Member News

February 6, 2014 Member Letter

Dear Brethren,

There is no greater epitaph at the end of one’s life than this: “He died in the faith.” Leroy Neff was our second longest serving elder in the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, having been ordained in 1958. He died on Tuesday evening, Jan. 28. Mr. Neff wrote in his autobiography, “In my youth I would have been astounded to know what was in store for Maxine and me. My work has been exceedingly varied, interesting and rewarding. Jobs for the Church and College have varied from mail reader to chief financial officer and board member, with many other responsibilities in between.”

Confronting death causes us to think about life and what we are doing with the time God has given us. We understand from Scripture how precious it is when one of the saints dies (Psalm 116:15). Mr. Neff did a lot and had a positive influence on many people. I always enjoyed going to services in East Texas and seeing him sitting in the back, like a student; but I always felt that I should still be his student. He always wanted to know how the Church was doing and what our plans were for the future, even up to the last time I saw him just a few months ago. He will be greatly missed by all those who knew him.

Now let me share with you the news from our just completed fiscal year and our challenges for the year ahead. God has blessed us greatly in the past three years. As you know, we have set up our fiscal year according to the calendar year, January through December; and because of that, it takes at least a month to really know how the previous year ended. I can now tell you that, from a financial perspective, 2013 was our best year. We ended the year under budget with regard to expenditures and over budget with regard to income. In fact, the difference between income and expenditures for 2013 was a positive $700,000. Because of this better-than-anticipated income, we are able to begin the new fiscal year in an excellent financial position. We claim no credit for any of this, but give all thanks to God.

What are our plans for 2014? We met with a broad-based group of members back in November of last year to discuss our future plans. We continued the discussion with the Ministerial Board of Directors (MBOD) in December. We have many plans, but we must take care in setting our priorities. Even with our financial blessings, we are still a small organization; and using our limited resources wisely will be a challenge.

Many of us were part of the Church during the 1990s, when we had an amazing media presence. Every week millions of people were watching our TV program, reading our magazines and ordering booklets. In the mid-90s, as other organizations emerged, a similar work continued—magazines were printed; TV programs were established; and booklets were distributed. I am not critical of any of these things and consider them all good; but we now have 20 years of history to evaluate the success of all these endeavors. Of course, one could argue that just making the truth available to the world on a large scale is by itself success. And I believe there is truth to that, but is that the only measurement of success? Isn’t it true that we also desire to see growth in the Church?

It seems that in the past 20 years the major portion of the growth in membership has come from personal and family relationships. Because of that, we believe that it is important for us to provide more educational opportunities within the Church to assist the brethren. We will continue the Foundation Institute Online Bible class on Wednesday evenings while working on plans to expand our FI program online. We are planning an expansive Young Adult Leadership Weekend in February that will be conducted simultaneously in seven different cities, and we anticipate more than 400 will attend. Our Focused Mentoring program is now in its second year and working very well. In our first year we had eight couples in this new program, and this year we have an additional nine couples who are in their early 30s to early 50s.

We must be clear that our highest priority this year is to expand the preaching of the gospel (Matthew 24:14 and 28:19-20). This in no way takes away from our care for the Church. Christ made it clear in John 21:17 that if you “love Me” then you will “feed My sheep.” In regard to preaching the gospel, the question isn’t whether we will preach the gospel, but how can we do it more effectively? We launched our website, Life, Hope & Truth, in the middle of June 2012. In approximately 18 months we have grown from a few hundred views that first week, to more than 1.8 million over the months that followed. The first step of putting the message out over the Internet has been very successful. But there is more to consider. We must now ask, How many are actually reading the articles and responding? The answer to this question will guide us in the future as we further develop our use of the Internet for preaching the gospel.

Everywhere I have traveled lately, people have been excited about our new magazine, Discern. We plan to provide printed copies in areas outside the U.S. where Internet access is mostly nonexistent and mail copies for those who desire them in the U.S. Our primary goal with Discern is to build a base of Internet subscribers from which we anticipate new people will contact the Church. We will continue to print booklets and mail them to those who make requests. It is exciting to look ahead and see the opportunities. The reality is that we are still a small organization with a worldwide attendance of just over 10,000. Even though we are small, we choose to think big, making sure we don’t underestimate what God can do!

As we approach the Passover (only nine weeks away), I encourage each of us to make use of all the tools God has provided for spiritual growth and development, which I believe will precede any growth in numbers. Those tools are well known to all of us—fasting, praying and studying God’s Word. If we fast more often, pray more fervently and study more diligently, I believe God will bless us in ways that we cannot fully imagine. The Church of God, a Worldwide Association, had a great year in 2013, but we anticipate an even greater year in 2014.

Sincerely, your brother in Christ,

Jim Franks