Here the articles and sermons (for August) in the recently published July issue of GCI Equipper:
From Greg: Mind the Gap
Greg Williams urges GCI leaders to take action to close the gaps between what we say we value and what we actually do.
Prayer Guide: July 2018
Here are topics from our GCI family to pray about each day in July.
On Leadership: Power Test
Rick Shallenberger examines a primary source of a leader’s influence.
God’s Answer to Suffering
Gary Deddo addresses the question: Why does God allow us to suffer?
Kid’s Korner: We Believe
Lance McKinnon reviews GCI’s new tool for discipling kids.
RCL sermons for August 2018
Here are the Revised Common Lectionary-synced sermons for August:
– Sermon for August 5, 2018
– Sermon for August 12, 2018
– Sermon for August 19, 2018
– Sermon for August 26, 2018
We were saddened to learn of the recent death of longtime GCI pastor, Ken Swisher.
Several days before his death at age 89, Ken addressed members and guests at a party celebrating the 65th anniversary of GCI’s Big Sandy, TX, congregation (Ken had served as the congregation’s sixth pastor many years ago and, in retirement, had served the congregation as an elder for the last several years). In his remarks, Ken mentioned that he was ready to go and be with his Lord and Savior. He died at home on July 19. His funeral was held on July 22 with retired GCI Pastor Kelly Barfield officiating.
Born in 1928 in Tuscola, IL, Ken served honorably in the U.S. Army during the Korean War. He then served WCG/GCI as a pastor for over 40 years, caring for congregations in Texas and other locations across the country. Ken loved riding motorcycles, target shooting, studying theology, donating his handyman and tinkering talents to those in need, and spending time with his family.
Ken was preceded in death by his wife Beverly Jean Battles Swisher. He is survived by two sons (Kenneth Swisher and Timothy Swisher), four daughters (Regina Montgomery, Loretta Hearn, Ruth Klock and Kathryn Vine); 14 grandchildren, and eleven great-grandchildren.
Cards to the Swisher family may be sent to:
Kenneth & Janalee Swisher
12131 CR 1206
Tyler, Texas 75703
Dear Brothers and Sisters:
The move of our Home Office from Glendora, CA, to Charlotte, NC, was quite a challenge. Not only were there hundreds of boxes to pack and unpack, there was the challenge of getting the staff members who moved from California to North Carolina situated in their new homes. There was also the challenge of filling some key staff positions. Thankfully, those tasks are now complete, and I’m pleased to report that GCI’s International Home Office is open for ministry!
To celebrate, we recently held an open house at the Home Office. It was attended by local GCI members and other guests. Here are some pictures (click to enlarge):
As noted by Joseph Tkach in his March 14 Update letter, several Glendora Home Office employees did not relocate to Charlotte. As a result, we needed to fill several Home Office staff positions. A primary need involved staffing the GCI Media team. In Glendora, that team was competently directed since 2010 by Nathan Smith. But having recently become a father, and with all four of the grandparents located on the West coast, Nathan decided not to relocate to Charlotte. We are grateful for his service, including his willingness over the last several months to share his knowledge and expertise in preparing our new GCI Media Director, Michelle Fleming.
Michelle, the daughter of one of GCI’s mission directors, has been a Home Office employee for several months. She is bright, quickly learns new skills, and has the management acumen needed to tackle the challenge of producing media content on behalf of our global GCI family. Most importantly, Michelle is a GCI elder with a passion for how the Spirit is shaping us as a fellowship. I’m confident that her passion will shine brightly in the new and creative media productions to come from the newly formed GCI Media team, which now includes Joe Brannen and Charlotte Rakestraw. For an article about the Media team, click here, but first let me brag a bit on the newest team members:
Joe Brannen, a GCI elder, is our Digital Content Developer. Joe does a magnificent job telling the GCI story in videos, photographs and other media because he and his young family have lived the story at home and through ministry in GCI congregations and camps. Charlotte Rakestraw, the daughter of a GCI pastor in Florida, is our Social Media and Correspondence Coordinator. Having discovered a passion for graphic design as a teen, she majored in that area of study in college, and has worked as a designer for ten years. Charlotte now uses her considerable graphic design talent to tell the GCI story using 21st century technology.
I’m thrilled that this talented Media team is now in place in our Home Office. I’m blessed to have their offices adjacent to mine. Their infectious energy keeps me excited to come to work every day!
Come visit us. We’re open for ministry!
Greg Williams, GCI Vice President
Crossing Borders, a GCI GenMin chartered mission organization, recently completed its 25th trip to Mexico (they conduct two each year). Crossing Borders’ director Lee Berger submitted the following remembrances and pictures from the most recent trip.
We continue to see that our mission trips are all about relationship—relationships our missionaries from all over the country have with one another, relationships with our Mexican ministry partners, and relationships with the people we are blessed to serve in Mexico. As shown in the pictures below (click to enlarge), our recent trip included all sorts of service activities involving about a dozen of our ministry partners. Each partner has their own unique set of challenges—ministry on the border in Mexico is very demanding! Over the years, these partners have come to trust us as supporters of their ministries and as encouragers of them personally.
Here are some of the activities our 17 missionaries were involved with during this 25th mission trip:
God willing, we will head back to Mexico on December 7-10, 2018 to distribute Christmas gifts. For information, go to www.cbmission.org, or contact Lee Berger at 903-746-4463 or by email at lee.berger@gci.org.
Here are reports on two community outreach events conducted by GCI-USA congregations.
GCI’s Derby congregation (located near Wichita), recently held a community “Grilling and Games” fun night. Held on the church lawn, this was the first outside-the-building outreach event for the congregation in its new location. In addition to festive street signs, the congregation promoted the event with a Facebook ad linked to their website where families could sign up for a free gift-card drawing. About 30 non-member guests attended, most coming due to personal invitation. The guests joined members for food and yard games, with a few also touring the church building. The congregation plans to conduct a Back 2 School outreach event in August followed by a Backpack Blessing worship service.
GCI’s congregation in the East Dallas area recently held a Community Care Fair. About 200 people from the community benefited from the event, which included a free “yard sale,” blood drive, job fair, bounce houses, refreshments and prayer booth. Members joined with beneficiaries of the congregation’s weekly food distribution ministry to set up the event, barbecue food, sort seven pallets of clothing, help guests take their new treasures to their cars, and clean up. The event was funded with contributions from community businesses. It was an inspiring time of participating with Jesus in his compassion for the community!
We are pleased to introduce the newly formed GCI Media team:
Led by Media Director Michelle Fleming, the Media team was filled out recently when Joe Brannen (from Dallas, TX) and Charlotte Rakestraw (from Tallahassee, FL) joined the GCI Home Office staff in Charlotte, NC. Joe serves as Digital Content Developer, and Charlotte serves as Social Media and Correspondence Coordinator. The team works closely with GCI’s publications editors and authors (including Ted Johnston, Rick Shallenberger, Gary Deddo and Michael Morrison), GCI information technology, and various consultants in producing GCI’s denominational media (publications, websites, videos and social media).
Here are profiles of the three GCI Media team members (click each image to enlarge):
GCI members Lloyd and Mary Elwell, leaders in GCI’s congregation in Rochester, NY, founded a ministry in January this year that they call Hidden Pearls. Its mission is to reach out to cognitively-delayed people and their families in the area surrounding their church building, to help them comprehend the gospel and to provide pathways for them to be included in all aspects of Church life.
According to the Elwells (pictured at right), “Our thinking was to reach out to and disciple both the cognitively-delayed and their families.” In ministering to this focus group, Mary and Lloyd emphasize all aspects of Christian life based on personal experience—their youngest son is cognitively-delayed and Mary is involved professionally with the cognitively-delayed. Their oldest son also brings to the ministry the perspective of a sibling.
At first, the Elwells envisioned that their focus group would come to their church. They prepared brochures and began passing them out to agencies and other contacts in the community. In January they started to hold meetings but found it difficult to get participants to the church. Scheduling of staff and availability of transportation was a problem, so they changed their strategy. After receiving permission, they began holding the meetings at a group home that serves this focus group. Now they have a small group with all six housemates in the home participating (they are pictured below participating in one of the small group meeting learning activities).
Each meeting has a “remember phrase” that sums up the main theme of the lesson. During the meeting there are discussions, questions are answered, and there is lots of fun and a snack. One participant has closed the meeting with prayer on several occasions. Often the group home staff sits in and helps. Several have commented on the small group to staff at other group homes. The Elwells hope to see the number of small groups serving this focus community multiply.
One of the ways GCI Pastor Jeffrey Broadnax reaches out to the community nearby his congregation’s place of meeting is by serving as a chaplain to the Grove City, OH, police force. Pastor Jeff (second from left in the picture below) was recently honored for his service as a police chaplain by being one of two people given the Hometown Hero Award for the greater Columbus, OH, area. A local radio station and Credit Union took nominations for the honor from community members and the Assistant Fire Chief for the City of Columbus nominated those who were given the award. Congratulations Jeff!
Dear Brothers and Sisters,
Years ago, the McDonalds corporation conducted an advertising campaign that declared in no uncertain terms, YOU DESERVE A BREAK TODAY! We’ve all seen ads like that—ones proclaiming that we deserve to own or consume a particular product. Many companies use this marketing approach to get us to buy their coffee, hamburgers, hair products, even toilet tissue. It’s not that I’m against buying nice things—recently I bought a dark chocolate, caramel and peanut-covered apple. Tammy and I definitely enjoyed it! But let me ask you this: Is our worth as human beings really about the things we own and the products we consume?
Advertising campaigns like the one described above are designed to get us to view ourselves more highly than we ought so that we’ll reward ourselves by buying the advertiser’s product. Sadly, that scheme works because our fallen humanity is subject to flattery (Psalm 5:9 NKJV; Romans 16:18 NKJV). We see that in the case of Adam and Eve (our first representatives), who rejected God’s good purposes for humanity. The distortion of human nature resulted, though God did not give up on us. He went to work advancing his purpose to bring many sons and daughters to glory (Hebrews 2:10). In doing so, God does not give us a slick sales pitch appealing to our distorted sense of self-worth. Rather, he invites us to trust in and follow his Son, the second Adam, who took on himself our fallen human nature and restored it to what God intended so that in him and by his Spirit, God’s eternal purpose for us would be realized (Ephesians 1:3-14).
Through his life, death and resurrection, Jesus gave humanity a worth that far exceeds what we could ever deserve, earn or even imagine. The apostle Paul put it this way: “Yea doubtless… I count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord: for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and do count them but dung, that I may win Christ” (Philippians 3:8, KJV). Paul knew that a living, deep relationship with God through Christ has infinite worth—inestimable value—compared to what any finite source could possibly provide. He reached that conclusion by examining his own spiritual heritage, no doubt recalling the words of Psalm 8: “What is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?’” (Psalm 8:4).
Have you ever wondered why God came in the person of Jesus the way he did? Couldn’t he have come with angelic hosts displaying power and glory? Couldn’t he have come as a talking animal, or like a Marvel Comics superhero? But as we know, Jesus came in the humblest manner—a helpless infant. His plan was to be put to death in a horrible manner. He did this because he was mindful of us. I cannot help but be encouraged when I remind myself of the amazing truth that though he did not need us, he came anyway. We have nothing to give him except honor, love and appreciation.
Since God does not need us, it prompts the question of our worth. In crass material terms, we’re worth relatively little. The value of the chemicals that compose our body is about $160.00. If we were to sell the bone marrow, DNA and organs in our body, the price might go up to millions of dollars. But that price does not begin to compare to our true worth. In Jesus, we have inestimable worth as new creations. Jesus is the source of that worth—the worth of a life lived in relationship with God. The triune God brought us into existence from nothing in order that we would be eternally in perfect holy and loving relationship with him. That relationship is a union and communion in which we freely and gladly receive all God gives us. In return, we entrust to him all we are and have.
Christian thinkers over the centuries have expressed the glory of this relationship of love in various ways: Augustine said, “Thou hast made us for Thyself, and our hearts are restless until they rest in Thee.” French scientist and philosopher Blaise Pascal said, “This infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words, by God himself.” C.S. Lewis said that, “No one who has experienced [the joy of knowing God] would ever exchange it for all the happiness in the world.” He also said that we humans were made to “run on God.”
God created all that is (including us) because, as the apostle John put it, “God is love” (1 John 4:8b). God’s love is the supreme reality—the basis of all created reality. His love is of infinite value and it is his redeeming and transforming love expressed toward us that gives us our true worth.
Dear friends, let us never lose sight of the reality of God’s love for us. When we have pain, whether physical or emotional, let us remember that God loves us, and will, in his timing, take all pain away. When we have sorrow, loss and grieving, let us remember that God loves us and will, one day, wipe away all tears.
Let me conclude with an analogy that I hope and pray resonates with you. When my children were young, they asked me why I love them. My answer was not that they were good kids who were good looking (which they were, and still are). It was not that they were honor roll students (which they were). Instead, my answer was that I loved them BECAUSE THEY WERE MINE! That is no mere marketing slogan—it speaks to the core reason of why God loves us: We belong to him, and that makes us more valuable than we can possibly imagine. Let us never forget that!
Rejoicing in our true worth as God’s beloved,
Joseph Tkach, GCI President
