Category: Stay Connected

Here from Neil Earle is a report on some of the celebrations of Black History Month in GCI congregations in the United States.

All across our fellowship and across this vast land, GCI congregations showed respect and appreciation for Black History Month during February. Doing so has particular relevance in GCI, which has been mixed-race almost from its beginnings. Some of our U.S. churches have former Tuskegee airmen in their midst, and members who walked in the Montgomery Bus Boycott of 1955-56, which helped ignite the modern civil rights movement.

GCI’s congregation in Bellflower, California, had a special slide show in February highlighting significant contributions by African-Americans that have bettered the lives of all people in this country and worldwide. Lead Pastor Larry Dietrich commented:

Black History Month was established to give due credit and recognition to African-Americans. We wanted to make sure that all our members were made aware of their contributions, whether they are inventions, progress or break-throughs in fields like medicine, agriculture and many others. We also honored those patriotic individuals in our past or in our midst whose lives and efforts stand out from the crowd.

GCI’s Glendora, California, congregation held its 20th celebration of Black History Month. Lead Pastor Neil Earle commented:

We usually start with a Call to Worship that could be a Negro spiritual or something reflective of the vast African-American cultural contribution. We make sure the hymns reflect that as well and there are usually readings offered from significant members of the Black community such as Frederick Douglas, Martin Luther King, Jr. or Dr. Carter Woodson who started Black History back in the 1920s.

This year’s special guest speaker at the Glendora celebration was Celestine Olive (pictured at right), assistant pastor of GCI’s Eagle Rock, California, congregation. As an African-American woman growing up in Texas, part of a family of 12 children, Celestine explained how she quietly but steadily broke through glass ceilings of race and gender. “I discovered that God had his own personal plan for me,” said Celestine, “and that being in his hands were the only hands that mattered.”

In Cincinnati, Ohio, George Hart, the lead pastor of GCI’s Christ Community Church (CCC) leads a chapter of the Office of Reconciliation and Mediation (ORM), a parachurch ministry associated with GCI. CCC leader Sandra Hamilton is responsible for Black History Month celebrations. The congregation hosted three events this year—inviting in a group called Ebony Strings for a mini-concert of black spirituals; providing an update given during church life featuring African-American women who share their culture through song, dance and sign language; and hosting a Gospel Jazz band (featuring Michael Wade, pictured below) during their annual “Soul Food Potluck” after church.

“Cincinnati is a good spot to celebrate Black History,” George Hart reminds his congregation and visitors. Built on the Ohio River, the city was a transit point for the Underground Railway where abolitionists ferried runaway slaves to the Northern states. “This rich background comes to life every February and our events are well-attended,” says Pastor Hart.

“Black History Month has many benefits,” comments Neil Earle, a history teacher for much of his life. “It reminds us all of a time when Christian ministers such as the Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., Reverend Ralph Abernathy, Medgar Evars and Andrew Young preached and taught and prodded the country to make real change, often at the cost of their lives.” George Hart adds: “I feel as a pastor it’s important to foster learning about each other to ease the fear and suspicion.” Commented one visitor in Glendora: “The black story is the American story, is the Christian story, and that is something to celebrate.”

This update is from Tim Maguire, GCI’s mission developer in the southern part of Africa. He requests prayer concerning significant problems being encountered by the people of the African nation of Mozambique where we have many members.

Political instability

There is great disagreement between the ruling and opposition political parties, which is creating human and material damages on the roads. We ask for your prayers so that these two parties can cease their striving and bring peace and stability to the people.

Drought and famine

The people of Mozambique are plagued with the problem of drought that has led to famine. Their crops are drying up for lack of rain since the middle of December. The crops, including maize (the main source for food there) are wilting. This has created despair in the country with food prices rising and people asking, “Where will we find money to buy food? How can we live without food?”

Our GCI members in Mozambique are being affected by this natural calamity, suffering from hunger and not knowing when it will end.

We will be sending $25,000 to Mozambique this week from the GCI Disaster Relief Fund (described below) to provide food for our members there during this drought.

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GCI Disaster Relief Fund

If your congregation has a heart to help members impacted by major disasters like the one in Mozambique, probably the best way to do so is to donate to the GCI Disaster Relief Fund. The Fund helps provide members in disaster areas with emergency needs such as food, water, medicine, clothing, temporary housing, home and/or church hall repairs, temporary local pastoral salary expenses and other emergency needs. Monies received into the Fund that are not immediately needed will remain in the Fund to be allocated in future disasters. In previous years, money from this Fund has been used to help members recover from Hurricane Katrina in New Orleans, storms and flooding in Bangladesh, an earthquake and tsunami in the Solomon Islands, typhoons in the Philippines and an earthquake in Haiti.

If your congregation would like to donate to the Fund, your treasurer can set up a one time or monthly donation through the GCI Online system (http://online.gci.org) by logging in and selecting Church Giving under the Treasurer tab.

If your congregation prefers to send a check, make it out to Grace Communion International, indicating on the memo line that the donation is for the GCI Disaster Relief Fund. Send the donation to:

GCI Disaster Relief Fund
Grace Communion International
P.O Box 5005
Glendora, California 91740

GCI-Canada National Director Gary Moore reports that GCI congregations in Canada have recently been helping about 60 refugees from a variety of areas settle in Canada. Many, if not most, are attending GCI congregations. Another 60 are waiting for assistance, which we will provide as we are able.

Nova Musafiri, an elder in the GCI congregation in Ottawa/Gatineau, Canada, who is originally from our GCI refugee church in Kenya, has been instrumental in helping to facilitate this ministry to refugees. According to Gary, “It is wonderful to be able to help these people in such a personal and practical way.”

On February 6 to 9, GCI’s Baranquilla, Colombia church hosted four GCI congregations at their annual seminar/conference. Held in South Rodadero Santa Marta, the theme was Divine Revelation. The guest speaker was Hector Barrero, GCI missions director for Latin America. The seminar was attended by 68 adults and 20 children. In addition to the teaching sessions, the group enjoyed a family night and dance.

On Saturday, January 30, Cathy Deddo presented a day-long seminar titled Wholehearted Life With Christ at Freedom Church in Dallas, Georgia (Atlanta area).

The seminar addressed questions regarding our identity in Christ: What does wholehearted life look like? How does it fit into our daily routine? How does one live wholeheartedly in the midst of personal struggles and unsettling events? Is this wholehearted life a life worth living or will I lose myself by being fully devoted to Jesus?

We struggle with these questions because often we have faulty views of what the Christian life is all about. Lance McKinnon, Freedom Church lead pastor, commented:

Cathy’s seminar helped us understand that our life in Christ is grounded in and flows from the truth and freedom found in our identity in Christ. When we live with the orientation that Jesus is fully present with us, working in our daily life, wholehearted living becomes our natural response. Jesus, who is our hope, shares with us the life he receives from the Father. Through that sharing we participate in Jesus’ own trust, worship and obedience. Instead of being what we “have to” do, wholehearted living is what we “get to” do.

Cathy noted that a wholehearted response to Christ flourishes as we attend to him—a response only possible because Jesus is attending to us. She mentioned several ways we may attend to Christ: reading and studying Scripture, prayer, fellowship with other believers—all powerful means by which we experience the wholehearted life Jesus has for us. The next day, at Freedom Church’s Sunday worship service, Cathy continued the theme in a sermon based on John 13:1-17.

Along with her mother, May Hall, Tammy Tkach recently visited Grace of God Fellowship, GCI’s congregation in Tucson, Arizona. Tammy gave a sermon titled, “Keep Your Eyes on Jesus.” Following services there was a special potluck meal and a time of fellowship and fun featuring some special photographs. Below is a photograph from a previous visit with Tammy (at right) along with Ted and Lila Millhuff who serve on the congregation’s pastoral team.

On January 30, members of Grace Fellowship, GCI’s congregation in Wichita, Kansas, gathered for a “discovery retreat” as part of the Transformational Church (TC) consulting process they are engaged in with TC consultant Greg Williams (shown below addressing the group).

After introductory devotions, the members recorded on cards their recollections of key “transformative” events in the congregation’s history. The cards were then posted on a wall by year, creating a history timeline. The value of small groups in their history clearly emerged.

In groups of three to four, members then reflected on each of the seven assessment areas addressed in a previous survey (referred to as the Transformational Assessment Tool, or TCAT, for short). The seven assessment areas (which together create the “transformational loop” shown in the diagram below) are missionary mentality, vibrant leadership, relational intentionality, prayerful dependence, worship, community and mission.

After lunch, each group took one of the assessment areas and developed proposed action steps to address the congregation’s strengths and weaknesses in that area. The whole group, with Greg’s facilitation, then discussed each of the proposals. Two concepts surfaced from this discussion: the importance of having small groups and the importance of mobilizing to serve the neighborhood where the congregation meets. Regional Pastor Mike Rasmussen (who was present at the retreat), described members as excited and eager to move forward in implementing the action steps. The pastoral and leadership teams will review the proposals to determine priorities, time-lines and budgets.

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For information about GCI’s Transformational Church consulting services, which are provided by the GCI-USA Church Administration and Development (CAD) team, click here.

GCI Generations Ministries (GenMin) recently conducted a Journey with the Master conference at the GCI home office in Glendora, California. The weekend was open to anyone, teen years and older. As indicated by the conference name, the weekend was primarily about getting a better understanding of our true identity as we travel on a lifelong journey with our Master, Jesus.

Anthony Mullins, GenMin’s national coordinator, led participants in looking at their identity spiritually and physically, emphasizing the need to unlearn the lies we believe about ourselves (like being unlovable) and to learn (or perhaps re-learn) the truths that God accepts us entirely and loves us unconditionally. Strengthened by these truths, we are able to journey in ministry with Jesus, which means sharing in his love for all people.

There were many moments in the conference when teens and adults gathered to pray for one another, extending encouragement and love. As one participant noted, “We were able to see hope rise in the hearts of our youth along with a thirst for the only Being who can satisfy our every need.”

The event concluded with participants traveling to Central Park in Pasadena where they offered food and prayer to homeless people. One conference participant noted this about that outreach and the conference in general:

The frame of mind we took with us was to first see anyone as a beloved child of God—someone our King died for and loves as much as he loves us. These beloved children of God then have a secondary identity, whether it be as a college student, blue-collar worker, stay-at-home parent, CEO, or a homeless person. GCI has a wonderfully rich history of relationship—we yearn to bond with those in and out of the church and to bring people into a fuller understanding of the love and grace of God in Jesus Christ. Journey with the Master is one of many events held by GCI, and with many others to come, we hope to see more and more come to know just how loved and accepted they are by their Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.

Here are links to articles that update us on some of the recent events in GCI-Philippines:

• Training for preachers in Baguio: http://my.gci.ph/pulpit-ministry-training-at-gci-baguio/
• Events in Kalibo: http://my.gci.ph/gci-kalibo-updates/
• Baptisms at Cotmon church: http://my.gci.ph/baptisms-at-gci-cotmon-church/
• San Carlos church celebrates 33rd anniversary: http://my.gci.ph/gci-san-carlos-negros-occ-celebrates-33rd-anniversary/

This update is excerpted from a report prepared by Leslie Asare Akoto and Francis Ablordeppey.

GCI’s YEP youth camp in Ghana recently held a two week session with about 150 campers and 60 staff members. The camp theme, based on 1 Peter 2:9, was “You are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood.” The campers, who came from different parts of Ghana and Nigeria, included refugees from Liberia and the Ivory Coast who are staying in a refugee camp in Ghana.

Camp activities included Bible Study, Christian Living classes, fireside chats, hiking, swimming, softball, batik tie & dye, initiative training, cooking & nutrition, and volleyball. A “YEP awareness time” enabled campers and staff to go into communities around the camp to inform parents and their wards about the youth camp and its benefits and also to invite them to attend the camp’s opening day set aside for visitors. As a result, about 37 children visited the camp and a local TV news crew also visited, covering some of the camp’s activities that occurred on Christmas Day. What they filmed was aired on national TV later that afternoon.

The campers enjoyed a Christmas Eve praise and worship session that included praising God in song and dance. A similar session was also held on New Years Eve. The campers were spiritually filled, pleased and blessed to usher in the New Year in this way (which included fireworks to thank God for keeping them through another year). The campers also enjoyed a party at the Tills Beach Resort.

On the last day of camp, 17 youth accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior through baptism. The baptisms were performed by pastors Emmanuel Okai and Francis Ablordeppey.

On the last evening of camp there was a beautiful banquet where campers and staff were awarded certificates for participation and for excelling in particular activities.