Sis Janice Gaddis, Pastor Teron Gaddis, Rev. Ray Owens
What an amazing weekend I shared with an innovative Pastor and a powerful Church in the Greater Bethel Family of Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. Pastor Gaddis' commitment to Preaching/Teaching once again shows me that real, sustained and effective church growth is not done through Gadgets or Gimmicks but is through the power of God.
I have shared with this church family on the second Sunday in December for the Pastor's Aid Day for almost 8 years now. I started going when Pastor Woodberry missed a connecting flight from Bakersfield coming back from his vacation and I had to cover. After that Pastor Gaddis told Doc, stay on vacation, I can use you for another area of ministry and use Ray in this spot. Since I am no longer at Mt. Olive, it would have been very easy for Pastor Gaddis to say out of sight, out of mind but he thought enough of this preacher to bring me back to Oklahoma (not home as South Bend is my home now).
Many of the challenges I face here in South Bend and at Macedonia, Pastor Gaddis has already faced. A church with great older adults and loads of babies but a missing generation in young adults. Pastor Gaddis went off grid from the normal traditions of the church, his church motto is that they do church beyond the box, so he went after the unchurched. To see what God has blessed him with now knowing what he started with is a testimony to the faithfulness of God and the power of preaching and planning.
They are building Phase 1 of their new sanctuary and should be in by May. We pray God's choicest blessings on this ministry and can't wait for our Marriage conference in 2009 when the Gaddis family will come to South Bend and bless not only my church but this community.
Looking at his church, I saw a quick glimpse of what Mark 2:1-12 describes. I saw
Shared Service. Everyone had their place, their position, their point, their "pole" if you will. I shouted when I was watching his church because I knew I was coming back home and preaching what the Lord was birthing into me.
Many people want to "Give" the Pastor the vision and foolishly many uncalled preachers have accepted some person's counterfeit vision instead of asking God for a vision for their church. God
Conceives the Vision, then he
Creates the Vision in the Pastor and that vision
Consumes the Pastor with a burning to
Cast the Vision, every sermon, every Bible Study, every business meeting,
Cast the Vision until the people
Catch the Vision and
Correlate the Vision with their
Conduct.
That's Mark 2. It's Shared Service. We have to help people who can't get themselves to Jesus. If we get them to Jesus, they can be healed but they have no motion, no movement, no manner to get themselves to Jesus. We are waiting for people to come to our churches who have no way of getting there in the first place. Yes they have transportation , yes they know what time service is but their condition has rendered them without movement.
Shared Service teaches us that there has to be a:
Right Method: Work together, Man your end of the pole, Some Carry, Some Climb, Some Cut
Righteous Message: Faith to Listen, Favor to Look upon, Forgiveness to Look past
Revealing Majesty: Transitional Position( Sins forgiven), a Transformative Posture( Get up) a Transcendental Praise, (We have never seen anything like this!)
Thanks to Macedonia for allowing me to go to Greater Bethel, thanks to Pastor Gaddis for allowing me to come and thanks to Pastor Staples for preaching the Word of God in my stead encouraging, edifying and educating the Body of Christ like only he can.
I am ready to run!
Owens
