My big, hush-hush project!

[Pastor Gary]

Okay, now I can speak openly, because in a few hours the announcement will be made simultaneously in all O‘ahu COGOP churches.

Starting Sunday, January 6, 2008, the four COGOP congregations on the Island of O‘ahu will meet in joint services each Sunday Morning! This is a huge step of faith that many believe is long overdue.

Two of our churches, one English-language and one Spanish-language, have had some struggles for a while, with people moving away, etc. A third is losing their meeting place to a new development the first week of January. In order to keep them together and encourage the struggling smaller congregations, we will add Windward Worship Center to the mix and all meet together in a centrally located Elementary School cafeteria.

Our leaders are scared, excited, and in great anticipation of God using this new venture to rebuild the small works, encourage those who have grown weary, and build a tighter fellowship among us into the future.

The funds I asked you to pray about last week will be the almost $7,000 in start-up costs needed to secure the location and equip-up for "church in a box." God has already started to provide those funds, and will give us even more than we need -- of that I am confident.

As I said in the announcement handouts, we believe we are walking in God’s direction in God’s timing, with God’s provision.

If you are interested, and want to read the whole announcement insert, you can feel free to download a PDF version in English or Español. (It's a church bulletin format, so to read the text in proper flow, you'll need to print it out and put it back to back and fold in half.)

The rope is the front page, the group photo is center spread.

We still have to come up with some kind of effective name for these services... we don't want them to be WWC+3 -- and "Combined Oahu Church of God of Prophecy Congregations" doesn't exactly roll trippingly off the tongue.

[Gerald Creasy]

Both PDFs are Spanish?

[Pastor Gary]

Both PDFs are Spanish?

No, just a lousy link! Fixed -- try again...

[DeWayneTN]

That sounds cool! How is it not a merge? Do you anticipate going back to separate services again or will you do split into the church groups for small sessions?

[Pastor Gary]

That sounds cool! How is it not a merge? Do you anticipate going back to separate services again or will you do split into the church groups for small sessions?

It is not a merge because:
• All the Pastors remain in their positions as Pastors
• No Properties are being sold or repurposed
• The finances of the individual churches will not be merged (We are working out the logistics of that this week.)
• It is fairly easy to combine groups into a joint worship service, but far more difficult to merge the individual cultures and personalities of those churches into a cohesive new single group. (On this island, like in some large cities, people have deep ties to their specific communities... they self-identify as "West-siders" or "Windward" or the like, and doing anything that seems to want them to lose those treasured identities would meet with strong resistance and, I suspect, failure. It is an area in which a leader is wise to walk softly and proceed with extreme caution.)

[paul]

WOW ! A leader who see's themselve as one who cares for those he oversee's and not just a position.

Be careful, it just might catch on. All kiding aside. I think it is a great approach and for all the right reason you mentioned.

[Pastor Gary]

WOW ! A leader who see's themselve as one who cares for those he oversee's and not just a position.

I love these people, indeed. I have been in Hawaii 25 years or so, and they took me in, helped me assimilate into the culture, loved me when I was pretty unlovable, encouraged my spiritual growth and progress, and accepted me as a leader. They are my spiritual ohana. I think the love is mutual.

Be careful, it just might catch on.

I think it has already caught on in many places. I received encouragement in my journey into state/national leadership from people like E.C. McKinley, Steve Gilmer, Ken Baker, Bubba Cardin -- all of whom have leadership characteristics I admire and want to emulate. (And that is not an exhaustive list...)

All kiding aside. I think it is a great approach and for all the right reason you mentioned.

I think it is a great approach because I really feel God in it... last night we had a very elegant Christmas Party at the Officers' Club of the Marine Base in Kaneohe, with about 80 in attendance, and there was a palpable air of unity, excitement and expectancy in the room. All our Oahu pastors were there, and all the core leadership + a lot of members and a few first-timers! There was not a syllable of hesitation of negative thought about the coming-together -- everyone I spoke to said it was WONDERFUL news, they were excited about it, and "it's about time!"

As far as other areas, it is none of my business, but in places where we have 10 COGOP churches in a 10 mile radius, it would seem to me to be a good idea to try to bring some of those small, struggling groups together in some form or the other for their mutual good.

[PastorDaniel]

We still have to come up with some kind of effective name for these services... we don't want them to be WWC+3 -- and "Combined Oahu Church of God of Prophecy Congregations" doesn't exactly roll trippingly off the tongue.

Well...each church is still doing their own outreach and basically operating as their own church....so they'll invite people to THEIR church.

So you could just call it "The Fellowship" or "The Gathering" and the official name could be what it already is.... the Oahu Church of God of Prophecy.

Technically the mentality I've been taught is that we are "one church...many locations", but I know this is not realistic in most areas. Especially mine.

[paul]

The gahtering of the "GSB"

[Pastor Gary]

The gahtering of the "GSB"

Can't you just see it? Me, standing in front of a big huge "Great Speckled Bird" banner?

[free]

PG...I don't know anything about Hawaii but from the map this looks like a great location for a church. I'll definately be praying for God's continued blessing.

One question, will you be speaking at each service or will you rotate that responsability among the other pastors?

[Pastor Gary]

PG...I don't know anything about Hawaii but from the map this looks like a great location for a church. I'll definately be praying for God's continued blessing.

It would seem so. It is pretty centrally located to the population concentration.

One question, will you be speaking at each service or will you rotate that responsability among the other pastors?

We are sort of easing into this, but at first, I will be the weekly speaker for a few reasons:
• We don't want newcomers to be confused by a different face up front each week while we are establishing our presence and identity in the new area
• I intend to model for the other leaders ways of preaching/teaching with which they are not familiar, and which has worked effectively for my church in attracting and keeping new people.
• I preach expository series that connect from week to week and build upon one anther, and at least my congregation has come to love that and expect it... if I put somebody up front who jumps all over the Bible, preaches strictly topical messages, etc., they will be disappointed.
• I will be traveling to Fuller in February for two weeks of on-campus classes, and will have one (or more) of the other Pastors up front for those two services.

[Mike Vande]

Out of curiousity, are the three churches pretty similar in style and approach, or is that a challenge to overcome?

[free]

Sounds like a great plan PG...They did something similiar to this in Philadephia, PA a few years back when Cervin McKinnon was the overseer...I had already left the state and don't know all of the specific details but they combined several city churches into one...Had a "lead pastor" and several "area pastors" from what I understand.

It seemed to have worked well for them.

[Pastor Gary]

Out of curiousity, are the three churches pretty similar in style and approach, or is that a challenge to overcome?

Great question, Mike -- they as different as can be!

It will be a major challenge to blend the diverse groups. Two of the groups will be pretty easy to blend (the two larger ones) because there's a lot of comaraderie and relational links between them. The other two are a little more difficult, but we will manage.