First Person with Wayne Shepherd

First Person: Philip De Courcy

A native of Northern Ireland, Philip De Courcy is now a pastor in Southern Callifornia. Before becoming a pastor, he served as a police officer and saw terrorism up close in Northern Ireland. Send your support for FIRST PERSON to the Far East Broadcasting Company: FEBC National Processing Center Far East Broadcasting Company P.O. Box 6020 Albert Lea, MN 56007 Please mention FIRST PERSON when you give. Thank you!

Duration:: 23m
Broadcast on:: 15 Oct 2010
Audio Format:: other

A native of Northern Ireland, Philip De Courcy is now a pastor in Southern Callifornia. Before becoming a pastor, he served as a police officer and saw terrorism up close in Northern Ireland.

Send your support for FIRST PERSON to the Far East Broadcasting Company:
FEBC National Processing Center
Far East Broadcasting Company
P.O. Box 6020
Albert Lea, MN 56007

Please mention FIRST PERSON when you give. Thank you!

One of my little statements, and I think it's applicable beyond my personal situation, but Security is not the absence of danger. It's the presence of God and I had to learn Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ not life not death Welcome to first person. I'm Wayne Shepard Brigg. Glad you could join us for this conversation as we talk with today's guest Philip Ticorsi This before I introduce Philip let me introduce you to our website Which has additional links and information as well as an archive of our young program thus far? You'll find us online at first person interview calm there You'll also be able to view the calendar of past and future guests and topics again first person interview calm I've heard it said that he preaches well that lives well and when you think about it our lives are a sermon to those around us Well, Philip Ticorsi preaches both with his life and in the pulpit of a church in Southern, California He's also the host of the know the truth radio program just getting established around the country I mean I serve as the announcer for know the truth and have grown to really appreciate the way this man proclaims the word Philip grew up and troubled Northern Ireland for several years He was a part-time reserve police officer in the Royal Ulster Constabulary which put him and his family in some danger as you'll hear then God called him to the pastorate and eventually to an American pulpit I met Philip indirectly as we began working together on his radio program But not personally until I made a trip to California and visited the site of Kindred Community Church in Anaheim Hills This growing church is right on a main freeway in Populis Orange County a long way from Ireland on that trip Philip and I sat down in the studios of KKLA in Los Angeles for a conversation about his life in ministry starting with the family He grew up in my mom and dad are a gift from God. They are Working-class people in the city of Belfast. They live outside the city in a place called Newton, I'll be and They have just given the greatest thing a mother and father can give to their children Beyond wealth and a good education and loving environment. They give us a knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and you know My dad's an inspiration to me. He's a working man's work in the factory most of his life He's lived a solid and a simple life, but he's been faithful in fact I was back in Northern Ireland just a while ago Driving home late at night, and I saw the silhouette of a man at 10 o'clock at night It was my dad coming up from the midweek study at Rathco Baptist Church He's been a deacon in that church for over 40 years, and I go that's faithfulness And I'm not sure we count Faithfulness as such a great thing today as as we should he's been faithful to one church's whole life Faithful the one woman his whole life faithful to his children. He's not a perfect man, and I didn't have a you know a perfect mom or dad, but they loved us in the Lord and I've sought to be that to my children teach them tradition teach them commitment Put the church before anything else We never miss church and and that could be perceived by some people as legalistic or our empty tradition I don't think it was for our family. I think my dad understood That Jesus Christ died to form a body of people called the church And you can't love Christ without loving the church, and you wouldn't move him in fact even when I'm back You won't believe this when I'm back in Northern Ireland preaching. He doesn't come to hear me if I'm not preaching at Rathco He's at Rathco. Can you imagine that? He doesn't come to hear his own son because he has to be at his own church with his people and and so you know I remember coming across a statement by Barbara Bush Who said really the most important thing is not what happens in the White House But what happens in your house and so I challenge our listeners You know to to give the best of their time and their love and their commitments to their children Because they are our lasting legacy whatever impact I have for Jesus Christ I won't die a happy man if I don't die in the knowledge that my girls are living for Jesus Christ And their husbands love the Lord and they're seeking to impact the next generation for Jesus Christ But when did the turn happen when did faith in Christ become your own? Well as I said, I knew the gospel from like Timothy from a child I knew the scriptures that could make me wise unto salvation, but in my stubbornness in my blindness in my deadness Lived my life without God until the age of 16 until God raseled me to the ground And there were times I knew I needed to make that decision But but didn't feel compelled to to make that that stubborn remember being under conviction Actually literally sweating in my bed at the thought of the judgment of God But I loved my sin too much and God had to do a little bit more arm twisting that came on 1978 on the 20th of January Went to a youth rally through our church and heard our youth leaders speak on Matthew 24 44 In such an hour as you think not the son of man is coming and here's where that hit me between the eyes We and I'm like putting it off. Okay. I'm trying to run from Christ But that verse gave me the sense that he was chasing me down and you can't run The coming of the Lord Jesus Christ and so God in his mercy opened my heart opened my mind and I Simply put my faith in Jesus Christ and that was the turning point of my life and I'm so glad for that night But you weren't called to preach at that time you you moved into another arena of life, didn't you? I did I got involved in our church every Christians a minister Every Christian must that the discover what God wants them to do in the life of a local church so I got involved in teaching Sunday school and Doing some door-to-door witnessing and open our preaching and stuff like that But no when I left school left school at 16 didn't immediately go into higher education got a really good job in a aircraft Company in Belfast called shorts Did an apprenticeship in aircraft engineering for four years and worked in that company for eight years? Well, we've talked about the fact that you were a police officer, but I didn't know about the aircraft part I know that's a little bit under the radar screen, but it really is no pun intended Yeah, no, that's right, but I spent eight years. I loved it facts. I thought you know I'm gonna I'll be one of those guys some they'll get the gold watch and and disappear off into the horizon But also during that time because of the terrorism in Northern Ireland the civil conflict I did feel a jury to serve my country and so while I was an engineer by day after I left school from about I was 16 till about 24. I also joined the Royal Ulster Instability the police service of Northern Ireland. I served as a reservist in the conflict there So when did your wife come into the picture? What's your name now? Her name is June June and She came into the picture about 1985 I went to Bible college after some years did sense that while I loved engineering love the police in fact that one stage was going to Go full-time the police and the Lord closed that door and I got a sense. Hey, you're gonna done the wrong path, buddy so then after a while felt the call to the ministry and I was among the Baptist churches in Northern Ireland and They had a school and that was 1985 and during that time my wife came over from Scotland She's from Glasgow in Scotland and she came over to go to a Presbyterian school and through a set of circumstances I met her through her brother and a little footnote to that is her pastor in Scotland grew up in the church I grew up in my father was his youth leader. So God was working and all the other good one You didn't stand a chance didn't stand a chance when I met my Bonnie Lass through through just a natural friendship with Jun's brother and and again, you know God's in all of this a pastor needs a certain type of woman To come alongside him. She's gonna have to live in the fishbowl. She's gonna have to open her home in her heart And God gave me a dear lady June who's been the love of my life I want to talk more about June and the family that God has given to both of you But let's go back to you call it. Are you see? Yeah, it's the initials of the Royal Ulster Constabulary Police men are called constables and so yet about 1980 I joined the police in Northern Ireland Real safe position wasn't it wasn't easy. I'm not trying to you know blow my trumpet But at the same time Interpol one of the international police services at that time said That the policing in Northern Ireland was the most dangerous in the world We the here's the thing about the conflict in Northern Ireland We were more likely to be killed off duty than on duty So I couldn't hang my hat up or my coat in my locker at the police station go home and forget about it In fact, I had to be on my guard 24 hours a day because they knew you were officer Yeah, well they would try and find out who you were and then they you know that terrorists all hatred Yeah, well, there's such you to the IRA wanted the British out of Northern Ireland but a majority of people in Northern Ireland wanted the British presence and therefore democracy had to be protected and Terrorists at the end of the day are cards. Let's be honest of the our own soldiers are facing shadows in Iraq They never come out They they never feish you they come behind you they you know try and booby-trop your car or trap you you know what? That's like absolutely. I had to check my car every single day I had to carry a weapon on me all the time even when I was a lay preacher Among the Baptist churches, I literally faced death every day of my life I was more likely to be killed off duty Jun couldn't hang my shirts on the clothesline We had the altar where we went because if you sat a pattern That's when you know that they take you as a sitting duck. Did that create any stress in your life? It did I mean it or it could I had I learned to deal with it through faith in God one of my little statements and I think it's it's applicable beyond my personal situation, but but Security is not the absence of danger. It's the presence of God when and I had to learn Nothing can separate me from the love of Christ not life not death And so every time I put the uniform on and defended our country against the onslaught of the Irish Republican army I lived in the conference that the worst thing they could do to me was the best thing that could happen to me Now that wasn't Jun's thinking she didn't want to lose me I had three beautiful daughters by this stage and I certainly wanted to love them and provide for them But you know what if death came it wouldn't set me rate me from the love of Christ And you know what while I wore cavlar and bulletproof jackets. That was really what shielded me That's what give me the confidence to say. Hey, I got to do a tough thing I got a face down the possibility of death maybe even an ugly death, but you know what God points the day of our birth and I believe God points to the day of our death and All these guys would be doing was dispatching me off to heaven So you live in this kind of life We've got a wife and three daughters by this time three daughters three beautiful daughters Angela Laura and Beth Presently their 21 19 and 17 although I do have to go out and The opener once in a while and talk to somebody because I don't get much talking time at home with a wife and three daughters I'm gonna say three daughters. Let's pray. Yeah It's oceans of emotions in our house and but the great girls the moment they profess faith in Christ We're we're excited about what the Lord is doing in their life and we're blessed But you've got this young family in Ireland and you decide to go to Bible college We did but that stage we we didn't have a family June and I met 85. We each graduated From school June graduated 87. I graduated 88 and the Lord provided us a little baptist church I'd say the city of Belfast, and then we started having the girls Those were good years. That's cutting my teeth in a little country church. I had a congregation of farmers They had hands the size of baseball Mets. They were crazy guys But we loved it. It was a quiet time in our life little congregation. We could handle and they had a tough cop for a pastor They did no messing around But this stage I had to give my gun back so I only had the Bible to wield at them but it's more powerful anyway, but those were good years the girls grew and we set some patterns for life and and as I said, June's a great help me and she's a homemaker. That's been her commitment from day one and We realize that our family is our first church The Puritans talked about the family being a little Commonwealth and so it is your ministry It is our ministry and in fact, I remember eventually when I get to the master's seminary We were challenged the first day there that your marriage ends your ministry ends talking with Philip de Corsi today on first person And when we continue we'll hear how this Irish pastor ended up in America Next time on first person will talk with a family who have turned their grief into comforting others You know God promises this and we hold on to this promise that he will use the hardest Experiences in our lives and he will use them for our ultimate good He will use the worst things we can imagine for good and we have just been so blessed to see him do that Nancy and David Guthrie join us to share their story of hope in the midst of grief join us next time here on first person Wayne Shepherd today's guest on first person is Philip de Corsi a pastor who was content with his life in Ireland Until God started stirring in his life Long story cut short my wife's pastor in Scotland had put me on to the writing ministry of dr. John MacArthur I'd not heard of him until June's pastor told me about him and as I started to read his books and listen to his tapes from grace to you I was just struck by one This man's fidelity his commitment to the scriptures So that man triggers something. I heard that John was coming to Britain in 1993 to speak in an event in England And I thought hey wonder if John would come to Northern Ireland Probably not, but why let's take a shot. Let's try and I contacted the ministry and lo and behold I get an affirmative answer and the little footnote to that win is because in the 1950s John's father Jack MacArthur had come to Northern Ireland the Belfast as part of an evangelism team and during that campaign My own father had come to Christ and so John's yeah, the providence of God You know John's father said to John Hey, you need to go to Northern Ireland you'll enjoy it the people are good the churches are warm and so John and Patricia come and As the famous radio broadcaster says there were you know the rest of the story You know here I am you find yourself in California at the master's college master's seminary 90 Yeah, 1994. I come out to a shepherd's conference Just to visit June didn't come with me She could have but we come out I was struck by the ministry at Grace Community got some one-on-one time with John Who's become a dear friend and mentor and I saw the seminary and although I had been in the ministry for some time Had an education from the Irish about this college, you know the motif of master's seminary is we train man As if our lives depend on it. I just saw a commitment to the scriptures to expositional preaching to to biblical Theology and church history and I go that's the education. I want it and John said well, hey, you're young come on get over here. We'll get you ready for the rest I have a wife and children. Yeah, I cannot come you know that story in the gospels, but yeah I went back to June and said hey, what do you think about going to the master's seminary? She said not much She said you get sunburn over there going take a cold shower But as we prayed about it God led it on our hearts Although I had a the fact of ministry was well, you know Liked among the churches in Northern Ireland. I was struck by I've got that kids left of my life And I'm gonna handle the inerrant word of God. I like I can't know it, you know So perfectly I've got to keep learning and growing and so I go hey, I'm up for another training So let me guess you said to God. Okay. We'll go and then we get to go back to Ireland, right actually was the plan You're dead, right? We come out to go to the seminary to go back. I did in Northern Ireland or Scotland But as we come out settle down God provided us a church to pastor in Santa Clarita plus read about this church right beside the master's college And early on first year or two Jim was like now you remember we're going home She enjoyed it here, but she missed Northern Ireland, Scotland But after we went back to Britain Jim said come on, let's go back to California And we realized God who's doing something in our heart and the church began to grow Even though I was full-time at the seminary I was part-time at the church and and God knit our hearts together and the elders of placerita bapha said Would you prayerfully consider when you're finished your seminary training stain and we did and uh, we weren't running from anything uh, there's still something in us misses the UK Um and the call of the pipes to Scotland and stuff like that, but we believe God had that ministry for us We ended up staying there almost nine years and you're committed to the expositional preaching of the word I am and let me just say something about about that when some people have this idea that expositional preaching is a style You know, he's an expositional preacher, but i'm a different kind of preacher I actually take issue with that. I don't think expositional preaching is a style I believe it's a philosophy at the heart of expositional preaching is you let the text speak and all of the text Yeah, and all of the text you so you don't go to stories or applications first and you don't let that become the main Balance of your sermon. You've got to get into the language of the bible the history of the bible You've got to connect that passage with the surrounding passage. What's that passage same within the book? So the preacher is a servant to the word of god That's what expositional preaching let the bible speak and then we can build bridges of application We can draw in illustrations that make the point in our contemporary experience, but I mean for me as a preacher I love it. I don't have saturday night fever. I'm not worrying about what i'm going to preach the next day I know i'm picking up where I left off. I think my congregation love it It also models preaching in the study of god's word So by osmosis as they listen to me every sunday They begin to learn how to deal with the text of scripture and and we're always in danger of cherry picking It also guards us against um, you know hobby horses and escaping from the difficult passages I have to get to the next passage it may not be something I want to hear or my people want to hear or the contemporary culture wants to hear But you know what i'm not here to tell people what I think they want to hear i'm not here to itch years I'm here to get out of the way let god speak because he has spoken through what he has written And uh, now we're the beneficiaries of that through know the truth. I hope so that uh, you know, that would be my desire I know my weaknesses can hardly listen to myself sometimes. So I appreciate our listeners indulging Our program, but yeah, I hope that the program, you know meets a need that there is a famine of god's word Uh, there is a weakness in the pulpits of the united states The church can survive without great preaching, but the church cannot survive without good preaching And I hope that our listeners would conclude that know the truth is good preaching And it's letting the bible speak into their life and the holy spirit then takes it and makes it Operational and relevant to the moment our listeners hear the broadcast. I left out one important element of the timeline Kindred community church is where god has placed you it is. That's why i'm right now. I love it It's a great church. It's got a great spur. It's got a good leadership It was founded by a good pastor who sat out to again preach the word of god chucko brimsky Tragically, he died of cancer and after a search the elders called myself in june They actually contacted My friend dr. McArthur. He put them in touch with the minisab bean in the states Since 1994 was in sanda korita for eight years. It was in ohio for five most important question When you want to have fun, what does philip decorsi do for fun? Wow You're not a rugby player anything. No, I didn't play rugby a little bit, but uh, you know, I got bruised up too much Uh, you know, I was a rugby player for a little bit soccer is really more my passion of growing. I love for for golf And uh, so uh golf would be one of the things I like to do and I like the relax of my wife Money's my day off love the grub lunch with june. We just relax catch up and this is important to life, isn't it? Absolutely. I mean family is the cornerstone of society It's the building blocks of the churches and again as a say, it's it's my first priority. So june and I Love to relax walking and and our girls It's spending time with them and I guess a little bit of golf on the side like reading maybe watching a good movie All sorts of stuff and uh love it philip. We've talked about your story today We've talked about god's story through you today Everybody has a story when they let god work in their life is exciting look back and see how he leads, isn't it? I want to live the life god is planned for me uh, there's a great story about the building of the uh golden gate bridge where one of the main engineers was laid aside while that thing was being constructed And eventually when he gets to see The golden gate bridge finished he stands on the on the shores of san francisco bay looks at it and he says Oh, it's just like the plan and I want to look back on my life Uh, god has written my days down in his book according to sam 139 Uh, there's a time and a season to everything god has got purposes for you and me beginning by faith in jesus christ And then he has ordained good works for us to do and i've come to discover Beyond my time as an engineer and as a police officer the good work that god has for me is preaching And I want to look back on my life like the bible says about david that he served his generation by the will of god You know, we talk about animals and their natural habitat We've all got a natural habitat and the and man and women's natural habitat is god We have left that because of sin We come back into that natural habitat through faith in jesus christ and then we live the life god has planned for us And and that's life to the full Well, our thanks to phillip decorsi our guest today here on first person Isn't it interesting to hear people's stories of god's work through them? But if you stop and think about it, we all have a story of our own and no one's is more important than another's I hope you'll tell your story to someone today That's our goal here in first person to listen to these life stories and give thanks to god for his faithful work in us If you'd like to read more about phillip's life in ministry We've placed a link to the know the truth radio program at our website first person interview dot com They'll also have a chance to listen to his sermons when you follow that link First person is a weekly conversation, but you can visit us online anytime or follow us via facebook or twitter Those links are found in our web page first person interview dot com And if you have a suggestion for a guest to join us on first person, please contact us online once again first person interview dot com Next week, we'll talk with a family who suffered the loss of two infants to zell waker syndrome But have turned their loss into a ministry of comfort to other parents David and nancy gutter will join us to tell their story next time on this broadcast. I hope you'll join us then With thanks to my friend and producer joe carlson. I'm wane shepherd join us next time for first person [MUSIC PLAYING]