Category: Hear From the President

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Tammy and I recently traveled to Staten Island, New York to share in an anniversary celebration at Hands for Christ Community Church—one of our most interesting and unusual congregations. One year ago, Pastor Mary Bacheller had a dream come true when Hands for Christ held their inaugural worship service. Weekly attendance has grown to around 40. About 120 attended the first anniversary worship service—they had invited members from other New York City area churches.

Hands for Christ Community Church is an apt name, because the congregation serves the deaf and hearing-impaired community. They conduct their worship services entirely in American Sign Language (ASL). All their hymns and music are signed—watching their choir signing in ASL was quite an experience (see the picture at left). In a reversal of what is usual, those of us who can hear were the ones who needed an interpreter.

Tammy and I joined with Pastor Mary in baptizing three members at Mary’s home and then blessing them in the anniversary service (see the picture at right). We also helped commission three new ministry leaders. The whole anniversary celebration was inspiring. I thank Pastor Mary and the other Hands for Christ leaders for their faith, determination and hard work in shepherding this pioneering church plant to this point in its journey with Christ.

On the subject of anniversaries, this month marks the 18th year of my serving as President of our church fellowship. I can honestly say that “time flies when you’re having fun” (despite some anxious moments). There is no greater joy than seeing people grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior.

GCI is active in about 100 countries and territories, with about 55,000 members gathered in about 900 congregations. I say “about” because it is difficult to get precise numbers since we have added several thousand new members in Asia and Africa in the last few years. Because we are a small denomination, it is my blessing to be able to know the majority of our ordained ministry, not only in name but also in person. This is true for many of our members as well, although I must confess that since crossing the 60-year age threshold, I cannot always recall names as I used to. However, my recall of God’s commission to our church fellowship has not been forgotten in any way. Collectively, our memory is strong in the calling God has given to all of us to be in his ministry of all believers.

Traveling to annual conferences around the world, I am reminded that we are alive in Christ. It is a recurring and delightful thought that Christ lives in us all through the multiple relationships we have with one another. We are bound together in an intricate network of relationships that fascinates me whenever I think about it.

Other Christian leaders often tell me how impressed they are with the relational nature of our fellowship. We probably underestimate how unusual and important this is. According to a recent article in Christianity Today, 19.8 percent of North American non-Christians do not know any Christians (see the graph below) and 60 percent have no relationships with any. According to LifeWay president Thom Rainer, in his book, The Unchurched Next Door, though most people come to church because of a personal invitation, seven out of ten unchurched people have never been invited to attend church, despite the fact that 82 percent of unchurched people are at least somewhat likely to attend when invited.

LifeWay Research surveyed over 15,000 adults and found that about two-thirds are willing to receive information about a local church from a family member, and over half are willing if the information comes from a friend or neighbor. The survey also showed that 4 percent of formerly churched adults are actively looking for a church to attend regularly (other than their previous church) and 6 percent would prefer to resume attending regularly in the same church they had attended. The survey also indicated that over 60 percent are not actively looking for a church but are open to the idea of attending regularly again. It showed that many would respond to an invitation to attend church when given by a friend or acquaintance (41 percent), by their children (25 percent) or by an adult family member (25 percent). The issue of affinity surfaced here: 35 percent indicated that they would be inspired to attend “if I knew there were people like me there.” Unfortunately, the study also revealed that only 2 percent of church members have invited someone to church in the past year.

Statistics like these remind me of Jesus’ words in Matthew 9:37: “The harvest is plentiful but the workers are few.” I can only echo the words of Lee Strobel, author of The Case for Christ, “Seven out of 10 unchurched people would visit a church if a friend invited them. What are we waiting for?”

Your brother in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

God has provided a wonderful plan of salvation, based not on human merit but on his grace (Ephesians 2:8-9). This word “grace” has become shorthand for Christians. Some understand its meaning well, while others seem to view it as being in conflict with the idea of law. “Now that we are under grace, do we have to keep the law?” is a question Christians have asked for nearly 2,000 years. Paul addressed this question in his letter to the churches in Rome:

So what do we do? Keep on sinning so God can keep on forgiving? I should hope not! If we’ve left the country where sin is sovereign, how can we still live in our old house there? Or didn’t you realize we packed up and left there for good? That is what happened in baptism. When we went under the water, we left the old country of sin behind; when we came up out of the water, we entered into the new country of grace—a new life in a new land! (Romans 6:1-3 The Message).

According to Paul, this “new life” in a “new land” is not lawless. It is not “law” or “grace” as though the two are opposed. Instead, the word “grace” should be understood as representing the many parts or aspects of God’s whole plan of redemption. God’s grace has always included within it a call for the response of an obedience that trusts in (has faith in) God’s grace.

It is often stated that the old covenant is “law” while the new covenant is “grace.” Though this shorthand way of thinking is not totally inaccurate, it can lead to the unfortunate idea that law and grace are totally at odds. But what we see in Scripture is that the old covenant was not graceless and the new covenant is certainly not lawless. Instead, what we find are two forms of God’s one gracious covenant with the Old Testament presenting the promise and the New Testament presenting its fulfillment in Christ. Each of these has its particular form of obedience corresponding to its particular form of covenantal grace.

Under the new covenant form of grace, we live by the law of Christ that is written on our hearts. Paul refers to that law as “the law of the Spirit” (Romans 8:2) and “the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). These new covenant references equate the law with the will and heart of God, which is shared with us as his children by the Spirit of Christ. As we submit to God’s will and are moved by his heart, we experience the freedom that we have been given from the condemning effect of sin. Note this related comment from Trinitarian theologian Andrew Purves concerning the covenanted way of response to God’s grace found in both the old and new covenants:

God knew that Israel would not be able to be faithful as God required. Thus, God, within the [old] covenant established and maintained unilaterally by God, freely and graciously gave a covenanted way of responding so that the covenant might be fulfilled on their behalf.

Israel was given ordinances of worship designed to testify that God alone can expiate guilt, forgive sin and establish communion. This was not just a formal rite to guarantee propitiation between God and Israel, however. By its very nature, the covenanted way of response was to be worked into the flesh and blood of Israel’s existence in such a way that Israel was called to pattern her whole life after it.

Later, in the prophecies of the Isaiah tradition especially, the notions of guilt-bearer and sacrifice for sin were conflated to give the interpretative clue for the vicarious role of the servant of the Lord. It would take the incarnation actually to bring that to pass, however, for Jesus Christ was recognized and presented in the New Testament both as the Servant of the Lord and as the divine Redeemer, not now only of Israel, but of all people. Jesus Christ has fulfilled the covenant from both sides, from God’s side, and from our side (from the paper “I yet not I but Christ: Galatians 2:20 and the Christian Life in the Theology of T. F. Torrance”).

Purves’ insights help us appreciate the age-old Christian axiom: “Jesus did it all,” while also answering Francis Schaeffer’s famous question: “How should we then live?“ Unfortunately, some think grace means living any way we want. Some, objecting to that conclusion, insist that we obey all 613 laws of the Torah. But neither of these responses to grace is God’s will for us as followers of Jesus. As Paul explained, we are called to die daily, letting Christ live in us through the Holy Spirit. As we yield to Christ, we experience his kingdom reign and share in his obedience to the Father’s will including what he is doing to fulfill the Father’s mission to the world. As noted by Thomas F. Torrance, we live out the obedience of faith in Christ’s fulfillment of the heart and good will of God for us:

It is only through union with Christ that we partake of the blessings of Christ, that is through union with him in his holy and obedient life… Through union with him we share in his faith, in his obedience, in his trust and his appropriation of the Father’s blessing (Theology in Reconstruction, 158-9).

To help us understand the important relationship between law and grace, we have included in this issue an essay by Dr. Gary Deddo in which he discusses this topic from an Incarnational, Trinitarian perspective (click here or the “Grace and obedience” link under “Contents”). I think you will find his essay both challenging and informative.

Your brother in Christ,

Joseph Tkach

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Some claim that the Holy Spirit is an impersonal power. But viewing him in that way falls far short of what the New Testament teaches, undermining a full understanding of one of the most exciting and encouraging dimensions of our relationship with God.

In teaching about the Holy Spirit, the New Testament uses analogies related to both power and personhood. But why the mixture? If the doctrine of the Trinity is so important, why didn’t the New Testament authors spell it out more clearly?

It’s important to remember that the Bible was written within a particular cultural setting where some things were understood without detailed explanation. It’s the same today. If I mention “Monday morning quarterbacking” to Americans, most know what I mean without elaboration. But people unfamiliar with American football culture would not understand.

As we read what the Bible says about the Holy Spirit, we need to ask, are we expecting it to answer questions that were not questions in its original cultural setting? Would the original audience have assumed without further explanation that the Holy Spirit was personal and acted as a powerful agent? Scripture shows us that the answer is yes.

There are many places in Scripture where the Holy Spirit is referred to in personal terms. In John 16:14, Jesus refers to the Spirit using a personal (rather than a neuter) pronoun, saying “He will glorify me.” In Acts 15:28, the apostles spoke of the Spirit in personal terms when they said “It seemed good to the Holy Spirit and to us.” The characteristics of a person are assumed by the biblical authors when they spoke of the Holy Spirit acting as do human persons: teaching, comforting, guiding, giving, calling and sending. They spoke of the Spirit as being resisted (Acts 7:51), argued with and personally replied to (10:14-20), grieved (Ephesians 4:30) and lied to (Acts 5:3-9). They also spoke of the Spirit distributing gifts according to his own will (1 Corinthians 12:11).

The early church recognized that “Holy Spirit” was used throughout Scripture as a proper name, just as are “Father” and “Son.” Jesus indicates that all three are personal names when he directs his disciples to baptize in “the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit” (Matthew 28:19). This command hearkens back to Jesus’ own baptism where the Father, the Son and the Spirit were each personally present (Matthew 3:13-17).

Jesus distinguished the Spirit from himself in a personal sense when he said, “I tell you the truth; it is expedient for you that I go away for if I go not away, the Comforter [Paraclete] will not come unto you; but if I depart, I will send him unto you” (John 16:7 KJV). Jesus regarded the Holy Spirit not as an effect (comfort) but as a person who brings comfort (the Comforter).

In saying that he would send the Holy Spirit, Jesus distinguished the Spirit from himself and the Father in a personal sense: “But the Counselor [Paraclete], the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, he will teach you all things and will bring to your remembrance all that I have said to you” (John 14:26 RSV). “When the Counselor [Paraclete] comes, whom I shall send to you from the Father, the Spirit of truth who proceeds from the Father, he will bear witness to me” (John 15:26 RSV).

Because the name Paraclete is unfamiliar to us (my spell-check keeps asking if I mean “parakeet”!), English Bibles translate it as Counselor, Helper, Advocate or Comforter. But these translations fall short in conveying the name’s full meaning. Those who spoke Koine Greek understood Jesus’ meaning—they recognized that Jesus was speaking in personal terms when referring to “the Paraclete,” just as he was speaking in personal terms when referring to “the Son” and to “the Father.” Though these personal names were revolutionary, they were not ambiguous.

In the ancient world, paracletos often was used in a legal sense—like our words advocate, attorney or lawyer (though likening the Spirit to a lawyer might not go down so well today!). Paracletos also was used in a military sense. Greek soldiers went into battle in pairs, standing together as they fought off the enemy. The Greeks called this trusted soldier and friend a paraclete. So when the first disciples heard Jesus refer to the Spirit as the Paraclete and speak of him otherwise in personal terms (as in Acts 1:5, 8), Jesus’ meaning would have been apparent to them without further explanation.

From the beginning, the early church was functionally and implicitly trinitarian. Like Jesus, it spoke of the Father, the Son and the Spirit using personal terms. However, as Christianity spread, other teachings arose. Church leaders had to counter heretical teachings concerning the nature of Jesus Christ and the Holy Spirit and the relationships between the divine persons. Out of these debates came the doctrine of the Trinity, which was formalized in the Nicene Creed (shown below) where the Father, Son and Spirit are presented as unique divine persons who are inter-personally related. Note this comment from Thomas Torrance:

A definite doctrine of the Trinity was found to arise out of a faithful exegetical interpretation of the New Testament and out of the evangelical experience and liturgical life of the Church from the very beginning. It made explicit what was already implicit in the fundamental deposit of faith. It was with the formulation of the homoousion [meaning “of one being”—the term used in the Nicene Creed] clarifying and expressing the essential connection of the Son to the Father upon which the very Gospel rested, and with the application of the homoousion to the Holy Spirit to express his oneness in being with the Godhead of the Father, that the theological structure of the Trinitarian understanding of the Godhead unfolded and established itself firmly within the mind of the Church (The Trinitarian Faith, p. 199, emphasis added).

Though the Nicene Creed made explicit the personhood of the Father, the Son and the Spirit, some Western thinkers (particularly since the Enlightenment) have explained God’s nature in impersonal, mechanistic and creaturely ways, including saying that the Holy Spirit is not God, but an impersonal power that emanates from God. But impersonal explanations of God’s nature always fall short. Why? Because God is not a creature, nor is he a mechanism. His true nature as a tri-personal, relational God is known only by revelation, from Jesus, recorded in Scripture. There the Holy Spirit is revealed as the Paraclete—a divine Person who is personal just as are the Father and the Son.

Grounded in this stunning revelation, we may think, speak, worship and act with assurance, knowing that the Holy Spirit is God just as the Father is God and the Son is God. One God; three persons: blessed Trinity!

Your brother in Christ,

Joseph Tkach

PS. For more on this topic I recommend these articles at GCI.org and The Surprising God:

• The Deity of the Holy Spirit (http://www.gci.org/God/deityHS)
• Is the Holy Spirit God? (http://thesurprisinggodblog.gci.org/2011/06/is-holy-spirit-god.html)
• The Eternal Spirit—an article in a series on the Nicene Creed (http://thesurprisinggodblog.gci.org/2011/11/eternal-spirit-nicene-creed-7.html)

For an eye-opening study on the Bible’s cultural context, see the book, Misreading Scripture with Western Eyes by Richards and O’Brien.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Though we have learned as a denomination to appreciate regional and cultural differences in the way we worship God, that does not mean that we believe that “anything goes.” We draw the line at behavior that leads people away from a right relationship with God.

As I travel around the world, I take note of questions from our pastors and members. Their questions often arise from what they heard a popular preacher say on television. They ask me: “Have you read their book?” “What do you think of their teaching?” My answers typically advise caution, for sound theology often is lacking in what televangelists offer. I don’t mean to paint them all with the same broad brush, but the unfortunate fact is that many of them teach what is known as the health and wealth gospel. It’s also known as the word of faith, positive confession or seed-faith teaching. Some give it more pejorative names like name it and claim it or blab it and grab it. Perhaps calling it the health and stealth gospel would be the most accurate, for this false teaching has the potential to lead people away from the true gospel.

 

Missionary experts have noted how many people who embrace the health and wealth gospel are caught up in it for three to five years before they realize that the only ones prospering are the televangelists. When they realize they have been duped, some look for another church where they can recover from the false teaching. Sadly, others stop attending church altogether.

Health and wealth teachers abandon sound principles of biblical interpretation and teaching and utilize sensational, often bizarre theatrics to keep their audiences stirred up. Their message is that physical health and wealth is the evidence of God’s saving grace. But that teaching is nonsense—it is grounded in several exegetical, hermeneutical and theological errors.

One error is the belief that you can release the power of heaven through your words. This is quite a departure from the examples of prayer in Scripture. It is akin to occult or magical practices where spirits, powers and forces must do your bidding if you know the right words (incantation) to say. This approach makes God out to be some sort of cosmic vending machine!

Another error is the belief that you need special, private revelation from God to understand the teaching, because it is not made clear in the Bible. Here is an illustrative quote from a popular word of faith televangelist: “The Bible can’t even find any way to explain this. Not really. That’s why you’ve got to get it by revelation. There are no words to explain what I’m telling you. I’ve got to just trust God that he’s putting it into your spirit like he put it into mine.” Really? The apostle Paul warned in Galatians 1:6-9 about claims to special, private revelations and interpretations. Be on your guard!

The reason the health and wealth gospel is spiritually harmful is that it presents a relationship with God as a transaction: If you don’t do your part, you won’t be blessed. But if you speak the right words, with just the right attitude (what they erroneously refer to as “faith”), then God must give you the asked-for benefit.

God is not interested in a transactional relationship with us. His covenant is not a contract—not an if you, then I proposition. God gives to us freely out of his own goodness, love and sheer generosity in accordance with the promises he freely has made toward his people and creation. Relating to God in a transactional way is a form of pagan religion—a form of idolatry—that denies God’s grace and distrusts his gracious character. It is the very thing that Jesus condemned in the Jewish religious leaders of his day. The idea of conducting a transaction with God is doomed from the beginning for we can never perfectly “do our part.” But, thankfully, God never wanted or expected that we would. Rather he invites and enables us to receive his blessings by trusting him to be true to his promises—true to his word—indeed, true to himself.

In and through Jesus and by the Holy Spirit, our heavenly Father has given us the greatest blessing of all. Its focus is not physical health or wealth. Jesus did not heal everyone in his ministry. No one got wealthy, including Jesus himself. Some, in fact, gave up all their worldly possessions! The miracles Jesus performed were limited and temporary (even those he raised from the dead eventually died again!). These miracles were signs that pointed to the greatest blessing of all: redemption and reconciliation to God in Jesus Christ.

Jesus’ priority was to reconcile people to God so they would put their entire trust in him and lead lives reflecting his character. Paul refers to this Christ-likeness as “the fruit of the Spirit,” which is “love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, generosity, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control” (Galatians 5:22-23 NRSV). Paul exulted in “the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God” (Romans 11:33) and proclaimed, “I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ” (Philippians 3:8). That is the “health” and “wealth” that we are to seek and to receive by faith.

If our focus is on temporal, physical rewards, Christ becomes merely a means—a tool—to gain our own ends. A transactional gospel ignores Jesus’ warning about getting caught up in “the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth” (Matthew 13:22) that choke out the development of genuine, mature faith in our gracious God.

I could cite other scriptures, but I think I’ve made the point. GCI does not support or promote the health and wealth gospel. We believe that it distorts Scripture, conflicts with Jesus’ message of the gospel and threatens a right relationship with God. Please remind those who are tempted to embrace it of Paul’s warning that, “The grace of God… teaches us to say “No” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age” (Titus 2:11-12, emphasis added). Also remind them of Jesus’ warning: “Watch out! Be on your guard against all kinds of greed; life does not consist in an abundance of possessions” (Luke 12:15).

With love, in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Do you remember the song I Love a Parade? It celebrates our love for celebrations! Our calendars are filled with them—some national, some religious, some just bizarre. Did you know that January 6 is Sherlock Holmes’ birthday, that January 20 is Penguin Awareness day and that April 26 is Hug an Australian day? September has Video Game Day, Preserve the Ozone Day and Elephant Appreciation Day. Marking time with celebrations is as old as civilization itself.

Ancient pagans scheduled celebrations using various calendars. Perhaps the earliest is found in the cave paintings at Lascaux, France where time was marked using the phases of the moon. Ancient monuments in Central and South America and at Stonehenge in England marked time by observing the cycles of the sun and moon.

When God brought Israel out of Egyptian captivity and settled them in the Promised Land, he gave them a luni-solar calendar with annual festivals to remind them of the great events in which he intervened in their history and of the natural cycle of events that showed he alone was Creator. Since Israel was principally engaged in agriculture and animal husbandry, the festivals centered on the harvests.

Israel’s sacred year with its festivals and holy days was determined by observing the phases of the moon, with Israel’s high priest serving as chief observer and calendar custodian. The exact method for determining new moons, the beginning of the new year and other days is not detailed in Scripture. It was passed down through the priests. Even though the temple in Jerusalem was not designed as an astronomical observatory, as were some pagan temples, it served as the base from where the Levitical priesthood decided, by observation, when new months and years began. Numbers chapters 28 and 29 detail the priest’s responsibility to perform sacrifices on new moons and annual festivals.

The Hebrew calendar was not intended to calibrate time for all people in all locations at all times. It was temporary, even as the tabernacle and temple from where it was issued were temporary. Jesus prophesied that the temple standing in his day would be destroyed. Matthew, Mark and Luke recorded Jesus’ prediction. Earlier, Israel’s prophets foretold the same thing: “Therefore because of you, Zion will be plowed like a field, Jerusalem will become a heap of rubble, the temple hill a mound overgrown with thickets” (Micah 3:12).

When the temple was destroyed by the armies of Rome, the calendar went with it. However, even before that destruction, the rules for deciding calendar dates had become mired in political wrangling between the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Those who rejected Jesus decided the calendar should be determined by calculation rather than by the observation of the high priest. All this may seem rather quaint in our “sophisticated” modern age, when we mark the year by the dates of seasonal sales at the mall!

It is not a sin to celebrate ancient events in Israel’s history, but in doing so—fair warning—you may become enmeshed in a contentious debate concerning how to schedule those celebrations. In any case, such celebrations most definitely are not required of Christians, nor do they have salvific value. Observing days does not make anyone righteous.

While some aspects of Israel’s festivals pointed to Jesus and his coming, their worship calendar was not intended to accommodate the dates for celebrating God’s pivotal intervention to save all humanity from its sins in the atoning ministry of Jesus. The Hebrew calendar is no longer used to mark “holy time,” especially since Jesus now lives in us making all our time holy. On the day of Pentecost, the symbol of God’s presence, the shekinah, bypassed the temple to alight on individuals.

Today, the people of God have a new calendar of events that centers on Jesus’ birth, life, death, resurrection, ascension and promised return. Christians celebrate these events at different times and in different ways. Exactly when these events in the life and ministry of Jesus are celebrated is not what is most important. Calendars come and go, but Jesus and his saving acts remain forever. As Christians, we celebrate these acts and respond in joyful obedience to our Lord’s command to go into the world as salt and light, pointing to Jesus, the Living Water who alone quenches our thirst.

Your brother in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

We all love to celebrate milestones in our lives—birthdays, baptisms, weddings and anniversaries in particular. Another milestone is graduation, whether from grade school, high school or college. I vividly recall my graduations from high school and Ambassador College. Both marked significant achievements—and also brought feelings of relief!

At our recent GCI Denominational Conference in Orlando, we celebrated an important milestone. Eight students formed the first class to graduate from Grace Communion Seminary (GCS). Seven of those graduates walked across the stage to receive their diplomas, signifying their completion of the Master of Pastoral Studies (MPS) degree. Congratulations to them all!

As chairman of the GCS board of directors, I receive much satisfaction knowing that our seminary is accredited by a national accrediting commission, the Distance Education and Training Council (DETC). On their website (detc.org), you’ll find our seminary listed among the institutions they have accredited.

Why expend so much time and effort to educate our pastors, ministry leaders and other members? As Mike Feazell put it in 2003 at the initial GCS planning meeting: “Every thriving denomination has a formal mode for educating its pastors.” Because we are committed to providing quality education and training to our pastors and ministry leaders, many people within our denomination have worked hard to develop two formal online education programs:

• Ambassador College of Christian Ministry (ACCM), which offers ten courses in leadership development, leading to a non-accredited undergraduate-level diploma. ACCM is administered from our office in Australia and is available to anyone with a high school or college-level diploma, or equivalent. Go to ambascol.org.

• Grace Communion Seminary (GCS), which offers an accredited MPS graduate-level degree with courses in biblical studies, theology and ministry. GCS is administered from our office in Glendora, California and is open to anyone with an accredited bachelor’s degree no matter what the person’s major was. Go to gcs.edu.

As befits a fully accredited seminary, we celebrated our GCS graduation in Orlando in a formal manner as seen in the pictures here and at www.gcs.edu/course/view.php?id=37. Graduates, faculty and administration wore the appropriate academic regalia (robes, hoods and colors), representing the collective learning gained from GCS’s fourteen-course program, which concludes with a carefully researched Theology of Ministry thesis as its capstone project. These papers add significantly to the contribution of scholarship in the topics selected by students and can be accessed on the GCS website by all GCS students.

The ceremony included the traditional “Pomp and Circumstance” processional and the singing of hymns. GCS President and GCI Vice President Russell Duke gave an academic address entitled “Reconciliation through Transfiguration,” reminding all present of what we learn of God and Jesus Christ in worship and in life. Participating in the hooding ceremony of our first graduating students was an emotional experience!

We are but one seminary among many that seek to understand our God and Savior and live at one in him. A distinctive feature of GCS is our emphasis on incarnational Trinitarian theology. Our intent is not to disparage other seminaries or denominations, but to rejoice in what we have learned from the Spirit, Scripture and centuries of “faith seeking understanding.” We intend to celebrate again at our next international denominational conference in three years with our second group of graduates. We hope that you will join us.

Let me encourage those with bachelor’s degrees to take a course from GCS. You can take one or two of your choice, or you can take a series of courses toward the master’s degree. To enroll, you must first fill out the application to be accepted into the seminary. Then you will be given access to register for courses. We believe that all pastors and many ministry leaders, should be pursuing some form of continuing education. To serve this need, we are pleased to offer our courses at an affordable price. We encourage local congregations to provide tuition assistance for their pastors.

We plan to expand GCS course offerings over the next three years as we continue to enroll more students. GCS faculty and administration are working toward adding courses in the next year in church polity/administration, preaching and theology. I’ll keep you informed of growth in courses as time goes on. The fall semester starts on September 9, so new students need to apply immediately. Here are the courses offered this fall (go to gcs.edu/course for a detailed description of each one, including required textbooks and assignments):

• TH05 Doctrine of the Trinity – Gary Deddo
• BT01 Pentateuch – John McKenna
• NT01 New Testament Background – Mike Morrison
• NT03 Acts of the Apostles – Dan Rogers
• CH02 Church History: The Second Millennium – Neil Earle
• CM01 Ministerial Leadership – Russell Duke
• CM06 Trinitarian Youth Ministry – Ted Johnston
• CM07 Experiencing the Trinity (begins Aug. 29) – Larry Hinkle
• CM08 Church Planting & Development – Randy Bloom

As we move forward as a denomination, we seek to help our pastors and ministry leaders maintain a deep relationship with Jesus Christ and grow in their understanding of our Christian Trinitarian faith. GCS and ACCM are some of the primary ways we do this—helping our leaders faithfully live and then share God’s love and truth so that the body of Christ is built up in the Spirit. Through our educational resources we seek to bring our pastoral leadership into a deeper understanding of who God is and what he is doing today. These programs are an important part of the way we join with Jesus as he ministers to us and through us to the wider world.

With love, in Christ’s service,

Joseph Tkach

PS: GCI Weekly Update is automatically distributed each week by email to all GCI pastors. We now are making this automatic email distribution available to any GCI member. Please let your members know of this opportunity and invite them to sign up by emailing their request to Ted Johnston at Ted.Johnston@gci.org. Please also let your members know that the current and all past issues of Update may be read online at update.gci.org.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I believe that God heals. Healing was a significant part of Jesus’ ministry. It is one of the gifts of the Spirit mentioned by Paul in 1 Corinthians 12. Sadly, the Spirit’s “gifts of healing” (v. 9) have often been corrupted and distorted by opportunists and charlatans. We need to be careful.

I recall watching a 1991 ABC Primetime Live television program that exposed as fake the “healing” ministries of Robert Tilton, E.V. Grant and Larry Lea. One of the practices exposed was leg-lengthening. The evangelist would “diagnose” the person’s physical problems as related to one leg being shorter than the other, then ask God to lengthen the shorter leg. Lo and behold—before our very eyes—the shorter leg would began to grow. Wow!! Except that, as the program showed, this was just an old carnival trick masquerading as a miraculous healing.

The first time I experienced this trick, it was performed on me by my chiropractor as a joke. He had me sit in a chair and firmly grasped my legs and then held them together to reveal that one leg was two inches longer than the other. I marveled at how quickly he healed my leg by pulling and talking to my legs. I knew there was some kind of trick to this. I had been to medical doctors on a couple of previous occasions with sprained ankles and sprained knees. I’d had x-rays and MRIs and I knew that my one leg was not two inches shorter than the other. So I said, “Okay Doctor, show me the trick.” He quickly explained that it was an old trick used at carnivals. The more you practice it, the better you become at duping unsuspecting people.

There are plenty of videos that expose this practice. In one, former faith healer Mark Haville discusses his use of fakery and hypnotic manipulation (http://youtu.be/BCohlCPSLlo). Another shows two examples of the leg-lengthening hoax (http://www.godtube.com/watch/?v=JC229FNU).

Over the years, I have met quite a few people who had been deceived by this hoax. I marvel that so large a number of people needing their legs lengthened did not sound an alarm in medical circles (actually, most people’s legs are slightly unequal in length, a condition that generally produces no significant physical ill effects).

The Primetime Live program showed that bogus leg-lengthening was only the tip of an iceberg of fraud. The investigative reporters examined every aspect of the three ministries, using hidden cameras and multiple interviews with experts and witnesses. They even examined the ministries’ trash bins and dumpsters, finding thousands of prayer requests that had been discarded (after removing the donations, of course). What masqueraded as Christian ministry was shown to be a racket that was making millions of dollars a year by preying on gullible people.

Why am I bringing this up? Because, although the three fake ministries were exposed, the use of their fraudulent practices continues, and leg-lengthening is having a revival. It is not my purpose to publicly expose those who practice these things; nor is my intent to call into question their sincerity. Some people who use these tricks believe they are performing genuine miracles. However, others know it is a fraud.

Whatever the motive, such practices have no place in GCI’s ministry. As elders, we pray for the sick. While praying we often anoint the sick person with oil and lay hands on them to signify God’s healing presence. However, we need to be aware of the potential pitfall in developing a ministry focused on “miraculous healings.” What may seem to be spectacular demonstrations of God’s power can open the door to profound disillusionment, turning people away from Christ and his gospel.

The gospel proclaims that God has healed our relationship with him and reconciled us to himself. We can begin to live in that new life in relationship with him beginning today. He will one day make everything new and wipe away every tear. That’s the reality. However, for now we have only temporary and partial signs of this coming hope. We have only the “deposit” (down payment, pledge or earnest) of his renewing and transforming Holy Spirit (Ephesians 1:14; 2 Corinthians 1:22; 5:5). While God does grant signs, they remain just that—signs. And God grants such signs in ways that are not predictable or controllable by us. God remains wisely sovereign over how and when he distributes extraordinary signs and does not simply hand them over to us to dispense. That being said, we can remain open to the Spirit’s working “as he wills” (1 Corinthians 12:11).

Jesus is truth personified and he is the one who sets us free. He is our healer who sends his Spirit to work when, where and how he sees fit—for his glory and our benefit. So though we do well to pray in his name for people to be healed, it is wrong to represent him with street magic and old carnival tricks, even if some foolishly think they can advance his reputation by doing so.

Your brother in Christ,

Joseph Tkach

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

I am writing this from Orlando, Florida where our denominational conference is winding down. About 1,000 people attended. As you know, we hold regular national, regional and district-level conferences for our ministers and members. But once every three years we come together from around the world for an international conference like this one. It takes a lot of work to pull it off, but it is well worth it. My sincere thanks to the many who worked so hard to make it so wonderful.

Though small in numbers, we truly are an international denomination. We are blessed with close relationships around the world—some going back many decades. But those relationships deteriorate unless we maintain them. That is why a conference like this is important. It helps us see who God has made us. We see what God is doing through our collective ministries around the world and our local ministries close to home.

Each day at the conference we enjoyed general sessions with inspiring worship and thought-provoking presentations from GCI leaders and guest speakers including Jeff McSwain and Gerrit Dawson. We also had a wide array of workshops facilitated by GCI leaders and guests. All these meetings focused on our conference theme: Participation-Fellowship-Communion. Recordings of many of the sessions will be posted on our website as soon as our media team can prepare them.

During meals we heard updates from some of our national leaders concerning what is happening in their area of the world. My friends and colleagues from all over the world shared their stories, showing what God has been doing as we strive to follow his lead.

Some areas, like Europe and Australia have become spiritual “stony ground” and the Christian church faces a challenge to survive. In other regions we are experiencing explosive growth. Kalengule Kaoma, our mission director in East and West Africa, told us of whole networks of congregations in Namibia, Tanzania and Burundi that are lining up to join us. We could be adding dozens of congregations in those countries in the next few years. This type of growth already has happened in Mozambique. Tim Maguire, our mission director in Southern Africa, told us that 96 congregations in that region have joined us in the last three years.

As the conference draws to a close, I am encouraged. Though we face many challenges, we are seeing many successes as we join in what God is doing to reach people and transform lives. Though statistics help measure progress, they don’t tell the whole story. As Kalengule pointed out in his presentation, the most important progress is made at the deeply personal and individual level, whether in an American inner city or in a remote African village.

You’ve probably heard the expression “the devil is in the details.” I disagree—in our gospel work, the Holy Spirit is in the details. He guides us to share in what Jesus Christ is doing to transform one life at a time. At this conference, we heard many testimonies concerning the Spirit’s work.

A conference like this reminds us that perhaps our greatest asset as a denomination is our relationships with each other. As one of our pastors posted on his Facebook page, “On earth, I get to know a bit more about heaven all the time in moments like this.” As we worshiped and fellowshipped we had many opportunities to deepen relationships with people we already knew and to forge friendships with those we were meeting for the first time.

In my address to a general conference session, I reflected on our miraculous transformation—from an exclusivistic sect, to an outwardly focused church that joins Jesus in his work to redeem and restore his creation. I am deeply grateful that God has shown us the foolishness of our former ways. Looking back, I find it hard to believe that we thought that was how God wanted us to live. I pray that he will continue to work through us as we join together in his mission throughout the world.

As Paul wrote to the Christians in Corinth, “The old life is gone; a new life burgeons! Look at it! All this comes from the God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. God put the world square with himself through the Messiah, giving the world a fresh start by offering forgiveness of sins. God has given us the task of telling everyone what he is doing. We’re Christ’s representatives. God uses us to persuade men and women to drop their differences and enter into God’s work of making things right between them. We’re speaking for Christ himself now: Become friends with God; he’s already a friend with you” (2 Corinthians 5:17-20 The Message).

Our world needs that message. Our denomination is living proof that human beings can put their differences behind them and work together in harmony, love and mutual respect.

As I write these words, my friends are beginning to go home to their various responsibilities. God willing, we will meet again in three years. As we say our temporary “goodbyes,” we are reminded that God has given us this new life that will last forever. So there will always be a “next time.” And there will never be a “last time.”

Your brother in Christ,

Joseph Tkach

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

Taking care of our denomination’s financial affairs may not be one of the more glamorous functions of our work, but it is one of the most important. As Paul wrote to the church in Corinth: “It is required of stewards that they be found trustworthy” (1 Corinthians 4:2, NRSV).

Our Glendora office accounting team takes stewardship of GCI’s finances very seriously. They maintain meticulous professional standards and work hard to meet the requirements of the law. This includes submitting our financial records to an independent external auditor. Our staff then devotes many hours in responding to the auditor’s requests. This is time well spent because it shines an outside light on our financial management records and processes and helps us improve each year.

Capin Crouse LLP recently finished auditing our financial records for 2011 and 2012. They presented their findings to our Board of Directors in a written report that summarizes the audit and suggests ways that we can improve our financial systems. The report also notes forthcoming changes to legal and financial requirements for churches. The report’s cover letter includes this summary statement:

In our opinion, the combined financial statements [from GCI]…present fairly, in all material respects, the financial position of Grace Communion International and Affiliate in the United States of America as of December 31, 2012 and 2011, and the changes in their net assets and their cash flows for the years then ended in accordance with accounting principles generally accepted in the United States of America.

This statement means that our external auditor has given us a “clean” or “unqualified” report. They noted to us informally that our financial systems are “stellar.” This is significant, for in a world where institutions, including churches, are often distrusted, our members and other donors can have peace of mind knowing that their contributions and financial sacrifices are respected by their church and that its financial resources are being handled with the greatest of professional care. Any GCI member in the US may obtain a copy of Capin Crouse’s audit report by sending their request to Grace Communion International, P.O. Box 5005 Glendora, CA 91740, attention Mat Morgan.

The pictures below show our home office financial team. I thank all of them, including Mathew Morgan, our treasurer and Robert Meade, our accounting manager who lead us in financial stewardship. I also thank the many others in our home office and in our congregations who diligently strive to be trustworthy stewards of the finances entrusted to us for the work of the gospel.

On a related note, I urge all pastors and treasurers in our US churches to stay current with requirements for reviews of financial records as detailed in the GCI-USA Financial Management Manual. An internal review is required each year and an external review is required every third year. Although these reviews can be time-consuming, they are essential in helping us properly steward the finances within our churches.

Due to the upcoming International Denominational Conference, we will not be publishing GCI Weekly Update next week. I look forward to seeing many of you in Orlando.

Your brother in Christ,

Joseph Tkach.

PS. As you may know, churches, denominations and ministry organizations are seeing significant changes related to financial stewardship and fundraising. Ted Johnston tells me that this important topic will be the focus of the August issue of Equipper. I hope you will read it when it’s published in early August. Equipper is emailed to all GCI-USA pastors and to others who request it. It also is posted online at http://mindev.gci.org/equipper.htm.

Dear Brothers and Sisters in Christ,

In our modern age of smart bombs and unmanned drones, it may seem hard to believe that not so long ago one of the most effective unmanned flying machines used in warfare was the humble pigeon.

The homing, or carrier pigeon, is able to find its way home over hundreds and even thousands of miles. Approximately 250,000 of them were used in World War II as a low-tech but highly effective way to carry messages. Because the enemy would deploy air-to-air anti-pigeon hawks to bring them down, these messages were often written in secret code.

Last November, one of these coded messages was discovered in a canister attached to the leg of a dead pigeon that had become stuck in a chimney. There are few secrets remaining from that war, but this is one of them. The message, which has 27 five-letter code groups, is said to be impossible to crack without its codebook. It may never be deciphered, but here it is (see picture at right) if you want to try.

There is something fascinating and challenging about coded messages, isn’t there? Some people seem to think the Bible is just as mysterious as that pigeon’s message, containing coded information that must somehow be unraveled so the real truth may be known.

Perhaps you remember a book that was published some years ago, The Bible Code. The author claimed that there were secret messages hidden in the original text of the Hebrew Bible. By looking at the sequence of Hebrew letters—for example, every 50th one—the secret information could be deciphered. That information, encoded into the text thousands of years ago, revealed specific details about contemporary events.

If you think this sounds a bit far-fetched, you’re right. It just doesn’t work. The Bible Code failed to predict some important developments and history has shown it to be quite wrong in many others. Also, computer analysis has shown that you can actually do this with almost any book. One critic, presumably with tongue firmly in cheek, showed how Herman Melville anticipated the assassination of Martin Luther King in the text of Moby Dick.

To study the Bible in this way is a waste of time. It is not what it is for. The Bible is certainly profound and repays in-depth study. Ever since it was written, scholars have poured over Holy Scripture in search of a better understanding of God’s character and will. Studies of the Hebrew Scriptures by Jewish scholars before the time of Jesus left them with unanswered questions. This is what Paul was referring to when he wrote to the church at Colosse that the word of God was to some extent a “mystery that has been kept hidden for ages and generations” (Colossians 1:26a). However, as Paul notes, it is no longer a secret and we are called to proclaim the word: “I have become its servant by the commission God gave me to present to you the word of God in its fullness” (v 25).

That fullness is the core message of the gospel, which, through Paul, “God has chosen to make known among the Gentiles the glorious riches of this mystery, which is Christ in you, the hope of glory. He is the one we proclaim, admonishing and teaching everyone with all wisdom, so that we may present everyone fully mature in Christ (vv. 27-28).

Paul’s point is that the Sender has given us the code to the mystery. We don’t have to be expert code-breakers and we don’t have to be stumped. We can shout the message from the highest hill. We don’t have to spend hours struggling to work it out because the mystery has been revealed. God has come to us through his incarnate Son, Jesus Christ with unbounded grace for all. God is the Sender and we are the recipients. Jesus, himself, is the deciphered message of God to us.

The essential starting point of correct Bible interpretation is to read and interpret it through the lens of the person of Jesus Christ. Jesus told the biblical scholars of his day, “You search the Scriptures, because you think that in them you have eternal life; and it is they that bear witness about me; yet you refuse to come to me that you may have life” (John 5:39-40 ESV).

Sadly, for many, that is still the case. They spend their lives trying to decipher what the Bible “really says,” coming up with a never-ending stream of bizarre and inaccurate ideas. You’d think they’d learn, wouldn’t you?

But the hope of unlocking “secret knowledge” lures them on—like, I suppose, those people who are still trying to decipher the message strapped to the leg of that long-dead carrier pigeon. Though the pigeon’s message may never be decoded, we most certainly do not have to be confounded by the message of the Bible. Jesus not only decodes it, he is the code and the message.

Your brother in Christ,

Joseph Tkach

PS: We will publish Weekly Update on July 24 and then skip July 31. The triennial GCI Denominational Conference will be held in Orlando, Florida during the week spanning July 29-August 4. I hope to see many Update readers there.