We were saddened to learn of the recent death of GCI-Philippines Pastor Reuel Pamor.
Pastor Reuel Monserate Pamor, who for nine years pastored the GCI congregation in Pili, died unexpectantly at age 57. Reuel is survived by his wife Gina and four daughters. His funeral was held on February 11. For additional details about Reuel’s life, family and ministry, click here.
This update is taken from a report by Assistant Camp Director Leslie Asare-Akoto.
GCI in Ghana, Africa held a youth camp last December. The theme, based on Matthew 28:11, was Christ is the answer. Participants included 50 campers (age 12 to 19) and 43 staff. About 30 of the campers received scholarships from the Jon Whitney Foundation.
Camp activities included morning devotions, music appreciation, soccer, softball, fireside–chat, volleyball, Christian living, Bible study, bead-making, dance etiquette and debate, along with a banquet night. An outreach activity took campers and staff into the communities around the camp to inform parents and youths not only about the camp and its benefits, but also to invite them to a watch night service on New Year’s eve. An educational trip took campers and staff to the Bonsu botanical gardens and canopy walkway where they were briefed about different plants and their medicinal properties.
During the camp, three campers accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior and were baptized. The baptism was performed by National Pastor Emmanuel Okai and Pastor Jonathan Hammond, host pastor of the Kutunse congregation who had counselled the baptism candidates.
Longtime GCI-UK employee Phil Halford (now retired) the brother of deceased GCI Editor and Regional Director John Halford, is thrilled to announce the birth of his granddaughter, Caitlyn Linda (pictured below). She was born on January 31, weighing 9 lbs. 4 oz. The mother, father and grandparents are all doing well and Caitlyn is healthy and noisy (the noisy part being, apparently, a good sign!).
Customized clothing is a great way to promote your church. You can purchase various items of clothing with the GCI logo (shown below, available in various colors) on the GCI page on the Land’s End website at https://business.landsend.com/store/gci. When you go to the website, choose your item and then your size, and then the option to apply the GCI logo will appear.
Note: In the U.S., the IRS does not allow the cost of clothing with a GCI logo to be tax-deductible or reimbursable as a business expense because GCI does not expressly require this clothing to be worn by ministers or other employees or volunteers.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
On a recent video chat with publications editors Ted Johnston and Rick Shallenberger, we discussed GCI Update and GCI Equipper, our two primary international denominational publications. We came to the “profound” conclusion that the purpose for Update is to provide updates (on congregations, ministries, people and programs) and the purpose for Equipper is to provide equipping (for pastors and ministry leaders). If that conclusion seems obvious, that’s good—it’s important to return to the basics from time to time.
Thinking about the basics reminds me that Hall of Fame football coach Vince Lombardi would begin each training camp, football in hand, addressing his highly-skilled group of professional players with these words: “Gentlemen, this is a football!” In that back-to-the-basics spirit I want to expore in this letter the purpose for Equipper, which is to equip pastors and ministry leaders to participate with the Spirit in equipping our members for their ministry with Jesus. Said more simply, Equipper exists to equip the equippers.
Let’s unpack that thought by exploring the biblical definition of the word equip. In the New Testament, it translates the Greek word katartizo, which appears first in Mark 1:19 and Matthew 4:21 where James and John are katartizo-ing (preparing, mending, repairing, restoring) their nets for what those nets are made for: to catch fish.
The principal message behind that Gospel story is that Jesus had come to mend, repair, restore and prepare James and John (and the other apostles-in-training) for their calling: to catch people. All members of the church, old and young, share in this calling to participate with Jesus in what he is doing to minister to all humanity. To advance this ministry of all believers, Jesus extends a particular calling to church leaders (including, in our context, pastors and ministry leaders):
Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip [katartismos] his people for works of service [“ministry” ESV], so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. (Eph. 4:11-13, emphasis added)
Jesus placed ministry leadership offices within his body, the church, so that other members are equipped (restored, mended, prepared and outfitted) for their various works of ministry in and through the church. The overall goal is that the people of God, through this ministry, will grow into the maturity of Jesus himself. Please read that again, and let it soak in!
In accord with the New Testament use of katartizo, equipping involves restoration, healing and other forms of outfitting. Thus the equipping that church leaders are to be involved in has to do with helping willing members identify and live into their calling to participate in the ministry of Jesus in and through the church. This equipping involves many tasks, including counseling, training, teaching, apprenticing, affirming-appointing, deploying, coaching and superintending. The overall goal throughout is to help them become who they truly are (and are becoming) in Christ.
This brief overview of what the Bible says about equipping for ministry points to our basic purpose in publishing GCI Equipper each month (online at https://equipper.gci.org). Its articles, features and RCL-synced sermon manuscripts seek to remind us that our ultimate source of strength is Jesus, and that our works of service with our Lord are meant to help us help others grow into the fulness of the maturity of Christ. Toward that end, it is our plan that Equipper will continue to address a wide range of equipping topics, including prayer, worship, preaching, missional living, developing Christ-like leaders, building and growing the community of the church, etc. It is our aim to provide information and inspiration that helps pastors and ministry leaders be the very best equippers they can be.
Thanks to all of you who serve as leader-equippers in the body of Christ. I pray this blessing over you:
May the God of peace, who through the blood of the eternal covenant brought back from the dead our Lord Jesus, that great Shepherd of the sheep, equip you with everything good for doing his will, and may he work in us what is pleasing to him, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen. (Heb. 13:20-21)
The mighty power that raised Jesus from the dead is the same power that is at work within you—equipping you for doing our Lord’s work. It is this power that mends everything torn apart in us, that repairs everything broken in us, and that restores to us a life that is new in Christ. Dear fellow-minister, you are equipped in Jesus, so be equipped, and then participate in the powerful ministry of Jesus in equipping others!
Feeling equipped,
Greg Williams, GCI Vice President
PS: If you would like to subscribe to GCI Equipper in order to receive notification by email on the day it is published online, go to https://equipper.gci.org/subscribe.
We were saddened to learn of the recent death of GCI-Cameroon Pastor Victor Balinga.
Pastor Victor Balinga (pictured at left), was born on May 14, 1939. He received a degree in agricultural engineering from a university in Nigeria and also studied at a U.S. university in Maine. In Cameroon he served as technical adviser to the minister of scientific and technical research. He was also the general manager of Parc Korup and helped establish the botanical garden of Limbé, Cameroon. He married Agnès Balinga Murum in 1967. They have 7 children and 21 grandchildren.
Pastor Balinga was a longtime WCG member, having joined the Yaoundé congregation in 1978. He served there as a deacon for several years, then was ordained an elder in 1999 and commissioned to serve as the Lead Pastor of the Limbé congregation. In partnership with his wife Agnès, Victor planted a congregation in Bimbia and cells in Tiko, Buea and Bamenda. He also broadcast the gospel on an area FM radio station.
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
I have had conversations with many people who think that to live fully in God’s grace, they must be tolerant of sin. Perhaps they came to that erroneous conclusion because their goal was merely to avoid legalism. But the Bible tells us that living in grace means rejecting sin, not tolerating or accepting it. The Bible is clear: God is against sin—he hates it. Scripture says that God, refusing to leave us in our sinful condition, sent his Son to deliver us. God could not possibly be for us without being fully against what is against us.
Jesus taught against sin. In addressing a woman who had been caught in adultery, he said, “I do not condemn you…. Go. From now on sin no more” (John 8:11 NASB). Jesus’ statement demonstrates his contempt for sin and conveys a grace that confronts sin with redemptive love. It would be a tragic mistake to view Jesus’ willingness to become our Savior as tolerance of sin. The Son of God became one of us, precisely because he was completely intolerant of sin’s deceptive and destructive power. Instead of accepting our sin, he took it upon himself, submitting it to God’s judgment, to be obliterated through his self-offering on our behalf.
As we look around at the fallen world we live in and as we look into our own lives, it’s obvious that God allows sin to occur. However, Scripture is clear that God hates sin. Why? Because of the damage it wreaks upon us. Sin hurts us—it hurts our relationship with him and with others; it keeps us from living in the truth and the fullness of who we are, his beloved. In dealing with our sin in and through Jesus, God does not immediately remove us from all of sin’s enslaving consequences. But that does not mean that his grace gives us permission to continue sinning. God’s grace is not his passive tolerance of sin.
As Christians, we live under grace—freed from the ultimate penalties of sin because of Jesus’ sacrifice. As workers with Christ, we teach and preach grace in a way that gives people hope and a clearer image of God as their loving, forgiving Father. But that message comes with a warning—remember the apostle Paul’s question: “Do you presume on the riches of his kindness and forbearance and patience, not knowing that God’s kindness is meant to lead you to repentance?” (Rom. 2:4 ESV). He also said this: “What shall we say, then? Shall we go on sinning so that grace may increase? By no means! We are those who have died to sin; how can we live in it any longer?” (Rom. 6:1-2).
The truth of God’s grace is never meant to encourage us to remain in our sin. Grace is God’s provision in Jesus to release us not only from the guilt and shame of sin, but also from its distorting, enslaving power. As Jesus said, “Everyone who sins is a slave to sin” (John 8:34) and as Paul warned, “Don’t you know that when you offer yourselves to someone as obedient slaves, you are slaves of the one you obey—whether you are slaves to sin, which leads to death, or to obedience, which leads to righteousness?” (Rom. 6: 16). Sinning is a serious matter for it enslaves us to the influence of evil.
This understanding of sin and its consequences does not lead us to heap words of condemnation on people. Instead, our words, as Paul noted, are to be “always full of grace, seasoned with salt, so that you may know how to answer everyone” (Col. 4:6). Our words should convey hope, telling both of God’s forgiveness of sin in Christ, and his eventual triumph over all evil. To speak of one without the other is a distortion of the message of grace. As Paul notes, God in his grace will never leave us enslaved to evil: “Thanks be to God that, though you used to be slaves to sin, you have come to obey from your heart the pattern of teaching that has now claimed your allegiance” (Rom. 6:17).
As we grow in our understanding of the truth of God’s grace, we understand more and more why God loathes sin—it harms and hurts his creation, it destroys right relationships with others, and it slanders the character of God with lies about God, undermining a trusting relationship with God. What, then, do we do when we see a loved one sinning? We don’t condemn them, but we do hate the sinful behavior that is harming them (and perhaps others). We hope and pray that our loved one will be freed from their sin and, as we are able, we reach out to help.
Paul is a powerful example of what God’s grace accomplishes in a person’s life. Prior to conversion, Paul violently persecuted Christians. He stood by (perhaps throwing stones) as Stephen was martyred (Acts 7:54–8:1a). Because he was vividly aware of the tremendous grace he received for the horrible sins of his past, grace remained a theme of Paul’s life as he fulfilled his calling to serve Jesus:
I consider my own life worth nothing to me; my only aim is to finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me—the task of testifying to the good news of God’s grace. (Acts 20:24)
In Paul’s writings, we find an interweaving of grace and truth in what he taught under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit. We also see that God radically transformed Paul from an ill-tempered legalist who persecuted Christians, to a humble servant of Jesus who was fully aware of his own sin and of God’s mercy in adopting him as his child. Paul embraced the grace of God, and throughout his life devoted himself to proclaiming it, no matter what the cost.
Following Paul’s example, our conversation and counsel to others should be grounded in God’s amazing grace for all sinners, and God’s firm teaching that we are to live lives apart from sin—the life that God’s grace frees us to live. We are to “encourage one another daily… so that none of [us] may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness” (Heb. 3:13). When we find people living in opposition to God’s goodness, rather than condemning them, we are to gently instruct them, “in the hope that God will grant them repentance leading them to a knowledge of the truth” (2 Tim. 2:25).
Comforted and instructed by God’s grace and truth,
Joseph Tkach
PS: Click here to download the GCI prayer guide for February. We publish these prayer guides on our GCI Facebook page at www.facebook.com/WeAreGCI.
We are pleased to introduce you to Mohammad Ali (pictured below), one of our newest interns in the GCI-USA Intern Program. Mohammad is interning in GCI’s San Jose, CA, congregation under the tutelage of Lead Pastor Mel Dahlgren, with CAD team member Ted Johnston serving as Mohammad’s ministry coach. Here is a short bio from Mohammad:
I was born in the Ukraine and moved back and forth from Jordan and Kazakhstan due to my father’s job. My mother and I came to the United States nine years ago, when I was 12. Throughout my middle school and high school years, I always acknowledged the existence of God, but never partook in the intimate relationship that Jesus Christ provides.
At age 18 I moved away from home and went from being a hereditary Christian to an individual who was transformed in heart, thought and action by Jesus through the Word. I believe it is my calling to be a minister of the gospel.
Currently, I am serving as the youth pastor and one of the worship leaders at my church. My hope is to one day plant a church and live in a region where the Word of God is either being suppressed or has never been presented. I know that God will use my GCI internship to continue improving my effectiveness as a disciple of Jesus.
We were saddened to learn of the recent death of Jane Nolder, wife of Nevin Nolder, who pastors a GCI congregation in St. Cloud, Minnesota.
Jane’s death from complications due to cancer was unexpected—the couple had been led to believe that they had more time together. A memorial service will be held on Feb 17.
Please join us in prayer for Nevin and his family.
Cards may be sent to:
Nevin Nolder
4690 253rd Ave NW
Isanti, MN 55040
GCI’s congregation in Charleston, South Carolina, recently celebrated its fifth anniversary. Two years ago, the congregation, led by Pastor Tommie Grant and his wife Robin (pictured at right), moved into their own church building. After much prayer concerning where God would have them locate, the building, which had been vacant for two years, became available. It has served since then as an effective place from which the congregation reaches out to the surrounding community.
The anniversary celebration was special as the congregation thanked God for his provision. The event drew guests from the community along with family and friends. The guest preacher was Charles Young who pastors a GCI congregation in Atlanta, GA. It was a joyous day!
