Update from the President

This past week has been dominated by the "Let This Mind Be In You" Leadership Workshop held Aug. 31-Sept. 3 at the home office. There were 36 people who came from all over the United States, Canada and Sri Lanka for lectures and discussion. Our home office staff was thoroughly impressed by the spirit, dedication and commitment of these men and women—pillars who hold up and serve our congregations.

Over the past few years in our training of church leaders, we have focused on the meaning of discipleship. The word disciple is mentioned 300 times in the Bible and identifies those who spend their lives apprenticed to Jesus Christ in a growing-learning relationship. It is the term most often used to describe those who follow Christ. A disciple is not only a learner in an academic setting of a schoolroom, but one who is at the work site of a craftsman, acquiring skills in faith. We are called upon to make disciples as part of our mission. But, in order to do that, we must first become disciples ourselves. Much of our workshop focused on this, as well as Philippians 2:5-7, which reads: "Let this mind be in you which was also in Christ Jesus, who, being in the form of God, did not consider it robbery to be equal with God, but made Himself of no reputation, taking the form of a bondservant, and coming in the likeness of men."

I thank all those worked through this Labor Day with organization and presentations which featured Darris McNeely, Steve Myers, Chris Rowland, Peter Eddington, Greg Thomas and Victor Kubik. A session for women was brought by Kathe Myers, Debbie McNeely, Lisa Fenchel and Beverly Kubik.

Here are a few comments from the exit survey written by the participants: 

"Our minister, who we respected, asked us to attend and we thought 'Why not? We'll learn something.' So we arrived with moderate expectations. We very quickly realized we were in for an incredibly inspirational and educational weekend. It honestly blew us away! We've accepted the challenge to go home and do good and serve effectively and figure out new ways to serve. I hope we can bring this energy home and ignite others as well. Thank you."

"Very helpful presentations. Wish the workshop could go on for an entire week. Have learned many things that enable us to be better and more efficient servants when we get back to our local congregations. We are leaving here better equipped to help our spiritual family than we were when we arrived." 

"We are so thankful for this opportunity. We are very grateful for everything you have done. You have certainly made us feel very welcome. You have very much displayed a good example of humility." 

"I was humbled to be here among such a wonderful godly group. Thank you for taking the time to put on a well thought out workshop. We are grateful and pray that we can go out and put what we have learned and absorbed into our lives and our congregation. Thanks so much." 

"It has been an amazing opportunity to get to know others from various congregations all over. It is encouraging to see such humble people serving God's people all over." 

"We enjoyed all the presentations—they have given us a lot to apply in becoming better servants of God and His people."

Ambassador Bible College

We really appreciate our ABC students with whom we mingle as much as we can. ABC is in its second week of classes and we've received good feedback about the content of the classes and overall spirit of the students.

This week was highlighted by a Career Education module hosted by Andrew Lee, Lisa Fenchel, Michelle Hopkins, Nick Hollen and Troy Phelps.

Coworker and Donor Letter

Keying off the start of the ABC academic year, I focused on studying and understanding the Bible in my letter to nearly 15,000 coworkers and donors this week. We're offering the booklet How to Understand the Bible.

Feast of Trumpets

We wish you all a wonderful Feast of Trumpets that is suddenly here as the fall (autumn) Holy Days come earlier this year. Beverly and I will be driving to Windsor, Ontario, in Canada for the Feast of Trumpets. May we all rejoice and learn to fear our Eternal God always during this Festival season, starting with the Feast of Trumpets. I thank God for all the saints in the United Church of God and for what He is doing in their lives.

Media Release Outlines the Purpose of the Feast

To make available festival information to people who have little or no biblical background, the church prepares and makes available a general media release. Pew Research and other research organizations have found that a large percentage of the American and global populations are not familiar with traditional biblical phrases that church members would be intimately familiar with. Accordingly, this release is written in such a fashion that the content can be easily understood by a wide spectrum of the public, including members of the media who may not have a background in religious topics.

The following press release about the upcoming Feast of Tabernacles will be posted online at UCG.org and distributed to public contacts through both a media distribution service and by surface mail. The URL address can be shared by members on social media such as Facebook and Twitter. It is intended to be informational, and the online posts through the distribution service are search engine optimized (SEO) through keywords and links (like to the Beyond Today web page) so the press release is discoverable online. Typically, several media websites pick up the release and include it (or a link) in their online coverage, and we occasionally may see it in print (many festival sites no longer have local print media in their area). The headline also appears before the Feast on the Reuters screen with the Church's logo in New York City's Times Square.