Below is a video produced by NewLife Fellowship showing a sermon that Dan Rogers gave on Easter in Southern California. It serves as a source of sermon ideas and an example of expository preaching.
Author: GCI Media
Lexie Ellis
Last week, we asked for prayers for Lexie, who had come through an operation to remove a brain tumor. The surgeon had expressed concern that after the operation she might have to learn to walk again. However she is able to walk, and currently is resting and recovering slowly. The diagnosis is stage four metastatic melanoma, which will require constant monitoring and corresponding treatment. Lexie is remaining positive and realistic, knowing her life is in God’s hands. Thank you for your continuing prayers for Lexie, Mark and the family—they are much appreciated.
Cards may be sent to:
Mark and Lexie Ellis 27 Oppermann Drive Ormeau, Qld, Australia 4208Death of Perskys’ son
We are greatly saddened to learn that Michael Ted Persky, son of GCI Dallas pastor Bob Persky and his wife Kay, died on April 7. Ted, who graduated from Ambassador University, Big Sandy, in 1994, was living with his parents in Dallas. They were in the process of purchasing a larger home together, so that Ted’s children would have more room when they came for visits.
Bob reported that Ted had not been feeling well, and everyone had encouraged him to get things checked out. Plans had been made to go to the hospital the morning of April 7. Early that morning when Bob went to see if Ted was getting ready, he found his son lying on the floor. Emergency workers indicated that Ted had passed away at least four hours earlier.
Please pray for Bob and Kay and for their whole family, including Ted’s daughter Hannah (age 6), his son Blake (age 4), and his brothers.
Ted’s funeral is scheduled for April 10 in Justin, Texas.
Cards may be sent to:
Bob & Kay Persky 118 Hummingbird Lane Justin, TX 76247-5806LaVerne Wyatt-Paige
As reported in an earlier prayer update, LaVerne Wyatt-Paige, wife of GCI Phoenix pastor Michael Wyatt-Paige, has been battling cancer. Though she had shown remarkable improvement, she has recently taken a turn for the worse and was moved into hospice care a few days ago. She is no longer strong enough to take liquid orally. Michael reports that she may not survive more than a few days. Their two children are with their mother in Phoenix now. Please pray for LaVerne and the entire family.
Cards may be sent to:
Michael Wyatt-Paige 1928 E Highland Ave #104 PMB 200 Phoenix, AZ 85016-4626Bob Regazzoli
“My heart’s desire is for all those who have been hurt by our past teachings and legalistic practices to be healed and to forgive, and for there to be reconciliation,” says Bob Regazzoli, pastor of GCI churches around Brisbane, Australia.
Bob grew up on a sugar cane farm in Ingham, North Queensland in Australia. “Growing up on a farm was a great start to life—the outdoor life, work and family being able to do so much together was a good grounding for the future.”
Bob was quite young when his father responded to a “Why Were You Born?” advertisement in Reader’s Digest and started listening to the Radio Church of God program in the early 60s. “The nearest congregation to us at the time was in Brisbane, 1500 kilometers away, so for the first seven years of our church life, the only contact we had was at the annual Festival and a ministerial visit every three or four years. Our parents were conscientious and we had regular Bible studies at home.” Bob said these family studies paid off. “Our immediate family, including my mother, two brothers and wives are still active members of GCI. My father died a number of years ago.”
When Bob was 16 years old, his family sold the farm and moved near Brisbane so they could attend church services. “During my last year of high school, I applied for Ambassador College and went to Bricket Wood, England as a 17-year-old. After two years there, I was transferred to Pasadena and graduated in 1974.”
Bob met his wife, Kathy, at Ambassador College. They married right after graduation. They have now been married 38 years and have three children. “We have two sons, Jonathan and Mark, who live in Brisbane, and a married daughter, Katie who with her husband, Andy, live in Frisco, Colorado.”
Bob was hired as a ministerial trainee after graduation and he and Kathy began their pastoral life in Melbourne. “After a year there, we were transferred. We have pastored in Ballarat, Bendigo, Perth and Sydney—and for the last 19 years in Brisbane and surrounding congregations.” What Bob enjoys most about pastoring is being involved in the members’ lives. “I find it a great privilege to be invited to share life experiences with our members—the joy of births, weddings, baptisms, as well as being there through the difficult times. I really enjoy the teaching aspect of the pastor’s role.”
Speaking of his wife, Bob said, “Kathy has been a great support in my ministry and has a real love for all our members and contributes in a number of areas in our congregation. Her professional life is as a teams coach with Medicare, and she has a strength in helping people utilize and develop their gifts.”
Bob’s most memorable moment as a pastor came in the midst of WCG doctrinal changes. “The most significant turning point in my ministry was in the midst of the major doctrinal changes in 1995 with all of the questions and turmoil, both internally and externally. It was then that the lights came on for me. It was a time of much study and prayer, and then the realization of what the new covenant was truly about, and then the ongoing understanding that this has led to, and our being ministers of the new covenant.”
When asked about being a part of GCI today, Bob said, “I believe that we are now at a wonderful stage in our journey as a fellowship. After 50 years of involvement with this fellowship, we have experienced the most remarkable changes. I wish the many who were part of our fellowship in the past could also come to experience the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, the love of God and the fellowship of the Holy Spirit as we are being led to see and experience. Today we have many wonderful, mature Christians in our fellowship, including younger members who are enthusiastic about their life in Jesus.”
Bob said he considers the apostle Paul his greatest mentor. “I have found the epistles of Paul the most helpful guidance in pastoral ministry. In his writings we find the Holy Spirit’s expression through his heart and mind.”
When does Bob feel closest to God? “There are various times and locations, but coming to the Lord’s Table is no doubt the highlight. I love the lyrics by Getty and Townend in the song, “Behold the Lamb.”
NAE Update
Here are excerpts from the April issue of “Update” from the National Association of Evangelicals.
Evangelical Day of Prayer & Action for Immigration Reform. On April 17, a unified evangelical voice will echo through the halls of Congress proclaiming a biblical vision for immigration reform that respects the rule of law, reunites families and upholds human dignity. Join Bill Hybels, Stephen Bauman and others in Washington, D.C., to pray and advocate on behalf of immigrants. (read more)
Once-a-Month Communion is the Norm. Wine or grape juice, bread or wafers, intinction or separate actions, served at the front or in the pew. There are many decisions evangelical churches and denominations make when setting up the Lord’s Table. But the question posed in the February Evangelical Leaders Survey was on frequency: How often does your church serve communion? The vast majority (70 percent) said once a month. (read more)
Faith & Family Foundation. This NAE member Foundation was formed to build and support Christian families with biblical values. It work and resources cover all aspects of Christian family care, including pre-marriage counseling, marital guidance and counseling, family-raising, childcare, children’s education and senior care. (read more)
If the Supreme Court Legalizes Same-sex Marriage Nationally, How Should Churches and Pastors Respond? This question is addressed in the April 2013 edition of Christianity Today. (read more)
Hillary Irusta ordained
We are pleased to announce that Hillary Irusta was ordained an elder in GCI on March 17.
Last December, Hillary completed her GCI pastoral internship, which was supported by the denomination, her home congregation in Greensboro, North Carolina and other churches in her church district.
Hillary now serves as associate pastor in her home church where her father, Joel Irusta, is the senior pastor. She also is working on a Master of Divinity (MDiv) degree at Wake Forest University, School of Divinity.
Congratulations Hillary!
East from West
Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,
At this time of year, we celebrate the great sacrifice of Jesus Christ, by which our sins are forgiven and our eternal future is assured. It was the greatest act of love we can imagine—although we can’t fully grasp the depth of that love.
As Paul wrote to the Romans, “Very rarely will anyone die for a righteous person, though for a good man someone might possibly dare to die. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us” (Romans 5:7-8).
What the Lord God did in Jesus goes far beyond any human standards of love and sacrifice. That is why we find it so hard to accept, without any reservations, the richness of God’s grace. We read that our sins are forgiven, but we feel the need to add an “if.” We understand that God’s love for us is unconditional, and yet we still think there is a “but.” Unconditional love and forgiveness seem too good to be true.
People in Old Testament times didn’t have this problem. The Temple animal sacrifices left no doubt that the removal of sin was a bloody and messy business. But even then, some were able to glimpse that there was more to the forgiveness of sin than slaughtering an animal. David, when confronted with his multi-faceted sin with Bathsheba, pleaded,
Hide your face from my sins and blot out all my iniquity.
Create in me a pure heart, O God, and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
Do not cast me from your presence or take your Holy Spirit from me.
(Psalm 51:9-11)
David realized that his outrageous behavior had damaged his relationship with God. He wanted desperately to make it right. However, a visit to the Temple with a sin offering was not enough.
You do not delight in sacrifice, or I would bring it;
you do not take pleasure in burnt offerings.
My sacrifice, O God, is a broken spirit;
a broken and contrite heart, O God, you will not despise.
(Psalm 51:16-17, NIV margin)
David was ahead of his time in glimpsing God’s grace, realizing there was nothing he could do except admit his guilt and ask for forgiveness. As we know, he was forgiven and later, in happier times, he could sing confidently:
For as high as the heavens are above the earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as the east is from the west,
so far has he removed our transgressions from us.
(Psalm 103:11-12)
The world of David’s day was much less technologically advanced than ours. Most people thought of the heavens as a vast inverted bowl in which the sun, moon and stars moved. In Psalm 103, David used that view of the cosmos as an analogy for the vastness of God’s forgiveness and mercy, which separates our sins from us by an unimaginable distance. That sense of vastness is sometimes blunted in our modern age. I often fly long distances “through the heavens” from east to west and back again. Thus, David’s analogy might seem less impressive. But it shouldn’t. Just last week we were reminded of how vast the cosmos truly is. In 1977, an unmanned spacecraft named Voyager 1 was launched from Cape Kennedy. Its mission was to travel along a trajectory that would take it through our solar system, sending back photographs as it traveled.
Voyager 1 has fulfilled its mission brilliantly. After traveling for 18 months, it sent back stunning pictures of Jupiter. Three years into its mission it gave us the first close-up pictures of the ringed planet Saturn. Now, over 35 years later, Voyager 1 has traveled farther “from east to west” than any other man-made object. It is now over 11 billion miles from earth. Its signals, traveling at the speed of light, take about 18 hours to reach us. It is heading out of our solar system at about 38,000 miles an hour. Last week, scientists were speculating that either it has, or soon will, move beyond the influence of the sun. Its power plant may be able to send us signals for a few more years. But then Voyager will be on its own, hurtling through interstellar space until it comes under the influence of another star in about—wait for it—40,000 years!
The journey of Voyager 1 puts David’s analogy of “east from west’” and “above the heavens” into perspective, doesn’t it? Although the spacecraft has traveled through only a tiny fraction of our cosmos, the distance, even with our modern scientific understanding, is beyond our ability to grasp. Perhaps if David was writing Psalm 103 today, he might put it this way:
For as far as interstellar space reaches away from earth,
so great is his love for those who fear him;
as far as Voyager has traveled from east to west,
so far has he removed from us our transgressions.
God’s commitment to remove from his memory the guilt and stain of our sins is still greater than anything we humans can imagine. That’s how great God’s love for us is. And always will be. Let’s be thankful for that.
Your brother in Christ’s service,
Joseph Tkach
PS: With this issue, we have posted Scripture, God’s Gift, the first article in a six-part series entitled Guidelines for Interpreting Scripture by Gary Deddo (the article also is linked under the Church Development heading at upper left). We will be publishing the other articles in the series, one every-other week, over the next three months. I think you will find these articles extremely helpful.
Embracing Incarnational Trinitarian Theology means reviewing and, if necessary, changing many of our ideas, including our approach to Holy Scripture. Gary has spent his career studying and teaching the Bible—bringing to the task a deep love and respect for Scripture as well as his world-class scholarship. As I read the articles, I found myself thinking, “In a few sentences Gary has said what it’s taken me years to learn.” Though we can’t all be professional theologians, this series will help us become “a worker who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth” (2 Timothy 2:15). I hope you enjoy the series. Please let me know what you think of it.
James Newby
James Newby, pastor of GCI churches in Joliet and NW Chicago, Illinois has been married to Karen for 19 years. They have six children: a son James (15) and five daughters: Jessica (13), Jemma (11), Josianna (9), Jade (7) and Jennifer (4). James affectionately refers to them as J1, J2, J3, J4, J5 and J6.
James grew up in Connecticut. “I was an adventurous, only child who rode his bicycle everywhere, including on a paper route. I saved my money, and by the time I entered college I had just enough to cover the $1900 down payment. It seems that ‘squeaking by’ is how I move into the next thing.”
James began attending WCG with his dad in the middle 70s. His mother followed later. “It was my first brush with formal religion. My mom was a non-practicing Catholic and my dad a disgruntled Scottish Presbyterian. They got married agreeing to believe in God but to not get entangled with church.”
In 1981, when Ambassador College reopened the Big Sandy campus, James moved to Texas to be a student. He finished his education in Pasadena. “After an extended college experience I moved to the United Kingdom, taking advantage of dual-citizenship and there became a ministerial trainee. After one year I was sent to Kenya for nearly three years, then returned to the UK. In 1995, after the doctrinal changes began to take a financial toll on the church, I was ‘let go’ (with the intention of staying in the UK as an unsalaried elder). But the opportunity opened to relocate to the US—and the Chicago-land area is where we’ve been since.”
For James, pastoring is where God led him and where God wanted him. “It was the course God laid out for me; from the time I went to college my prayer has always been ‘your will be done’ and I had a passion for working with our youth and camp ministries during my college years.” He has continued that passion by focusing on his neighborhood and immediate community. “I may not have the greatest ‘skill set’ and I may sometimes lose focus, but I want for nothing more than to see the good news transform my neighborhood—our Jerusalem—then Judea, Samaria and the world.”
GCI’s transformation has renewed James’ passion. “I enjoy our renewed vision—the redeeming work of our Shepherd Jesus, who has taken us on a journey toward missional discipling. I am grateful for his grace and patience and his revelation of the wonderful mystery of his triune nature and the power of the gospel which tells us we are included in Jesus’ life and love. I am grateful for the opportunity to declare that Jesus didn’t die ‘only’ to deal with our ‘sin problem’—rather he dealt with it so that we might have wholeness through fellowship with the Father, through the Son, in the Spirit, and with all of the redeemed. Sinde I began to believe it, the good news became even better!”
James’ passion is to see the church be the church. “I weep and ache and am learning how to work to see the redeemed—the reconciled, the included, the disciples—be on fire for the gospel, to live as community within the community, in the power of the good news. I long to see the reality of the church living loved and living sent, on mission with Jesus. I know this sounds like the new religious, in-speak, jargon of the decade, but I don’t see this as a passing fad or the church program of the moment. In our ‘landing on’ the Trinitarian truth of who God is and why he made us, I think we’ve landed on our calling—summed up in our mission motto: Living and Sharing the Gospel. I want to see the church be the church.”
When asked about a mentor, James said many have stood in the gap for him. “Many have been inspirational and have had mentoring roles along the way; some are no longer with us because of doctrinal differences, but even from within our old doctrinal paradigm, there were those who did an amazing job of mentoring me. In the last decade, it was Dave Fiedler who had the greatest impact on my ministry as an older-brother/father in the faith. He encouraged and championed and fought with determination to see the grace of God transform the pastors under his care. His impact will always be remembered as stalwart, passionate and compassionate.”
James says that his most memorable moment as a pastor was baptizing four of his six children. When asked when he feels closest to God, he replied, “Right now!”
