As ambassadors of Christ, it is imperative that we have kingdom eyes, a kingdom message, and kingdom actions.

Kingdom Eyes

In this fallen, broken world, do we as believers rise above and see the beautiful transforming work of Jesus through the Spirit? Do we see beyond the shootings and violence being reported on the news streams to the acts of kindness and faith? In most shootings and violence stories, some peole ran in to help, or some who tried to intervene. Not any less, acts of kindness might include one neighbor mowing another neighbor’s lawn. It could be a generous donor supporting a ministry in a developing country. Hopefully, all believers are relating to friends, family, and co-workers who are not yet believers — building strong, loving, credible relationships.

Kingdom Message

This is the message of reconciliation. God is not counting your sins against you; he has resolved that matter in Jesus (2 Corinthians 5:19). This is really, really good news!

As ambassadors, we are taking and carrying seriously good news about the true King, the great reconciler, Jesus. The strength of our message is contained in what he has done for us and through us. Our personal testimonies are how we give witness to the reality of Jesus.

According to the Barna Group’s research, some 61% of people surveyed in the U.S. see Jesus as the standard for being a good person. Shows like The Chosen, and the advertisement piece, “He Gets Us – All of Us,” establish the historical validity of Jesus and display his goodness. It then falls onto the shoulders of us church folks to proclaim his divinity and draw others into the worship of our Lord and God. The King is a nice guy and so much more.

Kingdom Actions

I think back to an Update letter I wrote in April about the beatitudes of Jesus. Because Jesus lives in us, we are to display meekness and humility in a world of pride and narcissism. Do we behave righteously when we are stressed and persecuted? Are we proactively making peace where there are factions in our circles of influence? We are empowered to live out these kingdom actions as Jesus lives in us. Not I, but Christ!

If we truly are Christ’s ambassadors and bringers of the good news, how do we live this out in a post-Christian world? Chapter 5 in Jon Ritner’s book, Positively Irritating, gives excellent instruction. On page 64, Jon writes,

All human longings ultimately find their fulfillment in God’s presence and his kingdom. The thirst for unconditional acceptance and love, deep healing and wholeness, significance and value, community and connection, all point us to God. Our job as missionaries [or ambassadors, my addition], is to identify the obvious yearnings in the culture around us and help people to find the ultimate fulfillment for those longings in God.

Jon has more to say in his book. Why not get a copy? Another tremendous tool created by the GCI Media Department is the Place-sharing webinar series.

As Christ’s ambassadors and kingdom citizens now, may we all have sharper kingdom eyes, be bold in sharing the kingdom message, and by the power of the Spirit, live out kingdom actions.

Prayer: Lord, by your grace, empower GCI to more deeply live out the kingdom culture that you began over 2,000 years ago. Amen!

Living in the culture,

Greg Williams

The way that Jesus interacted with his disciples, and all the surrounding people of his earthly ministry, is a living display of grace. I am reminded of what John, the beloved disciple, wrote about Jesus: “…the one and only Son, who came from the Father, full of grace and truth.” (John 1:14 NIV) This two-sided coin of grace and truth is a matter I believe we need to understand better and practice more often.

Let’s go back to Ephesians 4:15. It says that speaking truth in love is one of the ways we grow up into the likeness of Jesus. Truth in love ties in closely with the Christ-like nature of John’s grace and truth combination. Truth without love can be a weapon that destroys. Grace without truth can be shallow, empty, and less than genuine. You see how these qualities are interdependent.

There are multiple examples of Jesus interacting with the apostle Peter which clearly demonstrate the grace-truth-love pattern. In Matthew 16, Jesus quizzes the disciples as to who he is. Peter answers, “You are the Messiah, the son of the living God.” Jesus rejoiced and exclaimed that this didn’t come from human understanding, but God the Father revealed this to Peter. Skip ahead just a few verses, and Jesus begins talking about his impending death, and Peter boldly proclaims that this would never happen. Jesus, speaking the love in truth, reprimands Peter saying that his thoughts are Satan-inspired, not God-inspired.

Was one of the events more graceful than the other? Did Jesus act lovingly and then act harshly? No, Jesus is consistent with his treatment of Peter. Think of the night before his death when he told Peter that before the cock crows twice you will deny me three times. It came to pass. Then when Jesus is reunited with Peter on the seashore after his resurrection, he does not remind him nor rub it in, rather he confirms their relationship. That is grace in action.

Conclusion

Culture is much more than architecture and style—it is a living activity to accept and embrace. What is true, good, and beautiful? Jesus. GCI culture is sourced and shaped in the person of Jesus. Our GCI culture is punctuated by Jesus being alive in you and me. Jesus is the author and finisher of “High Support, High Challenge – Grace Always!” Amen!

Greg Williams

Culture of Empowerment and Opportunity

We never want to hold anyone back. Our goal in GCI is to help all individuals find their gifting and calling so they fit into the body as the Spirit is orchestrating.

For those who have been following our writings and tools on the 4 Es, you already know that empowerment follows the sequence of engagement and equipping. It assumes that a seasoned Christian leader has recognized the individual and invited them into ministry participation. It also assumes that the individual has been guided around the Apprentice Square providing them with training and preparation.

The liberation of empowerment and opportunity means that this prepared person can operate with freedom and authority in their place of service. It is parallel to the old U.S. Army slogan – “Be all that you can be.”

Interdependency

Before we become too individualistic, let’s understand the importance of interdependency. In organizational culture, interdependency refers to how team members rely on each other for the functioning of their teams. Although every team has different responsibilities and day-to-day functions, on a basic level, it is the interdependence of team members that makes a group of coworkers a team.

You will recall that “team based” is a core value and desired practice of GCI culture. We can do more together.

Healthy Relational Dynamics (Best Fits)

The concept of “best fit” is simply where your talents, skills, and passions match with the work that you have been employed to do. Giant Worldwide suggests that having a 70% to 30% ratio is a good target to shoot for. This equates to being in your sweet spot for 70% of your working hours.

In GCI we like to think about the marriage of competency and calling. Examining a person’s education and experiential background tells part of the story. Then through counsel from references and discernment through prayers and good interviewing practices, we collaboratively conclude that this is the right person for the given position. “Works well with others” is an important reference comment we always want to hear.

Partnership and Collaboration

For GCI, partnership means that two or more people serving alongside one another share in the same vision and mission and will work together to accomplish that end. GCI’s vision is to be the healthiest expression of the church of Jesus Christ that we can possibly be, and our mission is to live and share the gospel. So, whether it is the home office staff working to back up our field staff and pastors, our field staff making their rounds through their areas of oversight, or our field pastors working with their ministry champions, we are all for each other and we work in positive ways to accomplish our vision and mission.

Collaboration means that all team members are valuable, and their voices should be heard. Many of our churches have been exposed to the 5 Voices training. The voices are categorized as nurturer, connector, creative, guardian, and pioneer. Each voice has a position of strength that helps the team process in thinking, planning and execution. It is a true expression of being a priesthood of all believers.

Meaning and Purpose

The foundational meaning and purpose come from being Christ-centered. We don’t put Jesus in the center — he is the center. He is Creator, Savior, and King! All that we do is sourced by Jesus — it is his faith that we receive and share; he is our hope that makes us hopeful for ourselves and others. It is the fact that he first loved us that empowers us to love God with our hearts, minds, and souls, and to love others as we love ourselves.

Some have asked why we preach from the Revised Common Lectionary and why we follow a more traditional worship calendar. The simple answer is Jesus. We want to preach about how he impacted people throughout the Old and New Testaments, how he is revealed in all of Scripture. We follow the worship calendar because it points to Jesus – his coming in the flesh, his active earthly ministry, his mission to go to Jerusalem and die for the sins of humanity, his resurrection, his ascension, his sending of the Holy Spirit and establishing his church, and of his pending return to establish the eternal kingdom. Can you think of anything with more meaning and purpose?

Conclusion

I find it fascinating that in 2019 when A Giant Step Forward was made available, it received little fanfare and was only read by a small number of GCI folks. This was due, in part, to the cancellation of our Denominational Celebration, where the book would have been distributed. And that’s okay. The time was not right for many of our people. I am encouraged to see how the book has gained traction and has helped to illuminate this journey we are on toward Jesus and the liberation that can only be experienced in him.

It is a good time to be GCI!

Greg Williams

P.S. My new book, What if Jesus Meets Us in the Good, the Bad and the Messy?, co-authored with Mark Mounts, just came out. The centrality of Christ for all seasons and circumstances is the common thread throughout. I pray this book will be a blessing to you and to our worldwide fellowship of churches.

Paul reminds the church of who they were apart from Christ. He does this to break down their division and pride, but even more importantly, to help them regain their new and true identity in Christ and to refocus on their kingdom of heaven citizenship.

We all get called out in this list in one way or another. The great common denominator all Christians share is that before coming to Christ, we were outside of his kingdom – outside of a participatory relationship with our triune God—because of our sin. None of us were living according to our true, original, God-intended identity.

This Corinthian passage often gets singled out to show how the church is known for its views on homosexuality. However, let’s not miss the bigger context here; it is not just sexual activity that is called out. Paul shows us how sexual immorality in general as well as greed and swindling are symptomatic of a false identity (and this certainly isn’t a complete list of such behavior). To be part of God’s kingdom, we need to live according to the identity we have in Christ. We are to no longer be defined and controlled by our past, present, or future sin, whether that is seen in sexual struggle, idolatry, or greed. All those things are poor and false substitutes for what is offered to us in Christ.

How do we treat people who are struggling with these various temptations? How do we share God’s love without implying an endorsement of sinful behavior? How do we help people see the real issue is about our true identity—living in Christ, knowing him, and knowing he knows and loves us.? Can we be pastoral in our care?

First, we must admit that even though we are in Christ, we are also in the flesh; we all deal with temptation in various ways. In his letter to believers in Rome, Paul says that as believers, we aren’t ruled by these temptations, yet the temptations still nip at our heels. When considering the sins Paul listed, we need to delineate between temptation (the lure or attraction involved in sin) and response to temptation—behavior. Temptation, the attraction which leads to sin, is not the problem. It’s the wrong behavioral response to temptation that is the problem. This is true for all of us, whatever sinful temptation we experience. Jesus said that we must deal with the plank in our eye before we call out the speck in our neighbor’s eye. In Peter’s letter, he says that we should engage people in humility and with respect. That’s good and sound advice to heed.

Second, Jesus died for all. Therefore, we don’t look at others as outside the atonement of Lord Jesus. All are included in the love, grace, and life of our triune God. We who have received the transforming love of Jesus are outfitted to align with the two great commandments—loving God with our hearts, minds and souls and loving our neighbor as ourselves—and the new commandment Jesus gave us – to love others as he loves us. This means treating others, no matter their sin struggle or their false identity, with grace, respect, care, compassion, and hope.

What posture do we take as church communities in receiving and discipling people who are showing interest in Christianity, yet are still entangled in sinful behavior and false identities?

As stated earlier, we must first see people as children of God under the atonement of Jesus and by the power of the Holy Spirit, and we should always display an environment of welcoming and care. We can seek to understand the struggles people deal with, as best as we are able, and not rely on misinformation or prejudice. Our central message and our actions consistently point to who Jesus is and who we are in relationship to him. We rely on the Spirit to guide the new person toward convictions about sin and righteousness in their individual life, according to a timing that only he regulates. If we, as a group of mature believers, can do this, we provide a safe space where people with all types of struggles can find their identity and belonging in Christ Jesus. We share with them a life journey of forsaking sin and growing in our relationship with Jesus in the true identity he gives them. This is a picture of the church being the church, and this is how we live out the slogan “All Are Included.”

We have GCI churches all around the world, in many different cultures, facing different societal pressures regarding sin issues. Let’s all be true to the gospel of Jesus by focusing on Jesus and our identity in him. This enables us to give answers and counsel to people’s struggles and sin issues.

Even as we have doctrinal unity outlined in our GCI Statement of Belief, the understanding and application of how we show care has some variance around matters of indifference and depth of understanding in various cultures around the world. This is no surprise to Jesus as he remains the faithful Head of the church. Some congregations, for various reasons, may be more effective in ministering to people experiencing various identity issues. In every case, however, the consistency we hope for in GCI is that we faithfully point all people to Jesus, over and above any social agenda or false identity. As we participate in a wide variety of relationships, we trust the Holy Spirit to actively accomplish the transformational work that only he can do.

The takeaway is this. Christ-centeredness and Holy Spirit dependence is how we operate as healthy churches. Because of Christ’s saving grace, we have a new identity. The sense of our belonging, significance, purpose, security, and destiny is realized in the true self found in Jesus. This union with Christ is the highest prize for which we lay all other things aside. We are justified in Christ by being forgiven and made righteous in his sight. For the rest of our lives, we live into that new identity as we are sanctified more and more, growing in the grace and knowledge of our Savior. We are a born-again, Spirit-filled work in progress, pointing others to the same Jesus and the same journey.

In Him,
Greg Williams

Laying the groundwork

God also led us to lay the groundwork and put organizational frameworks in place to help us pursue Healthy Church. This involved leadership and administrative consolidation in India, a new corporate legal structure in the Philippines, registration of GCI in Bangladesh, and new governance structures aligned with the Home Office and the team-based model.

We needed to be more intentional and strategic with development. The call is to raise leaders led by Jesus, who are equipped to lead others to Jesus. Praise God for the denomination’s support and our congregations’ efforts to help ministry workers undergo studies with Grace Communion Seminary, as well as with ACCM and other local seminaries. The formation of the Ministry Training Center in the Philippines is gaining momentum, and this will contribute to developing people who can nurture healthy churches at home and even across the region. While some of these are long-term endeavors, we trust God is with us in the process and he will fulfill his purposes.

It has been awesome witnessing how amidst challenges and uncertainty, God can bring about growth. Across Asia, we have seen this in the number of baptisms, new church plants, next generation leaders, and the strong foundations for GCI to move forward. These are testaments to God’s faithfulness, power, and goodness in blessing our collective participation.

Reflecting and looking forward

At the 2023 GCI Denominational Celebration, it was with confidence and hope that I passed the baton to Danny Zachariah as the next GCI Asia Superintendent. In addition to being a valued member of the Asia COP, Danny has been a national pastor in India for almost three decades, all throughout which God has been preparing him for this special role.

I look back on my 48 years with our denomination, with 33 years serving in ministry. I am grateful for how God has allowed me to know him, for the mentors and friends he has sent, and for the strength he has given me to do my best. My heartfelt thanks to Dr. Greg and the Home Office, our Asia and Philippine teams, to all of you in our GCI community, and to my family—Lulu, Joyce, Aron, and Lizzie—for your love, grace, and support.

With retirement, I face another new frontier. But as I continue to learn, God is faithful in every season and transition. I hope to experience him in fresh ways as I navigate this next chapter. I will take the opportunity to rest, spend time with family, and explore new skills and ways to be productive. As for participation in GCI, my heart for and dedication to the church remains. Like with geese in a “V” formation, there is a time to lead and a time to make space for others while still flying in the same direction and bearing others up.

May God continue his vibrant work and use GCI in mighty and missional ways to make disciples in our communities and beyond our borders, by his grace and for his glory!

Participating with Christ,
Eugene Guzon