The Orlando International Christian Church
Guest Editorial: Anthony Eckels

[Anthony and Elizabeth Eckels were baptized and married in the New York City International Church of Christ in the early 1990’s. In 1995 they moved to Orlando, Florida with the dream of the full-time ministry. Since their efforts for the Lord were effective in New York City as well as Orlando, they were asked to serve in the full-time ministry in New Orleans and later in their beloved Orlando. Due partially to the tragedy of September 11, 2001, there was a lack of funds in the congregation and the Eckels were asked to resign. Hurting, they returned to Elizabeth’s home state of North Carolina. After a year of strengthening, they were encouraged to return to New Orleans. Then in 2006, they moved to Portland, where in time the Lord raised them up to be the non-fulltime leaders of the very fruitful East Region. God has blessed the Eckels with two boys, Augustine (6) and Giovanni (1).] KM

“The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit.” John 3:8

Truly the Spirit blows wherever it pleases. Just a little over two years ago, Elizabeth and I could have never imagined the direction the Spirit was preparing to blow us. We were very comfortable in our careers and in our home in New Orleans with no intention of moving anywhere. During the last Saturday in August 2005, there was a mandatory evacuation due to hurricane Katrina heading towards New Orleans. We will never forget watching the television from a hotel in Texas, seeing our city destroyed. Everything which we had put our security, hope and joy was changed in one day! The New Orleans Church was scattered and our lives would never be the same. The Lord reminded us in Haggai 1:9, “‘You expected much but see it turned out to be little. What you brought home I blew away. Why?’ declares the Lord Almighty. ‘Because of my house, which remains a ruin while each of you is busy with his own house.’”

I was humbled as to how much God loved my family and His Kingdom to send a hurricane to get us back to our “first love” (Revelation 2:4-5). We had been busy with our own house, family and careers. The passion we had once felt so strongly had been quenched by the lukewarmness, lack of purpose and no discipling among those around us and in our own lives. Disturbed by our spiritual condition, I had begun to pray for direction for my family. I had started following the Portland Church’s website for inspiration and had called Portland asking for spiritual help. Tony Untalan, an elder in Portland, and I had begun to talk regularly on the phone. Elizabeth began to pray for her heart to be willing to do anything to get her passion back, even if it meant giving up her interior design business. Two weeks after this prayer, almost all of her clients homes were destroyed by the hurricane, and God opened our eyes to His plans.

After Katrina, the government infrastructure collapsed leaving an unprecedented chaos seen by the entire world. In New Orleans, state and federal agencies bickered over the disaster relief and who would be in charge of the mission of saving lives. There were several substantiated reports of the chief of police being unreachable during the crisis with abandoned police officers being left with no direction of how to go about saving the crowds. Some were so distraught that they committed suicide. We saw this disaster as paralleling the dismantling of Kingdom leadership after the Long Beach Unity Meeting of November 2002 and Henry Kriete’s ensuing letter of February 2003. Many ministry leaders abandoned their flocks, leaving disciples with no direction, causing the wounded to wander from the faith, while others fell away, committing spiritual suicide. Heartbreaking for us and many others, most of the International Churches of Christ became autonomous with no plan of spiritual relief for the world, further weakened by the severing of their discipling relationships with other churches.

During this time of secular and spiritual crises, we prayed in desperation for refuge. I received a call from Kip in Portland wanting to know if we were okay with great concern for the disciples in New Orleans. At that point, we flew to Portland for a couple of weeks. The church wrapped their arms around us, encouraging and loving us in ways we had not seen in the Kingdom for years. It was uplifting to witness discipling, Biblical accountability and most inspiring to us, consistent baptisms! Elizabeth and I possess deep convictions that every baptism is a miracle of God. The example of the Portland Church reminded us of Acts 2:42-47, the standard that we had committed to at baptism! We moved to Portland and immediately began to be spiritually revived. The Portland congregation reminded us of Haggai 1:14, “So the Lord stirred up the spirit of Zerubbabel, son of Shealtiel, governor of Judah, and the spirit of Joshua, son of Jehozadak, the high priest, and the spirit of the whole remnant of the people. They came and began to work on the house of the Lord Almighty, their God…”

The spirit of God’s remnant had been stirred in the hearts of the Portland congregation and we began dreaming once again. At this point, we clearly saw God’s grace through hurricane Katrina. God truly blew us to Portland to strengthen our faith and to rekindle our dream. After being disciples almost 20 years and serving full-time in the ministry in Orlando and in New Orleans, we like many, had lost our Kingdom dream to evangelize the world. We watched so many of our brothers and sisters lose their Kingdom dreams as well, replacing them with shallow, worldly dreams or no dreams at all. We have friends who sunk into extreme depression and have medical issues related to the hopelessness they feel from their shattered dreams. One of our dear former brothers in Christ in another city not long after these events drank himself to death. Hopelessness and despair cannot be filled with anything other than the hope we profess through Jesus Christ.

The massive numbers of population in a city cannot be reached and healed except through Jesus’ plan of the multiplication of disciples. God’s clear command is for disciples to make disciples who make disciples (Matthew 28:19-20). Without close-knit relationships through consistent discipling, Christians will never be all that God intended, nor will they be trained for the mission. Jesus spent more time training, discipling and fellowshipping with the Twelve than He did with all the crowds combined. He knew that the salvation of the world relied on discipling these twelve men.

After hearing the sadness, hopelessness and apathy in so many of our friends’ voices who, like us had wandered from their first love, we believe the Spirit is calling us to return to Orlando to plant a new congregation of sold-out and thus multiplying disciples, called the Orlando International Christian Church. Orlando lies in the middle of Orange County, which has a population of over a million people! Orlando is one of the fastest growing cities in the US, drawing dreamers from all over the world. Many young professionals, musicians, artists and dancers pursue their dreams as employees of Disney and Universal Studios. Disney, known widely as the “Magic Kingdom,” employs over 50,000 people, which is the largest number of employees in the U.S. at a single worksite! As we “preach the Word” to these dreamers, we look forward to giving them a spiritual hope in our future Arts Ministry. Another aspect of Orlando that we dearly love is the large Latino community which flavors the city with such warmth. We are very excited about building an awesome Spanish-speaking ministry!

Lastly, and perhaps the most excitingly, we look forward to baptizing many into Christ at the University of Central Florida, Rollins College, Valencia College and the many other colleges that make up central Florida. Just as the young inexperienced David bravely stepped out of the battle line to fight the giant, we challenge the youth in God’s Kingdom to step forward and take a radical stand for God’s glory, to grab the dream to evangelize the world in this generation. At the battle line between the Philistines and the Israelites, many of God’s experienced warriors merely discussed the problem at hand and were stifled by cowardice, unbelief and faithlessness. 1 Corinthians 4:20 states, “For the Kingdom of God is not a matter of talk but of power.” We look forward to the youth in our congregation being the radical “Davids” to inspire the seasoned disciples to revive their Kingdom dreams, putting their hope in the only Rock that will last.

Elizabeth, Augustine, Giovanni and I arrived in Orlando yesterday on February 16! Please pray for God to be glorified, as we embark upon our mission to build a congregation of sold-out disciples, who have the dream to evangelize all of central Florida and beyond. We look forward to seeing the miracles God performs through the prayers of the saints and their ensuing faithful acts. If the Spirit moves you to join our vision to reach Orlando and all of central Florida please contact us at (503) 916-9470. May God bless the city of the “Magic Kingdom” to become a city known more for God’s growing “Miracle Kingdom” that sends disciples “into all the world.” (Mark 16:15)

Anthony Eckels