We are excited to announce that Pastor Don Snyder of Doubling Gap Church of God was inaugurated into the office of President of the Churches of God, General Conference during Triennial Conference. Below you can watch, listen, or read Pastor Don's inaugural address and challenge to the CGGC. We encourage all our readers and followers, whether your a church leader or someone who simply follows Jesus, to hear Pastor Don's call. "To walk like Jesus, talk like Jesus, live like Jesus, love like Jesus."
As I was preparing for this months ago, I thought I was okay until somebody, it was either Tuesday or Wednesday, so I don't know who you were. It might have been Dave [Odegard], but he said, "You realize that we're celebrating 200 years, which means you have the responsibility of kicking off the next 200."
And that freaked me out.
That was you, wasn't it, Dave? Yeah, it sounds like something [you might have said].
Let's pray. Dear Heavenly Father, we just ask that now during this time, this brief time, that your holy spirit would have full sway, that what is said is received according to your spirit's desire and will to accomplish what you desire it to accomplish. This I pray in Jesus’s name. Amen.
I want to share just a brief encounter that I experienced within a span of about three weeks of each other. Let me give you a little background history. A number of years ago, Pastor Tom Meyers as part of our Pastor and Family Health [Commission] invited me out to just share a meal and share life and stuff like that. But the one thing he did after we were done ordering, he asked the waitress, "We're going to pray over our meal before we start and is there anything we can pray for you about?" So, we got to talking about, "Do you always do that?" He said, "Yes, that's I've begun to do that. It's a way of evangelizing without being in your face. And how many people will reject the opportunity for somebody to pray over you?”
Well, I’ll share with you, my wife and I were headed to a speaking opportunity I had at my back in my hometown. And we stopped at a diner along the way, and I did what I had been doing for years. When the waitress was finished taking her order, I said, "How can we pray for you because we're going to pray over our meal?" And it was like a deer in the headlights. It was obvious that she was uncomfortable with that. And she just said, "I'm fine. I'm okay." Well, after she left, we prayed for her anyway but she was uncomfortable with [being prayed for].
Two weeks after that, I was out with a group and did the same thing. And that waitress responded with, "Wow, that is so weird. You're the second person today who's asked me that. And I have an uncle who's going in for surgery. Would you mind?” Very receptive.
All that we do, all that we are, whether it's through fresh expressions, whether it's through new measures, whether it's what do we call a church, whether it's this personal relationship or developing with others, understand not everybody's going to get it.
And that's okay.
The challenge I want to give you as we look to these next 200 years is real simple. There's one main thing we need to keep in mind. And if we lose sight of this main thing, it doesn't matter how many churches we plant. It doesn't matter what we call a church. We will not accomplish what God has us set forth to accomplish. We cannot. And guess what that main thing is? Because we've heard it all week. All week long, it's been a thread that's run through everything we've done, from our worship time to the reports we heard, to the opportunity we've had to discuss some pretty sensitive issues. The main thing, are you ready for this? I'm serious with this. You take this home and I will guarantee you will find success in kingdom work. Here's the main thing.
Jesus.
Think about it. The gospel flows from Jesus because He is the good news. Each and everyone who is seated here today, if I were to ask you, are you a follower of Jesus Christ? You would say, “Yes”. So here's the challenge that we have as we have proclaimed. We're willing to deny ourselves, to take up our cross daily, and to follow him. Here's what we need to do. We need to do four basic things. If we get these four things right about this main thing, we will succeed in what God has prepared in us to do before time began. You know that from Ephesians 2. We like the first part of that, you know, verses eight and nine, “it's faith and grace.” It's not by works. And we drop off verse 10 because we have works to do. And here's the work that we have to do.
We need to walk like Jesus.
We need to talk like Jesus.
We need to live like Jesus.
And we need to love like Jesus. Period.
That is the main thing. When we lose sight of that main thing, it doesn't matter what great ideas we have about church planting. It doesn't matter what great ideas we have of kind of redefining what church looks like. It doesn't matter because all we've done is develop good social groups, good hanging out time.
I'm a little excited! This has been something that the Holy Spirit has been working in me for a time and as my accountability partner told me, you need to preach what… See, I shouldn't be preaching.
I'm in the boat with you. I don't always walk like Jesus. I'm not always willing to go to that area that he went to. That “a good rabbi would never go through Samaria.” “A good rabbi would never hang out in the home of a tax collector.” “A good rabbi would never…” fill in the blank. He didn't care. Why? Because he was talking the words that his father told him to talk because he was so in communion with his father that he knew what his father had called him to do.
You see, he came as one of us so that we could see how we need to walk, how we need to talk, how we need to live, and how we need to love like him. That's the challenge we have. Whether he tarries for another two days, whether he tarries for another two years or whether he tarries for another 200 years, if we are going to survive as a tribe… let me change that. If we're going to thrive as a tribe, we need to get that main thing right. We need to learn “what does it mean to walk like him.” To go into those areas… a church in a bar? Really?
Yeah, really. Can you see how it was transforming that bar community? Because Jesus has always been about transformation. And when He went there, He talked about life together with the Father. He talked about relationship. He talked about reconciliation. He talked about regeneration. He talked about what it means to be part of the family. and He lived it out. You know what was often His custom during His ministry that we see recorded in the scriptures? “Often, as was His custom, He went out by himself.”
Man, if we do anything without first praying about it, I will guarantee you, we'll get off course in a heartbeat. We will not be following what the spirit is going to lead us into doing. Why? Because we haven't spent time to sit, be still, and know to know God, but then also to know his plan and purpose for you. So, if we're going to walk like Jesus, we're going to talk like Jesus, we're going to live like Jesus, we need to understand how He did those things. And we need to understand how He loved.
He loved His Father. He loved those He was called to minister too because He knew they needed what He had to offer. Do people in your community know that they need what you have to offer? In the relationship that you desire to have with them? Because you want to point them to the relationship that is above all relationships and that's the relationship with God through Jesus Christ.
The Holy Spirit inspired Paul to write these letters to the church at Rome [Romans]. And in that letter, chapter 12, we see this. “Therefore”, so read all of the first 11 chapters, okay? “Therefore, my brothers and sisters, I urge you to offer your body as a living sacrifice.” You know what's the problem with a living sacrifice? And I don't know who, [because] I borrow all my stuff from somebody else, but somebody said, you know, the problem with a living sacrifice, they have a tendency to crawl off the altar. So, the idea is we need to do that almost daily, don't we, brother? “Offer your body as a living sacrifice because this is your reasonable act of service” or it's your reasonable act of worship.
Guess what? When we serve God, we worship God. You cannot worship God and not serve Him. We can’t. And how do we do that? How do we find out what God's will is for our life? How do we find out? Is He calling me to go into that bar community and do that? Is He calling me to the local senior center to have this Bible study? Is He calling me to invite people to potluck at my home once a month and the neighbors and invite? Is He calling me to go into the prisons and take this Fathers on the Move?
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to discern God's will. So, keep the main thing the main thing. It's always been, will always be about Jesus. For us individually, as we engage in this cooperative effort that we have as the Churches of God General Conference, be mindful of this.
Are you or am I walking like Jesus? Am I going to those areas that good Christian wouldn't go to? Okay, let's look at where Jesus went. Are we talking like Him? Are we in our conversations? I'm not telling you to take the Bible and beat them over the head. Look at the way Jesus had a conversation with that Samaritan woman at the well. He started off talking about water. [He] didn't call out her sin. [He] kind of let her run the rabbit trails. But He brought it back to what she needed; that if she drank of the water He was going to offer, she would never thirst again.
Will we live like Jesus? So focused on a relationship with our heavenly Father that we make it a practice to pray regularly seeking His direction, His guidance, His strength, His power, His will for our lives. And will we love like Christ? Because He told us how to demonstrate to others, didn't He? “They will know you are my followers by your love for one another.” And the way that love is demonstrated often the most is when we have those disagreements. Do we come at it in flesh or we come at it in spirit, where we are one body? Yes. All connected through the love we have for Jesus Christ.
The commitment I'm willing to make to you for the next three years is I will be a person who tries to do that on a regular basis. To walk like Jesus, talk like Jesus, live like Jesus, love like Jesus. And I'm here to challenge you to do the same thing. Because if we do that, whatever fresh expressions, whatever new measures, whatever we're led to as far as a community to kind of invest in, and to see if the Holy Spirit can accomplish more than we could ever imagine in our own strength and will. Who will join me on that journey? Will we keep the main thing the main thing? Because if we do that, if we try to keep our focus where our focus needs to be, the next 200 years will be 200 years from now where they can celebrate. “Wow. I don't know what happened, but there seemed to be a turning point in this year of 2025 when something happened and all of a sudden everything just exploded in a good way.”
Are you on board with that? Can we also hold each other accountable? Because Jesus made it clear, if you want to be a follower of mine, you need to deny yourself first. Then you need to take up your cross. And we can have a we can have a discussion about what that means all day long, but here's what I think it means. Take up your faith and actually live it and follow. Don't follow a good teacher.
I think brother Matt would agree with me on this one. God has gifted him in many different ways. As an author, as a as a pastor, as a shepherd, as an evangelist, as all of those things, but I think he would agree with me before you read [Matt’s] book, make sure you know [the Bible]. Because if you really believe that what is in here is really true and believable, you will live it out. The problem that I think we have all too often is we say we believe and then we just go do our own thing. If we really believe what we believe to be real is really real, we will live it out. Amen.
That's a short version. It's a little longer than seven minutes, but it's something I've been wrestling with for months. Keep the main thing the main thing my brothers and sisters. Because I want each and everyone in this room who has professed Christ as their Lord and Savior is willing to say that to hear those words. When you stand before your Lord and Savior. “Well done. Well done, my good faithful servant. Enter into the master's joy.”
Let me pray. Dear heavenly father, may we daily just submit ourselves to your spirit's working. May we remember the words that Paul shared with the Corinthian church. One planted, another watered, but God, you brought the increase. May we never forget that equation. We don't change hearts. You do by the working of your Holy Spirit. You change hearts. You bring the increase. You bring the maturity. You bring growth. So, continue the work that you have begun as you are faithful to your word and you've told us that you will accomplish what you have sent forth to accomplish. Continue to use us in that working out because we desire to be blessed with the opportunity to serve you, our Lord and Savior Jesus. To serve you, our heavenly father. To serve you as you move in us, Holy Spirit, to guide and direct us so that we can be found faithful in the calling you've placed on our lives.
Bless us as a denomination as we seek to be that kind of denomination who is so in tune with the Holy Spirit that we know the direction we should go because we have bathed it in prayer and because we have committed to the main thing of being Jesus and how we live so that we can say as Paul said to the church at Galatia, “for I am crucified with Christ. It is no longer I live but Christ who lives in me.” May we live our lives that reflect that continue to work in us what needs to be worked and to you be all glory, honor and praise. For we pray this in Jesus name as together we say, amen.
CGGC eNews—Vol. 19, No. 31
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