Dear Friends,

On March 18th we leave for India. It will be my fifth trip since 2000 and I never stop being amazed at the grace and mercy of God. We will travel thirteen hours to Germany followed by eleven hours to India and finally eight more hours of driving to the remote village of Managuru to be with our beloved Pastor Jacob. We will be with some of the most persecuted Christians living on planet earth right now. The travel is tough on our part but even more difficult for those who are coming to our Pastor’s Conference. Most of the pastors will walk to the event; some will walk up to one hundred miles to be with us for three days. When I stand before them to minister I don’t feel worthy to minister but God gives me the honor. I stand in amazement when I hear their stories. Last time I met a pastor who was put out from his village for two years because he has made Jesus his only God. Instead of rejecting those who rejected him, he stayed alone outside the village until they allowed him to come back in. I went into his mud hut church and was joyfully received by the entire village who now professed Jesus as their only God. The entire village was saved because of one man’s refusal to quit preaching Jesus. When we go to be with Pastor Jayakumar he is going to allow us to be a part of Church history. He has pioneered a church with a people group who has never been evangelized in the history of the world. We will witness the first fifteen baptisms every done by the Koya Tribe. Why do we go? Our trip validates their suffering and dedication. When we arrive to pray for the pastors they will humbly wait for us to anoint them with oil and pray for them. The SALT books we have published for them will be the only book most of them will personally own. I want to thank all of you for your prayer support and the financial support as well. God is allowing us to personally participate in reaching those who never heard the Name of Jesus. Skyway will never be the same because of the precious pastors we will meet and serve on this mission trip.

Pastor Greg

My life is forever connected to the life of our congregation and the Body of Christ at large. I really don’t have a private and public life, God seems to have orchestrated events to coincide for the benefit of all. This is one of the most incredible times in my personal life. Our grandson Bennett has been born and will be dedicated to the Lord today. Yesterday I conducted the Christian marriage of my son and gained a new daughter in Jennifer. We have three more big events in the next sixty days. These are the types of times I have seen in other families when their church attendance becomes sporadic. That doesn’t happen in my life and I am going to encourage you to not allow it to happen in yours! There is a connection between our natural and spiritual lives. It seems like every major event in my private life has an equally major event occurring in the life of the Church. In March, one week after the wedding, we are off to India to conduct National Pastor Training Schools. In April we are opening our new education buildings, launching the new church Elevation, and we will have our largest Sunday of the year on Easter Sunday. When we have our first Men’s Retreat I will come home on Friday for Philip’s college graduation. In May we go to Dallas for Brandon’s graduation from Law School, I will then fly directly to Colorado Springs from Dallas for a WLI Leadership Conference. Instead of stressing out over this I have learned to appreciate the timing of the Lord. Major events in our lives are really like commencement or graduation from one season into another. In the natural, the more you graduate, the higher level jobs become available. With them comes the higher responsibility and authority. The same is true in the spiritual realm. Our congregation is commencing into a new season of higher spiritual authority, spiritual blessings, and yes, spiritual warfare. God is anointing us with a new mantle of spiritual authority and your lives are going to be on the leading edge of spiritual and natural breakthroughs. Get ready for this season; you are here for a reason! The warfare you are entering into is not because of your failures it is an opportunity for you to advance and possess new territory. Look for new opportunities to operate in authority in your regular life. Understand that this represents greater spiritual authority in your spiritual life. Your prayers will have greater impact; your declarations of victory over the enemy will destroy strongholds! It is a great pleasure to share my life with each of you and to see you growing in the destiny of God. Look for your new season to break forth in both the natural and spiritual.

Pastor Greg

1985 was a very important year. It was the year that the Holliday’s, Coleman’s and some other key couples joined Skyway, and now they are a part of the pastoral staff.  It is also the year that our son Philip was born.  He ate vanilla wafers and watched football with me the first time his mom left us alone. (I did not know newborns shouldn’t have vanilla wafers.)  It was this year that my life changed because life around me was changing.

Pastor’s kids have a bad reputation in the big scheme of things, but this is one guy that I know every pastor would be proud to call his son.  Philip was at Skyway Christian School when he could barely walk as his mom took him along each day.  He would be a part of all the big events concerning our school including the last graduating class before we had to close the school because of our move to the new Goodyear campus.  It seemed like every big event for the church coincided with a key part of his life.  He met his future bride at Skyway and they grew to know each other after the spirit as they prepared to go on a Costa Rica mission trip.  They purposefully avoided a boyfriend girlfriend relationship because they wanted the mission trip to be about the gospel.  When they returned they had their first date which eventually led to them becoming a couple. This may sound pretty normal to everyone but for Philip and Jennifer this was the first time they would have a boyfriend or a girlfriend. They both grew up believing that they should save their hearts for the one they would marry and not play the dating game.  This is something I taught Philip when he was young, but he was the one who made the choice to stay pure in heart and to find a girl with the same belief system. As they marked off the months of being together it was obvious that love was in their hearts.  He came to me to discuss the idea of proposing to his bride on their first anniversary.  I suggested that we go to the jewelry district in LA.  If you want to buy something expensive get twice the value by going there and learning how to negotiate the best buy.  We made the top secret trip last summer, getting up early in the morning and driving to LA. We built our game plan for the purchase and he followed it to perfection.  We drove home that night with a great ring and he was ready for the big question.  On the day of the proposal he brought Jen into a walk of remembrance of the highlights of their year together.  As they walked along a path of rose petals the last stop was the ring and he proposed.  It was definitely a Hallmark moment, like something you would see on the TLC network.  The two stayed committed to their B.A. degree in college taking over twenty credits per semester. Philip graduated at age 21 and Jen at age 20. They both have good jobs and now they will become one on March 10th.  I have the honor of conducting their marriage vows.  It is a great blessing as a father to see Philip and Jennifer stay faithful to the Lord as they become one in His sight.  They represent a great generation of young people in Skyway who chose to remain pure until marriage.  Twenty one years have gone by fast and I am very proud of my son.  As they begin a new chapter of their lives as husband and wife, I feel a sense of destiny that Skyway is moving into a new chapter as a church.  It seems that many chapters in the life of Skyway have paralleled Philip’s life.  I see this as another one of those moments.

Pastor Greg

We have practiced the biblical model of giving a “First Fruits Offering”, since 2003 following the biblical pattern taught to the people of God that when they entered the promise land they were to bring a voluntary offering to God at the beginning of their harvest each year.  The land that Israel possessed would yield two crops every year, sometimes three.  God taught the people that the first fruit of their harvest was to be brought to the Temple and it would be holy to the Lord, or set aside for his purposes.  The Lord promised all the people that when they gave the first fruits to him, the rest of their crops would be abundantly blessed throughout the remainder of the year.

The practical application of this principle for us today is that we set aside a financial offering to give the Lord during the beginning of the year that reflects our faith in God’s ability to increase our finances greatly over the remainder of the year.  Since this has been taught at Skyway, we have seen a great increase in the annual finances of our members because they have gained faith in this biblical principle and are putting it into action.  One of our member’s businesses went from 1million dollars income to over 5 million during the past year!  Now that is a supernatural increase!  Every year, we have seen our First Fruits Offering increase and the annual tithing increase because the family’s annual income is increasing.  This principle from God’s word is truly changing our economic status one person at a time.

This is a free will offering that we are asking God’s people to give according to what they have and according to their faith in what God is going to do in their lives this year.  Each person in the family, including each child, is encouraged to pray and give according to the level of faith that is in their heart regarding this offering.  Look at this promise from the Bible…

Malachi 3:11-12 (KJV) And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the Lord of hosts. [12] And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the Lord of hosts.

Look at the context of the promise. After the tithe and the offering were brought to the Temple, the people went home with more seed to plant in their own fields. The Lord promised to cause those seeds planted in the earth to be abundant and prosperous.  Today we are taught to bring the tithe and offering to the church, but we have failed to teach God’s people to believe that God will bless their financial investments or job situations.  Some examples would be advances in the workplace, personal businesses, stocks, bonds, land, houses, condo’s, real estate, and all the things that creates cash flow.  God wants his children to possess the wealth of the earth so we can be stewards of that wealth to finance the projects of the Kingdom in the last days.  God wants money to work for you, instead of you working for money.  When money works for you, you will have the time to do the things God wants you to do when God wants you to do them.  He uses us at work, but we should not be tied down to the monthly paycheck to survive.  Your seed in the earth is where God can really set you free financially!  God’s ultimate plan is to cause the nations to look at us and say, “You are really blessed! Your God really takes care of you!” I have taught about this topic in the series, “Possessing the Increase parts 1-4.