THE LIFE FLOW OF THE G.A.N.G. WITHIN THE CHURCH

Isaiah 54: 2-3 “Enlarge the place of your tent, and let them stretch out the curtains of your dwellings; Do not spare; Lengthen your cords, and strengthen your stakes. For you shall expand to the right and to the left, and your descendants will inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities inhabited.” (KJV)

The Vision of the G.A.N.G.

God’s Anointed Now Generation is impacting the lives of young people all around the world. In 1993, armed with only a vision and a dream, Pastor Sonny Arguinzoni Jr., took a risk that many would have considered to be too risky and possibly too costly. The vision was and is to see young people transformed and changed by the power of God, which was rooted so deeply in his heart that it led to what we now know as God’s Anointed Now Generation, or the G.A.N.G. The name was inspired when our ministry realized that the reason many young people could not maintain their personal walk with Christ was because they had a lack of identity. It was at a World Conference in 1993 that we received a mandate, and an identity. The heartbeat of the G.A.N.G. is to inspire and challenge the young people in our churches around the world to serve God NOW; to answer His call NOW! The G.A.N.G. has expanded and is a thriving ministry within Victory Outreach, from establishing Urban Training Centers worldwide, to hosting crusades and conventions internationally.

As the G.A.N.G., our purpose is to see young people dedicate their lives, wholeheartedly to the Lord. We want to see the young gang members, drug addicts, prostitutes, church kids and hurting young people of our generation be transformed by the power of God. Our mission is to help them understand that they have a sense of dignity and belonging. Our focus is to encourage young people to answer the call of God with no restraints, regardless of the cost. We want to see young people anointed by God, fulfill their callings, and that are willing to go wherever the Lord leads.

The Vitality of the G.A.N.G.

The G.A.N.G. is an integral part of Victory Outreach International. It was not intended to be a group or a club, but from its very beginning, the G.A.N.G. has a focus to develop strong Christians and leaders at a young age. We have seen leaders, pastors and missionaries rise from the G.A.N.G., so we are not just raising up young people, but we are being intentional in developing them.  It has been through the investments of Pastors that believe in young people, and have taken the time to develop, train and empower them that has made the G.A.N.G. successful. This all starts by discipleship. If we invest into their lives, we can effectively pass down what has been passed down to us by God and our Founders. There is a benefit to empowering our generation, that we ultimately reap overall.

There are 4 things that we reap as a result of our spiritual investment into the lives of this generation:

1.  We will have young people who are INSPIRED for the vision.

(They will have a passion for souls)

2.   We will have young people that are IGNITED with fire.

(This will create a fire and momentum within the church)

3.  We will have young people ready to INITIATE action to see it come to pass.

4.   We will have young people that will IMPACT this generation.

Since our very beginning, our Founders have been and are even more so now, passionate about developing this NOW generation. Our intention is to continue into the future with a greater urgency and desire to progress this tremendous legacy. Partnered with the wisdom and experience of the prior generation, as well as the eagerness and willingness of this present generation, we can accomplish all that God has called us to do! Pastors, we need you! Your spirit, your faith, all of your experiences can help us to work cooperatively so we can develop the finest generation this world has seen! Our history is rich and we are so privileged to serve next to such great giants in the faith; we honor our legacy and are passionate about trailblazing the future.

It’s exciting to know that our ministry is an International ministry plus it’s cool that we have family all over the world. We were just in Ireland and as the Irish would say “what’s the story?” The story is the UK/Ireland Regional Conference was awesome a whole week of power packed services. God’s presence fell so heavily that as we ministered there you can sense that the people from England, Ireland & all over Europe were being envisioned, inspired, and challenged to fulfill their calling for God. We were privileged to spend time with the Pastor’s, leaders & the young people (beautiful people by the way). They were so overwhelmed with joy and love; they are so fun to hang out with. It’s a trip when you talk to them because even though they may be talking with a different accent they talk with the same heart, vision, & spirit of Victory Outreach. You can sense their burden to win Europe for Jesus. Pastor Andy Valdez has a beautiful church there in Ireland, and when you talk to him you can feel his heart for Europe. As a matter of fact at the conference they launched out 3 pioneering churches. How awesome it is to see people from Ireland, indigenous people taking their country for Jesus. The people are fired up and are ready for Revival to come to the UK/Ireland Region!

SPRING RETREAT 2009, was off the hook. We had over 350 youth represent 5 regions including the Great Lakes, Mid-West, South East, North East, & Gulf Coast. Many of them drove numerous miles to arrive in Kentucky. Yes, that’s right, Kentucky. It was the center point for all regions. The location was beautiful, but more than the location, was the expectation that the young people had to see God move in this retreat. The power of God was present every service. Many were saved. Each region participated in many activities such as talent shows. They had such an incredible time. No one wanted to leave the altar the last day. God was moving and speaking to everyone, he was showing us that He wanted to send a Revival to our generation. We know that the young people’s lives were transformed at this Spring Retreat. God’s Anointed Now Generation, “It’s Our Time!”

I love when God take us out of the ordinary into the extraordinary, and that’s what happened in the city of Palmdale, and our North L.A. County Region. What I mean is we took our revival service to the streets, all the youth from the region came out to experience an ‘out-of-the-box’ night! We had powerful testimonies, rap, a ministering skit, plus a great word from God. This all took place outside the four walls of the church. God is doing awesome things in the North L.A. County region; young people are getting a hold of God. As a matter of fact the Pastor son, age 16 told me that he was doing his own thing for a long time but after the PK retreat he is ready to help his dad make an impact in his city and take their youth ministry to the next level. It’s exciting to see God doing great things in our youth ministries within Victory Outreach, and I know that this is just the beginning of what God wants to do “we are just scratching the surface”.

“Shaping Leaders for the Future” that is the goal for the Urban Training Center aka “UTC”. We have seen the UTC grow into one of the most powerful ministries within Victory Outreach International. The reason being because of the results it has, many Leaders, Preachers, Ministers, & even Pastor’s have gone through and graduated from the UTC. What makes the UTC so effective is that it has a vision of not only mentoring young people, but also developing them into men & women with the desire to fulfill their God given calling. We have four UTC, one in the West Coast, the second in the East Coast, thirdly in Mexico, & our fourth one is in Cape Town, South Africa. These UTC come equip with leaders that are train experts in developing young people. They train them in their spiritual growth, by having the students develop a personal relationship with God. They also help them discover their gifting, their purpose, and their leadership abilities. Dedication to the ministry is a vital tool that the UTC offers their students, by exposing them to the urban cities around the world. The UTC is the backbone to Victory Outreach International youth ministry God’s Anointed Now Generation!

The “I Am Chosen” PK Retreat was probably one of the best retreats that we have ever had. We had close to 125 Senior Pastor Kids from all over the world. About 50% of them were saved when they arrived, by the end of the retreat God had every single one of those PK’s at the altar accepting Jesus into their life. We heard heart felt messages from Pastor Sonny Jr., Danny Lara and many others who are all PK’s. A matter of fact the whole retreat was headed up by PK’s. We had PK’s leading worship, preaching, singing, performing skits, & icebreakers it was awesome to see that they were all done by PK’s. I think for many of the PK’s it help them to see & meet other PK’s that can totally identify what they have and are experiencing. Another cool thing that all the PK’s got to do was the Odyssey course, these were exhilarating activities that challenge them. One of the challenges that we will all remember was the “Leap Of Faith” obstacle the name says it all. What a great experience the PK’s had, as they left they received a highlight video of the retreat we put up online so that you can view it as well check it out.  If you were at the PK retreat lets us know about your experience.

Top  10 things that true friends are:

1. Godly friends help one-another serve Christ.

2. Godly friends pray for each other.

3.Godly friends motivate one another to keep going forward & not quit.

4.Godly friends keep each other accountable so they won’t get sidetracked.

5. Godly friends don’t let you fall into the temptation of sin.

6. Godly friends don’t gossip or talk negative.

7. Godly friends encourage one another to fulfill their calling.

8. Godly friends work together in advancing God’s Kingdom.

9. Godly friends influence others to follow Christ.

10.Godly friends don’t quit on you when you have fallen & made mistakes.

Ecc. 4:9-12 The Contempory English Version

⁹ You are better off to have a friend than to be all alone, because then you will get more enjoyment out of what you earn. ¹⁰ If you fall, your friend can help you up. But if you fall without having a friend nearby, you are really in trouble. ¹¹ If you sleep alone, you won’t have anyone to keep you warm on a cold night.¹² Someone might be able to beat up one of you, but not both of you. As the saying goes, “A rope made from three strands of cord is hard to break.”

Winter Retreat! Winter Retreat! Winter Retreat! In the past two months, we had seven winter retreats.  I was able to make five of them – that was a lot of traveling. 

We started out in Pennsylvania for our East Coast Spanish Retreat – it was their first one.  I was excited to see all the youth from Chicago to Puerto Rico show up (East Coast Spanish – Quien Vive!?…) . The anointing of God was so heavy; like many of the retreats, the service turned into a prayer meeting where God’s presence just fell so powerfully. 

Then, we traveled to our San Diego County/North L.A. Co./Gold Coast/L.A. Harbor Retreat (try saying that five times fast!).  As we drove up to the retreat center, you can sense the excitement and expectation from the youth that God was going to do something life-changing.  It was great to see Pastor Miller and Pastor Andre there, the O.G’.s  of the G.A.N.G. (just to let you know).

The following morning, we jumped on a plane to Denver where we met up with Rocky Mountain/Texas Retreat.  It was cool to see the youth from Texas amazed by the snow, most had never seen snow before (since its usually 200 degrees in TX!).  Pastor Cesar arrived after a 30-hour flight from Cape Town South Africa.  As we both spoke and witnessed the young people getting a hold of God, broken at the altar -  it reminded me of my first winter retreat where God spoke to me concerning my calling.  As we were in Denver, Danny Lara was with the New Generation at our Jr. High Retreat – he had text me that they had over 230 Jr. Highers and the same presence of God that was in Denver was at their retreat as well. 

When we returned home, we got ready to fly out again to the Southwest/Rio Grande/San Bernardino/Riverside Retreat.  As we were about to land I looked out the window, the view was incredible -  it was nothing but white snow everywhere (it looked just like Narnia).  Israel Tavor picked me up and as we were driving to the retreat center, we were discussing his message “Reviving a Generation through C.P.R. (Compassion Produces Revival)”.  In the car, God spoke to me that He is going to continue raising up young leaders and preachers who really have the heartbeat of God and the Vision of our great ministry. I called Ramon Solorio – he was at the West Coast Spanish retreat in Big Bear.  He told me that their retreat was packed out with over 450 young people and that God was speaking to the young people every service.

The next day I hopped on a plane again!  To go to our last winter retreat of the year, the North Cal./SGV East & West/Tulare County/Central Cal./Pacific Northwest/Northwest, I got many calls that the weather tried to mess with our retreat.  Nevertheless, all of our young people with over 750 in attendance made it safely (thank God!).  It reminds me of a song we sing “You Can’t Stop” – devil you can’t stop our young people from going to winter retreat!  As I arrived around 10 p.m., I met up with the youth leaders and Pastor Sonny Jr. in the green room.  They begin to tell me how the retreat was going.  It was encouraging to hear Pastor Sonny Jr.  talk about how powerful the retreat was and how far our youth have come from the very first winter retreat in 1993 with only a couple of hundred young people to now with eight winter retreats with thousands of young people in attendance.  Wow… look how far we’ve come – to God be the Glory! 

As I began to preach in the morning about how “God Knows our Name” and like Jacob, many of us have wrestled with the call of God upon our lives; you can sense that many young people were being spoken to as they realize that they are not what the world or the enemy calls them, but that they are truly God’s Anointed Now Generation.  It was awesome to see the young people run to the altar. We left the Mountain so proud to be wearing the words GODS ANNOINTED NOW GENERATION printed so clearly on our new gear. We truly are an army!  I was so blessed and humbled to be able to be used by God.  I know that not one of us left the winter retreat the same.  I can’t wait to hear and see the testimonies that come from these mountain top experiences.

Please let us know about your experience at Winter Retreat.

God's Anointed Now Generation

Wow! What a great year we’ve had.  As we end 2008, I was just thinking about our events, the record-breaking attendance, the new events, and how God’s moved in each of our lives.

We started out the year with our United Winter Retreat – our Founder’s words keep ringing in my ears …“It’s Our Time!  It’s our time to grow, it’s our time to be committed, and it’s our time to take our city!”  This has become my daily prayer for the G.A.NG.

Then, we had our first ever Training Day Tour – we hit five cities training young leaders, building relationships and instilling vision to take youth ministry to the next level.  The feedback was great (thank you all for your input, by the way).  We loved hearing from many of you how youth leaders really caught and put into action what they  learned and are seeing results in their own youth ministry. 

The month of June was awesome; we had our first ever Jr. High Camp! (go New Gen, yeah!).  There’s something really special about ministering to our New Generation – there is nothing like seeing Jr. Highers broken in the presence of God, not to mention they are wild and fun like nobody’s business! (Can’t wait till next year)

Then there was our Youth Convention….Need I say more?  How cool was that!? It all started with our Youth Leadership Trainings – Pastor Sonny Sr. spoke to us about the three generations in our ministry:  The Pioneer Generation, The Joshua Generation, and the Now Generation.  Then, opening night of Convention came – all three generations in one place… Awesome! Awesome! Awesome! That’s all I can say.  It just set the tone for all of us to really experience something new and receive the call of God on our lives.  (I still think about those altar calls.) 

Well G.A.NG. thank you for a great year I know none of this could have happen without God & without you.  As I end my first blog entry, I just want to say in the word of Pastor Sonny Sr., “We’ve just scratched the surface!” 

Just you wait…2009 is approaching quickly– and it’s going to be even more amazing!  “It’s Our Time!”