Category: Stay Connected

Two Southern California churches recently bid farewell to their senior pastor, J. Richard Parker and his wife Sally. Richard recently retired after many years serving GCI as an employed pastor.

Richard, who was ordained in 1971, pastored GCI churches in Hawaii, Oregon, Washington, Arkansas and California before becoming senior pastor of the Long Beach/Bellflower, California congregation in 1993, adding the Orange County congregation in 1996. Richard taught these two churches about the freedom they have in Christ, which replaces the bonds of legalism with grace-centered living. Richard served the members through preaching, counseling and writing (including his monthly Pastor’s Letter). Sally served by taking care of the church’s finances and membership contact information.

In his final Pastor’s Letter, Richard stated, “This is my last Pastor’s Letter… I must be a father, a grandfather, a husband, a brother and a son-in-law to my family. I must also grow old and eventually die. But the way of God will never die. In fact, it carries us all into eternal realms with God. The best to you all as you journey forth into those realms.”

The Long Beach/Bellflower and Orange County congregations are currently being pastored by Interim Pastor Eric Shaw and his wife Pat. The Shaws have graciously set aside their own retirement plans to serve the two congregations until a permanent pastor is appointed.

This update is from Carrie Smith a GCI pastoral intern serving in the San Diego, California area.

On January 24-26, a group of 20 that included GCI ministry developers, pastors, church planters and six pastoral interns gathered at CrossRoads Christian Fellowship in Tipp City, Ohio, for ConneXions, a conference focused on community outreach and church planting.

In the morning, CrossRoads pastors Jim and Becky Valekis led discussions concerning how they developed Christ-centered “conneXions” with their focus community in Tipp City (for information about the Valekis’ community outreach, click here). In the afternoon, the group discussed the culture and context of their home communities. This discussion was led by Hal Haller, a church planter and mission strategist from Jacksonville, Florida. Hal emphasized utilizing the outreach and church growth strategies exemplified by the early church in the book of Acts. As the group said their goodbyes, they left encouraged and ready to do their part in making “conneXions” within their own communities.

This update is from George Hart who pastors one of GCI’s churches in the Cincinnati, Ohio area.

As part of our celebration of Black History Month, Christ Community Church was visited by a true American hero—Mr. Leslie Edwards, one of the Tuskegee Airmen of World War II fame.

Mr. Edwards was born in 1924 in Memphis and joined the military where he rose to the rank of staff sergeant and flight chief. He was part of a team handpicked to maintain planes used in night flight operations to train navigators. In 1945, while stationed in Seymour, Indiana he witnessed the so-called “mutiny” at Freemen Field. African-American officers tried to enter a whites-only officers club and many were arrested. Mr. Edwards insisted that it was not an act of rebellion, but an effort of African-American officers to stress the importance of a fully integrated military. Mr. Edwards said, “Sometimes you just have to do the right thing.”

Mr. Edwards is critical of the movies about the Tuskegee Airmen, even the latest, Red Tails, by George Lucas. He referred to these movies as “the Hollywood version of the story” that are full of inaccuracies, including the following:

• The Tuskegee Airmen did not receive inferior aircraft and equipment but were provided the best the Air Force had to offer.
• It is inaccurate to say the Tuskegee bomber escorts did not lose bombers. They did have the highest return rating but “no one went up against the highly trained Nazi pilots in superior equipment and returned with no loses.” They witnessed many young white bomber crews plunge to their death.
• The movies fail to mention the number of white military and congressional leaders and people like First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt who fought for full integration of the military, or President Harry Truman who wiped out segregation in the Armed Forces by Executive Order in 1948.
• There is no mention of the many awards and citations the Tuskegee Airmen received including the Legion of Merit, Silver Star, Bronze Star, Purple Heart and Distinguished Flying Cross. In 2006 they were awarded the distinguished Congressional Gold Medal. Mr. Edwards brought his medal for the audience to see.

Mr. Edwards encouraged us to watch the soon-to-be-released documentary Double Victory, which more accurately portrays the Tuskegee Airmen story.

Mr. Edwards stressed that humanity, with its diversity, is better together than separately. He referred to segregation as an evil of our past that has hurt everyone in the nation. Several times his eyes welled with tears as he spoke of the hurt caused to both blacks and whites.

Mr. Edwards attended the recent inauguration of President Barack Obama. Of the thousands of Tuskegee Airmen who served as pilots, mechanics and ground crews, 187 were present. Most were in wheelchairs, though Mr. Edwards was able to walk out under his own strength. The airmen were recognized as a significant part of history that led to an African-American being elected president.

GCI elder Dishon Mills with his wife Afrika are in the process of planting The Redeemed of Christ Church (ROCC) in Randolph, Massachusetts (near Boston). Here is an update from Dishon concerning their progress as they prepare for a public launch in September of this year.

As we continue to follow where the Lord leads, we grow closer to the time of our public launch. In preparation, our focus has been on prayer, building relationships with people in our focus community, strengthening our core team, establishing administrative systems and fundraising. Here are some of our key activities:

• Preparing to move our meetings to a more central location
• Conducting Food & Faith gatherings where we build relationships with new people in our focus community
• Fine-tuning financial and other key administrative systems (with much-appreciated help from the folks in the GCI home office)
• Visiting area churches to talk about what Jesus is doing in Randolph
• Serving needy people in our focus community through home care, providing food and sending children to GCI’s New Heights summer camp
• Equipping our core team through various conferences including the CMM summit and the Exponential conference

Please pray for us, asking the Lord to supply our need for additional workers and for guidance and support through this critical period.

This update is from Curtis May, director of The Office of Reconciliation & Mediation (ORM), an independent ministry, which partners with GCI on projects of mutual interest.

ORM and its 28 chapter leaders continue to reach out to churches both inside and outside of GCI. We recently held reconciliation workshops in Portland; Vancouver: Detroit; Phoenix and Beaumont, California (where we had a particularly lively gathering). Due to the nature of our ministry, ORM works both interdenominationally and internationally.

On January 24, ORM’s editor Neil Earle interviewed the late Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s close friend and colleague Dr. James Massey. Dr. Massey is an accomplished scholar and author of 18 books. He formerly served as the Dean of Chapel at Tuskegee University and during the turbulent 1960s he pastored in Detroit. Dr. Massey stated emphatically that people “must know that we are one, then the commitment to fix our experiment in democracy will surely follow.” For a full report on this interview, click here.

I invite you to learn more about ORM at atimetireconcile.org where you will find upcoming ORM events, information about ORM local chapters and ideas for celebrating Black History Month.

About 85 leaders from GCI Generations Ministries’ camps, mission trips and administration gathered recently in Southern California for Converge West. Also participating were GCI youth ministry leaders from outside the U.S. and special guest Jeff McSwain who leads Reality Ministries.

Converge is the annual summit of GenMin’s leaders, held this year in two locations: Southern California (now completed) and Ohio (in April). The purpose of Converge is to gather for inspiration, encouragement and instruction. Participants worshipped, shared meals and fellowship, and participated in discussions with Jeff McSwain and various GenMin leaders.

Information about Converge West and the upcoming Converge East is found on GenMin’s Facebook page and the GCI website.

 

 

 

 

 

This update is from Joseph Franklin, the pastor of GCI’s church in Haiti, which sponsors a school.

We request your prayers for the safety of the teachers and children in our school here. They need protection against kidnapping! Recently, God saved us from what appeared to be a kidnapping attempt in which the kidnapper was demanding from the school master a ransom of $60,000.00 (USD). Due to risks like these and the constant fear of earthquakes, we have only 134 students, though we can accommodate 200. This is causing us financial difficulties. The devastation caused by the January 2010 earthquake still greatly impacts daily life here.

Despite trials, the work of God advances. One of our youths, Jephte Jaques, recently received Christ as personal Savior and requested baptism. We just finished constructing a baptismal pool inside the school building. Jephte is part of a group that attends our Bible study series on the triune nature of God.

Lascan Sikosi, the pastor of GCI’s Kutima Mulilo congregation in Northern Namibia, held an evangelism event on Christmas Day, 2012. As a result, 15 people committed their lives to Christ, were baptized and now attend the congregation, which now has 105 members.

Funding for the event was provided, in part, by GCI’s Canadian Mission Fund. For this support, Lascan is very appreciative. The pictures here show the congregation preparing for the event.

This update is from Doug Johannsen, GCI district pastor and Snowblast camp leader.

This year, Showblast brought the gospel and fellowship to a diverse group of about 30, ranging in age from 70 something to pre-school.

Since 1997, there has been a winter youth activity in Minnesota called Snowblast. This year it was held at Camp Chicagami near Evelyth, Minnesota. It lasted from noon Saturday to Monday morning, and was led by Pastor Tom and Sandy Kennebeck (from Orr, Minnesota) and Pastor Troy Meisner (from Rochester, Minnesota who also directs Northern Light summer camp).

Snowblast was begun by Jeff and Sarah Skrove. They were unable to attend this year due to the condition of their 16-year-old son Jonah who is recovering from amputation of his lower right leg due to bone cancer. Using internet video conferencing, we included Jonah and his family in one evening of the camp. Everyone participated in decorating and filling a “treasure chest” for Jonah (see picture at left).

Outdoor activities included ice fishing, snowshoeing, sledding and hiking. Ice fishing was challenging due to high winds and cold temperatures. Still, the fishermen pulled up a couple of sunfish through the 24 inch thick ice.

Indoor activities included worship, decorating and filling Jonah’s treasure chest; making pottery, baking lefsa, leather tooling and making jewelry out of polished rocks. Messages during worship were given by pastors Tom Kennebeck, Troy Meisner and Doug Johannsen.

Monday morning we couldn’t get the three outdoor thermometers to agree whether it was -29 F, -24 F or -23 F (they must be theological thermometers!). All vehicles but one started and after a couple of shots of ether it was up and running too.

The Florida Times Union newspaper in Jacksonville, Florida recently highlighted the community service work of GCI elder Gadson Burgess and his wife Orzola. To read the story about their participation in the preparation of a community redevelopment plan, click here.

The Burgesses, who are both in their 80s, are members of Christian Family Fellowship, GCI’s Jacksonville congregation.