SEP Mexico was held on December 28-January 1 a couple of hours from Guadalajara, Mexico. The youth camp provided a great time of worship, learning, relationship-building and spiritual nurture for 35 campers and 9 staffers from different parts of Mexico including Mexico City and Francisco Villa—a community in the state of Tamaulipas (near the U.S. border) where there is much danger due to drug cartel activity.
Pastor Heber teaching
Speakers for most of the camp were Pastor Heber Ticas (pictured teaching at right) and his wife Xochilt Ticas. Through their messages, campers were immersed in the love of the triune God as they engaged in various topics including God’s universal love, forgiveness, our true identity, and God’s plan for relationships. The youth also had a great time participating in games and sports (mainly soccer and volleyball).
Morning sessions at camp were divided into two tracks. Some of the oldest campers participated in the leadership development track with Pastor Ticas while the rest took part in the discipleship track with Natanael Cruz, pastor of the GCI church in Mexico City. The discipleship track developed topics from the general camp sessions, presenting the loving, inclusive nature of our Savior.
The highlights of the week came on Wednesday and Thursday:
During a time of prayer and worship on Wednesday morning, it was evident that the Holy Spirit was moving us to set aside scheduled presentations to give him room to work in a a special way in and through our youths. Many tears were shed as hearts were being healed by the love of the Lord that gripped those who were present.
On Thursday morning Heber and Xochilt shared their story of 24 years of marriage as an introduction to the topic of One Flesh (God’s plan for marriage). This topic really connected with the youth, especially the young ladies.
Reflecting on the camp experience, Heber wrote this note:
At SEP Mexico we saw clearly that the Spirit is working in the lives of our young members in Mexico. We are thankful for the hard work that the Mexico camp committee did in making the camp a success. We also are thankful for the financial support from the Jon Whitney Foundation, the GCI Southern California Hispanic District and other partners in GCI-USA and GCI-Canada. Without their generosity it would have been difficult for many of the campers to attend.
Fred Sanders, professor of theology at Biola University, wrote a humorous blog post in 2009 that assigned alternate meanings to the word GRACE used as an acronym to stand for different Christian groups and perspectives. Though it’s a bit esoteric (and sometimes off-center), I’ve quoted below part of his post, hoping to bring a smile to your face and then to make a point.
What does GRACE stand for?
Existentialist: Genuine, Real, Authentic Christian Existence
Catholic Mysticism: Gazing Raptly At Consecrated Eucharist
Emergent church: Generational Resentment Against Conservative Evangelicals
Arminians: God Respecting Autonomy Conditionally Elects
Dispensationalists: Getting Raptured After Charting Endtimes
Used with permission of Leadership Journal
This list makes me chuckle, though neither Sanders nor I mean any disrespect. We may not agree with all these groups and perspectives on every point of doctrine and practice, but all authentic Christians agree we are saved by grace and called to share this life-changing gospel with all people everywhere.
As a church, GCI proclaims that Jesus’ life, death, resurrection and ascension is good news for all. We provide congregations where people are welcomed into fellowship and helped to grow in our Lord’s grace and knowledge through worship and sharing in Jesus’ ongoing works of service, in the Spirit, to the world.
That is what we are about—what we stand for, and I thank God that, more and more, we are known for what we are for, rather than (like the cartoon) what we are against.
As our name (Grace Communion International) indicates, we are for sharing God’s love for all people all over the world, and bringing them into communion with the Father, Son and Holy Spirit. We desire people everywhere to grow in right, loving relationship with the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit. Rather than to be known for what we oppose, we aspire to be known for what we are for—actively sharing God’s grace, forgiveness, inclusion, hope, love, faithfulness, communion and mercy. This is our aspiration as a denomination, as congregations and as individuals.
In all things, we seek to be for what God is for. What is that? In John 3:16 we learn that God so loved the world that he sent his one and only Son. Then in John 3:17 we learn that God did so not to condemn the world, but to save it. God, in Christ, is for us (all of us!)—that is the powerful lesson we rehearsed in the recent Advent/Christmas season. God’s desire is that we live in loving relationship with him and with each other. In this understanding we do not presume that we have all knowledge or have obtained perfection, but like Paul, we press forward, motivated by our “upward call” in Jesus (Philippians 3:12-14 ESV).
Of course, being for certain things means God is against whatever opposes those things. And we should follow suit, just as we are shown in Scripture. However, we ought not switch priorities—God is against what opposes his purposes in order to protect and bring about what he is for. He rescues and redeems us from sin and evil (which he is against) in order to accomplish what he is for, namely, making us his glorified children who share in Jesus Christ’s own sonship and communion with the Father by the Spirit. Were God not for something, there would be no reason for him to be against anything. This is the trajectory of Paul’s thought in Romans 5 where he acknowledges the fall, our sin, and the need for forgiveness and reconciliation. But then he uses the phrase much more (four times for emphasis) to show that we are saved for something: “Much more,” he writes, by receiving “the abundance of grace and the free gift of righteousness,” we will “reign in life through the one man Jesus Christ” (Romans 5:17). Karl Barth makes a similar point in Church Dogmatics:
Divine grace is primary and the sin of man secondary, and…the primary factor is more powerful than the secondary…. We cannot contradict the order which [God] establishes. We are forbidden to take sin more seriously than grace, or even as seriously as grace. (The Doctrine of Creation, part 2, vol. 3, 41)
It is my continual prayer that as a church we be known for being a safe place where people find love, hope, recovery and healing from bad doctrine, church abuse and infirmed teaching and counseling. I pray we be known as a church that fulfills John 13:35—known for our love for one another. I also pray we be known for joyful participation in the work of God—the work Jesus defined this way: “The work of God is this, to believe in the one he has sent” (John 6:29).
What are we for? We are for God, who is for his people, just as we see and hear in Jesus. Our work is to introduce people to Jesus, helping them trust him, receive his forgiveness and share in his own faith, love, hope and joy. We are for following Jesus, the head of the church (Colossians 1:18), as he through the Spirit and the Bible (2 Timothy 3:16-17) leads us to participate with him in fulfilling the Father’s mission.
We are for living and sharing the gospel, giving birth to all kinds of churches in all kinds of places for all kinds of people. That is our motto, our mission/vision, and our passion. I pray it is our constant focus.
Does your congregation have its own website? If so, is it effective? In a recent post on Thom Rainer’s LifeWay blog (click here to read it), Jonathan Howe noted that effective church websites prominently display the church address and worship service times on the home page, then make it easy to navigate to the following eight “must-have” sections:
Staff names and titles (preferably with pictures)
Information about children’s and youth ministries
Sermon archives (video is best, but audio works too)
Church calendar
Contact information (with someone responsible for responding to inquiries rapidly)
Statement of beliefs
Links to social media profiles (being active on social media is vital in our culture)
Major church news items
Note from editor: It also is vital to keep the website up-to-date (fresh). Showing out-of-date material (particularly on the home page) suggests the church is out-of-date (if not dead). Check your website today and see how you’re doing.
We received the following prayer request from GCI-USA elder Gary Dry.
After a lot of poking and prodding, including an echo-cardiogram, my cardiologist found I have a congenital heart murmur. That led to a cardiac cauterization showing I have a 100% blocked artery in my heart and a dysfunctional aortic valve. Next stop is a cardio-thoracic surgeon for open-heart surgery to replace the valve, and perhaps bypass surgery to deal with the blocked artery. I should know more after an upcoming visit to the doctor.
I would appreciate your prayers, knowing that, as always, I’m in the best of care from the doctor known as Jesus. So, as my Aussie friends say, “No worries mates!”
Here is an update related to the prayer request for Roger Abels posted on January 6.
Donna and Roger Abels
We’ve learned that Roger’s condition remains serious as he works toward moving to a rehabilitation hospital. Here is an update from Roger and Donna’s daughter Courtney:
Eighteen days ago, my dad fell down the stairs and broke his neck. He/we have been pulled through the roller coaster of heartbreaking diagnosis, continual fights for his life, victories and then more hurdles to overcome.
I ask for prayer that he can 1) breath on his own (he is off the respirator but breathing continues to be a potential problem) 2) overcome pneumonia, 3) not aspirate again, 4) permanently lower a mystery fever, 5) have full function of his stomach (eating continues to be a problem), 6) have relief from detrimental anxiety and panic attacks, 7) have mental and physical strength to endure procedures, 8) wisdom of doctors, 9) divine peace and wisdom for the rest of us, 10) glorification of the Lord in all ways, regardless of His answer.
I know prayer is more than positive vibes—it is a powerful plea to God for His intercession in the lives of His children. It is life-altering. It is a form of worship. We pray with reverence, yet bold assurance. If you wouldn’t mind pausing to pray for my dad, we’d be so grateful.
Hebrews 4:16—Let us then approach God’s throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need.
Cards may be sent to:
Roger and Donna Abels 1827 Ransom Dr. Ft Wayne, IN 46845
GCI-USA Church Development and Administration (CAD) recently emailed the primary pastoral leader in each U.S. congregation to let them know that revised editions of several GCI policy manuals have been posted at http://www.gci.org/go/manuals. Here are excerpts from the email’s summary of revisions to the manuals:
1. Church Administration Manual
The primary change has to do with defining three types of GCI-USA congregations: chartered churches, chartered fellowship groups and non-chartered fellowship groups. The “fellowship group” categories, which are new for us, are a response to the reality that we have many very small congregations that need the freedom to operate in ways more appropriate to their size and other constraints and opportunities. All congregations with an average attendance of 15 or fewer people will be classified as fellowship groups and your regional pastor will work with you to determine if such congregations should operate as “chartered fellowship groups” or “non-chartered fellowship groups”—the revised manual explains the difference.
We have set a new policy for the way our congregations are named. This policy applies to new congregations and to established congregations that wish to change their name.
We have eliminated all reference to the licensing of elders. Our experience has been that the licensing procedure is no longer useful and so has been altered. Under the new policy, elders will be ordained but not licensed. When an elder is ordained, they will be given an appropriate title (such as lead pastor) in accordance with their particular pastoral leadership assignment within the congregation in which they serve. That assignment is not permanent, but the ordination as elder is permanent so long as the elder complies with the code of ethics for elders and otherwise remains a GCI member in good standing, and continues to want to serve as an elder. In keeping with this new policy, we’ve posted a revised ordination/appointment application at http://tinyurl.com/hrhycay. This form is to be used to apply for elder ordination and to apply to be appointed as a member of a pastoral team or as a fellowship group facilitator.
We’ve made minor updates to the section that describes our denominational corporate structure at the international level. Further updates will be made in a few months with final approval of our new denominational articles of incorporation and bylaws. As Dr. Tkach announced in the 2014 regional conferences, we’ve been working toward this major step for the last few years and we’re just about complete.
We’ve streamlined our grievance, discipline and appeals process to make it less cumbersome, expensive and time-consuming for all involved. There now are fewer levels in the process with the final point of review for grievances and appeals being the relevant regional pastor.
The Pastoral Continuing Education Guide is now published as Appendix F in the Church Administration Manual. Pastors and pastoral team members, please pay close attention to this appendix as it pertains to steps you are expected to take in furtherance of your education as a GCI-USA pastoral leader.
2. Financial Management Manual Changes to this manual mostly have to do with updating terms and a few procedures related to our standard financial management system used by chartered churches (and now by chartered fellowship groups). Pastors, please pay particular attention to the section listing financial reports required from chartered churches and chartered fellowhip groups. If you or your treasurer are having difficulty getting these reports completed accurately and on time, the folks in our Treasurer’s office in Glendora are happy to assist you.
3. Church Building Manual Changes to this manual are minor, related mostly to updating terminology connected with our recently implemented regional structure.
4. GenMin Handbook
Added a section on reporting accidents/incidents
Added a section that prohibits using 15-seat passenger vans
On The Exchangeblog of Christianity Today, Ed Stetzer wrote recently of the “missional posture” presented by John in his Gospel. This is a posture of “sentness” grounded in Jesus’ words, which define a Trinitarian theology of mission. Here is a representative quote from the post:
Jesus sending his disciples
The missional impulse of sentness is found in John 20:21, where John records Jesus saying, “Peace to you! As the Father has sent Me, I also send you” [Holman translation]. It may seem on the surface that sentness means going. While sentness certainly implies going, the Johannine mode of mission stresses something far deeper and richer given that it connects the sentness of the disciples to that of the Father sending the Son.
A friend of mine was telling me about the first time he and his wife saw their new home. Viewing it online, they realized it was empty, so they decided to drive by for a closer look. To their chagrin, they could only peek inside—the windows were partially blocked by curtains and blinds. It wasn’t until a realtor let them inside that they got the full picture. Some of what they found was what they expected, but some was not what they expected at all. Their experience reminds me of the struggle we Christians, given our finite minds, often have understanding (“seeing”) such profound concepts as infinity, eternity and time. Trying to understand is like trying to see every nook and cranny of the inside of a house by looking through the front door keyhole. There is much to see, but the view is obstructed. Though we seek to understand, it’s a struggle—a collision of the finite with the infinite.
Barth on God, time and the Incarnation
As we read about these concepts, though we recognize the words, we’re not always sure what we’ve just read. A number of you have told me this has been your experience in reading theologian Karl Barth (I relate!). At times when reading Barth’s Church Dogmatics I’ve written more than a page of notes on a couple of his paragraphs, nevertheless, I wonder if I’ve understood what he wrote. It certainly takes work and patience to grasp Barth, but I find it well worth the effort—it’s like digging through rock in search of gold. Sometimes you come across amazing nuggets without realizing what you’ve found. But then you have that “aha moment”—it’s like someone has turned on the lights in a dark tunnel and you’re now able to see the gold right there in your hand.
One of the nuggets in Barth’s writing is his teaching that the Incarnation is the proper starting point for all true doctrine. Since the pre-incarnate Son of God is the Old Testament’s Creator and Lord, and the incarnate Son of God (Jesus) is the New Testament’s Savior, it makes sense that everything truly does begin and end with Jesus Christ—he is the “Alpha and Omega” (Revelation 22:13). Along those lines, Barth wrote this:
Whenever Holy Scripture speaks of God as eternal, it stresses his freedom. It takes him emphatically out of the realm of man and men, away from all history and all nature. It sets him at the beginning and end of all being and on high above it and unfathomably beneath it. (Church Dogmatics, vol. II.1, page 609)
This statement takes some pondering to mine the gold it contains, so let’s ponder together. Barth is linking God’s eternality with his freedom, making the point that for God to be truly God, he must be truly free—he must not be dependent on anything, and that includes time itself. This makes sense, for were God constrained by time, he would have to do things, allow things, or orchestrate things within a particular period or epoch of time. Were that the case, God would not be truly God—he would cease, for example, to be omnipotent. Barth is helping us understand that time cannot be God’s equal, nor a constraint upon him, nor a boundary that hems him in.
The idea of God being constrained by time arises not from Scripture but from paganism, including the Greek mythology concerning Kronos, who is one of the pantheon of gods known as the Titans. This myth does not align with the biblical revelation that God, who is eternal, created everything and there isn’t anything that exists that he did not create, time included. The Bible reveals that time has no power over God—there is nothing that has power over him, nor can anything exist prior to him. There cannot be anything that exists eternally with the same freedom including time itself. Either God has divine freedom and is the creator of time, or God is subservient to it and therefore not truly God. By definition, God is self-existent—as theologians say, he has aseity. God is wholly other—dependent on nothing, existing himself, before he created time. God exists in divine timelessness. Or, we can say, he has his own kind of time—time that is uncreated and eternal. The uncreated Father has and makes time for the uncreated Son (eternally!), and the Son has and makes time (eternally!) for the Father, all in the Holy Spirit. Now that’s a nugget that takes time to ponder!
The Incarnation in relation to time
Eternal Clock (creative commons license)
With that thought in mind, let’s consider now the Incarnation in relation to time. The apostle Paul wrote this: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law” (Galatians 4:4 ESV). In the phrase, “When the fullness of time had come,” Paul says more than we may have noticed. This phrase does not mean that God was waiting around for a specific moment in time to act. Barth helps us understand by noting that eternity is something constant (immutable) while time is transient (mutable). Time was created and flows forward and is changing—moving from the present into the past in anticipation of the future. God, who inhabits eternity, is not subject to change like that. Nevertheless, in the fullness of time, eternity entered time.
The apostle John made a similar point in writing this: “The Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us. We have seen his glory, the glory of the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth” (John 1:14). This profound statement tells us that God has revealed himself within time and space without ceasing to be eternal. God, who inhabits eternity, takes time into himself and, in his incarnate Son, Jesus Christ, takes on temporality. Just as the Incarnation means divinity has taken on humanity, it means that eternity subsumes time—it includes within it temporal time. In Jesus, God has made time for us, taken time for us. God has redeemed our time by graciously bringing it into fellowship and communion with his own time—his eternity.
Barth argued that neither time or eternity can be understood independently from the Incarnation. This reality fits hand-in-glove with the paradox of Jesus being both fully human and fully divine. Leaning too far in either direction leads to the heretical errors of Ebionitism (which diminishes Jesus’ divinity) and Docetism (which diminishes Jesus’ humanity). God is both temporal and eternal—temporal because eternity has subsumed temporality, and eternal because time has no power over him. There is a huge deposit of gold to ponder here!
The Incarnation reveals that, by grace, eternity includes time and does not exclude it. In the person of Jesus, the eternal entered time without ceasing to be eternal, raising us temporal beings through Jesus to participation in God’s eternity. In other words, Jesus’ coming in the flesh changes time for all time. We are in Christ and he is in the Father, and the Father is in him, and we are included in their eternity. Note Paul’s words:
Because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved. And God raised us up with Christ and seated us with him in the heavenly realms in Christ Jesus in order that in the coming ages he might show the incomparable riches of his grace, expressed in his kindness to us in Christ Jesus. (Ephesians 2:4-7)
Rejoicing in glorious realities
Yes, you and I live in time, yet because of Jesus, we also live in eternity. This is an amazing nugget—a profound truth we struggle to grasp, but struggle we must, though it’s like peeking into a home through a crack in the curtains. Once we enter the home, we’ll see much more than we have ever dared to expect. In the meantime let’s hold fast to the nuggets we have—the precious knowledge that, already, we are alive with Christ; already, we have been raised to new life with him; and, already, we have been seated with him in the heavenly realms. He has shared with us his eternal life while we remain creatures, his created children. As the apostle Paul put it, “What is sown [created] is perishable [mortal, subject to death], what is raised is imperishable [not subject to death]…” (1 Corinthians 15:42 NRSV).
What we grasp now about these glorious realities is just a foretaste—there is much more to see and to comprehend. In the meantime we celebrate the profound, joyous truth that through the Incarnation Jesus has entered time and became one of us in order to take us out of time and bring us into his eternity. When we are glorified and we see our Lord face-to-face, our minds will be enabled to grasp more fully what we now see “through a glass darkly”—our glorious, eternal union and communion with the triune God who is Father, Son and Holy Spirit for all eternity. God hasten that day!
Rejoicing in the Incarnation, Joseph Tkach
PS: In the United States, January 18 is Martin Luther King Jr. Day. For some insights about Dr. King’s important contributions, see my January letter to donors at http://www.gci.org/letter/1601.
GCI’s congregation in Bogotá, Colombia, recently conducted “Caritas Felices” (Happy Faces) as a Christmas-themed outreach to needy children living in a poor community on the outskirts of the city. Over 170 children were served. Members had picked the name of a child before the event and purchased a gift for them to receive. The children were also given a meal (over 190 sandwiches served). A Christmas play was presented to show the children the importance of the Incarnation of the Son of God.
Christ Community Church (one of GCI’s Cincinnati, Ohio, area congregations) partnered with an organization called Artsy Fartsy in hosting a Christmas party for neighborhood children on December 12. Thirty-six children from a neighboring apartment complex attended along with children from the congregation. Activities (pictured below) included crafts, face painting and breaking a piñata full of candy. The children made a Christmas chain with each of their names on it and hung it on a Christmas tree. Church members served lunch and each child was given a winter hat, gloves and socks. The families were presented with a storybook on the strength of love for one another. The party ended with a blessing.
Christ Community Church has partnered with Artsy Fartsy for about a year in ministering to under-served children in grades 4-6 who live in an apartment complex in the neighborhood where the church meets. Artsy Fartsy gives the children opportunity to explore their creativity through painting, acting, sewing, clay molding, cooking and baking. Members of Christ Community Church assist with these monthly meetings, spending time with the kids and building relationships. The congregation is committed to building connections with the local community and serving the community with Christ’s love.
The highlights of the week came on Wednesday and Thursday:
Reflecting on the camp experience, Heber wrote this note:
1. Church Administration Manual
2. Financial Management Manual
