The Global Advocate - May/June 2023

Earnestly contend for the faith which was once delivered unto the saints (Jude 3b).

THE GLOBAL ADVOCATE (ISSN 0009-630X) is published bi-monthly by the Churches of God, General Conference.

Vol. 188, No. 3

Established June 5, 1835 as THE GOSPEL PUBLISHER, re-established on May 1, 1846 as THE CHURCH ADVOCATE, and re-established on October 1, 2019 as THE GLOBAL ADVOCATE.

Rachel Foreman, Managing Editor

The Global Advocate, official publication of the Churches of God, General Conference, exists to encourage members of the CGGC to maximize their collective potential for Kingdom impact.

Correspondence: Address correspondence to The Editor, The Global Advocate, Churches of God Publications, PO Box 926, Findlay, OH 45839, or email to RachelF@cggc.org

Periodical rate paid at Minster, Ohio.

Postmaster: Send address changes to THE GLOBAL ADVOCATE, PO Box 926, Findlay, OH 45839.

© 2023, Churches of God, General Conference

Region by Region

by Jacob Clagg, Director of Communications

One of the most significant themes that has come out of the last year for the CGGC has been the importance of storytelling for community building. In a world where divisiveness has become such a pervasive feature that it’s almost cliché, and at a time when Christians, and especially Christian leaders, are trying to discern where God is active and moving, it would be foolish to not embrace a culture of storytelling and community building. And one of the best tools we have for telling stories is The Global Advocate, this very magazine, whether in your hands physically or on a screen digitally.

On the Cover: (left to right) Victor Glover, Rich Thornton, and Randall Hall-Walker

So,The Global Advocate is embarking on its next big series, one where we look at each of the regions of the Churches of God, General Conference. Our goal is to dive into the history of each region, and then to find and tell the most important stories that are happening there. We want to uncover and bring to light what God is doing in every space of our denomination. And don’t worry, we aren’t leaving out the mission fields and international communities that call the CGGC home either. This series is going to be spread across 7 issues, and at least twice as many months, so it’s a large commitment, but we think it is worth it for multiple reasons.

Bringing Our Denomination Together

Being a part of the CGGC isn’t all that matters. Indeed, we celebrate the successes of any ministry that is doing Kingdom work, but we do believe we are better together, and our culture of togetherness is dependent upon mutual respect and understanding. One of the ways we continue to build that mutuality is by knowing each other well through our histories and our stories. So, our goal is to tell the story of each of our regions as a place to start. It’s a broad brush, and in some of our larger regions, the culture of a region probably won’t be reflected in each and every church therein, but it will help us continue to manifest a love toward the body of the CGGC. Likewise, it will help us understand why regions and churches operate in the way they do. Better yet, it will help us see ourselves in our CGGC neighbors, even if they are on the other side of the United States. By doing this, you will also come to know what each region values and what is most important to them.

Also, by digging deep into each region, we want to represent the voices of the people who are on mission for God. You may know a regional leader, but do you know local pastors in those regions? We think you should, and that by knowing them, and learning from them, you will be inspired by them. We want to platform pastors, writers, and speakers from each geographical location to build

bridges between our regional communities. You’ll be able to pray for them and their ministries by name, and you’ll be encouraged to share their stories in your churches.

Bringing Best Practice

Which brings us to our next point. The stories we tell have powerful implications. First, these stories shed insight onto best practices of ministry. Stories of success, and even stories of failure, are valuable lessons, filled with rich knowledge and wisdom, and they need to be shared for the betterment of other ministries, and for the furtherance of the Kingdom. We are not, as Jesus says, to hide our light. From these stories we hope churches and leaders are inspired to try new ministries, and to step out of their comfort zones. We do recognize that all of these stories will be contextual, and that just because a particular expression of church flourished in one setting does not mean it will flourish in another, but we also believe that there are practical principles that can be drawn from a true experience, even if it’s contextually far removed.

Bringing Hope

Lastly, we believe that telling stories of God’s action inspires hope in our churches, in our leaders, and even in those who have yet to step into leadership. We recognize that God is not always obvious to us, and that it doesn’t always feel like the Lord is doing a work in our lives or in our ministries. But by listening to the power of God in other people’s lives and ministries, we can be confident that God is still faithful, and that God will move when He is ready, and while we are prepared. So, we expect that telling powerful stories will directly counter the world’s vicious bleakness with radical hope. We expect that when we talk about God’s goodness and fidelity to others, it will have a tangible effect on their relationship with God, and that believers can mutually support each other in their faith journeys.

For unity, for practical lessons, and for hope, we will tell the story of God in the life of the CGGC, region by region.

Selling a Vision for God on Craigslist

by Jacob Clagg, Director of Communications

The Southeast Region Conference (SRC) is the newest region in our denomination, having been ratified less than a year ago at the Triennial Conference in July of 2022. But we would be selling the SRC woefully short if we pretended their history extended back only a year. Plans have been in place for the Southeast for years, and hardworking spiritual leaders have been building the Kingdom in places like Georgia, North Carolina, and South Carolina during that whole time. The story of the Southeast is one of patience, persistence, and prayer. It’s a story in which small churches have big visions, and where individuals have made it their mission to change whole cities for Christ.

Southeast Regional Conference Pastors and Churches

Antoine Lassiter – Think Kingdom - 2016

Jimmy Grainger – The Orchard Church - 2013

In truth, the work of the SRC began over a decade ago, having sprung from the most unlikely of places, a Craigslist ad. And the person who posted that ad was Rich Thornton. Rich is currently, along with Victor Glover, one of the Directors of the SRC but at the time, Rich was a worship pastor and working for the Eastern Regional Conference (ERC) of the Churches of God. Rich and Chuck Frank, the Director of Church Planting for the ERC, were working together with the Church Planting Commission, coming up with all sorts of ideas of how and where to plant churches, while desperately seeking out motivated individuals to carry out the work.

In an interview, Rich recollected that, in late March of 2010, he was sitting at home in Pennsylvania. His wife had recently read an article about how Raleigh was in the top five places to live in the country and suddenly Rich realized that if Raleigh is going to grow, then it would need churches to shepherd

Mary Houston – House of Restoration church – 2015

Everette Spencer, Sr – New Dimensions Church – 2016

Victor Glover – Last Days World Outreach Ministries – 2012

Randall Hall-Walker – Freedom Worship Center – 2013

Reginald Byrden – Grace Fellowship Church – 2014

The Southeast Region Leadership Team in December 2021

Rich Thornton

that booming population. But the ERC, and, in fact, the entire denomination, didn’t have any churches near Raleigh. The CGGC’s closest church was in Manassas, Virginia. Then Rich made the connection. He’d used Craigslist to sell all sorts of things. He had sold some TVs, a swimming pool (probably not an inground one), and even a car on Craigslist. Why couldn’t he sell a vision for planting churches? It didn’t come with money, but it came with support, training, and mentorship. As Rich tells it, it felt like a shot in the dark, and he was hesitant to tell anyone about it.

On his own blog from 2011, Rich describes his pessimistic feelings about the Craigslist ad, saying, “Somehow I don't even think the process worked enough for it to get posted. If it did, it never worked because no one contacted me.” Both in his blog and through our interview, Rich confirmed that he told only one person about the ordeal, asking them to pray about it. He related that the ad “remained unanswered for 16 months. No one responded, not even a bad candidate. Not even a response trying to sell me something. Nothing at all.” But none of this deterred Rich. His confidant kept on praying, and more than a year later, in late July of 2011, Rich posted the ad again. This time he received three responses almost immediately. It was, perhaps, providence that 11 years later, almost to the day, the CGGC would officially recognize the Southeast as a region. In the months following, more responses would continue to roll in, and it wasn’t long before Rich and the ERC were interviewing pastors from North Carolina as potential church planters. By 2012, they were actively planting churches in Raleigh and other towns like Chapel Hill.

In and of itself, it’s a mysterious little success story. Rich reflected on the unlikelihood of it all, and how nearly they had missed the opportunity. “I often think about, what if I had not posted it again? What if I had just let the idea go?” In truth, God was moving behind what Rich could see. Chuck Frank had serendipitously left a brochure for the ERC’s 2020 Church Planting Initiative at an event at Liberty University. A pastor by the name of Victor Glover decided to pick up the brochure, and it just so happens that he had also seen the Craigslist ad. Victor hadn’t met either Chuck or Rich, but had just recently started a church in the Spring of 2011, and was looking for additional

support. Victor wasn’t alone either. A number of pastors were being pushed towards the Raleigh area to plant churches and none of them had any affiliation with the Churches of God, General Conference. As alluded to earlier, by the fall of 2011, a whole group of pastors were being interviewed and selected for the church planting process.

At this point, it was clear that something bigger was forming. Indeed, individuals in the ERC were already starting to talk about the idea of regionalization. The sentiment seemed to be that if these churches took off, they would be too distant from the ERC to be easily grafted in. Rich admits that he was “actually slow on that. I didn’t want to start a region that wasn’t ready. Before I was ready to say it’s a region, others were saying let’s do it. I was real hesitant.” Rich believed that, despite the obvious quality and character of the people involved, the churches in the south still needed support from the ERC, and Rich remains convinced that this was the right decision. As an example, remaining connected to the ERC through the troublesome time of Covid seems particularly fortuitous.

In truth, the relationship between the Eastern Regional Conference and the church plants is still quite special. Pastor of Last Days World Outreach Ministries in Hillsborough, NC and current Director of the Southeast, Victor Glover says that, “It’s been everything to me, from the very beginning, I’m just appreciative because the ERC has discipled us and now, we’ve been equipped from all the training, and they empowered us. This is what was birthed out from intentional relationship building. And this is the fruits of what ERC had a vision for.”

Victor Glover

As the churches were planted and the ministries really started to take off, leadership from the ERC, especially Rich, made frequent trips down to North Carolina and South Carolina with the goal being to equip the pastors and church planters. There they had training sessions, boot camps, and other times of teaching. Many of the pastors were planting churches for the first time, and so while they could use the extra ministry training, they also needed things like finance training and best practices for operating a business. It’s the kind of institutional memory that legacy churches and businesses take for granted, but which start ups are in desperate need of.

Conversations were being held within the denomination as early as 2015 to begin the process of regionalization, where members of all levels of the CGGC were present including the CGGC Executive Director, Lance Finley. Which is to say, things were starting to become official. By then, Rich was already in a full-time position as the ERC’s Southeast Field Director, a position that reflects the growing sense of the Southeast as a legitimately connected field of churches and pastors who were working toward a common goal, as opposed to a few isolated ministries.

The years between 2015 and 2019 solidified the region, and by this point, the majority of the churches present in the region now,were either getting off the ground or were well-established and growing in their ministries. The Orchard Church, started in 2012 and currently pastored by Jimmy Grainger, feeds people in Thomasville, North Carolina once a month. The aptly named church doesn’t gather on that Sunday and instead they go pass out meals. They've been doing it for about 9 years, and this past December they celebrated giving

out their 10,000th meal! We all know the miracle of Jesus feeding the 5000, and the immense scale of the miracle often baffles people. How do you feed 5,000 people like Jesus? Well, maybe you do it 50 or 100 people at a time.

Pastor Mary Houston began House of Restoration Church (2015) in Charlotte, NC, which has since grown into a potent prayer ministry. Meaning while, in 2016, both Pastor Antoine Lassiter and Pastor Everett Spencer, Sr. planted Think Kingdom church and New Dimensions Church in North Carolina and Georgia, respectively. What developed through these years was, as Pastor Reginald Byrden described, “a team effort. We win

as a team, we don’t lose, we just learn as a team.” And it was this sense of unity, mutual support, and inclusion, which Pastors Mary Houston and Randall Hall-Walker spoke about at length in their interviews. More than anything, it was the unity of the pastors on the ground that turned this group of pastors into a genuine region.

The Southeast couldn’t just have a name on it. It had to be real and authentic, and by 2019, it was. Rich and his wife were all in on moving south. Their

Jimmy Grainger

Everett Spencer, Sr.

Antoine & Latonia Lassiter

daughter had just entered college, and they both recognized the need to be closer to their calling. After a meeting with the then director of the ERC, Nick DiFrancesco, Rich was finally given the gohead, with his only assignment being to get the region up and running. With a powerful sense of calling and motivation, Rich and his family moved south. Of course, this was just before the start of Covid. Rich typifies the experience when he said, “Then Covid hit. And I spent 2020 and two and a half years talking to people.”

During Covid, Rich and Victor buckled down and continued to do what they were called to do, namely, build leaders and get the region off the ground. For Rich, this meant a long process of writing and formalizing a constitution for the Southeast Region. For Victor, it meant continued efforts to uphold his own ministries, like Fathers on the Move, while working to support the leadership in the region. Through this difficult season, their hard work paid off. The churches under their care didn’t close, and in fact you’ll read in a later article how some of them flourished. Likewise, when in 2022, the pandemic had largely settled, the constitutional work was done, and during the CGGC’s Triennial Conference, mountains were being moved to ensure that the Southeast would be officially recognized.

After 11 years of hard work for Rich and the rest of the Southeast pastors, it must have been particularly meaningful then when on Monday, July 25th, 2022, the Southeast was officially made a part of the CGGC and was recognized as the denomination’s newest region.

“It was one of the coolest things ever for me,” Rich said, “Last summer, when the motion passed and people immediately, without being asked, stood to their feet and began to applaud, that was pretty cool. It wasn’t just the Southeast. It was a General Conference thing. It was the support of everybody.”

There was an interesting mixture of joy and relief in Rich’s eyes and voice when he retold that story, and he’s equally proud of the leadership in the SRC, because while they are official, there’s still a lot of work to do. Director Victor Glover knows that now is the time for the SRC to build the Kingdom, “Now let’s go, do, and be what we’ve been equipped to do. Let’s represent the CGGC in a way that’s pleasing to God. We can see disciples being made, disciple makers being developed, church planting, leadership, micro church, fresh expressions, and have a pathway for people to go through… We’re excited.

The Southeast is our baby, and it’s been birthed and we’re going to feed it, nurture it, and it’s going to be a beautiful asset to the CGGC. And we want to have relationship to the other regions. One body but many members.”

Amen, Director Victor.

Mary Houston and House of Restoration Church

Randall Hall-Walker

Reginald Byrden

Covid Kicked Down the Walls

by Jacob Clagg with Dr. Randall Hall-Walker and Pastor Reginald Byrden

If you can believe it, the Covid19 pandemic began more than three years ago. March of 2020 marks the month when most institutions across the country, churches especially, began to feel the sting of the pandemic and of local shutdowns. It was different region by region, and in some respects, different for each church, but most churches stopped in-person services for at least a week while they geared up for either online services or reduced/limited in-person services. Other churches found creative ways to do outside services, parking lot services, even radio transmitted services. On the one hand, after three years, many churches have returned to some sense of normalcy, with a few pieces of covid memorabilia still dotting the church. Masks and hand sanitizer probably sit in a corner somewhere or by the main entrance. The online giving application is probably going to remain a new pillar for church funding, and services will continue to be livestreamed or uploaded online. On the other hand, many things have not returned to normal, or as many have said, Covid has become the new normal. Some churches never “bounced back,” as they found people and funds still smaller than they were in the beginning of 2020. Yet still more churches were either forced to close their doors, or they never reopened to begin with.

This is to say, Covid is not remembered fondly by most ministry leaders. It was a time (perhaps it still is) of unease for the future, tension between ministry partners and congregations, financially conservative belt tightening, and non-stop cultural battles. It is most often remembered as a time of painful stagnation, or upsettingly rapid change. Considering all that, it was both surprising and refreshing to hear the exact opposite perspective from two pastors in our Southeast Region.

Dr. Randall Hall-Walker and Pastor Reginald T. Byrden from the CGGC’s Southeast Region remember Covid differently. They remember days and weeks when the church stepped up and stepped in to meet the needs

of their communities. They remember how the church broke out of its walls to minister to people close and far, making bigger impacts than they had in a decade. Most of all, they remember how before Covid, the church felt like it had lost its purpose, and how Covid helped their congregations reclaim their mission for God’s kingdom.

Covid was Joyful

Dr. Randall Hall-Walker of Freedom Worship Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, and Pastor Reginald Byrden from Grace Fellowship Church in Columbia, South Carolina don’t just remember Covid for how it helped change their churches, they remember it as genuine joy, which is in stark contrast to the typical way we hear it talked about. “It was really a great experience for us… It was an exciting time in terms of reaching out, reaching out to the community,” Dr. Randall Hall-Walker declared. “It was a great encouragement to me because the Gospel was still going forth.”

Pastor Reginald Byrden

Dr. Randall Hall-Walker

The stress of Covid was one of the predominant themes coming out of local gatherings of church leaders. Pastors often lamented how exhausted and burnt out they had been feeling about the last few years, but Pastor Byrden shares the exact opposite experience. When asked for an interview in his local newspaper about the stress caused by Covid on pastors, Pastor Byrden responded by saying ,“I don’t know how good my article is going to be because I really don’t have any. My congregation did not stress me… Praise be to God, my congregation, they just continued to follow what God gave us, and how He guided us in [His] direction.” Much of this stress reduction was probably because of the external focus of the congregation. They had a purpose outside of themselves and Pastor Reginald cites that outside of worship services and events they routinely held to work in the community, they stopped having so many meetings. Quarterly, monthly, and weekly meetings were largely gone. Indeed, Covid revealed all kinds of busy work that hardly amounted to any kind of substantive impact. And so both congregations were able to look at the standard practices of a given week and do away with the work that wasn’t making a direct impact on their communities.

Covid was an Awakening

While there are many different kinds of small shifts that happened, almost all of them could be neatly explained by the paradigm shift from an internal focus to an external focus, or, as Pastor Byrden said, “Covid was a coming out party.” It’s exactly the kind of awakening to their mission that churches around the United States have recognized is sorely needed, and for these two congregations, the pandemic forced it to happen.

Not only has Covid been see as a largely positive experience for Dr. Randall and Pastor Byrden, but they go further by suggesting that Covid fundamentally reshaped their understanding of the church. Pastor Byrden says that,

“[Covid] gave us a church perspective to see the church at its best. It allowed us to operate the church without walls. Our parking lot became a distribution center every week, for families and others. It allowed us to see what the church should really be about, and that was to impact our city, our community, and the corner which we reside on… We were able to maximize ministry [at] a whole new level.”

For Grace Fellowship Church, Covid pushed them to see the needs of people in their community more clearly, and, in turn, to focus on the hungry and the unemployed in ways they hadn’t before. Pastor Byrden and his team at Grace Fellowship decided to start a meal program, and every week they passed out packaged meals, using their parking lot as a drive through for residents of their city. Pastor Byrden says that some weeks they would run out of meals within 15 minutes of starting because the need was so great.

Likewise, Dr. Hall-Walker and his church, Freedom Worship Center in Charlotte, North Carolina, started their own meal program, while helping with medical needs, and helping the unemployed to fill out applications. Dr. Hall-Walker said, “We were determined to stay essential.” When most other places were shutting down due to government demands, only a select few places were deemed “essential” and allowed to remain open. When the leadership at Freedom Worship Center heard that Walmart was giving out letters to their employees to show to local authorities, they said “Well, if Walmart can do it, certainly the church can!” They believed the church should be essential, and if it wasn’t, that didn’t speak well to the state of the church in their community.

The most obvious change that the pandemic brought about was the need to reach out beyond the walls of the church. At a practical level, most churches have done this with their move toward online integration, and so did both Grace Fellowship and Freedom Worship Center, but Freedom Worship Center also began a parking lot ministry, incorporating both radio and the internet in order to broaden their reach and to make their services more accessible. And over time both of these have developed into an entire channel of digital material, from an actual radio station broadcast at 87.9 FM around Pineville, South Charlotte, to their Journey to Greatness Broadcast program, and even acting classes put on by Birdella Hall-Walker, Dr. Randall’s wife.

Because the focus had been taken away from the internal church, the dynamic between churches was also radically shifted. Both Pastors reflected on how the pandemic brought a powerful sense of unity to all

churches. “Covid brought us all on the same page,” Dr. Hall-Walker said, suggesting that mega churches and small churches were all trying to navigate Covid for the first time. No one had the answers, and so the pressure of being compared to other churches was lifted. Likewise, most churches were “over capacity” for the first time (the limit set by the government for how many people could gather in a given space) which had a positive effect. It felt good for pastors who were at capacity, knowing they had legally topped out, and the constant pressure to bring in more people could be reined in. Likewise, Pastor Reginald Byrden shared that,

“One thing Covid taught us, none of us, whether we pastored a congregation of fifty or thousands, one year or twenty-five years, all of us was unexperienced at pastoring during Covid. None of us had any experience of how to navigate during this season. It allowed us to build more brotherly love with pastors. Put all of us on the same boat.”

Covid Revealed God’s Plan

Both pastors spoke candidly about why they believed Covid was ultimately helpful for their ministries. Their key takeaway was that, while they were both shocked by the pandemic like everyone else, in hindsight they realized that they were being prepared in advance. Dr. Hall-Walker mentioned that their online presence had already taken shape before the pandemic hit and that “We only increased our online activity, to make it more appealing to people.” And he likewise talked about how surprised he was to find that the vast majority of churches in his area were making Facebook accounts and YouTube pages for the first time during the pandemic. Dr. Hall-Walker went on to explain why he believes other churches really struggled or why they didn’t survive Covid. “Churches that were struggling before the pandemic, when the pandemic hit, they ceased to exist. But those who were committed before,

they were committed during, like Brother Byrden, they thrived.” After acknowledging how harsh that statement was, he qualified it by saying, “I’m not coming against pastors, but the reality was that they did not live what they were teaching.”

Pastor Byrden, on the other hand, spoke about how his leadership team made a smooth transition to remote work because there had always been a decentralized work culture at Grace Fellowship since their foundation. Even when they finally had a church building to call their own, they were already prepared for Covid, saying, “When Covid hit, people were trying to figure out how to get their staff to work from home, we already were.” The key takeaway from both pastors was that God had prepared them and their ministries in advance for what was about to take place.

Both recognized, of course, that Covid wasn’t easy. They are both still in constant dialogue with pastors who are struggling and who had very different experiences than what they had. The question has been asked “How do you preach to an empty church?” To those pastors, Pastor Reginald encourages them, saying that "you’re going to have to get used to preaching to that little green light,” meaning the light of the camera when it’s live. He says that they shouldn’t worry if they only have a few people in their building, because with their online services, “You have the whole world. When you stand behind the sacred desk, make the book talk.”

As we wrapped up our interview, Pastor Byrden gave a clear snapshot of what he saw God doing through Covid, and what the new paradigm is for the future church.

“During this Covid season, God has sustained the church. Covid allowed us to be able to tackle the task at hand. It allowed us to be able to embrace the changes at the church… If you’re trying to move the church back to the 3rd Sunday of March of 2020, you’re really going to struggle and kill the church. I think Covid allowed us in our churches, as leaders, to embrace change, to accept change, to find new ways to do ministry.”

The Shop Talk Barbershop

by Jacob Clagg

Every moment of my time spent speaking with and interviewing the pastors of the Southeast has been excellent. Each of the pastors I spoke with shared their hearts for God’s people, and their vision for God’s Kingdom in the Southeast, and I walked away excited for the future they were forecasting. One of these visions in particular felt to me like a genuine revelation. So, let me tell you how God is changing the city of Burlington, North Carolina, through conversations at a barbershop, and why I think the principles employed there are not just relevant and applicable, but obligatory and, dare I say it, an indictment of the way many of us have thought about church for a long time.

The story of the barbershop in Burlington came from Director of the Southeast Regional Conference, and Pastor, Victor Glover. During a roundtable interview with a number of the Southeast pastors, Victor mentioned a “barbershop” as a new place that he was doing ministry. Given that the CGGC’s theme for the last year has been about “reimagining”, and that we ran an entire issue about reimagining how we could use

with Pastor Victor Glover

our church spaces for new/different ministries, this sounded like a great story to capture. We set up a time for a later interview, and frankly, I hadn’t anticipated that the story would knock me (metaphorically) off my feet like it had. But I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s stop talking around the barbershop, and start talking about Shop Talk, a ministry at a local Burlington barbershop.

Shop Talk Barbershop

Every Tuesday, Pastor Victor Glover shows up to the barbershop, and once people start arriving, they immediately open the floor for discussion. They ask what people need addressed in their lives and what they're worried about. “Does anyone have anything on their heart?” Once the initial conversation is done, they start on the chosen topic for that week. As a recent example, the initial question was, “What are you fighting for?” From here, discussion happens again, and individuals are welcome to voice their opinions and to answer the question. After this, the discussion shifts toward problem solving, and questions like, “What can we do right now?” Here, people might not make actionable steps or create a plan to address whatever problem they’re aiming to fix.

You may notice, it doesn’t sound a lot like a church. Where’s the music? Where’s the sermon?

Well, those things aren’t present, and that’s because it’s not trying to be a worship service. That’s why it’s held on a Tuesday, so as not to replace a Sunday service. They do pray, and they do incorporate Scripture at times, but generally, this is the place where people with a loose faith, or with no faith at all, come to meet and to share their thoughts and burdens. Many aren’t the type of people who would show up comfortably to a Sunday service anyway. Here, Pastor Victor and his team practice what he calls the Three L’s: Listen, Learn, and Live. “We want to do more listening than we do talking. We need to learn how to better serve our communities,” Victor said, and he mentioned that “In listening to the juveniles, we are hearing that the parents don’t have church homes, and when the parents show up, we can now be a witness.” That’s how they open the door toward “evangelism” as we might traditionally think of it, but the key is that evangelism comes only after they’ve listened and learned from the community. It’s a different strategy than we might normally conceive of, but it’s still fundamentally a Christian endeavor, and it’s still fundamentally about discipleship and mentorship. The key difference here is that people are led to Christian principles not by overt lessons, but through conversation and open discussion.

Why a Barbershop?

The reason why this interview was so impactful to me, and why the vision for the barbershop has so radically reshaped the way I see ministry, is also the very reason the barbershop was created. It wasn’t created just as an alternative method to do church, it was created specifically to bring local people together to start making the community better. It was created to solve a problem, and to bring healing, as Jesus always does. But where other outreach opportunities often start at the practical level of handing out goods, Shop Talk starts with the people, because the community is nothing without the people.

So how did Shop Talk get started? Well, the owner of the barbershop doesn’t just cut the hair of people who walk in the front door. Occasionally, he also provides his services to the local morgue, because even the deceased need a haircut and a shave to look presentable in death. One day, after tragedy struck Burlington yet again, Victor’s barber found himself on the way to the morgue to give one final hair cut to a young man who had recently been killed. Two sixteenyear-olds had been the victims of gun violence and one of those victims was the barber’s nephew. In the barbershop, and through tears, the barber told Victor what had happened, and Victor says that’s when he first ministered to him.

Two weeks later, the barber came back to Victor and told him, “This can’t keep going on. I'm just tired.” Both found out around that time that the shooter was fourteen years old. Gun violence has become an epidemic, and in fact, as I write this,

another shooting has just taken place which has left three children and three adults dead. Shockingly, the majority of shootings in Burlington this year have been juvenile related. Likewise, across the entirety of the United States, gun related violence is now the number one cause of death of children aged 1-18, as found by the New England Journal of Medicine. 1 While thinking about all of the trauma Burlington has gone through, Victor said,

“You see everything that’s happening and we sit on the sidelines. We got to get in the game now. We got to have skin in the game. If we want to see change and make a difference there, we need people to come on and get aboard.”

And that’s the point. Victor has been trained to listen, learn, and live with his community, and in doing so, Victor has diagnosed a core problem there, and rather than preach Jesus from an altar, he’s preaching Jesus in the barbershop and beyond. He’s preaching Jesus not just to save souls, although that certainly is his aim. Pastor Victor and his team preach Jesus and try hard to model the love of Jesus, to bring the Kingdom to the streets of Burlington, because that’s where Jesus is needed most right now.

1 Rebecca M. Cunningham, M.D., Maureen A. Walton, M.P.H., Ph.D., and Patrick M. Carter, M.D. "The Major Causes of Death in Children and Adolescents in the United States." The New England Journal Of Medicine, 2018.

The Revelation and What this Means for Future Pastors

But they don’t just stop at the “going.” They went to the barbershop as the first place to go. And, of course, people came. They had good conversation, and they continue to have opportunities to minister, feed, and pray with these people. That’s probably where most of us would call it a success and get comfortable. But not Pastor Victor or his team. Once people came, Victor and his team strategically picked out ways to go deeper into the community. The barbershop isn’t the place they were sent, it was the homebase that they set up to keep on being sent. They’ve picked out the specific streets where they are going next, and they are going to keep on pushing further into the places where Jesus is needed most.

In perhaps his most critical statement, and the one that became my revelation, Victor said, “The church needs to catch up. We can disciple all day long, but we have to be more strategic. A lot of pastors don't even know what’s going on in their own city and their own community. It's all about come, see, and hear, rather than go, be, and do.” Do you hear that? Somehow, we continually fall into the pattern of “come, see, and hear.” We all recognize that we are sent, and that we are supposed to go on mission. But at some point, the “go” turns into “come,” and I’m convinced now, more than ever, that in doing so, we’ve really, truly missed something. And as I sit here, wracking my brain about what my community needs, I recognize that while Victor was talking to me, he was also talking about

me. He continued to say that, “I'm hard on our pastors because they’re not in tune with their community. We have got to be more proactive to better address and reach out to our community.” I recognize then that I’m not “in tune” with my community either, and that needs to change.

The traditional Sunday morning service doesn’t need to go away, and churches don’t need to move their worship services into the middle of a downtown street and sing to the open air (although that would be pretty cool, right?). But I’m also convinced that churches that aren’t engaging their communities by actively going outside of their walls are anemic. They are so inward-focused that it has become a detriment to themselves and to God’s kingdom, and I struggle to think of a worse indictment for a church.

On the other hand, Victor and his team have developed, or, in truth, rediscovered what Jesus and Paul were doing the whole time. Victor’s principles of Listen, Learn, and Live are transformational because we have so often believed that the Church’s goal was mostly focused toward Speak (Evangelize), Teach (Disciple), and Distance (from the world). And of course, all of these things were practiced by Jesus and Paul too, but not before they deeply listened to people (seriously, Jesus asks a lot of questions), learned what people's needs were, and lived intimate lives with them. As Victor said, “Listen to the kids, learn from them, do life with them. That opens the door. We don't put Jesus on the front end. We catch them [with Jesus] on the backend.”

by Kathy Foor, Director of Women's Ministries

CGWM Thank Offering Update

It is time for our 2023 Thank Offering to be collected and sent in. Each local women’s ministry should send their Thank Offering to the CGWM Treasurer of their region by June 30. Regional Directors should send their Thank Offering contributions to the National Treasurer by July 30.  Individuals not belonging to a local CGWM group may send their offerings to either their region’s CGWM treasurer or directly to Nancy Scott. All checks sent to Nancy should be made out to CGGC with Thank Offering in the memo.

It is exciting to report that our 2022 Thank Offering totaled $23,393.43. Of that, $14,036.06 was disbursed to the following ministries supported by CGWM as shown in the chart at the right.

An update from Haiti Physical Therapy School

The scholarships from CGWM support two third-year physical therapy students at the school located outside St. Marc, Haiti. Gloria and Rosemonde are both excellent students and have recently shared their knowledge in caring for individuals who have suffered a stroke at the Elim Church of God in St. Marc. Additionally, last September, the students led a conference regarding physical therapy during International Physical Therapy Day. Life in Haiti is difficult and has been increasingly risky due to the instability of the government and gang rule. The school has learned to open and close based on the safety and passability of the roads. These scholarships will also be used to support incoming first-year students as their needs are revealed to us. We are deeply appreciative of your continued support and praise God for His wonderful work there!

Leadership Training - 25%

$3,509.00

School for Girls in India** - 15% $2,106.06

Venezuela Bible School - 15% $2,105.00

Winebrenner Seminary - 25%

$3,509.00

Haiti Physical Therapy School - 20% $2,807.00

**Because the India School for Girls is currently not enrolling students, these funds are being used as a scholarship for Madhumita Singha to help pay fees for her final stage of nursing school. She completed her diploma in nursing in December of 2022 and is now enrolled at a medical facility for her practical experience.

An Update from Winebrenner Scholarship recipients

“I am so elated to receive another year of scholarships from CGWM! This will enable me to successfully complete my Master’s Degree. I will be one of the first women in my family to do so.” ~Ester”

“I am so deeply thankful for the generosity and kindness you have shown by allowing me to attend Winebrenner through your scholarship. As a mom, wife, and substitute teacher, there is such deep gratitude as you are reaching out to help me reach what I could not do alone.” ~ Karey

Developing an Attitude of Gratitude

Thank Offering is being used to advance the Kingdom of God around the globe, but it is much more than just a monetary offering. It is an opportunity to develop an attitude of gratitude. When we choose to give thanks, we acknowledge that:

[ God is good

[ We appreciate His many blessings

[ We trust Him no matter the circumstances

[ He will keep His promises

According to Dr. Caroline Leaf, a well-known neuroscientist, God designed us for praise, so when we worship the Lord and give thanks, our brain functions at its very best! God tells us in his Word to give thanks in all circumstances because He designed us to function best when we do! No matter how difficult life can be, there is always a reason to give thanks.

This has not always come easily to me, but more and more as I learn to give thanks in every situation, I am experiencing abundant joy and peace, which makes me want to grow more in this area every day! Practicing a daily habit with my Thank Offering really has transformed my life. I encourage you to keep your Thank Offering barrel handy and fill it freely with thankfulness as you drop in your coins. If you don’t do coins, take a few moments each day to keep a small thank-offering journal and tally it up before you make your offering in May.

Please note: We have had some changes in our Regional Leadership, so please be sure to check our website for the most current contact information before you send your Thank Offering in 2023. For updates on each of these ministries, please visit our website (https://www.cggcwomen.org/thank-offering). There is a pdf file and PowerPoint slides on that page which we hope you will use to share this information with your ladies and/or church.

A Fresh Partnership

by Lance Finley, CGGC Executive Director

We’ve recently announced our new partnership with Fresh Expressions, a cross-denominational organization that works internationally to support and grow new missional methods of church. FX does this by working with local congregations to reimagine how church can be more missional and more contextual, and they’ve been doing it since 2004. In fact, a small number of CGGC churches have already been involved with Fresh Expressions. Because of the positive feedback, and their proven track record, we believe this partnership is our next step in providing powerful resources to help our local congregations reach more people for Jesus.

What is a Fresh Expression?

You might be asking, “What is a fresh expression?” It’s a fair question. A fresh expression is a way to reimagine how we reach people for Christ. To be clear, that doesn’t mean we have abandoned the traditional model of church, but it is an acknowledgement that the traditional model isn’t reaching everyone, and we want to reach everyone. In this way, a fresh expression is an extension of the church, but often outside of the church walls.

FX says that “fresh expressions are about getting creative in your church’s reach.” This creativity allows for many different “expressions” of church, but the requirement is that each new expression be missional, contextual, formational, and ecclesial. With each of these criteria, we can be confident that a fresh expression isn’t simply some trendy way for Christians to avoid coming to church, but instead it’s an authentic way to reach people for Christ.

How about some examples?

Dinner Church

A dinner church is a thoroughly scriptural model for church and is a classic example of a fresh expression. It could be described simply as: meal, music, message. It takes the idea of the Lord’s Supper literally. A dinner church meets for a meal, where believers and non-believers are invited to eat, build community together, and talk about God. A dinner church might meet at a church, but it doesn’t have to, and the idea is that eating together is one of the most powerful ways that humans engage each other and deepen relationships. Time and again, Jesus used meals as a way to connect with people, sometimes the very people who were out to kill him, and it was always a transformative experience for those involved.

Football Church

In an article on their website titled “Sunday Night Football Church: A Fresh Expression Reaching New People in Unexpected Ways,” Fresh Expressions tells the story of a group of guys from church who started a Sunday night football practice (actually it was in England so I guess we would call it soccer). Soon, the spouses of women who only attended church occasionally started coming, and then friends who weren’t even religious showed up too. The men found that as they carpooled over to the field, they had opportunity for deeply religious conversations, and the prayer they had before the games started provided a gentle introduction to a relationship with God. Eventually, a couple of the guys asked to be baptized. While it might just look like a group of guys playing a sport, the intentionality was to have Christ and faith at the center of the gathering, and because of that, football church reached people who never would have stepped in a church building.

FX reports that around 60% of people in the U.S. are not attending church in any meaningful way, and it doesn’t seem to matter what the worship style is or how the “content” is delivered. This is corroborated in recent studies by organizations like Pew Research. The people aren’t coming. So, if we want to invest in their lives and show them Jesus, we have to go, just like Jesus commanded. This means that Fresh Expressions shouldn’t be new or scary. Instead, the idea of creating highly contextual opportunities to help people meet Jesus outside of the church walls is a thoroughly first century idea, and one which we hope many of our churches will jump on.

That being said, this isn’t just a partnership in philosophy. CGGC churches tangibly gain from this partnership. Below you’ll find a list of ways that FX can directly benefit you and your church.

For Regions

Regional conferences can expect a 50% discount after expenses on all FX related training sponsored by a region. These include Vision Days, Pioneer Cohorts, Activate Cohorts, Dinner Church Training, Expresiones Divinas, and anything offered in our new Center for Remissioning (training around Contextual Intelligence, Incarnational Innovation, Congregational Disciple-Making, Breakthrough Prayer, and Digital Mission/Ministry).

For Churches

Our local congregations will receive a 25% discount on FX Training/Coaching, either offered through our National Platform (National or Regional Conferences or Online Summits), or if a church requests such training/ coaching locally.

For All

Anyone in the denomination is eligible to receive a 25% discount on Bulk Orders of FX Books when orders are made directly through our office. Also, anyone is eligible for a 25% discount on subscriptions to FX Online Learning & Resource Tool

– FXConnect

Of course, the resources don’t stop there. Fresh Expressions has a wealth of information, blogs, how-tos, stories, videos, other resources freely available on their website, freshexpressions.com or on their YouTube channel.

To get 25% off through FX’s online store, use our promo code: CGGC25

This partnership is proof of the CGGC’s deep desire to help our churches grow and adapt to the current cultural climate in ways that are also deeply Biblical. As FX says on their own announcement, “This partnership represents a commitment to adapting and evolving church life to better reach people and share the gospel in today’s world.” We all recognize that the church has much work left to do, and many people who still need to hear about the risen Christ. So, join the CGGC and Fresh Expressions as we work together to maximize our collective potential for Kingdom impact.

What is The Well?

by Matt Ginter, UF Campus Minister

“It’s like church camp… without the fun stuff.”

It was the summer of 2017. We had just completed our second year of “The Well,” a week-long summer faith experience for high school students at the University of Findlay. Asking those in attendance for some feedback on the week, one young lady chimed in quickly with the above quip. We all laughed, understanding her intention to be more playful than pejorative, but the unofficial motto stuck. Ever since, we have often found ourselves beginning any explanation of The Well, tongue-in-cheek, with that very phrase. Now, to be sure, we’ll never print it on a flier or state it in an official capacity. But in its own way, the phrase— “church camp without the fun stuff”—is an almost perfect summation of The Well.

What would we print on a flier? We would share that The Well is a uniquely transformative faith experience, full of dynamic worship, immersive study of Scripture, and engaging discussion; that high school students are invited to spend a week on the University of Findlay campus exploring their Christian FAITH, their IDENTITY in Christ, and God’s CALLING on their life. An invaluable opportunity for spiritual formation and vocational discernment, The Well is also a great chance for high school students to experience campus life for a week: eating in the dining hall, spending meaningful time on campus, and connecting with current college students. “Fun” in its own way, The Well invites high school students into an intentional week of discipleship and development.

As we come to the summer of 2023, we anticipate welcoming our eighth batch of participants! In some ways the mission we began with back in 2016 is much the same

today. Early in 2015, the Lilly Endowment put out a call for grant proposals to create youth theology institutes for high school students on university campuses. The Lilly Endowment—for those unfamiliar—is deeply invested in the religious health of the country. Per their website: “Our primary aim in religion is to deepen and enrich the religious lives of Christians in the United States... We are especially interested in efforts that nurture the religious lives of children, youth and young adults and share the beauty and vibrancy of Christian faith with a new generation.” After engaging with a lengthy grant proposal process, the University of Findlay was notified in late 2015 that it was to be awarded nearly $400,000 to create just such an opportunity. The stage was set. 2016 would be our first go-round. Nervous and excited, we set about to work.

Things didn’t go exactly as expected that first summer. We anticipated recruitment would be easy; we thought college students would line up to help staff the week. We kept expectations at what we thought were reasonable levels: we budgeted to accept up to 50 high school participants (completely free for them) and aimed for a dozen college students to help staff (in a paid capacity) that week. How could we not find 50 high school students interested in spending a free week on campus exploring faith, identity, and calling? And why wouldn’t a dozen college students sacrifice a week to hang out on campus and get paid? Suffice it to say, we underestimated the difficulty of starting something brand new. Recruiting high school participants took us well into June that year, requiring much more effort than originally expected (and yielding only 36 high school participants). And finding college students to help staff that week was an all but impossible task! With hardly any current college students

available, we turned to recent alumni to help out. Even so, God blessed that first go-round of The Well and used it as an important first step in what would turn out to be a much longer process…

So much of our time that first summer was spent on content creation. We were confident that quality content would be a key catalyst for our high school participants; that challenging and encouraging them in their faith walk would propel them to richer depths of discipleship. And we did see students (in the words of that summer’s tagline) propelled to ‘peer deeper into the faith, [to] see God more clearly and find themselves more fully.’ But our daily content wasn’t necessarily the key catalyst in that process. Student after student, when asked what was most impactful from the week, cited the time, attention, and wisdom of the college-aged mentors. Where we had sought primarily to instruct with content we found greater impact inspiring by way of community. Quality content needed to be there, don’t get me wrong. The lesson would not be missed as we moved forward.

If, in some ways, the mission we began with for The Well back in 2016 is much the same today, it has also adapted and grown as we have learned year-to-year. One of the biggest changes we made was in the area of leadership development. If our college-aged mentors were to be such an integral part of the experience for our high school students, we felt it would behoove us to invest accordingly. Reallocating funds (with Lilly’s approval), we recruited a team of college students to serve as summer interns. Compensating them for their time and effort, we asked them to spend extensive time in training and preparation for The Well. Part of that preparation involved real-time experience interacting with high school students before The Well, sending them to denominational church camps to help counsel their senior high weeks. Investing in, and developing, college-aged leaders to serve at The Well proved to multiply the blessings of communal discipleship at The Well tenfold. Attendance grew each year.

Spiritual impact became more and more obvious in the lives of those participating. And we were just getting started.

We have been so blessed, in the past seven years, to see 207 different students join us for The Well at the University of Findlay (a number of whom attended multiple years). The majority of these hailed from Ohio, Michigan, and Indiana…but we’ve also seen students join us from Pennsylvania, Illinois, Arkansas, North and South Carolina, Connecticut, California, and Washington state. What a blessing to see high school and college students spend meaningful time together in worship, study, fellowship, and prayer. What’s more, the impact has clearly gone beyond the week itself. Summer interns—in light of their experiences— are discerning and pursuing calls to vocational ministry. Participants are sharing the impact on their faith walk, even while still in high school; the importance of The Well in giving them a discipleship framework within which to walk. We thank God for the blessings to this point, and look expectantly for many more to flow in the years to come!

How can you get involved? We solicit your prayers. Reaching the next generation is so crucial, and no amount of planning or execution will substitute for humble and consistent entreaty before the Lord. Additionally, as Lilly Endowment funds inevitably dwindle and fade, the need to fundraise and subsidize will increase. If you feel called to contribute and support financially, we would be glad to talk with you about possibilities on that front. Lastly, we would love to see YOUR high school kids potentially join us on campus for a week. It is a rigorous week; students are asked to spend significant chunks of time reading, reflecting, discussing, and praying. If you have a high school student yearning to take that next step in their discipleship walk, we would love to see if they might be a good fit for The Well!

Students can apply to participate in The Well at www. findlay.edu/TheWell. This year’s program will run from Sunday, July 16 – Saturday, July 22. We have a team of eight interns and a host of other volunteers ready and eager to serve! Ephesians 2:10 will serve as a theme verse this summer: we are God’s MASTERPIECE. He has created us anew in Christ Jesus, so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago. Our deepest desire at The Well this summer is that we might help high school students discover what they have been created anew in Christ to do as they look down the path before them. Classic artwork will serve as a day-to-day thematic motif, surveying the works of Rembrandt, Caravaggio, van Gogh, and more as we explore life and Scripture together.

Despite our unofficial motto, it’s sure been fun.

The 2022 Summer Interns with UF President Dr. Fell

Global Reach Updates

Thank you for partnering with our friends and fields in Global Reach. Pray for our Haiti and Latin America fields as they are struggling through challenging difficulties. Please celebrate the following updates from our Asian Global Reach fields. Remember to pray for our leaders as they serve God and share the Good News with seekers.

Bangladesh

There is still opportunity to sign up for the ACTS trip to Bangladesh from October 16 -24, 2023. Cost is $2,600 plus the cost to get a Bangladesh visa. This will be a once-in-a-lifetime experience. Please contact Travis Helm at travis@cggc.org or 567-301-5088 for details.

The staff of the Bangladesh Mission have recently distributed sarees to widows in the regions we minister. Because of the stigma attached to being a widow in these communities, these ladies experience a sense of dignity when they receive such a gift.

Staff delivered sarees in some areas and blankets in other areas. This past winter season was exceptionally difficult for many northern regions of our Mission. A number of new believers were able to receive baptism. Many have been patiently waiting since the pandemic restrictions were in place. Praise God for this fruit.

India

Pictured at right and below is a newer fellowship in West Bengal area. Its beginnings were rooted in the relief work during COVID-19. Our staff provided some food items and over the course of time, earned their trust and started an adult literacy class. During the springtime, staff started sharing with them the meaning of Good Friday. They meet once in a week for literacy class and listen to the Word of God.

The fellowship pictured below meets regularly and is growing. There are many children in this fellowship and we are looking forward to beginning a Child Development Club. Much of the growth has come as a result of the recent pandemic.

The two fellowships pictured on this page were started in the last two years. The staff worker leading the group started as a youth staff worker and was mentored to a point where he now serves independently. Praise God for the quality training programs within the India Mission.

Thailand

Bryan and Katie Crabtree and their girls are planning to spend about six weeks back in the USA this summer. They hope to be at three central locations for an evening of updates, stories, and fellowship.

Thank you for all the prayers and support that each of you give to keep these ministries active.

At the request of our India and Bangladesh Missions, we are planning a celebration to commemorate the 125th year since the establishment of our Mission there. It will be held in Bangladesh along with some teaching sessions from October 23-27, 2023. If you have interest in attending please contact Travis Helm at travis@cggc.org or 567-301-5088. You would need to set aside at least 8 total days for the trip and the approximate travel costs would be $2,600 plus the cost of a Bangladesh visa.

We hope to have many of the Mission staff in attendance and we could use donations to help fund the lodging and food for the event. If you want to help, you can give to “GR2705-125th celebration.”