GCI’s Church of the Living Waters in Charlotte, North Carolina, went “old school” in holding a July 4 holiday weekend worship service. They based the service on the way the church might have gathered in its earliest days. The general theme was Freedom in Christ and there was no pre-planned order of service. The members had been asked to bring to the service what the Spirit laid in their hearts to bring: a poem, literature, questions, a passage of Scripture, a song, a testimony.
Pastor Ron Garrett
The service was facilitated by pastor Ron Garrett (pictured at right), who began by breaking bread and then sitting down, inviting members to come forward, in an orderly flow, bringing with them their contributions. In that way, the whole service was considered “communion.” Songs were perfectly distributed among the different presentations. The service concluded with the drinking of the communion cup, with toasts raised to Jesus.
Everyone felt that the service was special. Some young participants commented that “they felt love in the room.” Here are comments from others:
From Joe McClure: “The service was inspirational and Spirit-filled. It’s always good to acknowledge the fact that we are truly blessed to be able to assemble and worship God any time we choose, without fear of being persecuted or imprisoned. Some of our Christian brothers and sisters worldwide do not have the same freedom. It’s good to know that someday soon they will.”
From James Gray: “The service was wonderful…listening to different ones share their thoughts about how God is great, so good to us—faithful in providing for our physical and eternal needs. We could never praise God enough.”
I hope you are as excited as I am to read the reports from our youth camps (click on the link at left to read recent reports). At our camps, which are scattered around the world, thousands of young people are setting a course for life. This is vital, because so many young people today are growing up in a world of negativity, defeatism and failure. Our campers have lots of fun at camp, but it’s fun with a purpose. They learn first-hand about choosing to live life in relationship with God.
It’s sad that many young people don’t know about that choice. They grow up in an environment where knowledge of God is considered superfluous, even dangerous. Note Paul’s warning about that:
The basic reality of God is plain enough. Open your eyes and there it is! By taking a long and thoughtful look at what God has created, people have always been able to see what their eyes as such can’t see: eternal power, for instance, and the mystery of his divine being…. (Romans 1:20, The Message).
We hold our youth camps in areas of natural beauty, so everyone can have a “long and thoughtful look” at the creation, and thus learn more about the Creator. Sadly, many today deny that there is a Creator, attributing everything in our world to only natural, material causes. Paul warned of that danger:
People knew God perfectly well, but when they didn’t treat him like God, refusing to worship him, they trivialized themselves into silliness and confusion so that there was neither sense nor direction left in their lives. They pretended to know it all, but were illiterate regarding life (Romans 1:21-22, The Message).
I have followed with interest the research concerning human consciousness, including the topic of free will. As illustrated at right [1], some scientists believe that what we call “free will” may be little more than the “background noise” of neurons firing within our brains. One researcher put it this way:
Though purposeful intentions, desires and goals drive our decisions in a linear cause-and-effect kind of way, our finding shows that our decisions are also influenced by neural noise within any given moment. This random firing, or noise, may even be the carrier upon which our consciousness rides, in the same way that radio static is used to carry a radio station. [2]
Some neuroscientists have declared that, “Free will is an illusion.” They believe that our thoughts, decisions and behaviors are solely the products of impersonal biochemical processes operating within the brain and body. [3] But if they are correct, why accept as true what anyone’s brain comes up with? The problem with their declaration is that, rather than being scientific, it’s the outcome of philosophical assumptions that determine how relevant scientific data is selected and interpreted.
It’s interesting to note that a recent study concluded that when people are told that free will does not exist, their brains tend to follow suit. Subjects in the study reading passages discrediting the idea of free will experienced an immediate decrease in brain activity related to voluntary action. Other studies found that discrediting free will seems to trigger an increase in cheating and aggressiveness—encouraging people to be less helpful and generally sapping their motivation. It seems that embracing a purely materialistic understanding of free will causes people to become, as Paul wrote, “illiterate regarding life.” That’s why it’s so important that we give young people a solid biblical foundation.
The Bible tells us that God created us in his image and in his divine freedom, granted us freedom to discern the truth and the good and then act on it. God does not force his will on us—he does not absolutely prevent us from abusing our freedom and throwing it away. But as we surrender our wills to God and his will for us, a great work of renovation occurs—a process brilliantly described by C.S. Lewis in Mere Christianity:
Imagine yourself as a living house. God comes in to rebuild that house. At first, perhaps, you can understand what He is doing. He is getting the drains right and stopping the leaks in the roof and so on; you knew that those jobs needed doing and so you are not surprised. But presently He starts knocking the house about in a way that hurts abominably and does not seem to make any sense. What on earth is He up to? The explanation is that He is building quite a different house from the one you thought of—throwing out a new wing here, putting on an extra floor there, running up towers, making courtyards. You thought you were being made into a decent little cottage: but He is building a palace. He intends to come and live in it Himself.
Young people (and old) who understand this biblical truth will never be illiterate regarding life. I’m thankful that our youth camps are helping so many young people set a course for life that embraces the knowledge of God and his plan for humanity. My thanks to all who are making that possible!
Raul Ramos, pastor of Desert Oasis Community Church, the GCI congregation in Lancaster, California, grew up in Puerto Rico. “I moved with my mom and brother to New York City when I was 12. I learned English at that age. Being bilingual has given me opportunity to serve in speaking and training people who are Spanish-speaking. This has brought me to various countries as well as to translating duties at CAD conferences.”
While in New York, Raul began attending WCG. “I started around September 1964. My next-door neighbors, who were members, invited my brother and me to their home to share Bible study. After seeing their example, we decided to attend. I couldn’t have imagined then that I would someday marry their eldest daughter Sylvia.” Eight years later, Raul and Sylvia were married. “We have been married for 42 years. We have two sons. Steven Ramos (married to Elizabeth) lives in Tulsa, Oklahoma. They have 3 children: Elijah, Zoe and Josiah. David Ramos is single and lives in Fullerton, California.”
Raul felt a calling to serve God at an early age. “When I was a boy in Puerto Rico, I had a dream in which I was preaching to a group of people. From that time on, I felt God calling me into ministry.” Sylvia became his ministry partner. Raul says that she is involved in “almost every aspect of my ministry. My wife and I were very involved with the local church—serving, translating and visiting those who were Spanish-speakers. Eventually the Brooklyn-Queens church started a Spanish-language service, which I helped lead. We grew to approximately 75 members. I coordinated the service, gave sermons and conducted baptism and marriage counseling. As my responsibilities grew, I felt the need to be better prepared, so I applied for Ambassador College in 1982. Upon arrival, I was hired to serve in the ministry by Mr. Tkach Sr.”
Raul said he loves being a pastor and his most memorable moment was baptizing his sons. “I love God and I love serving him. The church is my family. My wife and I love to see new converts and maturing members grow in their relationship with our Triune God and with their family in Christ. There is no greater work on earth, in my opinion.”
Concerning his appreciation for GCI, Raul said, “Though it was difficult in the beginning, I believe that the transformation of our denomination is nothing short of a miracle.” Raul has had his trials. “About 18 months ago I went through renal failure and a diabetic coma with serious complications. I know that many were praying for me, and God raised me up. Thank you all for the prayers and thank God for his loving-kindness and deliverance. I am happy to still be above ground and pastoring part-time.”
When Raul isn’t serving the congregation, he tries to get out to enjoy his other passion, which is fishing. When asked when it is that he feels closest to God, Raul said, “When I am worshiping, I feel his presence.”
Prayer is requested for Richard (Rick) Ridgell, pastor of GCI’s church in Front Royal, Virginia. Rick has stage 4 lung cancer that has spread to his bones. On the plus side is that this type of cancer responds well to treatment. The doctor encouraged Rick to continue working, but tiredness and weakness are a big challenge. Rick’s wife Pam commented:
It is heartwarming to know that many people are praying for us. Rick is on the prayer lists of many churches as word has spread. We know that God is in charge as we make plans for the worst and pray for the best. It is hard to see your soul-mate suffering, but we trust God for his will in our lives. Thank you for your prayers, we will keep you updated as we go along.
Cards may be sent to:
Rick and Pam Ridgell 640 Butler Ave. Winchester, VA 22601
John Meyer (pictured at right), a GCI elder who lives in Tracy, California, recently was awarded the 2014 Teschemaker Cup.
This award is given annually by the high school that John attended in his hometown, Timaru, New Zealand. The award is given to recognize an individual alumnus for their outstanding international achievements.
Click here to read an earlier Update article about John’s substantial vocational achievements.
Looking for resources to equip your congregation to share in the Lord’s work of evangelism? This important topic is helpfully addressed in the July and August issues of Equipper and in the Speaking of Life video embedded below. Here are two other sources of helpful material on the topic:
Have you noticed how it’s getting harder to determine if news reports in print, online, and via radio and TV are true? It seems that no matter how serious or sobering the topic, such reports are more about entertainment than accurate information. And with the way news is typically being reported, it’s increasingly difficult to determine what we actually need to know.
Let me illustrate with a pet peeve of mine—the conflicting information concerning global warming (often referred to as “climate change”). On the one hand, dramatic news reports tell of rapidly melting polar ice-caps that may result in whole countries being inundated. But other reports say that the amount of sea-ice in Antarctica has been increasing since satellite measurements began in 1979. [1] So it’s hard to know what to believe, given the complexity of this topic and the penchant the news media has for sensationalism.
Reporting news accurately is, of course, a great challenge. It requires facing the conflict between truth (accuracy) and trendiness (to achieve high ratings). We face a similar challenge in presenting the gospel. These days we hear a lot about the need to be relevant in order to connect with a younger demographic. Of course, we would be shortsighted not to use available media tools to communicate the gospel to younger audiences. But in doing so, we must not become bedazzled with gimmicks, sensationalism and special effects. To paraphrase Marshall McLuhan, we must not let “the medium become the message.”
Sadly this has happened in some Christian circles, where the focus has shifted from truth to trendiness. We guard against this shift when we remember that the ancient, biblical gospel is relevant in all places and times, within all cultures and generations. Certainly we need to communicate its timeless truths in ways that are clearly understood within different cultures, but let us not forget that the gospel’s fundamental, truthful relevance really cannot be improved upon.
Copyright 2014, Dennis Fletcher. Used with permission from Leadership Magazine.
Today, culturally-bound distortions of the gospel abound: the health & wealth gospel, prediction-addiction schemes and concepts that make God out to be a cosmic sheriff or an on-demand vending machine. Other distortions include equating the gospel with a political party, a social cause, an ethic group, or a particular style of music. Such ideas load the gospel with “cultural baggage,” resulting in little or no gospel at all. We should remember Jesus’ warning: “This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me; in vain do they worship me, teaching as doctrines the commandments of men” (Matthew 15:8-9, ESV).
Our challenge in presenting the gospel is to be both truthful and relevant. Martin Luther once said that if we are not preaching the gospel in ways that people understand, we are wasting our time. Theologian N.T. Wright emphasizes that “translating the New Testament is something every generation should be doing.” In the fourth Gospel, John writes that “The Word became human and made his home among us” (John 1:14, NLT). Here John used the Greek word logos, which we translate “Word,” but also can be translated “logic” or “reason.” The Greeks associated logos with divinity. William Barclay comments:
Jesus is the expression of the mind of God. It is as if John said to the Greeks: “For the last six centuries you have been speaking about the mind of God in the universe. If you want to see what the mind of God is, look at Jesus Christ. Here, full-displayed, is that mind of God about which you have always been thinking and talking. The logos has become flesh. The mind of God has become a person.”
Jesus, who is Truth personified, is always relevant. He spoke about and lived out the truth about a right relationship with God and the fruit produced by that relationship—right relationships with people. Such relationships are always relevant—important for all people everywhere in all times. In fact, “We live and move and have our being” within such relationships—first with God (including our right or wrong ideas about God) and then between people—parents and children, men and women, neighbor with neighbor.
As we strive to accurately present the gospel on the cluttered stage of today’s sensationalist media, let’s be careful not to let our efforts become “trendy” in ways that might distort the truth of the gospel. God, who in Christ reconciled the world to himself, calls us to live reconciled to him and to be his ambassadors of that reconciliation to the world. Let us be about that gospel mission.
Your brother in Christ,
Joseph Tkach
P.S. I often receive from Weekly Update readers links to entertaining videos. I like sharing the fun! Here’s one that shows a good way to recycle beer bottles: http://youtu.be/NkbZlautuUc.
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[1] Cryosphere Today, Polar Research Group, Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, http://arctic.atmos.uiuc.edu/cryosphere/.
We were saddened to learn of Ginny Dietrich’s recent passing. Ginny was the wife of GCI elder Larry Dietrich who serves on the pastoral care team in the Long Beach, California congregation. Here is a note from Larry, following up on the previous prayer request.
Dear friends and family,
It is with the deepest sorrow that I must inform all of you that my dear Ginny passed on July 22. Just the evening before, I was with her, and she was alert, aware and responding, and her vital signs all seemed to be near normal. But the day of her death I received a call from the hospital that she was suddenly failing, and asked my permission to re-install the ventilator. I gave permission mainly so there would be some time for us to go there and say our goodbyes. So that is what they did and when I arrived, I was told that Ginny had already “died” and been resuscitated twice. The end was obviously near. They said she could hear us even though she couldn’t respond. So I told her it was OK to go to sleep—she would be in a much better place. With that, they turned off the IV that was stimulating her heart to beat, and very soon all indicators zeroed out.
Please know your heartfelt prayers on her behalf have meant the world to me. I firmly feel God heard and answered by showing us she had suffered enough, was facing an impossible battle with cancer ahead, and he spared her the agony and pain. I am grieving, of course, but also am at peace with his answer, because in my heart I know it’s best. Time will heal the hurt.
Cards may be sent to:
Larry Dietrich 11791 Onyx Street Garden Grove, CA 92845-1213
GCI Philippines denominational leaders Rex de la Pena and Rey Taniajura recently attended a discipleship trainers’ seminar at the invitation of Efraim Tendero, national director of the Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches. A similar seminar was held in another location where Terrence Santibanez and Rannie Suan, both GCI-Philippines area superintendents, attended.
The purpose of the seminars was to equip trainers to teach disciple-making in the Philippines. It is hoped that this will spark a movement of multiplying disciple-makers all over the country. Those trained will be responsible to hold workshops and plan, recruit, host and equip small group teachers in their home churches and denominations. The invitation letter to those invited said this:
This nationwide disciple-making initiative is already in progress across Thailand and India, so we are inviting your personal participation as well as your prayers for Asia during this coming decade’s strategic emphasis on returning to the first century’s proven life-to-life methodology. To our knowledge, this is the largest coordinated Christian disciple-making effort in Asia’s history, so this is why we are earnestly requesting your regional spiritual leadership.
The seminar incorporated material from Operation Multiplication, which addresses one-on-one and small-group approaches to disciple-making. GCI plans to incorporate the material from this publication into its own disciple-making methodology, which is referred to as the D-Star Discipleship Pathway.
Here from his daughter Becky (Halford) Brown, is a praise report concerning John Halford. John, a long-time GCI leader and editor, recently underwent surgery in his battle against esophageal cancer.
Dad’s doctor just came in smiling from ear to ear and pronounced my dad CANCER FREE!!! His pathology report indicated that no live cancer cells were found in his body following surgery. They got it all! No more radiation or chemo is needed.
We are so very thankful for each one of you. Your support and prayers got us through this difficult time. We have a whole new view of cancer and the “fight” required to get through it. Dad fought hard and we give every bit of the credit to God working through the amazing doctors to bring about this wonderful outcome.
Dad still has a long recovery ahead but somehow it just got a lot easier. We can’t wait for Thanksgiving this year. We have so much to be thankful for.
Cards may be sent to:
John & Pat Halford 5836 South State Road 129 Versailles, IN 47042
