Category: Hear From the President

Dear Family and Friends,

You may recall seeing the Support/Challenge Matrix in some of our publications. This diagram effectively demonstrates ways of being and operating that create a cultural pattern for a person or organization.

I was recently challenged to define what I mean by a culture of liberation. Is the concept biblical? Does it fit with our Incarnational Trinitarian Theology? The short answer is yes, it is biblical, and it fits with our theology. Further, it describes the emerging culture of GCI.

One of the greatest gifts Jesus gave us is freedom. Luke tells us Jesus has set us captives free (Luke 4:14-21). He is the one who has freed us from the dominance of legalism and the culture of fear and manipulation. He is the one, through the power of the Spirit, who has filled us with love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control. He is the one who moves out of the culture of apathy. He joins us to the purpose of the Father in pointing us to the eternal kingdom and away from the culture of self-centeredness and entitlement.

And yet we are called to participate. To do so, we must come out of the prison cells of our old self and our old surroundings and embrace the freshness of life in him. We are free because of him and through him. He is the one establishing the culture of empowerment and opportunity in us. It is his good pleasure to do this work in us.

In his letter to the church at Ephesus, Paul talks plainly about what a healthy church community looks like.

Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming. Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ. From him the whole body, joined and held together by every supporting ligament, grows and builds itself up in love, as each part does its work. (Ephesians 4:14-16)

Rather than a community that gets swept up in and entrapped by the noise, rhetoric, and false news of the day, in Christ we are freed to be a community that boldly “speaks the truth in love.” Striking the balance of high support and high challenge toward one another—out of “grace always”—is the sign of a healthy church, where leaders and members speak honestly and lovingly to one another. Being honest and loving is how we are joined and held together, and it is all from him who is the head of the church—the one who empowers us through the Spirit.

This may seem like a nuance, but a culture of liberation is not license. Rather it is a strong commitment to Christ and to one another. Empowerment and opportunity do not let us off the hook for being our brother and sister’s keeper. Being united in Christ means that we are for one another; we are accountable to each other—even (and maybe especially) when we experience differences of opinions. If it takes strong bones, toned muscles and elastic ligaments all in alignment for a human joint to operate smoothly and effectively, imagine how much active participation it takes from you and me to be a part of a mature healthy church?

The culture of liberation that we are growing into allows us to be free from sin, death, guilt, and shame, and yet it goes further. Not just “free from,” but “free for.” We are free to become the best versions of ourselves as we grow in relationship with Jesus and with one another. I think of freedom in Christ as an invitation and empowerment. I am free to join him and participate in much of what he is doing. I am free to see how he is at work in people around me, and I am free to share his love that he has liberally bestowed on me.

Brothers and sisters, it is Jesus who has joined us together. It is Jesus who liberates and empowers. May we embrace, celebrate, and perpetuate the culture of liberation that he is showering upon us.

Praising him for my liberation,

Greg Williams

GCI President, Dr. Greg Williams, gives an update on the life of Grace Communion International. Greg talks about the significance of the Faith Avenue as we move forward into 2021.

In light of recent events in the United States, Greg Williams has written an additional message this week. Click here to read it.

In this Update, GCI President Greg Williams talks about the 2020 theme “Focused on Hope”. He continues to expound on the significance of “Hope” and how it has taught us to persevere throughout these challenging times. During this season let look unto Jesus, our true Hope.

Not too many people get excited about governmental structures and systems. Who recalls civics class as the most scintillating of your educational journey? I suppose that I am a bit nerdy when it comes to church government, and I will do my best to make this article more exciting than the dry class lectures you may dimly recall.

In Grace Communion International we are “Board Governed.” The GCI Denominational Board of Directors are a diverse group of elders responsible for overall stewardship of the Church and the appointment and oversight of the President. The President is responsible to the Board for the general management of the Church, with the help of other officers, managers, and staff to carry out day-to-day operations of the church. (This is the short version for the civics test.)

The Directors operating according to the organization’s Articles and Bylaws have 3 fiduciary responsibilities mandated by law: duty of care, duty of loyalty, and duty of obedience. Board directors are called fiduciaries because they are legally responsible for the high-level oversite of a nonprofit entity ensuring that support is raised and resources are spent well in support of its mission.

Duty of Care

Duty of care means that directors are required to give the same care and concern to their board responsibilities as any prudent and ordinary person would. Board members must be active participants in board meetings and committees. Working with other directors, they actively advance the mission of the Church. They fulfill their responsibilities by overseeing and monitoring the Church’s activities, including strategic planning, finances, audits, board director development, and recruiting to ensure the Church’s long-term goals are achieved.

Duty of Loyalty

Duty of loyalty means that board directors are required to place the interests of the Church ahead of their own interests. Board members do not serve on the board for personal gain but for the benefit of the organization. They must be loyal to the organization by appointing qualified and loyal members to replace themselves as they rotate out of their positions so that the Church successfully operates as a healthy entity in perpetuity.

Duty of Obedience

Duty of obedience means that directors must ensure that the church is abiding by all applicable laws. The duty of obedience also means that directors carry out the mission of the Church.

Board Officers

The Board appoints “officers” to administer the operations of the Church. The Chair, Vice-Chair, President, Chief Financial Officer, and the Secretary of the Board serve in this capacity. Currently, these positions are filled by Dr. Joseph Tkach, Dr. Randy Bloom, Dr. Greg Williams, and Mathew Morgan, respectively. Dr. Williams and Mr. Morgan serve as ex-officio Board Directors in our governance structure, which means they serve as Board Directors as long as they hold their current positions.

Administration

Under the Board’s oversight, the President, working with other officers and managers, provides direct management and administration to carry out the Church’s mission and is a steward over the administrative functions and day-to-day management of the Church.

In our governance framework, the President, under the supervision of the Board, provides oversight of Superintendents in the US and abroad, providing worldwide focus and collaboration in pursuit of the mission of preaching the gospel and caring for the church.

Board directors and officers carry weighty responsibilities for the care and welfare of the denomination and must have specific requirements necessary to serve. In addition to a willingness to shoulder the duties mentioned earlier, a director must be an ordained elder in GCI, have relevant advanced education, a willingness to work together with other directors to advance the mission of the Church and be nominated and selected by the Board.

It is my pleasure and joy to share the news that Celestine Olive and Jennifer Gregory have been nominated and elected to serve alongside the current Board Directors (Chair Dr. Joseph Tkach, Vice Chair Dr. Randy Bloom, CFO and Secretary Mathew Morgan, GCI President Dr. Greg Williams, Dr. Russell Duke, and Pastor Tommie Grant).

It is a “Welcome back” to Celestine, as she has served a previous term on the Board. She is now retired from GCI employment and serving actively as an elder in the Lancaster, CA, congregation. (see her attached bio)

Jen will be coming on as a Board Director for the first time. She serves side by side with her husband Anthony as they pastor the Grove City, OH, congregation. Welcome Jen! (see her attached bio)

I think we all can appreciate the quote from the late Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg – “Women belong in all places where decisions are being made. It shouldn’t be that women are the exception.”

It brings me great joy to have the presence and voices of Celestine and Jen on the GCI Denominational Board of Directors.

I would be remiss not to mention that Dr. Charles Fleming and Elder Wendy Moore just completed their terms of service and have cycled off. A big thank you to Charles and Wendy for their dedicated service.

Please pray for the health and wisdom of the GCI Board of Directors, and that the Lord will continue faithfully guiding our journey forward.

Greg Williams

Dear GCI Family and Friends,

It may sound cliché, but we do live in challenging times. The struggles with and through COVID-19 continue; the politics and elections in many countries are more divisive than they have been in years; there is the constant fight for our personal time, attention and resources (not that I am a conspiracy theorist, but the documentary The Social Dilemma on NetFlix made me think); and there is a great need for racial reconciliation and equality. Amid all this, we have our unified mission to bring the gospel of Jesus Christ into the 21st-century world – not a small task. And I especially think about how best to share the gospel with Generations Z and Alpha.

Leadership matters – this concept shows up across all eras of history and certainly is needed today. In a recent internet search, I came across a site for the organization “Leadership Matters for America.” (While we do not affiliate with or endorse this organization, their site provided some useful information that follows.) They identified the markers below as vital ingredients to leadership:

• • • Strategic Thinking: We want someone who can bring about the right change not just out of rage but with the right thought.
    • Planning & Delivery: Planning the right course of action and making sure that the action has brought you to the right place.
    • Persuasion & Influence: All the planning will go to waste if people do not understand the right way to be the change.

These are excellent qualities that we want for all our GCI leaders and they certainly align with Christ-centered leadership qualities described in Scripture. This leads me to an important and exciting announcement.

We are at a juncture where a significant leadership transition will be taking place in GCI. Our current Generations Ministry (GenMin) National Coordinator, Jeff Broadnax, is handing over the baton of leadership to Pastor Dishon Mills in January 2021. Jeff will continue to be one of five U.S. Regional Directors. (See the attached article from Jeff called “The Acceleration Zone”).

In our prayerful and careful process of identifying Dishon for his new role, we were looking at his experience along with the following leadership characteristics we list on our job descriptions that make him a good fit to take on the leadership of GenMin.

• • • • Personal health: lives in community, with integrity, and maintains good spiritual/emotional/relational health.
      • Self-aware: knowing who he is in Christ, having clarity about personal strengths and weaknesses, and is comfortable filling in his own gaps with competent team members.
      • Time manager: well organized and able to divide his time between specific activities and effectively fulfill work-related goals.
      • People skills: the ability to deal with a wide range of people in a friendly and effective way that achieves good results.
      • Life-long learner: continuing to grow in knowledge and capacity, especially in the areas of youth culture and development resources for Christian ministry in the 21^st century.

Above any life experience or leadership qualities, there is the matter of spiritual calling. Is this a role that the Lord has been preparing and grooming Dishon for? How has Dishon discerned this? And what does Dishon want to share with us as a way of introduction? I will ask Dishon to continue this introduction in his article entitled “Big Things with Small Things,” and in our December issue of Equipper Dishon will introduce a new column. I will end by saying “Welcome to Dishon and Afrika, his delightful and supportive wife. We are so glad that you said ‘yes’ and we are excited to see what the Lord accomplishes through you.”

Looking forward to equipping leaders,

Greg Williams

Dear GCI Family and Friends,

The year 2020 will be remembered as the year the world faced a pandemic that stopped much of the economy, sent people to “shelter in place” in their homes and churches revised the way they get together for worship. It will also be remembered for several natural disasters—fires, earthquakes, severe drought and volcanic eruptions. Some wonder if we’ve reached “the end of time”; others understand these cataclysmic events have always been with us. The Bible is transparent in letting us know that trials, persecution, plagues, famines and weather events are a part of our fallen world. Notice the words of Jesus:

And the rain fell, the floods came, and the winds blew and beat on that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock. (Matthew 7:25 NRSV)

Over the years we have experienced many natural disasters with our extended family around the world. Some have asked what our GCI Disaster Relief fund is for and how we have used it. The purpose of this letter isn’t to solicit donations, but to inform and to show our appreciation.

Since the inception of the Disaster Relief fund in 2005, over $800,000 has been distributed to provide relief to the GCI family from the effects of hurricanes, earthquakes, flooding, drought, and Ebola, just to name a few.

In just the last couple years, donations have helped the GCI family in the following disasters:

• Hurricane Dorian – Bahamas
• Taal Volcano – Philippines
• Cyclone Idia – Mozambique
• Flooding – Nepal
• Hurricane Maria – Dominica
• Hurricane Harvey – Houston, TX

Because many have given to this fund before a disaster has struck, we have been able to quickly send aid as soon as needs are made known. We want to thank the congregations who have contributed and allowed us to provide aid in times of need.

The Disaster Relief fund is never meant to cover all costs related to any emergency; rather, it is designed to provide help where we can, and perhaps where other help is not available. It is our practice to have those affected by natural disasters seek the help provided from government and other relief agencies because we do not have the capacity to cover the extent of long-term needs or complete rebuilding, in some instances. Your superintendent, national or regional leader can help lead you to resources available.

Being able to provide financial relief in the event of a natural disaster is just one of the ways that we live up to the word “international” in our denominational name Grace Communion International. It is a blessing to be a global family connected and able to display our compassion and love in times of disaster.

Again, a special thanks to all of the congregations that have contributed. You are much appreciated.

Keeping you informed,

Greg Williams

P.S. I want to be clear that the bulk of our offerings and donations are meant for the work of sharing the gospel through the life and ministries of our local churches. So, please understand that this letter is not meant as a solicitation for the Disaster Relief Fund.

Dear GCI Friends and Family,

A significant Christian author and church leader is how I describe Dr. Gene Getz, a long-time friend of GCI. A few years back Gene hosted me for his annual men’s retreat and ski outing in Beaver Creek, CO. He is a kind, welcoming man with loads of spiritual depth.

Gene wrote a book in 1995 called The Measure of a Healthy Church (updated in 2001 and 2007). He recently sent me a signed copy and it has stimulated more thoughts and ideas about our shared quest toward Healthy Church.

Throughout the book, Gene shows how spiritual growth must be the focus above monitoring numerical growth. He also points out, however, that spiritual growth and numeric growth are not mutually exclusive – it is recorded in Acts chapter 2 that about 3,000 were added to the church after Peter’s compelling sermon about Jesus, the true Lord and Messiah.

Gene tells stories about several of the New Testament churches, and the one that intrigued me the most is the back story of Ephesus. Paul made this large Roman city of 300,000 people his base of operations for nearly three years. In Acts 19:9-10 we see that Paul met with people on a daily basis in the lecture hall of Tyrannus for a stretch of two years. Can you imagine what that lecture series was like?

An important factor in the growth of the Ephesian church that often gets missed is this raising up of other leaders. In Acts 19:6-7 Luke tells us that there were 12 men raised up and gifted in a similar way as the original apostles on the day of Pentecost. Recruiting, equipping and empowering other leaders matters.

The most encouraging and conforming section for me was chapter 4 – “A Divine Trilogy.” Gene demonstrates how faith, hope and love are a trilogy that jump off the pages of the New Testament and form a comprehensive perspective for evaluating corporate Christian life. He cites a quote from C.K. Barrett, a British Bible scholar who says, “Faith, hope and love are the central, essential and indefectible elements in Christianity.” Not only are these three qualities the true measure of the church, they are the best words in our English language to describe the person of Jesus. Jesus is faith, hope and love personified.

In GCI we encourage our members to manifest the spiritual virtues of faith, hope and love as Christ lives and shines in them. We have taken this a step further to design and structure our church ministries around this divine trilogy.

• • • • The faith avenue is about discipleship. As individual believers, are we growing in our walk with Jesus? Are we growing deeper as a community of Christian believers?
      • The hope avenue is about worship. Is Jesus being proclaimed in our church gatherings? Is corporate worship inspiring and are lives being transformed?
      • The love avenue is about engaging in our church neighborhood and witnessing to the love of Christ. Are we out there daily as we see demonstrated by Paul in Ephesus? Are relationships being built and cultivated so that witnessing naturally happens?

So, what have we learned from this thumbnail sketch from Dr. Getz?

• • • • Healthy churches preach Jesus and trust the Lord to add the numeric growth.
      • Healthy churches multiply leaders for the work of the church.
      • Healthy churches are centered around faith, hope and love (we can abbreviate this by saying healthy churches are centered in Jesus).

As President of GCI, my goal is to make the main things as plain as possible. I sincerely believe if we are attending to the basic principles outlined in this letter, we will see an abundance of spiritual and numeric growth in ways in which we have only dreamed.

A big thank you to my friend Dr. Gene Getz for his teaching and most of all for his loving support.

Growing Healthy Together!

Greg Williams

GCI President, Dr. Greg Williams, gives an update on the life of Grace Communion International. He talks about our plans for the future of the denomination and addresses the question, what is our greatest need?

For further reading on our denominational vision, please check out our next issue for an article from Dr. Kerry Magruder about the strategy for Ministry Training Centers (MTC’s) across the global landscape of GCI.

Dear GCI Family and Friends,

For 2020 I asked our GCI leaders to consider the word “focus” as our word for the year. To achieve a perfect focus of 20/20 sight, there must be clarity. Anyone who has ever undergone an eye exam was given a series of lenses to peer through and asked, “Which one is most clear?” until you achieve clear vision.

The clarity for GCI starts with me as the President having a well-defined job description – a clear lens of what my job is. (Thanks to the GCI Board of Directors, I have such a lens.) Once clarity for my job was established, it is on me to fashion priorities and goals around the activities that I have been asked to accomplish on behalf of the denomination. One of those priorities is to create a job description for the leaders who serve at the management level of the church. This applies, in turn, to our church pastors.

Our pastors are the frontline managers for our church. These men and women are the backbones of our organization. As go our pastors, so goes our church. This is not meant to imply a sense of heaviness or pressure, just simply stating the reality.

The old DNA for pastoring in our church was:

• An able teacher who could support and articulate our church doctrines
• A counselor to the members on all of life’s issues
• An available leader who regularly visited members in their homes

As we are now 20 years into the 21^st century the job description for pastors has changed significantly.

In accordance with what we see in Ephesians 4, we desire that pastors look to the leadership of the ascended Christ in not only using their gifts, but in helping members use their God-given gifts. Pastors and ministry leaders are called “to equip the saints for the work of ministry,” so that the church is built up. Equipping is done through the training and empowering of believers.

We desire a dynamic movement of ministry within our churches where people come alive in Christ, grow up into his maturity, and walk in step as they share in Christ’s ministry (verses 13-16).

We are asking our pastors to be theologically educated in GCI’s Incarnational Trinitarian theology and to express their abiding relationship with Father, Son and Spirit in how they relate to others and how they teach the gospel message.

We are asking our pastors to be intimately familiar with the Love, Hope and Faith avenues of ministry, and to prayerfully appoint leaders and teams of people for the ongoing attention and execution of these foundational ministries. Pastors must first be Team-Builders, then Leaders of Leaders, as well as Constant Custodian over the foundational ministries.

It takes a lot of effort to be a healthy church, yet isn’t that our goal? Every pastor wants his or her local congregation to be the healthiest expression of church it can be. This requires focus and clarity. A pastor’s congregation is his or her local focus of operation. To provide clarity, allow me to share—in a condensed fashion—how we are asking pastors to see their role as described in the flow of Engaging, Equipping, Empowering and Encouraging.

Engagement means being among people in the congregation and community to discern individuals who can possibly grow into ministry leaders, then intentionally engaging and recruiting potential leaders by giving them opportunities to stretch their capacity and helping them become better known.

Equipping God’s people for works of service begins in the awareness of who God is, and then who the individual is in relationship to God. How has God shaped them through their personality, life experiences, talents, and spiritual gifting? What is God calling them to in correspondence to building up the church? The pastor must rely on the help and resources from the Faith Avenue leader and team members to thoroughly work through this process. Equipping then means matching individuals to appropriate educational opportunities, and relationally connecting them with able ministry leaders who will make space for the new believer to be apprenticed—knowing that information without imitation falls short, mentoring counts.

Empowerment is a function of trust and resourcing. A pastor will give meaningful opportunities for leaders under him or her and allow liberty for the person to succeed or fail; celebrating the successes and patiently working through the failures. The pastor will work collaboratively with the team leaders to wisely determine their needs, and will follow through with provision of finances, tools and related resources.

The constant Encouragement will come to the broader congregation with the week-in-week-out preaching that is in correspondence to the Christian calendar, and in harmony with the Hope Avenue leader and team. The more specific role of encourager applies to the oversight of the core ministry team leaders, as the pastor facilitates vision-casting and alignment, relational management, and strategic review and careful planning. The pastor is the greatest cheerleader for the ministries of the church, showing support by participation and ongoing communication.

The passage in Ephesians implies growth in spiritual maturity and the winning of new disciples to the church. The pastor will rely on the Love Avenue leader and team to make sure that healthy rhythms of neighborhood engagement and relational connections are happening in the target community. A vigilant pastor will be attentive to numeric and spiritual growth and proactively lead the congregation to receive the growth provided by the Lord.

The new DNA of the four “E’s” – Engagement, Equipping, Empowering, and Encouraging – will be the catalyst for how pastors lead and serve their congregations. This continued transformation is a part of the spiritual renewal of our fellowship that has been going on for more than a quarter of a century.

Thank you, Holy Spirit. We will have some more please!

Greg Williams

P.S. The Regional Directors will be helping pastors have more clarity about their role and how to most effectively shepherd our precious congregations.

Dear GCI Family and Friends,

The interracial and international makeup of Grace Communion International is a blessing and a strength of our fellowship. As I hear and read about the controversies between the “black church” and the “white church” in America, I am pleased that we have ongoing dialogue internally as a GCI family that cares about one another.

As President, I must continually pay attention to ways that the church is being challenged and then prayerfully consider how we move forward. Thankfully, I have a wonderful team of people around me who help me with the multitude of issues. Just as I ask our pastors to be “Team-Based, Pastor-Led,” I seek to be “Team-Based, President-Led.”

I recently asked one of my team members, Dr. Gary Deddo, to write some helpful thoughts on the topic of racism as we see it addressed in Scripture. See his thoughts below.

What does biblical revelation contribute to the concern regarding the evil of racism?

What biblical revelation offers out of its incarnational and trinitarian center can be summed up in four points.

1. Biblical revelation sheds strong light on this form (and all forms) of evil. It does so by locating all sin—including racism—in the most comprehensive context there is. That context, that reality, is the history of humanity’s need for our Triune God’s redemption through Jesus Christ and by the Holy Spirit. That history reaches back to the beginning of created time and out to the future of eternity. In contemporary terms, the whole of biblical revelation provides us a complete story of humanity’s individual and collective brokenness—from its founding to its redeemed culmination. It is a history of all peoples, of all the families of the nations. By God’s grace, we have been given a metanarrative that includes the histories of all particular individuals, peoples, and nations. It is a story of our Creator and Redeemer’s redemption and, as such, is a story of true hope.
2. Biblical revelation centered in Christ tells us what is wrong with our world and so with racism. It does not offer a superficial, biased, or naive view of any evil, including racism. It does not merely expose the symptoms of evil, but the root, the source of any evil including that of racism. Evil is rooted in our distrust and alienation from God. After being tempted by the evil one, humanity rejected a personal relationship with God. Evil is rooted in the lie that we don’t need God and we don’t need to be in relationship with God. The true seriousness of any and every evil is uncovered in biblical revelation. It identifies the root of all sin operating in this “present evil age.” It tells us that our real enemy is not other persons (“flesh and blood”), but the powers of evil that tempt us all and take advantage of our weaknesses. It tells us that every human being needs to be freed by the grace of our Triune God from the power of evil at the deepest level of who we have become.
3. Biblical revelation, which has its center in Jesus Christ, makes known the final end goal of our Triune God’s own eradication of all evil, including racism. It ends upon Jesus’ return as Lord of all. It does not stop short by pointing us to false hopes, misguided compromises, partial results, or hopelessness. Rather, it supports the true hope for all—ultimate redemption and reconciliation between all. Going to the root, Jesus has—through his shed blood on the cross and resurrection from the dead—achieved victory over the source of all evil. At his return, he will eradicate sin as everything is placed under his total rule and reign. Nothing less can bring to a complete end all evil, including the sin of racism.
4. Biblical revelation informs and forms those who are members incorporated into the Body of Christ as to how to participate in our Triune God’s own work of reconciliation and redemption in this present evil age—even as we wait in hope for our ultimate reconciliation, redemption, and the renewal of all things in heaven and earth upon Jesus’ personal and bodily return. We have been given a mission and message of reconciliation to actively share (2 Cor. 5).

My synopsis from Dr. Deddo’s helpful points are:

• I am thrilled that our shared theological foundation—in what is called “Incarnational Trinitarian Theology” (ITT)—is for all people groups, for all ages, in all cultures. We rest and hope in the God revealed through Jesus. He is our solid rock!
• Racism is evil. Treating any people group with prejudice, discrimination, and judging them as inferior is against the nature and intent of the Triune God. We are not to view any person from a “worldly view.” Rather, we are to see all people under the spilled blood of Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:16). Jesus died for people of all races; he values people of all races, and no race is to look down on or feel superior to any other race; the same is true for all ethnicities. In Christ, there is no slave, no barbarian, no Scythian, no Gentile, and no Jew. We are all equal in him.
• Racism will not fully be eradicated until Jesus returns and makes all things new. However, as the church of Jesus Christ we participate with him by the power of the Spirit to demonstrate love and respect to all peoples, and to be peacemakers advocating for equal treatment for all in the systems around us. As a church, we are called to be a light on the hill.

As part of our effort toward greater corporate health, we are forming an Advisory Council of minority leaders who will work with North American Superintendent Mike Rasmussen to inform him and the other Regional Directors as to ways we can more faithfully demonstrate our true unity in Jesus Christ.

As we move forward in our journey toward healthy church, we must make certain that our interracial relationships are healthy. Black lives and Black voices matter in GCI because our denominational story is incomplete without them. Hispanic lives and voices matter. All minority voices must continue to have a greater contribution within our denominational journey with Jesus. We will have more to share once the council is formed.

Please pray for the Lord’s leading in this new initiative and that wonderful fruit will be produced.

In Christ,
Greg Williams