May 2025 Member Letter

May 13, 2025

Dear Brethren,

One of the most exciting events in the Church of God, a Worldwide Association, takes place here in McKinney, Texas, every two years during the month of May. It is our biennial International Ministerial Conference, which this year took place over three days, from Sunday, May 4, through Tuesday, May 6. We had approximately 350 in attendance, making this our largest conference in our relatively short history.

The Church of God, a Worldwide Association, officially began on Dec. 23, 2010. It wasn’t until February of 2011 that we hired our first employees, but we held our first conference in January in Louisville, Kentucky. After that, we held a conference of sorts each year through 2017. Some years we held regional conferences, and in other years we held full conferences that included the U.S. and the international pastors and wives.

Beginning in 2017, we decided to do a full conference every other year beginning with the odd years—2017, 2019, 2021, 2023 and now 2025. We held smaller training sessions during the years in between. In 2022, we began the Pastoral Development Program for all U.S. pastors. We continued that program in 2024, and it is planned again for 2026.

This year was our largest conference, and many would say it was our most outstanding conference from many perspectives. Approximately 20 speakers addressed the conference over the three days. From my perspective, the depth and inspiration of these messages was of a caliber that we have not seen before. We laughed a lot, cried some and fellowshipped a lot. It was good to see old friends and to meet new friends. It was truly an outstanding conference. The theme—“Embracing the Vision: Perceive, Plan, Produce”—was simple, but it contained spiritual depth.

We had some sad news during the weeks prior to the conference. We lost two long-standing elders: King Finlay, who died at the age of 96 four weeks before, and Jack Willoughby, who died suddenly about a week before the conference. Both were well-loved and had served as pillars for decades in their congregations. We ask that you join us in praying for God’s comfort for these two families. Of course, there are many brethren these days who are facing the loss of fathers, mothers, grandfathers and grandmothers. I pray every day, as I am sure you do, that God will heal those who are sick, comfort those who have lost loved ones and encourage those who are simply overwhelmed with the trials of life. These are our brethren, and we love them deeply.

Now let me take you to the conference. In reality, the conference began on Friday night, May 2, when we had a special dinner at the Church office for all the international ministers, who had arrived early for the conference. There were approximately 60 present for this dinner.

Then on the Sabbath we had split sermons from two of our international ministers—Dave Baker, the regional director for the work in Asia, and Saúl Langarica, who pastors Chile, Brazil and Bolivia and works with the minister (Alfredo Arboleas) and members in Argentina and Uruguay.

On Sunday, May 4, we held meetings for all the international ministers and wives in the FI classroom and breakroom. Our classroom seats only about 45 people, and we had approximately 80 who were present, so we used the FI breakroom as overflow. It was a full day of meetings, focusing on the structure of the international work and youth camps. Ken Treybig, Paul Carter and Andy Burnett spoke to the international ministers about our desire to hold youth camps in every country where it is possible. In many countries the numbers are simply too small to organize a youth camp, so we are encouraging regional camps in those areas.

On Monday we began the meetings for everyone—international and U.S. pastors and elders—at the Sheraton Hotel, only a couple hundred yards from the Church office. We set up 400 chairs, and it was a packed house with additional people in the hallways of the hotel.

During the conference, we also honored 11 men who had completed 50 years in the ministry since our last conference in 2023, along with their wives. Nine of the 11 couples were present, but sadly, two couples (Larry and Bonnie Greider and Cecil and Gale Maranville) were unable to attend due to health issues. The nine couples who were present were John and Susan Foster, Ken and Kathy Giese, Arnold and Ann Hampton, Mike and Zelda Hanisko, Doug and Janel Johnson, Clyde and Dee Kilough, Frank and Nelda Pierce, Jim and Judy Servidio, and David and Teddi Treybig.

The final day of the conference was Tuesday, May 6. Inspiring and emotional reports were given by Joel Meeker, explaining what life is like for our members caught in the Congo, where war seems to never end. Additional reports were given by Andre van Belkum from New Zealand and Guy Ahialegbedzi from Togo. We also had a video from Edward Simanjuntak that was very moving. Edward explained what it is like to be the only member family in the country of Indonesia, which has the largest Muslim population in the world. Edward told about his trials coming into the Church. He had work challenges because of the Sabbath, he was ostracized by his family, and his brother threatened to kill him! Edward and his family have an amazing story to tell!

I would like to announce to everyone that we plan to take this year’s three-day conference and turn it into a video to be shown during the sermon time on one of the days of the Feast of Tabernacles. Traditionally I have recorded a sermon to be played at all Feast sites, generally on the second day of the Feast. This year, I have decided that instead of a sermon from me, we will have a “Behind the Work”–type of video. Of course, we cannot truly capture three days and 20 presentations in one hour, but our video crew is already working on how to put all this together for this year’s Feast. I believe you will be very inspired by what you see.

The theme for this year’s conference was taken from Hebrews 11:13: “These all died in faith, not having received the promises, but having seen them afar off were assured of them, embraced them and confessed that they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth” (emphasis added).

It is extremely important that we provide training for our ministry and also opportunities for them to be together. This year’s conference successfully accomplished both.

Sincerely, your brother in Christ,

Jim Franks