal life, but creaturely obstacles got in the way that he was unable to work around to bring them to explicit faith in this life and make their salvation possible. But since there are exceptions to the need for explicit faith recounted in Scripture, we do not necessarily have to affirm such a theory that God always makes implicit faith explicit—nor do we need, necessarily, to deny it. One way or another, God will be faithful! That we can affirm with no reservation.
As Gary Deddo points out, when it comes to searching out answers to life’s big questions, it’s vital to begin with the most important question of all: “Who is God?” Doing so reflects the apostle Paul’s teaching that God determines reality, “for in him we live and move and have our being” (Acts 17:28).
God’s continuing mission is to help all people live according to that reality—to come into right relationship (communion) with him. This mission begins with God’s own perichoresis, meaning “mutual indwelling.” The word was coined by early church teachers to represent the unique oneness of the triune God. Jesus described it this way: “I am in the Father and the Father is in me” (John 14:10-11; 17:21). The Father’s life is with and in the Son and the Son’s life is with and in the Father. The Father, Son and Spirit are with, in and for each other. The three Divine Persons are so united in being that they act as one, pursuing together a mission to draw humanity (and all the cosmos) into their triune communion.
God calls the church to participate with him in that mission. In Worship, Community and the Triune God of Grace, James B. Torrance put it this way: “Through our union with Christ we share in his communion with the Father and in his mission from the Father to bring others into that communion… The mission of the church is the gift of participating through the Holy Spirit in the Son’s mission from the Father to the world.” In Atonement: the Person and Work of Christ, Thomas F. Torrance put it this way: “Because the church is filled with the one universal Spirit of divine love, it is caught up in the universal movement of that love that ceaselessly flows from God through Jesus Christ out into all the world.”
The problems we see in the world stem from living and thinking in ways not oriented toward God. God, who is love (1 John 4:8) is who we need. If we lived into that reality, most problems would quickly diminish. God, in love, reaches out to draw humanity into communion with himself. Toward that end, he has formed the church to be his representatives in leading creation to worship him as Creator, Reconciler and Redeemer. God calls the church together to receive from him his life with praise, prayer and thanksgiving and then sends them out to the world to pass on what they have received. In that way, the church serves as a living sign that points to the great reconciling and redemptive work that the Father has accomplished in Christ.
The church participates with God in this mission as it leads people to faith in God—a faith that leads them to share in a worshiping community that gathers together then reaches out to the world. In GCI, we describe our participation in that mission as Living and sharing the gospel, which brings forth All kinds of churches for all kinds of people in all kinds of places. Though we are small, God has given us a wide reach. We have churches in jungles, prisons, refugee camps and even a garbage dump. God has made us a church that lives and shares the gospel in all kinds of places!
As churches, our ministries are true participation in the mission of God as they communicate in word and deed the reality of who God is and what he is doing. That reality is good news (gospel) from beginning to end. Sadly, some churches stray from the gospel by falling into one of two ditches. The first is legalism—thinking that the gospel is about a transaction in which we earn something from God. The second ditch is approaching the gospel as an esoteric, mystical system that is inaccessible to outsiders. Those in the first ditch tend to speak of mission in business terms. An example is the health and wealth gospel, which often manipulates people using false hope and guilt. Those in the second ditch often speak of mission using esoteric terms. I’m not referring here to the appropriate use of theological terms, but to the use of strange-sounding, in-speak phrases such as, “The Lord spoke to me.” Though such phrases might make sense to us, they are easily misunderstood by non-Christians and thus tend to obscure the nature of God (see Gary Deddo’s article on the Holy Spirit linked under the Church Development category at left) and unhelpfully complicate (and even obscure) the simplicity of the gospel message that we are called to proclaim.
In times past, many of us spent time in one or the other (and sometimes both) ditches. We erroneously tried to build our fellowship using a transactional, business model. We referred to our ministries as “programs” and our pastors as “college representatives.” Also, we often used esoteric phrases unintelligible outside our fellowship. I recall when one of my neighbors accompanied Tammy and me to church. On the drive home he asked, “Joe, I know what a tithe is, but what is second tithe?” He also asked, “What is the Feast of Tabernacles? and “What kind of restaurant could stay in business serving unclean meat?”
I thank God we’re no longer in those ditches. Today our mission is to live and share the gospel in ways that lead to all kinds of churches for all kinds of people in all kinds of places. I pray we all grow in our participation in that mission. That all our churches have opportunity to do so became clearer to me in a recent conversation with Greg Williams, who in January will become director of GCI-USA Church Administration and Development (CAD). Greg noted that we’ve tended to look at church planting as the responsibility of our Church Multiplication Ministries (CMM) group led by Randy Bloom. CMM has laid for us a solid foundation for church planting. However, rather than looking at one ministry and a small group of people as the focus of our church planting, we need to see that church planting is a fundamental focus of the mission that we all are called to share in. In short, we need to see ourselves as church planters—partners in a church planting movement.
Every congregation, no matter its size, age distribution, financial resources, or other limiting circumstances, can be a partner in this movement. Each can make a valuable contribution. Notice here my emphasis on what we do together on mission—participating as one church family with Jesus as he engages humanity, drawing them to himself. Note also that mission precedes and leads to ministry (but ministry doesn’t always lead to mission). That’s why I want us to emphasize mission. Let’s examine everything we do at the congregational and denominational levels from the viewpoint of mission. Let’s ask: How does this ministry (program, publication, etc.) contribute to sharing in God’s mission to the world?
At times we’ve referred affectionately to our very small, often aging congregations as “legacy churches.” We’ve stopped doing so because it implies that they don’t have a meaningful, ongoing part in the mission of God. But that’s not what we believe. We value every congregation, no matter how small and no matter the age of its members. We value every member, no matter their age or other limiting circumstances. We believe that each congregation and every member can play a meaningful, important part in what God is doing to make of us a church planting movement. In fact, he already has! Note what Greg wrote recently:
Our U.S. congregations already are partners in this church planting movement through the income they provide to the denomination through our apportionment system. A growing number also partner through participation in a church planting network and donations to our GCnext domestic mission fund. Others are providing a home base for one of our interns. Some are directly starting new churches (serving as a “mother church” in the movement). Others help staff our Generations Ministries camps and mission trips where emerging leaders are helped to hear God’s call into mission. All are included. All have a part. All are important.
Greg and his team recently came up with a guiding motto for CAD: We are a team of churches and ministries partnered together in a church-planting movement. This excites me, because it speaks to our union and communion with the triune God, and our participation in what Jesus is doing in the power of the Spirit to fulfill the Father’s mission to the world. I’m confident this church planting focus will excite you too, as together we participate in the mission of God.
Living in his reality, Joseph Tkach
P.S. This issue focuses on our calling to participate in God’s mission to the world. Gary Deddo addresses this topic as he concludes his series on the Holy Spirit, and note Dan Rogers’ comments on the topic in a video at http://youtu.be/oXF4uMNZb0k. Concerning our progress toward being a church planting movement, I recently participated in the first anniversary celebration at Grace Communion Fellowship. This GCI congregation was planted in Southern California a year ago by Angie and Saddie Tabin, with active participation from CMM and multiple GCI congregations partnered in one of our church planting networks. About 100 people attended the anniversary celebration—here are some pictures:
Rey Taniajura, missions director for GCI Philippines, reports that he and three other GCI Philippines members recently attended the fifth Global Summit of the 4/14 Window Movement, held in New York City. The movement helps churches and Christian organizations equip and mobilize children age 4 to 14, along with their families, in order to advance holistic transformation in their respective communities, nations and regions. More than 1,100 participants from 82 countries attended the summit, which focused on best practices.
During their time in New York, the GCI delegation attended the worship service of GCI’s Queens congregation. Dr. Taniajura (at right in the picture) addressed the congregation to brief them on the summit.
As a result of what the GCI members learned at the summit, they are considering shifting one of GCI’s Philippine churches to a 4/14 model where the focus would be not only on serving children within the congregation but also ministering to children outside. One of the GCI delegates to the summit, Sylvia Roxas, agreed to develop a children’s discipleship curriculum that will be part of GCI Philippines’ Discipleship Pathway (D-Star) initiative.
GCI elder John Biswas returned recently from a mission trip to Bangladesh. The trip was complex and dangerous, given the fanaticism in the region (including ISIS activity). According to John, “hundreds of people from all walks of life responded whole-heartedly” to the gospel.
John travels under the auspices of the Bengali Evangelical Association (BEA), a non-profit entity that John set up separate from GCI for the purpose of mission work in Bangladesh and other places where there are concentrations of Bengali people. This arrangement is useful due to John’s close ties to the Bengali people and his specific knowledge of their culture, including religious sensitivities.
Because BEA’s work in Bangladesh has proven to be an effective means for spreading the gospel, over the last two years GCI has contributed about $120,000 to BEA. Those contributions have come from denominational funds, including the Disaster Relief Fund.
Pictured below are pictures from John’s recent trip to Bangladesh, showing what BEA is doing to raise up gospel workers, feed the hungry, provide vocational training (in this case, training nurses) and caring for children.
Members of GCI’s U.S. Church Administration and Development (CAD) team met recently in Dallas, Texas, to discuss the restructuring of CAD that will be implemented fully by January 1, 2015. GCI senior pastors and pastoral care team members in the U.S. recently received a letter from CAD associate director Greg Williams that outlined the details, including the vision, values, mission, core ministries and regional structure that will carry GCI in the United States into the future (Greg will become the director of CAD in January when Dan Rogers, the current CAD director, retires). Much of the information covered in Greg’s letter is highlighted below. The video shows excerpts of Greg’s presentation at the Dallas meeting.
A key part of the new CAD structure is the formation of six U.S. administrative regions to replace the current district structure in January, 2015. Below is a map showing the boundary of each region. Following that are lists identifying the regional pastor and congregations within each region. In announcing this new structure, we also extend our deep appreciation to the men who have served for several years as our U.S. district pastors.
(1) West Region: Lorenzo Arroyo, regional pastor
Lorenzo Arroyo with his wife Rita
• Eugene & Salem, OR • Port Angeles, WA • Olympia, WA • Portland, OR & Vancouver, WA • Port Orchard, WA • Federal Way, WA • Tacoma, WA • Seattle-Bellevue, WA • Klamath Falls, OR • Medford, OR • Bend, OR
Tim Sitterley (associate regional pastor for the northwest area) with his wife Linda
• Coeur d’Alene, ID & Spokane, WA • Boise, ID • Missoula, MT • Helena, MT • Anchorage, AK • Kenai, AK
• Sun Valley & Los Angeles, CA (Spanish) • Hawthorne, CA (Spanish) • Santa Fe Springs, CA (Spanish) • Santa Ana, CA (Spanish) • Moreno Valley, CA (Spanish) • Pasadena, CA (Spanish) • Howell, NJ (Spanish)
• Elko, NV • Green River, WY • Casper, WY • Salt Lake City, UT • Phoenix, AZ • Cottonwood, AZ • Tucson, AZ • Honolulu, HI
• Sacramento, CA • Modesto, Santa Rosa & Fairfield, CA • San Jose, CA • San Francisco, CA • San Leandro, CA • Watsonville, CA • Redding & Chico, CA • Reno, NV • Visalia, CA • Fresno, CA
• Eagle Rock, CA • Pasadena & Los Angeles, CA • Chatsworth & Ventura, CA • Los Angeles, CA • Long Beach, CA • Beaumont & Victorville, CA • Antelope Valley, CA • Central Coast, CA • Orange County, CA • Glendora & Rancho Cucamonga, CA • Las Vegas, NV • San Diego, CA
(2) South-Central Region: Mike Rasmussen, regional pastor
Mike Rasmussen with his wife Juli
• Wheatland, WY • Cheyenne, WY • Denver (North), CO • Denver (South) & Colorado Springs, CO • Pueblo, CO
• Oklahoma City, OK • Tulsa, OK • Van Buren, AR • Wichita, KS • Tontitown, AR • Amarillo, TX
• Kansas City, MO • St. Joseph, MO • Topeka, KS • Kirksville, MO • Omaha, NE & Sioux City, IA • Scotts Bluff, NE • Springfield & Joplin, MO
(3) North-Central Region: Rick Shallenberger, regional pastor
Rick Shallenberger with his wife Cheryl
• St. Paul & Champlin, MN • Fargo, ND • Minot, ND • Sioux Falls, SD • St. Cloud, MN • Duluth, MN • Appleton, WI • Bloomington, MN • Wisconsin Dells, WI • Rochester, MN • Eau Claire, WI • Wausau, WI • Orr, MN • Dickinson, ND
• Cicero, IL • Manteno, IL • Madison, Rockford & Janesville, WI • Madison, WI (Spanish) • Chicago (NW) &, Joliet, IL • Chicago (N), IL & Kenosha, WI • Harvey, IL • Milwaukee, WI • West Bend, WI • Watertown, WI
• St Louis, MO • Des Moines, IA • Hillsboro, MO • Warrenton, MO • Lake of the Ozarks, MO • Alton City, IL • Belleville, IL • Macomb, IL • Davenport, IA
• Grand Rapids & Ravenna, MI • Fort Wayne & Elkhart, IN • Chase, MI • Michigan City, IN • Freeland & Flint, MI • Kenockee, MI • Livonia, MI • Detroit, MI • Toledo, OH • Cleveland and Akron, OH • Lorain, OH • Tipp City, OH • Columbus & Chillicothe, OH • Indianapolis, Lafayette, Terre Haute & Hope, IN • Richmond, IN
(4) East Region: Randy Bloom, regional pastor
Randy Bloom with his wife Debbie
• Meriden & Stratford, CT • Montpelier, VT • Holden & Waltham, MA • Windham, ME • Bangor, ME • Providence, RI • Loudon, NH • Queens & Manhattan, NY • Staten Island, NY • Schenectady, NY • Lake George, NY
• Rochester, NY • Syracuse, NY • Buffalo, NY • Olean, NY • Canfield, OH • Fredonia, NY • Marion, OH • Jenners, PA • Washington, PA, Wheeling, WV & Cambridge, OH • Pittsburgh & Indiana, PA • Mount Pleasant, PA • Mineral Wells & Summersville, WV
• Cincinnati East, OH • Cincinnati West, OH • Ripley, WV • London, KY • Bowling Green, KY • Paducah, KY • Hazard, KY • Pikeville, KY • Mt. Sterling, KY • Louisa, WV • Lexington, KY • Memphis, TN • Jonesboro, AR • Jackson, TN • Nashville & Murfreesboro, TN • Clarksville, TN
(5) Mid-Atlantic Region: Paul David Kurts, regional pastor
Paul David Kurts with his wife Emma Lee
• Garwood, NJ & Philadelphia, PA • Lakehurst, NJ • Newark, NJ • Hillsdale, NJ • Middletown, NY • White Plains, NY • York, PA • Selinsgrove, PA • Blossburg, PA • Wilkes Barre, PA
• Baltimore, MD • Virginia Beach, VA • Richmond (South), VA • Smithburg, MD • Cumberland, MD • Seaford & Elsmere, DE • Front Royal, VA • Roanoke, VA • Richmond, VA • Washington, DC
(6) Southeast Region: Ted Johnston, regional pastor
Ted Johnston with his wife Donna
• Longview, TX • Tyler, TX • Big Sandy, TX & Texarkana, AR • Batesville, AR • Pine Bluff, AR • Russellville, AR • Nacogdoches, TX • Beaumont, TX • Lake Charles, LA • Shreveport & Monroe, LA • Baton Rouge & Lafayette, LA • New Orleans & Hammond, LA • Jackson, Hattiesburg & Meridian, MS • Greenwood, MS • Natchez, MS
• Chattanooga, TN & Murphy, NC • Decatur, AL • Monroeville, AL • Mobile, AL • Geneva, AL • Montgomery, AL • Birmingham & Good Hope, AL • Attalla, AL • Atlanta, GA • Dallas, GA • Buford, GA • Athens, GA • Snellville, GA • Columbus, GA • Macon, GA
• Jacksonville, FL & Woodbine, GA • Thomasville, GA • Tallahassee, FL • Orlando & Melbourne, FL • Gainesville, FL • Port St. Lucie & Pompano Beach, FL • Miramar, FL • Miami, FL • Ft. Myers, FL • Plant City, FL • Clearwater, Ocala & Bradenton, FL
Here is a prayer request from GCI-Colombia pastor Sonia Orozco:
Please join my family and congregation in praying for my brother-in-law Anibal Villalobos. He has been diagnosed with rectal cancer. The recommended treatment includes removing part of the colon, chemotherapy and radiation, but Anibal does not want to subject himself to this treatment. His wife (my sister) works with me, directing our school when I travel. All this presents a serious challenge to Anibal, our family and congregation. Please pray for us.
While it is with a heavy heart that I share with you that our brother John Halford lost his battle with cancer, I rejoice that the battle is over and John has won the race. Click here for related information, including an announcement from John’s daughter, Becki Halford Brown. In this letter, I’ll share several tributes to our dear friend and colleague.
I first met John when I was 14, living in Pasadena, California. John and his wife Pat were our neighbors. One day I was doing gardening chores and John stopped to talk with me. I was a bit amazed that he took notice. Most adults seemed to believe that children are to be seen, not heard. John made a comment about the good work I was doing, shared a few thoughts, then went on. Who would have guessed that I’d be working with John many years later, first learning from him and then serving as his boss (though I’ve never felt anyone could truly be John’s boss!). It’s been a blessing beyond words to know John since my youth, and to worked so closely with him the past several years.
John’s impact on our denomination was vast. He is perhaps best known for the many insightful, thought-provoking articles he wrote for our publications, often finding stories in places no one else would even look. John served as editor and/or adviser for many of our international publications and his expertise will be greatly missed. John’s service to the church also included serving as head of campaigns in Australia and regional director in the UK. He also taught at Ambassador University and Imperial Schools and worked for The World Tomorrow program for a number of years.
I visited John a couple of weeks ago while he was still in the hospital. We shared stories and prayed together. Though he couldn’t communicate much, he still tried to get me and others in the room to laugh. Humor was one of his greatest gifts. What struck me most during the visit was hearing the many stories that came in from around the world from people in whose lives John made a personal investment. John encouraged many Ambassador students to participate in one of our international projects (in Thailand, Sri Lanka, Jordan and China). Many of these former students shared how his encouragement made the difference. They now feel they can never repay John for the support he so freely gave them. As an example, John recently encouraged two young women, Carrie Smith and Kayla (Shallenberger) Elliott, to travel to Africa where they taught school for six months. Both benefited greatly, crediting John for making a big difference in their lives.
Chugait Garmolgomut, a former Ambassador student who lives in Thailand, shared how John’s investment in him inspired Chugait to start a school. Over the years one school became many, and John participated in the dedication of several (see picture below). Chugait says that he owes it all to John and his investment in him. Chugait is working on a new project that will honor John and his investment (it’s too early to share the details).
Rick Shallenberger, John’s pastor for the past 12 years, has compiled testimonies from people around the world who have been deeply impacted by John. Rick recently shared some of them with me and his congregation, showing how one person can make a big difference in the lives of many. Rick read many of them to John while he was bedridden. As John listened to one, he looked at Rick and said, “Amazing.” Rick replied, “John, you are amazed because you didn’t see yourself as doing anything out of the ordinary and you weren’t trying to impress anyone. You were simply being the person God created you to be.” John smiled and nodded. Here are several of those tributes:
– From Mike Feazell (recently retired as GCI vice-president):
John has, I expect, simply by being himself, generated more goodwill and had more positive impact on the widest range of people than any other single person in the annals of WCG/GCI. He is much loved and will be sorely missed. A mentor, a colleague and a friend.
– From Jeff Broadnax (GCI pastor in Columbus, Ohio):
John richly invested in me, empowered me, believed in me and has spent my entire adult life blessing me and challenging me to see with the fresh eyes that God provides. There are few people on the planet who have touched my life as much as John Halford. He means so much to my family and me. He not only officiated at our wedding 27 years ago, he never stopped supporting us.
– From Rod Matthews (GCI mission developer for Asia and the South Pacific):
I have known John for 47 years. He was one of God’s exceptional gifts to our fellowship, and his legacy resides in thousands of lives around the world, mine especially. I owe him much as a very personal and loyal friend, mentor, encourager and guide. He would have no idea how much he taught me, or how he helped me learn to see through masks, and to develop discernment. And I so much enjoyed his capacity to bring down the high, and lift up the poor. Our senses of humor were very compatible.
John had a brilliant, unshackled and exploring mind, coupled with unmatched skills in communicating with common men and women, a remarkable capacity to utilize repartee and humor to highlight truth and reality in the midst of swirling mists of ideas, facts and personal agendas. He excelled at cross-cultural relationships, always upholding those in need of support, seeing potential and opportunities with uncanny accuracy. His perceptive wisdom and experience helped build and enhance our mission activities—especially in the UK, Europe, Australia and Asia where he had lived and served. Many of us are staring down a very big hole in our lives right now. May God’s comfort and blessings, including the ‘hugs’ of our worldwide family be with Pat, Becki, Judy and their families.
– From James Henderson (GCI mission developer for Europe and the UK):
John, one day you’ll read this and I think you’ll laugh because it sounds over the top and perhaps too sentimental. You’ll no doubt want to edit it, and you’d do so seamlessly and beautifully. You’ll probably say: “What was all the fuss about?’ Tears are streaming down our faces as we compose this message. Who would have thought that all over the world people are crying over you right now? You touched so many lives.
C.S. Lewis said that grief is part of the joy of having known someone, and it’s been such a joy to know you. Thanks for being who you are. Thanks for being a friend in good times and in bad. I remember our early morning walks together at conferences when we’d have coffee and share each other’s views about what was going on. You’d keep me grounded and help me see things more clearly. We’d laugh a lot. Your incisive mind saw the funny side of life, and you had a knack of bringing this out in your speaking and writing. You drew us in through your wit and held us captive while you made your point. You’d challenge the way we think. You wrote your words on our hearts and minds, and they are still there.
So many people have personal stories about you. They have anecdotes to tell of what you did for them or of what you said to them. You were kind. You’d help others behind the scenes, away from public view. You were gentle and comforting to those in distress. You reached out to the underdogs when others abandoned them. Your compassion was tangible. Of course, like most of us, you could be argumentative, and infuriatingly so at times, but that was the fun of knowing you. Always your Christianity and humanity shone through. Shirley and I love you and we miss you already.
– From Charles Fleming(GCI mission developer for the Caribbean):
Truly a loss to many of us. John was a larger than life presence among us. I cherish many memories of our times together over the years as we negotiated our renewal period and moved into this wonderful season of peace. May the Lord’s peace be with Pat and the family.
One person shared how a single encounter with John changed him. He and John were walking in a park when they came upon a clearly drunk man. John’ companion referred to the man as “scum,” to which John replied, “And a child of God!” John was like that—he looked on each person as valuable and worthy of respect and investment. We praise God that John invested in so many.
Many other tributes can be read on John’s Facebook page. Many of us could add our own, telling how John invested in our lives, or made us laugh. One of John’s great gifts was his ability to find humor in almost any situation, then make people laugh about it. On one occasion he said he couldn’t understand why the greatest spiritual gift was not listed in Scripture—the gift of wit and sarcasm. Perhaps God saved that gift for John. Through his infectious humor and in many other ways, John had a great impact in our lives. As Rick noted, he did so simply being the person God created him to be. I pray that we will do so as well.
John’s daughters shared with me that their father always taught them to be genuine and to pay attention to others. I think that’s good advice for us all. We need to use the gifts and talents God has given us to invest in the lives of others. Even when those investments are relatively small, they can make big differences in the lives of many. Most of us will be as surprised as John was when we start to see the fruit of those investments.
John’s memory will live long in our lives, and may his example live even longer.
Always praising God for relationships, Joseph Tkach
We were saddened to learn that John Halford has died. Here is an announcement and words of tribute and thanks from John’s daughter, Becki Halford Brown:
Tonight [Tuesday, October 21], one last time, we kissed our dad and told him we love him. He died peacefully in his sleep at 6:45pm. He was a wonderful teacher, caring mentor, humorous writer and loving husband, father, brother and pop-pop. His love for the underdog was unwavering and he saw potential in people and places that others didn’t.
Thanks to so many friends from around the world that have expressed their concern and offered prayers and thoughts for dad and our family. We appreciate that you have shared this journey with us. We’ll miss you, Dad and look forward to seeing you again!
Please pray for John’s family (pictured below), including his wife Pat (standing next to John).
Cards may be sent to:
Pat Halford 5836 South State Road 129 Versailles, IN 47042
Here is information about memorial services and remembrances for John:
On Friday, October 24, from 5-8L00pm, there will be visiting hours at the Stratton-Karsteter Funeral Home. 1114 South Ripley Estates Drive, Versailles, IN. That will be followed at 8:00pm with a special service conducted by the Versailles Lion’s Club.
On Saturday, October 25, there will be a visiting hour from 10-11:00 am at St. Paul’s Lutheran Church 5869 S. State Rd 129, Versailles, IN. That will be followed by a Memorial Service at 11:00 am at the same location.
In lieu of flowers, donations may be made to St. Paul’s Lutheran Cemetery, the Versailles Lion’s Club or to a charitable fund that has been established to aid families in Haiti (checks can be mailed to CFC-Haiti, P.O. BOX 13609 Hamilton, OH 45013). All three were very close to John’s heart.
Embedded below is a GCI video produced before John’s battle with cancer. It tells John’s story and nicely expresses his approach to life. John will be missed but not forgotten.
In the video below, GCI pastor Mike Swagerty invites fellow “senior citizens” to get involved in mission with Jesus by serving in one of GCI’s Generations Ministries camps.
