“I am always thrilled to witness the work of the Lord Jesus in our congregation. It’s refreshing and encouraging to see members of all ages, backgrounds, and ethnicities united in serving the community, expressing love for one another, and worshiping our great God.”
Check out this month’s GCI Profile. Get to know Bermie Dizon, a longtime pastor in Grace Communion Glendora, before his retirement this month. Click here or the image below to read his full profile—which just touches on his impact and legacy as an encouraging pastor and lifelong mentor.
In December, Grace Communion Indianapolis hosted a celebration in honor of Mr. Abner Washington’s 100th birthday.
Mr. Washington is a much beloved, longtime GCI employee and pastor. He is held in very high esteem by members around the world.
The following is an excerpt from a video greeting sent to Mr. Washington from Rick Shallenberger, U.S. Regional Director
Happy birthday! I want to not only congratulate you but thank you for your many years of service to our denomination and to those that you have been entrusted to care for and love. You have done an amazing job.
One of my best memories of you was the 40th celebration of the Ghana church in Africa. You and Sharon were there primarily because they considered you a kind of father of the church there.
It was so amazing to watch the members there give you such honor and respect and to see their love for you. You were such an integral part of the congregation and the establishment of the congregation.
Your faith is well known. Your love for the brethren is well known. Your support for the congregation and for the denomination is well known. You are a friend to so many people; it is an honor to know you.
I pray God’s many, many blessings upon you. Thank you again for all you are, and for the fact that you have lived into the identity that God gave to you. God bless you.
In December we held our Very Surrey Christmas Parade and Neighborhood celebration with our church family and neighbors. We had over 21 decorated golf carts, muscle cars, and floats and were joined by the Oklahoma City Police and Fire Departments. It was incredible and the neighbors went all out!
After the parade, we loaded into our church building. We offered free face painting and craft tables, hosted by neighborhood businesses and volunteers from the school. There were professional pictures with Santa from a neighborhood photographer. And there was a hot chocolate and cookie bar sponsored by our neighborhood Lion’s Club and our favorite coffee roasters!
We had well over 500 in attendance at the celebration (and hundreds more who watched the parade) and neighbors simply hung out together for hours. I just sit in awe of what I see Jesus doing. He is using this church building in all the ways we dreamed it would be used. He’s building bonds through relationships. He’s breaking down walls. He’s flipping the script. He is eliminating this entire idea of an “us” within the church walls and “them” outside. We are just a “we” in Jesus. The church participating in what Jesus is already doing is simply breathtaking. This event was a reminder that at GC Surrey Hills, we truly are “Neighbors Loving Neighbors.”
Ceeja Malmkar, MTC Coordinator Surrey Hills, OK, US
Have you ever had a quest for knowledge that defied political, social, or religious boundaries? This state of enlightenment is what drove the “three wise men” or magi, who were gentile, to seek out and worship a Jewish baby born in Bethlehem. Why were these men wise, you might ask.
We believe their wisdom was born from a knowledge and fear of the Lord that was handed down by their ancestors throughout the centuries. We have reason to believe the magi were also well-versed in astronomy and understood celestial objects, space, and the physical universe at that time. The star was significant to the magi because of a prophetic timetable, given by the angel Gabriel to Daniel, which they were educated about.
After Jesus was born in Bethlehem in Judea, during the time of King Herod, Magi from the east came to Jerusalem and asked, “Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? We saw his star when it rose and have come to worship him. Matthew 2:1-2 (NIV)
In ancient Greek, the word “epiphany” means showing, manifestation, or appearance. The word is principally used in Christianity to refer to the manifestation of Jesus to the gentiles (i.e., non-Jews), namely, when the “wise men” visited and paid homage to the infant Jesus. According to God’s plan, even at his birth he was laying the groundwork for inclusion of all humankind to be a part of God’s family.
Prayer: Our heavenly Father and Creator of all the universe, we humbly come before you just as the wise men did. Help us to desire a relationship with you. Please give us wisdom in all the decisions we make and give us the heart to believe the unbelievable. In Jesus’ name, we pray. Amen.
In February 2020 I wrote an article explaining the concept of health related to the life of a congregation. You have heard me and other denominational leaders expressing our desire to seek Healthy Church through the three Avenues of Hope, Love, and Faith.
Hope Avenue – Worship: A congregation where all who attend find Christ-centered worship and inspiration.
Love Avenue – Witness: A congregation devoted to getting outside the walls of the church to demonstrate the love of Jesus to their neighbors and to proclaim the good news when neighbors ask.
The Faith Avenue – Discipleship: A congregation where members, young and old, are growing in relationship with Jesus and deepening their bonds with each other.
We want to see these ministries flow from teams of believers and be guided by the careful leadership of Christlike pastoral leadership. These vibrant expressions are the pathway toward congregational health.
Our U.S. leadership team is continually asking the question, “How do we become a more vibrant expression of denominational health?” This is the right question as we work through the difficult stage of reclassification of congregations and determine how we need to shift to provide meaningful oversight.
I applaud our U.S. Regional Directors (R.D.) for their commitment to meet with so many of our scattered small group leaders, to listen to their concerns, and then do their best to explain why we are shifting. These R.D.s have shared their lives with you and love you deeply. They truly are “helpers of your joy.” This is true even when tough decisions are necessary. As hard as it may be, we are in this together, and we must resist the arrows of the enemy that are intended to divide us and put us at odds. Through the power of the Spirit, unity can be maintained.
We who serve as denominational leaders are aware that we have a strong body of congregations to serve as we focus on our various jobs and responsibilities. Because of this broad collection of congregations whom we oversee and serve, we continually pray for guidance as we ask, “How can we serve more intentionally and more effectively?”
Our philosophy of service is High Support, High Challenge – Grace Always. This statement is a core value that helps us at each step of the journey and continues to govern the process. It keeps us following in the steps of Jesus.
In the past several years we have focused our efforts on the consistent vision of Healthy Church, and our high support is evident in our writing, media tools and training. We have stayed on track, and this vision is just as important today as it was when I wrote about it three years ago.
Our congregations are learning as they make efforts to move from concepts to practice, and our denominational leaders are making discoveries, too. Our Team Based – Pastor Led training sessions, and the subsequent teachings around the Faith, Hope, and Love Avenues, have been wonderfully designed and backed up with useful material that is clear and comprehensible, and being used by many of our congregations. The follow-up coaching resource has also been built out and has proven to be quite helpful. I am pleased to say that we have a strong team of able coaches. The “aha moment” for our denominational leaders is that we have observed that we have attempted to move from training to practice at a pace that is not reasonable.
Learning new concepts and transferring these into new practices takes longer than we originally calculated. We must add a stage for consulting and deeper learning as new practices are being tried and refined. We are also learning that we need to reconsider how the services of training, consulting, coaching, and supervising flow and how the denominational leaders interact to bring the highest level of support possible. This is causing us to enter a season of new design on how our U.S. team is configured, and then to have a follow-up season of experimentation to test-drive the new design. These seasons will run the course of 2024, and we solicit your prayers during this period of adjusting and learning.
I am seeing how the Spirit is already out in front of us, and I am confident as the U.S. team is prayerfully and cautiously moving through these seasons of adjustments and refitting, that we will ultimately become a healthier denomination.
The Lord is gracefully supporting and challenging us as we yield to his leadership.
Please join us for a weekend of training, appreciation, and worship. Everyone is invited.
See flyer below or visit our website here for more information.
Registration opens February 2024.
Registration Fee: The Home Office will cover the registration fee for one pastor/facilitator per congregation and their spouse to attend a regional gathering. A coupon code will be sent with instructions on how to register in mid-February.
Lodging: Each pastor/facilitator will need to book their own lodging for the gathering.
Hotel courtesy block links will be made available after registration opens. You may also consider booking other accommodations that work best for you (examples: hotel, Airbnb, VRBO, or accommodation with friends/relatives).
After the gathering, the Home Office will send a subsidy to your congregation via the send/draw to help offset the cost of one pastor/facilitator’s housing for the regional gathering. The amount will be set based on the average cost of the discounted hotel rate we were able to obtain for three nights.
On December 9, GC St. Michaels held a community engagement at a local skilled nursing facility. Each year, we budget for a community service during the holiday season. This year, the Love Avenue team decided to buy Christmas presents for the residents of the facility. Rather than merely dropping off the gifts, we received permission to plan a fun game that could be interactive and relational. We played the Dice Game with the gift-wrapped presents; if you roll doubles, you get to pick out a prize. (Some people know it as the White Elephant Game.)
The staff of the skilled nursing facility said that their residents did not often participate in group activities, so we should not expect any more than a couple people to show up. We were grateful and surprised when around 20 residents attended! One resident, who really wanted to attend, had recently contracted COVID. We selected a couple of presents to be delivered to her room. She was overwhelmed to be remembered and cried tears of joy.
The residents who joined in the game had mobility limitations, so the youth from our congregation helped make the game accessible for them. Our young members (grades kindergarten to sophomore in high school) walked the dice around to each player, sometimes even helping the person roll the dice. If the player got doubles, their young helper would run up to the table, pick out a present, and bring it back to them.
I was so proud of our young people and the interactions and relationships they established with the residents. At first, they were a little shy. Actually, both the residents and our youth were shy! But in no time, everyone was talking, laughing, and having a great time. The staff of the nursing home was amazed at how well it went.
Pam and Mat Morgan are thrilled to announce the birth of their third grandchild – Rosemary Jo Zeng (Rosie for short). Rosie was born on November 17, weighing 7 pounds 4 ounces, and 20 inches in length. Mom, Dad, and big brother, Henry, are all well and excited about the newest addition to their family.
Don Mason served faithfully as an elder in GCI since his ordination in 1970. He pastored both the Raleigh and Wilson, NC congregations from 1987 – 2007. He continued serving the members in Wilson, NC until his retirement in 2021. The following is the obituary provided by his family.
Donald Edgar Mason died peacefully on October 26, 2023. He was born February 13, 1941, in Houston Texas to Edgar and Lois Mason. Don graduated from Jefferson Davis High School in 1959 and immediately traveled to New London, CT for Naval Submarine training. While in the Navy, he was able to take courses at the University of Houston. Upon discharge in 1964, he transferred to Ambassador College where he met and married his lifelong sweetheart, Geraldine Mason.
After graduation in 1969, they moved to Evansville, Indiana; in 1970 he was ordained into the ministry of Jesus Christ. Over the next 52 years, he served seven congregations in Indiana, Missouri, Oklahoma, and North Carolina. He retired from the ministry of Grace Communion International in October 2021. He is survived by his wife, Geri, his daughter, Elizabeth, and his sons, Derek and Dustin, and Dustin’s wife, Megan.
On behalf of GC San Leandro, here’s a big thank you to all who came and celebrated with us on Sunday, November 12. As we gathered for the congregation’s final service, with “old” friends from far and wide, it really felt like a big family reunion. We sang old songs, viewed old pictures, listened to inspiring messages, and enjoyed great food and laughter. And the words of our first hymn came to life, “how good and how pleasant for brethren to dwell in unity.”
We give praise to our triune God for giving us this time to celebrate the many relationships we’ve enjoyed through the years. We can only imagine how great our reunion will be in the fullness of God’s kingdom. Until then, let us enjoy each day as we journey through the next chapter of our history—living and sharing the gospel to everyone.
For the video of the full service and celebration, click here.
With love and appreciation, Jun and Yolly Caranto San Leandro, CA, US
