The fifth IPHC Core Value is, \u201cWe Prayerfully Value All Generations.\u201d Drawing upon Psalm 100:5, over the course of this year we will discover what the Word of God says to us about our relationships across generations. IPHC Discipleship Ministries, led by Bishop Tommy McGhee, will be leading us in this life journey.<\/p>\n
As of 2018, the generation that Tom Brokaw called \u201cthe greatest generation,\u201d is quickly moving into the sunset of history. This is the generation that survived the Great Depression and fought in World War II and the Korean War.<\/p>\n
The Baby Boomer generation, born between 1946\u20131964, is reaching retirement age at the pace of ten thousand a day. The strains this is putting on health care and Social Security will have profound budgetary consequences over the coming decades. Younger generations, their numbers in the USA decimated by at least 60 million through abortion on demand, besides wars and natural deaths, will face higher taxes to take care of our aging population.<\/p>\n
If not for immigration, the population crisis in the United States would be even more severe. Twenty years from now when younger generations control state and national political institutions, they may decide their elders are not worth the costs.<\/p>\n
Today one can hardly examine a magazine, blog or podcast without hearing of millennials and Generation Z. We feverishly try to find ways to understand one another across multiple dividing lines of generation, race, culture, music, language and even gender.<\/p>\n
This year is an opportunity for the church to speak truth, grace and love to our society about generations. God is always at work in every generation. He is the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis 28:13; 31:24; 35:12).<\/p>\n
Recently I was in Barranquilla, Col\u00f3mbia, for the thirty-fifth anniversary of Way, Truth, and Life Church. It was the thirtieth anniversary of the church becoming part of the IPHC.<\/p>\n
The founding pastor, Alvaro Castro, died in July 2017. His son, Emmanuel College graduate Sergio Castro, has assumed the leadership of the local church and currently leads the eleven congregations that make up the IPHC in northeast Col\u00f3mbia.<\/p>\n
At the celebration anniversary dinner attended by over two hundred people, I observed the young and old worshipping, eating and fellowshipping together. I asked Sergio about the generational diversity and he replied, \u201cWe are intentional about being different. We are a multi-generational church; it\u2019s what we do.\u201d He was right, and you could see it in the crowd.<\/p>\n
The passing of his father, and Sergio\u2019s appointment as pastor of the local congregation as well as a leader of the movement, reflected something I recently heard at a meeting of evangelical and Pentecostal denominational leaders in Chicago: \u201cThe old model is that ministry is a marathon. You run until you drop. The new model is that ministry is a relay race. You run as fast as you can and then hand off the baton to the next person who is also running as fast as they can.\u201d
\nAt the same meeting, another leader remarked that when Joshua died at age 110, he left the sad legacy stated in Judges 2:10: \u201cWhen all that generation had been gathered to their fathers, another generation arose after them who did not know the Lord nor the work which He had done for Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n
That stands in stark contrast to Moses\u2019 death in Deuteronomy 34. Moses had carefully passed the baton to Joshua and his generation. The Promised Land lay before them. Moses saw it, he had the vision for it, but he could not take them there. Yet he successfully handed off the baton to the next generation for the divine assignment of their time.<\/p>\n
What adds to the impact of these two deaths is Moses\u2019 age. He was 120 years old when he died. The IPHC will remember that we are 120 years old this year, the year 2018.<\/p>\n
We were birthed in the holiness revivals of the late nineteenth century that led to the formation in 1898 of the Fire-Baptized Holiness Church and the Pentecostal Holiness Church of North Carolina. The two groups merged in 1911 to form the IPHC as we now know it. But it was 120 years ago that our spiritual DNA took its primary form through those two movements.<\/p>\n
So, here we are 120 years old, talking about generations, about passing the baton from one generation to the next, about faithfulness, about vision, about honor and about preparation. But I can\u2019t help but be mindful of Joshua at 110 and the failure to pass the baton, the loss of memory of what God had done, the loss of obedience to the divine call.<\/p>\n
Somehow the dynamic faith of one generation failed to be passed to the next. It\u2019s a sad commentary whose cycle repeats itself in ways far worse than the agonizing movie Groundhog Day.<\/p>\n
Which year will mark us as the IPHC? Will we be on the rejoicing side of 120\u2014passing the baton like Moses did? Or will we be on the downward side of 110\u2014failing the next generation?<\/p>\n
I know which is my heart\u2019s desire. I pray that in this new year we will discover the fresh wind of the Spirit enabling us to be a multi-generational church that enables our children and grandchildren to inherit the good, merciful, and truthful promises of God expressed in Psalm 100:5: \u201cFor the Lord is good; His lovingkindness is everlasting and His faithfulness to all generations.\u201d<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
By Doug Beacham<\/strong><\/p>\n This article was published in\u00a0the January 2018 issue of Encourage<\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"excerpt","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":1897,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","episode_type":"","audio_file":"","cover_image":"","cover_image_id":"","duration":"","filesize":"","date_recorded":"","explicit":"","block":"","filesize_raw":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3,1],"tags":[510,45,134,46,290,181],"class_list":{"0":"post-1888","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-bishops-blog","8":"category-general","9":"tag-510","10":"tag-bishop","11":"tag-bishops-blog","12":"tag-doug-beacham","13":"tag-iphc-general-superintendent","14":"tag-january","15":"entry"},"title_es":"Abrazando la Palabra y la Llamada","content_es":"Desde 1998, numerosas congregaciones de IPHC han conmemorado eventos centenarios relacionados con su fundaci\u00f3n. Uno que est\u00e1 ocurriendo este mes es el centenario del PHC del Evangelio Tabern\u00e1culo en Dunn, Carolina del Norte. Esta congregaci\u00f3n est\u00e1 asociada con la vida de GB Cashwell y el avivamiento pentecostal que comenz\u00f3 en Dunn en la v\u00edspera de A\u00f1o Nuevo de 1906. Muchos de nosotros nos reunimos en Falcon, Carolina del Norte, en enero de 2011 para conmemorar el centenario de la fusi\u00f3n de las dos denominaciones de santidad que form\u00f3 el IPHC tal como lo conocemos hoy. Las celebraciones centenarias de la IPHC se han celebrado en Hong Kong y Sud\u00e1frica. Durante el \u00faltimo mes, ha habido varias ocasiones marcando hitos importantes en los que he participado. En septiembre, Susan y yo representamos el IPHC en la 85a. Gala de cumplea\u00f1os del Dr. Charles F. Stanley en Atlanta. Unos d\u00edas m\u00e1s tarde, el Obispo John Kim celebr\u00f3 el 40 \u00b0 aniversario de la fundaci\u00f3n de la Iglesia Misi\u00f3n Global Agape (IPHC, Conferencia Coreano-Estadounidense) en Los \u00c1ngeles. En una nota personal, Susan y yo celebramos nuestro cuadrag\u00e9simo quinto aniversario de bodas en septiembre. Un poco m\u00e1s tarde asistimos a la reuni\u00f3n n\u00famero 50 de la clase de la preparatoria Franklin County High School en 1967. \u00a1Puede que todos parezcamos mayores, pero a\u00fan somos j\u00f3venes de coraz\u00f3n! Este octubre, la iglesia mundial conmemorar\u00e1 el comienzo de la Reforma Protestante. La IPHC estar\u00e1 bien representada en Wittenberg, Alemania, ya que varios cientos de pentecostales se reunir\u00e1n el 31 de octubre y el 1 de noviembre para recordar cuando Mart\u00edn Lutero public\u00f3 sus famosas Noventa y Cinco Tesis en la puerta de la Iglesia del Castillo. Si bien no se aproxima en absoluto a la importancia de las fechas mencionadas anteriormente, este octubre es particularmente importante para m\u00ed. Hace cincuenta a\u00f1os, durante la semana del 9 al 13 de octubre de 1967, sent\u00ed en mi coraz\u00f3n que Jes\u00fas quer\u00eda que le sirviera en el ministerio de tiempo completo. Era la semana de King Memorial Lectures, en el campus de Emmanuel College en Franklin Springs, Georgia. Como estudiante de primer a\u00f1o, me hab\u00eda matriculado en leyes y pol\u00edtica en mi carrera profesional. Yo era cristiano pero ten\u00eda mi propia agenda. Pero esa semana cambi\u00f3 el curso de mi vida. Los oradores incluyeron al misionero Rev. DD Freeman, el l\u00edder denominacional Rev. RL Rex, el superintendente de conferencias Rev. BE Underwood y el orador nocturno Rev. L. DuRant Driggers. Recuerdo dos cosas de esa semana que se cruzaron en mi mente y mi coraz\u00f3n. En primer lugar, el reverendo Underwood, entonces superintendente de la Conferencia de Virginia (ahora Conferencia de los Apalaches), habl\u00f3 sobre la infalibilidad de la Biblia. Estas conferencias fueron publicadas en 1969 como The Spirit's Sword - God's Infallible Book. Como estudiante de primer a\u00f1o de la universidad de dieciocho a\u00f1os, esta era la primera vez que escuch\u00e9 una defensa acad\u00e9mica conservadora de la autoridad de la Biblia. La beca de Underwood y la entrega apasionada me dejaron una impresi\u00f3n duradera. En segundo lugar, durante uno de los servicios nocturnos, el reverendo DuRant Driggers predic\u00f3 desde Isa\u00edas 6 acerca del llamado al ministerio del profeta Isa\u00edas. Las conferencias de Underwood sobre la Biblia y la predicaci\u00f3n ungida de Drigger convergieron cuando sent\u00ed que el Esp\u00edritu Santo me ped\u00eda que dejara de lado mis metas profesionales y que estuviera dispuesto a cumplir los objetivos que Dios ten\u00eda para m\u00ed. Todav\u00eda puedo mostrarte el lugar donde me arrodill\u00e9 en el altar de Franklin Springs PHC. No fue un momento particularmente emotivo de oraci\u00f3n. En cambio, fue un tiempo de preguntas, de buena voluntad y de pedirle a Dios que confirmara que era su llamado y no mi imaginaci\u00f3n. Al d\u00eda siguiente, la llamada fue confirmada por una conversaci\u00f3n inesperada con amigos y luego por la afirmaci\u00f3n de mi padre. Crec\u00ed en un hogar de pastores de IPHC y en una congregaci\u00f3n local en South Norfolk, Virginia. Mis a\u00f1os de adolescencia pasaron escuchando la predicaci\u00f3n del Rev. John W. Swails en el Franklin Springs PHC. Ambas experiencias fueron muy positivas. Mis padres siempre nos hab\u00edan alentado a m\u00ed y a mis hermanos a servir al Se\u00f1or, pero nunca nos presionaron para tareas espec\u00edficas. Estoy seguro de que enfrentaron momentos desalentadores en el ministerio, pero nunca se nos expresaron. En cambio, servir a Cristo y a su iglesia era un honor con bendiciones eternas. Cuando acept\u00e9 la llamada esa semana, pens\u00e9 que significar\u00eda que me pasar\u00eda la vida como pastor de la congregaci\u00f3n. Me prepar\u00e9 para eso con el seminario y con cinco a\u00f1os de ministerio pr\u00e1ctico bajo la direcci\u00f3n del reverendo Carl L. Campbell en el PHC de Ray of Hope en Richmond, Virginia. La experiencia del seminario prepar\u00f3 mi mente; mis experiencias bajo mi padre, Rev. Swails y Rev. Campbell, prepararon mi coraz\u00f3n. Ambos fueron necesarios. Ojal\u00e1 pudiera decir que siempre he estado a la altura de la \"llamada\" y los ministerios piadosos de mis profesores de seminario y tres modelos pastorales primarios. Pero he aprendido de Filipenses 1: 6 que Dios est\u00e1 fielmente trabajando \"completando\" lo que \u00c9l ha comenzado. Durante el a\u00f1o pasado, me un\u00ed a los obispos de IPHC para orar por una nueva generaci\u00f3n de mujeres y hombres que responder\u00e1n al llamado del ministerio. Los veo en las varias generaciones que llamamos X, Millennials, y ahora Z. Fuera de estas categor\u00edas occidentales en otras partes del mundo, los veo con hambre de la verdad de Dios y las manifestaciones del amor de Dios. No tuve licencia ni fui ordenado hasta el 12 de junio de 1971 y el 16 de junio de 1973, junto con mi querido amigo y Director de Ministerios de Hombres de IPHC, el reverendo Bill Terry. Pero nunca he olvidado esa semana en octubre de 1967, cuando la Palabra y la Llamada convergieron y cambiaron mi vida. Que esa convergencia ocurra una y otra vez para todos nosotros. Por Doug Beacham<\/strong> Este art\u00edculo fue publicado en la edici\u00f3n de octubre de 2017 de Encourage<\/a> .<\/em>","author_name":"","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/5\/2018\/01\/PHOTO-Beacham-1-Small-e1515525048272.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pb62Bx-us","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1888"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1888\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1897"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1888"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1888"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/iphc.org\/gso\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1888"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}