United Church of God
an International Association

Clyde Kilough Roy O. Holladay
Chairman President

August 16, 2002

Dear Brethren,

Warm greetings on behalf of the Council of Elders. Have you ever spent some time developing a "wish list" of all the things you would like to do and accomplish with your family over the coming year? Maybe you would consider personal or children’s educational needs, family travel, home improvements, automobile repairs or purchases, paying off debts, increasing savings, church and community projects or service, dealing with health problems, perhaps even a major move such as a career change or transfer, etc. It is certainly enjoyable, and sometimes essential, to plan and dream, and we can usually come up with a pretty long list of all the things we would like or need to do.

One common problem, however, invariably rises to the surface. That is, most "wish list" items have a price tag, and when we compare the costs of implementing our "wish list" to the reality of how much we have to spend . . . well, you know the story!

Such was our exercise on the opening day of Council meetings last week. We spent all of Monday on our agenda priority—looking back on the past year through the operation managers’ annual reports, then looking forward to the 2003-2004 fiscal year through their "wish lists." Roy Holladay has been leading the home office administration in planning meetings to present to the Council as far in advance as possible the needs and desires for expanding the work of the Church.

The results were both exciting and frustrating, and probably predictable. At the end of the day we saw so much that has been done, so much that yet needs to be done and so many good ideas that could be done. But the price tag is beyond reality for doing all those things in the next year. Like most of your individual families, the Church family’s income is not unlimited. And while we would love to give the green light to go ahead with everything, that would be irresponsible.

That’s probably just as well, in some ways. Let’s face it, we all struggle with human nature, and in times of ease and prosperity we tend to be less frugal, less appreciative, less mindful of our need for God. Perhaps we’re in a better spiritual place when our strength is small, and our job is great, when our plans are ambitious, but our means are limited. It heightens both our awareness of the need to be wise stewards and our reliance on God to provide the wisdom and means for proper stewardship.

To get a better feel for the situation, let me take you on a brief walk through just one area of operations, the media department, which is mainly responsible for our efforts to preach the gospel.

Our media flagship, The Good News, could easily reach a target of 650,000 copies two years from now. Wouldn’t it be great to reach a million by that time? When we see, though, that increasing the print run by 135,000 next year will cost approximately $340,000 (including not just promotions, printing and postage costs, but also the need to hire someone for all the additional data entry), we have to ask, "Where is that money going to come from?" But in addition, wouldn’t you like to see The Good News going out 10 times a year instead of six? Well, that’s another $775,000 a year! And with such growth would come the need to hire editorial assistants who could keep up with responses, research and support an already overworked staff. We anticipate next year adding 20,000 Bible Study Course students, and we need to print several new booklets. And while United’s greatest strength is in our printed material, we want to increase our efforts in other media avenues such as radio and cable access television coverage. We also need to produce a printed version of our current on-line Youth United publication in order to more effectively reach the younger audience. We see many other needs that are less expensive, such as providing booklets in Braille for our blind brethren and subscribers, and they all add up. In addition, every plan implemented increases responses from our audience, which requires more manpower at the home office to keep up.

That’s just media operations. Add to the mix the equally important needs and plans of Ministerial Services for taking care of and building the congregations, pastors and elders, children and young adults, etc., and an identical picture develops. Read the bottom line, and costs far outstrip projected income.

So you see, what we could do, what we would like to do, is restrained by what we have to do it with. Of course, five years from now we may well have far surpassed what today is only wishful thinking, but then our sights will have shifted to higher goals.

One of Jesus’ parables comes to mind. "The kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed, which a man took and sowed in his field, which indeed is the least of all the seeds; but when it is grown it is greater than the herbs and becomes a tree, so that the birds of the air come and nest in its branches" (Matthew 13:31-32). If the Kingdom’s growth is like that, then I suppose the Church’s spreading of the message of that Kingdom may be similar.

On the bright side, these are good problems to have, because these are problems associated with growth, and for that we are very thankful.

What can we—what must we—do, brethren?

On the administrative level, we have not only a common-sense requirement, but a constitutional mandate, to anticipate and live within a budget. The Council members are keenly aware of our personal accountability both to God and to you to be good stewards, and we are conscientiously doing our best to that end.

We’ve always had these planning sessions in the past, of course, but moving them to August, nearly 11 months in advance of the next year, affords us a much better chance to consider the issues facing us and to make wiser decisions. The nature of wisdom is that it is a quality most demanded when decisions are difficult. When something is easy to determine—whether it is right or wrong, smart or dumb—then knowledge alone may be sufficient for decision-making. It’s when things are more complex that the quality of wisdom rises to a high level of importance. When we look at the goals, needs, hopes, plans, priorities, manpower and budgets all combined, we foresee hard choices in the decision-making process, choices that need to be directed by God’s wisdom.

What else is needed, what else can we all do?

Remember the occasion when Jesus saw multitudes of people and He "was moved with compassion for them, because they were weary and scattered, like sheep having no shepherd" (Matthew 9:36)? He first made an observation, "The harvest truly is plentiful, but the laborers are few" (verse 37), then gave a command, "Therefore pray the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into His harvest" (verse 38).

We have a lot to do as a Church. We need more laborers, and we who are already laborers must labor with all of our might, motivated by the magnificence of the calling God has given to us! We must share the mind of Christ, who said, "I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is day; the night is coming when no one can work" (John 9:4). What an awesome thing God has done in our lives—"God has set the members, each one of them, in the body just as He pleased" (1 Corinthians 12:18)!

The very least we can do is to pray regularly, often and fervently for God to place more members in the Body, and for the will, capacity and blessing to do whatever we can in His work.

This may be a good place to take a look at something we have all heard, and maybe some have expressed. It is usually a cynical statement, something along the line that we are just here to "pray and pay." If anyone views the people of God as nothing more than a non-involved, second-class, nondescript "resource," whose reason for being called is to funnel money to the work, that is shameful.

But on the other hand, it is spiritually dangerous to allow any form of creeping cynicism to lead us to "despise small things." Praying to God, and paying our tithes and offerings, in its pure form, is not a small thing—it is central to our worship and relationship with Him!

In the famous prophecy of Christ laying the foundation of the temple, His Church, and the promise that "His hands shall also finish it" (Zechariah 4:9), a rhetorical question is posed. In verse 10 it asks, "For who has despised the day of small things?" The events of life required us to virtually start from scratch a few years ago. Relatively speaking we are, by all accounts, in a day of small things. Does "despising" take many forms, perhaps ranging from skepticism to detachment to doubt about what the temple of God can accomplish? The question put before us demands careful consideration.

Interestingly, the New Revised Standard Version of verse 10 does not pose a question, but translates it as a statement: "For whoever has despised the day of small things shall rejoice, and shall see the plummet in the hand of Zerubbabel." In other words, the work of God will go on, and the whole world will someday, rejoicing, see the truth.

Blessed are those who see it now, who have vision now, of what God has called us to!

Let’s not make a small thing out of "pray and pay." That concept should never be used as a manipulative weapon to use on other people. However, it should be a motivational tool that we as individual Christians use on ourselves, because it is at the heart and core of our involvement in preaching the gospel to the world! Is fervent prayer a small thing? Is giving of our resources a small thing? Not in the mind of God, as He makes clear throughout His Word.

These are a few thoughts that have flowed simply from hearing at the Council meetings about the potential on the horizon to more effectively do the work of God if we had even greater means. It is from hearing about what we need to do now, what we need to do in the future, how the fields are white for harvest, but seeing the reality of our limitations. Who’s to say that God will not open the windows of heaven to allow us to do much more than we think possible at this point? Let’s not underestimate the availing power of fervent prayer!

Brethren, if we are to be limited, let it be by limitations outside of our control. But let us never look back on this time and admit that we limited the fervency or frequency of our prayers in spite of Christ’s command. Let us never look back and have to confess that we limited our commitment to God’s work financially, in service to others or in any other manner.

The rapidly approaching Holy Day season reminds us that we are standing on the brink of eternity! But right now, we have a deep sense that we are also standing on the brink of the Church of God being prepared for a much larger role in the unfolding events of this world. How, when, what, where? Only God knows, but He has given us stability, He has given us help to spread the gospel message, and spiritually hungry people are responding. It therefore stands to reason that the Church’s impact will be steadily increasing.

Thank you for your prayers and encouragement for the meetings we just concluded. They were productive, and we covered much more than mentioned in this letter. It just seemed appropriate that the focus here be on the priority issue we addressed—doing the work of God. May He continue to guide and bless each one of you.