Dear Brethren, Co-Workers and Friends:
We have just completed our annual Church Conference which was highly profitable and successful. As always, it was great to have the opportunity for all of the ministry and others to once again gather together and renew bonds, exchange information and plan for the great Work that God has given us to do.
As usual, discussions surrounded the commission that God has given us to accomplish, which is to preach the gospel in all the world and to feed that part of the flock that He has called to us (compare Matthew 28:19-20; Mark 16:15). This has not changed and remains to be our focus. The only thing that does change is how we fulfill this charge. As times have changed, so do the methods at our disposal.
In more ancient times, it was mainly done by word of mouth or the exchange of physical documents. Then, in the past century, with the advent of radio and television, the world moved into the era of mass media. At that time, who could have imagined it becoming any more pervasive? And yet, here we are in the Internet age when information in the form of text, graphics, audio and video can be distributed even more easily and readily than it has ever been.
It is this technology that has allowed us to continue to accomplish the Work that we have been assigned to do. We have been blessed with many talented individuals which has enabled us to successfully take advantage of the medium of communication that is now so prevalent and widespread.
During this conference, as well as in past conferences, it was discussed how to best utilize the resources that we have. We stressed again that we will not spend what we do not have; and that we must be responsible stewards of the money that God is giving us. We have few laborers, a limited amount of money, and time that has to be divided among many God-given responsibilities. For these reasons we must be efficient in that which God is providing.
We are not complaining, but just stating a fact of life. God knows us. He knows our needs and, most importantly, He knows in which direction He wants us to go. Of course, this does not negate our responsibility to do our part, nor does it preclude us from asking God for more help. More help in guiding us, providing more laborers and giving us more aid in doing what we are being directed to do.
And so, in these difficult economic times of a worldwide recession—if not depression—we are hereby asking you, dear brethren, co-workers and friends, to please pray with all your heart that God continues to give us what we need so that we may be found “so doing” when Christ returns. As we have emphasized so many times before, God’s Work is accomplished to a large extent on our knees. Never neglect to pray for God’s Work, including God’s ministers and helpers, and pray for one another—especially for those who are in need of physical and spiritual healing.
Not only has God blessed us with the tools and means to preach, proclaim and publish the gospel, but, more crucially, He has allowed us to grow in His knowledge and in the path that He has laid out for us. This was made evident at the conference this year.
We began the week-long get together with a summary of activities for the past year from Canada, the United Kingdom, Europe and the United States. Then the overall tone of the conference turned to focus on how to reach other nations, including methods of following up and supporting those efforts.
One important vehicle for announcing the gospel message to the world has become the Internet. The technical crew gave a comprehensive presentation of what they have been doing for the past year and what they plan to do for the upcoming year. It was reported that this aspect of the Work continues to grow and we have experienced considerable increases in viewings of our Websites of approximately 25%. These figures do not include the growing audience for our sermons and StandingWatch programs on Google Video and YouTube. We discussed ongoing efforts to produce German video-taped sermons and AufPostenStehen programs, as well as French audio-taped messages of StandingWatch. We also had a peek at some of the new things to come in the near future… so, stay tuned for those announcements.
Further discussions included which new booklets to produce and how, what and where we would advertise. Decisions were made based on which material was most effective in a particular region and then on budget, in regard to how much we could do in that arena. Also, it was decided to try a few new campaigns and then to evaluate their effectiveness.
The results of all of our activities are becoming more and more apparent. For this reason, it became necessary to address procedures regarding: prospective members, including in areas such as counseling and baptism; church groups which want to join us; and servicing countries where we do not currently have local ministers.
Many more topics were discussed and conclusions were reached. Instead of broaching all of them here and now, we will cover them more thoroughly and in depth in Q&A’s and other means at our disposal.
We renewed our goal to proclaim God’s Word to the “old” and the “new” and to be wise stewards with all that God has entrusted to us. In this we left with an invigorated zeal to continue in the journey that the Church of the Eternal God began over 7 years ago. In all that we have been allowed to do, it truly is exciting to see the growth in God’s people. To God goes all the credit! And the ministry thanks you, dear and loyal brethren, co-workers and friends, for your ongoing support. This present evil age is truly coming to an end—and what a glorious future awaits all of God’s people, if they remain faithful and steadfast.
In Christ’s Service,
Norbert Link
Dave Harris
Rene Messier
Brian Gale
