Dear ECA members, candidates, friends and associates:
Grace Community Church
Surprise, Arizona
Greetings in the matchless name of Jesus! This is just a reminder of the ECA's upcoming 2024 Winter Gathering and Ordination Ceremony, being held Friday, January 26, at Grace Community Church, in the Phoenix suburb of Surprise, Arizona. The evening affair commences at 6:30 p.m. MST and will include worship and a sacred ordination ceremony, concluding at approximately 9:00 p.m. The event theme this year is Discerning Boundaries in Ministry, highlighting the demands of ministry in our modern day, especially with the advent of cell phones, voicemail, texts, and email, all creating accessibility virtually anytime, and which can inadvertently induce unavoidable stress leading to exasperation, exhaustion, and burnout. Tragically in some cases, this results in abandonment of the call. In Mark 6:31, when the apostles returned from their most recent ministry assignment and briefed Jesus on all they had accomplished, He said, “Come away by yourselves to a secluded place and rest a little while.”
Chaplain Nathan Tarr, who serves as Acting Wing Chaplain at the 161st Air Refueling Wing, located at Barry Goldwater Air National Guard Base, will deliver the ordination address on the above-referenced theme. With a Ph.D. in Biblical Spirituality from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Dr. Tarr serves as Professor of Pastoral Theology and Director of the Doctor of Ministry Program at Phoenix Seminary. While in Tennesee he planted a church and served as its pastor for thirteen years. Currently, he is Pastor of Spiritual Formation at Christ Church Gilbert in Gilbert, Arizona. To learn more about Chaplain Tarr and for additional details regarding the ceremony, view the bulletin by clicking here.
All applicants for individual membership to the ECA may attend the gathering and ordination ceremony. Even so, only those whom the ECA office has notified as having been approved for this particular event as candidates and scheduled for an oral ordination or licensure examination to be held earlier that day at the church will be eligible to be examined. For those who have not submitted their completed application packets for the occasion, the deadline was this past Monday the 15th.
All attendees, including family, friends, church elders, or other guests, must be registered by clicking here. The registration page can also be accessed through the "EVENTS" tab on the homepage of the ECA website, www.ecainternational.org. A recommended hotel is provided on the registration page.
I hope to see you next week for some ECA fellowship at Grace Community Church. Until then, may you be "strong in the Lord and the power of His might."
For the ECA family of faith,
Dr. Robert H. Turrill
President & CEO
Military Chaplain Endorser
Num. 6:24
