Report on the 123rd North American Convention of the Church of God

“I so appreciate you sharing your heart with us - and sharing God's heart. I am hopeful that more and more in the Church of God are beginning to realize that we have a mission God has called us to and it is NOT just reliving our history or clutching to our distinctives. Thank you for helping us to realize that.” This is representative of some of the email or text messages I received after participating in the 123rd North American Convention of the Church of God in Anderson, Indiana.

Missionaries from around the world. Pastors from across North America. Congregations, choirs, and praise teams. Gifted musicians on strings, brass, percussion, and woodwinds. These gathered June 26 – July 1 to worship God and to commit themselves as missionaries who would Live Out the Love of Christ. It was the centennial celebration of global mission sending for this part of the Body of Christ. With a heritage dating back to Camp Meetings, this annual convention saw significantly increased attendance at a time when most denominational gatherings are in decline. Add those who participated globally via internet simulcasts of the worship and one gets the sense that God is stirring His church in fresh ways to live His mission.

During the assembly, I was privileged to meet with Area Administrators from North America as we considered how churches can most effectively equip members to live as missionaries in their own spheres of influence. These brothers and sisters are committed to assisting congregations to be effective and relevant in this generation.

Pam and I also were privileged to visit with international missionaries during a special luncheon where we discussed implications of increasing numbers of short term missionaries and the optimal roles for these individuals and groups serving globally. These dear global servants celebrate the church’s awakening to its part in God’s mission to the nations while holding concerns about how such groups can best be prepared to serve in cross cultural contexts with which they may have little familiarity but deep passion.

Finally, I was invited by Dr. Ron Duncan, General Director of Church of God Ministries to bring two keynote messages from Matthew 28:19-20a on the theme Commissioned – Submission. Other messages fleshed out the balance of the Great Commission passage. What a unique joy to connect the Great Commission with the grand narrative of God’s Kingdom and to challenge every individual in the Church of God to accept their “as they are going” place in that commission. On Monday evening, the message included a cry for the Holy Spirit to anoint His church anew and concluded with the commissioning of new global missionaries.

As we drove away, Pam and I sensed that we had been in the presence of God. His touch was profoundly poignant and we were blessed.

Commanded to Disciple - By Richard Willowby

Crowds filled Madison Park Church of God Monday evening, overflowing into the Crossroads Auditorium, to worship together in a service commissioning missionaries for service. Speaker Milfred Minatrea charged the crowd to take the commissioning home themselves, serving along side those going overseas.

Drawing from the Great Commission (Matt 28:18–20), in the opening of an unusual two-part sermon, Minatrea explained that Jesus’ command to go make disciples is an imperative for all Christians: Go make disciples.

“Don’t be satisfied to go home saying how wonderful it was to commission these new missionaries. Go home, to your place of employment, your neighborhood, the soccer team you coach…You are sent just as they are,” challenged Minatrea. He reminded the congregation that God’s reach has no limit and that each one may be the only contact another has with Christ. In a tearful voice, Minatrea noted that more then two billion people go to bed each night never having heard that Jesus is eager to save them.

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"Thank You" to Servants

Pastors and deacons, with their spouses, are often overlooked when appreciation is being expressed. Perhaps it is assumed that in serving, they are only doing what is expected of their office. I am convinced that we should avail ourselves of every opportunity to express gratitude for the faithful ministry of these congregational servants.

Ernie McCoulsky, Director of Kauf-Van Baptist Association, east of Dallas knows the stress under which church leaders often serve. The association in which he ministers hosts an annual banquet to honor pastors, deacons and their spouses. I was privileged to speak as more than 300 of these servants gathered Monday night in Terrell, Texas.

Their geographical area is special to me. My father and mother were born and raised in the East Texas area now served by Kauf-Van Association. Although much of the area is experiencing transition due to the urban sprawl of the DFW metroplex, I remember the unique cultural experience of growing up in rural east Texas. So while I reminded pastors, deacons and their spouses that they are special people with a special purpose (using references from the epistle of Peter) I also shared remembrances from my formative years.

It was humorous to reflect on unique things like telephone party lines, television service limited to one channel that operated only part of the day, pulling in to a service station an asking for a “dollar’s worth of regular” (which while being pumped allowed enough time for the attendant to check the oil and clean the windshield), listening to the “swap-shop” on the radio (where people obtained things they wanted or needed from others who were looking to rid themselves of the same items). It was a time when the world was dramatically different.

While the world has changed, the caring ministry of pastors, deacons and their spouses remains the same. It is still about lives investing in the lives of others to the glory of God. It is being part of a caring community doing life together in the Spirit of the greatest Servant. That is not an easy role, but it is a blessed one.

Sharing About a Recent Trip to Harrisburg, Pennsylvania

No, I did not fall off the earth, but I have not been at the keyboard much during the recent weeks, which has been a busy season of ministry. Saturday night in the midst of the major storms (those that destroyed the Dallas Cowboys practice facility), I returned from Harrisburg, Pennsylvania where I keynoted the Disciple 2009 event for Evangelical Congregational Churches. The event was jointly sponsored by the denomination and Navigators.

It was a joy to reconnect with my friend, Don Graybill national co-director of The Navigators Church Discipleship Ministry. While most know Navigators for their collegiate or military contexts of ministry, they are seeking to be effective in helping churches develop effective systems of disciple-making that reproduces disciple-makers. I was also privileged to meet John Radcliff, who serves on the Church Discipleship Ministry team of Navigators. John was the very capable point person for the jointly sponsored Disciple 2009 event.

Bishop Kevin Leibensperger extended an invitation some months ago to join their denomination in this event designed to help churches ensure their intentional disciple making processes are effectively missional in posture. Workshops throughout the day were designed to address congregations that were at different places in the process:

Track 1 – Launching Life-to-Life Discipling
Track 2 – Become Decidedly Missional
Track 3 – Enhancing Your Disciplemaking
Track 4 – Coach for Multiple Generations of Disciples

One of the workshop sessions in Track 2 was led by Rev. Mike Sigman, President of Evangelical Theological Seminary in Myerstown, Pennsylvania. Having formerly served as Bishop prior to moving into his role as President of the seminary, Rev. Sigman has become a strong advocate of a missional posture. Sharing that vision with Bishop Leibensperger, it is with great hope that I watch the activity of God among this denomination of churches.

As serendipity, Bishop Leibensperger shared in the final session a closing phrase that is almost always repeated as calls conclude with his personal coach, who turns out to be my friend, Tom Clegg. The Kingdom of God is huge in one sense, but still small enough that I wanted to sing “It’s a small world after all.”

The Real Story of Easter

Ham, turkey, chicken and dressing. Cheese and macaroni, green bean casserole, and rolls. New dresses, shoes, slacks and shirts. Plastic eggs filled with Reese’s peanut butter cups, chocolate bunnies; pink, yellow and blue Peeps. Family gatherings, or spring-time outings. All of these are contemporary accoutrements of Easter.

Last week I walked through a mall and found that a life-sized bunny had taken Santa Clause’s place. Children were placed on his lap while a photographer tried to coax smiles that would find there ways to primary places on countless family photo walls. But it seemed most children actually cried when approaching the furry friend.

It seems that every year I hear conversations about commercialization of Christmas. Seldom do I hear the same voiced about Easter. This central event in the story of Christianity merits more than bunnies, baskets, and big meals.

No time in the year provides better opportunity for followers of Christ to communicate the essence of faith than Easter. The death, burial and resurrection of Christ, and especially the resurrection, separate Christianity from any other faith. The superiority of Christ’s death and resurrection reveals the wisdom of God, who remained just but also graciously became the justifier of all who believe in Him. Sin’s debt was paid by one who never sinned. Justice was served and justification given as a gift of grace.

Equally, the Easter celebration reminds all believers that the One who suffered also became the mighty conqueror. Death could not hold Him. In resurrection glory, He not only made Himself alive again, but He also delivered all of us who were held in death’s grip. He led a host of captives to freedom…reminding forever that His Kingdom is an everlasting Kingdom.

Easter is a harbinger of the hope that is still to come. Jesus is alive. Because He lives…so shall all followers of King Jesus. Death has lost its sting because Jesus has overcome!

That is the real story of Easter. And it is so much more than fake grass and plastic eggs. It is life.

Reveal God For Who He Is

While reflecting on passages from this week, I observed the following truths. God is praised for being mysterious. Rulers are praised for explaining mysteries. (Proverbs 25:2 CEV) I find this a captivating contrast. The most important role of missional leaders is to reveal God for who He is.

Every generation will announce to the next His wonderful and powerful deeds (Psalm 145:4). This spiritual axiom is followed with the revelation of a process. I will keep thinking about your marvelous glory and your mighty miracles. Then everyone will talk about the same, and will tell all nations about You. Finally, they will celebrate and sing about You and Your glory!

The process is reflection/meditation, followed by conversation/sharing, culminating in celebration/praise. What we think about, we talk about. And our conversation influences behavior!

Praise includes rehearsing the acts of God and the character of His Kingdom (Psalm 145:10-13). The culmination is awareness of the enduring quality of our King and His Kingdom. What an understatement is the parallel thought of Proverbs 25:2 with Psalm 145:3 which says, “You are wonderful, Lord, and you deserve all praise, because you are much greater than anyone can understand.”

Leaders help others to better understand God and his people then pass their experience with God on to next generations by telling their own stories of God’s deeds, miracles, and glory!

Personal Spiritual Droughts

Do you go through dry times in your spiritual life? Some people seem to think that never happens to pastors or congregational leaders. Surely vocational Christian servants have a direct line to communion with God! Wrong…at least, wrong for this Christian leader.

I tried to decide how transparent I am willing to risk being as I share from my personal journal. Then I decided that if I speak about being authentic, I must be willing to risk transparent revelation of my own spiritual dilemma. So yes, I go through spiritual droughts; parched, dry times.

In those times, even when I keep reading Scripture, meditating, and crying out to God, I feel myself shut out from the warmth of relationship with God. I know that He is there, faithfully being who He has promised to be, doing what only God can do. But my eyes fail to catch the brilliance of His presence. My ears fail to hear the soft whisper of His caring voice.

When I go through times when the heavens are brass and my spirit cannot sense joyful intimacy with God, I feel the pain of Psalm 137:1-2, “Beside the rivers of Babylon we thought about Jerusalem, and we sat down and cried. We hung our small harps on the willow trees.” (CEV) In those times when I feel far away from God I can remember moments of close relationship, days when the Word jumped off the pages and into my spirit. But what I remember appears so far away and the current experience so barren that I feel like one in exile. In those moments I lay down my pen, as though never to take it up again – like the exiles who “hung their harps on the willow trees.”

The enemy influences our spirit, but God is always faithful and somehow we recall our history with God. Then as the fog gradually lifts, we can begin to “sing about the Lord in a foreign land.” Ps 137:4. Another Psalm, the 107th, reminds me of this act of remembering and responding to God’s faithfulness. There the following two statements are recorded four times each:

You were in serious trouble, but you prayed to the Lord, and he rescued you. (vs. 6,13,19,28)

You should praise the Lord for his love and for the wonderful things he does for all of us. (vs. 8,15,21,31)

We serve a God who turns rivers to deserts (at our disobedience) and deserts to lakes (at our right relationship), Psalm 107:33-35. God will return out joy when we obey; “You will see this because you obey the Lord…” Psalm 107:42. So we must be wise. When the dark days come and we pass through the desert of our spiritual experience, then we must remember the kindness of the Lord!