LAYING IN
BED THIS MORNING, the question, "What's in a name?" popped into
my thoughts - and laying there, the answer almost composed
itself. So I had to get up and start writing it.
WHAT'S IN A NAME? I guess it all depends upon the name and the
purpose behind that name. In 1987 I became a born-again
Christian believer under the tutelage of Pastor Sam Lacanienta
at the Fil-Am Church of Irvine (CA). And through his
encouragement, I began doing Christian writing. In the early
1990s I began to write, publish, and mail a Christian
newsletter, The Good News. I did that, mailing it to about
400 homes across America and to about 60 homes in 12 other
countries, for as long as I could afford to do it on my own
financially.
Then the computer company I worked for closed our
division, and after a while I had to stop publishing the
newsletter, for I was in a period of unemployment. And I have
never, not then and nor now, felt right about asking others to
pay or help pay for what I write. I felt, and still feel, that
God gave me a writing ministry and He gave me the knowledge and
understanding to do that writing. How can I ask folks to pay
for what God had given me freely? I have seen some get very
wealthy writing and selling Christian books, but that is beyond my comfort
zone.
For several years I did the Christian newsletter and church
bulletins. This I did using the name Bill & Dory
Gray. Later Dory and I, believing God would make an extended
ministry possible through her international transactions - we made plans to expand our Christian
ministry beyond just my writing, to include programs to help the
homeless, to create jobs for the homeless, and through other Christian ventures. For that we
needed a name, so we chose the name "International Christian
Fellowship" - and at that time it most definitely was a
non-profit venture.
Circa 1998/99 we moved to Riverside, California, and in 1999, I
became one of three elders for the Fil-Am Church of Corona, a
church planted by our senior pastor, Pastor Sam Lacanienta, and
for the past 24 years, Pastor Ed Dacio has been the senior pastor in
Corona. In the early years, he was a
full time pastor while attending Talbot Seminary at Biola
University and working as an OR nurse. Pastor Ed appointed
three elders for our first Corona
church elder board: Ferdy Cancino, Tony Alagao, and myself.
One Sunday morning, as I was getting dressed to attend our worship
service, which has always been at 1:30 PM, I was listening to
KWVE Christian radio. At a church in Yorba Linda, the pastor,
to emphasize the diversity within their fellowship was asking
the congregation to tell him the country where they were born before immigrating to America.
For a few minutes, folks would raise their hands and call out
their country of origin. When it got to about 25 countries other
than America - the pastor stopped the counting, telling them,
"You can see that our Christian faith, and our local church -
truly extends to all people, worldwide."
I was so impressed by what I heard in that Yorba Linda church
service, that later at our church I told Pastor Ed about it. And I
suggested that
maybe we should consider a name change to reflect our desire to
include folks from other countries and other cultures in our
fellowship - but still maintaining our Pinoy heart. A couple of
weeks later, we had an elder meeting to discuss a name change.
In the meeting were we three elders, Ferdy, Tony, and myself,
Pastor Ed, and our elder board secretary, Venny Camino.
Looking for a name which would reflect our desire to be inviting
to all people, I suggested the name "International Christian
Fellowship of Corona" - to follow the pattern of our
current "Fil-Am Church of Corona." Pastor Ed suggested
we rearrange it a wee bit and call it the "Corona
International Christian Fellowship." We all liked that
name, so that name was adopted. Thereafter our church bulletins
reflected our new name "Corona International Christian
Fellowship" with the tag line, "A Filipino-American
Christian Outreach Ministry" - just to make sure that
folks know we are a church with a Pinoy Heart, but welcoming to
all people.
At that point I knew that I could not keep using the name International
Christian Fellowship for our personal Christian ministry
- so I changed it to World Christian Fellowship. That
went well for a time and I used it in my Friends Ministry
eNewsletters, on other venues such as the TimesDaily
Religion Forum, The Conservative Voice, and other venues
where I had opportunities to post my writings.
One day I received an e-mail from a gentleman in Africa telling
me that he had been ordained through my World Christian
Fellowship. I wrote back that I could not ordain him, for
I was only a Christian believer and not officially ordained myself. About
six months later, I received an e-mail from another gentleman in
an African country telling me he had been ordained in my
ministry. I sent him the same reply - but decided to do some
investigating to see who was using the same name and selling
ordinations.
I found a fellow near Fresno, California, who was using the name
World Christian Fellowship and selling ordinations for
$75 to any and all who wanted to perform weddings and do other
"for pay" activities that were specific to ordained pastors.
Realizing I could not sue him, for I had only unofficially
coined the name - my only alternative was to do another name
change. But this time to a name reflective of Dory and me, but
less likely to be chosen by anyone else. Thus the name Bill
& Dory Gray Christian Ministries. At first Dory
resisted, not wanting to use our personal names, and in her
typical Pinay mindset, she did not want folks to think we were
trying to personally declare ourselves to be self-righteous.
But over years, she has mellowed on accepting the name. So our
Christian ministry business card carries the logo: "Bill
& Dory Gray Christian Ministry, A Non-Profit Christian
Ministry." Am I claiming to be a 501c3 non-profit
ministry? No, only reflecting the truth - that in over 30 years
of doing the Christian writing ministry which God gave me - I
have not received any money nor any other financial support nor
profit from it.
Only
one time have I been given any financial help - and that was
from a Christian sister, Bles, in our original home church, the
Fil-Am Church of Irvine. One Sunday Bles gave me 30 postage
stamps to help us with the cost of mailing our Friends Ministry
Newsletter via snail-mail to
over 400 homes in America and to 60 homes in 12 other countries.
Considering that I have been doing the Christian writing
ministry for over 30 years - that equals one postage stamp per
year. Not a great profit. But then the only real profit I have
ever wanted is from God, a heavenly mansion one of these days.
But I will be honest. I can only imagine the glorious feeling if, one
day when I am in heaven, and someone comes to me and says, "Thank you. For your witness in your blog, newsletter, etc., made me want to know more about Jesus Christ." Wow! All of Bill Gates money could not equal that reward.
So Dory and I can wear the tag line: "A Non-Profit
Christian Ministry" with no legal
worries - for we most certainly are non-profit.
During the years, 2007-2015, when I was posting on the TimesDaily
Religion Forum, the atheists, agnostics, and other vanilla-flavored
non-believers used to accuse me of making money off what they
wrote in response to my blogs on that forum. Yes, I often did
post the same blogs on The Conservative Voice online
newspaper and in my Facebook Notes - but never for profit. But
trying to tell that to the Liberal Anti-God crowd on the forum
was like spitting into the wind. So when I did repost a blog on
another venue, I changed or deleted the pseudonyms the
detractors on the Religion Forum were using - to protect the privacy of the not-so-innocent.
So, what's in a name? That all depends upon your reason and
purpose for the name. For Dory and me, we just want to share
God's Word with as many people around the world as possible -
and pray that we do it in a manner which glorifies His name.
God bless, have a wonderful, blessed day,
Bill
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