March 2025 Member Letter

March 6, 2025

Dear Brethren,

It is hard to believe that we are now just over five weeks away from the Passover. In preparing for this most meaningful ceremony where we proclaim the death of our Savior, Paul admonishes, “But let a man examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup” (1 Corinthians 11:28). He doesn’t tell us to examine ourselves to determine if we should or should not partake of the Passover. The statement is for a man to “examine himself, and so let him eat of the bread and drink of the cup.”

In 2023, Admiral William McRaven published his book The Wisdom of the Bullfrog. The book consists of 18 chapters, each giving a few simple words of wisdom that he wanted to share from his years of experience as an admiral in the Navy. At the end of his career, he was the commander of the United States Special Operations Command, which included overseeing the Navy SEALs. Because he was the longest-serving Navy SEAL still on duty, he was known as the “Bullfrog,” hence the title of the book.

One chapter in the book is all about planning. His logic is quite simple—have a plan for the future and make it as detailed a plan as you can put together. He titled the chapter “Hope Is Not a Strategy.” To hope things will work out is important, but without also having a true plan and a sound strategy, it rarely leads to the fulfillment of your goals. While I don’t base my pre-Passover plan on Admiral McRaven, I have found the idea of always having a plan extremely helpful, whether in preparing strategies for life and work or in preparing for the Passover. Scripture is very clear as to how we prepare for the Passover: “examine [yourself], and so … eat and drink of the cup.”

At the office we are now making plans for the new auditorium and education center. We have presented our civil drawings to the city and wait for their response. Our contractor feels that if the city approves quickly, we could break ground as early as April and hopefully no later than May. This is indeed exciting. When we built the office in 2019, our finances were such that we paid for the land but we had to borrow the entire amount for the construction. God provided, and we paid the office mortgage off in less than two years.

Now, because of the strength of our finances, we can pay for the building outright without affecting any of our programs. From a financial perspective, the past two years have seen excellent increases. Based on Admiral McRaven’s advice to always have a plan, we have put one together for the new building. It is our plan to borrow half the funds as a construction loan (paying interest only during the construction period) and pay cash for the other half. Then, after the building is completed, we will repay the money we borrowed either immediately or within a fairly short period of time. By following this plan, we will keep more of our cash in the initial stages of the construction.

If all goes well and the city of McKinney approves our permits, the breaking of ground for the building should take place just before or just after our international ministerial conference scheduled for the first week of May. We hold an international conference for the ministry every two years. Our past two conferences were under the cloud of the COVID pandemic. In 2021 we were still in the pandemic, and in 2023 we had just come out of the pandemic. To be planning a conference without this weight over us is truly exciting. We should have our largest attendance thus far for the conference, with many internationals planning to attend. Combined with the locals, our attendance should be around 350.

Let me share with you some of our preliminary plans for the conference. This year our theme is “Embracing the Vision: Perceive, Plan, Produce.” We will have one day dedicated to the international ministry, to be conducted by Doug Horchak in his new responsibility as the operation manager for the International Work. Next we will have a full day of reporting from the various operations of the Church. The following day will include reports from the international areas and presentations from our seasoned ministers as well as our newest ministers.

We are also planning something we haven’t done in several years. We are planning to take the recordings from the conference and put together a special “Behind the Work” video for this year’s Feast of Tabernacles. I believe it will be exciting and inspiring to share our vision and plans for the future with the entire Church. This year seems to be especially appropriate to do this. I believe you will enjoy having this insight into the ministerial conference and our plans for the future. As Admiral McRaven says, hope is necessary, but it isn’t a strategy. This is our 15th year since we began, and our opportunities for preaching the gospel and caring for the brethren have never been greater.

This will be a special year for the conference in many ways. At every conference since we began, we have honored those who reach 50 years in the ministry since our last conference. With a total of 11, this year we will honor our largest group of 50-year veterans since we began in 2010. At some point during the conference, we hope to hear from some of these men, explaining what they have learned during their 50 years in the ministry. I believe that will be a real highlight of the conference. We will also honor those ministers and ministerial widows who have died since our last conference.

Over the past two years, we have been diligently communicating with men and their wives about the potential of serving in the full-time ministry. Most of this contact has come from Dave Myers in his new responsibility as operation manager for Ministerial Services. The Focused Mentoring Program (FMP) has been invaluable in this whole process. I am happy to say that several of these men, along with their wives, have accepted this challenge and are in the process of receiving training from their local pastors and Ministerial Services. We are very confident that these men and their wives will be a true asset to the Church as they take over as pastors for those who will be retiring in the next five to 10 years. As the Church, we do have a vision for the future, along with a strategy—and not just hope—to accomplish those goals.

Scripture is clear about planning for the future. It has no expiration date and is as appropriate today as it was when Christ spoke to His disciples in the first century. In Matthew 9:37-38 we read: “Then He said to His disciples, ‘The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few. Therefore, pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest.’” That is our prayer as we look ahead to the next few years. In a world that has lost its way, our work is more important than ever.

Sincerely, your brother in Christ,

Jim Franks