September 2024 Member Letter

September 5, 2024

Dear Brethren,

In 2019 a book titled The Pioneers, by David McCullough, was published. After the Revolutionary War, Great Britain recognized the new United States of America and ceded the Northwest Territory—the wilderness area containing the future states of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan and Wisconsin—to the young nation.

McCullough’s book tells the story of those who settled this territory through two main characters: Manasseh and Ephraim Cutler (father and son), who were the leaders in the westward movement of the 18th century. During those years, a large group of men and women and children moved to this new territory. The author called them pioneers, and he documented the sacrifices they made in their journey west. 

The sermon I gave at the Feast of Tabernacles in San Diego that same year was inspired by this book. I titled it “Pioneers of the Kingdom.” My purpose was to tell the stories of those who came into the Church in the 1950s and 1960s when the Church was growing so rapidly. The Radio Church of God reported fewer than 1,000 people at the first Feast of Tabernacles in Big Sandy, Texas, in 1953. In 1973, 20 years later, there were almost 100,000 people attending the Feast in multiple sites! The growth was rapid, and the sacrifices made by the brethren in those years were real. 

I referred to these people—those who came into the Church at a time when the Church was coming of age—as pioneers. In my opinion, the sacrifice and hardship they faced because of their beliefs was greater than for most today. That is not to diminish the sacrifices made by those coming into the truth today, but we live in a time today when, it seems, people want to “live and let live,” not caring so much about what anyone may personally believe. Those who came into the Church in the ’50s and ’60s, however, lived in a time when many were fired from jobs for going to the Feast of Tabernacles and disowned by their families over the observance of the Sabbath and holy days. 

After giving that sermon, a longtime member came up to me and thanked me with tears in his eyes. He said he was having some serious health issues and he felt discouraged. He told me that I made him feel proud to be one of those pioneers. A few days later, I received a call from San Diego letting me know that this man had died during the Feast, only a couple of days after we left for our second site. It made me very sad, but it also made me realize that our journey in the Church has been long and difficult for many of those who are still around from those days or who have recently died.

Victor Davis Hanson, a fellow of the Hoover Institution and conservative news contributor, wrote an article about pioneers—and how “members of previous generations now seem like giants”—back in 2019. He wrote:

“America went to the moon in 1969 with supposedly primitive computers and backward engineering. Does anyone believe we could launch a similar moonshot today? No American has set foot on the moon in the last 47 years, and it may not happen in the next 50 years . . . We [fought] in Afghanistan without result for 18 years. Our forefathers helped win World War II and defeat the Axis Powers in four years . . . Our ancestors were builders and pioneers and mostly fearless. We [today] are regulators, auditors, bureaucrats, adjudicators, censors, critics, plaintiffs, defendants, social media junkies and thin-skinned scolds. A distant generation created; we mostly delay, idle and gripe.”

He wrote about the construction that took place in the last century: “Who were these people who left these strange monuments that we use but can neither emulate nor understand?” The Hoover Dam, major buildings such as the Empire State building (constructed in 13 months), major bridges and a railroad track that stretched from coast to coast were all built in the last century. What about the American pioneers? Where have they gone? 

A pioneer, by definition, is one who “is first or among the earliest in any field of inquiry, enterprise, or development” (dictionary.com). Another definition of pioneer is “a person who begins or helps develop something new and prepares the way for others to follow.” There have been pioneers in the field of medicine. The Wright brothers were pioneers of aviation. And those who settled and built this country from a few thousand people on the East Coast to more than 300 million today, spread from the Atlantic to the Pacific, were indeed pioneers. 

On the weekend of Aug. 24, I attended two memorials—one for Ruby Peoples, who was the widow of longtime minister Bob Peoples, and one for Carol Blackwell, the wife of Mike Blackwell, our retired minister in Springfield, Missouri. A memorial is different from a funeral. Normally, a funeral occurs days after death when emotions are quite raw, but in a memorial, you have time to reflect on the lives of the people who have died. Carol and Ruby were both, along with their husbands, among those pioneers from the ’50s and ’60s. There simply aren’t a lot of them left.

As I write this letter, I have just been informed of the death of another ministerial widow—Linda Hongerloot. Linda’s husband, Bernard, was a retired minister who died less than a year ago. Linda and Bernard were among those pioneers, having served God’s people for close to 50 years.

In Hebrews 11:13-14 we read: “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. For those who say such things declare plainly that they seek a homeland.”

These three ladies all died in the faith. And they were pioneers from a different time in the Church. 

This is my last letter prior to the Feast of Tabernacles, and I want to ask that we all do our part to honor and show our appreciation for those who went before us, who blazed the trail and made the sacrifices that were necessary to obey God. Many are still alive and deserving of our appreciation. Each year it is important that we remember those who are truly the pioneers of the Kingdom and among the firstfruits of the Kingdom of God.

My wife and I want to wish all of you the best Feast ever! We will once again be attending two sites. For the first half we will be in Tucson, Arizona, and for the second half in Santa Marta, Colombia. If you will be attending one of these sites, we look forward to spending part of the Feast with you.

Sincerely, your brother in Christ,

Jim Franks