STAR - Fall 19

Putting religious and spiritual beliefs aside, no one in history has been discussed more, worshipped more, had more songs and books written about and inspired more artwork than Jesus Christ. He also created one of the world's most sustained organizations (the church). So, Jesus was certainly a leader from whom lessons can be learned and applied today. Here are four powerful leadership lessons: Great leaders lead from the inside out. Jesus focused on personal leadership first-matters of character. At the core of these matters of character is integrity. Without integrity, no one will follow you, and if no one is following you, you are not leading.

Leadership is truly an inside job. Your leadership skills will only take you as far as your character will allow. Jesus had a pure heart and unfailing character. The more you work on your heart and your character, the more others will want to follow you.

Great leaders are great storytellers. Jesus' stories have certainly withstood the test of time. His preferred storytelling style was the parable. Stories are richer, more powerful and longer-lasting than directives or instructions. Look at your own life for stories that have relevant messages for your team... we all have them. Turn your stories into coaching tools for future leaders to build your leadership legacy.

Great leaders are great servants. Jesus washed the feet of his disciples even during his most trying time. Great leaders today see themselves as serving their teams--equipping, encouraging and coaching them to realize their potential. Leadership is about others, not you.

Great leaders balance conviction with compassion. Jesus held strong convictions and values while still showing tremendous compassion to others who did not share these same convictions.

Remember, you don't have to be great to get started, but you have to get started to be great.

The Difference Between Samuel and Saul!!!

Samuel was an organic “king.” He had no title; he had no official role.

People needed him, but he was not the official anything!

Saul, on the other hand, was an assigned or elected “king”—which GOD said was an abomination! Saul was the official, titled guy-incharge. Bad News!

Samuel “leadership” is the only Kingdom, the only kind of Church where JESUS truly can remain King, rather than sharing His Glory and His Headship with mere men!

If there’s one common characteristic of growing churches and their leaders these days, it’s passion. Passionate leadership is so much more contagious than passionless leadership. And passion is a key characteristic of leaders who are making a big impact with millennials.

When it comes to reaching the next generation, passion beats polish, because passion reveals the heart behind the ministry. Polish doesn’t always do this. The biggest differentiator between a passion that resonates and can be sustained over a long period of time, and the kind of passion that doesn’t resonate is the motive behind the passion.

Motive answers two questions: • Why are you passionate?

• What are you actually passionate about?

Here are 5 kinds of passion that can make or break your leadership.

Three of them will eventually break you (or at least stunt your potential). Two will make you.

1. YOU’RE PASSIONATE BECAUSE YOU WANT TO BE BETTER THAN SOMEONE ELSE Leaders who have to be better than others suffer from at least four problems.

The first problem? It’s you. If you always have to be the star, you’ll always play in a small universe. In fact, you will intentionally keep the universe small because you’re too insecure to spend time with leaders and organizations who are bigger or brighter than you. Bad move on about a thousand levels.

Second, you’ll never surround yourself with truly great leaders.

They’ll sniff out your insecurity and won’t stick around long.

Third, you will never realize your potential as a leader or, even more importantly, the potential of your church because your reference point is something bad, and not your true potential.

Finally, there’s a good chance someone better than you will come along.

3

2. YOU’RE PASSIONATE BECAUSE YOU’RE THE LEADER If you notice yourself always being the most passionate about something when you’re leading it, it could be a sign that your leadership is all about you.

And while people follow leaders, most people don’t actually follow a leader for the leader’s sake. You follow a leader for the mission’s sake (see below).

A great motive check for leaders is simply this: can you get excited about being a part of something that you’re not leading?

3. YOU’RE PASSIONATE BECAUSE IT’S YOUR IDEA This is related to #2 above, but a bit different. Sometimes you’re not leading the initiative, but you’re excited about the innovation because it’s your idea that’s taking flight.

The best leaders are always able to give voice to ideas they didn’t develop themselves.

4. YOU’RE PASSIONATE ABOUT THE MISSION A mission inspires because it’s always bigger than any one person.

In the case of the church, the mission is both timeless and powerful.

It’s the same mission that has been around 2000 years, and it’s always bigger than you, bigger than your congregation and bigger than your church.

5. YOUR PASSION IS CHRIST-FOCUSED I think the ultimate motivation for passion in a Christian leader is a Christ-focused passion.

Christ-focused leadership is also radically counter-cultural. In a world (and sometimes in a church-world) utterly obsessed with self, pointing to Jesus and letting your motivation be from him is a breath of fresh leadership air. And it’s what our hearts long for most.

How do you know your passion is Christ-focused (and even Christfueled)?

Well, you’ve given up comparing yourself with others. You’ve gotten over yourself and your commitment to your team is bigger than your commitment to your own ideas. And while your motivation is for the mission, you realize that at the heart of the church’s mission is Jesus.

He’s the only one who makes a difference, and the only one with any power. And he’s the motivation and fuel for what you do.

Tim R. Barker

It was approximately 2 years ago that the Holy Spirit was moving me to respond to the issue of sexual exploitation and abuse in the church and in our communities. It seemed as if every email I received and every one who came by the office had a burden with a different aspect of this very serious issue.

I put together a round table of those who had communicated with me and we came together to discuss the issues and to discuss how as a district we should respond. We then had a report on the issue given to us at the 2018 General Presbytery Meeting in Houston, Texas.

Some of the statements from the GP Proposed Draft: “We are deeply troubled at the sexual violence, harassment and abuse of women in American culture, including the church. We decry the abuse of power and the flood of violence against women and children in families, the work place, and, yes, even in churches.

We mourn every victim. Sexual exploitation and abuse are the most intimate forms of injustice, one that not only violates the body but wounds the deepest places in the soul. As followers of Jesus who proclaim that the Kingdom of God ushers in redemption and healing for both victims and exploiters, we cannot remain silent.

Christ himself would not remain silent, nor can we.”

“God is not silent about His love for all His creation. He demands justice. He charges His people to be a voice for those who cannot speak for themselves. He mandates His Church proclaim His Liberating Truth. We are to engage the world as bearers of grace, forgiveness and freedom.”

The proposal continues by stressing our commitment as Assemblies of God leaders to live out God’s Kingdom principles in every area of our life and reaffirm our commitment in this area of sexual hurt, abuse and exploitation to bring justice, accountability, healing and restoration for both the victim and perpetrator.

Thus, during these last 2 years our District’s Abuse Awareness Seminar came to life. We have put together a wonderful panel of speakers who will help us with equipping our churches, both clergy and laity, to be more prepared in our response to those who have been through the horrible nightmare of abuse.

The Abuse Awareness seminar will be Saturday October 19, 2019 @ First Assembly of God, Humble, 9am - 5pm. There is no charge but a love offering will be received. Each session will be recorded 6

for later viewing on our district website but due to the sensitive nature of each of our sessions they will not be live-streamed. These sessions will also serve as this year’s Advanced Ministers Training (AMT) for those who are working towards ordination. We are asking that you register online at stxag.org if you will be attending the seminar. Childcare will be available for ages 3 months to 5 years.

Registration required for childcare.

Seminar Speakers Rev. Don K. Wiehe The Assemblies of God Response Rev’s. Kirk & Stephanie Clawson Dispelling the myths of pornography Rev. Valarie Goff 101 Human Trafficking Training Dr. Dolly Thomas A Professional Counselor’s Response Rev. Deborah Prihoda Abuse in the Parsonage Rev. Jaime Roever Strength & Weakness Dr. Harry Thomassen Protection Against Grooming Dr. Kimberly Stephens A Legal Response I hope that you and team can join us for our 2019 Abuse Awareness Seminar. Thank you so much for your ministry and for all you do to advance God’s Kingdom here on earth.

Your Fellow Servant, Pastor Don

Ministers & Churches Changes and Updates New Certified

Maame Twumasi

Grace Weng

New License

Vincent Collier

Upgraded to License Michael Vogel Randel Baird

William Lester Kevin Guthrie

James Millspaugh

Reinstate

David K. Brown

Transfers in

Leonel Benavides – Central Pacific Ministry Network Cody East – Louisiana Frankie Hernandez – North Texas Yohannan Mathew – Illinois District

Transfers Out

Connor Anderson – New York District Ralph Dan Ewing – North Texas Jeffrey Gravis – Louisiana District Christopher Hundl – North Texas

James Mills – North Texas Theresa Peschke – North Texas District Kelly Ward – Southern Missouri

Joshua Lowrance – West Texas James Millspaugh – Southern Missouri Eric Starks – Peninsular Florida

New PAC Churches Victory Faith Center, Laredo – Parent Church: New Life Church, Laredo Pan De Vida, Laredo – Parent Church: New Life Church, Laredo

8

2019 Schedule Date

Level 1 Courses (Certified) Level 2 Courses (License)

Level 3 Courses (Ordained)

September 7

9:30AM - 12:00PM THE142 AG History, Missions & Governance

THE311 Prayer & Worship

October 5 November 2

MIN251 Effective Leadership

1:30PM - 3:30PM MIN171 Spirit Empowered Church MIN181 MIN281 MIN381 Relationships & Ethics in Conflict Management for Pastoral Ministry Ministry Church Leaders BIB114 Christ in the Synoptic Gospels

THE211 BIB313 Introduction to Theology Corinthian Correspondence

Hosted at New Life Church on Northpark, 4032 Northpark, Kingwood, 77345 All students must RSVP 2 weeks prior to each class.

9

In this edition we want to shine the spotlight on New Beginnnings Assembly of God in Evadale.

I first met Jeff & Julie Gravis in 1996 when Beth and I were on staff at Cathedral in the Pines in Beaumont. The Gravis’s were volunteers at the church and were our campus pastors at Lamar University. In 1999 God called them to a patch of woods in East Texas to work and raise a family. It became more than just raising a family, because it was the beginning of raising up a Family of God. He and Julie are some of our many South Texas pastoral heroes who have raised up one of our most prosperous churches in the rural town of Evadale.

I hope you enjoy Pastor Jeff’s story and that you also will consider investing in rural South Texas and America. - Don Wiehe

“You don’t want to go to Evadale.” More than once I heard those words as I began the process of planting a church in the fall of 2003.

Of course, they were looking out for my best interest knowing that Evadale had long been considered a burnt over field. Who would want to go to a community of less than 1500 people, with a median income of $30,000 and plant a church? Wouldn’t more populous areas be a more strategic location with a better chance of success?

I was raised in Evadale. My dad and grandfather were both born there. In fact, the first settler on the banks of the Neches River in 1830 when Texas still belonged to Mexico was my great-great-great grandfather, Benjamin Richardson. My roots went deep there. I attended Evadale ISD (along with my siblings and cousins) from kindergarten to 12th grade (all on the same campus) and had dreams of one day leaving the town for good. But God had different plans.

In the fall of 1999, I unexpectedly found myself teaching junior high at Evadale ISD. Someone told me that it broke their heart that I was

giving up the ministry to teach school. I hadn’t left the ministry; I was simply doing what I needed to support my family. I often wonder if people said the same thing to the Apostle Paul as he stitched together tents in order to support himself and his ministry. The fact of the matter was, the job opening at Evadale ISD was going to be the catalyst for New Beginnings Church.

One of the things that I noticed as I began to teach at Evadale was how the demographics had changed in the classroom. Just a few years before it was almost unheard of for any of my classmates to have one or more parents deceased or out of the picture completely.

Shockingly, many of my students had one or both parents who were dead, incarcerated, or simply out of the picture due to drugs and alcohol. In 2003 I learned that yet another person in our community had been murdered due to his involvement in illicit drugs. He had a child that was one of my students. At that moment, I called out to God and said, “When are You going to do something about what is going on in this town?” His response was quick and to the point, “Why don’t you plant a church there?”

Thus, the process of church planting began. I made all the necessary phone calls. My pastor, Sidney Woods, at First Assembly in Silsbee gave my full support to be the parent church. We started with a core group at my home in Silsbee on February 22, 2004 with around 14 adults and ten children, and had our official launch at the Evadale High School Auditorium on March 27, 2004. Through the years God would bless and grow that little group into a strong church.

One of the first things we made a priority was missions. A missionary friend (Greg Jenkins) told me that when he was a pastor he had always wanted to tithe the general income of the church to missions. I thought that was a great idea, and in January of 2005 we started doing just that. A few people were concerned, especially since we didn’t even own land. They said, “Why can’t we do this after we have our church built.” I responded, “If we can’t start now we’ll never do it.” Within the next year land became available and we were able to purchase it and pay it off that year. Today, New Beginnings Church supports over 75 missionaries, projects such as Builders International and One Child Matters, and several evangelists.

For the last three years the church has given over $100,000. To God be all the glory!

Pastoring in your hometown can be challenging. To be sure, I reminded Jesus of the fact that even he had difficulty in Nazareth.

He reminded me of the demoniac of Gadara (Mark 5:1-20). He begged Jesus that he might go with Him. Jesus responded, “Go home to your family and tell them all the great things that the Lord has done for you….” Thankfully, I had never found myself in the same compromised condition of the demoniac, but I could indeed tell my family and friends what great things the Lord had done for me.

Through the years God has truly blessed us. I’ve seen family members come to Christ, as well as many other friends I’ve known for years. Through God’s help when we built our sanctuary in 2007

we were totally debt free two weeks after our first service. Since then we have been able to purchase additional land (15 acres total), and add on to our sanctuary, and build a fellowship building. Thanks to the Lord the church is still completely debt free. On any average Sunday around 175 people are at New Beginnings Church. It is truly wonderful what the Lord has done.

Recently the Lord stirred our heart to transition to another church.

It was probably one of the most difficult decisions of our lives. After 15 years of successful ministry at home, Julie and I were elected as the new lead pastors at the Church of the Cross (Central Assembly of God) in Haughton, LA. The leading of the Lord was unmistakable, God gave many confirmations along the way, and we are excited about this next chapter in our lives. Our two sons (Christopher and Nathaniel) who were six and four when we began our church are now both students at SAGU. We consider them our greatest achievement while in Evadale. We are happy about the new season in all of our lives.

We need great Pentecostal churches in our rural communities. Jesus commands us to go the highways and the hedges. I feel the rural churches are doing hedge ministry. There is nothing glamourous about rural ministry. Chances are you will have to explain to people where your community is located, and they will still look at you inquisitively wondering why you would ever go there. The answer to that is easy, “Because the Lord had need of me there.” In the Parable of the Talents (Matthew 25:14-30) we see that not everyone is given the same amount of responsibility, but all are expected to be faithful.

In the Parable of Workers in the Vineyard (Matthew 20:1-16) we find that regardless of the amount of harvest we bring in, the reward of faithfulness is the same. The Lord of the harvests sees your work, stay faithful, He will bless you!

Jeff Gravis

In over 20 years of ministry experience and in many different ministry contexts, I’ve heard a myriad of excuses why pastors don’t give to missions. Sometimes the excuses become so engrained that even when we could do something for missions, we’ve convinced ourselves that we can’t. Instead of looking for the solutions, we’ve accepted the problem. I’ve listed several excuses below that you might have had at one time or another. But with every problem is a solution and one that we can work together to ensure moves our fellowship forward in a strategy for world-wide evangelism.

1. "They’re raising too much money. I don’t even make that much."

Their assigned budget is way more than their living expenses. It’s their monthly operational budget for their entire ministry (living expenses, outreach materials, church planting supplies, etc.). Imagine a scenario for a moment: when you got elected to a three-year term as pastor of a local church, they expected you to raise the budget for the entire church operations including your salary before you got to preach your first sermon. That will give you an idea of the task missionaries face today.

2. “They call and e-mail too much.”

The easy solution is: answer their call or e-mail the first time. They understand how busy ministry is. After a while, they will assume you didn’t get the message or the e-mail got buried in your inbox. Thus, they will reach out again since they have a budget to raise. Take five minutes out of your day and take their call or respond to their e-mail.

Even if you absolutely can’t make a faith promise or schedule them for a service at that time, missionaries appreciate a “no” now than an empty promise or silence from you. Stop treating missionaries like a nuisance or an interruption. If you’re busy when they call, get their information and call them back. Respect their time and they will respect yours. OR and this is crazy, why don’t you contact our District Missions Directors, Roger & Debbi Audorff (RAudorff.stxag@gmail. com), periodically, get a list of all itinerating missionaries, and contact the missionaries first! They would greatly appreciate you making the first contact. A plus about that is you will get the first pick of dates to have them come speak at your church so it will work for your calendar planning better.

3. “There are too many missionaries.”

As of April 2019, there are estimated to be 7.7 billion people on this planet. We don’t have too many missionaries; the reality is we don’t have nearly enough! In some areas of the world, we have only one missionary family for an entire city of millions of inhabitants. At the current rate of population growth, we need to add hundreds, if not thousands, of missionaries every single year. Otherwise, we will never see the realization of the gospel being preached to all nations.

4. “We had a bad experience with a missionary.”

Don’t let an exception become the rule. 99.999% of missionaries are humble, servant-leaders. They have put their careers on hold, sold all their possessions, moved their families to a foreign country and

culture, all to answer the call of God on their life. The vast majority of us could be earning more money doing something else. Respect them as ministers of the gospel because that’s what they are.

5. “We can’t afford another pledge.”

When we make a faith promise to a missionary, I know it can feel like a burden when the church budget is tight and offerings are down. We might feel like “we can’t afford the missionaries we currently have.”

However, there’s a solution for that as well. Let the missionary come and set out pledge forms for individuals to make personal pledges if they feel moved to do so. You never know what God is doing in the hearts of your church members. God may move on their hearts and start a fire inside their spirits for missions! Also, you don’t have to make any guarantees to a missionary. You can pass the plate after they speak and send to Springfield whatever comes in.

6. “I don’t have enough money to bring in a missionary.”

There are several solutions to this problem, but I’ll give you two.

First, ask a family in your church to let them stay in their home. Many missionaries prefer this over a hotel. It saves the church money and it builds a meaningful relationship. They often prefer home-cooked meals over restaurants, so you can feed them without taking them out for lunch. Second, why can’t a larger church in the area cover the hotel? If we spread the cost around to several churches in the area, then it lessens the impact that one church feels. If you’re bringing in a missionary, ask pastors nearby if they’d like to have the missionary for a service at another time, or to meet them for coffee or lunch.

7. “My people like my preaching.”

Missionaries today are accustomed to handling a “missions window” of 10-15 minutes. They can adequately share their calling and the burden of missions within that time frame. Don’t feel guilty for having them speak in a limited time-frame as opposed to covering the whole service. Many missionaries prefer a missions window. Crafting a sermon for a church can be a difficult task for an outsider. Take your order of service and shorten a couple things to give them some time to share. Sitting in your service that day may be a person whose heart would be stirred by God to answer a missionary call in their own life.

Don’t deny your people the opportunity to have a heart for missions.

If you have a heart for God, then you must have a heart for missions.

I firmly believe you cannot have one without the other. Here’s why: Jesus said the command to “love your neighbor as yourself” was likened to the greatest commandment of all commandments: “Love the Lord your God.” Loving God is worship. Loving your neighbor is missions. There are no greater pillars on which the Church is built than worship and missions. We must be a movement that has these two elements at its very core. We cannot treat missionaries like the enemy or a nuisance. It is disrespectful to them and the Holy Spirit that commissioned them.

Heroes have answered the call to serve; our job is to do all we can to send.

13

Registration is open for the 2020 Senior Summit. Going to be incredible! (Registration link here) I have been privileged to make two trips to the Galápagos Islands. The first was In 2002. Our team of seven would travel by boat visiting all four islands with a resident, sustained population. We were invited on the trip by Greg Venturella, the director of MAPS for AGWM. It was on our second stop on the Island of Isabella, the largest in the Galapagos, that we would visit a site that deeply impacted my understanding of our need, as human beings, for purpose and significance.

The site was a structure built by the inmates of the Isabella penal colony. When we visited, the Ecuadorian prison was long gone. but “The Wall of Tears” was still there. “The Wall of Tears” is 300 feet long and 65 feet at its highest. It was built by the prisoners.

Seth McDonald; Missionary Bill McDonald; Pastor Wilson, San Cristobal Island; Pastor Drexel Brunson; Greg Venturella, Director of MAPS; Wayne Clark

Prisoners would often fall off the wall having fainted from heat exhaustion. Others were killed when collapses in the wall happened.

It’s hard to explain how isolated these prisoners were. Cruel and inhumane is pretty accurate! Many of them gave up on life, had no will to live, and just died. They weren’t sick, or injured. Just had no will to live. For them, life had no purpose!

I found myself, feeling sorry for the prisoners. Yes, they were criminals, paying for what they had done. But they were completely removed from anything with purpose, with the exception of the lesson of discipline for crimes! Most of them would die there!

As I stood at the wall, there was a strange, empty feeling. There was nothing but vegetation and lava for miles around and no sign of human life except that wall! They were 650 miles of Pacific Ocean away from family, hope or purpose. And, the equator runs right through Isabella! Warm and humid 365!

I will not forget that momentary feeling! It was as though I felt their purposelessness.

Yes, that’s an extreme illustration. But, the point, at least for this article, is the power of Purpose. We all need it to make sense of life.

Today needs meaning for me to want to get up! To have purpose is motivating, exciting, it drives us, keeps us focused, adds value to living and on and on this list goes! Without purpose, life makes no sense, has no direction, steals our energy and takes away our “want to”. It’s devastating to try to live without purpose.

As Believers, our purpose is to “glorify God”. We do that through our marriages and family, our engagement in society, our careers and very primarily through our places of service in the church. We are to “let our light shine before others in a way they will see our good works and glorify our Father in heaven”. Matt 5:16.

This is a very important reason Seniors must remain strategically engaged in their local churches. This is why good shepherds must always strive to keep Seniors engaged in their church. Far too many Seniors feel they are of no value any longer when they are actually one of the most valuable assets any church has.

To lose purpose in the church robs Seniors of a critical part of what God wants them to possess. Seniors, stay engaged! It will keep you young!

So, I’ll post this on our FB page. Seniors, or anyone, leave me a note on our FB page about the “Wall of Tears” or the subject of purpose!

Imagine that, our FB Page is “Seniors With Purpose!”

Wayne and Judy Clark The structure, built in the mid 1900’s, is made of lava from a quarry STXAG Seniors With Purpose site some distance from the construction site. Prisoners would have to chisel out blocks of lava, making them suitable for the wall’s construction. Once the block was ready, the prisoner would carry the stone a great distance and place it on the wall. Then repeat the process. The Wall of Tears is a completely useless, pointless and purposeless structure, that separates nothing from nothing.

14

SOUTH TEXAS

Your spare change will go to help missionaries build a community center for the children of Misiones, Argentina. They will learn life skills, receive tutoring, and have a chance to fulfil their dreams.

Please consider giving a special offering to help us reach our goal.

Contact Melissa LeClare mleclare@stxag.org to give. Together we can do more!

It’s More than a Game

Teen Girls Ministries Nov. 9th, 2019 Games, break-out sessions, prizes, food and more Open to young ladies 6th-12th grades Watch for more details!

Melissa LeClare mleclare@stxag.org

National Girls Ministries Leadership Development Conference September 20-21, 2019 Friday 6:00pm-9:00pm Saturday 9:00am-3:30pm Preconference Workshop - $12 Including Children with Disabilities Friday 3:00pm-5:00pm First Assembly of God 13435 West Ave. San Antonio, TX 78216

Register at: https://agusa.brushfire.com/girls /453799 For more information, visit: NGM.ag.org/Leaders/Training Questions? Email us at: ngm@ag.org

Conference Fee: $25 Includes lunch on Saturday & Girls Ministries lanyard Rate will increase to $40 on September 6, 2019

Shooting Sports Day Sept 7

Ranger Kids Day Camp Sept 7

Fall

Events stxroyalrangers.com

Sept 28

Charity Golf Tournament

Nov 15-17

Encounter Fall Camp