Celebrating the Life and Legacy of Evangelist Joyce Rodgers

bless the lord o my soul and all that is within me bless us holy name bless the lord o my soul and forget not his benefits i will bless the lord at all times his praise shall continually be in my mouth good morning church family and friends um so on on yesterday we we never thought we would be here today and uh allow me to not only uh not only welcome you and uh thank you for joining us online and in person uh but let me offer uh a few comments of contextualization if you would uh this is a a gathering it's a it's an informal gathering uh to remember our friend and sister joyce and to rejoice that was probably her favorite word rejoice joyce you get it rejoice so i want to rejoice and remember and i want to emphasize the fact that we're focusing on joyce the person not necessarily evangelist rogers the church leader and the professional and quite frankly to help emphasize that fact and uh symbolize it i intentionally uh wore jeans and dress dressed casually because we want the world to know that we simply want to acknowledge joy as the person and we are in no shape form or fashion uh attempting to usurp or replace uh any other celebrations that will go forward so again this is a gathering not even a worship service necessarily and certainly not a program and certainly not the homegoing service for evangelist joyce we we are here because we love the lord and we love joyce she was a great uh extended member of the family if you would and we bless god for her before i go any father i want to send a special shout out to the production team uh they've done a wonderful job i i gave them just an idea and not only did they roll it out and produce it within 24 hours uh but they took it to a whole another level uh so i like for those who are here in the sanctuary to give the production team a round of applause show them some love if you would and we're just gonna roll it very very very casually so we're gonna kick off with about 12 minutes of uh praise and worship and uh you know the first song may not sound that good sounded well but it'll be sung with a lot of joy and enthusiasm in jesus name so we invite you to put your hands together and stand on your feet even at home on your job put your hands together stand to your feet and that old song said [Music] [Music] [Music] oh is [Music] all the day long jesus [Music] something about that name yep [Music] somebody [Music] [Music] yes [Music] [Applause] [Music] something about that [Music] [Music] everywhere everywhere i go everywhere come on pop those heads let's continue to celebrate this song right here right here [Music] is victory today is man can you help me say victory victory [Music] victory [Music] is is come on everybody [Music] come on cut your hands give the love to pray listen in the name of jesus in the name of jesus we have the victory can y'all help me say come on is tell me [Applause] everybody glory hallelujah that the lord has made i will [Music] this is come on i will rejoice hey this is hey this is the [Music] and we were blessed to know evangelist george rogers because pastor zuzette introduced her to us good morning this is the day that the lord has made and we're going to rejoice in it and be glad about it there is hope because of our lord and savior jesus christ amen well i met joyce rogers at buck street church of god and christ and we had been invited to speak at one of the programs there at their church sister crystal invited me to be a speaker there and i was seated next to joyce i didn't know joyce never heard of joyce rogers but just sitting next to her during that service i remember she had a warm i'm going to say aura about her there's just something different about this lady and we never said a word to one another and then after the program we were introduced and we began to talk to each other and we learned that we had a lot of things in common of course she grew up in the church of god in christ my my mother and grandmother were all a part of the church of god in christ i have an uncle that was a part of the church of god in christ my great aunt was an official in the church of god in christ and so we had a lot to talk about concerning our our experiences in church we also grew up kind of similar she was a little country girl from texas i was a little country girl from arkansas both of us were raised by our mothers our mothers were very strong women very strong in the lord our mothers were the kind of moms where they were proud of us but they were quick to say godly proud godly proud and we would share these stories and we find out that there was so much in common and we just grew to be fast friends i'll never forget my first trip with joyce to starbucks starbucks was one of her favorite places she loved the coffee and she loved the tea and i've never if we went in and joyce uh goes up to the counter and she says [Music] and i looked at choice she got her beverage and i said girl you in here talking tongues to these people well if you are a starbucks fanatic you do speak in tongues when you order your beverage at starch start uh starbucks you know you go through this long list of things that you want some of y'all out there you love starbucks you know what i'm talking about so we'd go to starbucks and she'd go speaking in tongues again and i had never ordered anything from starbucks so i was going to dive in one day try something and so i said well how do you order i mean i don't even understand the system there's a system to this and so joyce was trying to fill me in and so one day i got brave enough to spend five or six dollars for a little cup of coffee and i went in and she did her hat and i stepped up and i'd say and i said i and she now she hits she had coached me and i stepped up i was confident i said i'd like a hazelnut latte grande with soy milk thank you and i'll never forget boy joyce just laughed at me that was about the extent of my tongue speaking at starbucks joyce and i we we love to take trips with each other and there were a couple of times we took road trips and we would meet in palm springs california at a conference a women's conference that was hosted by mother barbara makuu lewis who is the general supervisor now of the church of god in christ and joyce she was a big dog and she is a big dog in the church of god of christ and she would just um introduce me to everybody make me feel so welcome amongst all of the women there in the conference the kogi conference and i tell you i came to know and love mother whip rivers and mother lewis bishop charles blake lady mae blake even got to know i got to meet the presiding bishop now bishop drew sheard and his wife evangelists dorinda clark sheared joyce she was just that kind of woman she was going to make sure that you were comfortable and people would love who she loved and i'll always be thankful to joyce for introducing me to so many wonderful wonderful people in the church of god in christ well after this conference we'd take the road trip and we'd head from palm springs down to san diego that's where we like to go and i remember the first trip you know we were going to act like we were thelma and louise daryl said well we were going to be all mischievous like them and louise you know we were mary and martha on the road and the only mischievous we got into was stopping at the outlet mall on the way and of course making a trip to starbucks and i'll never forget that first trip we decided you know we were going to go high hog little girls from texas and arkansas and we decided we will stay stay in a five-star hotel a little boutique hotel in san diego and lord we walked into that room and our eyes were just as big as course and our mouths just fell open because it was just so beautiful so luxurious you know we were used to those kind of digs of course we got used to them pretty quick after that oh i'll never forget those trips we had such a great time laughing and talking and praying and just sharing with one another joyce joyce liked almonds and ginger snaps she didn't care much for guacamole and she tolerated our cat lindsay oh she just she just enjoyed life and she liked the simple things of life i'll never forget my friend joyce on march the 5th joyce sent me this graphic she texted to me and she would every once in a while she texts me a scripture or she was always encouraging me she was just an exhorter that was just a part of joyce and the caption matter of fact this graphic was actually a graphic emoji and these two girls in the field are playing uh patty cake and the caption under the graphic said love you friend with friend being in all caps well joyce she was my friend and i'm gonna miss my friend she was my sister friend [Music] i could talk to her about anything [Music] and she was gonna love me no matter what and you know the beautiful thing about this friendship is that there are so many people around the world who will say the same thing in the upcoming weeks she loved people she loved pastor kirby john she was like a sister to him she loved my children she was their auntie she slipped a little money every once in a while because they get excited when auntie joyce was coming [Music] you know she was one of a kind and we're going to miss her dearly and some things we cannot explain when it comes to the things of the lord we know this woman loved the lord with all her heart we know god used this woman mightily she was a preaching machine we know that she stood for holiness and righteousness we know that she loved young people and she poured her life into young people and we know that she is now with the lord so proverbs 31 29 says there are many virtuous [Music] incapable women in the world rejoice you surpass them all thank you for being our friend and friend of windsor village [Music] so uh today's gathering is very simple and straightforward relatively short praise and worship past suzette i'll say a word and then our envision sound team has put together a collage if you would some footage uh of joyce speaking uh we we are here today at 10 o'clock because on yesterday when we received the notice that joyce had made our transition uh we were wrapping up our weekly 10 o'clock am staff meeting and uh when i got the call i shared it with the staff we were meeting online virtually and after i prayed uh probably clumsy prayer [Music] i just heard the lord say 10 o'clock tomorrow we gather so with it started off as a gathering for staff and it just kind of cocooned into something larger and we're thankful again for the production team and those of you who are joining us online um before i make my informal remarks i want to recognize the presence of a couple of our daughters in the ministry uh pastor lily farrell is here you mind standing lily and just turn around real quick good thank you and also want to recognize and welcome to the stage tunisia mike please uh pastor hazel jackson uh one of our daughters and uh i invited both of these sisters to come but i invited hazel to come and share uh because when people like you know kobe bryant for instance when he died folk didn't even know him and they were weeping and mourning and they did so i think for two basic categorical reasons the first is you know he was a star you felt like you knew him through the television and he left a wife and little children behind him so that that's a sad thing and we empathize with that and we cry but i submitted to you that there's another reason why we we for someone we don't really know and that is because the transition and particularly the tragic transitioning of a person reminds us of tragedies and sorrows and hurts and pains in our own life which we have not processed we have a program here at windsor called grief share which pastor hazel jackson heads up and ivan asked her to say a brief word about it and what you know uh as i've shared with pastor jackson personally shared with windsor publicly pastor jackson is the excellent person to lead this kind of group because she knows pain and tragedy uh her own son was tragically killed in a motorcycle accident how many years ago 16 years ago today 16 years ago today so here's pastor hazel making that sacrifice and joyce would really appreciate you being here to share this especially on a sensitive day like today welcome pastor hazel jackson would you please good morning church family friend excuse me friends of joyce friends of caldwell's friends of god it is really important that we understand when someone that we love [Music] dies that we are going to grieve we are going to grieve whether we like it or not we will grieve the death of that loved one there are other tragedies that happen in our lives besides death that we grieve over as well griefshare is a program that's offered to help us make it through our journey to help us heal as we go along in a manner that's going to be pleasing to god that will glorify god it's all biblical you are invited to join one of the groups we have two one at 10 15 a.m on tuesday mornings and another on thursday evenings which is tonight at 7 15. please contact jenny brown here at the kbc you can go online to uh g b g brown at w u m v c no w w v umc dot com and jenny will be glad to sign you up and give you the sign on information we are doing this very zoom it is something that has been very helping and healing for others that have been through their journey with us and it is now helping we have had six sessions already and it is helping so many people you are welcome to be one of those people don't try to do this alone and i got up this morning with all intentions of being here at 9 30. but as pastor caldwell said today is a sensitive day for me it's been 16 years and there are still things that trigger my grief and it will be for you as well sometimes it's hearing a saxophone play because he was a saxophonist sometimes it's hearing a piano and it's it could sometimes someone can say something it can be very kind or it could be something very funny because he was a very funny guy whatever memories you have go back and recapture the good memories that you have of your loved ones that have gone to be with the lord cherish those days and the other stuff can it it's not going to do you any good it's not going to help you in your life forward we are still here in this life now because god has a plan for us he has something for us to do and believe me it's good and it's not evil and it's going to give us hope and a future please take advantage of some help that is free and available thank you pastor thank you thank you for those of us who worship me online yes you can participate in grief share regardless of where you live in the world again that's gb brown at wvumc.com or you can download the windsor village app and access it that way as well gene brown thank you thank you g brown at wvumc thank you kevin any other announcements good so if envisions i would kind of give me this 11 minutes on the on the screen please i'd appreciate it so let me start uh at the end and uh back back up and i'm gonna just tell you now i'm i'm i am going to cry so just i'll just keep going through my tears so i had a had a meeting in in dallas about six eight weeks ago on a monday at 10 o'clock and i called joyce and i said hey i'm gonna be in dallas on monday uh you've been wanting me to meet ricky rush and see his church uh see if he's available and see if you're available on sunday evening and i'll drive up drive up early and we'll hang out let me pause and send a shout out to pastor ricky russia and his church [Music] you blessed our sister tremendously with your hospitality your generosity your meals your compassion made a big difference in her life so i drove up to dallas on sunday evening met pastor rush toward the facility great church and then joyce said i had what i never thought we were having [Music] that's our last meal together didn't talk about anything in particular during the meal just kind of chopped it up as a young folk used to say chill great fellowship [Music] uh and then oh we did talk about the fact it celebrated the fact that she ate all of her dinner almost and that was she didn't eat she took home and she liked the restaurant so much that she went back the next day she told me not very far from my house in downtown dallas [Music] and at the end of the meal kirby our oldest child is sitting back there she refused to let me pay for the bill pastor jackson we almost fought over that thing and as i was driving in here today i thought man you know that's one side of a real friend if they're able to help you able to bless you they're going to do it you never have to worry about a friend a real friend's level of willingness [Music] giving is not about ability it's really about willingness real friends are willing and their willingness exceeds their ability to share and to give [Music] so about two weeks and by the way i asked yours like at least twice during dinner how you feeling feel fine you know so i never went any farther than feeling fine so about two weeks later i called her to ask her to do something i can't remember exactly what it was for sure and i got the most interesting and unusual and really history-making response from joyce her answer was crickets [Music] dead silence so i changed the subject usually when i asked him to do something you know in the ministry she that said yes if she couldn't do it didn't want to do it she said no she said something this time nothing didn't think much about that let that pass then a couple of more weeks passed and i called her she didn't sound well at all and then she she told me about something she was experiencing [Music] and i said uh is this related to whatever and she said yeah i'm still not putting it together still not putting it together but after i prayed a very brief conversation and after i hung up the phone i called one of our associates and said hey uh look if if y'all don't get joyce to the hospitals is that not to drive what they'll fell out there or something we're going to take her whether she wants to go or not within 24 48 hours she was in the hospital i'm i'm i'm not saying she was in the hospital as a result of my conversation with her i'm not saying that but within 24 48 hours she was in the hospital i'm still not putting putting two and two together and retrospect is so clear to me now carolyn but because i just didn't see this [Music] so the day before joyce went home to be with the lord i guess that would be tuesday so that now went up there and this is this is on facebook's twitter one of them is fairly common knowledge now we drove up to where joyce was and i had heard this two or three times but when i saw it pastor lily that's when it began to sink in hospice care shall i share that with you to say man the joyce faced and lived the last days weeks months of her life with the same courage strength and dignity with which she had lived all the days of her life [Music] not complaining still with that billion dollar sense of humor [Music] spanish says him pastor zed said she tolerated our cat she didn't tolerate our cats she didn't like our cat and our cat knew that pastor george evander george didn't like him and neither one of them cared joyce didn't care lindsay didn't like her lindsey and cat joyce like that way they got along real well mutual dislike for each other i used to laugh about that oh lord speaking of laughing do you think you're not met this woman if they wanted to fill the house for for breakfast they knew who they invite if i invite evangelist george rogers so suzette would call her some time i'll call her some time and one time i call her i said well george we we trying to fill a house would you come and would you come and preach i don't know did she ever say no all the way she said no is cause she had a real conflict windsor listen joyce loved you genuinely you know it's not that we paid that much she just loved windsor she called us her other church home joyce loved us and we shouldn't love her let me get into some trouble joyce might be beat me up when we get to heaven i'm gonna tell this story i noticed suzette skipped over it didn't tell it i'm going to tell it george like to go to las vegas [Music] shonda never touch the chair in the in the casino never touch the dice never touched the cards just like to go to las vegas i said y'all what do you like about las vegas the lights back she like last john's about the only person i ever met in my life passes that means when we go on vacation together sometime george would go to one day we went to a beach it was a beach it was a beach it was a beach kind of vacation you understand me they had water and beach beach but you never saw joyce knees never saw her legs who goes to the beach and you're never a city land i meant to if i know she's gonna die this quickly i'm gonna ask you how you pull that off i mean seriously and war appropriate where it wasn't like she was you know at the beach around the beach and looked out of place she looked right with everybody else but nothing you know i mean she was covered nobody could have pulled that off with that kind of dignity except george rogers from gladewater texas speaking of which y'all remember that little thing just she's these quote-unquote cooking shows that's where i got my idea from and i told don and don and them one time i had a on kwk i i did my i don't know what was that banana bread yeah i saw i told the folk the week that the previous week i was gonna cook some banana bread and i got them all pumped up so the following week came i had some bread and i had two bananas i said this is your banana bread i told them something if you want some banana nut bread i didn't put out some nuts and pour the nuts on i thought it was funny they they were like get out of here i was just falling over because joyce taught me that she did pineapple upside down cake and all kind of stuff that's the kind of that child was so funny you think she was a good preacher listen to this she was a better friend than she was a preacher and i when i got a chance to you know present her head wednesday i said it out loud i said it again she was my favorite preacher boy but she's some kind of friend i'll close with this is 18 seconds past 11 [Music] minutes joyce knew how to listen to you when you talk as pastor zed says and loved it and she didn't really judge you she still loved you she would tell you what's wrong but not judge you watch this listen to you when you talk joyce knew how to give you advice this is what i liked about joyce if she'd have something to say that was gonna add value and give you advice she wouldn't comment on it at all i noticed that about the last six eight months i'd say something to her and she you know just wouldn't say anything right a real a real friend listens gives you good advice and shuts up if they don't know what to say don't just say something he's talking and thirdly this is what i love the most sad i wasn't gonna tell nobody she wouldn't tell your business listen to you give it good advice and not tell a soul that's a friend pastor zedd [Music] and i along with you thank the lord not just for the professional the church leader [Music] the supervisor evangelist whatever else she was in church of god in christ and beyond evangelist george rogers we thank the lord along with you rejoice rejoice the person um i think you can type in you can chat you can share some memories about evangelist rogers and believe it or not we close this out with some footage video spots pieces that are put together by envision sound joyce rogers joe 42 and tear talks about the latter is greater if the latter is greater what you are about to receive it's going to be greater than you can imagine and you're not going to get it just to be getting it but you're going to get it because ephesians 3 said god is able now unto him now until not not the economy not the culture not who's in the white house not who's at your house but now unto him that is able to do exceeded abundantly above all you can ask a thing tell somebody i'm getting ready to get some stuff i didn't ask for i didn't think of it but i'm getting it because he's [Music] hey [Music] is [Music] [Music] oh god says this is your season to throw down the word rejoice means to throw down and let loose i dare you to go back home walk through your own house and throw down go on your job where that hateful person is and just go to their people and throw down i tell you to go in your teenager's room while the enemy is trying to wreck heaven with their mind with their destiny with their purple and just throw down because what the devil meant for evil there's about to be a boomerang somebody screams rejoice [Music] oh [Music] is is and again and again [Music] hey god is with you now let's say it like we lit come on let's light this place up just come on you don't get lit up in here look across look look over in that section and say hey god is with you now in case somebody didn't do it come on come on one more time just good you got to light it up leg lift lit over here over here scream to the top of your lungs over that section hey god is with you i think that's a good place to give god a praise [Applause] [Music] sometimes life can change suddenly [Music] and you find it hard to even breathe to being strong now i'm barely hanging on gotta stand tall oh to many would fall what would people say if they knew i felt this way then god gave me this refrain and i'll never be the same he reminded me that he would always [Music] be [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] oh yes [Music] every stronghold is coming down i hear the chains breaking can i just speak this in the house words that have been spoken against you and your household are being destroyed right now when you get home what the devil tried to put in your house has literally been deleted not only for your house but for everybody that's connected to you there is [Music] yes power is power in the name of jesus [Music] you gotta know that in the name of jesus to break every chain break everything [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] i just told processes that that these folk [Music] are north are very good the team put this together in less than 24 hours choosing the video editing the video choosing the songs joyce would be so pleased with this [Music] now unto him who is able [Music] to present us faultless before his throne power glory and dominion all ascribed to him the only one who was who is and who is to come at the same time the one who is the auth and finisher of our faith the one in whom joyce lived and moved and have a very being jesus the christ the author of abundant and everlasting life we give you praise and we thank you for this gathering and we thank you for joyce rogers and all who agrees amen and hallelujah god bless you thank you so much for coming thank you so much so much for being a part thank you [Music] oh [Music] is he's able [Music]

Channel: The Windsor Village Church Family

Views: 51,879

Rating: 4.8777294 out of 5

Keywords: Joyce Rodgers, Evangelist Joyce Rodgers, COGIC

Id: noNvODi8C-Q

Length: 58min 21sec (3501 seconds)

Published: Thu May 20 2021