January-February 2025 Special Member Letter

January 27, 2025

Dear Brethren,

When you watch the news these days, you can’t help but be reminded that the calendar year 2025 has certainly gotten off to a rough start. We have already seen major tragedies in this first month. The fires in Southern California have devastated a large region, with more than 15,000 structures destroyed and at least 28 deaths. The cost of these fires could set a new record for the costliest disaster in American history. The Church is prepared to help the members who have suffered loss either in California or in the recent flooding in the Carolinas, but rather than setting up separate funds each time there is one of these disasters, the Church maintains an assistance fund to which members are encouraged to make contributions to assist the brethren as needs may arise—either for regular living expenses or for disaster-related expenses.

In addition to what we are seeing in the United States, there are a number of ongoing tragedies around the world, carrying over from 2024. The fighting in Ukraine continues; there is still violence in the Middle East even though a tentative ceasefire between Israel and Hamas has taken effect; and thousands are dying from starvation in Sudan and that general region of Africa as a result of a civil war. And these are only the tip of the iceberg of what is really happening in our world today.

In the midst of all this sad news, there is some very encouraging news to report from the Church at the conclusion of another fiscal year. The fiscal year 2024, which ended on Dec. 31, produced the largest increases in the work of the Church that we have ever witnessed in a single year. Our income was 10 percent more than the previous year (2023). Our numbers in Media continue to increase as well. We had a record number of people contact us in 2024. These are primarily new people who are reading our literature or watching our video programs. Our Life, Hope & Truth Presents programs continue to improve and grow, and a couple of them have logged more than 150,000 views. We find this very encouraging for a program that only debuted in the fall of 2023.

I also have news about our proposal to build on our property here in McKinney, Texas. More than two years ago, in August of 2022, I proposed to the Ministerial Board of Directors (MBOD) that our finances coming out of the COVID pandemic made it possible for us to build an auditorium/education center on the remaining 3 acres of our property. This was part of our original plan when we built the office back in 2018. In the case of the office, the Church paid cash for the property and then took out a mortgage for the building. That was indeed a leap of faith for us as a small organization that was still just getting its feet on the ground. But God blessed us abundantly during the two years of planning and construction, and we paid off the mortgage in June 2021, roughly two years after completing the office in 2019. The Church was debt-free at that point, and we have remained that way ever since.

Today, with four out of the past five years showing increased income, our amount of available cash has also increased. With no debt and a very healthy cash reserve, we are in position now to add the second building to our property. Following is an artist’s drawing of what the building could look like. Its outward appearance will be very similar to our current office building.

The seating capacity of the auditorium, as drawn, will be 466, but there will also be three additional rooms that can be used for overflow, bringing the total capacity to over 600.

There will be a separate section for Foundation Institute that will seat 48 students at tables. This section can be closed off so that classes can be in session while other events are taking place in the auditorium. And by moving FI to the new building, we will free up an additional 1,000-plus square feet in the office that will be converted to accommodate the growing needs of our Media department. We envision that this new space will be used for equipment storage, a second studio, offices and workstations for employees.

It is certainly appropriate to ask, What will the building be used for in addition to Sabbath services for the local Dallas congregation? In our discussions with the MBOD, we have all agreed that there are many possibilities. Here is a partial list.

• Home for Foundation Institute students and instructors.
• Home for our biennial International Ministerial Conference.
• Home for our Pastoral Development Program, which is also conducted biennially in the off years from the conference.
• Home for the FI continuing education summer classes.
• Home for occasional regional and national weekends.
• Home for a national Young Adult Leadership Weekend program. This year we had 150 who attended from around the country and a few from outside the United States.
• Home for national seminars on marriage and other educational topics. These would be developed as part of an overall education program for the membership.
• Home for a regional Feast site. Currently we don’t have any plans for such a site, but this could become a need as more people are unable to travel long distances for the Feast.
• Home for special combined services in the Dallas/Fort Worth/Sherman metroplex.
• Home for special social and sports activities. Currently we are running out of space in the office for our local FI and young adult weekend activities.

The Church is now in a position to pay cash for this new structure, but our proposal is to secure a mortgage for up to half the cost instead of decreasing our cash reserves to an unacceptable level. Our desire would be to pay this mortgage off within three to five years of the building being completed. We also own two pieces of property that we hope to sell in this current fiscal year—a house in Portland (donated to the Church a couple of years ago) and a 1.5-acre section of land that is currently on the market for $1 million. With no debt, a solid cash reserve and properties to sell, we have a proposal to cover all the costs for the new building without impacting our budget and still keeping an adequate cash reserve.

This brings me to an important announcement. On Tuesday afternoon, Jan. 21, 2025, the Ministerial Board of Directors unanimously approved our proposal for building a new auditorium/education center. We have already selected a builder and are currently working on a contract to build. If all goes well with the contract and the building permits from the city, we hope to break ground during the summer with a tentative completion date of May 2026.

Back in 2019 when we dedicated our new office building, our theme for the International Ministerial Conference was “Unless the Lord Builds the House.” I believe this is an appropriate theme to conclude this letter with. Of ourselves, we can do nothing, but with God’s involvement, great things can be done. We know what the future holds, but we don’t know the timing. We can read about the events prophesied to occur in the end time, but we must answer the question of what should we be doing now to plan for the future. The world is changing rapidly, and there is much work to be done—“the harvest truly is plentiful” (Matthew 9:37). I am excited to be planning for the future, preaching the gospel to the world, caring for those whom God will call and caring for those whom He has already called. Let me conclude with this verse:

“Unless the LORD builds the house, they labor in vain who build it; unless the LORD guards the city, the watchman stays awake in vain” (Psalm 127:1).

Please join me in praying for God’s guidance, direction and blessing with this building project. It would be a major project for any organization, but especially so for one our size. God has blessed us in so many ways, and after more than two years of discussion, we are excited to take this next step! As designed, the building will be an important tool to support the work of preaching the gospel and caring for the brethren. Thank you so much for your continued support and encouragement!

Sincerely, your brother in Christ,

Jim Franks