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GCI Intern Program update

GCI Intern Program coordinator Jeff McSwain met recently with GCI-USA regional pastors and other leaders to give them an update. Here are excerpts from his presentation.

On YouTube at http://youtu.be/jkwD3GA6clc.

An effective way to support the Intern Program is to donate to the GCnext mission fund. For information, go to https://www.gci.org/GCnext.

New GCS President

The following announcement is from Dr. Russell Duke, President of Grace Communion Seminary (GCS).

gcs logo goldIt is with great satisfaction that I inform you that Dr. Gary Deddo will replace me as President of Grace Communion Seminary as of June 2015. Our GCS Board interviewed Dr. Deddo on January 16 and unanimously approved his appointment. Congratulations Gary!

Dr. Deddo has served as a faculty member with GCS for six years, so many of you have studied with him. Many others know him and his wife Cathy from their presentations on theology at our GCI conferences.

Moncton Gary preachingDr. Deddo (pictured at right) brings a wealth of academic experience as professor and editor to the role of President. He holds a Master of Divinity degree from Fuller Theological Seminary, a Master of Arts in Social Science from Azusa Pacific University, and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from King’s College, University of Aberdeen. He has taught in seminaries for over 20 years, serving Fuller Theological Seminary, Zarephath Bible Institute, Eastern Baptist Seminary, and Grace Communion Seminary. He has been widely published in the area of incarnational Trinitarian theology, and has assisted dozens of authors in his former role as Senior Editor at InterVarsity Press from 1999 to 2012. He was hired as Special Assistant to GCI President Dr. Joseph Tkach in 2012, and will continue to serve in that capacity as well.

We welcome Dr. Deddo’s leadership. Since we are undergoing reaffirmation of our accreditation this spring, we are timing the change to coincide with the accreditation decision by the Distance Education Accrediting Commission in June. This will enable Dr. Deddo to observe the accreditation process from an administrative perspective.

I have felt it important to pursue a transition at this time so that we can deepen the impact that GCS can have for the Church, both within our denomination and for leaders in other churches in the Body of Christ. As we participate in Jesus Christ’s ministry, Dr. Deddo will be able to lead the seminary to connect GCI’s work in theology and our interviews with Trinitarian theologians and pastors to better serve the greater Christian body.

Though I will be retiring as President, I plan to assist in the transition of administration and teach a few courses as my career winds down in retirement. Thank you for your support during this time of transition.

Being aware and alert

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

joeandtammyMy grandparents immigrated to the U.S. several years before the Russian Revolution. Seeing the signs of the times, Grandpa realized it was time for a change, so they moved. Way to go Grandpa!

SignsBeing aware and alert about what is going on around us is important. It helps us discern when and how to change, including how to participate with Jesus in the mission of God.

In grandfatherly fashion, the apostle Paul wrote to his young protégé Timothy about the signs of the times. In 2 Timothy 3:1-9 he warned of “terrible times” that would occur in what he referred to as “the last days.” He said that people would be “swayed by all kinds of evil desires, always learning but never able to acknowledge the truth.”

Today, some mistakenly view “the last days” as a recent occurrence. But the Bible teaches that those days began nearly 2,000 years ago with Jesus’ ministry, death and resurrection. Peter, Paul and John all taught this (Acts 2:17, 1 Peter 1:20; 1 Corinthians 10:11; 1 John 2:18), and the author of Hebrews associated the last days with Jesus’ ministry (Hebrews 1:2). Because those last days continue today, what Paul said to Timothy about “signs of the times” applies to us as well.

In 2 Timothy 3:7, Paul refers to those who “are never able to come to a knowledge of the truth.” In striving for freedom, they refuse conversion to Christ, who is the truth. How ironic that in seeking freedom they miss out on the one way that brings true freedom. In their blindness and obstinacy, Paul says they actually oppose what is true (2 Timothy 3:8).

My grandfather used to rant about this reality—especially when watching television news commentators. He would exclaim concerning them, “That person has to go to college to develop such refined stupidity!” Obviously, my grandpa wasn’t concerned about being politically correct. His attempts at “sensitivity” were equivalent to dropping a bowling ball on your foot! He used to say, “Joey, listen to me—the world is becoming more and more stupid.”

Though I’m not sure about his conclusion, social scientists have noted in recent years that our ability to reason is becoming fragmented. This is due to the fact that much of the information we take in comes to us as disconnected, even conflicting “sound bites.” The media subject us to an onslaught of messages. As a result, our focus is fragmented. It’s not uncommon for people to cruise the Internet, watch TV and converse with someone in the room, all at the same time! We have become so steeped in this media-centric environment that our bandwidth increasingly overwhelms our brain-width! This flood of disconnected information can sway people away from what is true. In fact, much of the information promulgated by the media opposes truth.

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Used with permission from Tallie Fishburne.

Have you noticed that the media tend to focus on bad news? They know that bad news gets and holds our attention. Though they occasionally throw in a heart-wrenching good news story (so we don’t get completely depressed!), the proportion of bad to good news in their reports inaccurately reflects what is really going on in our neighborhoods and around the world where there is far more good news than bad.

Because bad news sells, we face a significant challenge in sharing the good news that is the gospel. To do so effectively, we must understand the signs of our times, just as Paul exhorted Timothy. We must understand who we are communicating with so that we reach our audiences “where they are.” Let me illustrate: When I grew up it was common for sermons to last 90 minutes or more. Pastors quoted multiple books and commentaries, shared the etymology of words and gave lengthy explanations. But audiences today typically are reached with shorter sermons (25 minutes is common) with stories and illustrations. It’s interesting that Jesus used this narrative approach in his day.

Adjusting the way we preach is not about pandering to our audiences—it’s about “being all things to all people,” just as Paul exhorted the church in Corinth to do (1 Corinthians 9:19-23). Preaching the gospel in ways that connect is not watering it down. After all, there is a great simplicity to the gospel, which declares the good news of God’s love and his desire for us to be in communion with him as Father, Son and Holy Spirit.

When Paul wrote to Timothy about the signs of the times, he wasn’t using scare tactics. He was reminding Timothy that there is always good news no matter the condition of the world. Jesus himself is that good news. And in spite of the bad news constantly trumpeted by the media in our day, God, in Christ, by the Spirit is at work in the world accomplishing his good work of salvation. No bad news changes that!

Living and sharing the good news with you,
Joseph Tkach

PS: Please join me in congratulating Dr. Gary Deddo on his appointment as the next President of Grace Communion Seminary (he begins serving in June) and in thanking Dr. Russell Duke for his many years of faithful service to GCS and to GCI (see the announcement linked above, left).

Converge is coming!

This announcement is from Anthony Mullins, national coordinator of GCI Generations Ministries.

Converge 2014We’re in the count-down to Converge 2015! We have 170 people registered and we’re expecting a big push as registration closes on February 28. Please register as soon as possible—hotel room space is running out and we want to make sure you have a comfortable room in which to stay. Click here for additional information and here to register (sign-in required).

Paul Young
Paul Young

We’re excited that Wm. Paul Young, author of The Shack and Crossroads, will be our featured guest speaker. Participants will have several opportunities to interact with him. GCI president, Joseph Tkach, will also be a featured speaker and I know he’s looking forward to sharing the conference with us.

As you look over the Converge schedule, you’ll find many breakout sessions (called “Conversessions”) with a variety of relevant topics for both camps and congregations. The idea behind Conversessions is to have plenty of dialogue while being led by a facilitator. As the event draws near, we’ll send those who have registered descriptions of each Conversession, so you can decide which to attend.

A heartfelt thanks to all of you taking time off from work or school to join us for this Generations Ministries sponsored event. I can feel momentum building toward our gathering and there will be many epic stories to tell as we celebrate The Epic Story, our inclusion and adoption into the very life of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit!

National Marriage Week USA

Marriage Week

National Marriage Week USA is coming up on the week leading up to Valentine’s Day (February 7-14). Your congregation can participate by launching a new marriage class or hosting a marriage outreach event. An archived conference call about how to grow your church by strengthening marriages with NAE President Leith Anderson and Catholic Bishop Kevin Rhoades is available online, as well as a City Event Kit download. Click here to learn more.

Three aspects of one mission

In the video below, Heber Ticas, national coordinator for GCI Church Multiplication Ministries (CMM), addresses GCI regional pastors and other leaders. He explains how our participation in mission with Christ includes three important, interrelated denominational and congregational missional initiatives: church renewal, church re-planting and church planting.

On YouTube at http://youtu.be/ZbIV57XhAtM.

LGBT issues

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

joeandtammyA hot topic in the media these days is the way Christians respond to LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) issues. A few weeks ago, Greg Williams, Charles Albrecht, Rick Shallenberger and I participated in a day-long discussion on this topic sponsored by the National Association of Evangelicals (NAE). We gleaned much helpful information—I’ll share some of it with you here.

Because same-sex marriage has been legalized in some states, pastors are being asked if they will officiate at same-sex weddings. During the gathering, an attorney explained that while the media tends to sensationalize reports of certain litigation, clergy will not be forced to perform same-sex marriages in the U.S. in the foreseeable future.

YarhouseA presentation that was particularly relevant to pastoral ministry was given by Dr. Mark Yarhouse (pictured at left). Mark is an ordained elder, a faculty member in the doctoral program in clinical psychology at Regent University in Virginia and founding director of the Institute for the Study of Sexual Identity. He’s written two books: Homosexuality and the Christian, A Guide for Parents, Pastors, and Friends and Understanding Sexual Identity, A Resource for Youth Ministry. He blogs at http://psychologyandchristianity.wordpress.com.

In his NAE presentation, Dr. Yarhouse identified three lenses through which people tend to view same-sex attraction:

  • The integrity lens, which tends to focus on how integrity and sacredness of male and female differences are key.
  • The disability lens, which tends to focus on how sexual orientation/identity is a reflection of the non-moral aspect of our broken and fallen world.
  • The diversity lens, which tends to focus on how relationships and community present us with a call to compassion and the recognition of diversity.

Because each lens has strengths and limitations, Mark advocates that we take into account the strengths of all three. This broader perspective recognizes that God has ordained male and female differences as part of his good creation. It also recognizes that we live in a broken, fallen world where no aspect of life (physical, social, psychological, economic or political) remains untouched by the Fall and our sin. Though we celebrate the good differences of being male and female, we recognize that gender distinctions often are expressed in ways that display our brokenness. We also realize that sexuality is not the most important factor in our identity. Our calling, relationship and identity in Christ is the first and most important thing for all humanity.

In creating us human, God gave us a common nature and destiny. And while we have these similarities, we also have differences. Sexual identity, job identity, positional identity and all other forms of identity are secondary subsets of who we are and are becoming. This is where the gospel must remain clear and not be diverted to lesser issues in response to an agenda being set by society. The gospel is about our identity and relationship to God and his relationship to us, now and forever. The gospel is not primarily about our social identity, our brokenness, or even our sin. It is about who we are and who we are becoming under the grace of God through Christ in the power of the Spirit.

Gospel-focused pastoral care does not mean that we never talk about sin, but it does mean that we don’t use sin (or particular sins) as a means to divide others from us. We don’t allow sin to be the primary means of identifying who we are. Instead, we realize that we are all forgiven sinners and have all fallen short of the glory of God. The apostle Paul gave us the proper way to relate to anyone in any kind of sin: “Love never fails” (1 Corinthians 13:8). This is nailed down well in a statement attributed to C.S. Lewis:

There is someone that I love enough even though I don’t approve of what he does. There is someone I accept, though some of his thoughts and actions revolt me. There is someone I forgive, though he hurts the people I love the most. That person is me. (Quoted in UnChristian: What a New Generation Really Thinks about Christianity… and Why It Matters, p. 198).

Lewis pointed out another important understanding in one of his letters:

I take it for certain that the physical satisfaction of homosexual desires is sin. This leaves the homosexual no worse off than any normal person who is, for whatever reason, prevented from marrying… Our speculations on the cause of the abnormality are not what matters and we must be content with ignorance. The disciples were not told why (in terms of efficient cause) the man was born blind (John 9:1-3): only the final cause [ultimate purpose], that the works of God should be made manifest in him. This suggests that in homosexuality, as in every other tribulation, those works can be made manifest: i.e. that every disability conceals a vocation, if only we can find it, which will “turn the necessity to glorious gain.” (Quoted from a 1954 letter from Lewis in Sheldon Vanauken’s A Severe Mercy, pp. 146-148).

As the NAE gathering drew to a close, we found consensus on these key points:

  • We define marriage as being between a man and a woman.
  • We are not required to perform any marriage, homosexual or heterosexual.
  • As Christians, we are opposed to verbal or physical abuse of anyone in the LGBT community or any other community.
  • We should point out that singleness is a spiritual gift.
  • We understand marriage to be the exclusive biblically-sanctioned context for expressing sexuality.

These points are relevant to pastoral ministry and I believe we all can accept them. Greg, Charles, Rick and I spent extra time talking about singleness as a spiritual gift. Unfortunately the words and actions of some churches imply that if you are single, you are somehow not a whole person. But that viewpoint is wrong—it flies in the face of the gospel, which proclaims that it is Jesus who makes us whole. Jesus was single and Paul wrote about singleness as a gift (1 Corinthians 7:1-40). We hope to address this topic in the future. In the meantime, let me recommend the resources listed in my PS below.

YuanAnother highlight of the NAE gathering was a presentation from Christopher Yuan (pictured at right). He told us that while attending dental school he began using illicit drugs and living promiscuously as a homosexual. Within a few years, he had been expelled from school, imprisoned for drug dealing and found to be HIV-positive. He now lives an abundant new life in Christ, is a graduate of Moody Bible Institute and Wheaton College Graduate School, and is now pursuing a doctorate at Bethel Seminary. At http://youtu.be/NJdEZv_24Uk you’ll find a video of a panel discussion that includes Christoper. The discussion has some of the most helpful material I’ve found on same-sex attraction. What Sam Allberry says is especially helpful (Sam is the author of a book entitled Is God Anti-gay?).

Though some declare celibacy impossible for gay people because their homosexual orientation is the “unifying center of their consciousness,” I believe that Jesus and Paul would disagree. Both were unmarried celibates who went out of their way to praise the single (celibate) life. This does not mean that our gender as men and women who have particular sexual orientations is irrelevant or an unimportant aspect of who we are. But first and foremost, we belong to Christ and are called to die daily so as to be transformed and grow up continually in him. Our sexual orientation and marital/single status can never be as important to us as our union with Christ and our calling to live a new life in him—a life lived in the hope of where he is taking us as his beloved children. In Christ we are members of his body and thus members one of another. Together we live at the foot of the cross—in the light of his holy, loving and transforming grace. We are brothers and sisters in Christ. That is our true identity!

Our calling as pastors is always to share the good news, which says that God’s love for us is not conditioned by our sexuality, our relationship status, or anything else. He loves us unconditionally because he is our Father and we are his children. He forgives all our sin so that we might be reconciled to him. As pastors and church leaders, we always need to promote positive views and examples of marriage and sexuality. In the same vein, we need a more robust view of singleness, friendship and simply being brothers and sisters in the body of Christ.

Living and sharing the gospel with you,
Joseph Tkach

P.S. Here are some additional resources related to this topic. I think you’ll find them helpful:

Boxing club outreach

Steve Solari, senior pastor of Hope Community Fellowship, GCI’s church in The Colony, Texas (north Dallas), provided the following update concerning a unique outreach opportunity for his congregation.

I met recently with our new neighbors—the Ring of Hope boxing club. Rich Lox, the club manager and head coach, and I shared our goals for reaching the surrounding community for Christ through building genuine relationships. Rich feels called to reach out to the youth of The Colony by giving them a positive after-school activity. There are many youth boxing programs in the U.S., but not many that are faith-based like his. Rich tells the story of how his childhood boxing coaches had a tremendous influence on him while he was growing up, and if they had only included Christ in their conversations he would have come to know God sooner. He wants to give that opportunity to others now.

Rich invited our congregation to participate in this outreach with him. Some of us already have started doing so (see picture below, where some of our members are helping set up the boxing ring).

Boxing

Time will tell where God wants us to go in terms of ministry partnership, but I have to say this: if our church building were a person, the shopping center where we’re located would be its “lap.” We’ve been praying as a congregation about how to expand our youth ministry, and here comes a group geared toward leading youth to Christ. They have landed, almost literally, in our lap!