GENERATION TO GENERATION: A SPIRITUAL LEGACY
JOE, JEREMY & JOHN GRIFFITHS
JOE GRIFFITHS and his wife Eunice migrated to Australia in 1966 and the following year planted a church in Armadale, WA. They spent 13 years in Armadale before moving to Queensland to pastor at North Rockhampton. Other ministry positions included Lithgow and Toowwomba. Joe served as the State President of WA for 11 years. Widowed in 1995, Joe is now 89 years old. His two sons both pastor ACC churches - Stephen at Lighthouse Family Church, Port Kennedy, WA; and Jeremy at Heights Christian Church SA. Joe has eight grandchildren and ten great grandchildren. With five of the grandchildren active in ministry, three generations of the Griffiths family are in full-time service to the Lord.
Q: Describe your own call into full-time ministry and how your family fitted into that call.
JOE: Around 1930, as a young boy, my mother took me to an early Pentecostal revival meeting in the UK where the evangelist (one of the famed Jeffrey’s family) placed his hands on me. At the time I was unaware of the significance of that prayer, but I now look back and realise God was claiming my life and my family’s life for His service. Through a series of amazing incidents God preserved my life during the early days of WW2. I was seriously wounded and discharged from the army in 1941. A godly aunt somehow persuaded my wife and I to attend a small chapel where the grace of God reached and saved us both. Within a few years we were pastoring that very same small chapel. When our two sons arrived, they became part of our life and ministry.
Q: How do you feel about your sons deciding that they wanted to go into full-time ministry and what they are achieving today?
JOE: Before our sons were born we dedicated them both to the Lord. They were never ours, they were always His. There is nothing my wife and I wanted more than for our sons to serve the Lord. The decisions they made to enter ministry were painful in the natural, as their choices took them away from our home, but they were wonderful choices as both of them discovered and chose the will of God for their lives.
Q: What is one specific principle or piece of leadership advice you would want your children to apply in full-time ministry?
JOE: Today, our two sons and five of our grandchildren are in ministry. They are scattered all across the nation and have ministered all over the world. My simple advice to them is, “Love Jesus, and preach the Word!”
JEREMY GRIFFITHS and his wife Bernice are senior pastors of Heights Christian Church in Adelaide where Jeremy also serves as Vice President of ACC South Australia. He has pioneered and pastored large, growing churches around the nation. For five years he was the principal of Southern Cross College. Jeremy and Bernice have three children who are all in full-time ministry.
Q: Describe how being raised in a church/ministry environment impacted your decision to serve God in full-time ministry yourself.
JEREMY: Early in my teenage years, the church where my parents ministered experienced a significant outpouring of the Holy Spirit. It was inspiring to see the power of God transform a church and see it double, treble, and then quadruple in size. It was during this time that I was baptised in the Spirit and received a call to ministry. From the age of 14, all I wanted to do was serve God.
In my later teenage years I assisted my parents in planting a new church in Armadale WA. This gave me invaluable experience in all kinds of ministry and leadership before I ever went to College to train. Active involvement in a local church is the finest preparation for ministry.
On numerous occasions, visiting ministers stayed in our home. These were significant times that helped fashion and expand both my worldview of the purpose and mission of the church.Q: What is one significant quality that you have seen in your parents’ ministry that you hope to imitate or reproduce in your own?
JEREMY: Unconditional love. My parent’s love for me brought incredible security in my life, yet at the same time allowed me to fulfil the call of God. This unconditional love was also expressed to the people whom they served; they had a genuine compassion and concern for people.
Q: Just as your parents built a spiritual heritage for you, what mark do you hope to leave for the next generation?
JEREMY: In one of those divine moments when you sense God is speaking to you, I felt God remind me of several previous promises He had made. It felt as if Heaven was offering me a blank cheque, “What would you like me to do for you?” My immediate response was, “I want my kids to love You.” Eternity is a long time to spend without your kids. We are delighted that our three children and their partners are all in ministry. Now we have grandchildren, I look forward to the opportunity of teaching my grandchildren how to preach and then sit under their ministry.
THE THIRD GENERATION OF THE GRIFFITHS FAMILY CONTINUES TO SERVE GOD IN MINISTRY.
JOHN GRIFFITHS and his wife Nicole are pastors of Coast Church in Bli Bli on the Sunshine Coast which started in February this year.
Q: Describe how being raised in a church/ministry environment impacted your decision to serve God in full-time ministry yourself.
JOHN: Growing up as a pastors kids was the greatest… the building projects, the different church programs, the special privileges, the excitement of new people/families and the church growing. The way that my parents lived their ministry life was something I always wanted for my own.
Q: What is one significant quality that you have seen in your parents’ ministry that you hope to imitate or reproduce in your own?
JOHN: Dad & Mum were always very real and honest, always loving people, passionate about God and His house. The one quality I love about dad’s ministry is his preaching. I often say if I can be half as good a preacher then I’m doing ok. I think my dad is the world’s greatest preacher!
Q: Just as your parents built a spiritual heritage for you, what mark do you hope to leave for the next generation?
JOHN: Surely there can be nothing better than seeing your children serving God in ministry. I think the key is to let go and allow God to do His thing. As a parent it’s got to start on your knees praying for your kids… Then the grace, wisdom, understanding….
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DAVID GRIFFITHS and his wife Paula are assistant pastors at Heights Christian Church in Adelaide,SA.
Q: How did being raised in a church/ministry environment impact your decision to serve God in full-time ministry yourself?
DAVID: Being raised in a church/ministry environment has given me an incredibly clear understanding that “ministry” and “church leadership” is far more diverse than what the congregation experiences on Sunday. It’s the commitment to hard work, prayer, perseverance, blood, sweat and tears that builds strong generational leadership. Exposure to the challenges as well as the many rewards of ministry has strengthened my commitment and call to serve God in full-time ministry.
Q: What is one significant quality that you have seen in your parents’ ministry that you hope to imitate or reproduce in your own?
DAVID: My parent’s bring an incredible sense of stability to their ministry rolls. Their humble commitment, not just to teaching, training and mentoring pastors and students, but to restoring and rebuilding the lives and dreams of broken people is inspiring.
Q: Just as your parents built a spiritual heritage for you, what mark do you hope to leave for the next generation?
DAVID: I believe with all my heart “the most important thing in all the world is loving Jesus!” I want my children and the people in the churches I pastor to understand and believe… no mater who they are, where there from, or what they have done… this simplest of truths can bring focus, purpose and significance to their lives.
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JOANNE FALETOESE and her husband Tepa pastor Life Church Macarthur in Sydney NSW.
Q:How did being raised in a church/ministry environment impact your decision to serve God in full-time ministry yourself?
JOANNE: We grew up seeing the people around us finding and experiencing God. Whether they were zealous new Christians or faithful veteran saints, I came to realize that God can be real for anyone. I felt and feel a passion to help make God real to people.
Q: What is one significant quality that you have seen in your parents’ ministry that you hope to imitate or reproduce in your own?
JOANNE: A strong foundation on the Word of God – to believe it, study it, preach it, teach it, live it, love it.
Q: Just as your parents built a spiritual heritage for you, what mark do you hope to leave for the next generation?
JOANNE: God wants our hearts even more than our service. My greatest desire is for my girls to love God with all their hearts, to know Him intimately and depend on Him for everything.
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