2019 – Page 8 – GCI Update

Jesus, Irritated?

Dear GCI Family and Friends,

The writer of Hebrews says, “The word of God is alive and active. Sharper than a two-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow; it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart” (Hebrews 4:12). This verse reminds me to approach the Holy Scriptures with a “yieldedness” to the Spirit and a desire to relate more deeply to the Triune God. When we do this, the stories come alive and penetrate our innermost beings.

In my daily devotion, I am oftentimes surprised by things that never stood out previously. One of the recent surprises was noticing how even Jesus got annoyed and frustrated, especially with faithlessness and perverse thinking. One such example is his reaction after healing a demon-possessed boy.

“You unbelieving and perverse generation,” Jesus replied, “how long shall I stay with you and put up with you? Bring your son here.” (Luke 9:41)

Throughout the gospel accounts, Jesus was downcast by faithless responses. And it seemed to impact him most when his disciples displayed a lack of belief. This story takes place a day after Jesus, Peter, James, and John had come down from the Mount of Transfiguration. A great crowd met Jesus, and a father in the crowd begged that Jesus heal his son. The father tells Jesus, “I begged your disciples to cast it out, but they could not.” A key point to this story is found at the beginning of Luke 9.

Then Jesus called the twelve together and gave them power and authority over all demons and to cure diseases, and he sent them out to proclaim the kingdom of God and to heal (Luke 9:1-2).

Though these disciples had traveled with Jesus, had seen many miracles, and had been given the power and authority over demons, their lack of faith prevented them from healing the boy. You can understand Jesus’ dismay, which he expressed in his words.

As someone who is challenged on many fronts, I find it encouraging that even though Jesus was 100% God and man, and was filled with grace, truth, and love, he could get a little irritated and disappointed. The expressions of annoyance and frustration are a minor piece of his earthly experience, but these mark the reality of his humanity and it makes him human enough to identify with. He really did take on flesh and blood and he had to wrangle through the daily grind just as we do.

Certainly, crankiness was not the daily demeanor of Jesus. His day-in-day-out earthly ministry shows us that he continued forward no matter the negativity he faced, and his driving purpose was to raise humanity out of the generational cycle of faithlessness. The faithless bystanders—even if they included his disciples—did not deter Jesus from healing the boy and there is nothing that will keep the grace, truth, and love of Jesus from moving through the crowd and reaching us.

Prayer: Jesus, you were both divine and human, and you eternally maintain your connectedness to us humans in your glorified body. We thank you for temporarily setting aside your glory to join us in our mess, fully embracing humanity as one of us, and being the perfect example and perfect sacrifice that saves us. Amen.

So thankful for his humanity,
Greg Williams

ACCM Christian Leadership Intensive

Would you like to take a step toward becoming a healthier leader in Grace Communion International?

Consider attending the ACCM Christian Leadership Intensive in Hickory, North Carolina, on August 30-31. This two-day intensive has been carefully crafted for ministry leaders, pastors or any GCI member who desires to take a deeper dive in leadership from a Christian point of view. Grace Communion Hickory will be the host church for this training event.

GCI President Greg Williams, wrote about ACCM, “I have used and taught the ACCM material and in my opinion they are outstanding. These classes help fulfill the ongoing educational pathway for our bi-vocational pastors, so please take advantage of this opportunity.”

If you have any questions, contact Anthony Mullins at anthony.mullins@gci.org.

Come & Drink Crusade – Nassau, Bahamas

Register Now!

“Let anyone who is thirsty come to me and drink.”

You are invited to join us for four days of celebration, fellowship and Christian outreach at our 12^th annual Come & Drink Crusade.
It takes place at Courtyard by Marriott, Junkanoo Beach, downtown Nassau, Bahamas, October 11-14, 2019. This hotel is the ideal site for a fall get-together for the entire family. Rooms rates are $160.00 per night double occupancy, all taxes included. Space is limited, so register today.
For more information, email Robert.Mckinney@gci.org or call (242) 424-4062.

Regional Celebration Registration

Harvest Your Blessings! Don’t miss out on registration for the North Central or East Celebration.

In 2019, GCI will host Regional Celebrations in the USA:

September 27 – 29: North Central – Noblesville, IN
October 25 – 27: East – Ocean City, MD

Click the image below to for more information and registration options.

Death of Linda Holladay

We were saddened to learn of the recent death of Linda Holladay, long time GCI member and wife of Pastor Charles Holladay of Bloomington, MN. A memorial service was held Saturday, August 17th at Hillcrest United Methodist Church. The following article is an excerpt from her obituary originally published here.

Linda Holladay, of Belle Plaine, passed away at her home on August 3rd, 2019. Her final weeks and days were spent surrounded by family. Though her life was shortened by ocular melanoma, the impact she made on those around her will be a lasting one. Linda was a selfless person in all aspects of the word, always thinking of others before herself, even up to the day she died. She kept a positive attitude throughout and her faith in God never wavered.

Linda was born in Wauseon, Ohio on March 15th, 1952 to Kenton and Marilyn Deily. She grew up the oldest of seven children and thoroughly enjoyed being a part of a large family. She left home to attend Ambassador College in Big Sandy, Texas where she met the love of her life, Charles Holladay. Linda and Charles married in 1976 and were blessed with four children. They moved around the country before eventually settling in Belle Plaine. Linda attended Living Grace Church, where she enjoyed playing hymns on the piano. She also enjoyed tending to her flowers and absolutely loved spending quality time with family, most notably, her grandchildren.

Linda is survived by her loving husband of 43 years, Charles Holladay; daughter Kari (Dylan) Valliere; daughter Julie (David) Wuggazer; son Andy (Tara) Holladay; son Steven (Amy) Holladay; eight grandchildren (soon to be nine); siblings Jo Ellen (Larry) Mavis; Greg Deily, Karen (David) Lintz; Wendy Karcher; Jeff Deily; Connie (Randy) Roberts; and 28 nephews and nieces. Linda was preceded in death by parents Kenton and Marilyn Deily and daughters Lindsey and Erin Holladay.

In lieu of flowers, donations can be made to the ocular melanoma foundation. Linda’s donation page can be found at the following web address: www.ocularmelanoma.org/linda-holladay

Death of Pastor John Amadala

Portrait of John Amadala — Pastor John Amadala

We regretfully pass on the death of Pastor John Amadala, pastor of the Kitale, Kenya, congregation and member of the African National Leadership team.

According to Anthony Gachanja, Regional Director for East Africa and National Ministry Leader for Kenya, John Amadala died last week, August 12^th of a suspected heart attack. John retired from his teaching career at the end of July 2019. He is survived by his wife, Jeniffer and four sons. During his service in GCI, he has served as a board member, chairperson of Ecclesiastical Council of Elders and local pastor of Kitale.

Calgary’s Second Anniversary

The relaunched Grace Communion Church in Calgary, Alberta celebrated its second anniversary on July 21, 2019. There were over 30 in attendance including the President of State of the Heart Ministries, Dr. Ross Jutsum and 18 adults and children from the Democratic Republic of the Congo, now living in our city. This added much joy to our worship of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior who died for all.

The congregation, meeting in the Upper Room of a local community center was reminded by pastor David Sheridan of the major changes that took place two years ago after a church split – a move to Sunday morning, a new location in the heart of the immigrant quadrant of the city, a new pastor, a celebration of communion on a weekly basis and a new-found joy in the Lord.

Ross Jutsum led worship including musical pieces from two recent CDs – In Christ Alone and Music from the Heart. A heart-warming segment was having all the children come to the front and use percussion musical instruments to accompany Ross. Members enthusiastically responded to God’s love for them with a rousing rendering of How Great Thou Art!

The service ended with the cutting of an anniversary cake and a potluck meal – with a grateful heart that Jesus will come again in glory as King of kings over all nations for a worldwide celebration of joy!

David A Sheridan
Pastor, Calgary Congregation

Mission Trip of Firsts

The following story was written by Lee Berger about the Crossing Borders mission trip summer 2019.

Children’s home with love — Visiting the children’s home with love

Fifteen missionaries of all ages completed their 8-day mission trip across the Mexican border on June 30, 2019. In its 14th year of ministry, the group was able to come alongside a variety of indigenous pastors, children’s home directors, parachurch ministers and other servants to share the love of Christ through words and actions.

fun crafts — Making Crafts & enjoying Bible lessons

There were a number of “firsts” on this trip. Normally crossing the river border in our vans can take between 45 minutes and 3 hours each way. The daily crossings on this trip were amazingly rapid, with one crossing only taking 12 minutes—what a blessing!

One of our ministry partners had recently purchased a new piece of land to begin developing as a ministerial training center, a Christian school for neighborhood children, housing for mission teams, and more. Our Crossing Borders team was honored to be part of the groundbreaking and the first day of physically clearing the land of trash and brush.

For the first time, we visited a holding center for immigrants seeking to enter the U.S., with people from Cuba, Central and South America, Africa and other regions. Their stories of sacrifice to seek a better life were amazing and heart-touching.

We have assisted a Mexican pastor for many years with various outreach projects, but this was the first time we attended his Sunday morning church service. We were asked in advance to provide a special time of Bible lessons, craft projects, and fun songs for the church youth—which we gladly did! We were blessed to share a meal prepared by his members and to enjoy a time of good fellowship across cultures.

There were many more activities and special conversations during the week, each one provided by God to start or build meaningful relationships. Everyone stayed safe and well, and many people were blessed with physical necessities and encouragement that comes only from the
heart of Jesus Christ. Thank you for your prayers and other support for this mission ministry of GCI.

God willing, we will be heading back to Mexico December 6-9. We are in need of “shoebox gifts.” Last winter our gift box totals dropped to about 800. We could use at least 1200 boxes to be able to bless the children God places in our path. If you could gather gift boxes from your neighborhood, church, club, family or any other group, they would be hand-presented
by our Crossing Borders missionaries to many needy children, along with a gospel message and lots of personal love.

See details at: https://cbmission.org/shoebox.html

Anthony Mullins Commissioned as Southeast Regional Director, USA

In spring, Paul David Kurts, Regional Director of the U.S. Southeast Region, was offered a full-time position with the Air National Guard. It was an amazing offer he could not resist. I asked Pam Morgan to step up as the Interim Regional Director to help during this transitional period. Even though Pam already had a full-time position as Operations Coordinator in our Home Office, she graciously accepted the additional responsibilities and challenges. I am grateful to Pam for all her hard work and sacrificial love and service to the pastors and members within the Southeast. Pam has done a tremendous job of helping pastors and treasurers bring their Monthly Church Reports and Financial Reports into compliance. Pam also worked to host a fantastic Regional Celebration this summer in Charlotte, NC. Thank you Pam!

The plan was to have Pam serve until a full-time Regional Director could be identified and freed up to serve the Region. After much prayer and many discussions, I would like to announce that Anthony Mullins has agreed to serve as the Regional Director and is excited to lead and serve the pastors in this region as they join Jesus in “being the church” within your congregations and fellowship groups as well as to your neighborhood. Anthony and his wife Elizabeth have served in GCI in many capacities over the years, from being a youth pastor in Atlanta, to Director of GenMin – overseeing our regional camps, to heading up our Intern and Pastoral Resident Programs, and overseeing our GCI Coaching Program. I believe Anthony will serve well and will help share the vision we as a denomination are embracing. Please welcome he and Elizabeth in their new role of service. Anthony will step into the role on September 1.

Mike Rasmussen

A Deep Well

“A person’s thoughts are like water in a deep well, but someone with insight can draw them out” (Proverbs 20:5, GNT).

Have you ever considered the effect that a well-used bucket could have on your relationships?

The proverb above describes our purposes and motives as water in a deep well. Many of our deepest thoughts are rarely shared with others, yet they are often the driving force behind who we are and how we behave. Reasons for this lack of sharing can be many: natural reticence, lack of trust, past hurts, the belief that no one cares anyway or sheer lack of opportunity. Like the water, the deepest parts of us are not freely available, but thankfully this proverb has a second part.

In response to the metaphor of a deep well, the proverb offers hope. “But someone with insight can draw them out.” This implies that like drawing water from a well we need to take our bucket and deftly and gently drink from the depths of another person. Practically, it requires a skilled combination of time, listening and good questions, so that we can more fully understand and appreciate those with whom we rub shoulders.

God seats us in Christian community because we need to both hear and be heard by other human beings, but the benefits of understanding and applying this proverb are not just for Christians.

How many misunderstandings could be avoided if we took the time to explore, ask questions and listen to others before forming an opinion? How many deep, lasting and healing friendships could be forged if we all took the time to truly consider one another? What would be the impact on the relationships with our children if we drew out their deepest thoughts with consideration and skill?

Prayer: Father, thank you for your continual and ongoing teaching. Give us the wisdom to come alongside and take the time to really love and know those whom you have brought into our lives. Amen.

By Gill Khoury
Pastor
Red Hill, South Africa

Year: 2019