A Remnant Chosen By Grace

Report: The Winter Workshop of the City of Angels Church

January 13, 2008

“God did not reject His people, whom He foreknew. Don’t you know what the Scripture says in the passage about Elijah—how he appealed to God against Israel: ‘Lord, they have killed your prophets and torn down your altars; I am the only one left, and they are trying to kill me?’ And what was God’s answer to him? ‘I have reserved for myself seven thousand who have not bowed the knee to Baal.’ So too, at the present time there is a remnant chosen by grace.” Romans 11:2-5

Our Winter Workshop on January 3-6, 2008 was blessed by God “more than we could ask or imagine” (Ephesians 3:20). The theme “A Remnant Chosen By Grace” was exemplified by church leaders who traveled so far and sacrificed so much just to participate: Erik af Klint (Stockholm, Sweden); Argo and Anu Lips (Tallinn, Estonia); Joe Santos and Jerry Holi (Honolulu, Hawaii); Evan and Kelly Bartholomew (Hilo, Hawaii); Chris Adams, Andrew and Patrique Smellie (Syracuse, New York); Ryan Casarez and Havrah Fassett (Sacramento, California); Dan and Dene Triana (Las Vegas, Nevada); Jeremy and Amy Ciaramella (Eugene, Oregon); Mike Patterson, Matt and Helen Sullivan, Chris and Sonja Chloupek (Phoenix, Arizona) and Chris and Theresa Broom (Chicago, Illinois). The culmination of the weekend was Sunday’s worship service where 371 were in attendance! God continues to add to our number through baptisms – Michaela Foley and Gerardo Mendez; through restorations – Ezequiel Gonzalez; and through placing memberships – Daniel Hoerner, Dustin and Amanda Miller, as well as Ace and Pamela McClinton. This was a weekend we’ll talk about even in heaven!

Thursday morning was the Church Planting Workshop attended by the visiting church leaders and our ministry leaders. Chris Broom spoke to the men and Elena spoke to the women on our theme, “A Remnant Chosen By Grace.” According to Baker’s Evangelical Dictionary, the terms for remnant in the [Bible] are derived from six root [words] and occur some 540 times,” more times than the word “disciple,” which appears 270 times! Obviously, “remnant” is a crucial Bible concept for one to grasp in order to comprehend God’s purposes. Chris gave this definition from the Anchor Bible Dictionary – “a remnant is what is left of a community after it undergoes a catastrophe.” Throughout Isaiah, the words “survivor” and “remnant” are used interchangeably (Isaiah 10:20). Chris and Elena made it very clear that the Sold-Out Discipling Movement is indeed only part of the remnant. There are many survivors, those still faithful baptized disciples, in our former fellowship, in the mainline Churches of Christ, in the conservative Christian Churches and in various splinter groups. So encouraging to us all, the Message Bible paraphrases God’s admonition to Elijah concerning the 7000 (the remnant) who had not bowed the knee to Baal as, “There are more than you think!” (Romans 11:4)

In the afternoon, I led a discussion on “Gathering His Remnant Flock” from Jeremiah 23. We believe God scattered our former movement because of everyone’s sins; this indeed was a catastrophe where untold thousands lost their faith and fell away. However since that time of discipline, some have repented and returned to God. God is now “gathering from the farthest horizon” a new discipling movement from the survivors (Nehemiah 1:8-9). We realize that some remnant disciples will remain for various reasons in their present fellowships, many of which are lukewarm. However, we are striving to reach out and invite every surviving disciple to join us in a movement whose motivating dream is to evangelize the world in a generation!

Our Bible Talk Leaders Workshop was held on the following rainy Friday evening. Rather than our spirits being dampened by the weather, the atmosphere of our meeting was electric! Chris Broom gave one of the most inspirational lessons ever, “Pray For The Remnant” (Isaiah 37:4). He closed with the account of the recent movie, I Am Legend. The premise of the movie is that Dr. Robert Neville is seemingly the last man on earth. After a devastating plague from a well intentioned experiment goes awry, most humans died, except a few that became rabid beasts by the same virus, that was thought to be the cure for cancer. Yet in a slim hope of finding others, Dr. Neville would broadcast every day, “I am Robert Neville. I am a survivor living in New York City. If you need food, I can provide it. If you need protection, I can provide it. If you need shelter, I can provide it. I’ll be at South Street Seaport at noon every day. Please if there is anyone out there, you are not alone.” Many of us have felt all alone like Elijah and Dr. Neville. Indeed, it is true, we are a small movement of survivors of a devastating catastrophe, resulting from a theological experiment gone badly awry. Chris admonished us, “My brothers, let’s broadcast to the nations, ‘If you need food – the Word of God, we can provide it. If you need protection – discipling , we can provide it. If you need shelter – a fellowship of sold-out disciples, we can provide it. You are not alone!’” At these words my eyes swelled with tears. The movie ends with a survivor that finds Dr. Neville, and well, you need to see the movie!

Saturday, the City of Angels Church’s schedule had the men meeting in the morning and the women in the afternoon. Respectively, Andrew and Patrique Smellie, soon to plant the Washington, D.C. International Christian Church, spoke powerfully on the theme, “A Righteous Remnant” (Zephaniah 3:13). Then in both meetings, a challenging lesson on financial sacrifice was delivered from Haggai 1-2 entitled, “Paneled Houses of the Remnant.” On Sunday, I closed out the Workshop with the message, “A Remnant For Deliverance,” which was the account of Joseph in Genesis 37-50.

At the workshop, the answer to many prayers was announced – the beginning of a remnant group in New York City! In August at the Jubilee, the Spirit through the City of Angels Church will send out a mission team led by DJ and Kacie to New York City. Amazingly, this past Sunday George and Sharman Grima (cell # 561-302-7909) moved into Manhattan! Also visiting our Winter Workshop was Steve Ranga of Long Island, New York – just an hour from Manhattan. Steve and his wife Kithy planted the discipling church in Suriname with just them and one other disciple in the early 1990’s. (Suriname is a former Dutch colony in the north of South America.) After nine years, they returned to America. With the advent of the catastrophe in our former fellowship, they stepped out of the ministry and became extremely disheartened. Feeling that all the churches around them were lukewarm and fearing for their own salvation, they came to a conviction they had no choice – God wanted them to start a “new church” in Long Island.

 

During their ministry in Suriname, the Spirit led them to a mainline Church of Christ missionary, Brandon Ferrell. After studying with him to become a disciple, Steve baptized Brandon! About three years ago, Brandon also having moved back to the States, out of desperation moved his family to be with us in Portland. There his wife Peggy was baptized in just three weeks! Brandon then began “broadcasting” to everyone about Portland. Steve was one of them. After following the website for a while, Steve visited us this past weekend in Los Angeles during our Winter Workshop. In tears, he shared with me how he lost hope and was “washed-up” spiritually. After seeing everything, he has decided to join our new movement. Now the Rangas will join the Grimas as a remnant group waiting for the New York Mission Team in August!

I closed out my message with a quote from T.E. Lawrence, better known as “Lawrence of Arabia.” T.E. Lawrence helped rally the autonomous Arabic tribes to unify in order to throw off British rule. Since he himself was British, he had to overcome sentimentality and lost several “friends” for this heroic stand. Afterwards, he wrote The Seven Pillars of Wisdom which record his efforts. He writes, “All men dream but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds wake in the day and find that it was vanity. But the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act out their dreams with open eyes. This I did.”

City of Angels Church, let’s be dangerous dreamers! Let’s broadcast world-wide to the remnant and the lost that Jesus’ dream of evangelizing the world in a generation is still alive! Let us continue to pray that God will “gather from the farthest horizon,” many “more than you think!” And to God be the glory!

Kip McKean

Kip McKean