KOG Bible Seminars Report
December 17, 2012
KINGDOM OF GOD BIBLE SEMINARS
FIRST SERIES REPORT
A report on the first series of our Kingdom of God Bible Seminars was delivered to the Council of Elders on December 12. Peter Eddington gave the Council a handout that showed a total of 5,680 seminar guests were in attendance at more than 200 locations around the globe.
Here is a breakdown on guest attendance for each round of the series:
| September 2011 | Round 1 | 176 Locations | 1,514 |
| January 2012 | Round 2 | 190 Locations | 1,653 |
| May 2012 | Round 3 | 206 Locations | 1,258 |
| September 2012 | Round 4 | 181 Locations | 1,255 |
| TOTAL | 5,680 |
Below is a listing of cities with the top five guest attendance figures for each round. As you will note, the developing areas of the world most often showed the highest interest in the gospel of the Kingdom of God:
Round 1
- 52 San Antonio, TX
- 50 Santiago, Chile
- 35 Davao City, Philippines
- 33 Got Kachola, Kenya
- 33 Ogembo-Rianyamwamu, Kenya
Round 2
- 110 Manila, Philippines
- 57 Davao City, Philippines
- 42 Bacolod, Philippines
- 42 Melbourne, Australia
- 40 Sydney, Australia
Round 3
- 117 Manila, Philippines
- 58 Bacolod City, Philippines
- 43 Mexico City, Mexico
- 34 San Carlos City, Philippines
- 32 Bolivia
Round 4
- 125 San Carlos City, Philippines
- 108 Johannesburg, South Africa
- 96 Manila, Philippines
- 76 Capetown, South Africa
- 49 Davao City, Philippines
We have people now regularly attending Sabbath services with us as a result of the seminars, and a number of baptisms have stemmed from the seminars too. It can be considered a success if even just one or two guests graced our congregation’s doorstep who otherwise would not have attended. We were successful in getting them out of their homes to come and hear the gospel of the Kingdom. 
Jesus Christ, as the Head of His Church, has a plan for each person. While numbers are not everything, results do help us measure our efforts. And, while God’s Church will be a small flock (Luke 12:32), there was a very encouraging number of guests in many cities.
Recommendations for Next Series
Dennis Luker, president of the United Church of God, an International Association, gave his support to the Kingdom of God Bible Seminars program moving forward. The Council of Elders agreed with the approach put forth. Here are a few details on the next series:
- We will keep the “Kingdom of God Bible Seminars” brand and theme, but offer a specific topic under the title. For example: “The Sabbath: A Key to the Kingdom of God.”
- Rather than produce a detailed script for each new seminar, we may choose a relevant UCG booklet to use as core material. For example, Sunset to Sunset: God’s Sabbath Rest. The presenters can choose which section or chapter of the booklet they’d like to focus on. The ucg.org website also provides a valuable resource for presenters to use in developing their presentations.
- Have two seminars per year, instead of three.
- Choose the months of June and November each year for seminars, with pastors having the flexibility to work as they see best within this timeline.
- Due to budget constraints, use regular Sabbath service halls to avoid additional hall rental. And use local funding for seminar advertising (letters, postcards, etc.) that is not part of the home office budget subsidy.
- Proposed Topics:
- June 2013
- November 2013
- Format:
- Opening Prayer
- 1 Seminar (60 min.)
- Closing Prayer
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- If desired, abbreviated 60-minute Sabbath service either before or afterwards with hymns, prayers and one sermon or split sermon.
We are looking forward very much to our next round of seminars and are asking pastors to choose their seminar dates as soon as possible and get them listed on our website. A number of our readers and viewers are already looking for the next seminar to be held in their city—and they check our website regularly hoping to sign up to attend. So the sooner our presenters get their seminar dates listed the better.
Thank you for your prayers for the ongoing success and God’s blessing on this part of our work to preach the gospel of God’s Kingdom.
Peter Eddington—Operation Manager, Media and Communications Services
What attracted many to the Church in the early sixties was the World Tomorrow programes on prophecy as in current events. This seems a natural way to pivot toward speaking directly about the Kingdom of God format already followed by the presenters.
Praying for God’s Work and all those speading it. Thank you. Hugs sandy
I think that’s great that we are focusing on teaching God’s laws. Prophecy is riviting, but it doesn’t teach people about God’s commandments. Anyone can teach prophecy (albeit, not always accurately), but we are so blessed as a people to know the truth about God’s laws, so I am so happy that we are teaching what we know! People who come through our doors will not be coming because they are scared about the future, but because they are seeking to draw near to God.
Some good ideas for the next round of seminars!
These seminars have been a great opportunity to draw more people along the road of potential conversion and gives them a taste for what regular services are like and I am impressed with how vigorously they are being promoted in the GN and Beyond Today. In Brisbane we have had 3 now. We’ve had 1 baptism from the first one and another couple baptised from the second and one other occasional attendee.
My only concern is that the material seems to be repeated each session and there is little new because we have locked ourselves into calling them Kingdom of God lectures thereby limiting the subject matter. If this was changed to Good News Bible Lectures there would be more subject matter to cover.
Now that we have had the Ground Breaking in this personal way of presenting God’s
way of life in our Sabbath Service atmosphere I’m sure that as the conditions change
for the worst in the USA and the world many will be looking for answers to there
questions and Gods word is that only source. I’m looking forward to greater success
as we move forward. Has the discussion of including a Prophecy Session being included the the KOG formate?
I like the idea of having a 60 minute seminar and then having abbreviated Sabbath services afterwards. This gives attendees the opportunity to see how we hold our worship services and have the opportunity to hear more of the gospel of the kingdom of God if they so choose.
It appears that people are getting more and more serious (and honest) about the problems they are dealing with in REAL LIFE; at least in the United States, and it appears around the world. My suggestion would be to have topics that give a real sense of trying to tackle and discuss these topics in the seminar. Stay away from “religious sounding” topics like prophecy, Christian living, kingdom of God, Sabbath, etc. Try a new approach and see what happens, at least in the US. Make the lectures “hard hitting.” “Why So Much Violence in the US?” “Is Our Gov’t Corrupt?” “Will Our Economy Rebound?” Hopefully, these type of topics are not off limits for a seminar.
It seems one of the things that attracted people to GTA’s programs was this approach. It did not come across, often, as a religious program.
There are many of us long time members that completely disagree with the idea of this new wave of presenting God’s truth “without coming across as a religious program”. Nonsense. Talk about Laodician attitude! We should get back to PREACHING God’s gospel, not having a nice little chat. At the very time when the world is unravelling around us, the last thing we need is to be subtle. How do you think Herbert Armstrong would be preaching the gospel right now if he were still alive? He would preach boldly and directly tell the audience to STOP disobeying God. We are supposed to be THE voice in the wilderness, and preach boldly, not have some “feel good” presentation. These are the end times, WAKE UP PEOPLE!
Amen! (I agree).
Well NT, I’m afraid you completely misunderstood my point.
By nature,what the Kingdom of God Seminars address is prophetic. All the bad news today is also prophetic. Mr.Armstrong in his era used it as a stepping stone to necessary Christain living type sermons later. The world today to us is understandable. The Kingdom of God Seminars should give PM’s a solution instead of the feel good they get watching CNN and the Sunday morning confusion hour.