Bill Shoemaker

You probably got the word by now that Bill Shoemaker passed away on Friday.

We were in Findlay when Bill came on General Conference staff, "hired" by Wayne Boyer, to be the Director of Church Planting.

My sense is that Bill brought a spirit of peace, grace and gentleness to his service for the King.

Bill was a good, nice man who oozed the fruit of the Spirit in every moment and whose love for the Lord was always obvious.

Honestly, I hadn't spoken to him for several years but the last time I did was when I was beginning to enter my time of frustration with the, then, holders of institutional authority in the CGGC.

I was new to my embrace of my APEST gifting and beginning to care about the great distance between offical CGGC talk and the mountaintoppers' walk.

Bill caught wind of that and heard that, at the moment, I was thinking about leaving the CGGC. He, so sweetly and kindly, encouraged me not to leave.

I can't say that he's the reason I've stayed, but our brief conversation was a factor. When I thought about the "leaders'" talk-ism, from that moment, I always remembered that Bill was a part of that team. And, my angst always eased.

Ironically, it was a few years later, that the ERC turned from me so that the current unconsummated defrocking goes on.

We've lost one of brightest lights. My condolences to Candice.