May 17 Letter from Victor Kubik, President
May 17, 2013
This is my first communication as President of the United Church of God. I am humbled by this new role and pray daily for God to give me wisdom, humility and courage to carry out the duties of this office.
We have been so blessed by the leadership of Denny Luker. As President, he stressed love, faith in Jesus Christ as the living Head of His Church and created an environment of peace in the Church. His leadership was exactly what we needed when we needed it. He brought much-needed healing to the Church and leaves an indelible legacy.
Now, my desire and plan is to build on what God built through Denny Luker and go forward with the mission to proclaim the coming Kingdom of God to the world and to care for those whom God has called. I will not be a caretaker president, but will immerse my life completely into this role. I will seek to understand God’s will and to effectively direct the affairs of the Church in this momentous time in the history of mankind.
We live in a very dangerous world. Yet, it’s an exciting world to which I look with godly optimism because of what’s ahead. Throughout history, prophecy has always reassured Christians of how things will end. It encourages us to carry on because we know that God will not allow the world to destroy itself. God will ultimately usher in His Kingdom of peace. His Kingdom will be eternal and will never end. Our lives will never end. It doesn’t get any better than this!
Since the age of 16, when I first heard this message preached, I have been emboldened with this truth. The Bible made sense to me by explaining who we are, how we got to where we are and our destiny. We MUST continue to share this message as the early church did. I would like to duplicate the excitement of Paul as he evangelized throughout Asia Minor and Greece and the result was that “many people were added to the Lord.” It can happen now, too, when people hear this message of the Kingdom of God and Jesus Christ as King as well as personal Savior.
This past Monday morning, I spoke to our home office employees about the challenges for the United Church of God. Here are a few items that I emphasized:
1. Public Proclamation. We need to be more relevant with key messages that bring results in changed lives and added numbers. I would like to collaboratively examine all venues through which we preach the gospel and critically ask what’s working and what is not. The 21st century is dramatically different than before, as billions of people use smartphones as their primary means of receiving and transmitting information.
2. Peace and Unity. It is essential that we preserve the peace and unity currently within the Church and follow Christ’s lead in seizing the moment for developing the Church.
3. Ministry and Congregations. We must continually staff our congregations around the world with competent trained elders. We need to identify new leaders and provide the training necessary through educational programs such as the online training for our ministry that we started this past year. We need to engage our ministry and membership in the mission of the Church and make everyone feel a part of the vibrant United Church of God.
4. Church Growth. It is not wrong to question what we can do better to allow God to add to our numbers. We will be asking this question a lot and will find answers to achieve results.
5. Youth and Young Adults. This is a priority because this is where our future leaders and pillars lie.
6. Women’s Services. We have made great progress in this area and want to continue the momentum established in the past two years.
7. Relationships with other groups. I would like to keep an open door to those of like faith in the greater Church that God is working with. We welcome constructive and relevant discussion and interaction.
8. International. We must be keenly aware of our brethren on all other continents and not neglect them in pastoral support and, where needed, with financial subsidy to viably operate. With about 6.3 billion people living outside the United States, reaching these people with the gospel message and making disciples represents one of our biggest challenges.
These are just some of the challenges that we are faced with. Again, I will not be a caretaker president and plan to actively work with all of our managers to move forward.
My wife Beverly has been a key helper and advisor to me. Please pray for both of us to do what we need to do.
With love in Christ’s service,
Victor Kubik
Inside United: Realtime 
“Greater Church”?
Greater church would be the spiritual body of called out ones where ever they may be serving. We are all brothers and sisters if we have and are being lead by God’s spirit and we should not view those in other groups as any less than our equals before Christ.
“The invisible church.”
Vic:
Excellent points and challenge for us all to embrace. You are in our family prayers.
Your Friend,
Bill Lussenheide
Congratulatons again, for being the President of the United Church of God. As most of us will agree, this message that you have sent seems like that the Church is on the Move. A Move towards the Kingdom. and especially sending an open door to those of like faith in the greater Church that God is working with.
Point #2 is a noble and worthy goal but unless we learn from the past, we are destined to repeat the same. We in God’s Church need to be more proactive in seeking unity. The leadership should initiate an in depth study of how and why we in God’s Church are so vulnerable to the forces of disunity. If we seek to preserve a peace obtained simply through the separating of brothers and sisters, that sort of peace, while enjoyable for the moment, will be short lived. On the other hand, if we look into what the Bible teaches and requires of us as individuals and as a body, specifically as it concerns a ministry of reconciliation, then we may have a chance at lasting unity.
I applaud all of your points and pray for your and our success, to the glory of God.
vince
Vince, I heard a message on Christian radio this morning which may help answer the “how and why” you mention.
The speaker claimed church groups which focus on law tend to become judgmental – emphasizing ways in which they are right and all the others are wrong. It can lead to internal self-promoting and finger-pointing, which eventually can result in splits.
This speaker said the grace-centered approach focuses more on Jesus Christ, and growing more like Him through the Spirit.
I hear some ministers say UCG has the grace part “down,” as in right. So why don’t I hear and see it preached very much?
Well I am not Vince, but I want to say the question about grace is excellent. It was a word that was not popular in the old WCG simply because of the fear of a no works system. But grace is the way to our salvation(Eph.2:8-“By grace are ye saved through faith, and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God.”) God wants us to know that nothing we do saves us. It is what He does in us that makes us like Him, and He saves us. Of course that does not mean there is nothing to do, but if Christ is in you, He will keep His Laws-right? and we have to live by His faith-not ours, as Paul tells us in Gal.2:20. Christ said in John 15:5-“…without Me, you can do nothing.” Salvation comes through His grace-not our performance
Amen.
This is true,we must be careful .one can fall in a trap very easy.
Looking forward to our growing bright future together!
Thank you!
I was thinking about Mr. Kubik’s role and how he is not only the director of Lifenets, but he has been in contact with many people from different groups. It is very exciting to have someone who has experience in reaching out to other groups. May God bless him and guide him in all he does, that it will be for our good.
Could you explain where we are in Bible prophesy?——–When does the laodicean era or time span begin?——and when does the philideliphian era end?
What do you mean when you say you will NOT be a caretaker president?
Maybe he’s referring to that *other* COG leader, who’s claiming all the other COG’s will merge with him by September.
I pray God bless and keep you on this journey.And we just of to work together as one body because we are led by God Spirit we are his children.By Diana
No problem; and thank you for letting us know just what exactly to pray about.
Point # 1 “The 21st century is dramatically different than before, as billions of people use smartphones as their primary means of receiving and transmitting information.”
Interestingly, study shows that there are just over 1 billion active smart phone users (not yet billions), according to 2012 study, and Strategy Analytics “estimates another billion will become smart phone users by 2015. One billion, however, is still a relatively small number in a world population of 7 billion.”
“Smartphone penetration is still relatively low,” said Neil Mawston, Executive Director at Strategy Analytics. “Most of the world does not yet own a smartphone and there remains huge scope for future growth, particularly in emerging markets such as China, India and Africa.”
http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57534583/study-number-of-smartphone-users-tops-1-billion/
Greetings Brother,
I am overwhelmed and read your above message.. It was rather difficult for me to have contact with you or any of your organization personnel. I quote your Item (8) which is really a spiritual task ahead of you as we are from Asian Continent and I represent A Holy Congregation. If you wish to have more information about us I shall be very pleased to send you information about our Ministry. Kindly contact me through my email.
God Bless you and your vision abundantly.
Looking forward to hear from you soon.
Blessings
Pastor Gulzar