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Well, good afternoon everyone. It's good to see you – to see a nice crowd here today. And thank you so much for that very inspiring music – very hopeful message. I always appreciate, especially, when the special music really fits in with the mood and the spirit of why we're here and what we're here for in life.

I would like to introduce a very special guest that we have here today. Though, as you know, we have been working with Sabbatarian Ukrainians for over twenty years – ever since the Soviet Union fell apart twenty-two years ago – we have had the opportunity to travel to Ukraine and meet with hundreds of the thousands of people that keep the Sabbath day and keep many of the same beliefs that we have. And I have traveled to Ukraine – who knows? – a dozen or fifteen more times, and my wife Bev, as well. And we have worked in different ways with Ambassador Foundation. We have worked with our church. We have worked with other interested parties. And one of the notable things, especially in the last twelve years, is that we have worked with an orphan care center and a street children's program in Vynohradiv, Ukraine, which is right close to the Hungarian border. And we have sent people from the church here – Dan and Cindy Harper, in particular – and others, over the years, that have gone to work to teach children English as a second language, to work with day camps and many other things. And we've documented these things on our website.

Well, today we have a visitor – one of the people that has worked at the orphan care center and the street children's program. Her name is Alina Chiizmar. She is a Ukrainian young lady who was born in 1991 – the same year the Soviet Union fell apart – and she's been a part of what we have been doing for some time. But we can never get anybody to come from Ukraine to the United States. Visas aren't given for young people coming over here. I guess the government is afraid they will get married and won't go back. So, we don't have them come and visit. But this young lady, she has moved to Budapest, Hungary (that's where she lives now and she's an au pair) and through kind of a long story, which I won't get into here, she was able to, with her visa, be able to apply for a Hungarian passport. And since her grandfather was Hungarian in descent, she was able to get a Hungarian passport. And as a result, she was part of the EU, which has very favorable immigration, or rights, to come and visit the United States. So as a result, she's coming over here, and she'll be spending three months, and part of that time she is spending with us. And she's a Sabbath keeper and she's quite an activist with youths in the Ukraine keeping the Sabbath. She is one of the most zealous young ladies that I have found. And she's from near Vynohradiv, where she and her mother and her sister work. So, I thought that I would have her come up here...Alina. I thought that maybe I could have her just say a few words of greetings from all of our Sabbatarian friends in Ukraine, as we have worked there. Be sure to see her after services. She speaks some English. And one of the purposes that she's here for is to learn English. So be sure to do that. So, Alina, (Ukrainian phrase). (Alina speaks to the congregation, then Mr. Kubik translates...)

"I'm very happy here to greet you and to be with you (Alina speaks to the congregation, then Mr. Kubik translates...) I'd like to give greetings from all the Sabbatarian churches in Transcarpathia that keep the Sabbath that give their greetings to you. (Alina speaks to the congregation, then Mr. Kubik translates...) I'm so very happy to be with a church that has similar beliefs to what we believe. (Alina speaks to the congregation, then Mr. Kubik translates...) I came into contact with LifeNets about 10 years ago by working in the camps – in the summer camps there for children that LifeNets was involved with. (Alina speaks to the congregation, then Mr. Kubik translates...) And she worked at the Light of Love Mission which we work at in Vynohradiv. (Alina speaks to the congregation, and then Mr. Kubik translates...) And she has gotten to know the people that work there and, while I haven't gone there in the last four years, they have gotten to become acquainted with my two brothers. (Alina speaks to the congregation, and then Mr. Kubik translates...) And she wants to thank everyone who has contributed and helped with the camps in Vynohradiv. (Alina speaks to the congregation, and then Mr. Kubik translates...) This is a great joy to her children. (Alina speaks to the congregation, and then Mr. Kubik translates...) Three years ago, when I was hopeful, some people say, "Come and visit us in the US," and I thought there wasn't a chance. (Alina speaks to the congregation, and then Mr. Kubik translates...) I didn't have any relatives. I didn't have any documentation. (Alina speaks to the congregation, and then Mr. Kubik translates...) But thanks to God, I have a family in Christ. (Alina speaks to the congregation, and then Mr. Kubik translates...)  And as you see, I'm a miracle to be able to be here in the United States. (Alina speaks to the congregation, then Mr. Kubik translates...) So very happy to meet you, and may God bless you. (This is the end of greetings and translation).

Well, there goes the best part of the day. (Laughter) It's kind of downhill from here. (Chuckles)

I've worked on this sermon for eighteen years. Now, what am I talking about? I'm talking about a subject that is very near and dear to me – has involved fifteen years of continuous work with the Council of Elders on a subject that has to do with what the church is doing, what the church is accomplishing and what our mission is. I know that, in some ways, some of these things aren't always the most interesting reading, but they are a roadmap and they are a plan by which we do the work of God. I want to give you and talk to you about a roadmap – a plan – that I believe that everybody should have some knowledge of – particularly the ministry. I don't believe that too many people really know enough about the plan, the work, the strategy and the tactics that we have before us in doing the work of God. And, the reason I say that is because that when I have been looking at this subject for the last two weeks – knowing that I was going to give this sermon – my eyes were opened. And I was part of the authorship of some of the points that were here. As I said, I worked on this for eighteen years. I was only a small part of it, working with Council members, over the years, that have developed the vision, that developed the mission of the church and the principles that guide how we do what we do. This is outside our Statement of Beliefs or our Fundamentals of Beliefs. This is beyond just what we believe. This is what we do! 
And we do have a plan! We have a very, very definitive plan as to how we will do our work – what we prioritize, what we value, what we must do, what are the things that are most important to accomplish in a particular mode.

The outline for this is one of the most transparent documents that we have. It is available to everyone. We are a church that has a very, very transparent presentation of what our mission is, what our vision is, first of all, and exactly what we do. It is not something secret or something that people behind closed doors have designed and somehow the magazine comes out, and the Beyond Today program is produced, and we don't know exactly why or how it's being done. In fact, this document is going to be used more in our planning of future content of what we produce, how we produce it, and how we present it.

What is the work of the church? And that's what I want to give you an outline of. And I want to give you an outline for you to pick up yourself and read. And it's available on the Council of Elders Website. I've even thought about printing copies and having them for you, but you can find it yourself at coe.ucg.org. I'll say that again: coe.ucg.org. On the right-hand column, about one-third of the way down, you will see a document called, The Strategic Plan, Operation Plan and Budget for the Year 2012-2013. And the new one should be up soon – the one that we have for this coming year. But it contains all the matter that I will be talking about today, which I feel is very important, particularly for the Ministry. And again, being the president of United Church of God, I said, "I can't believe I actually worked on these things," because this was done over so many meetings over so many periods with so many different Council members. I have seen Council members come and go, and this document is pretty much the final of what we have. There had been a major rewrite to some of the points a couple of years ago – particularly a very, very important addition to our vision statement, which I feel that we need to know.

We, as a church, need to be able to articulate our mission, so if people ask you, "What does your church do?" – if you're in an elevator, and you have thirty seconds to ride – you can just immediately respond and tell them what your church is doing. What are the two aspects of the mission? What if people said, "What is it the church wants to accomplish? What is the vision of the church?" Do you know what that is? You should. You know, many companies, many organizations, drum the vision and mission of their organization, and even the enthusiasm for doing the work, by having their employees be able to come back to them and state back what the heartbeat of that organization is.

I'm a member of a public service organization, that every meeting we go through what's read – the four-way test – and everybody, out loud, reads the four-way test for service. I've been doing this for twelve years and we just have it drummed into us. I can wake up in the middle of the night and recite these points. You'd be interested to know that McDonald's, when they have their management meeting, you know how they end them? Everybody says, "I'm lovin' it!" I actually saw this video – this presentation – is that they were all talking in the big business meeting and they end with, "I'm lovin' it!" They have everybody enthused with the latest expressions of that particular business.

So, I would like to walk you through, today, the work of the church – that goes beyond the vision and mission – and tell you what other aspects of this are. And this is beyond our Fundamentals of Belief. We do have twenty aspects of the Fundamentals of Belief - twenty points – twenty truths that we hold very, very dear to what we believe. That's what we believe. What I'm going to be talking about is what we do, and what things we must do and the spirit in which they are to be done.

The vision of the church.... Do you know what the vision of the church is? Do you have written down someplace where you and your family can talk about the vision of the church? And what is vision? Vision is where you want to see something be. If you have the vision of the organization you want to see this organization provide milk for needy children. You want this organization to provide wells for thirsty people. But, what's the vision of the church of God? It was modified two years ago, actually, in a very, very well presented sermon by Bill Eddington, from Australia, last GCE – not this last one here, but the one in 2012 – where he articulated very well what the vision of the church is, which rounds out what we want to see. I'll read it to you.

The Vision of the Church: "It is a church led by God's Holy Spirit, joined and knit together by what every member supplies, with all doing their share and growing in love to fulfill God's great purpose for humanity – to bring many children to glory."

Now, let's take a look at some of the elements of that. It sounds like one relatively simple sentence, but it had hours of discussion to get it just right. And, I do believe that it's right there, you know, as to what we want to see. It's a church that is driven, motivated, powered, knit by the Holy Spirit of God and produces something, which every member supplies. Notice that it doesn't say what one department supplies, or one person supplies, or what an oligarchy of men supplies, or what the ministry supplies, but what every member supplies with all doing their share. And this has led us to a discussion about spiritual gifts – about the things, about the qualities, about the abilities that every single person has. Every single one of you has some aptitude – you have some skill – that can be used to further the vision of the Church of God forward. And, you add this to the mix to help the church grow in love to fulfill God's greatest purpose for mankind, which is to bring many children to glory – many, many children to glory. God is adding to his family.

Alina and I and Bev had a long Bible study this morning where we talked about the plan of God. Alina is just learning about the holy days and we went through some of the questions that we have all had. If God is going to be saving the world, why is it such a bad job out there? Why are there so few people that truly are interested in God? Why is it that we try so hard and there are so many problems in society? There's not a better return on investment right now for what the work is doing? Or for what God's work is doing anywhere? In Ukraine there are, you know, ten thousand Sabbatarians in the area that we work in – in the countries of Transcarpathia, Romania, and Moldova – but, still, that's a very, very small number.
 
Alina lived in Moscow and she met with a Sabbatarian group there – a city of twelve million people – twenty people keeping the Sabbath in the little location there in Moscow. That's very little. Actually, it's kind of like we are, you know, with New York City – a huge city – you know, we have one congregation of about eighty people. Why so few? And we talked about God's plan of salvation. We talked about the holy days. We talked about how God is beginning to work with people with developing a relationship, with Jesus Christ dying for our sins – developing a solidity relationship between us, as individuals, and Jesus Christ. And it goes further, to living a righteous life, to being given the Holy Spirit, and talking about the resurrection – talking about a resurrection which will include relatively few people of all the billions of people that have ever been born. Then we talked about a time of cleansing, a time of coming together and reconciling with God, which was interesting – we had a good discussion about the Day of Atonement – and then the Feast of Tabernacles, which speaks and celebrates the Kingdom of God coming to this earth. We talked about what the Kingdom of God was. It's a coming kingdom – a thousand year period. And, then we talked about the Last Great Day – the greatest day of all, in some ways, because that's the answer to the big question that religion overall has: Why are there so few people called right now? And, actually, this was spurred by a discussion...because she, in her readings, was reading Matthew 13 – the parables – and she says, "Why are the people's minds closed from understanding the parables?" And, that led to the discussion that we had. And that was a very, very interesting discussion for a long time this morning – that God is not opening the eyes of most people right now. And, the object of the parables was not to open the eyes of most. To his disciples and to us, those eyes are open. As we are reading them, it is obvious and clear, because God is opening our eyes to them. But, to the rest of the world, God is blinding them. He is preparing them for another time in the future. And, you know, we're so excited about this vision, because we see way ahead that God wants to save most of mankind – that most people will be saved! It's not just a few elect, which would probably be less than one percent of all mankind. Is that a loving God? No, it isn't. If it is just something which is only a very, very few elite people, and most everybody either doesn't understand it, or has lived in an environment where they couldn't have the word of God, or they lived in...or they had mental problems, or they had some other disabilities that kept them from having the chance that we do. We talked about the fact that everybody has an opportunity for salvation.

We use two passages in Scripture to support our vision. Actually, only until two years ago, we had just only one, which was Hebrews 2. Hebrews, chapter 2 and verse 10 was the only passage that we had. We added Ephesians, chapter 4:16 later. But, Hebrews chapter 2 verse 10:

Hebrews 2;10 – For it was fitting for Him, for whom are all things and by whom are all things, in bringing many sons to glory to make the captain of their salvation perfect through sufferings – talking about Jesus Christ, who is the captain of our salvation. And he is one who is wanting to bring many sons to glory – not just a few...many sons to glory.

But, then in Ephesians, chapter 4 and verse 16 – a very, very important chapter that leads into a discussion about spiritual gifts – because these are the tools, the means, the aptitudes that God has given every single one of us. Some have been given more. Some have given less. But everybody has something that they can offer, even if they can pray, even if they can give a smile and handshake, even if they can give a slap on the back to somebody else who has different things to do. Everybody has a part in furthering the work of God. Ephesians, chapter 4, and verse 16:

Ephesians 4:16 – From home the whole body, joined and knit together by what every joint supplies, according to the effective working by which every part does its share. This is biblical. This is not something that is designed, or just stated, by a group of ministers working on a strategic committee. This is biblical. ...in which every part does its share, causes growth of the body for the edifying of itself in love.

So, if you put these two together – "bringing many sons to glory" and "having every part do its share" – you have our vision. And a vision is what you see. Do you see that? Vision is what you see where we want to be. Mission is how you get there. And that's the next point that we're getting to.

Now, the mission of the church is probably the easiest of these elements. And it's, no doubt, one that I could probably do a cold call here on someone – which I won't – and say, "What is the mission of the church?" The mission of the Church of God is "to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God in all the world, make disciples in all nations and care for those disciples." So, our mission is two-fold. It's to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God. We had a discussion about that, too – about Jesus Christ's initial message is a call for repentance, a call for the Kingdom of God being close at hand. That's the gospel of Jesus Christ.

"...and, then, to make disciples in all nations and care for those disciples." You know, one thing that really is a little bit stressful to me in my thinking is that...I'm so happy for the church, so happy for this large crowd. I'm really, really, very, very fulfilled in what I'm doing, the people I work with, and the excitement that we have. But, do you know that most of the work of God that's being done is in the United States? We have the vast majority of ministry, resources, and so forth. But, we only have four percent of the world's population. Ninety-six percent of the world is, to us, international. And, they have the last. About eighty percent of what we do is in the United States – maybe even a little bit more – and the rest of the world, what about them? It says, "...to make disciples in all nations and to care for those disciples." Mr. Aaron Dean, who's here right now, is our International Advisor, and we basically gave him ninety-six percent of the world to take care of. That's his new assignment. We ought to thank him because he's always been pretty good about doing lots of different things in a big way. And this is one of the biggest jobs we have for him. 

Okay, so now, if you get past the vision, which is where we want to be, and the mission, which is how we get there, we come now to the guiding principles. We have two sections, in our strategic plan, that are exciting reading. And I believe this should be read by every minister this week, because I just read them and I was part of writing them. And, you know something? If you don't read things that are your mission for week after week, month after month, year after year, you forget. And I looked at these things and said, "Wow! These are amazing points in the order that they're in and what they state." But there are, in the guiding principles, four, what I call, the "We Believes". You know, "we believe this, we believe that" – not as a fundamental belief, but as a thing that we believe that we should be doing. "We Believes". There are four major "We Believes" as to outline what we're about, and what we do, and the importance that we place on these "We Believes".

The first is: "We believe that our Father has given us the opportunity to build a relationship with Him, with Jesus Christ, and with one another, and with all mankind." The very first "we believe" – of what it's all about – is, we believe in building relationships – building a relationship with our Father in heaven and with Jesus Christ. And we had a firm come to do an analysis of what we thought we are – you know, did survey studies, looked at our literature and so forth. You know what they said? That, if we were to say, "What short phrase could define what it is that you're about and what your essence is – you know, what exudes from you – your organization exudes of meaningful relationships – that in the final end, in examining all that we have, the meaningful relationships between us and our Father and our Jesus Christ in heaven and between one another. That's what we're about. And we also believe that – as part of this first "we believe" – that the immutable word of God – the Bible – shows us how to build those loving relationships. Turn with me to John, chapter 17, and verse 20. One thing that's amazing about Christianity – about true Christianity – is that we have a God who really deeply cares about His subject. I have an analysis of major religions, you know, that shows the level of deity to subject interactivity. I know that where I had come from before, even, was another Christian denomination, we didn't have that. In fact, the icons in church did not exude a real personal relationship. It showed a Jesus and a God the Father and, you know, other icons of saints that really did not make me feel, what I call, warm. They made me feel awed, but they didn't make me feel like I was loved, or that could love back – not that, you know, being respectful was wrong in any sense, but I didn't feel the kind of love that is so biblically shown by the word of God. John, chapter 17, and verse 20. Here is the way that Jesus Christ, in his prayer for all believers of all time, feels about the people who relate to Him.

John 17:20 – "I do not pray for these alone" – for just His disciples of that time – and this is His last prayer, this is just before He's about to be betrayed and taken to be tortured and killed the next day – "but also I pray for those who will believe in Me through their word, that they all may be one as You, Father, are in Me, and I in You, that they may also be one in Us, that the world may believe that you sent Me. And that the glory which you gave Me I have given them, that they may be one just as We are one – I in them, and you in Me – that they may be made perfect in one, that the world may know that You have sent Me, and have loved them as You have loved Me."

You know, every single one of us have a yearning to be loved. And Jesus Christ, in His last words, as He's thinking about a mission and about the immediate disciples that He was with – you know, caring for them – and, probably, one of them was snoring at the time that He was saying this in the Garden of Gethsemane – and He was saying that, through these men that I have worked with now for three and half years, make them continue to further the mission, to further the job that I have started to do, which is the oneness that I have with the Father – Jesus said –  "that I have with you, Father, that they may be one in Me and in You, and that they may know that You have loved Me, and I love them and they love Me in return". If you really, really think through that, it is amazing what kindness and passion that our Creator has for His creation. There is no other deity – which, of course, doesn't even exist – that has that kind of care and love, compassion, and feeling for their subjects.

And, so, we, from the very beginning of our "We Believes," that God has given us the opportunity to develop a relationship with Him, with Jesus Christ, and with one another, based on the word of God, which tells us how to build those loving relationships – not just relationships, but loving relationships. One thing that I will say again for Dennis Luker, who preceded me, there was not a single person that I know of that was so easy to express love for his fellow workers and those he worked with, and was not afraid to say it to man, woman, or child, because he truly had that kind of love. We need to have that kind of love towards God and towards one another, and to cultivate it, and realize that one of the most important aspects of what we're all about, and what we continue to develop, and the product that we begin to produce, is the building of relationships. That's why this firm that came to evaluate us said, "You know, you're all about building relationships." Our Council of Elders added one more word in the middle – building godly relationships, which is fine – but what they saw is that we are an organization that is bent on – that is set on – building relationships – meaningful relationships, as was actually stated. Meaningful relationships. You know, the human being is a very relational person. You and I are very, very relational, whether you like it or not, or whether you think you are, you need relationships. We do care about relationships. You know why the telecom industry is so successful? Why it turned out to be just a massive industry that it is? Because people want to talk to one another people want to relate. They want to relate to one another on the Internet, by telephone, by Skype, by Facebook, by, you know, many other things, you know, that have come as a result; Pinterest, and Tumblr, and everything else. People want to relate and talk, be appreciated and relate. That is important to all of us. "So, therefore, we will strive to live by every word of God led by his Holy Spirit in humility enabling those relationships to grow and flourish." That's the first of the "We Believes".

Okay, the second of the "We Believes" in our guiding principles is that "We believe that God has a plan of salvation. God has a plan of salvation for every individual who will yield to him and his son, Jesus Christ." In 1 Timothy, chapter 2, and verse 4 – 1 Timothy, chapter 2, and verse 4...here is what's on God's mind – here's where He is – as far as the human race is concerned.

1 Timothy 2:4 – ...Who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.

You know, I've been looking at the little quips that the apostle Paul had. They sound like strategic points. He was a master of using few words to describe very, very deep and involved, complex thoughts in a very, very simple way. In fact, many of the things that I look upon – our points that we have made – working on the Council of Elders...I'm not sure who Paul worked with – if he had a group of men who thought these things through, whether he scribbled these things down before... – but he had an amazing number of very quotable statements. This is one of them: "...who desires all men to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth." And I believe it's more than just, "Well, I said, 'I wish,' but, you know, my success rate is .05%." That doesn't compute. That doesn't make any sense at all. And when I see statements in the book of Romans like, "all Israel will be saved", meaning, you know, the largest percentage of them will be saved, there's got to be something I'm missing, as far as just how this process works. I truly believe in the plan of salvation for all of mankind. Do you believe that? Are you able to be excited about that?

I talked to Alina about that today, the plan of salvation for all mankind – that there will come a time after the thousand year period – after the millennium – when God is going to raise up the Valley of Bones – that she was well aware of in the book of Ezekiel – to a physical judgment period that portends of God working with people in a different environment – of people that have never seen – known – Christ, or had a very false direction in going that way. But God has a plan of salvation for this world. And it's going to be successful. Do you believe that?

This plan includes the calling and perfecting of those who are being converted, as well as those to be converted in the ages to come. And we talked to Alina about the fact that, you know, we're all...God is working with all of us right now. We're under judgment right now – that what the world will have as an opportunity the future, it's our opportunity right now – those whose eyes are opened – their eyes have been enlightened – and those who are having the opportunity right now. The plan of salvation. "Therefore" – of this second "we believe" – "it is the duty of the Church to proclaim a message of hope and call to repentance." One of the things about prophecy – I was so happy to hear Mr. Metzel say the things that he did about prophecy.... You know, one of the purposes of prophecy is to give hope. It's not to give you a spreadsheet of things that will happen a particular way so that you can know these things. You know, just knowing things is far from enough. Having things be told you that you will act on, having things be told you so that you can believe and have hope is what it's all about. I was so happy that he put it that way and even brought out some of the specific things they people get all excited and hyped about. But the purpose of prophecy, and the greatest prophecy of all, is not the 666 Beast prophecy. They are the interesting ones. The greatest prophecy of all is the return of Jesus Christ – that He, indeed, will return, and that He, indeed, will set things straight. It's all going to be okay. And so that, even Christians of three or four hundred years ago, while they may not have known about certain movements of nations, or groupings of nations, or horns, or whatever else, they would have known that these prophecies were referring to the fact that Jesus Christ would return to this earth at some time in the future. And that gave them hope. That's what prophecy is about. "It's also a message of a call to repentance, to teach all things Christ has commanded, and to prepare members of the body of Christ to teach, lead, and serve under Him – now and in the future."

Again, the second of the "We Believes" is that God has a plan of salvation. So, you might write down – if you want to just write a bullet point of where we're going – if you're not going to be going to take a look at the big chart that I'm talking to you about – number one of the "we believes" is to build relationships with God and man. And number two: God has a plan of salvation. These are the first two of the guiding principles that drive what we do. It is sort of the content generator that directs the content that we put out – is that we put out a message about God building relationships, and number two, that God has a plan of salvation. And you can be part of it.

One of the things we are we trying to do here – maybe I should just speak for myself, and not so much for Peter Eddington at this point – but I do believe that we, as a church, need to put on a very human face to the world. I'm writing a GN e-mail out to our Good News readers every week, because I want people to get used to one person that can talk to them – that they, hopefully, will get used to and look forward to what he writes. So far I've had minimal success (chuckle), but I do want to write to our audience in a very personal way to try to elicit their response about subjects that relate to them. I want to write to them from the standpoint of not, "We're the church, and we have all this going on here. We're so wonderful and great, and we have TV and a multi-hundred thousand dollar, you know, subscribed list to a magazine," and on and on it goes about us. I don't want to talk about us. I want to talk about them. I want to talk about what God is doing for them and with them. I want them to know more about that so they can have hope. And so, with that hope, they can respond.

Now one thing that we're working on right now – I want to share with you some of the thoughts that just percolate in my brain almost incessantly – is...one of my observations in this...one very, very good thing that's happening right now is, we have had five percent growth in attendance from last year's Feast – you know, for the fall holy days, from last year to this year – and attendances have been creeping up. I am very, very encouraged by this. This, to me, is the statistic that means the most – that there is an increase in people who have taken interest in what we do. That's what I want. And, I want to find out, with all the things that we put out.... And we have some tremendous features that this church offers as products – the Internet. We have a website that has become the most hit website among the Churches of God – way, way above the next. And we're tops, as Peter Eddington has said many times, you know, even among the major religious Websites. We have a very good established magazine, The Good News magazine, which has articles of general, specific, prophetic, Christian living, and doctrinal interest, that already has a momentum of twenty years, almost now, of production. We have a Bible Study Course. We have thirty-three titles for booklets that cover many, many subjects dealing with Christian living, with prophecy, and all kinds of things. But, my question is, "Why don't we have more members than I feel we should? Why don't we have more people that really respond that we can engage with?" And to me, right now, that's one of our biggest challenges - the engagement with the people who hit our website, who come to read our material we offer, who ask for booklets. Why is it they are not coming to church? I do believe that we'll come onto an answer. I do believe that we'll get people further involved.

That's what we're working on, is engagement. We used to call the process of becoming involved with the church, from the first contact to requesting a visit, to being curious about our church, of actually going to a church service, is the "ladder of involvement." And that is when a person first hears the word of the kingdom as an interest. Then they listen more. Then they send for something, or check on the Website anonymously, or see what's there. And we want people to move up this ladder of involvement and not come to a dead end – not to come to where they can go no further, because we're holding them back, because we don't have a rung for them to grab to climb to the next level. And those broken rungs could be the fact that they could come to a service, or they can be looking for the Website of a local church, and they find that it's two to three years out-of-date. They find that they call the telephone that is listed there and the line is out of service, or no longer, you know, is there – all these small broken rungs. They can be climbing, climbing, climbing, and then they can come to a dead end. That's why we need, really,  to have a whole process of steps that people take that are unimpeded. As they are curious, they come to a Website. It looks interesting. There's a description of the pastor, or perhaps a picture of himself and his wife, welcoming the public – you know, making a welcoming statement or message and, maybe, even tell a few things about the church. And maybe, realistically, tell them that we are a small church that is very dedicated to Jesus Christ, and that we would love to have you come and visit with us. Give me a call – whatever. So, you know, this is the kind of thing that we want to develop to engage our people.

Then when they come to services, what will they see? What will they hear? What kind of messages will be given? What kind of music will be played? What types of prayers will be offered? What type of engagement will there be from the local people with these people? All these are rungs in involvement. If they come to church and the hall is dirty or inappropriate after they see the telecast - the Beyond Today telecast – and the hall is in some inappropriate place, and they say, "What kind of a deal is this? This is not what I thought we would have." I know people can make excuses, excuses, and I don't want to hear excuses. I tell the people that I work with that I don't like to hear excuses. You know, the apostle Paul could make a lot of excuses. You know, Paul could say the Internet is down, you know, his cell phone doesn't work, you know, there's just slow communications between, you know, the Roman countries. They had a lot more problems than we did. So I'll trade our problems for their problems. We have opportunity. We have amazing facilities to be able to do, you know, the work we're doing. I feel with a dedicated staff of people across all ranges of ages that we work with – as far as those of the content producers – I really believe that we can get something done to engage and bring our attendance up at least another five percent to ten percent next year. I can't call people, but I can certainly do one thing. And that is to remove roadblocks in the ladder of involvement. That's what I really want to do. That's what I'm focusing on – in producing the material, in directing the material that's produced that will bring about and yield the most important and most effective results.

Okay, number three – the first third of the "We Believes". "We believe that every individual of every race, nationality and gender will, in God's time, have the opportunity to hear the testimony of Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection, and the good news of the Kingdom of God. We believe that the gospel explicitly provides every individual an opportunity, when called, for membership in the family of God according to his will. Acts, chapter 10, and verse 34. Acts, chapter 10, verse 34. Here's what Peter said loudly.

Acts 10:34 – Peter opened his mouth and said – Acts  10:34 – "In truth I perceive that God shows no partiality." God shows no partiality to us, as an American nation, to Ukraine, to Africa, to the Philippines. And God will work with people in Japan, in Tokyo, and Korea, other places. "...God shows no partiality, but, in every nation, whoever fears him and works righteousness is accepted by Him – every nation. No nation is excluded. God shows no partiality. This is what Peter said. The apostle Paul made similar statements in the book of Romans.

So, the first three points again: Build a relationship; number two: God has a plan of salvation; and number three: That every nation in God's time will have the opportunity to hear the testimony of Jesus Christ's life, death, and resurrection. There is no other name by which we can be saved. Jesus Christ is the front and center of our life. I know that when I explain the holy days to those outside of our faith who are Sabbath keepers, I talk about them not as Old Testament days. The most convincing statements I have made is that the holy days are all about Jesus Christ, starting with the feast of Passover - crucified Jesus Christ. Days of Unleavened Bread; Jesus Christ's unleavened body. Day of Pentecost: the forming of Jesus Christ's church – the  start of the Church of Jesus Christ – Church of God. Feast of trumpets: the return of Jesus Christ. The Day of Atonement; reconciliation with Jesus Christ as entry into the kingdom of God – the Kingdom of God, where Jesus Christ is King of kings and Lord of lords. And the Last Great Day: where Jesus Christ opens this door – opportunity – for every nation – for everybody. And, you know, that message has probably sold more people than anything else. If we can get out of the old ways that we have taught or thought.

Fourth of the "We Believes:" "We believe that we are at the end of the age and humanity is in need of the gospel message in advance of the events surrounding Christ's return. We believe Jesus commissioned his church to declare what is to come, to warn of the consequences of sin, to preach repentance and proclaim the hope of eternal salvation." This is the fourth and last of the "we believes, which is the prophetic statement that we are in urgent need to preach about the events surrounding Christ's return. And, that it's the message of repentance and to proclaim the hope, once again, of eternal salvation.

So, once again, the four "We Believes:" build relationships. Number two: a plan of salvation. Number three: all to have the opportunity. And, fourth: the gospel message being preached in advance, surrounding Christ's return – message of prophecy.

Now, we have three, "We Musts." We have three "WE MUSTS," I call them. If you take a look at the statements, they're called the Positioning Statements. Again, this may seem a little bit strange, because you may not have even heard these things. But again, they're statements about the inner workings of how we are organized and how we have decided, strategically, to place our message. Again, this has been a work in progress for eighteen years – eighteen years of the United Church of God – as to how are we going to be doing the work. How is the work of God being done?"
 
Okay, for the first of the "We Musts:" "We believe, first of all, that Christ commissioned us to preach the gospel to all the world. Therefore, we must" – and this is under that point of preaching the gospel to all the world – we're to energize this "we must" – "we must energize the entire church in fulfilling its mission to preach the gospel and to prepare a people." This is not the work of the Media Department. This is not the work of one man. This is the work of the entirety of the church. Every single member has opportunity. We want you!! And, of course, that, I've already kind of somewhat covered, we've made that change in our vision statement, and, also, we are talking about using the spiritual gifts that we talked about at length, which was the theme of last year's General Conference of Elders.

The second point under the first "we must" is: "Work to motivate members to transform their lives into brighter lights to the world" – that we're a church not of people that just know a lot of things – know a lot of prophecy that jump from one thing to another. And we have people that know many, many things, but some people do them not. Now, I'll have to say this, "I love the spirit of the church right now. I love the spirit when I come in here – the warmth, friendliness." I truly believe that we have the spirit of deep conversion in the church. But we are to continue – as this is one of the advertising principles or one of the advertising aspects of this church – to the outside. And, perhaps, when you came into the church, you were impressed by this fact, too, that this is a church of people, who have changed their lives – changed their lives from being worldly to being godly, and have made themselves lights to the world. Changed lives send a strong evangelistic message more than anything – more than words – even more than, in some ways, our media, which is very important, because people need to know what we teach. That's what the media does. No way am I denigrating it, but there's nothing that does more, on a personal level, than a personal example of people whose lives are changed – when they see a happy relationship between husband and wife, and they see happy children, they see people who are not neurotic and nuts, but people who really are together, loving, caring, serving and doing all these things. That's what really makes the most influence.

Also, as part of first "We Must," "We use the most appropriate methods to reach various audiences." As I said, we're trying to find a way to have our tone be such that people will recognize a caring tone as we speak to them – a personal tone – that when we're talking, we're not talking about ourselves, or not bashing some particular group, or knocking another religion. I really want us to move away from that. We've done enough of that. We need to show an example of people who really reach to one another and want to engage them in positive things. Yes, we have distinctives, but that doesn't mean we have to bash others for what they believe. God will judge them. God will take care of them – enough of that. We're trying to engage people. We're trying to get people to talk to us. While you can stir the pot, and get people interested for the wrong reasons, it really won't pay off long-term.

Again, under the first "We Must," "...use the most effective media technology to deliver a relevant, inspiring, and transforming message to all nations." Now again, we already own some very, very solid spots in that particular area in media – Internet, e-mail blasts, interactivity, blogs, Beyond Today, which is becoming recognized, and even the presenters are becoming recognized. That's very interesting, you know, they come to get gas..."Hey, I saw you on TV!" type of a thing. You know, we really want to use the technology that we have at hand to the best possible use – to be able to engage our audience as part of preaching the gospel to all the world. Now I have to say that the people that we work with – the very small number of people we work with – and they are really all overworked.... And, I see people like Aaron Booth, Mitch Moss, and Tom Disher...I mean, I could name the whole group.... They really, really work hard with a lot of projects – that they are just always, you know just trying to keep up with all the things that have to be done – a fantastic group of people who work. Also, we're using media to develop an interactive relationship with our audience. More than anything, we want to start people to react, you know – to inter-react with us. We want to talk to them. We want to be there to answer what they have and to start talking to them further. They do have questions. And we should be coming back at them with answers to engage them even more.

Okay, the second "We Must" – the first one was that we've got to preach the gospel to all world as Christ's commission. Number two is that: "It is essential that we develop leadership in the church to prepare a people for works of service, and to attain a measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." One very, very important aspect of what we do is to continually have ways in which we can teach – teach the truth. Part of what we do is a proclamation for inspiring and motivating, but people need to be taught. People need to know. People want to know. People want to have answers to biblical things. I'm really amazed as to how many people really want to have just.... "Could you please explain this aspect of the Bible to me" – not in an argumentative way – "but I don't understand this?" – to be like the source of aid to someone – like Philip, who said, "How can a man understand unless he be taught?" And we need to be there for them.

We need to answer the great questions of life continually. Does God exist? Who is God? What is God? What is His purpose? And the same things for man... Who is man? What is man and what is his purpose? These are the biggest questions of life – the biggest questions of life. And I would say that as we preach, and as we write, and as we proclaim...as people get older, they really start asking questions about these very, very deep areas. Is there really a God? As you come to a point in life, when you know you have five, ten years left, you just say, "God, okay I've kind of spun my heels the first...I've spun my wheels for the first fifty, sixty years of my life, but I really want to get straight now," as they privately think about these things. "Are You really there?" And there are many people who ask those questions as they feel an emptiness of the life around them. And, "If You are there, what's it all about?" And, "Where do I fit in? If there is a great loving God, where do I fit in?" People do ask these questions. Those are the questions I had when I was seventeen years old. And at that time, I didn't know anything about the church or anything of that sort. I had these questions. I heard the World Tomorrow program. I started getting answers to these questions. I know how happy I was to get something really settled about who God was, who Jesus Christ really was, and develop a relationship with Him and with fellow man. I'm not afraid to tell my testimony about what God did for me from the time I was a teenager. It actually started in ninth, tenth grade when I started listening to the World Tomorrow program and started having these types of questions. I truly believe that there are many, many people who have those questions, and we are a very, very unique source of the truth – of answers that make sense. And, you know, the truth that really meant more to me than anything else, as I think about it – the article that meant more to me than anything else? Is This the Only Day of Salvation? Because I used to just be absolutely tortured by the "fact" that God was not saving enough people – that it just didn't make sense. If Christianity was so great and God was so great and big, how come so few people are saved? And that relieved me. That made me feel I want to be part of this. These people understand. And we need to make the truth of God understandable, exciting, clear to people, and be there to respond and help them climb the next rung, so that they can come to the point of giving their life to Jesus Christ, and come to conversion, and come to enjoy the benefits that you do.

Part of leadership development is to develop training and educational programs for youth, members, and ministry. We're working on that. I'm working with Randy Stiver to help ministerial development and ministerial education, especially and particularly in areas overseas. I've been working with Aaron Dean in providing leadership training in different countries. We've had that now in South Africa. We'll have leadership seminars in Philippines here coming up in a few months. We're working on getting them in Malawi, Zambia and other places in the world. We really do need to train our ministers. And with modern technology now, it's possible to do it through WebEx, through Skype, through other means that we hadn't had before.

We're finding, too, that we're able to train a ministry in the United States through WebEx. This is our second year of our online training program. Even though our resources are few, it's inexpensive. Because it takes time, it takes teachers, you know – just being able to do this on a continual basis. But, we really do have the means to do it. Just please pray that God gives us enough manpower to be able to accomplish all the things that we have to. We have a lot to accomplish. I believe that we can do it. I really believe that we can do it. From where we were three or four years ago, wondering how we were going to continue a church without further training ministers, I do see a way out. And we've had many of our newer ministers comment about how much they've appreciated the new online training and what they've been able to garner from the classes that we have.

We also want to provide education for our youth, and also provide education for our members in different means. We feel that is very important – the development of the succession of who we are with the next generation. I know it's easy to say, "The end is coming," so we, kind of, just don't do as much as we should or push as hard as we can, but I am going to be working as though there's another fifty years to go. And I, down deep, don't really believe that we have fifty years to go. But I certainly want to go out and leave this life with the next generation all set to carry the flag of this church for as long as it has to before Christ's return. That's the way we would need to be continue working. So, therefore, we need to develop leadership. We need to develop our future in our congregations among ourselves. Right now, close to forty percent of our ministry is past retirement age. We have nineteen ministers age seventy and above. We need to bring on new pastors for...I say forty percent of our pastors are retirement age and above.

And, the third of the "We Musts:" "We believe that building meaningful, godly relationships is explicitly taught by Jesus Christ. And therefore, an important aspect of our teaching" – these are the points under this "we musts" – "to love God and to keep His commandments." That is paramount. We are to love God, because He loves us, and to keep His commandments, to love Jesus Christ for what He's done for us. As Jesus in His last prayer said, "Father, I want to love them as You have loved me." – ad us, to return, to reciprocate, with His love. "We are to love one another as Christ loves us" and not be afraid to express that love one towards another. "We're to teach and live Christ-like service." We've talked about Christ-like service, servant leadership, Christ-centered servant leadership – you know, on and on – with all the terminology, and all the nomenclature. It boils down to a giving yourself in lifting someone else up who's weaker than you – who needs more than you. That ought to be a part of what we, as a church, do. "We are to become one in God in Christ through the Holy Spirit. We're to speak the truth openly in godly love. We're to foster godly relationships among all." The last point: "Be a ministry of reconciliation." I want to spend just a few more minutes in this concluding statement.

We as a church, probably more than anything else, from now on out, are going to be judged by how peacemaking and how peaceful we are – how we are able to resolve any conflict we might have among ourselves, and how well we develop an environment of peace. We have had eighteen years – and some have been less than favorable periods of time. If there is anything that I want to leave, and that is that we have maintained peace – not Chamberlain style, where we have "peace in our time," but, truly, peace based upon living godly principles – that, if one have aught against another, they go to them. If one have aught against another, one is able to forgive – both ways. If there is conflict, it is resolved quickly, instead of having seminars, and appeal forms, and all kinds of things that have gone on – I've seen all kinds of things that have complicated this peace making process. It's from the heart to be able to get along. I truly believe that we can. I truly believe that we have the tools of peace. If we have peace with God the Father and with Jesus Christ, we can have peace with one another. We can have peace in our marriages. We can have peace in our families. We can have peace among us in the congregations. We can have peace among the ministry and peace in our leadership.

We have a lot to do. I really would like you to read those principles, because, more than anything, it spells out a whole roadmap of what we consider to be the important jobs to be done – coe.ucg.org, and download that PDF, It's about page eight or nine or so where all this is found – where it starts reading Vision, Mission, and Guiding Principles, and so forth. Read those. Talk about them with your family, because that's what this church is about. That's what we are doing. That's what we have... made a pact – as the council, as the administration – saying, "This is what we are doing."

This coming week we have a number of media type meetings. One is relating to content – talking about the kinds of things and subjects that we want to introduce in order to engage our audiences more. And, the other is a media meeting that will be chaired by Peter Eddington regarding Beyond Today. Please pray for those meetings pray that God gives us some very special favor and, perhaps, some special benefits that we hadn't thought of as to how to accomplish some of the things that we do. I gave you the overall roadmap and plan. So, may God bless you.

I look forward to a talking to you after services. Make sure to meet Alina Chiizmar from Hungary now, and Ukraine. And, we'll be seeing you after services.

 

 

 

View or download the entire PDF of the 2013-2014 Strategic Plan, Operation Plan and Budget for the United Church of God.

Vision

A Church led by God’s Holy Spirit, joined and knit together by what every member supplies, with all doing their share and growing in love to fulfill God’s great purpose for humanity to bring many children to glory (Ephesians 4:16; Hebrews 2:10).

Mission

The mission of the Church of God is to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ and the Kingdom of God in all the world, make disciples in all nations and care for those disciples.

Guiding Principles

We believe that our Father has given us the opportunity to build a relationship with Him, with Jesus Christ, with one another and with all mankind. We believe the immutable Word of God shows us how to build those loving relationships (John 17:20-23) and to become more like Jesus Christ.

Therefore we will strive to live by every Word of God, led by His Holy Spirit in humility, enabling these relationships to grow and flourish.

We believe God has a plan of salvation for every individual who will yield to Him and His Son Jesus Christ (1 Timothy 2:4). That plan includes the calling and perfecting of those who are being converted now as well as those to be converted in the ages to come.

Therefore it is the duty of the Church to proclaim a message of hope and a call to repentance, to teach all things Christ has commanded and to prepare members of the Body of Christ to teach, lead and serve under Him now and in the future.

We believe that every individual (of every race, nationality and gender) will, in God’s time, have the opportunity to hear the testimony of Jesus Christ’s life, death and resurrection and the good news of the Kingdom of God. We believe that the gospel explicitly provides every individual an opportunity, when called, for membership in the family of God, according to His will (Acts 10:34-35).

Therefore, in order to maximize the effectiveness of the gospel message, we endeavor to reach all people in a way they can understand with a balanced mix of doctrine, prophecy and Christian living—recognizing that any lasting fruit is produced by the power of God’s Holy Spirit.

We believe that as we near the end of the age, humanity is in urgent need of the gospel message in advance of the events surrounding Christ’s return. We believe Jesus commissioned His Church to declare what is to come, to warn of the consequences of sin, to preach repentance and proclaim the hope of eternal salvation (Matthew 24:13-14, Matthew 24:21; Matthew 28:18-20).

Therefore, we take very seriously the Church’s responsibility to boldly preach the gospel as a witness to this world with zeal and a sense of urgency (John 9:4).

Positioning Statements

We believe Christ commissions us to preach the gospel to all the world. Therefore we must:

- Energize the entire Church in fulfilling its mission to preach the gospel and prepare a people.
- Motivate members to transform their lives into brighter lights to the world.
- Use the most appropriate methods to reach various audiences.
- Use the most effective media technology to deliver a relevant, inspiring, transforming message to all nations.
- Use media to develop an interactive relationship with our audience.
- Apply the principles of the Media Philosophy Statement.

We believe that it is essential that we develop leadership for the Church to prepare a people for works of service and to attain the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ. Therefore we must:

- Provide in-depth biblical teaching.
- Answer the great questions of life—does God exist, who is God, what is God, what is His purpose, who is man, what is man, what is his purpose?
- Develop training and educational programs for youth, members and ministry.
- Provide the necessary facilities for our local congregations, and for training and education purposes.
- Utilize the best methods and technology in our training and education programs.

We believe that building meaningful, godly relationships is explicitly taught by Jesus Christ in the Scriptures. Therefore we must:

- Love God and keep His commandments.
- Love one another as Christ loves us.
- Teach and live Christ-like service.
- Become one in God and Christ through the Holy Spirit.
- Speak the truth openly in godly love.
- Foster godly relationships among all.
- Be a ministry of reconciliation.