New Video: Focus on God’s Work
June 7, 2013
Information Technology
The home office has released its fifth monthly Focus on God’s Work video about its Information Technology department. Richard Kennebeck, Information Technology manager, gives an overview of the work done by his team, and the auxiliary projects his area undertakes on behalf of serving the Church.
As earlier announced, the plan is for various managers and employees of the United Church of God to give a report about their area of responsibility that may be of particular interest to our congregations. Pastors are asked to make the video links available to our membership, and most videos will be suitable to play in the sermonette timeslot at Sabbath services if desired.
Focus on God’s Work has it’s own menu selection on the member’s website under the “resources” tab at members.ucg.org/content/focus-gods-work. This is where a new video will be posted each month.
Peter Eddington—Media and Communications Services
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
Victor Kubik: Next UCG President
May 8, 2013
Victor and Beverly Kubik
The United Church of God, an International Association, has been involved in a systematic process of selecting a new president (chief executive officer) since late February of this year.
At the current May session of the Council of Elders meetings, Council members, after prayer and fasting to gain a sense of God’s will, interviewed the final six candidates and collectively deliberated on the matter before choosing a president.
The Council is pleased to announce that Victor Kubik has been selected to fill this position for the next three years. Please remember Mr. and Mrs. Kubik as they step into this new opportunity to serve the church. Mr. Kubik assumes the presidency May 9.
Robin Webber—Chairman, Council of Elders
Focus on God’s Work: ABC & Education
April 25, 2013
Ambassador Bible Center and Education
The home office has released a fourth monthly Focus on God’s Work video about the Ambassador Bible Center (ABC) and our other United Church of God education programs.
Gary Antion, ABC Coordinator and Education Coordinator, gives an overview of the past 14 years at ABC, and outlines some of the other major education initiatives of the Church.
As earlier announced, the plan is for various managers and employees of the United Church of God to give a report about their area of responsibility that may be of particular interest to our congregations. Pastors are asked to make the video links available to our membership, and most videos will be suitable to play in the sermonette timeslot at Sabbath services.
Focus on God’s Work has it’s own menu selection on the member’s website under the “resources” tab at members.ucg.org/content/focus-gods-work. This is where a new video will be posted each month.
Peter Eddington—Media and Communications Services
BT Daily: Dennis Luker 1937-2013
March 14, 2013
We were greatly saddened here today at the United Church of God home office. Our president, Dennis Luker, died this morning—after a very short battle with cancer.
Please watch today’s BT Daily presented by Darris McNeely. It includes archival footage of some of Mr. Lukers inspired words.
Peter Eddington—Operation Manager, Media and Communications Services
Focus on Portuguese Work
February 28, 2013
Focus on God’s Work
The home office has released a second monthly Focus on God’s Work video—this one by Jorge de Campos about our Portuguese-language efforts.
As earlier announced, the plan is for various managers and employees of the United Church of God to give a report about their area of responsibility that may be of particular interest to our congregations. Pastors are asked to make the video links available to our membership, and most videos will be suitable to play in the sermonette timeslot at Sabbath services.
Focus on God’s Work has it’s own menu selection on the member’s website under the “resources” tab at members.ucg.org/content/focus-gods-work. This is where a new video will be posted each month, and we’ll also endeavor to announce them here at Inside United: Realtime.
Jorge de Campos, coordinator of our Portuguese-language areas, gives an inspiring report about these areas in the video below.
Please feel free to download this and future presentations to get a monthly update on the work being done by various departments in the Church to preach the gospel and prepare a people.
Peter Eddington—Media and Communications Services
Dennis Luker Launches New Video For Members
January 31, 2013
Focus on God’s Work
The home office has begun a new monthly information video for the United Church of God membership titled: Focus on God’s Work. Dennis Luker, president, asked Victor Kubik to present the inaugural video at the weekly staff meeting on Monday morning.
The plan is for various managers and employees to give a report about their area of responsibility that may be of particular interest to our congregations. Pastors are asked to make the video links available to our membership, and most videos will be suitable to play in the sermonette timeslot at Sabbath services.
Focus on God’s Work has it’s own menu selection on the member’s website under the “resources” tab at members.ucg.org/content/focus-gods-work. This is where a new video will be posted each month, and we’ll also endeavor to announce them here at Inside United: Realtime.
Victor Kubik, the first presenter in this new series, gives an inspiring report about the United Church of God in south-central and southern Africa. Below is the video from this past Monday morning:
Please feel free to download this and future presentations to get a monthly update on the work being done by various departments in the Church to preach the gospel and prepare a people.
Peter Eddington—Media and Communications Services
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
————————————-
- 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
Brethren in New York City and Hurricane Sandy
November 1, 2012
Dear Ministers and Brethren,
The times of prophecy are very much upon us. America has just endured another heavy blow from super-storm Sandy. Although it affected many areas in the northeastern part of the country, the heaviest weight of destruction was in the New York City area where we have an energetic congregation of over 80 brethren.
They certainly need our prayers as this update from Howard Davis, our pastor in the area, attests. You can also read additional updates from New York City and the other storm related areas in the Northeast on the Church’s webpage at: http://www.ucg.org/blog/praying-those-path-hurricane-sandy.
During these severe emergencies we are all reminded to diligently keep our eyes on our Savior Jesus Christ and pray fervently to our loving Father in heaven. Please especially remember our New York City brethren in your prayers.
With love in Christ’s service,
Dennis Luker, president
P.S. Please share with the membership as you are able.
UPDATE ON BRETHREN IN NEW YORK CITY AFTER SUPER-STORM SANDY
[Report from Howard Davis, UCG Pastor for New York City:]
As the wall of water in the perfectly designed super-storm Sandy smashed all records in New York City’s 387 year history, lower Manhattan and the financial district called, “Downtown,” was inundated in a flood 2.5 feet higher than the flood of 1827. All the United Church of God brethren were individually protected either by angels or wisdom or God’s personal intervention from the harm and devastation found throughout the megalopolis. Most are still unable to get to their jobs until the flooded subways, severe water damage, and blown power transformers are restored.
Parts of the Long Island’s coastline communities have devastation scenes like New Orleans had after hurricane Katrina in 2005.
We all prayed and now have many examples of God’s hand in keeping the effects of the devastation away from members and their property. Living in a higher elevation area which received severe wind damage at the height of the storm Monday, a wife said to her husband “that tree is coming down on the house.” This relatively new family (the wife was baptized just before the Feast) who live in Queens saw every large tree on their block blown down on neighbors’ houses. Thinking of God’s promise, her husband said the tree won’t fall on them. Moments later, it did fall, hitting not their house, but unfortunately a neighbor’s house. Another member who works for the New York City Sanitation department was the last house in his Queens neighborhood to have power before the sea of urban darkness.
Up to 7 million people typically use the subway system and Long Island railroads daily. The 1.8 million people living on Manhattan are augmented with millions of others to make up the Manhattan workforce of 4 million. Functionally, the city remains shut down as of Thursday. New York City has 47 million visitors per year, by far the most in the US and the impact on tourism, at least for a while, will have negative impacts on this great industry, as well as on many aspects of the retail and financial sectors.
All 80 members are physically fine, but everyone’s lives have been disrupted. The members’ school-age children in the NYC public school system and members working as teachers and school bus drivers for the system’s 1,000,000 students have the week off—as well as those attending area universities. Three graduate university students are typical—one in Art History at Hunter College near the Metropolitan Museum can’t get back to the Upper East Side on Manhattan from her stay with brethren in Brooklyn. Another student studying cellular chemistry has her classes cancelled and her work in a lower Manhattan retailer shuttered. Yet another in a masters program in physics at Long Island’s North Shore New York University at Stonybrook has her life disrupted. At Stonybrook, our student prayed that her roommates would not freak out as the wind sounded like freight trains on top of a superhighway of traffic blowing a tree down on her roommate’s car.
All subways, and the major freeway systems were shut down, and while the freeways are now open, very few trains are coming online. Power, phone service, television and Internet services have been disrupted for many, making the brethren’s wired and wireless connections complicated. Elements of the grid go on and off in a crazy irrational pattern since the storm left the city.
Knowing there would be a disaster on the South Coast of Long Island where I live in Bay Shore, and in order to have phone, Internet, and other abilities to communicate with brethren and the outside world, I left my home Sunday at noon, a day ahead of the disaster, thinking the roads out of Long Island would be jammed with people also trying to get out. I was shocked to find the opposite.
It was weird, like one of the disaster movies of mindless millions fleeing the wrath to come but heading the wrong way, in this case to go and stay on Long Island which I was fleeing. Cars bumper to bumper streamed out of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens joining the jammed traffic. While there was nearly no traffic in my lanes toward the city and up to Connecticut and safety. It seemed like a “lemming syndrome” leading to certain tragedy or at least inconvenience of unimagined dimensions.
As it turns out, many people did not obey civic leaders’ orders to leave dangerous coastal areas and were quite foolish to not evacuate. Then many more thought they were safe in Long Island. So it was not surprising that many were headed to severe problems while I was heading north to get far away from Long Island’s fragile utility infrastructure. Everybody staying faced the highest probability that they will be without power for at least a week or many weeks—no refrigeration, no food in grocery stores, no gasoline in stations.
And as it turned out, Long Island’s power grid was devastated with trees knocked over exposed power lines everywhere blowing out transformers. Two of the three million Long Islanders in Nassau and Suffolk counties are still without power, and some estimates say it will be weeks before many people have power. A member called to inform me that my house is safe, but without power, and he has learned that it take 10 days or longer to repair the electric system in that neighborhood. National Guardsmen are now stationed at gas stations near where I live to maintain order as lines of over 100 cars long wait to get fuel.
Members had a variety of storm experiences. Some members above Manhattan’s 155th Street felt very little rain or wind, no power disruptions, and even engaged in pleasant bicycle riding to vantage points where they could view the Hudson River and hurricane level winds ravage lower Manhattan. Still there is no power below 34th Street where the Empire State Building is located. One member employed at the huge hospital Beth Israel complex on 14th Street can’t work because there is no power. There is no subway service yet anyway which would normally take her 45 minutes to travel from her Long Island home—a trip that would take four hours each way on the overwhelmingly crowded bus system.
Lower Manhattan and Wall Street employs members whose lives are chaotic for the foreseeable future. The area has hundreds of thousands of people now beginning to really suffer, just a mile or two away from the New York Stock Exchange.
The world’s financial district is functionally reduced for a time to Third World levels of inconveniences and lack of services. These people are climbing 10, 20, 30 stories in high rises without heat, enduring 40 degree temperatures at night and unable to flush toilets due to a low or non-functioning water and sewer systems. Restaurants are boarded up, and few or no local neighborhood stores open even in some of the trendiest areas of the lower east and west sides. Block after block of trendy affluent young people in their hip twenties are stranded, and fleeing to the middle class homes out of the city, or are simply stuck. Huge lavish and very exclusive buildings are hemmed in and everything is shuttered, some without backup generators and no functional life-flow happening. Just blocks away is the unfinished, 1776 foot-high Freedom Tower due for completion sometime next year, God willing!
Huge swathes of Manhattan, Brooklyn and Queens next to the Atlantic Ocean are black at night—as if there were none of the millions of people burning candles and trying to stay warm in their homes. A few brethren are without power, but can use their cars to charge their cell phones. One 60 year old member on dialysis had to have special emergency vehicles take him to and from the hospital with only partial treatments because some facilities are not operating and the demand is huge. He and his married children and grandchildren are happy to be in upper Manhattan apartments and the nearby Bronx with food and heat at night even though they are cramped in quarters most of us under normal conditions would find acceptable. Another member who is an RN and professor of Nursing in Brooklyn’s VA hospital cannot work because the hospital is flooded. The huge Bellevue Hospital in Lower Manhattan was emptied yesterday when it was considered too medically dangerous to continue without power and with millions of gallons of water in the basement.
Please pray for our brethren in New York City and the Northeast generally. There is much more to come, and as the brethren here know from Bible prophecy, we are all moving into times that will try men’s (and women’s) souls. The brethren are fine, but appreciate being a part of a very vibrant, praying United Church of God. We will keep you updated.
Howard Davis
The Solution to Fears of War in the Middle East
[The following letter by Dennis Luker, president of the United Church of God, was sent to Church membership September 19.}
September 19, 2012
Dear Brethren,
As we in the home office busily finish up final details for the much anticipated Feast of Tabernacles, tensions mount amidst fears of fresh war in the Middle East, even while this letter is being prepared for you. What a contrast! Just as we read and hear anew the biblical words and passages about soon-coming peace and prosperity in the Kingdom of God, the news is filled with fears of regional conflict, perhaps even the beginnings of global conflict. While many intently follow what the British newspaper The Telegraph calls an “armada of international naval power massing” in the Persian Gulf, we are urged to redouble our efforts in spiritual preparation, being alert and avoiding being caught up in “the anxieties of life” (Luke 21:34-36, New International Version).
Unlike what God gives us, the world does not yet have the serene strength that comes from the truth. Millions, perhaps billions, of people toss and turn at night, worried about what the next day may bring. At the same time we in the Church have these powerful and comforting words: “Do not fear, little flock, for it is your Father’s good pleasure to give you the Kingdom” (Luke 12:32). What a blessing! Ours is the sure knowledge and unbreakable promise that God’s plan is to deliver us. Our soon-to-come inheritance is a never ending time of unprecedented splendor, all focused on an eternal relationship of service with our Elder Brother and soon coming King. To continue our journey toward this Kingdom, we have but to continually yield and turn our lives over to God, following the leadership of the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ.
As we watch world events unfold during this annual biblical season, we know that “the earnest expectation of the creation eagerly waits for the revealing of the sons of God” (Romans 8:19). This is the time of revealing when God will complete the incomprehensible and wondrous task of “bringing many sons to glory” (Hebrews 2:10). How deep and profound is this? The apostle Paul tells us that even now the physical world “groans and labors with birth pangs,” awaiting the time when it “will be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God” (Romans 8:22, 21).
I am personally grateful that this year’s Feast season comes at a time when we are finishing up our year-long round of Kingdom of God Bible Seminars. Many have told me how these seminars serve as an excellent jump-start in helping us refocus, deeply recalling why we were called in the first place: to preach the gospel and prepare a people!
The vision for the Church comes alive in activities like these, with “the whole body [of the Church] joined and knit together…working by which every part does its share” (Ephesians 4:16). While ministers may have provided the heavy lifting on the main presentation, members had the equally critical role of “being witnesses” of God’s way of life (Luke 21:13; 1 Peter 3:15). I had the privilege of speaking at the New York City Kingdom of God Bible Seminar, one of the more than 160 separate seminars being conducted in this public series. When unseasonal heavy weather came and even a rare tornado touched down near the site where the seminar was being held, it wasn’t difficult to think that opposing spiritual forces were not pleased that the gospel of the Kingdom was being carried to New York!
Despite any physical and spiritual opposition, the seminars are indeed bearing fruit. Just like in the earlier days of the Church, new people are now coming to services in many areas, and some baptisms are taking place. The total attendance and impact will be compiled in November after all of the seminars have taken place across the world. As one minister said, “People now know where we live!” God’s Church—His “called out ones”—is out in the open!
As we participate in the Feast of Tabernacles, heralding through our observance the future coming Kingdom, let us truly refresh and renew ourselves spiritually, drinking deeply of the biblical truths we will again hear and read. For some it will be the first Feast, a time of the joyous enthusiasm of the spiritual “first love” (Revelation 2:4). For others it may be the 10th, 20th, even 50th or more observance of this festival season.
Whatever milestone it is for you and wherever you observe it, keep the Feast with joy and purpose! As history records, there have been times when the early Christians were openly condemned for keeping God’s Holy Days. At least one religious leader (John Chrysostom) listed the biblical Feasts by name as late as the fourth century A.D., wrongly calling their observance by Christians some 300 years after Christ’s death a “perverse custom.” Many in this current election year have warned of the possible erosion of religious freedom in the United States, which leads us to recall the words of Christ: “I must work the works of Him who sent Me while it is still day; the night is coming when no one can work” (John 9:4).
We still presently have the wonderful ability to meet together in peace, worship God and demonstrate His way of life, so let us seize every opportunity! Let us embrace a renewed sense of urgency and let this Feast be a time of great renewal.
In closing, please remember to ask for God’s blessing both on the speaking and the hearing during this festival. Please pray both for the inspiration of speakers and for a special blessing for those receiving the word. I also want to thank you in advance for your special offerings on the Holy Days—there remains much work to be done, and your fervent prayers and your generous offerings directly impact the scope of that work. Let us humbly remember to give cheerfully, for “God loves a cheerful giver” (2 Corinthians 9:7).
May we all be greatly blessed during the Feast and the days ahead. We are called to a life of service and this time affords us a special opportunity to demonstrate that. Let us truly become that spiritual lamp that “gives light to all” (Matthew 5:15).
In Christ’s service,
Dennis Luker
