Category: Announcements

Here from GCI president Joseph Tkach is a video Christmas card titled “O Holy Night.” From all of the team that produces GCI Weekly Update, we wish you and yours Merry Christmas!

On Youtube at http://youtu.be/IkH00BkP4Dg.

Here from GenMin director Anthony Mullins is a reminder about some upcoming events of interest to our youth and young adults (and those who join them in ministry).

1. Converge East registration is now open. You can register by completing the online registration process at http://gci.org/go/converge16e. This regional Generations Ministries event will be held at Deer Creek Lodge and Conference Center near Mt. Sterling, Ohio, on March 4-6, 2016. Pricing and lodging details can be found on the registration site. For those living west of the Mississippi River, you might want to consider attending Converge West, which will be held in Encino, California, on April 15-17, 2016. Details for Converge West will be available at a later day. Questions about Converge East can be emailed to Jeff Broadnax at converge.east@gmail.com.
2. Journey With the Master to be held in Rochester, Minnesota. GCI’s Rochester church, along with Northern Lights camp, is hosting a Journey With the Master retreat on December 4-6. Troy Meisner is event organizer and Anthony Mullins is facilitator. For information about JWM, go to http://www.generationsministries.org/leader-development.html or email Anthony at anthony.mullins@gci.org.
3. CrossWalk Camp recently held its final camp session at Our Lady of Guadalupe facility. CrossWalk has had a wonderful working relationship with this Catholic facility and it was with a measure of sadness that CrossWalk learned that the facility will no longer be available to them. Please pray for the Lord to open facility doors for CrossWalk so they can continue providing an amazing camp experience for families in the Oklahoma and Texas area. You can visit their website at www.crosswalkcamp.com.
4. Grace Communion International regional conferences will be held in 7 locations in 2016:

• February 19-21 in Ontario, California (Los Angeles area)
• March 11-13 in Portland, Oregon
• April 22-24 in Northbrook, Illinois (Chicago area)
• May 20-22 in Morristown, New Jersey (New York City area)
• June 24-26 in Charlotte, North Carolina
• July 15-17 in Dallas, Texas
• August 5-7 in Orlando, Florida

GCI-USA Church Administration and Development made the following announcement in the December issue of Equipper:

As we complete the 10th year of Equipper, we’re pleased to announce that we’ll soon transition from a printed publication to a digital format. Each month, subscribers will receive an email with links to the full issue, which may be viewed online (the same format we use to publish GCI Weekly Update). All who currently receive Equipper by email will automatically be subscribed to this new version of Equipper. If you’d like to be added to the subscription list, email your request to Ted.Johnston@gci.org.

New Sermon Summary feature

One of the features that will be found in the new Equipper is called Sermon Summary. There you’ll find short summaries of sermons that correlate with the annual (Western) Christian worship calendar (following the Revised Common Lectionary). To give you a foretaste of that feature, here’s a sample sermon given during Advent last year. It was written by Lance McKinnon who pastors the GCI congregation in Dallas, Georgia (Atalanta area).

Sermon for Advent 2: The Beginning of the Beginning Has Begun

1 The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God. 2 As it is written in the prophet Isaiah, “See, I am sending my messenger ahead of you, who will prepare your way; 3 the voice of one crying out in the wilderness: ‘Prepare the way of the Lord, make his paths straight,'” 4 John the baptizer appeared in the wilderness, proclaiming a baptism of repentance for the forgiveness of sins. 5 And people from the whole Judean countryside and all the people of Jerusalem were going out to him, and were baptized by him in the river Jordan, confessing their sins. 6 Now John was clothed with camel’s hair, with a leather belt around his waist, and he ate locusts and wild honey. 7 He proclaimed, “The one who is more powerful than I is coming after me; I am not worthy to stoop down and untie the thong of his sandals. 8 I have baptized you with water; but he will baptize you with the Holy Spirit.” (Mark 1:1-8, NRSV)

Mark begins his Gospel with these words: “The beginning of the good news of Jesus Christ, the Son of God.” Whether he intended this as the book’s title or simply its first sentence, it serves to frame all that follows as “the beginning.” This is curious, as the next few verses speak of the past as well as the future. So when exactly is “the beginning”?

The “good news” Mark speaks about is a term that carries the message of victory from the battlefield. The victory he is alluding to is the one claimed by Jesus our Lord for all of creation. He has been victorious through his birth, life, death, resurrection and ascension. This victory amounts to a “new creation” and is thus a new “beginning.” This “beginning” applies not only to the point of time he defeated sin and death on the cross, but to all time, past and future. Our past has been claimed and redeemed and our future is secure in his victory.

We can participate in this new beginning, this new reality, by living it out in the present in union with Jesus, the ruling King and Lord of all. His kingdom, which is characterized by faith, hope and love, is the ruling reality we respond to. Instead of responding to the past out of guilt, we respond with the faith of Jesus, trusting that the Father has created a new beginning for us, allowing us to leave the past behind. Instead of looking to the future with fear and worry, we live in hope of the future coming of our Lord. And instead of living in the present with anxiety, we live in the love the Father has for all his children. As we do, we live in the reality of the kingdom established through his Son, our Lord and Savior. For us, the beginning truly has begun!

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Note: we’re looking for pastors and other preachers who would like to contribute summaries of expository sermons (focused on a single passage of Scripture) for publishing in future issues of Equipper. The format and length shown above is what we’re looking for. Please email yours to Ted.Johnston@gci.org.

Recently here in GCI Weekly Update, we published an eight-part series from Gary Deddo titled Union & Ministry with Christ. That series has been turned into a single article titled The Christian Life and Our Participation in Christ’s Continuing Ministry. Find it online at http://www.gci.org/christian-life.

Ted Millhuff (pictured at right with his wife Lila), part of the pastoral team serving GCI’s Grace of God Fellowship church in Tucson, Arizona, recently celebrated his 80th birthday three times! The first was at his home with family from Seattle, along with friends in Ted’s neighborhood including some nearby church members. The second was at church, where Ted was honored with a potluck meal. The third time was on Ted’s actual birthday (October 27) when a celebration was held with friends at an area restaurant.

Ted says that his life has been “quite a journey” and the best part of growing older is “learning and knowing the Source we need to lean on to keep on keeping on!”

Happy birthday Ted (and many more!).

Cards may be sent to:

Ted Millhuff
38076 S. Silverwood Drive
Tucson, AZ 85739

We are pleased to announce the recent marriage of retired GCI pastor Ron Dick to Theresa Lorenz.

Ron and Theresa were introduced by long-time mutual friends, who were members in the Lexington, Kentucky, congregation where Ron pastored from 1991 until his retirement. Ron and Theresa honeymooned in the eastern Caribbean and will make their home in Sarasota, where Theresa’s son and grandchildren reside.

Congratulations Ron and Theresa!

Cards may be sent to:

Ron and Theresa Dick
63 Loren Drive
Sarasota, FL 34235

GCI offers high-quality online courses in theology and biblical studies through two educational institutions that are associated with the denomination: Grace Communion Seminary (GCS) and Ambassador College of Christian Ministry (ACCM).

GCS offers two masters degree programs that are accredited in the United States. To learn more, click here.

ACCM offers courses leading to a diploma in Christian Ministry. To learn more, click here.

Church Administration and Development is pleased to announce that in 2016, GCI will hold seven regional conferences in the United States. Here are the dates and locations:

• February 19-21 in Ontario, California (Los Angeles area)
• March 11-13 in Portland, Oregon
• April 22-24 in Northbrook, Illinois (Chicago area)
• May 20-22 in Morristown, New Jersey (New York City area)
• June 24-26 in Charlotte, North Carolina
• July 15-17 in Dallas, Texas
• August 5-7 in Orlando, Florida

Pastors, as you and your leadership teams make plans and establish budgets for 2016, please factor in these conferences. Lead pastors and one member of each pastoral team are expected to attend as part of their continuing education. We also urge church treasurers and other finance committee members to attend—we will provide special content for them, including workshops on church finances (with updates on GCI and IRS financial regulations), opportunities to network with folks from the GCI treasurer’s office, and a reception honoring church treasurers. There also will be workshops for those involved in children’s ministry (more details to come).

Further information about conference content and registration will be made available later this year. The cost for registration and lodging will be comparable to the 2014 regional conferences.

This announcement is from Bret Miller, manager of GCI’s Information Technology Department.

Are you wanting to change the information displayed for your church on the GCI.org website’s church finder (at http//www.gci.org/participate/find)? If so, here’s how:

• Log into https://online.gci.org
• If you have multiple churches, select the one you want to change
• In the top left box, click Church Information
• The website is in the first section at the top. To change it, click the Edit button in the upper right
• Put in the new website, making sure you include the http:// or https:// on the front
• Click the Submit button
• From the Church Information screen, click the more info button in the upper right
• Click Church Locator

By default, we display the pastor for a church as the contact person, including their phone and email. If you prefer that prospective attendees contact a different person, you can fill in the contact name, phone and email here. If you do so, we no longer display the pastor’s information and display the contact person instead.

Over the years a number of pastors have asked for the ability to write something about their church. The description box is now where you can do that. Basic HTML markup should work there for those of you who want more than text. You might use it to note a special event when you’re meeting at a different location. Or if you’re a fellowship group, you might want to describe what your meeting is like. Or you could use it to introduce your church. It’s entirely up to you.

For fellowship groups, we do not automatically display a meeting address because many of them change weekly or meet in homes where the homeowner may not want the address made public. For those that meet in the same location every week and want the address displayed, you can check the box.

Any time we display an address for a church, we also include a map link. Occasionally, this link doesn’t work properly. If your church is one of those, you can find your own public map website like https://www.google.com/maps or http://www.mapquest.com/, make a map for your church and copy the URL of that map into the Map URL box. Then any time we display a map link, we’ll use that instead of trying to make one automatically from the address.

We hope this information will help you make the most of your church information posted on the GCI.org website.

ACCM will soon be holding a special version of its Christian Leadership course, which includes a three-day seminar to be held in Dallas on December 10 through 12, 2015. The seminar, along with the rest of the course, will be team-taught by Greg Williams (director of US Church Administration and Development) and Charles Fleming (missions director for the Caribbean). The course, which spans 10 weeks including assignments prior to the seminar, ends January 15, 2016.

The full title of the course, Christian Leadership: Foundational Perspectives, Principles and Practices for Lifelong Growth as a Leader, pretty well sums up its focus and content: challenging students to adopt a life-long perspective on leadership, including a commitment to lifelong learning. As fellow life-long learners, Greg and Charles will help each student reflect on key foundational elements that can contribute to their growth as leaders across a lifetime.

The following questions will be addressed in the course:

• As Christ followers living in a world of radical, adaptive change, what are the perspectives we need to have?
• In what ways do our imaginations need to be re-framed for effective engagement with an increasingly secular world?
• What principles and practices can help us cultivate the conditions for people to encounter Christ in transformative ways?
• What formational practices do we need to make a part of our personal life routines if we are to avoid burn-out and, instead, live a life of kingdom-flourishing?

Students should plan to arrive in Dallas for the course seminar by the evening of December 9 (we’ll have dinner together), ready to go early December 10. The seminar will continue through late afternoon December 12. To prepare for the seminar, students will need to read two books and bring to the seminar a short written review of each one.

To register and arrange for lodging, follow this two-step process:

1. To register and get our conference package rate, please go to http://www.ambascol.org and register for the Christian Leadership course. The registration cost is $150.
2. To make a reservation at the hotel, go to https://www.gci.org/go/ACCM15TX. The Seminar will be held at Embassy Suites by Hilton Dallas, DFW Airport South, 4650 West Airport Freeway, Irving, Texas 75062, USA; TEL: 1-972-790-0093. Hotel registration includes one bedroom suite, breakfast each day, meeting materials, assigned reading and handouts, lunch each day and snacks and drinks each evening during the manager’s reception.

Once you complete this two-step process, Charles Fleming, will send you information concerning the books that will need to be read and write about prior to attending the the seminar. If you do not receive a confirmation email message after registering please call 800-574-2299.