Update from the President

As Bev and I continue our church travels to Australia and Asia, one thing continues to firmly impress us: this world desperately needs God and the incredible blessing that will come to this world through the establishment of the Kingdom of God by the very Son of God, Jesus Christ, the King of Kings and Lord of Lords. On our travels, as we see people and read of events that have no influence of God, it gives us serious pause as we consider what a great gift we have been given.

That continuing experience leads me to a question: What's the role of God the Father in your life? The Church's Bible Study Guide concerning our fundamental beliefs contains this powerful statement:

"We believe in One God, the Father, eternally existing, who is a Spirit, a personal Being of supreme intelligence, knowledge, love justice, power and authority."

What does that mean to you from a practical perspective? How can we apply this in our lives? During His earthly ministry, one of the principal tasks of Jesus Christ, whom we as a Church fully recognize as the Messiah and the divine Son of the living God, was to reveal this incredible all-powerful Being who Jesus positively confirmed was His very Father!

As Jesus declared to the Jews of the first century, "You have neither heard His voice at any time, nor seen His form" (John 5:37). That shocked them. That was revealed knowledge that they had never heard.

Throughout His three-and-one-half-year ministry, Jesus constantly defined his relationship with His Father, revealing minute details about who and what God is.

Every Passover we openly read Jesus' words about His direct and close relationship with His heavenly Father. We read in the 17th chapter of John the emotion-packed words of Jesus as He prays to His Father on our behalf. The book of Hebrews goes on to describe our incredible privilege to have Jesus Christ as our Elder Brother (Hebrews 2:11). His sacrifice paid the penalty and opened the way for us to join him as the very children of God (1 John 3:1).

So what about us? What about the people in our congregations? What role does God the Father play in our individual lives? This was a question that faced the Church very early on.

Certainly Jesus as the living Son of the Most High God set us an example. He is our model. He is our example.

After being called a "good teacher" by a local scholar, we read the response of Jesus: "Why do you call Me good? No one is good but One, that is, God"(Luke 18:19, New King James Version). Jesus looked constantly to His Father. He knew what the source of all good was and is.

What about us?

The early church faced the same question. Notice what Paul wrote to the Ephesians, a largely gentile congregation located in what is today western Turkey: "I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the glorious Father, may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation, so that you may know him better" (Ephesians 1:17, New International Version).

This is the same Holy Spirit that God sent to the Church on Pentecost, the same Spirit that God, as the very Father of Jesus, used to bring the Messiah into this physical world. As we read, Mary, the mother of Jesus, "was found with child of the Holy Spirit" (Matthew 1:18, NKJV).

Paul specifically used powerful imagery to get his point across about what God wanted to bring to you and me. Paul prayed to the Father that "the eyes of your understanding being enlightened; that you may know what is the hope of His calling, what are the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of His power toward us who believe" (Ephesians 1:18-19, NKJV).

As Paul continues, that power characterizes the incomprehensible might which God used to raise His Son from the dead, the power that established the Son of God as "far above all principality and power and might and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this age but also in that which is to come" (Ephesians 1:21).

That power that Paul prays that we appreciate and understand, included the fact that God appointed Jesus Christ to "to be head over all things to the church, which is His body" (Ephesians 1:22-23).

How wonderful that we can understand this. How wonderful it is that we are not spiritually blinded by a limiting man-made doctrine of a trinity. As separate Beings who have existed for incalculable millennia, God the Father and His Son Jesus Christ are today executing an incredible plan to bring peace through an eternal Kingdom of God!

As Bev and I travel and see afresh what a world apart from God looks like, I too add my prayers that our hearts would be collectively enlightened. Let us continue to look to our heavenly Father and seek to understand and know Him better. Let us re-read and meditate on the words spoken by His Son Jesus Christ, our Elder Brother, that we may elevate the conscious role of God our Father in our daily lives.

Australia Conference July 9-11

In Hebrews 10:24-25 we read: "And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching."

This passage describes what we have felt here in Australia after a wonderful two day Leadership Conference, July 10-11, with delegates from all of Australia, New Zealand, Tonga and the United States. More than 90 pastors, elders, deacons and leaders came together in the Gold Coast, Australia, for meetings focused on the future leadership of the Church at all levels. Whatever technology we have for connecting ourselves electronically, nothing totally replaces the personal face-to-face contact with have in meetings such as this.

The convocation really began on the Sabbath, as 200 were attendance for services. Bob Dick and I gave relevant messages for the conference: "Attitude" and "Five Mindsets of a Servant."

The conference began Sunday morning and the contents of the presentations went in two directions. One emphasized character and conversion in leaders, while the other was training and skills. I started with my first lecture which was titled "The High Calling of the Ministry." It's a title that was intended to fit all types of service in the Church. We didn't want this to be strictly a ministerial conference for ordained ministers, but neither did we want to be so generic about service subjects that they lost their relevance in how they were to applied to the future life and health of the congregation. While only a few will become ordained ministers, everyone in the room can serve and must have similar qualifications of working with people, sacrifice, hospitality and many other traits.

Bob Dick gave two side-by-side lectures about character and integrity. He explained the difference between the two and how they are vital attributes in a leader's ability to serve effectively. Bob later gave a third lecture about lessons learned over 50 years in the ministry.

Bill Bradford spoke about doctrinal integrity and teaching as you've been taught. The identity of our church is our doctrines. We need to protect them and pass them on intact to tomorrow's leaders.

We had three presentations from our spouses, Beverly Kubik, Jenny Bradford and Dyanne Dick, on "Meaning of Help Meet," "Appreciating One Another," and "Words of Advice For Those Who Serve God's People."

Then I followed about how we plan to educate our future pastors and elders. Currently we have various programs with online training, a pastoral development program, seminars, regional conferences, "Labor in the Word" program and ongoing pastoral education as well as Ambassador Bible College. From all these ways of educating that we already have in place, we want to form a coordinated program with a faculty to provide the right tools to the right people.

We spoke about how we now, particularly in the United States, oversee smaller congregations with part-time and volunteer pastors--ways that differ from older models of one pastor over three of more churches. We have tried this for the past five years with positive results and greater effectiveness. Some of that is already being implemented in smaller Australian congregations with favorable results.

Stephen Clark gave an interactive presentation about working with teens and children and spoke about society's challenges to family and children. Tomorrow's leaders need to be equipped to serve our threatened young people in the church.

We had a few question and answer sessions that evoked many good questions (and answers) about tomorrow's leaders. We spoke at length about relationships and building church community. The focus was on creating a sense of family and interdependence in our congregations. It was also about a Church that one could become involved in. Also, since we are so scattered, there was discussion on how we can all be tied together more. This has been the first conference of its kind in Australia in eight years. We were all happy to be with one another and talked about how we can continue to communicate and bond.

We also held a meeting with the National Council, all pastors as well a few former council members about some restructuring that will soon be done. In the April meeting, the National Council passed a resolution creating the position of "Director of Operations." This was to better facilitate all the aspects of the work here in Australia that deal with everything from proclamation of the gospel message to the staffing of our ministry and care of our congregations.

From the outset of the conference, we stated that the purpose of the conference was to learn, socialize and share. We accomplished all of that and more.

After the conference, we visited the church office in Burleigh Heads and spent Tuesday with office manager and dear friend Ruth Root and our gracious hosts Mark and Ileana Robertson. We visited some of the beautiful natural sites of the Gold Coast.

I write this from Perth on the west coast. Here we are hosted by the pastor, Grant Chick, and his wife, Kim, who moved here seven months ago. This is the first resident pastor in Perth in the United Church of God. It is one of the most isolated places on the earth and we admire them for their zealous service to the brethren in two congregations here in Western Australia.

From here we go to Singapore on Sunday to visit our brethren there before returning to Cincinnati on Wednesday.

This visit and the conference have exceeded all expectations in good will, learning and positive outlook. I want to give special thanks to Bob and Dyanne Dick for their contributions, Doug Gray, Bill Bradford and Ruth Root for making this event so profitable.

We truly have been stirred to love and good works in this assembly, as stated in Hebrews 10.