Reimagining SPACE for Mission a publication of the Churches of God, General Conference 16862 Rethinking our Space for Mission by Lance Finley IN THIS ISSUE Bringing Missional Clarity by Trent Grable New Life in an Old School by Ben Tobias The GLOBAL ADVOCATE Global Reach Updates September/October 2022 Vol. 187, No. 5
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© 2022, Churches of God, General Conference our Space for Mission
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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 PeriodicalRachelF@cggc.orgratepaid at Minster, Ohio.
Rethinking
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I have a love/hate relationship with some of the popular home remodeling shows that fill the daily TV schedule (we've come a long, long way from the days of This Old House being the only option). I love the creativity, especially when they restore, refurbish, and bring out the best in what the old home has to offer. At other times it comes through the ability to completely rethink the concept and décor of a home. I marvel at what others are able to do to bring new life to an already existing structure. On the other hand, I'm not too fond of the fact that my lovely wife and daughter are also fans of such shows because this often feeds their long list of potential remodeling aspirations in spite of the fact that I possess none of the skills, expertise, energy, or funds necessary to make such dreams a reality. 2022 by Lance Finley, CGGC Executive Director 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. 187, No. 5 Established June 5, 1835 as THE GOSPEL PUBLISHER, re-established on May 1, 1846 as THE ManagingRachelTHElishedADVOCATE,CHURCHandre-estabonOctober1,2019asGLOBALADVOCATE.Foreman,Editor
that have opened their doors to various groups like Alcoholics Anonymous or other addiction recovery groups. Other congregations have opened their doors as local warming centers in the winter months or cooling centers in the hot summer months. I’ve also observed several congregations with ample yard or acreage open their space to the local community for various recreation options like youth soccer or baseball. In some areas, it may be possible to partner with the local community library to host a reading room or participate in reading literacy efforts. Perhaps there are afterschool programs in your community that need space. How can you partner with them to love the kids of your community? Who in your community could you love and serve just by opening up your building and sharing the space that the Lord has given to you? What could the Lord do with the “loaves and fishes” of your building? Your building may not be as big or new as you’d like, but it’s the building you have. If your building isn’t being utilized for most of the week, how could you share your facilities in a way that blesses your community and helps the people of your community flourish? This is one of the simplest and most practical ways to rethink our space as congregations. How Could we Repurpose our Space to Meet the Needs of our Community? In addition to sharing your space with outside organizations, there may be other ways to repurpose your space to bless your community. Several CGGC congregations have repurposed a space to open up a community help effort like a food or clothing pantry. I know of one congregation that observed gaps in their area social services and decided to open a personal hygiene and toiletries pantry because that was the need they identified in their local community. I’m also aware of a couple of CGGC congregations that are working toward opening early childhood development centers because of the need for such facilities in their local communities. How might the Lord want you to utilize the basement or the education wing that only gets used a few hours a week? Are there ways in The Global Advocate 3 here’s something incredibly beautiful about seeing the process of something old repurposed and given new life. Many times, instead of gratitude for what we have, I think we get stuck in a mentality of poverty: we focus on what we don’t have. “If only we had a more dynamic children’s ministry, if only we had a rocking worship band, or if only we had better facilities, then we’d see things change in our church.”
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I think our present moment, as well as the future days ahead, will require us to rethink our space in generous and creative ways. While this may sound daunting, we have some examples of how to do this well. I know of several CGGC congregations
One of the things most of our congregations have is a building. Some buildings are newer, and some are over one hundred years old. Some are massive auditoriums, and some are simple structures consisting only of one or two rooms. Regardless of the variety, most of our congregations have a space that we utilize for worship gatherings and other church functions. We have a wonderful opportunity to reimagine how we might use that same facility to glorify God and advance His kingdom here on earth. Some congregations only use their building a few hours on Sunday morning, and the rest of the week it sits empty. Whether it’s a new church campus or an old brick building, that’s a shame. Likely, there are people in your community that might be blessed through your willingness to share what God has placed in your hands. Even if it’s not the space of our dreams, how could we share our space in a way that blesses our neighbors and fellow citizens?
Rather than focus on what we lack, I think it’s typically a better approach to start with what we have. In John 6, when Jesus fed the crowd of over 5,000 people, I’ve always been struck by the fact that Jesus took what the disciples had (they were overwhelmed by their poverty as well… “it would take six month’s wages to feed this crowd and we don’t have that, Jesus”), but He took the fishes and loaves that they did have, and He made that more than sufficient for the need.
Who Could Be Blessed by our Facility?
Seldom used fellowship halls are finding new life as congregations engage their neighbors and communities through a weekly meal, fellowship, and discipleship (https://freshexpressions.com/).
While I was raised in a church culture that stressed the importance of investing in others and inviting them into the activities of the local congregation, our culture today views such efforts more often than not as a bait and switch tactic. How are we inviting others into our homes and our lives, demonstrating hospitality, and sharing the love of Christ with those whom He has placed in proximity to us? When was the last time you invited the neighbors over for burgers on the back deck or an afternoon of football, food, and fun? Who do you welcome into your home regularly in order to love and demonstrate the kindness of Christ? How are you sharing what the Lord has placed in your hands to advance His mission through simple hospitality and genuine friendship? Who is the Lord placing in your life that you need to invite into your home?
Some of you are probably familiar with Hugh Halter and his work in Alton, IL. Hugh and his family moved to Alton several years ago and began praying and seeking the Lord. They discovered that the Lord was ahead of them. God led a community member to give them the former federal Post Office building in the heart of the community. Today this space is known as the Post Commons and serves as the living room of the community with a coffee bar, brunch kitchen, and event center. The basement of the building houses the Lantern Network (https://commonthread.org/lantern-network) as well as shared office space committed to serving the citizens of Alton in business incubation and personal development. The Lantern Network is a growing missionary community expanding micro-communities throughout Alton. Similar types of movements are happening in places like Birmingham, AL with Common Thread (https:// commonthread.org/), in Tampa, FL with the Tampa Underground (https://www.tampaunderground. com/), or in Louisville, KY with Love City (https:// Maybewww.lovecityinc.org/).yourruralbuilding could become the community center that your local town needs. Perhaps the seldom used classroom space could be repurposed as a free laundromat to meet the needs of the neighborhood around your building. Maybe your fellowship hall could also serve as a community youth center for the young people in your town. How could your congregation reimagine how you use your space to embrace God’s mission of loving the people of your community? How do we Rethink All of our Space as the Body of Christ? You might notice I’ve been careful to refer to our gathering places as the building or facility. I know it is common practice to refer to such buildings as the church, but we know that it’s people who make up the church. We may gather in buildings or bethels, but the people are the church. With that in mind, I believe it’s crucial to consider all the resources of the local church. If I am the church, then it stands to reason that everything that belongs to me also belongs to the church. How am I rethinking what the Lord has placed in my hand and the space He’s given me to steward?
It’s exciting to see how the Spirit of God is moving across the North American Church and inspiring congregations and Jesus followers to rethink their space to the glory of God! In countless communities across the U.S., some congregations are reimagining their space and reinvigorating their ministry efforts through fresh expressions like Dinner Church (https://dinnerchurch.com/).
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I’m more and more convinced that the front doors of our church bethels now begin in our living rooms, kitchen tables, and backyards. How do we leverage our homes for God’s redemptive purposes?
which you could leverage this space for mission that serves the local community?
What if our churches became the places where we serve God by serving others, and what if our homes became the front doors of our communities of faith?
Neil Cole, in his book “Organic Church,” defines ‘missional church’ as anything that meets the following three criteria::
Director of Strategy & Leadership
Inthe world of church leadership, we throw around a lot of terms and phrases like ‘missional expression,’ or ‘operational capacity’ and one hundred other words that certainly mean something, but it’s not always clear what. It is true that changing our language can be revolutionary in helping us break out of old ways of thinking. New words and new definitions of old worlds can provide a fresh perspective. Yet, I worry that even savvy and intelligent church leaders are still just as likely to get lost in the terminology as they are to be helped by it. We can slap “missional” in front of any word we want, but is it helpful? In that spirit, the following article will help you to answer some fundamental questions about your church and your church's mission. First, is your church really a missional church? We provide three definitions that might help you creatively think through that. Second, if your church is missional, is the mission itself Biblical? Again, we provide three questions to ask as a litmus test for your church’s mission.
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Bringing Missional Clarity
The Global Advocate 7
When we think of mission, perhaps we also think of the risks. The old adage is true that whatever the risks of mission, it is far riskier not to be missional. Alan Hirsch and Tim Catchim, in their book “The Permanent Revolution,” observed that when risk aversion becomes a core tenant of an organization, destruction of that organization tends to follow. Even more so for the church. “Christian spirituality requires that we find ourselves by giving ourselves away, that we risk loving until it hurts us, and that we engage in the risky enterprise of mission.” The Christian journey is a perpetual risk of everything temporary for the certainty of the eternal. We hope that by presenting criteria for a missional church and asking simple questions about the nature of your mission, we have provided tools to evaluate your church's mission. For now, we can see only a reflection of heaven’s perfection in our missional expressions here on earth. But in the end, “three remain: faith, hope and love.” Against such a church, “the gates of hell shall not prevail.” These elements can help determine if a church is missional, that is, if it has organic potential to bring other disciples into the mission and take ground for the Kingdom of God. Next, we ask: how does one determine if the mission is biblical?
Neil continues later in “Organic Church” by exploring the DNA of all Spirit-filled church missions: faith, hope, and love.
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by Ben Tobias, Director of Global
Reach New Life in an Old School
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About 2011, the KCOG embarked on evaluating the possibility of adding a gym, kitchen, and a couple of classrooms to the church located in Kingwood, PA. Knowing that the former Kingwood Elementary School was for sale, the KCOG toured the school building, but at the time, the group thought the building had too many challenges for us to tackle. The building was soon sold to a land developer who was visiting his hometown near Confluence but lived in the state of Washington. Over the next three years, the KCOG building committee reviewed over 50 sets of plans/options for adding on to the existing church building. Early in 2014, a set of preliminary architectural drawings were made, which included an estimated building cost of around $2.5 million. A congregational meeting was held, and it was approved to begin to raise a portion of the money before proceeding with any aspect of construc. Within the week following the decision to begin raising money, the land developer, who had not been able to turn the building for a profit and knew nothing about the KCOG wanting to expand, offered the building to the KCOG free of charge if we paid the back taxes. The KCOG toured the building again, and while the same challenges existed, they looked much smaller.
he Kingwood Elementary School provided elementary education for many generations of students near the village of Kingwood, PA, and was a community fixture until its closing in 2010. For an alum like me (Ben Tobias), it was sad to see an empty building that was so full of memories, and I wondered what would become of it. Fast forward to today, and the building is brimming with life again – although not as a school. I’ve asked leaders at the Kingwood Church of God to share some reflections about what has happened in recent years. Please share how the Lord led the Kingwood Church of God to take ownership of the Kingwood Elementary School.
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The whole building! The roof leaked in many places, mold was growing throughout the building, many walls had no insulation, what little insulation originally in the ceiling was poorly installed with no insulation in many places, a mammoth heating system that we were told required 18,000 gallons of propane to keep the building heated, windows that would not seal tightly, etc., etc.
Servant Leadership: God is the focal point at KCOG and is with us in everything we do, including the work/activities at the Fellowship Center. God provided many different individuals with varying talents from within the KCOG to lead and work with volunteers to complete the many tasks in a timely manner.
How did God provide in resources and servant leadership?
Resources: God provided 135 different individuals from the church and community to get the building ready to use. On average, there were 28 people that worked every Thursday and Saturday through the winter of 2014-2015, donating 3,372 documented man-hours. People came from throughout the community to help get the building ready for occupancy, bonding people in Christian love.
What were the biggest challenges?
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We were trained on the heating system by “field experts” at no charge.
Not only does the KCOG congregation have many alumni from the former school, but we are also blessed with former Teachers, Administration, Cafeteria staff, Janitorial staff and Clerical staff all of whom were able to provide important information that helped with the building transformation.
The Global Advocate 13
When specialty parts were needed to make repairs or bring the building to code, they appeared on sites such as eBay and Craigslist and were purchased for a fraction of their value, with large items appearing locally for easy pick up. Most of the businesses (some in other parts of the country) provided materials at greatly reduced costs once they knew what the materials were being used for.
There were numerous financial donations received from former alumni and teachers not associated with the KCOG, and because of all the volunteer labor and good stewardship of our finances, we were able to open the building debt free.
A sales engineer came to Kingwood from Virginia to “go over” the dishwasher that was left in the building to ensure it was working correctly and left us several hundred dollars worth of spare parts, all at no charge.
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What are your dreams for the future?
Our Wednesday evening programs for both youth and adults have moved to the facility. While starting as a way to raise funds, the Sunday lunches and dinners cooked at the facility have become a means for the community to come together socially in a Christian atmosphere. We also offer free meals to local shut-ins and retired folks several times a year, providing them a Christian social atmosphere or a quick visit. The Fellowship Center is great for Bible School, and the electronic sign allows Christian-type messages to be seen by all that pass by. The facility is also used by many local groups, reunions, and sports teams, knowing and respecting that the facility is part of the KCOG.
What are some of the ways the church has used the facility for ministry?
Our prayer is that the facility will be used in a way that “plants the seed” of Salvation through Jesus Christ.
ACTSAdvancingChristThrough Service ACTS TEAMS are inter-generational, short-term mission trips designed to increase one’s awareness of God and how He is at work in the world. 2023 Locations
DominicanT Republic
We regret to notify you that Pastor Brigida passed away earlier last month after suffering from an open wound in her stomach that would not heal. Latino Ministries and all the Latino churches are lamenting this loss. She lived a life for the Lord and spent her days church planting. Caleb and Christina were able to visit her quite frequently in the weeks leading up to her passing while also visiting with family and church members. Her vision and efforts have been honored in that the church continues on! This was her one concern. She knew death was approaching and was already preparing for the moment. She was at peace with this. The congregation recently purchased land with the help of Conference church donations and has since begun construction (pictured above). The base is complete and is able to support up to three levels. Praise the Lord for this!
16 September/October 2022 Global Reach Updates
hank you for partnering with our friends and fields in Global Reach. Your prayers and gifts help sustain and encourage them as they minister to communities and the downtrodden in their parts of the world. Please celebrate the following updates from some of the Global Reach fields. These updates are provided by various staff from the fields of ministry.
Bangladesh
USA Latino Sanidad Divina Church (Divine Healing) is preparing leaders. Every Tuesday, they hold leadership classes in hopes that leaders will rise up and be sent out to begin a new work. The church also continues to explore an opportunity in Honduras through a local church member who travels to minister there. Sanidad Divina helps support the work in Honduras on a monthly basis. Caleb Acosta visited Honduras earlier this year and is planning a second visit for 2023. Caleb and Christina Acosta are currently in the process of visiting each of the Latino Ministry GR countries to see how things are going and to encourage them.
The Mission needs to replace their 17-yearold microbus at our Khanjanpur clinic. It is an invaluable tool necessary for the daily function of many ministry activities. The new vehicle will be a quality commercial passenger van built to operate in the extreme weather conditions and rugged roads of Bangladesh. The total cost is approximately $33,000. Donors have given about $11,000 so far, and we are praying to be able to raise the full amount by early October. We have been blessed by a generous donor who will match funds to help Bangladesh reach their goal of replacing this microbus. Please consider supporting the Bangladesh Mission by giving towards this microbus. Please give to GR2705-microbus. The Mission was recently able to provide bicycles to some of our pastors, which will help them cover more area as they minister.
An ACTS Team with seven participants traveled to Argentina from June 11-19. This is the first ACTS team to Argentina since the mission work began, and it was a good trip for the team and the Argentina field. Pray for the continued work in this specific mission field as it is the newest in Latino Ministries. Earlier this month, Pastor Maria retired from her full-time employment at the local police department. She is still very much involved with the work of the department in reaching out to the community. She meets with them once a week and will be hosting outreach opportunities alongside the police department for the work in Norberto de La Riestra. For this, she is recognized as the Community Liaison to the local police agency.
The summer season has started strong! In early May, a team from Eastern Pennsylvania and Maryland came out to continue working on the church’s roof. It was an incredibly windy week, but they worked hard and accomplished so much despite the wind. God is so good! Then, a team from Bethel University (IN) came to do health and education clinics at Gamerco and Hooghan Nizhoni. They also gave Gamerco’s playground a facelift and helped get Broken Arrow Bible Ranch (a local church camp) ready for the summer camping season. We have several more teams coming out this summer. One team is hosting a Summer Arts Program/VBS at Gamerco and another is hosting a VBS at Hooghan Nizhoni. A few teams are coming out to do work projects (fixing houses, updating the playgrounds at both churches, and much more).
Argentina
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Southwest
Please pray that as these teams do the work God has set out for them, they can use every opportunity to share Christ and bring people to know Him!
India India Field Director Samir Singha and Bangladesh Field Director Dr. John Costa traveled to The US to be part of the 2022 CGGC Triennial conference. Pictured at right they greet each other as they arrived at the airport in Washington DC. It was close to three years since they had opportunity to see each other. Samir has reported that the Child Development Center at our main Uluberia campus has officially reopened from lockdown on July 16. They have started back up with about 30 children (some new and some returning). They expect more children to return and many more new ones to join in the coming months. The children miss Charusheela who they affectionately referred to as “Madam.” They are enjoying being together and participating in their various studies and activities. Pray for parents to permit the children to return as fear from the pandemic subsides.
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Thank you for your faithful prayers and support in reaching the lost across the globe. It is making a difference for eternity.
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