Many Weekly Update readers will recognize the Egbert name. Jeb and Barb Egbert have influenced many people of all ages through their leadership in GCI’s US camp system. Both served as directors of SEP—the former GCI camp in Orr, Minnesota. Jeb also served for several years as co-director of Generations Ministries.
You may know that Jeb and Barb have three children: John, James and Brittany. What you may not know of is the exceptional musical talent of their son James.
For several years James has served at GCI’s SEP Rockies camp as a counselor and worship leader. For his career, James chose to be a musician—and he has become an outstanding one! James frequently performs concerts around the country and recently performed in Tokyo.
The genre of James’ music is Electronic Dance Music (EDM). Just recently he learned that one of his songs, a remix of Emeli Sande’s “Next To Me,” was used during Apple’s much anticipated presentation at the Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco. To listen to that song, click here. If you would like to drop James a note of congratulations, you can connect on his Facebook.
James serves as a worship leader and worship band percussionist at GCI’s Ground Zero Church in Denver, Colorado. He’s produced remixes of several contemporary worship songs that you can download for free at https://soundcloud.com/spiriteyesmusic.
James (at left) providing music in a church service
As part of the recent GCI pastoral intern gathering near Cincinnati, Ohio (see June 19 Weekly Update), Odyssey in Christ presented a day-long seminar entitled A Deeper Walk.
During the seminar, GCI pastor Larry Hinkle, Caribbean Mission Developer Charles Fleming and his wife Carmen gave instruction about developing greater awareness of God in daily life, and how to use meditative prayer and Scripture reading to help us hear and respond to God’s voice. Instruction was also given about a team-based approach to healing prayer and principles that help us experience a more intimate, personal and fulfilling relationship with the Lord.
Pastor Karl Reinagel who attended, wrote this:
Understanding how to have a deep relationship with the Father, Son and Spirit and how to tune into God’s voice in all matters are essential parts of a solid foundation for pastoral ministry. The practices of Lectio Divina and transforming/healing prayer are vital as well. Had I received this instruction prior to becoming a pastor, I would have been less concerned and perplexed over the “what” of ministry and more focused on the “who.” I would have understood that it is not my ministry but that of Jesus. What an awesome experience this was for the pastoral interns before they return to the mission field.
Here is a video of the seminar introduction in which Larry overviews Odyssey in Christ:
The women’s ministry of New Life Fellowship, the GCI congregation in Baltimore, Maryland is sponsoring in October a retreat for women in Ocean City, Maryland. Here are the details:
The retreat will open Friday night with a meet and greet featuring Christian comedy. Saturday morning we feature the teaching of Cathy Deddo. Saturday afternoon will focus on workshops covering various topics. Saturday evening will be a fun-filled night of line dancing and games. Sunday’s message will be given by Cathy Deddo.
A deposit equal to half the room price is due by August 1; the balance is due by September 1. Breakfast will be provided by the hotel on Saturday and Sunday mornings. Friday night snacks will be provided by the retreat; Saturday lunch and dinner are on your own. For more information and to register, contact Dianna Nesbitt at 410-788-1513.
GCI pastor Bill Miller and his wife Kathy are thrilled to announce that they are now grandparents for the second time.
The Millers’ daughter Elizabeth and son-in-law Jamon are the proud parents of Aaron William Mills who arrived June 28 at 7 lb., 8 oz.; 19.5 inches long.
Baby, parents and grandparents are all doing well.
This update is from a report by Rod Matthews, GCI mission developer for SE Asia and the Pacific.
Nepal: house churches, mobile Bible school
Nepalese villagers
We are reaching with the good news into the foothills of the Himalayas! In Nepal, GCI provides project support for our partner in ministry, Himalayan Gospel Church led by Deben Sam. Deben is working to plant house churches in several remote villages north of Kathmandu on the border with Tibet. When he visits these villages, he takes Bibles translated into the local languages and sometimes a small generator and movie projector to show films about Jesus.
Deben reports that less than 5% of the pastors and church leaders in Nepal have opportunity to attend a seminary and thus are weak in their ability to expound Scripture. As a result, most members of local churches are poorly grounded in even the basics of Christian doctrine.
Also, most members and pastors are so poor that they do not have the resources (including time) to leave their family-supporting farm work and go for training outside their home area. Therefore, Deben plans to provide training via a mobile Bible School that will visit them where they live so that they can learn then teach their own people. He also plans to train missionaries who will reach into areas where there is yet no church. Deben dreams of an annual three-month-long Bible School in Kathmandu.
In teaching his classes, Deben uses two GCI publications that have been translated into Nepali: How to Become a True Disciple of Jesus Christ and Basic Christian Teachings. We recently funded the reprinting of 3000 copies of the second one.
India: suffer the little children
Because India has a large number of abandoned and needy children, our congregations in India support a home and orphanage for disadvantaged children (see picture at right).
GCI Indian pastor Danny Zachariah reports that GCI held a residential camp at his congregation’s building last May. There were 27 campers, age 4 to 14 (see picture below). Members provided food and served as camp counselors.
Campers
One of our Indian members, Dr. Piria Suntharam, built and now runs a home for children in the Indian village of Kalthanipadi (see picture below). The home houses about 35 youth who are orphans or whose parents cannot care for them. GCI congregations in India and Australia support the home. Various building projects there are underway.
GCI mission developer and national director Hector Barrero and his wife Paulina provided this announcement concerning their son’s graduation.
Andrés Felipe Barrero
We are celebrating the recent graduation from college (Universida de la Salle) of our son Andrés Felipe. He graduated with the highest grades in the university—a grade point average of 4.7 out of a possible 5.0.
Andrés Felipe is already working on a master’s degree in social philosophy and has applied for a scholarship to study social conflict resolution in Germany.
Currently he is working as a philosophy teacher in a bilingual high school. With his brother Juan Carlos (our oldest son) he is leading the worship band and leading the youth ministry in our congregation. All this and Andrés Felipe is just 22 years old.
Jeff Chandler, pastor of the GCI church in Jonesboro, Arkansas, is less of a man than he was just a couple years ago—100 pounds less to be specific. “I am thankful for what God has been doing in my life in regard to health. It has turned into part of the ministry God has for me. I think I am a better tool for Jesus to use as a result of getting my health in check. As a result of Trish and my involvement with Fitness Bootcamp Unlimited where I lost the weight, the owners are now members of our church.”
Jeff’s grandparents were baptized in 1955. “They never attended regularly, primarily because there was no church in the area—my mother started going to WCG in 1968 when I was 2 years old. She drove from Milan to Memphis, Tennessee for several years until a church was started in Jackson. I was shy early in life even though I had four brothers. SEP in Orr, Minnesota (1982) and SEP in Big Sandy, Texas (1985) were a couple of the greatest experiences of my life up to that time. I loved to play sports, especially baseball, basketball and football, and I loved music, especially singing. Thankfully, our family took advantage of all the YOU and WCG activities.”
It was at a YOU activity that Jeff met his wife Trish. “She was 15 and I was 16 when we both knew we would be married one day. We went to Ambassador College in Big Sandy in 1986. We got engaged in Amman, Jordan in 1990 (she visited me during our Jordan Foreign Project). We married during the summer before my senior year. Then we moved to Jonesboro, Arkansas where Trish’s family still lives.”
Trish, Josie, Jeff and Legend at Josie’s graduation
Jeff and Trish have been married 23 years and have two children. “Our daughter Josie (18) just graduated from high school and will be attending Arkansas State University this fall. My son Legend (14) will enter the 9th grade this fall. Josie loves music and wants to teach art and music. Legend loves animals and thinks he will be working with them when he grows up.”
Trish is a director for SHARP, a health organization at a local hospital. “She’s better than me at most everything,” Jeff shares. “I truly married up.” Along with her job, Trish serves alongside Jeff doing something at church almost every week. “Trish is either leading Church Life or Communion, offering prayer or giving the sermon. She plays a vital role in organizing our special services at Christmas and Easter. Most of the growth in numbers we have had in our church has been a result of her personal relationships. She has the ability to draw people to her. Her unconditional love creates an inclusive spirit that is unmistakable and magnetic. Her prayers are deep and heartfelt—so much so that we have no doubt that we are kneeling right in front of God or sitting in his lap carrying on a conversation. She is a blessing to me, my family and the church.”
Jeff notes that following college, “Tom Blackwell, our pastor in Jonesboro, became my mentor. He guided me and encouraged me in Christian service. Then in 1996, we moved to Nashville, Tennessee and dropped from the church scene for eight years. We visited a few churches when my daughter Josie was invited to church by school friends. This is when we decided to visit WCG and became reacquainted with our church family. In Nashville I was privileged to have two mentors: Pastor Ray Gardner and Deacon Bill Floyd.” In August 2007, Jeff was asked to serve as assistant pastor to Ray after Ray found out he had prostate cancer. “He passed away in 2008 and I moved into the senior pastor position. I was able to meet with him every week for the last couple months of his life—it was a wonderful time of mentoring that I will always cherish. Bill continues to mentor me. I am so thankful for these father/grandfather figures in my life.”
“Yelling the good news” is what Jeff loves most about being a pastor. “I love the opportunity to participate in his love with others and to be given a platform to talk about God. I finally have a desire to yell from the rooftops that God loves us. When our focus was the law, my desire to tell people about what I believed was just not there. Why would I stand on rooftops yelling, ‘You won’t go to the place of safety if you don’t believe what I’m trying to tell you.’ But now I can yell the good news: ‘God loves you—and not only that, you are his—believe it!!!’”
Jeff and Trish
What Jeff appreciates most about GCI is its inclusive theology. “I love that we don’t think we have all the answers and that we continue to seek them. I love that we believe that Jesus died for all and that death applies to all. I love that we bring in people from other denominations to speak about the one God we all believe in. I feel this helps in unifying the body of Christ, the one church.”
Our theology leads to Jeff’s passion. “My passion is viewing people in light of who they are in Jesus. I teach English as a second language at Arkansas State University. The majority of the students I have been teaching are Muslims from Saudi Arabia. God put me in this position a year after he placed me in the position as pastor in Jonesboro. Holy Spirit has been showing me his presence in all my students. I have been able to experience a spiritual relationship with them that I would not have thought possible several years ago. I am able to make a love connection with my students because God is love. He is working on all my students as he works on me—through the Holy Spirit. Knowing how Holy Spirit brought me to understand who Jesus is makes me confident that he is doing the same with my students. Now, I simply connect with the Spirit—and that connection looks like love. I am compelled by his love to no longer look at my students the way I once did.”
Jeff also has a passion for relationships. “I love finding oneness in relationships. This oneness is not something I create, but discovering and then participating in the oneness already created by our Triune God. I describe my teaching at ASU as ‘relational teaching.’ God loves them through me—they love me through the Spirit—then we learn English.”
The most memorable moments Jeff has had as a pastor were baptizing both his children, a brother-in-law, a sister-in-law, two nephews, a niece and blessing one of his infant nephews. “There is nothing like connecting with family in this way.”
Asked when he feels closest to God, Jeff said, “When he loves through me and I recognize him doing so. When that happens, I find myself wrapped in his oneness. I feel closest to God in this chaotic and active lifestyle I find myself. These days I don’t have the privilege to visit with him often in quiet. With being a father, husband, bivocational pastor, full-time instructor at ASU, graduate student (seeking a master’s degree in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages at Azusa Pacific University) and maintaining an exercise program, life doesn’t often allow me to slow down and get quiet. Thankfully, I find God active in my life in all these activities—even in my exercise routine.”
In closing, Jeff commented: “As a result of Trish and my involvement with Fitness Bootcamp Unlimited where I lost the weight, we have started a Worship Workout service on Sunday evenings (see picture above right). For about a year now, we have had 20-30 people attend regularly. Worship Workout is a 30-minute aerobics workout done with Christian music (Toby Mac style) followed by a 5-10 minute message and prayer. Cornelius Lovelace, the owner of Fitness Bootcamp, leads the workout; I give the messages. This is one of the most rewarding hours of the week for me.”
GCI pastor Mark McCulley and his wife Joanne recently narrowly escaped a disaster that occurred next door to them in Westminster, Colorado (in the Denver area). Here is his praise report.
With almost 500 homes destroyed in the Black Forest fires in nearby Colorado Springs, I feel a bit embarrassed to mention what happened in our neighborhood. But we are thanking God for delivering us from injury to ourselves and from significant damage to our home when our next door neighbor’s home was destroyed by a natural gas explosion (see picture at right, our home is in the lower right of the picture, near the exploded one).
Perhaps most amazing and encouraging about this situation was the community-building work that the Holy Spirit did through the disaster to bring together the folks in our neighborhood. Our neighbors came over several times to help us. We also had two community “thanksgiving” meals where Joanne and I were asked to say grace.
This announcement is from GCI Generations Ministries director Anthony Mullins.
Glenn Roberson
Many of us fondly remember Glenn Roberson from his many years serving us at SEP in Orr, Minnesota. We can still see his vibrant smile and we remember his caring spirit. I always had a sense that Glenn would do most anything to serve others. He was truly one-of-a-kind.
Glenn died earlier this year and in lieu of flowers, family and friends were asked to donate funds for camp scholarships. The funds received were generously given by the family to Grace Communion International for use in our GenMin camp network.
After careful consideration, we have decided to give those funds to our CrossWalk Camp in Oklahoma to fund scholarships to campers who were directly impacted by the recent, horrific tornadoes in Moore, Oklahoma and the surrounding area.
As you may know, CrossWalk had to cancel their spring camp session due to storm damage at the rented camp facility near Oklahoma City. What a scene it will be to have their fall session in the newly renovated facility along with campers who have been blessed by a full scholarship!
Our God loves restoration! And frankly, I believe Glenn would be proud of how these funds, in his name, are being used.
Please join me in praying that these funds will reach families who have a need and that these new campers will experience the Father’s tender heart, the Son’s passionate pursuit, and the Spirit’s declaration of life as an adopted child of God!
Through its ministry development website, GCI Church Administration and Development (CAD) catalogs resources that pastors and other preachers/teachers will find helpful in preparing sermons, discipleship classes, Bible studies and the like. Here is a list of some of those resources:
Sermon Series, which is a weekly sermon/Bible study preparation resource that is emailed to subscribers weekly by CAD ministry developer Ted Johnston—click here for a sample issue and email Ted.Johnston@gci.org if you would like to subscribe
CAD director Dan Rogers offers a day-long seminar on expository preaching—if it has not been held in your church district, you may request it by contacting your district pastor
The Surprising God blog has short articles that expound our Trinitarian, Incarnational faith—several of these would make good outlines for sermons
CAD recommends various non-GCI websites with helpful sermon preparation resources—while we don’t necessarily endorse everything on each site, here are some particularly helpful ones:
Because India has a large number of abandoned and needy children, our congregations in India support a home and orphanage for disadvantaged children (see picture at right).
