Category: Stay Connected

The following is an update from John McLean, program director of Ambassador College of Christian Ministry (ACCM).

Congratulations to Muphana Ngula who has graduated with a Certificate in Christian Ministry from ACCM! Muphana is the pastor of one of our GCI congregations in Lusaka, Zambia. Additionally, he serves as the national Operations Manager (OM) and Board Treasurer. His wife, Jane, is the women’s ministry and children’s church leader. Having completed the six core courses that make up the certificate, Muphana is continuing his studies for the full diploma (10 courses) next semester. We congratulate him on his excellent efforts.

Let’s hear from Muphana, in his own words:

The ACCM Diploma course material is a treasure trove. It has opened my theological perspective from merely having theological information and knowledge to knowing a primary purpose of Scripture: the centrality of Jesus in all of Scripture.

The course has isolated major theological positions from peripheral issues. Looking at Scripture from an incarnational, trinitarian perspective unencumbered and freed me from many preconceptions. The course Jesus and the Gospels was an excellent starting point. The sequencing of the course modules made a lot of sense.

ACCM has deeply impacted my ministry. Each course brought me new learning opportunities. These days, I give room and grace to my brothers and sisters in the Lord to grow. I have come to terms with the Old Testament’s scheme of things in our incarnational, trinitarian theology. I am grateful to learn that my own Bible interpretations were clouded by personal biases and more by other people’s biases who are not acutely aware of the centrality of Jesus Christ in both the Old and New Testaments. The course has enabled me to understand that the Incarnation is the lens through which we must read the Bible. I have simply fallen in love with GCI doctrinal understanding.

I highly recommend this diploma course to anyone who would like to have a sound basis for both personal theological development and congregational leadership in GCI. Any preacher who would like to proclaim the word with clarity and sound doctrinal basis could benefit from ACCM.

Save the date for the 2023 Denominational Celebration—
June 29-July 2!

The Denominational Celebration is the perfect time for your local congregation to be encouraged, inspired, and challenged, while reflecting on and discerning the vision to which God has called your unique congregation. Please consider spending time together over meals, in worship, and in prayer together, as it is the perfect time to take your next step toward Healthy Church.

Even if you are unable to attend in person you can still participate by hosting a watch party with your local congregation. Daily worship sessions and each keynote session will be livestreamed. We will also provide resources to host local breakout sessions and relational building activities.

Have questions about hosting your own Watch Party?

Join us for a watch party webinar. The webinar will address:

• What is a watch party?
• How do we plan a watch party?
• Content provided by GCI Tech support
• Q&A

The webinar is being offered at multiple times to accommodate different time zones. When you register, please select the date and time that works best for you.

• Tuesday, October 18, 2022 – 8:30 AM – 10:00 AM (EDT)
• Tuesday, October 18, 2022 – 12:00 PM – 1:30 PM (EDT)

The theme at Grace Communion Nashville on June 26 was “…but as for you, go and proclaim everywhere the kingdom of God.” Twenty-four members and relatives gathered for the congregation’s final service, celebrating the special time through praise and worship, prayer, hearing the word of God, and taking communion together.

I took a few moments during the service to give small tokens of our special appreciation to Marie Smith, William Douglas, and Ann Johnson. These faithful members had been instrumental in working through the difficult and exhausting process of finding homes for all of the items that had been gathered over the more than twenty years the congregation had been in the rented church building. The congregation showered them with applause in gratitude for their service. We also appreciated treasurer Linda Knowles’ efforts to close the books and finalize the church records.

In the sermon message, based on Luke 9:51–62, I emphasized our calling to follow Christ wherever he leads. There is a cost to discipleship that may involve doing things we would rather not do. Sometimes Jesus takes us on paths that are painful and difficult, but he is faithful and present with us as we walk them. I encouraged the congregation to keep their eyes on Jesus and to follow him faithfully, allowing him fill to us with the fire of his love, his heavenly Spirit, and to move us to share his good news with others.

Following communion, a closing song, and musical benediction, regional director Anthony Mullins was invited to speak. He offered encouragement to the members and thanked me for my service to GCI and the membership. At this point, on behalf of the congregation, Bob and Linda Knowles gave me a lovely bouquet of flowers and a beautifully engraved crystal vase, commemorating the ten years I had been a pastor with the congregation. I was moved to tears by everyone’s kindness and generosity and touched by their love.

After the service, the members gathered in an air-conditioned garage space at the home of Diann and William Douglas for a celebratory meal. William’s chicken and beef barbeque with all the accompanying goodies was delicious. With the help of his daughter, William presented a slide show that my daughter Eva had created. Some photos were very old and some included members from the former Murfreesboro congregation. The Nashville congregation began over fifty years ago, so we enjoyed the opportunity to reminisce, while laughing and teasing one another about outdated hairstyles and clothing. It was a joyful, yet poignant, end to our celebratory day together.

Linda Rex

We’re grateful to God for an amazing Outside the Walls (OTW) event Saturday, June 25. We were blessed to have 23 families attend the event with a total attendance of between 75 to 100 people. The purpose of the event was to provide a space where we as a church could begin and enjoy making relationships within the one to two square miles surrounding our meeting space. There were many smiles, much laughter, and fun times.

Outside the Walls is a very fitting name for this ministry focus. For me, it calls the church to pursue ministry with Jesus from three perspectives:

• • Outside the Walls of the church’s physical meeting space.
  • Outside the Walls of the body and mindset of the congregation.
  • Outside the Walls of the individual as we are called out of our comfortable spaces to join Jesus in his ministry.

Our collective hope going into the weekend was that we would make it to the other side of the event with our wits about us. Of course, I say that in jest because hosting this event was a big endeavor for such a small group. We had fears of spending too much money, not finding enough sponsors, not logistically meeting our guests’ needs on an extremely hot day. We wondered, would anyone show up? Even in the midst of those fears, God showed himself to be very loving and patient with us. I would encourage those planning a neighborhood event to remember that we are seeking to see what Jesus is already doing in our neighborhoods and join with him in those endeavors.

While it is important that we encourage our new friends to come to visit us in fellowship and worship, our focus is to help them come to know that they are loved by us and by our loving triune God. Now that we are visible to our neighbors, we must move to the next step of consistently showing them that we genuinely care about who they are as people, as neighbors, and as God’s dearly beloved children.

Truly, our hope was to engage our neighborhood for the sake of making ourselves known so our neighbors would see that we cared for them and in doing so, they would see the love of Christ. In that, I think we were very successful!

But we also recognized the need to tweak our approaches, which received a great deal of “high support and high challenge” from the home office and regional support teams. Everyone really poured out some much-needed tough love to help us enter the process of renewal. We now have a renewed focus and purpose after receiving some great coaching from Heber Ticas.

After this experience, we know our limits better, but we also discovered the mighty things that can happen when we diligently seek the lead of the Holy Spirit and trust one another in our giftings. Overall, we feel really excited about what the future holds here in GC South Kansas City. Please keep us in prayer as Jesus rids us of old ways of doing church, and we enter into the fruitful realm of being the church in a fully-engaged-with-the-Holy-Spirit way!

Terry McDonald
Pastor, South Kansas City, MO

James White is the father of Troy White, GCI elder, and father-in-law of Connie White, Donations Processor in the Home Office, Charlotte, NC. We join them in their grief and in their hope of resurrection.

The following is the obituary shared with Update from his family.

James “Jim” White, beloved husband, father, and friend, passed away peacefully on July 5, 2022, in Roanoke, VA, at the age of 88. Jim was born in Lynchburg, VA, on August 2, 1933.

He was a proud graduate of Lucy Addison High School. After graduation, he was drafted into the United States Army and served in the Korean War. While in the Army, Jim honed his skills as a trumpet player and performed in the traveling military band. After leaving the Army, he played in a jazz band called The Corvettes, entertaining folks in towns and cities all over southwest Virginia.

He believed in hard work and maintained multiple jobs simultaneously throughout his working career. Jim enjoyed working for General Electric as a machinist/lathe operator for over 25 years. He was an entrepreneur who started his own grading, excavating, and demolition business called J.H. White, Inc., in 1972. He retired 46 years later at the young age of 85.

Jim was a devout Christian, a faithful member of Grace Communion International where he served in various roles. He loved the Lord, his church family, and discussing biblical subjects with everyone.

Jim was preceded in death by his loving wife of many years, Anna Louise White. Jim is lovingly remembered by his four children, Patrice White, Joyce White, Ricky (Brenda) White, and Troy (Connie) White; four grandchildren, Lamont White, Damon White, Andrew White, and Jonathan White; along with four great-grandchildren and many nieces, nephews, and extended family.

Honorable, kind, giving, easy-going, friendly, personable. These are words everyone uses to describe Jim White.

Don Miller passed away on June 25, just shy of his 90th birthday. Don was employed by GCI in the U.S. and Canada, and he worked at Ambassador College in various business-related capacities throughout the 1970s to 1990s. He retired in Canada and was involved in hospice work and refurbishing properties. He is survived by his wife of 24 years, his daughter Sue Berger of Longview, Texas, and his son Gary Miller of San Diego, California.

Cards may be sent to:
Sue Berger
218 Joan Lane
Longview, TX 75605

Hello Girlfriends!

I am happy to announce our 2022 fall retreat at the St. Bernard Abbey Retreat and Conference Center in Cullman. So many of us have gone through difficult times over the past few years. Sometimes the “cares of this world” can choke out our faith focus. Faith friends are so important, and these retreats have made it possible to renew friendships as well as make new friends.

For many years now we have enjoyed this great retreat center, which has a beautiful conference room where we have our general sessions, and the bedrooms are adjacent to the meeting area. The bedrooms accommodate two people (twin beds) and each has a private bathroom.

The dates are October 7-9, 2022. Registration begins Friday afternoon, October 7 at 3:00 p.m. Snacks will be available, but you will be on your own for dinner that evening. A Cracker Barrel and other restaurants are nearby. This evening is free for getting checked in and relaxing. If you will be arriving after 10 p.m., please let us know ahead of time if possible. My cell phone is (205) 540-1515.

Our theme for the weekend will be Salvation Joy! There are so many wonderful passages of Scripture that speak about this special joy that we can have, even when we are going through tough times. Our happiness fluctuates so often, depending on our physical circumstances. But salvation joy can be a constant. The apostle Paul wrote so much about this kind of joy in the book of Philippians, at a time when he was a prisoner. The word “joy” in its various forms occurs repeatedly in this epistle.

Speakers this year include Gerrie Bayley, Becki Brown, Barbara Dahlgren, Ruth Miller, and Sondra Peters. Ann Hartmann will be our guest singer again this year! You can go to Ann’s website (annhartmann.com) to learn more about Ann’s music and ministry. Mary Jo Leaver will be presenting her Music to the Eyes, which includes music, sign language and lyrical dance – beautiful and inspiring!

Dress is casual for the entire weekend. Bring comfy shoes, as you might enjoy a bit of walking. We have a long-standing tradition of great fun playing games on Friday and Saturday evenings, so bring your “play clothes” or pajamas for this! Bring your favorite board games, and label them, please! The retreat center supplies our bed linens, towels and washcloths. You might want to bring your own water bottles, if you enjoy having bottled water. We do have access to a kitchen and a refrigerator, so we are able to enjoy snacks throughout the weekend. The meals that will be provided are Saturday breakfast, lunch and dinner and Sunday breakfast (total of four meals). This year we are planning to have all of our meals at the retreat center again. Being able to eat “in house” is very convenient, and everyone seemed to enjoy the leisurely meal times.

We plan to conclude the retreat by noon on Sunday so that those who need to get on the road will have the full afternoon for travel. For those who want to stick around and visit a bit, we can have prolonged “goodbyes” in the retreat center.

We hope you will help spread the word to others who might enjoy the weekend. If you have questions or need more information, contact me at 205-663-7979 (home), 205-540-1515 (cell), or email ruth.miller@gci.org.

Please fill out the registration form, include payment, and return it to me by August 30. Late registrations will be accepted if space is still available. I’m looking forward to sharing this weekend with you in October!

With love,
Ruth Miller

Grace Communion Cleveland hosted its first neighborhood engagement in the afternoon on June 26 after Sunday services. Our congregation meets in a classroom at Coventry P.E.A.C.E. Campus, which is a former elementary school that now houses non-profit groups and artists. The Playground Pop-up, as we called it, was held in the community park that is part of this campus, where families often bring their children to the large playground with grassy hills on weekends.

There was a rubber ducky-pull game for kids to win prizes, face painting, sidewalk chalk drawing, a balloon artist, corn hole games and a physical education teacher to engage kids in organized activities. Juice boxes, water and an assortment of chips were the snacks for the afternoon. Four $50 gas cards were given away to adults in a drawing midway through the event.

Although thunderstorms were in the forecast all week for that Sunday, we forged ahead with our plans, praying for God’s intervention with the weather. The rain held off until 3:45 p.m., fifteen minutes before the end of the event. Even then, it was just a gentle brief rain. We were amazed, pleased, and praising God that all went so well for our first outreach and look forward to August when we will have a picnic and school supply giveaway.

By Pat Shiels
Love Avenue Champion, Cleveland, OH, US

Editor’s Note: This is a wonderful example of a congregation paying close attention to the rhythms of their neighborhood. They discerned a need and were compelled by love to risk trying something new. Thank you for sharing your story!

It was a simple plan—a hot breakfast prior to our church service for the neighborhood the first Sunday of each month. First, we advertised in the newsletter of the senior center where we meet for church, and we put up flyers in a nearby apartment community. We learned that both places provide meals during the week, but no meals are served on Sunday.

Next, one member, Princess Yeager, gave our bulletin board at the center a fresh, new look. We spruced up the worship hall with new silk plants. It may have been a simple plan, but it was a lot of work for organizer Zebbie Cox. For that first Sunday of March, we decorated and laid out a table of juices, hot beverages, biscuits with sausage, breakfast casseroles, and muffins—everything you could possibly want for breakfast. This was in addition to the usual work for each Sunday: setting up chairs, sound system, and the tricky job of setting up cameras for a live recording of the sermon.

Our March breakfast was set for 10:00 a.m. with the church service at 10:30. We didn’t know what to expect, but we had high hopes for a big hungry crowd. That was not the case. We had a few family members attend, but they were simply being supportive. It was the same in April–disappointing and discouraging, to say the least. We talked about pulling the advertisements and discontinuing the breakfast. Two ladies, Sue Williams and Shirley Barton, were keen on continuing the breakfast, though.

We’re so glad they were, because for our May breakfast, we had four guests! You might not think that’s a big turnout, but when the average attendance on Sunday is fourteen, that’s almost a 30% increase. The irony is, two of the guests had already eaten, so they didn’t come for the breakfast.

We will continue the monthly breakfast but will scale back a little bit on the amount of food we provide. We continue to pray that God will lead others to visit our little congregation for nourishment of one kind or another.

By Sondra Peters
Pastoral Team Member, Clarksville, TN, US