Category: Stay Connected

GCI Philippines recently held a three-day-long seminar for a group of young emerging church leaders in Mindanao. Pastor Jerome Villamor Manriquez, Area Superintendent for Mindanao, opened the seminar with a presentation on trying hard vs. trusting God. Pastor Levi Yuson, Assistant Area Superintendent for Mindanao, gave a devotional on the true meaning of success. Pastor Rex Dela Peña gave a series of lectures concerning Incarnational Trinitarian theology and counseling members. GCI Philippines National Director Eugene Guzon encouraged the young leaders to continue serving the church, while resting in the love and grace of Jesus Christ. He noted that the Philippine National Office is committed to supporting and equipping the young emerging leaders.

The event was a great bonding experience. One participant noted that it was amazing to see leaders gathered with so much enthusiasm for knowing Jesus Christ and serving his people. This event was the second in a series for preparing young emerging leaders in Mindanao to serve as GCI pastors.

Dan Rogers recently visited the GCI congregation in Memphis, Tennessee where he gave an expository sermon entitled “Ministry and Mission in the Spirit.” Following the service, Dan enjoyed fellowship with the members and met with the congregation’s newly formed leadership team.

On February 23 GCI’s congregation in Talisay City, Philippines conducted its first medical-dental outreach. The church compound in Talisay served as the venue for providing free medical help to 167 patients and free teeth extractions to 50 patients.

These wonderful services rendered by medical professionals were made possible through a partnership with several generous doctors whose services were recruited and coordinated by the Philippine Friends Missionary Fellowship, a parachurch organization to which these doctors’ churches (including GCI Talisay) belong.

The patients were happy for the free services, medicines and vitamin supplements given by the doctors. Those serving as volunteers at the event served joyfully and were given a sumptuous meal by a professional caterer. GCI members and volunteers from other churches hope that many more opportunities to serve will come their way.

This update is from Hector Barerro, GCI missions director for Latin America.

Dr. Dan Rogers, director of GCI Church Administration and Development USA, recently joined me in visiting our church located in Ezeiza, Argentina, a suburb of Buenos Aires. Dan fellowshipped with the members, delivered a sermon and presented two lectures. I provided translations.

Dan’s sermon, “Ministry and Mission in the Power of the Holy Spirit,” emphasized that in Christ a new creation has begun. His lectures on Incarnational Trinitarian Theology and GCI’s Adventist roots helped members understand our past and present theology and doctrine. Dan also held a Q&A session and the group enjoyed a traditional Argentine barbecue.

A key goal for GCI in the US is to see church planters, congregations and district networks starting and then multiplying new kinds of churches, for all kinds of people, in all kinds of places. That significant progress is being made was evident at this year’s church planting summit hosted by GCI’s Church Multiplication Ministries (CMM) in Memphis, Tennessee on March 8-9.

Forty-three summit participants (pictured below), including church planters, pastors, Church Administration and Development team members, and others celebrated several newly planted churches and the establishment of church planting networks in about half the US. Through these networks, groups of small churches are working together to identify, prepare and support church planters. Existing networks are now supporting church plants in Los Angeles; Randolph, Massachusetts; and Staten Island, New York.

The featured speaker at the summit was Hal Haller (pictured at right). Hal, who has planted several churches and now trains church planters, challenged summit participants in several areas: developing church planting networks, finding church planters and supporting newly planted churches.

Church Administration and Development director Dan Rogers shared GCI’s vision for new leaders, new ministries and new churches that reach those who are different from us. He encouraged participants to pray that God will bring new church planters to us, and give us the discernment and infrastructure needed to identify, recruit, equip and support them.

For more information about GCI’s US church planting initiative, see CMM’s website at cmm.gci.org.

A primary GCI goal is to multiply young pastoral leaders. An important tool toward that end in the US is GCI’s Pastoral Internship Program. One of our interns, Carrie Smith, recently completed her internship under the direction of her mentors Mark and Anne Stapleton, who pastor Cornerstone Community Church, the GCI congregation in the San Diego, California area.

GCI president Joseph Tkach recently visited the congregation, now meeting in a new location in Lemon Grove, California, to participate in Carrie’s ordination as an elder. Other participants in the ordination included District Pastor Glen Weber and Pastor Mark Stapleton (see picture below). Carrie is moving to Pikeville, Kentucky where she will be part of that congregation’s pastoral team.

Here are other pictures from this special service, which included presentations from Dr. Tkach and his wife Tammy, Carrie’s ordination and a baptism.

On March 10, Tammy Tkach visited the worship service of GCI’s congregation in Tucson, Arizona. She gave the sermon, entitled Freedom in Christ (and the Responsibility That Goes With It). Members and guests appreciated how she melded the two aspects together. After the service the congregation enjoyed a potluck meal.

Each year, GCI Church Administration and Development, USA hosts New Pastor Orientation at GCI’s home office in Glendora, California. This four-day-long seminar addresses various topics relevant to men and women beginning service as GCI pastors and church planters.

This year’s seminar was held on February 15-18 with 30 participants including pastors, pastoral care team members, church planters, a pastoral intern and several other pastoral leaders from across the United States and two participants from Grenada. Seminar sessions focused on church history, preaching, church multiplication, theology and other topics.

Everyone came with open hearts and minds, eager to learn. The friendships developed over the four days were an added bonus.

In an effort to reach out to people in Loma Linda and Redlands, California, John and Naomi Biswas of the Bengali Evangelical Association (BEA) sponsored a free health seminar on Sunday afternoon February 17, at the Loma Linda Civic Center.

One of the goals of the seminar was to reach out to new people by creating awareness of what the average person can do to improve their well-being. The event, entitled “Lifestyle Focus on Health,” focused on the control and prevention of diabetes.

The main speaker was Professor Susan Nyanzi who spoke about the major role that exercise and diet play in a healthy lifestyle and in the control of diabetes. She demonstrated simple ways this can be done by diet and walking, plus the use of simple inexpensive exercise equipment.

Also giving lectures were Dr. T. Sweeny and Dr. M. Westerberg who both spoke about diet and lifestyle in the management of Type 1 and Type 2 diabetes. Dr. Sweeny also discussed various ways that blood sugar levels are monitored and the drugs that are available to manage diabetes.

The informative evening ended with a lengthy question and answer session plus a simple meal. About 55 attended, making it possible to make new friends thus enabling BEA follow-up.

GCI Church Administration and Development, USA director Dr. Dan Rogers and his wife Barbara recently visited the GCI congregation in Bogota, Colombia.

The visit began with a Friday evening informal meeting with the congregation’s ministry leaders. Dan described how our focus in ministry is not on what we do, but on what God is doing and how we participate with him as the body of Christ.

On Saturday, Dan conducted a seminar for the church, which was entitled “On Mission with God: Multiplying Disciples, Leaders and Churches.” On Sunday, Dan preached in the congregation’s two worship services. The first service was attended by 78 people and the second by 135. At the first service, Dan gave a sermon based on Luke 10, entitled “Involved in the Ministry and Mission of Jesus in the Power of the Spirit.” At the second service, Dan’s sermon addressed what Jesus taught about missions and why churches have strayed.