In the summer of 2011, during Tennessee’s State Convention in Murfreesboro, Shaun McKinley, liaison to the general overseer of the COGOP, alarmed the constituency in attendance with this statement: “Eighty percent of our licensed ministers are above the age of 40. The COGOP has more licensed ministers above the age of 60 than under the age of 40.
THE CHALLENGE
The conclusion? Unless the COGOP finds a way to develop new leaders, we will soon be facing a leadership crisis.”
At the 2012 International Assembly, a newly formed Tomlinson Center Advisory Committee was commissioned in part as a response to the developing challenge presented by our aging leadership. In their advisory role, the committee was tasked to explore the higher educational possibilities available to our movement. The goal was to find a viable educational vehicle that offered a path towards accredited higher education for our current and emerging leaders. Under the leadership of David Bryan, then Leadership Development and Discipleship director, the advisory committee worked closely with the LDD leadership and the International Presbyters for nearly four years. After presenting their final report in the fall of 2015, the committee had completed their task and was decommissioned. As a result of their exhaustive research, a new partnership with the Pentecostal Theological Seminary was formed.
During our 99th International Assembly in Orlando, newly appointed LDD director, Brian Sutton, decisively addressed the COGOP’s aging leadership challenge. He put out a clarion call to develop 10,000 new leaders by 2020. This is a daring challenge that will take courage and the determination of all our members in order to meet this goal.
The COGOP now has formal agreements with two highly accredited seminaries that will offer affordable, accredited Bible and theology education to any of our leaders who feel the call for higher education. We celebrate what Gordon- Conwell Theological Seminary and the Pentecostal Theological Seminary are offering our movement. It is nothing less than a gift from God. However, these two educational vehicles will not be enough to answer Bishop Sutton’s call for 10,000 new leaders.
A WAY FORWARD
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NEW JERSEY FOR JESUS CHRIST
Jonathan Olavarria serves as pastor of The Hub Church in Jersey City, New Jersey, a ministry of the Church of God of Prophecy since 2016. Jonathan has served in various ministry roles including summer camps, youth, children, Christian education, pastoral care, and evangelism. Pastor Jonathan is also a vice principal with Newark Public Schools. He and his wife, Noemi, have been married since 2012 and have been blessed with two sons, Adrian and Benjamin.
First to Join Pioneers and Planters
Michael Edwards is pastor of Orange Grove Church in Charleston, South Carolina. A fourth-generation bishop, he is the grandson of former General Overseer M. A. Tomlinson and great grandson of A. J. Tomlinson. Bishop Edwards is a graduate of Tomlinson College (1979). He and his wife, Cindy, have been married more than 45 years.
Celebrating God's MIRACULOUS PROVISION
We are always excited to share the testimonies from the nations of the miraculous provisions of God. Rejoice with our family as they celebrate.
CARING FOR KIDS IN CRISIS Children and Depression
Depression is a common and serious medical illness. It is real, it happens, and it is treatable. Society has put a stigma on mental illness, and as the salt and light of the world we must put an end to that stigma.
The Significance of Planting Churches on New Ground
Bishop Chin Kang Mon is the national overseer of Myanmar. Bishop Chin has planted numerous churches throughout the country. One of our newer nations, Bishop Chin has 35 churches, 3 missions, and 1,550 members under his care as well as three orphanages. One of his greatest accomplishments is the establishment of South East Asia Mission College. Bishop Chin writes, The ultimate objective of this college is to prepare, equip, and train his people to be effective workers of God in Myanmar and beyond. Its vision is to adequately produce and multiply planters, evangelists, missionaries, and cell-leaders. SEAMC graduates and students are enthusiastic in different fields of ministry in Myanmar. There have been 425 graduates from SEAMC and 75 percent of graduates have been serving the Lord as missionaries, evangelists, pastors, and association/church key leaders in Myanmar. Fifty percent of the graduates have been serving the Lord in new mission fields among unreached people groups.
HOW PENTECOST CAME TO ANEGADA
Bishop Adrian L. Varlack, Sr. became a committed follower of Jesus Christ at age 14 in an island-wide revival in his native Anegada, British Virgin Islands. He has been an ordained bishop since 1972 and has spent 48 years in international missions promotions, church administration, preaching, teaching, and writing for the Church of God of Prophecy, including three years as overseer of Canada, where he supervised 40 pastors. He has traveled and ministered in over 90 nations and territories. September 1999, Varlack joined International Leadership Development and Discipleship Ministries as a member of the faculty of the Center for Biblical Leadership and served as an instructor for 19 years. At the 2006 International Assembly, he was also appointed church historian, and in September 2018, consultant to the general overseer. He lives in Cleveland, Tennessee, with his wife of 54 years, Janice Smith Varlack, also of the British Virgin Islands. They have seven children, 25 grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren.
FACING FORWARD
Pioneers and Planters in Central and South America
Our Leaders on Mission
Marsha Robinson is the Communications department publications coordinator for the Church of God of Prophecy International Offices. She is the managing editor of the White Wing Messenger, Mensajero Ala Blanca, and Le Messager a L'Aile Blanche. She is an ordained Church of God of Prophecy minister and actively works as a community chaplain.
The Will to Serve
Wilson J. Rodríguez is from Nicaragua. He is a 22-year-old member of the COGOP in Nueva Guinea, a city in southeast Nicaragua. Under the leadership of his national supervisor, Bishop Jorge Marrero, and his local pastor, Uriel Mejia, Brother Wilson serves the church in youth, children's, and discipleship ministries as secretary and assistant treasurer. He also has his own ministry collecting food to distribute to those in need.
Time in the Bank
You might think that money is the most valuable currency in the world. All of society seems to run by cash or card. However, it’s not the change in your pocket that’s your most valuable possession. It’s something even more sacred— and I guarantee you, you’re rich in it!
