United Times ~ May2018

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TIMES MAY 2018

Bishop-Designate Reggie Hall Overseer Carol Harris Pastor Adrian Wynn

Ta b l e o f C o n t e n t s

Upcoming Events

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Hightlights from

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Holy Convocation 2017

We Are Win Worthy

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I’m Too Big To Stay Here

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Sermon of Encouragement

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From The Editor Greetings, I pray that you are having a prosperous year!

As we have now entered into the month of May, I hope that you still believe God for the impossible.

My prayer for you as you read this edition of the United Times is for you to be inspired and empowered through every articles word of encouragement. Overseer Carol Harris, Pastor Adrian Wynn, and Bishop - Designate Reggie Hall have prepared articles that will bless your spirit.

We are just a few months away from one the greatest convocations in our churches history.

I hope you have registered and have begun planning for this amazing time we will share in Orlando. We currently are in preparation for this momentous occasion. Let us remain prayerful and excited as we push forward the vision and mission of United!

If you’re interested in sharing with your United family, please feel free to send us testimonies and articles of inspiration of the great things that God is doing in your life.

Pastor RJ Marshall Editor

ARE YOU REGIS TERED?

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HIGHLIGHTS FROM HOLY CONVOCATION 2017 Bishop James Chambers our Secretary General has retired from his position after years of countless service and dedication.

Overseer Frank Robinson has transitioned from the National Youth President after his many years of service and dedication.

The New York State Diocese is now the Northeast Region; inclusive of New York, Massachusetts, Connecticut and Northern New Jersey. The new State Diocesan is Bishop Eric McMillan. New Appointments: Bishop C. Sterling Davis has been appointed the new Secretary General.

Elder Caleb Edge & Elder Malcolm Shannon team together to lead our National Youth Department New Bishop-Designates Overseer Jeffrey Broughton Overseer Reggie Hall Overseer Terry Hill Overseer Richard Leapheart Overseer Jose Vladimir Moore Overseer Sylvester Robinson New Overseers Pastor Samuel Acheampong (Ghana) Pastor Ashwin Marcus (Eastern Cape) Pastor Aurelia Jemmott Pastor W. Nigel Meeks Pastor Rufus Williams

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WE ARE WIN WORTHY Overseer Carol E. Harris

Growing up there were many clichés and slogans that were supposed to teach us the proper character of a winner, behavior of a loser and the language of one who would persevere.

“It’s not whether you win or lose, it’s how you played the game that counts”, “Don’t be a sore loser” and “No Defeat, No Surrender” were common admonishments of all of our childhoods.

Jesus gives us the greatest example of what it means to win and how to conduct ourselves when it seems like we’ve lost. Jesus wins when He FINISHES!! When He wins, He does not finish with all of the fanfare we usually see in a sporting win. He doesn’t get a ticker tape parade, no one adorns a Jersey with his name and number on it. There is no debate or conversation regarding His technique or His style of play. He doesn’t have home court advantage and His team mates have seemingly abandoned Him. For a brief moment, He wonders even where His coach is. The water boys brings him vinegar instead of water and cheers turned to jeers a long time ago.

Despite the climate in the stadium of His mortal life, despite the disloyalty of His fans, despite having to be a one man team, Jesus goes in for the win and IT’S GOOD!! Jesus sweeps the series!! There is no crowd to go wild, the crowd has long since gone home. His name does not go up in lights, BUT HE HAS WON!!

No endorsement deal follows, BUT HE HAS WON!!! The biggest win that will ever come to the history of mankind and one mortal man takes a divine win for us all.

Could you do it?? Many base wins in life on the sound and size of the crowd who came out to see us play. If we do not hear the roar of the 8

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crowd when our name is called and we don’t see the numbers in the stands, many will reserve their best game for another day.

I wonder, however, if David didn’t play his best game when he defeated the lion and the bear what would have happened when he was called off the bench to face the giant. I wonder, if Sampson would have failed to play at his best after being delivered to his enemies by his own men. Would we have ever witnessed the fight and the refreshing of one man facing 1,000 giants? Oh and let’s not forget Gideon!! I wonder what would have happened if Gideon refused the charge to fight at his best sight unseen in the cover of darkness. Let’s just face the facts here, the Midianite army had him, out skilled, overpowered and certainly outnumbered. There, no witnesses to that battle either, but it happened

and THEY WON!!

The power of winning is finishing. Each finished what they began. None of their conditions for engagement was ideal. None of them had the best weaponry or an abundance of skill. None of them were coming out of the best life situations at the time, but they were chosen for the assignment. They were the ideal players for their time. WE are the ideal players for TODAY’S assignment and WE CAN WIN!!

The conditions all the way around may not be ideal, but WE WILL WIN. I encourage you all to remember this. God’s narrative concerning our lives is stronger than any dialogue and activity that takes place in the presence of the crowd. Trust the narrative!! Keep going!! The WIN is waiting!! 2 Corinthians 2:14

Overseer Carol E. Harris Ecclesia Family Worship Center Dover, Delaware #Continuing

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I’M TOO BIG TO STAY HERE!

Pastor Adrian Wynn Sr. Pastor, The City of Faith Church.

Thanksgiving Day, with all the joy and excitement One of the most difficult tasks to undertake in that traditionally accompanied this national day of celebration, I faced it with a bit of anxiety as a young boy. There was always a concern as to which table I would be allowed to sit and eat from. In my family, there was an adult table and a table for children. By the time I reached preteen years, I felt as if I possessed the requisite maturity to sit at the table and converse with the adults as if they were my contemporaries.

At the age of eleven, however, my parents were of a different persuasion and I was redirected from the promised land and back to the children’s table. I felt defeated, unappreciated, irritated and frustrated.

My entire Thanksgiving dinner experience was horrible. The children that shared the table with me were loud, obnoxious, uncontrollable, and the messiest eaters I’d ever seen. Later in the evening, I had the opportunity to speak with my mother about my time in Thanksgiving purgatory. I expressed with emotion and intentionality that, “I am too big to stay at that table!” She said to me “I’m glad that you see you are too big for that table, now maybe you will act like you are too big to be there.” Her response to me has resonated with me throughout the years of my life.

I was stunned! Shocked! What was my mother implying? Against my better judgement I asked what she meant. She began to explain to me that she recognized my irritation, she could tell that I was uncomfortable, and, that she was well aware of my frustration. She continued by saying that she also noticed that because of my frustration with being there, I was unable to influence or positively impact the other children that were sitting alongside me.

As an adult, looking reflectively over my life I now understand the lesson that she was intent on teaching me. Often times, we are in places that we have outgrown. We realize it, we’ve accepted it, and we embrace it with the desire to move to the next place. The central problem, however, is that the revelation of our growth often gives us tunnel vision regarding where we are going opposed to also being able to keep in full view where we are.

leadership, discipleship, or management is to be fully engaged in moving into your next while still properly stewarding your now.

How can I be all in on where God is taking me while simultaneously being all in on where He currently has me? Often times we fight to get into our next while leaving carnage, brokenness, and casualties behind us. Promotion, growth, and maturity are all great things to experience, however, when we reach a place in life where we are simply too big to stay where we are, the affirmation of the promotion that we are positioned for can be found not in how we walk into our next, but how we walk out of our now.

There are some obvious issues associated with being in a place that you have outgrown. Frustration and irritation are a part of the process of being confined to an area that you can no longer find accommodation.

Everything in you is pushing against the boundaries that have restricted your movement. Mentally you are exhausted from trying to find creative ways to function in an environment that has become dysfunctional for you. Emotionally you are spent from trying to balance the longing of the sea with a life on the land. You now struggle in social settings because you’ve moved to playing the game at the advanced level while your contemporaries have remained on the introductory level. These frustrations are valid, and they are hard to overcome. Your frustration with your restrictions, however, cannot be the justification used for blowing up the beach to live on the sea.

In an age and culture that is obsessed with instant gratification, the promise of promotion has moved from being a joyful process to a hopeless prison.

I appreciate that God promised me wealth…but WHEN? I appreciate that God promised to use me to speak to a generation…but WHEN? I appreciate that God promised me a successful marriage…but WHEN? It is this type of thinking that causes a great deal of people to mismanage the blessing of their now while waiting to arrive in an area that better accommodates who they are becoming or who they have become.

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I am in no way suggesting that one should find comfort in staying in a place that they have outgrown. Nor am I suggesting that we should sit idly by and wait for God to pick us up out of where we are and place us in our next place.

I am however expressing that while we do the work necessary to break us into the next level, we should be mindful of where we drop the rocket boosters that lift us beyond the clouds of where we are in and into the vast space of where we are going.

Anticipation of new can often times cause disdain for things that are not so new. This same anticipation can cause arrogance, dereliction of duty, and in some cases it can cause behavior that exhibits why you are still trying to get to the next level and you have not yet made your arrival. Anticipation, can cause us to suffer from selective amnesia and forget that promotion is not an entitlement. Promotion is performance based, and people that operate in integrity don’t sit on an assignment until the clock runs out. They complete every assignment that is given to them at every level.

Lastly, embrace your growth. Know within yourself that what you are becoming has not been an easy journey. Know that breaking through the gravitational pull of one level to reach the next dimension is not common and it is worth celebrating. Know that every promise in God is yes and Amen. Know that He who has began a good work in you shall complete it, until the day of Jesus Christ. Your growth has caused there to be a spot created for you at the table of your next level, but your maturity on your current level is what gives your access to the seat that was created just for you. Be the best steward of now, wherever that may be, and show up in every moment like you were born to live it because you were.

Pastor Adrian Wynn Sr. Pastor, The City of Faith Church

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SERMON OF ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE 3-TIER LEADERSHIP Courage is the first of human qualities because it is the quality which guarantees the others (Aristotle).

of vice and discover through that perseverance, the strength to remain courageous enough to believe in and aware of this fact, that as God was with Moses, so shall he also be with you (Joshua 1:5).

Oftentimes, we as leaders, are faced with a myriad of issues, dilemmas, concerns, and complications that all seem to contend for premier Bishop-designate Reggie Hall, XX space on our seemingly unending compendium Dean, Center For Theological Studies of things to take care of, first. It is during those times that we may feel overwhelmed and overawed at the mere thought of having to tackle all of them simultaneously. And yes, they all want our undivided attention. However, given our restricted ability to do numerous things all at once, we then are faced with the decision to be courageous enough to say to some of those things, “not now”. MerriamWebster defines courage as: “mental or moral strength to venture, persevere, and withstand danger, fear, or difficulty”. As leaders, there are periods we find it difficult to say “no” or “not now” or even “I don’t want to” and it is during those times of mental ambivalence, we are called to be courageous enough to make decisions knowing very well that some of our decisions may upset, enrage, or disenchant others but let us also be cognizant of the consideration of how our God directed decisions enriches, augments, and enhances the lives of those who seek our guidance and in some instances, hinge their lives and families on the very words we speak.

So, I say to my fellow leaders, be courageous in your decision making, be courageous in your quest to be the servant leader that our God has called you to be, be courageous in saying “no” or “not now” to those things that may become distractions and interferences between you and your ministry and your relationship with God and family. Persevere through the myriad of life’s vicissitudes of vacillating waves

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