Place-sharing Check out this video series to learn what place-sharing is, why it’s valuable, and how it reflects the ministry of Jesus.
Learn more about GCI’s 3–Year Plan, designed to bring movement through a collaborative team process, aligning our efforts in a way we have never done before.
A Ministry Training Center is a site dedicated to the development and multiplication of young emerging leaders through provision of strategic ministry equipping within the life of the church. Check out the development:
Interview with Walter Kim Greg Williams talks with the President of the National Association of Evangelicals about GCI’s relationship with the organization.
Three Questions We Must Answer As we focus on the Love Avenue and our theme, Compelled by Love, there are three questions each one of us needs to address.
The Art of Being a Neighbor How can we love people we do not know? This Church Hack outlines some tips to build relationships with your neighbors.
Toward Healthy Church As we focus on aspects of healthy church, there are various terms we use commonly. Check out this list of definitions.
Worship Calendar
GC Podcast Listen to this episode about how the Love Avenue rhythms fit together with the worship calendar.
BUZZ—Worship Calendar This BUZZ outlines the background, purpose, and common terms of the worship calendar.
Avenue Tool kits –These are tools to help you discern your next steps as you build your Avenues. Each session outlines best practices and reflection questions to help you apply the principles to your context.
GC Podcast—Missional Discipleship In this episode, author and church planter, John Ritner, discusses best practices for team-based ministry in a post-Christian culture. Jon will be the keynote speaker at the GCI Denominational Celebration in June 2023.
This GCI Buzz explains the GCI Worship Calendar, a tool that keeps worship alive and provides an inspirational and intentional framework for planning your congregation’s Avenue-led activities and events. Embracing a well-defined calendar brings clarity to how we worship in GCI and keeps us Christ-centered. #gcibuzz
What’s an ideal outcome for you? What would it mean to you if you reached your goal? What do you need to move forward? Who can help you with that? When will you do that? These are the kinds of questions you’ll hear if you overhear a conversation between a GCI ministry coach and their coachee.
What is ministry coaching? It’s a process of discovery where the coach supports the coachee to draw out their God-given potential through a series of thought-provoking questions. Experience and research show that ministry coaching not only improves ministry effectiveness but develops ministry leaders themselves. The GCI Ministry Coach program trains coaches to support ministry leaders in their development towards healthy leaders and healthy church.
In August, 10 leaders across the US with a gifting for coaching gathered at the GCI Home Office to attend a GCI Coach Clinic. Over two days, the participants were trained in practices and principles of coaching as the first step in the process of earning their GCI Ministry Coach Certificate.
We praise God for the gifted leaders he brought together to develop their coaching skills with the goal of supporting the development of GCI ministry leaders across the country. The development of ministry participants and leaders is a ministry of its own. We are called to be disciples who make disciples – so we thank God for the ministry of coaching and these coaches-in-training who God continues to work through.
Left to right: Lily Aparicio, Cara Garrity, Jane Hill, Kelly Rakestraw, Afrika Afeni Mills, Bermie Dizon, Rebecca Johnson, Ceeja Malmkar, Julie Frantz, Pam Morgan, & Michelle Fleming
One of the participants remarked that the following statement stood out: “A good coach encourages thinkers to take action and doers to stop and think.” Coaching is a transformational relationship of empowerment that is personal and contextualized.
Please continue to pray for our coaches-in-training around the world. They are preparing to support the ministry of Jesus Christ as expressed through GCI’s healthy church vision, putting to practice their coaching gifts, knowledge, and skills.
On October 30, we celebrated our 6th annual Surrey Hills Trunk or Treat. This year we moved the event to the parking lot of our church in Surrey. The location change was amazing. We had access to electricity and bathrooms and had ample space for all the fun! An estimated 3,500 people attended.
At GC Surrey Hills, we believe we are better together. This neighborhood event was only possible because an entire neighborhood worked together. We had 26 sponsors and more than 20 trunks passing out candy to all the kiddos. The Surrey Hills Lion’s Club joined the fun by volunteering at the carnival games, and even the OKC police cadets and Fire Department attended.
Thanks to the generosity of neighbors and neighborhood business owners, we were able to provide inflatables (bounce houses), six professional carnival games, trophies, face painting, and loads of candy. We passed out more than 30,000 pieces of candy!
It was an incredible day of family, community, fun, and relationship. We are blessed to be able to serve this amazing neighborhood. Our goal isn’t simply to get our neighbors to join our church, but for us to BE the church to our neighborhood. Jesus builds his church, and we are so thankful to be able to join him in everything he’s doing in this neighborhood.
I want to give a HUGE shout out to our Love Avenue Team. Every person on the team had a job to do and worked hard to build teams and ensure the event went smoothly. The music was rocking, the parking crew was grooving, and the trunks and carnival games were popping! God is so good!
The GCI church in the United Kingdom (UK) hosted a two-day denominational conference for Europe in June. This conference was the first time many of our ministers in Europe were able to gather together in person since 2019. It was an excellent chance to catch up and strengthen relationships.
With more than 100 attendees, the focus of the event was Healthy Church. We also explored how our theology and values are behind the Hope, Love, and Faith avenues and our move to embracing a Team based—Pastor led structure.
Left to Right: Susan & Greg Williams, Sinead & Gavin Henderson, Marie Angélique Picard, and Frans Danenberg
Greetings from Paris where Susan and I visited in October. We were able to meet with the church there, with the French leadership, and with the European Community of Practice (CoP), Marie Angélique Picard, Frans Danenberg, and Gavin and Sinead Henderson. It’s wonderful to talk to Christians of like mind and to feel their enthusiasm for Jesus and his work.
Since his retirement some years back, James Henderson has served as the GCI Superintendent for Europe on a volunteer basis. My personal thanks go to James and his wife, Shirley, for their dedication to our fellowship and for the care they have shown as they ministered to others.
One of the main priorities in the international areas has been to establish ideas about succession planning, and James and I reviewed the need for this in Europe. My idea was that James’ son, Gavin, the current UK national church leader, should take on the mantle for Europe. When James became aware of this, he stood back from the discussion because they are family. James also did the same thing when he stepped down from being a trustee of the UK Board. He excused himself from any discussions about his son to avoid suggestions that he might have influenced the UK Board when Gavin was appointed.
I consulted with the other international superintendents about Gavin’s possible appointment as the new Superintendent for Europe, and all of them were in favor. The other two European CoP members, Frans and Marie Angélique, both consented willingly to the idea. The UK Board of Trustees was concerned about Gavin’s workload, as am I, but they gave their considered and considerable support for this development.
With his ministry and office experience, his background within our church, and his GCS Master in Pastoral Studies, Gavin is a qualified and capable candidate for the role. Gavin and Sinead have a young family and are aware of workload implications. And they want to minimize the impact of frequent travel on their family. Bearing this in mind, Gavin has requested that his father continue to offer support to Europe should the need arise. I agree that this is a good idea, and James and Shirley will make themselves available when required.
Therefore, it was with great joy that Susan and I were able to commission Gavin Henderson as the new GCI superintendent of Europe while in Paris. Sinead was with us, as were Frans and Marie Angélique. James and Shirley were child-minding in the UK, but they were with us in spirit!
Congratulations, Gavin. Thank you so much for your support of our wonderful fellowship!
On the weekend of October 7-9, thirty women enjoyed a retreat at the St. Bernard Retreat Center in Cullman, Alabama. The retreat was sponsored by Grace Covenant Fellowship in Helena, Alabama. The theme for the weekend was Salvation Joy! The speakers were Gerrie Bayley, Barbara Dahlgren, Ruth Miller, and Sondra Peters.
Singer/songwriter Ann Hartmann provided wonderful music (annhartmann.com). Mary Jo Leaver gave a beautiful presentation of Music to the Eyes. Mary Jo’s ministry to the hearing impaired involves amazing lyrical sign language renditions of some of her favorite songs.
Gerrie Bayley, who lives in England, is involved in ministry to the children of Chernobyl, Ukraine. Her slide presentation of the conditions in the Ukraine and her descriptions of the type of help needed resulted in generous donations to assist those in need.
Friday and Saturday evenings were filled with lots of great fellowship and board games! Beautiful fall weather helped make it a memorable weekend for all who attended.
Five years ago, we relocated our church from the Youth Horizons building to Derby, Kansas. We attempted to engage the neighborhood with limited success. At the end of a neighborhood prayer walk, a member prayed, asking that we could serve our local elementary school. A short time later, Youth Horizons asked us to participate in a mentoring program at the school. A few members could mentor. We were excited and praised God for this opportunity.
The following year, we doubled the mentors, but COVID kept us from being with the students. A couple of members planned an afterschool STEM/Art connection group. We just had to wait for COVID to decline. When we were able to resume mentoring, a teacher asked us to assist with an afterschool STEM coding club. This in-school club, meeting twice a week, provided more effective engagement than the original plan. One day, a child walked by and asked, “Bible Club?”
After investigating, we discovered they had a Bible Club with Campus Kids Ministries, Inc. before COVID, and we could host it the coming year! The program provides course materials, treats, and a nice bible for each child after attending three weeks. We provide take-home copies, snacks, adult leaders, and prayer support.
This year, we continue assisting the STEM club and mentoring. Now we host the Bible Club. We currently have 50 students from kindergarten to fifth grade. We enjoy support from the principal and staff. We are permitted to pass out flyers inviting the club to our church events. Many came to our trunk-or-treat experience.
We’re looking forward to our winter GC Derby Camp and Parent Day Out. God continues to bring us opportunities that allow us to participate where he is already active. God shows us that he goes before us.
By Pastor Kirk and Laura Hayden Grace Communion Derby
