( source :texte écrit sur un site internet "page lizzy's corner " par ANTHONY WILLIAM GIEZENDANNER- Australie )

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ANTHONY WILLIAM GIEZENDANNER

An Autobiographical Sketch and Testimony

According to the most recent research, the Giezendanner name (simply pronounced Geet-sen-dah-nah) is traced to a 1st July 1396 document from the ancient Celtic library of the Abbey of St. Gallen, Switzerland. Brothers Uli and Hainin Giezendanner are amongst forty-one citizens of Lichtensteig who promised to pay a ransom for the release of a Uli Brisi who was imprisoned in the dungeon of Yberg Castle at Wattwil and placed their personal seals on the public document. This fact strikes a spiritual chord in me as I consider it was Jesus Christ who ransomed me with His precious blood on the cruel cross of Calvary. Not only is His payment for my sin made good, but also His promise of my release is marked in me “with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit,” Ephesians 1:13.

It was a joy for me to be a part of the worldwide Giezendanner celebration of the 165th Anniversary of the Getzendanners arriving in Maryland, USA, 11th-13th July 1997 in Frederick, Maryland.
On 11th September 1729 Christian and Anna Barbara Getzendanner arrived in Philadelphia Pennsylvania on the ship Allen. They had probably left Europe for economic reasons and probably also because of religious persecution.

My family ancestor Joseph Anton Giezendanner, however, landed on Australian shores at Port Adelaide,
South Australia aboard the Star of Erin on the 28th April 1876. Family tradition says that he had fought or served
as a chaplain in the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-1871 when he was wounded with seven bullets to his leg and thereafter walked with a limp. While recovering from his wounds he studied in the Roman Catholic Jesuit Seminary
in Innsbruck, Austria. Though his sister Maria Katharina Giezendanner was accepted as a candidate on 18th March 1873 to the Order of Nuns at Menzingen, Switzerland, Joseph Anton, however, was refused his ordination
to the priesthood at the Jesuit Seminary, Sevenhills, Adelaide, Australia. Why? Because he was unable to consent
or defend the doctrine of papal infallibility, Mariolatry, the adoration of saints, and other matters of Roman Catholic doctrine and practice ratified by the Roman Vatican I Council of 1870.

Joseph Anton moved to Melbourne, Victoria where he found an ally in an ex-Catholic Lutheran Pastor Max von Schramm. After nine months of extensive study in theology and the Scriptures, Joseph Anton was examined on
24th April 1878 in homiletics, exegesis, dogmatics, and symbolics and he was ordained as a Lutheran pastor on
28th April 1878. The Lutheran Church building in Charter’s Towers, Queensland, Australia where Joseph Anton Giezendanner was a preacher of the Reformation Movement was to be also one day to become the home of the Church of Christ, still today known as the German Church. Joseph Anton’s grandson William was my grandfather. He attended the Church of Christ Sunday School in that building and there he would learn to have faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. Following his early years of school teaching, William Giezendanner became the minister at the Townsville Church of Christ in 1939 and would serve Christ as preacher for the Restoration Movement until his death in 1982. He was also editor of the Queensland Churches of Christ magazine The Christian Echo.

Psalm 139:13-14, “For You created my inmost being; You knit me in my mother’s womb. I praise You because I am fearfully and wonderfully made; Your works are wonderful, I know that full well.” I believe God has knit
together in me the family traits of pursuing truth and faith. And yet, my desire to win people to Jesus Christ
may simply come from God’s call on my life.

At the age of ten years, I was in the sixth grade with some other forty children in my classroom. My parents had
just buried my four-month-old sister Marin. She was a Down’s Syndrome baby with a hole in her heart and my mother was not able to keep her food digested. For those four months my parents were not able to get any sleep. I remember sequences of nights with the red lights of the ambulance streaming through the window of my bedroom. My parents were God-fearing and God loving. Somehow their plans for a harmonious household disintegrated.
My beautiful and talented mother seemed to age ten years in those four months. Not long after, my father had a nervous breakdown. My eldest sister Melody married and my brother Harvey aged fourteen dropped out of school. My two younger sisters Verity and Treeny were as confused about life as I was. Marin, we decided, was our
“angel unaware” (Hebrews 13:2). God had chosen us to care for Marin. We knew she was sent on a mission
from God to us to see if we could really trust Him in our troubles.

I had thrown myself into my schoolwork and was placed top of my class. In those days, at the beginning of every term, we would take our new desk in the classroom based on where we were ranked academically. First place took the back row teacher’s left. The lowest ranking student sat in the front row. The first day of that term, the teacher asked us in first, second, third place to stand at our desks and answer in turn questions, that she might show us to be examples to others. We were first asked the time we were sent to bed each night. I went to bed at seven o’clock. Chuckles could be heard from all around the room. The teacher quickly came to my aid extolling the virtues of early to bed, early to rise. Starting with the other boys she asked us what we wanted to be. One wanted to be a doctor. The other wanted to be a scientist. And then there was me.

Into my head entered the answer dispelling all other fanciful careers. I knew, even at the tender age of ten, there was only ever one job in the entire world that mattered. “A preacher!” I proudly pronounced. I then stood there for what seemed to be a lifetime. With this answer, the class had broken up into uncontrollable laughter. The din was so great my classmates doubled over in hilarity could not hear the whipping of the cane against the blackboard to bring the class to order. Not even my teacher could defend me this time, nor did she know what to do with such an aspiration from such a promising student. I sank in my seat in humiliation. I could not swallow. And in shock, I could only see a mixture of black, blue, and green. Perhaps that was a moment of physical blindness.

Two years later, I heard the American Evangelist Reggie Thomas preach. As the congregation sang “O Happy Day that Fixed My Choice,” I came down the aisle of the church, confessed my faith in Christ, and was immersed into Him 23rd July 1973. From that time I served Jesus humbly with His gifts: as a musician, teaching Sunday School, leading the youth, and at twenty-one I was made a deacon. After some maturing in the secular world and after a successful ten year career with the Australian government, I resigned my position in response to God’s call on my life, “Who will go for me?” I sold my things and enrolled in the Cincinnati Christian University for the best Restoration Movement education available. It was my supreme joy to be chosen to serve three years under the celebrated scholar and Bible translator (NKJV and NIV), Dr. Lewis Foster as his graduate assistant.

While in seminary, God afforded me several other outstanding opportunities that would form me as a man capable of ministering the grace of God to men, women, and children of the twenty-first century. My first opportunity came as a part-time Christian day care administrator for the Oak Hills Child Development Center. Then I had the privilege of being mentored by Tony Thomas in church planting and church growth in a new church plant north of Cincinnati, Ohio. The Lakota Christian Church had begun two years before my arrival with a nucleus of eleven adults initially meeting at the Beckett Ridge Country Club and then moving the Lakota High School. Sixteen acres of prime property was purchased and developed and eventually the first house of worship was erected at a cost of nearly one million dollars, an incredible fruition of a vision for God through a band of people numbering just over two hundred. I was a part of every stage of growth and experienced the exciting process of the capital stewardship campaign. I experienced the philosophy of modern church growth principles practiced. My next assignment while in college was as a worship minister for the Grove City Christian Church, Ohio. My introduction of a dynamic contemporary music ministry partly resulted in the increased average weekly attendance of the church from 250 to 350 persons over an eighteen-month period.

Meridian Street Christian Church was a rural congregation where God richly blessed my life with my sister Treeny leaving her career in London to join us in evangelism. Our greatest thrill was to conduct a Christian Coffee shop in the basement of the building on Friday nights. Young people from fifteen to fifty years of age packed the basement each weekend as they enjoyed our live house band and free coffee and cake while we formed friendships and saw several come to Christ.

Londonderry Christian Church in New Hampshire was a church needing hope and vision for the future. While grounding the people in the New Testament, hurting hearts have been healed, spiritual growth has resulted, and many have been baptized into Christ to find forgiveness of sin and joy of the Holy Spirit. Again, my sister Treeny, this time with her husband, has joined in the work as they now provide the greatest blend of contemporary music and hymns updated in inspiring arrangements.

It seems Treeny and Ben are partners with me in the gospel. Marriage has eluded me thus far with an engagement broken in 2004. But I have not given up on the hope of finding a wife wanting to join me in the call of Christ. An inspiring Scottish preacher and hymn writer George Matheson, too had an engagement broken. He wrote the beautiful hymn, “O Love that Wilt Not Let Me Go” when his fiancée broke off his engagement when he announced his onset of blindness. His partner in the gospel was his sister and he pastured a congregation of 1500 because he had spiritual vision.

Over the many years, God has granted me a spiritual vision for the United States of America. It is becoming more and more culturally, linguistically, morally, and ethically diverse as the decades increase. Spiritually, the country has become polytheistic and religiously confused. But the truth of God’s Word is singular and God Himself is one. My passion is simple: to be one of God’s men to reach these His creation for Christ and be His servant.

My mission is clear for the twenty-first century: to call individuals, families, and nations to find God’s purpose, peace, and spiritual joy in an authentic relationship with Jesus Christ that is marked by a genuine and complete surrender of their lives to His Lordship. The call is radical, but it is the one Christ makes on all of us: His preachers, His elders, His church, and the lost. Until He comes again, I must pursue and promote His truth and love.

FEES:

The cost for this service is $750,000 USD. ($150,000 per year)
A 35% override on all services purchased from this vendor will be charged by SMR 8586.

Anthony W. Giezendanner
50 Bartley Hill Road
Londonderry, NH 03053
(603) 321-2430
AnthonyWGiezendanner@mac.com

OBJECTIVE
Fulfill the Great Commission and be God’s instrument in the spiritual development of His people

SUMMARY OF QUALIFICATIONS
• Ordained 1994 Grove City Christian Church, OH
• 10 years Senior Minister with multiple staff
• 31 years in Church Leadership with church planting experience

EDUCATION
M.Div. Theology May 1996 Cincinnati Christian University, OH
M.A. Biblical Studies May 1995 Cincinnati Christian University, OH
B.A. Bible and General Studies May 1993 Cincinnati Christian University, OH
A.A. Church Music May 1992 Cincinnati Christian University, OH

RELEVANT EXPERIENCE
Senior Minister, Londonderry Christian Church, NH 2001 – 2005 10 baptisms per year (45)
• Unified congregation by establishing New Testament doctrine with every member discipleship program
• Developed blended worship style adding vocal and instrumental teams
• Introduced innovative Bible-saturated preaching and worship with multi-media
• Instigated children’s worship service, women’s ministry, new DivorceCare™ program
• Commenced after-service fellowship and visitor assimilation program
• Conceived and initiated vision for church growth, held first Annual Vision Banquet
• Organized ministry teams to position church for evangelistic growth
• Authored and compiled ministry leaders’ manual for church procedures
• Beautified grounds and building of the church
Senior Minister, Meridian Street Christian Church, Greentown, IN 1995-2000 5 baptisms per year (25)
• Initiated Clothes Closet for the needy and disaster relief fund for tornado victims
• Scheduled quarterly community Gospel music concerts; annual community carols-by-candlelight
• Sponsored monthly Christian newspaper: The Meridian Messenger
• Authored monthly column “A Christian Perspective,” local paper The Greentown Grapevine
• Café Meridian, a Christian coffee shop in the basement which drew 75-125 teenagers every Friday night
• Founded Greentown Community Youth Choir
• Established church-sponsored Little League Baseball team Meridian Street Angels
Worship Minister Part-time, Grove City Christian Church, OH 1994-1995
Worship Minister/ Church planter, Part-time, Lakota Christian Church, West Chester, OH 1991-1994
Administrator, Part-time, Oak Hills Child Development Center, Cincinnati, OH 1992-1993
• Brought center to Government standards; authored, implemented, and enforced standard operating procedures
• Introduced Christian curriculum; supervision of teaching staff; receipt of student fees; staff salaries
Private Pianoforte Instruction Part-time 1986-2006
Musician, Children’s Choir Conductor Part-time, Lockland Christian Church, Cincinnati, OH 1989-1990
Mainframe Computer Operator, South East Queensland Electricity Board, Australia 1977-1988
• Class 1 Supervisor; developed mainframe computer operator procedures manual for staff
Music Director Part-time Kingswood Park Church of Christ, Australia 1986-1988
Musician, Youth Leader, Deacon, Annerley Church of Christ, Australia 1974-1986

PROFESSIONAL MEMBERSHIPS
American Association of Christian Counselors, Charter Member 1994 – present

AWARDS AND ACTIVITIES
Who’s Who Among Students in American Universities and Colleges 1995
Graduate Assistant to the celebrated NT Restoration scholar Dr. Lewis Foster 1993-1995
National Dean’s List 1989-1993

SEMINARS
• Society of Biblical Literature, Philadelphia, PA 2005
• The Life of Christ, Dr. Tom Thatcher, Cincinnati Christian University, OH 2005
• Isaiah, Dr. Mark Mangano, New England 2003
• The Barnabas Project, Canyon Ridge Christian Church, NV 2001
• Divorce and Remarriage, and Revelation, Dr. George Faull, Summit Theological Seminary, 2000
• Preaching Summit, Indianapolis, IN 2000
• Person to Person Evangelism, Salt Fork Park, OH 2000
• Preaching Summit, Indianapolis, IN 1999
• Person to Person Evangelism, Salt Fork Park, OH 1999
• North American Christian Convention, Kansas City, MO 1998
• North American Christian Convention, Indianapolis, IN 1995
• Rick Warren Saddleback Community Church 1993
• Bill Hybels, Willowcreek, Chicago, IL 1992
• George Barna, Winona Lake, IN 1991
• Bill Hybels, Willowcreek, Chicago, IL 1991
• Bob Russell, Lousiville, KY 1990

PROFESSIONAL REFERENCES
Mr. Conde Echelbarger, Elder Fairfield Christian Church, IN (former Treasurer, Meridian St Christian Church)
(765) 628-7508

Dr. Jeffrey Arbeit, Teacher / Lecturer J. Maxwell & Associates, RALEIGH, NC
(919) 341-2270 (JMA857@hotmail.com)

Mr. Paul DeBow, Member, (Lay Minister) Londonderry Christian Church, NH
(978) 804-5099

Mr. Anthony Varner, Senior Minister Maple Grove Christian Church, Jamesville, NC
(252) 792-1387

Mr. Tim Schlaegel, Associate Minister Stafford County Christian Church, Fredericksburg, VA
(540) 368-0247 (540) 729-1530

Mr. Drew Billings, Graduate Student, Cincinnati Christian University, OH
(interned and ordained at Londonderry Christian Church)
(513) 221-5683

Mr. Paul VanScoten, Member, Londonderry Christian Church, NH
(603) 682-2897

Mr. Tony Thomas, Senior Minister Woodland Heights Christian Church, Crawfordsville, IN
(765) 362-5284 (765) 366-3141

Mr. James Hansee, Associate Minister Whitewater Christian Church, Cincinnati, OH
(former Associate Minister Londonderry Christian Church)
(513) 922-1836

Dr. William Strother, Professor of Biblical Studies and Preaching Atlanta Christian College, GA
(404) 669-3211