About our Pastor Randy Gafner

Pastor Randy Gafner 09-2017  Phone: (661) 303-9299

MY CALLING

Sitting in the morning session of the Cowboy Church Pastor’s conference in Tyler TX, God used something the speaker said to take me on a quick journey of my life.
He reminded me of the story of Ester in the Bible where God told her that He was preparing her for “such a time as this”.
God revealed to me that, since I was adopted at two days old, by a couple who owned a ranch, He has been preparing, teaching, molding me to be a Shepard of His people in one of the greatest movement’s He has ever set in motion which is the Cowboy Church.
The upbringing I received from being horseback since I was 3 years old, to making many wrong decisions until I was 23 years old, was just the beginning of what God had in store for my calling to serve in His Kingdom. The next thing He did was bring my bride into my life who, along with her family, loved me unconditionally into the Kingdom of God.
Then through serving in traditional church for 30 years, becoming involved in church restoration ministry and hard knocks I have had along the way, God has shown me that it was all for “such a time as this”.
These life experiences along with the desire to preserve the western heritage culture have prepared me to answer the calling to serve here at Branded Heart Fellowship and to assist the American Fellowship of Cowboy Churches in planting new churches here in the western states.

In His service, Randy Gafner

Pastor Randy Gafner, Dawn Kizzar, Lynn Turner, and Ed Shelton

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About our founding Pastor Bill Vibe

August 4, 1946 – August 24, 2017

Pastor Bill has gone to be with our Lord. We mourn the loss of our friend and pastor today. We will miss his smile, his stories, his music and his enthusiasm for spreading The Word. But we are comforted by the knowledge that we will see him again one day.

Our hearts and prayers go out to Teresa and the rest of the Vibe family. Andrea Vibe shared the information for the services this morning.

Pastor Bill Vibe had been a Christian for over 40 years, and he was an intentional interim pastor and trainer with Titus Task Force since 2001. He was first ordained as a staff pastor in 1985 by Kern Christian Center in Bakersfield, California. He was later ordained by Evangelical Church Alliance (ECA) in 2003, In 2010, Bill was licensed to be a pastor in the Conservative Congregation Christian Conference “The Four C’s denomination”. He had worked in a variety of pastoral positions since his ordination, giving him a wide variety of experience. He had been a minister of music in two churches, and he had owned and operated three companies in the past, which well prepared him for understanding and facilitating the leadership and financial side of church operations.

He helped to plant two churches, one of which, Kern Christian Center in Bakersfield, California, is still bearing much fruit for the Lord’s kingdom. He served as an elder in the Presbyterian Church prior to his ordination for over 10 years, and he understood how elder boards function and work. He also had experience with congregational type church governments as well. His intentional interim training had prepared him to go into various churches and adapt to and work within their church polity.

He had extensive seminar and certification training with Titus Task Force, where he did serve on their board of directors, Peacemakers. Relationship Awareness-Strength Deployment Inventories (SDI), conflict resolution, Evangelical Training Association, church consultant/interventionist training, mediation skills, evangelism, resolving church conflict, counseling, church health, and church growth. He also has an advanced certification for spiritual gifts training and DISC personality testing with Uniquely You.

In 2003 Bill taught a 3-unit class on church health and church growth at the International Christian Ministries (ICM) seminary in Kitale, Kenya.

Bill had a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration/Marketing from University of California at Sacramento, and he had a Master of Ministry degree from Southern California Theological Seminary in Stanton, California (SCTS has closed, transcripts available upon request).

Bill had been married to Teresa, his best friend and partner, for 48 years. They have two daughters, Andrea and Monica, and one son David.  There 3 grandchildren: Morgan, Brady, and Scotty