{"id":788674,"date":"2013-10-24T01:36:13","date_gmt":"2013-10-24T01:36:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/?p=788674"},"modified":"2013-10-24T01:47:13","modified_gmt":"2013-10-24T01:47:13","slug":"goodbye-to-a-great-man","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/2013\/10\/24\/goodbye-to-a-great-man\/","title":{"rendered":"Goodbye to a Great Man"},"content":{"rendered":"

The world has lost an incredible man. \u00a0God called him home a few weeks ago.<\/p>\n

Bishop Sherwood Carthen was the lead pastor at the Bayside of South Sacramento. \u00a0He was a guest speaker at our church on a regular basis.<\/p>\n

I did not have the privilege of meeting Bishop Carthen in person, but was blessed many times over hearing him preach ay Bayside Granite Bay. \u00a0While at Mt. Hermon this past summer, when my husband and I heard he was speaking there next summer, we did not hesitate to sign up for his week.<\/p>\n

Two moments I want to share with you that will remain in my heart forever:<\/p>\n

1) I took my boys to see the inauguration ceremony for Dr. John Jackson, at William Jessup University. \u00a0I sat there, witnessing Godly men of our community, speaking words of encouragement and affirmation to the new president. \u00a0I was particularly taken by Bishop Carthen’s message. \u00a0Not only was it affirming, it was also a charge for accountability. \u00a0I sat there, crying over God’s positioning of these incredible men all in this region, a region we had recently moved to, heeding a call from the Lord, but not knowing why we were here. \u00a0I realized that Bishop Carthen and these other leaders would be the men speaking into and helping to shape the lives of my boys. \u00a0Even though Bishop Carthen has passed on, through technology, his teaching will continue to be a facet in our family devotions.<\/p>\n

2) I have a friend whom I have known all her life (that’s 44 years!) \u00a0She has lived a survivor’s life, and was against God for many years. \u00a0These past two years, though, I have seen a softening of her heart, and whenever she visited us (she lives in Washington), she would join us at Bayside (Granite Bay). \u00a0A few months ago, she paid us a visit and we attended the Bayside service, with Bishop Carthen speaking. \u00a0Later that evening, she shared with me that a couple weeks earlier she had given her life to Jesus. \u00a0Before entering the Bayside service, she prayed silently, “Lord, please show me what to do next. \u00a0I need to know what to do next.”
\nDuring that service, Bishop Carthen actually said, “If you are a new believer, and you need to know what to do next, here are the next five things you need to do.” \u00a0My friend was shocked and stunned that the Lord used Bishop Carthen to answer her prayer so quickly and so exact. I am forever grateful for his mesage to her that day.<\/p>\n

The boys and I decided to attend his memorial service. \u00a0Our church opened up their video cafe for people to watch it streaming video instead of going to Sacramento for the service. \u00a0We chose to do that. \u00a0It turned out to be an incredible five hour sharing of government, community, faith-based leaders, family, and friends.<\/p>\n

Instead of it being called a funeral, or memorial service, it was a “homegoing celebration”. \u00a0There was a running joke from one speaker to the next over who his best friend was. \u00a0The mayor of Sacramento, the Sacramento police chief, and Chris Webber of the Sacramento Kings were a few sharing. \u00a0Our own worship pastor, Lincoln Brewster, spoke on behalf of our pastor, Ray Johnston, who was recovering from shoulder surgery. \u00a0All who spoke did an incredible job honoring and incredible man. \u00a0Even his precious wife spoke and shared. \u00a0Only by the power of Jesus love was that even possible.<\/p>\n

My dapper young men…
\n\"IMG_3847\"<\/a>
\n\"IMG_3850\"<\/a> \"IMG_3851\"<\/a><\/p>\n

‘R’ was thrilled to discover that the Kleenex provided by Bayside was all pixelated. \u00a0He was disappointed to discover that it was only the plastic wrapping. \u00a0It was a five hankie event, one per hour…\"IMG_3853\"<\/a><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

This past weekend, our Pastor Ray complemented his talk on 2 Timothy with a montage of his speaking at Bayside. \u00a0You are welcome to watch it here and I pray you are blessed by it.<\/p>\n

Bayside Shares Carthen Video<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The world has lost an incredible man. \u00a0God called him home a few weeks ago. Bishop Sherwood Carthen was the lead pastor at the Bayside of South Sacramento. \u00a0He was a guest speaker at our church on a regular basis. I did not have the privilege of meeting Bishop Carthen in person, but was blessed […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-788674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-thisnthat"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788674","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=788674"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788674\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":788680,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/788674\/revisions\/788680"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=788674"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=788674"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.centerdeep2.com\/riverbendprep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=788674"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}