United Church of God

Update from the President: May 5, 2016

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Update from the President

May 5, 2016

We trust that the Holy Day season was as inspiring for you as it was for us. This was my 51st consecutive year for keeping these days--and each year the meaning and application is vital to remind and teach us of the greatness of Jesus Christ's sacrifice to redeem us from our sins and the lessons of Unleavened Bread of becoming more and more like Him.

Several of our home office ministers visited local congregations. We have received several reports about how encouraging this has been to the brethren as well as our pastors. We had cut back on these visits because of cost, but realize that they are valuable for the Church, just as were the apostle Paul's visits in his time to "see how the brethren are doing."

With the Holy Days being later on the Roman calendar this year, the Annual Meeting of the General Conference of Elders (GCE) now follows quickly. We are preparing for our ministry coming in to Cincinnati from all over the world. We will hold various meetings from Friday through Monday, May 13-16. This will be followed by a quarterly Council of Elders meeting from Tuesday through Thursday, May 17-19, 2016.

"Live the Word" is the theme for this year's GCE conference. It is always so uplifting to be with our brothers and sisters in the ministry of Jesus Christ during this annual event. In times past we have called upon the Church to take a day to fast and pray for our conferences. That can always be done by anyone. I will do so myself and will ask for God's kindness and blessing to be upon His people. I will ask God for wisdom, guidance and strength in carrying out my responsibilities.

Major Subscriber Development Letter in the Mail

Beginning in July with the new fiscal year, we will be sending out six subscriber letters annually from the home office to our Beyond Today subscribers. In the past, it had been four per year. Four will now be to coworkers and donors, and the other two are major ones to all subscribers.

We just mailed a major subscriber letter last week to 176,500 U.S. Beyond Today magazine readers. While not sent to members, I would like share the current one with you so that you can see what we say and what we offer to the people who regularly receive our literature and interact with us. (Click on the "Downloads" box at the top right of this webpage to download the letter).

Please pray for the upcoming Annual Meeting of the GCE and that we can build on the spirit of unity and good will that we enjoy. Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.