I want to take the time to highlight two important events from this week. First, the Administrative Council of the CGGC met this week for their bi-annual meeting to do the business of the denomination. Second, our University of Findlay had its campus day of prayer. UF Students, faculty, and staff gathered together to pray at UF’s bell tower throughout the day. Both events brought me hope, and both events reminded me that many, many people are earnestly working for the Lord to bring about a better tomorrow.
The Administrative Council for the Churches of God just had their latest meeting on Tuesday and Wednesday of this week. Regional Directors, pastors, council members, university and seminary presidents joined our staff to present updated reports about what is happening all across the CGGC.
Overall, this Ad Council meeting was productive, and a feeling of mutual understanding and appreciation presided over the room. It’s my experience that when important topics come up, there is always a chance for emotions to get elevated or tensions to rise. Likewise, I don’t begrudge anyone who expresses frustration when a meeting gets bogged down in minutia for hours. Yet, generally speaking, this session went smooth and even when important topics were being reported on the floor, calm and humble heads prevailed.
The morning devotions were particularly meaningful as the focus was on how fear, anxiety, and worry are plaguing our culture. One Ad Council member declared that, “From this body, we need to take the posture of prayer and listening, not modeling worrying, not anxiety, not fear.” Therefore, the Ad Council spent a lot of time in prayer, and praying in a variety of ways, corporately, individually, and in smaller groups. I was encouraged by this recognition of God’s sovereignty. Surely, the Ad Council is put together to lead and serve the denomination, but we need reminded that it’s only through God’s power and direction that we move and thrive.
The Ad Council of the CGGC is cleareyed about the challenges that lie before them, and has put together a variety of well laid plans to address those challenges. For instance, the Great Lakes Conference recently announced their intention to plant a church in every county seat in Ohio and Michigan. It’s about as ambitious as plans can be achieved when we start start with prayer to our sovereign Lord for His inspiration, direction, and power. Without that, the best laid plans are fruitless.
That’s why, for a large portion of two days, the leaders of the CGGC were in deep prayer for our pastors, disciples, up and coming leaders, and the variety of ministries we have across the CGGC. We believe God is on the move, and we’re eager to make an impact for the kingdom.
That impact is going to look different everywhere we go. Like in the Western Region where a church has spung up in a bar. It’s not orthodox, but they’ve just reported their first baptism. “It may not look like a church,” said Regional Director Kendall Hughes, “but Jesus is here.”
This Thursday was also the University of Findlay’s Campus Day of Prayer. Led by Campus Ministries, students, faculty, and staff met under the belltower throughout the day to pray for the campus, meanwhile, a box was placed out for people to submit private prayer requests.
This was the 14th annual Campus Day of Prayer. Having started in 2010, the event stretches across the whole day, starting at 8 a.m. and ending at 9 p.m.. It was immediately followed by an outdoor worship service that Campus Ministries facilitates called Revive where as many as 250 students attend every week.
UF’s campus is a diverse community. Students come from all over the world, and many of them aren’t Christian. Students have the ability to create their own student government organizations that sometimes represent ideas that make Christians uncomfortable, and which generate controversy. But it’s also a campus, grounded in Christian faith, that has a historic church on it’s campus, and a seminary in it’s buildings, and a vibrant Christian community led by it’s students.
UF’s Christian community walks the fine balance of “in the world, but not of the world”, and I was personally grateful to worship and pray last night alongside young men and women, on fire for God, eager to help their peers meet Jesus.
You can read more about what is happening on campus in our recent issue of The Global Advocate where we interviewed UF President Dr. Fell, learned more about the upcoming merger, and an Iranian student who found Jesus on campus.
CGGC eNews—Vol. 18, No. 39
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