I continue to regularly meet with leaders from inside and outside the Movement week by week for the Awakening Series. Each interview leaves me encouraged and challenged in various ways. If you haven’t yet watched an interview, the goal of the Awakening Series is to infuse voices and inspiration into the Movement. I believe there is something important we carry in our historical roots that the worlds needs today. I would love to see us working together in Oregon and Southwest Washington awakened to that reality. You might be interested in our conversation in episode one with Dr. Barry Callen or you might love my conversation with Dr. Kimberly Majeski in episode six. We will continue to add episodes, so check back to see the latest.
I’d love to hear your feedback on these interviews. You can do so by adding a comment to the YouTube video, sharing the videos on social media, or by contacting me directly at or 559-303-1571 or mguzman@orwacog.org .
Our Movement was born with a vision for change. The moment is ripe for our Movement to be awakened again.
Find the full YouTube playlist at www.bit.ly/orwacog-awakening
Michael Guzman
Multimedia/Resource Pastor
jmichaelguzman@gmail.com, 559.303.1571
Episode 1, “A Movement Captivated by Idealism” is a conversation with Dr. Barry Callen, the Movements most prolific writer. He and I discuss some new resources he has recently published, and as always with Dr. Callen, we discuss the beauty and the agony of the Church of God.
Episode 2, “The Five Non-Negotiables” is a discussion with Dr. Jim Lyon, Executive Director of Church of God Ministries. Jim shares the back story of the five non-negotiables and their importance in his story and our story. They capture well the unique nature of the Church of God and deserve to be built upon for the next decades.
Episode 3, “Taking Back What Hell Has Stolen” is a second discussion with Dr. Jim Lyon. In this episode, we talk about the aggressive language Jim used for a previous ChoG Convention. Jim provides the back story and narrative scriptural background but also addresses some areas of pushback to the language.
Episode 4, “Embracing the Ways of Jesus” is a lengthy talk with my friend and mentor, Bob Rognlien, Director of 3DM West and Founder of The Footsteps of Jesus and The Footsteps of Paul— immersive, experiential, guided trips to the Holy Lands. We discuss the way of Jesus and how it is such a helpful outline for the life and the ministry in which we find ourselves in this post-Christian, post-pandemic, secular era.
Episode 5, “BibleProject for the Church of God” is a dialogue with Mike McDonald, Chief Strategic Relations Officer for the BibleProject. We explore the full variety of free resources the BibleProject has available, hear Mike’s testimony and amazing strategy for engaging with change, and hear an open invitation for our Association and churches to partner with the BibleProject to see our people experience the Bible as a unified story that leads to Jesus.
In Episode 6, “The Rooted Impact of Women in Ministry” I sit down with the Dr. Kimberly Majeski, Executive Director of Christian Women Connection. We discuss Kimberly’s ministry history and influences and hear about some of the new initiatives at CWC. We also discuss the impact of women in ministry in the Movement’s early days, but the decrease in the number of women in ministry in our current day. You will hear about many open doors currently available to see more sisters leading Kingdom work in the present and future.
Episode 7, In this episode I sit down with Bishop Timothy Clarke. Bishop Clarke was the previous Chair of the General Assembly for the Movement. He led during the season of COVID and the murder of George Floyd. We talk about the movement’s history in racial unity and address what happened at the General Assembly back in 1915 when the KKK was threatening the gathering. We bring it to the present as well and have a sobering discussion about the difficult position we find ourselves in.
Episode 8, My friend, Andrew Chalmers, leads a cluster of ministries in Columbus, Georgia. He shares about his radical conversion to Jesus after a life on the streets in addiction. He shares about pioneering new ministries and about the importance of abiding in Jesus. At the end of the call we talk about a time when Andrew visited my church after a weekend of ministry together and left to get gas only to start a mini-revival at the gas station.
Episode 9, We all know and love Dr. Jerry Davisson, our District Pastor, but sometimes familiarity can cause us to miss what a person carries. In this episode we talk about Jerry’s ministry history, but we also dig into the Missional Church topic that Jerry has his doctorate in.
Episode 10, Have you read about the Decentralized Church? I sat down with Dr. Lloyd Moritz, the former Regional Pastor of the Pacific Northwest Association. We talk about decentralized models of church—something that Dr. Moritz has spent this career experimenting in. We also address Transformation Communities – the active project Lloyd launched with multiple leaders in Washington and Idaho that is now open to other interested leaders across the US.
Episode 11, Dr. Brian Johnson is 8th President of Warner Pacific University. He carries a rich testimony and has vast leadership experience at the University level— having led or been on staff at Tuskegee University, Mercy College in New York and Austin Peay State University in Tennessee. We discuss Dr. Johnson’s desire to see the Pastors and Leaders involved again at Warner Pacific and his thoughts about the current season the University finds itself in.