Category: Announcements

Two long-time pastors, George Affeldt and Earl Jones, retired at the end of March from employment as GCI lead pastors.

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George Affeldt

Pastor George Affeldt retired after 47 years of employment with GCI (plus several as a volunteer). After growing up in Lancaster, CA, George entered the Marine Corp in 1954 where he served four years, attaining the rank of Sergeant before being honorably discharged. Then in 1958, George married Jacqueline (Jackie) Zook. They have been married for 59 years and are blessed with three married children and four grandchildren.

Shortly after marrying, George and Jackie moved to George’s hometown, Lancaster, CA, where George was employed in water well drilling, carpentry and maintenance. During that time, George and his father would drive from Lancaster to Pasadena, CA, to attend the Radio Church of God. George was baptized in 1960 in the Lower Gardens of Ambassador College. On the recommendation of friends, and with hope of finding a job, George moved his young family (now including two children) to Pasadena. Unfortunately, full-time employment was not found, leading to 3½ years of working odd jobs. In 1964, George was hired by Ambassador College to work in the Cabinet Shop. He also volunteered to serve the church in festival site preparation, Boys Club, Spokesman Clubs and youth ministry (the latter being one of his favorites).

In 1971, George was ordained an elder in WCG and began working in the church’s counseling and guidance department. In 1972 he entered vocational pastoral ministry serving one of the Pasadena area congregations. This was followed by a series of transfers to pastor churches in Indiana, South Dakota and Pennsylvania, and in 1995 back to South Dakota. George retired from full-time GCI employment in 1999, but continued pastoring the Sioux Falls church, at first bivocationally, then as a part-time employee. As shown in the picture below, George’s oldest child, his daughter JoAnn Lagge, has replaced George as the lead pastor of the Sioux Falls congregation.

Our thanks to George and Jackie for their many years of service in the employ of WCG/GCI. We wish them all the best in the years ahead!

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Earl Jones

Pastor Earl Jones began serving as lead pastor in the Fayetteville, NC, congregation in 2006, replacing Greg Williams who now directs Church Administration and Development. Earl began part-time employment as a GCI pastor following a 25-year career with Ingersoll-Rand. Earl is a graduate of Sandhills Community College and also studied at North Carolina Central University. Before becoming a lead pastor, Earl served within GCI as a small group coordinator, youth ministry coordinator and class instructor. Earl said, “I have been part of GCI for over half my life, and I love being involved in the advancement of GCI and the gospel.” We thank Earl for his service and wish him many blessings in the years ahead.

Looking for information about GCI’s Denominational Conference in August?

Still need to register?

Check out our new Conference website at www.gci.org/2017.

The Journey is the theme for GCI’s 2017 U.S. camps sponsored by Generations Ministries. To help its camps implement the theme, GenMin has produced multiple teaching tools, posted below in PDF and Word formats (click on the links to download).

• Chapel messages: PDF and Word
• Road Rule signs (to accompany chapel messages): PDF
• Daily devotionals: PDF and Word
• Follow-up Bible studies (in Mark 1): PDF and Word
• Misc. resources (songs, prayer initiative, follow-up strategy): PDF and Word

We invite churches and ministries to utilize these resources locally. Here are some possibilities:

• the chapel messages would make a good 5-part sermon series titled The Journey
• the daily devotionals and follow-up Bible studies could be used in Sunday schools, discipleship classes and small group discussions.

GenMin urges congregations with teens attending a GCI camp this year to follow up by leading the campers through the follow-up Bible studies. Doing so will have two benefits: 1) provide a connection back to the congregation, and 2) help reinforce what the teens learned at camp.

Check out exclusive deals on Disney tickets and experiences while attending GCI’s Denominational Conference in Orlando, FL, in August. Discounted tickets are available for purchase until July 31 at our personalized Disney ticket site or by calling (407) 566-5600. The deals include pre-arrival savings of 10% on Full-Multiday-Tickets, and one complimentary admission to an additional Disney Experience at any one of the following:

• Disney’s Typhoon Lagoon Water Park
• Disney’s Blizzard Beach Water Park
• Disney’s Winter Summerland or Disney’s Fantasia Gardens Miniature Golf course (before 4:00 pm)
• Greens Fees for one round of golf at Disney’s Oak Trail Golf Course, a 9-hole walking course

If you are not extending your stay, exclusive partial day passes are available at discounted rates for admission after 3 pm.

Congratulations to Jan Flynn, wife of GCI-USA Pastor Ross Flynn. Jan was recently named teacher of the year at Oxford Middle School in Oxford, MI (near Detroit). Here are excerpts from an announcement from the school’s principal.

While her title says “Choir Teacher,” Mrs. Flynn provides students with a multitude of “vehicles” for them to be able to experience the joys of music whether that be through particular genres of drumming and utilization of other musical instruments. Every student is afforded the opportunity to be successful under Mrs. Flynn’s tutelage. She always provides time before, during and after school for students on an individual and group basis to develop their skills and confidence in choir.

Mrs. Flynn shows a lot of compassion and dedication to her community outside of Oxford Middle School. Over the past several years, Mrs. Flynn has created and expanded a choir performance that’s celebrates our nations veterans and active military personnel. This concert is called “The Americana Concert” which is held in the fall every year. This single musical event is the biggest draw of any musical performance in the district. She has been recognized by the local and states veterans associations for her deep patriotism and love for her country not only through this particular performance, but through linking Oxford Middle School to the veterans of our community. As one staff member stated “I have had the privilege to watch and learn from Jan’s patriotic, respectful admiration for the men and women that have protected the United State of America.”

Mrs. Flynn’s key character attribute that is so easy to see is her genuine kindness that she exhibits day in and day out with her students. This characteristic is so important as it creates a safe and happy learning environment in which her students thrive. Several students stated that they think Mrs. Flynn is the nicest teacher ever and that she is so easy to talk to and is a such a great listener.

Thank you Mrs. Flynn for your continued dedication to our staff and students, and for sharing your love and compassion of music with all of us. You are more than deserving of this recognition. We are very lucky to have you as a member of our Oxford Middle School family. Congratulations!

We are pleased to announce that three special classes will be offered prior to GCI’s Denominational Conference in Orlando, Florida.

For more information about these three classes and to register, click on these links:

• For the ACCM Spiritual Formation intensive, click here.
• For the ACCM Pastoral Care intensive, click here.
• For the Prepare & Enrich training and certification, click here.

For main conference information and registration, click here (registration closes on May 31).

We extend our thanks and congratulations to long-time GCI-USA pastor David Perry and his wife Jonnie. Davd retired last week after 28 years and 8 months of full-time employment with GCI.

Dave, who grew up in Illinois, begin part-time employment with GCI in 1969 while a student at Ambassador College in Big Sandy, TX. Following graduation in 1973, Dave operated his own window cleaning company for several years. Ordained an elder in 1985, Dave was hired by GCI in 1988 to begin working full-time in employed ministry. He started as assistant pastor of the Charleston, SC congregation, then associate pastor in Savannah, GA, then senior pastor in Pasco and Quincy, WA. In 1996 he was transferred to Indianapolis, IN to pastor four congregations. He continued in that pastoral ministry until his recent retirement.

Upon retirement, Dave was replaced as senior pastor of the Indianapolis church by Josh McDonald. Dave will continue as a bi-vocational (volunteer) pastor, serving as the facilitator of GCI’s fellowship groups that meet in Terre Haute, Hope, and Lafayette, IN.

Here is a short video taken during the recent church service in Indianapolis in which Dave and Jonnie were honored for their many years of service to the congregation. This worship service was also the inauguration of the congregation’s new meeting location.

On YouTube at https://youtu.be/Qv7SPEkcbs0.

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

Ransomware is one of the biggest trends in malware right now. Essentially, it tries to infect your computer and encrypt all your files so you can’t access them. Then it demands money to unlock your files again. So how can you protect yourself?

1. Don’t open attachments or links that you’re not expecting or look strange. It’s better to wait and confirm with the person who sent it that it was really from them. This is the primary way computers get infected.
2. Back up your files. Having a backup of your files somewhere the virus can’t infect is the best way to insure you can recover your information should something bad happen to your computer. Also, if you use an external drive to back up your computer and it is connected when you are infected, the malware will encrypt your backup too, making it useless. Consider using a cloud-based backup like Backblaze or Carbonite.
3. Install and run software that protects against ransomware. Most antivirus programs do a poor job of this. We would recommend considering RansomFree from Cybereason. It’s free software and according to the reviews, it does a very good job protecting against ransomware. You can download it at https://ransomfree.cybereason.com/.

Here’s an example of a ransomware message that appeared on an infected computer:

Don’t miss the family-friendly GCI Denominational Conference coming to Orlando, FL, in August. See the announcement below, and for more information and registration, click here. We need your help—to volunteer to assist with the children, teen, or young adult programs during the conference, click here.

Note that registration closes on May 31 for the GCI Denominational Conference that will be held in Orlando, Florida, in August, 2017 (click here for more information and registration). In addition to the main conference, we’re offering two ACCM intensives (Spiritual Formation and Pastoral Care) and a training seminar leading to certification for use of Prepare/Enrich, a pre-marital/marital counseling system recommended by GCI for use by pastors in their counseling ministry.