July 2003 Contents

As we celebrate the nation’s 227th birthday we would like to honor WCG members and relatives serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom, those who are serving or have served elsewhere in the military and the many thousands who have paid the ultimate sacrifice that we might enjoy the freedoms God has given us. To lead us in offering thanks, we have asked for comments from Leith Cunningham, a WCG member and Korean War veteran. Page 4.

“When I was with the Jews, I acted like a Jew,” Paul said. “When I was with people who thought they were under the law, I acted that way, too, even though I am not really under the law.” In other words, Paul acted like something he was not, writes Pastor General Joseph Tkach. Page 6.

As a boy I heard the story of Abraham recounted at least once a week, writes Michael Feazell, and it usually went something like this: “God told Abraham to go, and he went. He didn’t ask questions; he didn’t hesitate; he just packed up and left everything he knew—country, family—and went.” Page 12.

Ted Johnston writes that our goal in youth ministry is to help children, teens and college-age young adults become active followers of Jesus. A follower of Jesus is one who is in communion with God, through Christ, actively participating with Jesus in his ministry patterns. The four Gospels illustrate the patterns of Jesus’ earthly ministry. Page 16.

Seven years ago, the WN gave a fair amount of coverage to the apparent rapid growth of the WCG in Angola, writes Randal Dick. At one point it seemed that the WCG had 5,000 or more members in Angola. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, not the least of which was a raging civil war, we were never able to fully establish those congregations and their leadership. Page 20.

Paul introduces his letter to the Romans as a letter about the gospel, and he describes the gospel as “the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes,” writes Michael Morrison. In the gospel, a righteousness from God is revealed. Page 25.

For the month of May, we had projected donation income at $1.68 million, writes controller Ron Kelly. Total contribution income was just over $1.57 million. Page 31.

Jeb Egbert, national youth ministry co-director, visited the Southern California congregations May 3 to conduct a conference for youth leaders and youth workers. The host church was the Pasadena WCG congregation. Page 8.

Jim Valekis, youth director for the Great Lakes District, presented a Youth Builders Conference in Washington, Pennsylvania, April 26. Page 30.

WCG honors
men and women
serving in military

s we celebrate the nation’s 227th birthday we would like to honor those WCG members and relatives serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom, those who are serving or have served elsewhere in the military and the many thousands who have paid the ultimate sacrifice that we might enjoy the precious freedoms that God has given us.

To lead us in offering thanks, we have asked for comments from Leith Cunningham, a Korean War veteran from Fife Lake, Michigan, a longtime member who attends the Cadillac, Michigan, church.

Combat service in Korea more than 50 years ago taught me the value of getting letters from home, honoring our flag and having the support of the folks back home. The best sound reaching your ears in those days was hearing your name called at mail call.

I still get a lump in my throat and goose bumps while standing, removing my hat, facing the flag and hearing “The Star Spangled Banner” being played, while the flag yet waves and we’re the home of the brave. Having the feeling that your service to your country mattered and knowing that the friends, neighbors and family that you had left behind were in support of that service was all part of what made it worthwhile.

During this Fourth of July season it now seems an appropriate part of our responsible duty to offer our support and encouragement to all of our Christian brothers, sisters and families in the WCG as well as all men and women everywhere who have served, now serve or will be serving in Operation Iraqi Freedom. Let us now collectively close ranks as we symbolically remove our hats in their honor, offering them all of our grateful thanks and appreciation in their combined efforts to keep us a free nation.

To all veterans, past, present and future, we give you the praise and honor that you so richly deserve. Thank you and your families for your sacrifice for our freedom and safety. Freedom is not free! Thank a veteran today.

KALAMAZOO, Michigan—Zachary Aaron Erickson, 20, is a corporal in the Marine Corps and is in Iraq. He is attached to the Second Division and is in the Communications Company of the Fourth Battalion. He was involved in Operation Iraqi Freedom and at the time of this writing was at the Baghdad airport.

His brother, Private First Class Michael Dustin Erickson, 27, graduated from Marine Boot Camp in San Diego, California. He is a member of Golf Company of the Second Battalion.

His platoon, 2065, was honor platoon of the company, placing first in inspections, reviews of performance, and in most qualifications of “Expert” with their M-16A rifles, as well as passing the written tests with the highest over-average scores.

While there, Michael was instrumental in bringing a young fellow Marine to Jesus Christ and dependency on him for strength and purpose. Michael considers this his greatest test of his own faith and God’s using him to help others triumph.

They are the sons of Daniel and Cheryl (Lewis) Erickson, graduates of Ambassador College in Big Sandy.

Daniel Erickson: “God is dealing with each of these ‘kids.’ There’s a reason behind their being where they are in defense of our country, in the defense of freedom, and for their being willing to lay down their lives for something larger than themselves.

“God is using these circumstances to change every one of them, just as he did Moses and Joshua and David of Old Testament times. It is heartening to know that WCG congregations are praying for them, that we can remember their being where they are and our responsibility to ‘pray them through.’ Our Kalamazoo congregation does just that!”

SHELBY TOWNSHIP, Michigan—Staff Sergeant Justin R. Flynn is on the Air Force bomb squad (called Explosive Ordnance Disposal or EOD) and was deployed to RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom, which was home of our B-52s during in the war.

Justin is the son of Ross and Jan Flynn, who pastor the Detroit East church. Justin and his wife, Tori, are expecting their first child in November. His home base is Barksdale Air Force Base near Shreveport, Louisiana, home of the Eighth Air Force (the “Mighty Eighth”) and Second Bomb Wing, where B-52 combat crews are trained.

About 800 EOD servicemen are active worldwide at this time. The mission of EOD is to “render safe” unexploded ordnance, including bombs that land and don’t explode, bombs that are accidentally dropped while being loaded onto an airplane or helicopter, bombs that get stuck in the bomb bay, and unexploded bombs dropped by the enemy on friendly forces.

Their tools include an eight-wheeled one-ton remote-controlled robot with cameras, guns, a water cannon and explosives, which is agile enough to go up and down stairs and remotely climb into the back of a pickup truck.

During peacetime, EOD personnel train local law enforcement officials, assist the Secret Service in guarding the President, render safe exceptionally challenging domestic IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices), and assist with other threats to homeland security.

For example, when the space shuttle Columbia exploded during re-entry Feb. 1, EOD personnel were called on to investigate each major piece of debris and sound the “all clear” for others, since a number of systems on the shuttle used explosive devices. Justin had the opportunity to “render safe” the nose cone.

I thank God for the brave men and women who put their lives on the line during Iraqi Freedom, and pray for the families of the loved ones injured or killed while freeing Iraq from oppression.

TEHACHAPI, California—Lance Corporal Brandon Stein served in Baghdad with the Marine Third Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, which came under small arms fire from the Iraqis. He has since returned to the United States.

His uncle, Donald Sprinkel, himself an Army veteran, having served in Vietnam, is a member of the Palm Springs, California, church.

“When I was with the Jews, I acted like a Jew,” Paul said. “When I was with people who thought they were under the law, I acted that way, too, even though I am not really under the law” (1 Corinthians 9:20, my paraphrase).

In other words, Paul acted like something he was not. Some people might call that hypocritical or deceptive; Paul calls it part of his evangelistic strategy. When Paul was with people who did not have the law (Gentiles), he acted like a Gentile (verse 21).

What would it mean for a Jew like Paul to say that he acted like a Gentile? Obviously, it would not mean idol worship, adultery or sin, but what did it mean? Both Jews and Gentiles recognized three primary customs that distinguished Jews from Gentiles: circumcision, dietary laws, and the weekly Sabbath.

For someone to act like a Gentile, they would eat foods that Jews could not, and they would not observe the Sabbath. (It was not necessary to change their circumcision, of course, but some even tried that.) Paul was not talking about the petty rules that Palestinian Pharisees were concerned about—he was talking about living like a Gentile.

When Paul was with Jews, he kept the old covenant food laws and weekly and annual Sabbaths. When he was with Gentiles, he did not. He sometimes acted differently from what he believed. Why? So he would “win” the people he was with, so he could help them accept the gospel without distracting them with questions about laws that were not important. He bent over backwards to make it easier for people to accept the gospel.

“To the weak I became weak, to win the weak,” Paul says in verse 22. He acted like he was something he wasn’t, “so that by all possible means I might save some.” He acted like someone weak in the faith—perhaps like someone worried about details of the law. Paul did what they did, kept the rules that they kept.

Paul did his best to avoid objections, so the gospel would get a fair hearing. He set aside his personal preferences for the sake of the gospel. He was seeking peace, and the price he paid was a little discomfort for himself. He explained his strategy to the Corinthian Christians as an example of how he did not demand his “rights” as an apostle, in order to serve other people (verses 15-19).

Paul’s approach may have been a good evangelistic strategy, but it would not be a good pastoral policy. A pastor cannot seek peace at any price, cannot forever make accommodations to people who are weak in the faith. At some point, a pastor must model freedom in Christ, not laws that are no longer valid. When the congregation becomes a mixture of both Jews and Gentiles, the pastor cannot behave like them both—a decision must be made.

Paul describes one such situation in his letter to the Galatians. In Antioch, Peter was eating with the Gentiles, but when some people from the Jerusalem church came to visit, Peter withdrew and began to eat only with the Jews (Galatians 2:12). Paul rebuked him, because he was “not acting in line with the truth of the gospel” (verse 14).

Some people might say, Peter was just trying to do what Paul did—to act like a Jew when with Jews. But the situation was not quite that simple, because Peter was also with Gentiles. He was not only with people under the law, he was also with people who were not under the law of Moses. In such a situation, what does the law of Christ say? What does the gospel say?

The problem with Peter’s behavior is that it sent the wrong signals. It implied that Jewish Christians and Gentile Christians should live by different laws. It implied that the Jewish customs were really more proper. It implied that the Antioch Gentiles were not really as important to Peter as the Judeans were. And perhaps Peter was trying to hide the fact that he had been living “like a Gentile and not like a Jew” (verse 14). The gospel says that it was wrong for Peter to change his behavior back to being Jewish.

The gospel says that Jewish believers and Gentile believers are part of the same group, and they live by the same rules. They are to fellowship with one another not on the basis of Jewish customs, but on the basis of laws appropriate for Gentiles.

Paul was quite happy when Peter lived like a Gentile—and it is clear that first-century Jews did not think that Gentiles had to keep the Sabbath. When Peter lived like a Gentile, he was breaking the old covenant laws that separated Jews from Gentiles.

The truth of the gospel says that those laws do not have to be kept—not even Jews have to keep them. The gospel says that salvation, and our status as the people of God, is on the basis of faith, apart from laws that make us different. The gospel says that, although we can sometimes ignore our freedom in Christ for the sake of spreading the gospel, we cannot permanently live as though we did not have that freedom, because of the truth of the gospel.

When we are in mixed company, we are to live like a Gentile, not give deference to the old covenant. It would be wrong, especially for a leader, to permanently live as if the weak in faith were right. A leader must model freedom, not just talk about it.

Now let’s consider how Paul would deal with a Jewish congregation surrounded by a Gentile culture. Perhaps that could have developed in Philippi, for example, where the first people to accept the gospel were Lydia’s household (Acts 16:14-15). Lydia was a “worshipper of God,” probably a Gentile who had accepted Jewish beliefs. But as more people in Philippi accepted the gospel, the church would have grown from this Jewish core into a mixed congregation.

What would Paul’s advice have been? Would he advise the Jews to separate themselves from the Gentiles, so the Jews could maintain their own customs? Certainly not—that was precisely what he rebuked Peter for.

Would he advise the Jews to preach old covenant laws, so everyone would live the same? Not at all! Would he say that since this church started as a Jewish church, it should be forever Jewish, and everyone who wants to join it ought to start keeping Jewish laws? Certainly not!

Rather, Paul would have advised Lydia to follow his own example, and to live like a Gentile in order to win the Gentiles. He would have advised her, and other Jews, to set aside those aspects of the law that interfered with fellowship with Gentiles.

He would have said that Christ brought peace between Jews and Gentiles by abolishing the rules that separated them (Ephesians 2:14-15). He would have told them to follow Jesus, therefore, in leaving behind such rules, in order that Christ’s peace might prevail.

In light of Paul’s instruction, would Jesus have us distract people from the gospel with customs that mislead them about what it really means to follow Christ?

We are not speaking about virtues like honesty and marital fidelity. We are not referring to humility, service and kindness. These customs might indeed separate us from segments of our culture, but they are demonstrably part of the gospel message, part of the law of Christ. But observing the weekly Sabbath and the annual Sabbaths are not part of the gospel message.

Do we want the message of grace to be confused with laws that the gospel specifically sets aside as not for Christians? Do we want our customs to give the wrong impression about the gospel, rather than to commend Christ?

Obviously, not all congregations are in a position where they can meet on Sunday. For some, Saturday is simply the best day to meet, or the best day to rent a meeting hall, or the best day for the pastor to visit the area. But in our hearts and actions we do need to follow the example of Paul, who lived like a Gentile when he was in a Gentile culture, for the sake of the gospel rather than his own comfort.

We need to set aside the Jewish customs (unless you are in a Jewish culture)! And like Paul exhorted Peter, let those who are used to these Jewish customs not separate themselves from believers who live like Gentiles.

It is incumbent upon us to leave behind behaviors that imply disapproval of Christian freedom and distract people from the heart of the gospel. For example, no one is puzzled that we encourage honesty and marital fidelity; these are consistent with the gospel. But a week of eating flat bread cannot help but make newcomers wonder whether they have to do that to be a Christian. It confuses the gospel with something else. It is easy enough to answer the question, but Paul’s point is that people shouldn’t even have to ask such a question. They shouldn’t have to see a confusing example like that.

As another example, let’s think of a person who refuses to take the Lord’s Supper except once a year, on a specific day of the Jewish calendar. The bread is supposed to represent our unity in Christ (“We, who are many, are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf”—1 Corinthians 10:17). What kind of message does it send when somebody refuses to partake of the bread? It implies some kind of division, doesn’t it? Perhaps a lack of faith; at least one foot stuck in the past. It is like Peter, pulling back from the Gentiles in order to revert to Jewish customs.

When people take their children out of school to attend an old covenant festival, does that support the gospel, or distract people from it? Does it cause unnecessary questions about the Christian faith? Our festivals are Christ-centered and gospel-focused, but what is the value of remaining tied to the dates of old covenant festivals? Does this choice of dates uphold the gospel, or does it uphold a familiar and comfortable custom that implies requirements that are in fact not part of the gospel?

Paul did not imply that Jewish customs are wrong in themselves. It is fitting to keep them when we are in a Jewish culture, but when we live in a Gentile culture and want to bring the gospel to Gentiles, we should live more like the culture we are in. We should not adopt their sins; but we should shed peculiarities from our past that distract people from the gospel, from the simplicity that is in Christ.

When Paul preached tolerance, he did not authorize anyone to say, “You should accommodate my preferences and tolerate my opinions.” Rather, he urges people to say, “I will give up my preferences in order to help the gospel get a better hearing in the society I am in.”

When it is simply a matter of relations within the church, we are to be tolerant of different opinions and practices (Romans 14:1). But when we want to make the gospel attractive to a Gentile society, we need to eliminate customs that confuse the gospel with the old covenant law. That’s something worth thinking about.

s a boy I heard the story of Abraham recounted at least once a week, and it usually went something like this: “God told Abraham to go, and he went. He didn’t ask questions; he didn’t hesitate; he just packed up and left everything he knew—country, family—and went. That’s how all of us should obey God. When God says ‘jump,’ you don’t ask ‘how high?’ you just jump.”

Maybe you have heard a similar story. There’s no disputing the point—we should obey God like that. But we don’t. Not all the time—not even most of the time. It usually takes us a while to get our act together. We might want to do what God says, but put it off. We might try to do what God says, but chicken out. We might even get started doing what God says, but then not follow through.

The background for the story above comes not from the Genesis account of Abram’s call, but from Hebrews 11, commonly called the “faith chapter.” Verse 8 reads: “By faith Abraham obeyed when he was called to go out to the place which he would receive as an inheritance. And he went out, not knowing where he was going” (NKJV). Verse 11 adds, “By faith Sarah herself also received strength to conceive seed, and she bore a child when she was past the age, because she judged Him faithful who had promised.”

You might at first think that the author of Hebrews was reading the Classics Illustrated version of the Abraham story, because the Genesis version paints a somewhat different picture—a not so sanitized picture of the patriarch and matriarch of the chosen people.

The early record, found in Genesis 11:27-32, is sketchy: Abram was the son of Terah; his wife’s name was Sarai and she was barren; Terah moved Abram and Sarai, along with his grandson, Lot, to Haran; Terah died. (There is no mention of the rest of the family moving to Haran.)

Somewhere along the line (we are not told when), God spoke to Abram, giving him a most remarkable promise.

Now the Lord said to Abram, “Go forth from your country, and from your relatives and from your father’s house, to the land which I will show you; and I will make you a great nation, and I will bless you, and make your name great; and so you shall be a blessing; and I will bless those who bless you, and the one who curses you I will curse. And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed” (Genesis 12:1-3).

God told Abram to “go forth from your county.” What was Abram’s country? Haran seems to have been only a temporary home for Abram, not a place that would qualify as “your country.” Since Ur is called the native land of Abram’s brother Haran (11:28), it would seem that Ur would have been “your country” and the location of Abram’s “father’s house.”

If that is true, then it would seem more likely that Yahweh said these things to Abram while Abram was still in Ur—while he was still with his relatives and in his home country. If so, it becomes clear that Abram may have been rather slow about getting “out of your country, from your relatives and from your father’s house.”

In that case, it would make one wonder whether Terah moved Abram, Sarai and Lot from Ur in response to what Yahweh had told Abram. (The passage in Genesis refers to no one else moving.)

After all, Terah took Abram and headed to the land of Canaan (Genesis 11:31), but stopped short in Haran. Was he trying to light a fire under Abram by getting him started?

Whether it was immediately or later, at some point after God’s call, Abram did pack up all his considerable possessions, including slaves (12:5), and traveled from Haran across the Euphrates River and down to Canaan, leaving his father’s house and whatever relatives might have also made the trip from Ur to Haran.

Abram had barely set up shop in the “land of promise” before there was a famine so bad that he packed up and moved to Egypt. One has to wonder this: if Abram trusted God’s promise about the land flowing with milk and honey, why go straight to Egypt when there was trouble? After all, in 13:10, we find that the plain of Jordan was lush and “well watered everywhere.” Why didn’t Abram go there, part of the promised land, instead of Egypt? We aren’t told.

What we are told is that Abram’s stay in Egypt was on the shady side. Fearing that the king would kill him in order to marry his beautiful wife, Abram asked Sarai to tell the king that she was his sister. As expected, the Egyptians saw how beautiful Sarai was and told the king. So he took her, believing she was Abram’s sister, and treated Abram well for her sake, apparently giving him plenty of riches in the form of stock. But God plagued the king because of it. When the king found out Sarai was the cause of the plagues, he was less than happy with Abram’s deception and deported him, but let him keep all his possessions.

In spite of Abram's lack of faith God blessed Abram with more stock.

There are several things to consider here. One is that Abram handled his affairs a lot like many of us tend to: Seek the most expedient way out of a problem, that is, shortsighted, knee-jerk, unplanned living. What about faith? Abram didn’t show much in this episode. But there is another side to the story.

In this incident, Abram was weak in faith. But here’s the kicker: Consider what God did in spite of Abram’s lack of faith.

He got Abram back into the promised land, though it took a deportation to do it. Who knows how long Abram would have stayed in Egypt otherwise?

What is the lesson? God is faithful, even when we are not. That’s a pretty big lesson, and it only gets stronger as we move through the Genesis stories. We begin to get the impression that these stories are not here to give us models of excellent living, but to show us God’s faithfulness to those who call on his name.

When we read Genesis, the facts are stacked against Abram. But it is often the case that the obvious, simple facts don’t tell the whole story, or “the rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey’s popular radio short used to illustrate. There is often something going on under the surface, behind the scenes, that plain facts don’t have the capacity to convey.

From your own experience, you know that “just the facts, ma’am” doesn’t always convey the real story. Sometimes the facts give a false impression, because they don’t contain the deeper facts, the invisible facts—the heart, the motivation, the mitigating circumstances, the personal journey.

In Mark Twain’s story of Tom Sawyer, the facts were against Muff Potter. He was holding the bloody knife, he was drunk, there was a witness against him, and worst of all, he remembered nothing, so even he believed he must be guilty—from the facts. But the simple, obvious facts conveyed an untrue story. There were deeper facts, unseen facts, which told the true story and spoke louder than the simple, obvious facts.

It’s easy to say Abram was weak in faith. But consider this from Abram’s perspective: God spoke to Abram, giving him some of the most dramatic, famous and far-reaching promises in the Bible. In spite of such unprecedented special treatment from God, Abram’s life was far from a bed of roses.

For example, where was God when the so-called promised land of blessing and descendants was a parched, cropless wasteland with no kids bearing Abram’s name, when in desperation Abram decided he had to head down to Egypt so he could feed his wife, slaves and animals?

Where was God when Sarai’s desperation over her barrenness drove her to offer her servant Hagar to Abram to give him a child, or when Abraham had to contend with Sarah’s bitter jealousy toward Hagar and Ishmael? Where was God when Abraham’s love for Ishmael was brushed aside as irrelevant when it was time for Isaac to come along? What were the big promises worth to Abraham when he had to struggle with water rights, when he had to go to war to rescue his kidnapped nephew, when he had to send Ishmael away with nothing but the bread and water he and his mother could carry, and most of all when he was trudging along beside a donkey toward Mount Moriah like some worshiper of Molech to make a burned sacrifice of Isaac?

Abraham had to deal with strife, pain, heartache, tragedy and grievous disappointment, just like you and me. And through it all, he kept trusting God to be faithful to his word of grace and promise.

Sometimes Abraham put things off. Sometimes he tried to solve things himself (he did the tell-them-you’re-my-sister thing again the very year Isaac was born). Sometimes he acted unwisely. But it was in the middle of the pains, problems, frustrations and mess-ups of life that Abraham trusted God, not in some happily-ever-after fairy tale land where heroes are practically-perfect-in-every-way and nothing serious ever goes wrong.

And God was faithful to Abraham, just as he is faithful to us—not faithful to do the kind of things we think a proper God should do, like giving us whatever we long for or think we need—but faithful to us—to his redemptive purpose for us, to his new creation of which he has made us part in Christ.

The Hebrews version is the real story: the “rest of the story.” Hebrews gives us God’s redemption of Abraham’s story, the true meaning that God gave Abraham’s story in Christ.

In the same way, God has redeemed your story—your personal history, the record of your weaknesses, shortcomings and failures, and has transformed you and your history into something new—his new creation in Jesus Christ. In Christ, we can put our troubled past behind us, and trust his word of truth for us. As Paul put it, “Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new” (2 Corinthian 5:17, NIV).

“It is common today to study Abraham, Moses, or David as models of spirituality. We analyze in great depth the Bible’s biographical information and its accounts of their activities looking for clues to a successful relationship with God. Often there is at least a tacit assumption that the Old Testament exists to provide exactly that sort of information. Therein lies the fallacy. Whatever the nature of the relationship to God that these individuals enjoyed, their stories are not recorded to offer models of what our relationship to God should or should not be. Rather, the Old Testament accounts seek to reveal what God is like so we may enter into relationship with him. Knowing Abraham, Moses, or David does not provide the key to a successful relationship with God—knowing God provides the key to a successful relationship with God.” (John Walton, Covenant: God’s Purpose, God’s Plan, page 184).

ANTON, Ohio—Our goal in youth ministry is to help children, teens and college-age young adults become active followers of Jesus. A follower of Jesus is one who is in communion with God, through Christ. In that relationship, Jesus gives them the Holy Spirit, through whom they share in Jesus’ love for God and for people and are equipped and empowered to actively participate with Jesus in his ministry patterns.

The four Gospels illustrate the patterns of Jesus’ earthly ministry that culminated in Jesus’ command to his followers to continue doing what he had done in their presence—“make disciples” (Matthew 28:19). This work, often referred to as the great commission, has four essential, interrelated parts:

1) Win the lost: seek out those who do not know Jesus and invite them to be his followers.

3) Equip workers: train and coach believers to become active and skillful workers in Jesus’ disciplemaking ministry.

4) Multiply leaders: identify, coach and then deploy leaders who will lead other workers in disciplemaking ministries.

In the last two editions of this column, we have examined youth ministry from the perspectives of building believers and equipping workers. In this issue, we’ll look further at how youths can be equipped for their part in winning the lost—reaching out to friends, family and classmates who do not know Jesus, with the intent of introducing them to their Savior and Lord.

In order for disciples of Jesus (including his young disciples), to be effective in winning the lost, there are some essential biblical perspectives they must understand and embrace:

1. People not in communion with Jesus are “lost.” Jesus contrasts those who are lost with those who are saved. Thus to be lost is to be unsaved. We cannot be effective at reaching out to the lost until we understand their great need for salvation.

Our reaction to their “lostness” is not one of panic, revulsion or condemnation. Rather our reaction is that of Jesus, who loves them and seeks them out in order that he may give them what they truly need: salvation (Luke 19:10). Jesus invites his disciples to participate with him in seeking the lost as shepherds searching for lost sheep (Luke 15:3-7), fishers of men (Matthew 4:18-20) and laborers bringing in the harvest (Matthew 9:37-38).

2. Seeking the lost is not a passive activity. Jesus actively seeks out lost people as illustrated in his parables of the lost sheep, the lost coin and the lost son (Luke 15). Scripture makes it clear that Jesus invites his followers to partner with him in actively seeking lost people in order that they may come to know Jesus as their Savior.

Only God can save a lost person, but Jesus calls on his disciples to be like Andrew, who brought his brother Peter to Jesus (John 1:40-42). Our goal is to bring the lost to Christ—that is what we mean by “winning the lost.”

3. The motivation for seeking to bring the lost to Christ must be Jesus’ motivation—a heart of love for people. Another way to say this is that our great commission work must be motivated by a great commandment heart (as in our youth ministry logo). We seek to bring lost people to Christ because, and only because, we love them.

But how, we might ask, are the lost won to Christ? And how do we equip children, teens and college-age young adults to be active in winning their lost peers to Christ? A word of caution is in order. So often, we seek after programs and formulas. But when it comes to winning the lost to Christ, what we need is a heart that is expressed in a lifestyle—a certain rhythm of relating with others—in this case, with those who do not know Jesus as their Savior and Lord.

In seeking the lost, Jesus is our model, and so we desire to understand and embrace his heart—in this case his passionate and tender love for those separated from him. Jesus loves the lost, he weeps and aches for them—he reaches out to them. Jesus’ love for the lost, like all aspects of God’s love, is “poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us” (Romans 5:5, New King James Version). Therefore, we seek communion with Jesus, in the Holy Spirit, so that we might share in Jesus’ love for lost people.

Jesus’ love, beating in our hearts, then leads us to take appropriate and intentional action to seek out lost people. In Jesus’ personal ministry, embraced and replicated by his first disciples, we see this action involving a three-part pattern that may be summarized in the acronym CPR, which stands for cultivate (friendships with lost peers), plant (gospel truth) and reap (a new follower of Jesus). As we, youth ministry leaders and workers, practice these patterns in our own lives, we are enabled and emboldened to teach the same patterns to the youths we serve. Let’s examine each one.

Winning a lost person to Christ involves a relationship with us through which our friend is introduced to a relationship with Jesus. Lost people are not enemies for us to conquer, nor are they projects for us to complete. Rather, they are people created in the image of God, yet separated from God and in slavery to sin. They are in desperate need of a Savior.

Because we love them, we seek to befriend them. Because of Jesus’ love for the lost, we are intentional about cultivating friendships with lost people. As we do, we are careful not to compromise our obedience to Christ. Like Jesus, we are “friends of sinners” (Luke 7:34), yet we do not participate in their sinful behaviors. This is a challenge, but it is one that Jesus has met and will help us meet.

As youth ministry leaders and workers, we seek to encourage and train our youths to make contact with and establish friendships with peers who do not know Christ. We model for them genuine love for the lost, and a commitment to go where they are—seeking to show them Jesus’ love by being with them in their lives—in their joys and sorrows. Just showing up is half the battle. We also teach them to be in continuing prayer for their lost friends, knowing that God alone can open a heart to be receptive to us and to what we will share with them.

Much of our impact in the lives of the lost comes through good deeds—actions that convey Jesus’ care and concern for hurting people. Jesus’ earthly ministry included feeding the hungry, healing the sick and blind and setting the oppressed free from demonic influence. However, Jesus did not stop with good deeds—he paired his acts of mercy with words that proclaimed the gospel truth (Luke 4:18-19, 43; 9:10-11).

Jesus calls on us to participate with him in both his compassionate deeds and his words of testimony (Luke 9:1-2, 6). When accompanied by good works, our testimonies about the goodness of Jesus will have a much greater, positive impact on lost friends. Our desire in both our deeds and words is to help them develop a positive outlook on Jesus.

As we share life with lost friends, it is inevitable that they will encounter times of difficulty and pain—life happens to us all. At such times, our words of comfort and of encouragement that God loves them and seeks to help them are particularly appropriate and powerful.

If our words are not positively received, we are not offended, nor do we abandon our lost friends. Rather, our love for them is unconditional and we are willing to continue cultivating and planting for as long as circumstances allow. We trust the timing and the outcome to the Holy Spirit.

As youth ministry leaders and workers, we seek to equip our youths with the ability to share their testimonies about the goodness of Christ in their lives. We help them to see God at work in their own lives, and we give them encouragement, models and opportunities to practice sharing with others about God’s goodness.

As we continue to cultivate friendships with lost peers, taking advantage of opportunities to plant truths about Jesus into those friendships, the time will often come when the fruit of our efforts will be ready for reaping. The reaping of a new follower of Jesus involves sharing the simple yet essential details of the gospel with our friend. In this sharing, we explain how God offers salvation through Jesus’ death and resurrection and how they need that salvation and may receive it by turning to God in repentance and faith.

We explain this and then invite them to respond. We pray that we will reap a genuine response that will accompany their birth as children of God—members of his family and citizens of his kingdom.

In our youth ministries, we work to be sure that our youths clearly understand the essentials of the gospel of salvation in Christ and are able to explain it to others in age-appropriate ways. Our goal in this is not to pressure our kids to be evangelists, but to help them experience the joy of knowing Jesus, the joy of understanding the glorious gospel of grace and the privilege and blessing it is to share that gospel with a friend.

In describing the basics of CPR, I have noted several goals we have as youth ministry leaders and workers in equipping our youths for their personal involvement in winning lost peers to Christ. To help you in thinking about the effectiveness of your youth ministry, let me conclude with a list of questions to stimulate your thinking concerning how you can be more successful in this equipping (my thanks to Sonlife Ministries for this list):

* Are the youths in your group consistently praying for their lost friends’ salvation?

* Are you providing regular events designed to help your youths build friendships with the unchurched?

* Do you host activities where unchurched youths can be exposed in positive ways to truths about Jesus?

* Are you encouraging and equipping your youths to have on-going “truth based” dialogues with their unchurched friends?

* Do your youths “own” the conviction that all people need salvation and that Jesus is the only way for that salvation?

* Do you regularly share the gospel in relational ways with the non-churched visitors to your youth group?

1. Attend one of the 2003 WCG-USA regional conferences that include the seminar “The Great Commandment.”

2. Take some of your kids to a WCG SEP camp, for training in personal evangelism using the CPR model.

3. Check out Ted Johnston’s Evangelism Toolbox posted on the web at http://churches.wcg.org/ greatlakes/articles/EVANGELISM%20TOOLBOX.doc (click on “cancel” when you see the box asking for a password).

4. Take some of your youths to a Sonlife Youth Ministry training conference (called SEMP and EQUIP)—see www.sonlife.com/ semp/index.html or www.sonlife. com/equip/index.asp

Youth Builders Conference in Pasadena

PASADENA—Jeb Egbert, national youth ministry co-director, visited the Southern California churches May 3 to conduct a conference for youth leaders and youth workers. The host church was the Pasadena WCG congregation.

The day began with a worship service led by teen vocalists and soloists and the Dizon family praise band. Dr. Egbert gave the sermon, and then after lunch led a discussion on Jesus’ disciplemaking strategy, which was to seek the lost, build believers, equip workers and then multiply leaders and send them out to seek new believers. We do youth ministry by embracing Jesus’ person, being moved by his passion, and participating in his ministry pattern, he said.

That evening Dr. Egbert had a roundtable discussion with the SEP California staff about our mission of making disciples who make disciples, and how to better integrate SEP campers back into local church ministry after camp. Dennis Pelley.

Youth Builders Conference
in Washington, Pennsylvania

WASHINGTON, Pennsylvania—Jim Valekis, youth director for the Great Lakes District, presented a Youth Builders Conference April 26 at the Fountain of Life church hall, rented from the Youth for Christ.

Most were WCG pastors and youth leaders, but pastors and youth directors in and around Washington were also invited. They were especially grateful for Pastor Jim’s presentation and insight about today’s youths. Pastor Craig Bellis of the Covenant Life Fellowship in Washington thanked Jim and the WCG for their role in the body of Christ. He said he could “sense a special gift of teaching from the Worldwide Church of God.”

Murf Poulan, director of Youth for Christ in Washington (for the past 45 years) was glad their building could be used for such an event for the city and our denomination.

Ben Zacharias led the inspirational worship time followed by Jim’s PowerPoint presentation. Jim taught with an open-forum style, which invited comments and questions. In closing, all shared communion as One Body. Tom Smith.

Pennsylvania teens
attend Acquire the Fire

ASHINGTON, Pennsylvania—Ten teens from Washington, Pennsylvania, and Wheeling, West Virginia, attended an Acquire the Fire event in Pittsburgh, May 9 and 10. They went in conjunction with eight teens from the Youth for Christ chapter in Washington, led by Jeff and Susan Dittmer of the Fountain of Life congregation, the WCG congregation. All left with a new fire in their hearts for Christ.

Conversations between leaders and teens revolved around the messages on relationships. They heard that a relationship with God is the most important relationship they could have. Many tears were shed, many prayers were offered up, and many teens ended up with a deeper relationship with God because of the weekend. Susan Dittmer.

Olympia teens participate in
30 hour famine

OLYMPIA, Washington—The Young Faithful of Olympia were hosts for a Survivor-Themed 30 Hour Famine event May 30 to June 1 at Millersylvania State Park in Maytown, Washington.

Fifteen teens participated in the event, which included tribal councils, Bible studies and tribe challenges. Our two tribes, Tiki Chicas and Three Guys and Some Girls, competed in human checkers, a canoe treasure hunt and a night-time Bible-smuggling event.

Steve Johnson led the tribal councils, where the losing tribes were required to perform a vote of consequence, after which the selected tribe member became either crippled, lame, mute or blind and had to remain disabled for the rest of the event, which required increased teamwork and cooperation as the days progressed.

Bible studies were led by Dave and Katie Richardson, discussing why we have free will, the undeniable existence of God and how to hear and obey God.

During the final tribal council, the teens read from Matthew 15:29-38, where Jesus heals the crippled, lame, mute and blind, then, after praising God, Jesus feeds the 4,000.

Participants raised more than $1,200 for World Vision, to help serve and teach communities in need. Amy Johnson organized the event with assistance from Brandy Miles, Alice Payne and Diana Richardson. Steve Johnson.

THREE GUYS AND SOME GIRLS—Back row: Forest
Pope, Michael Richardson and Ryan Ulsberger. Front
row: Ashley Anderson, Amanda Pope, Carolin Staedecke,
Brandy Miles, Nathalie Elam and Melissa Campbell.
[Photos by Amy Johnson]

TIKI CHICAS—From left: Sarah Richardson, Lisa Anderson,
Beverly Pope, Taylor Steele, Lindsey Owens, Melissa
Jacobson and Robyn Boedigheimer.

DALLAS, Texas—Grace Family Church conducted its annual teen year-end banquet May 17. Nancy Newkirk and Jean Grunheid organized the event, with assistance from Bill Thomas, Wylene Dusek, Brian Dusek, Emily Newkirk, Cassie Wakefield and others.

The evening began with a potluck meal and fellowship. Decorations included placards containing baby pictures and recent photos of each of this year’s eight graduating seniors: Ryan Dusek, Daniel Fischelli, Nnamdi Ford, Jesse Hebert, Michael Lewandowski, Laniece Miller, Clif Newkirk and Ben Pope. It has been a number of years since the congregation has had so many seniors graduate at one time.

The seniors were each given a teddy bear wearing a graduation cap, giant eyeglass frames shaped like the number 2003 (donated by Laniece Miller) and a handmade card signed by the attendees.

After the meal, each senior stood at the front of the room while his or her parents commended the young people for their achievements and, in some cases, told humorous stories about them.

In a portion of the program concerning all the youths, both middle school and high school levels, Mrs. Newkirk, Steve Kramer, Joe Shipman and Tom Young spoke of the individual young people’s character and spiritual growth.

They gave certificates of achievement and various other awards to each of the teens.

At the conclusion of the evening, Mr. Kramer and Mr. Young prayed over the seniors while their parents laid hands on them. Frank Lewandowski.

Jessica Miela wins scholarship

FIFE LAKE, Michigan—Jessica Miela, 16, has won multiple full-ride college

scholarships including one from the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. She was the Michigan state pole vault champion in her class two years in a row, and maintains a 3.87 grade point average. She lives with her grandparents, WCG members Leith and Nancy Cunningham. Jessica was baptized into the body of Jesus Christ several years ago. Next year she will complete her high school education at Forest Area High School in Fife Lake. “We both acknowledge and appreciate the energy, effort and focus that Jessica brings to her goals of life.”

Window on the World
From Randal Dick, superintendent of missions

Good News Bad News

even years ago, the WN gave a fair amount of coverage to the apparent rapid growth of the Worldwide Church of God in Angola. At one point it seemed that the WCG had 5,000 or more members in Angola. Unfortunately, for a number of reasons, not the least of which was a raging civil war, we were never able to fully establish those congregations and their leadership. Time passed.

About two years ago, James Henderson, regional director, made his first visit to assess the situation. Much diffusion had taken place since our last contact. James met with a wide variety of people, gave them all the help he could, left them material to read and study, and promised to return as soon as he was able.

James and I went to Angola in November 2002 to fulfill that commitment. It was one of the more profound, difficult, yet inspiring, experiences of my life. Below is the report on that visit, bringing you up to date regarding your brothers and sisters in one of the world’s most difficult places.

James and I arrived in Luanda, the capital, about midday on the first Thursday in November. I had passed through Luanda one other time during the Angolan civil war (but was not allowed to leave the aircraft).

Even upon landing I noticed that it was different this time. The surface to air missiles that had lined the runway were now just empty bunkers with the steel support column on which the missile pods had rested. Children had come over the fence surrounding the shacks that edged the airport and were playing on the edges of the airfield.

We got our first taste of the real nature of things when, after one hour of waiting in the hot baggage claim area, people began to get restless. After two hours, the baggage still had not come even though only two or three planes were at the entire airport. Many Angolans began to get angry and shout at the occasional baggage claim employee who dared show his face.

Eventually a few police appeared and said something to the crowd. This caused angry shouting, and a mob pushed at the door to where the baggage would arrive. It turned out that some officials decided to go through everyone’s luggage between the plane and the baggage claim area.

Judging from the growing number of people who, when they got their bags, began shouting angrily, it seemed clear that those officials had helped themselves to some of the contents of the bags before releasing them to their owners. Welcome to Africa. After three hours we got what was left of our luggage and went out the door into the steamy atmosphere of Luanda.

We were met by Nowa Tembe, WCG representative in Angola, and the driver of the car we had hired for the time we were in Angola. It was good to meet him after years of praying for him, but only knowing him on paper. We were taken from the airport through Luanda to the hotel Le Meridien, located on the harbor, just across from the entrance to the Port of Luanda.

It was obvious that Luanda had once been a much more prosperous city. We were told that things are already changing for the better in terms of people getting out on the streets and business beginning to increase. I could see the harbor from my upstairs window. Many ships were coming and going out of the harbor.

Shortly after our arrival at the hotel, a delegation of five or six Angolan members and leaders arrived to discuss the schedule for the next three days. There we began to hear details about smoldering strife that had broken out within the Angolan church. James and I quickly realized that this might be a difficult weekend.

We were told that part of the Angolan WCG had excommunicated another part of the WCG. All of this, of course, was without the consultation or permission of headquarters or its African representative. We were saddened to hear this, because we had planned to spend our time there in leadership and biblical training.

I learned something else about the environment in which our Angolan members live. As the afternoon shadows grew long, the men began to get more and more distracted. James Henderson whispered to me that we needed to end the meeting so that these men could get home before sundown. This wasn’t for religious reasons—rather the roads, even around Luanda, become “owned” by bandits who rob those who would venture out. It was an indication of just how dangerous everyday life can be.

The first meeting between James Henderson and myself and the Angolan WCG leadership took place on Friday, Nov. 8. The meeting was cordial, with an underlying tension. Having to work through interpretation, James and I were careful not to make assumptions or conclusions. We listened and asked questions. They gave us a historical tour of the WCG in Angola, and several important things became clear to us as the story unfolded.

The people who came to be called the WCG in Angola had two distinct points of origin. One was a group of people who responded to the first visit of Jacques Brunet and John Halford in the early ’90s. Subsequently, a much larger group approached us and asked to come under the umbrella of the WCG.

Both groups were Sabbatarian in background, but the second group was much more legalistic. They were a much larger group, numbering between 3,000 and 5,000, and had better organized leadership than the original, smaller group.

I think that the latter group had existed for some time as the Church of the Apostles of the Seventh Day. They approached Carlos Tavares, who had been sent by the WCG to establish, teach and bring leadership maturity to the WCG groups in Angola. They asked to be recognized as part of the WCG. Mr. Tavares asked headquarters to grant their request, which we agreed to do.

Also at Carlos’ request, we agreed to recognize the ordination of the leader of this larger group, Raphael Ukukuakulu, and we agreed to appoint him legal representative of the WCG in Angola. The WCG, through an Angolan attorney, had also filed a request for the WCG to be legally registered in Angola.

Although a lot of people were involved, the number of members was impossible to verify because of the ravages of war, which made it dangerous to move between the government-held and UNITAS-held territories.

The larger group, from the former Church of the Apostles of the Seventh Day, was already well organized. It was hierarchical in governance, had close tribal affiliation and came from a legalistic Sabbatarian background.

The group that had been writing to Pasadena for years, and that responded to the initial visit, though somewhat Sabbatarian, had not been organized previously into congregations. Its members were also from a different tribal affiliation than the larger group. Tribal issues are almost always part of any strife equation in Africa.

The second day, Saturday, Nov. 9, James and I were scheduled to attend the services of both groups. We left the hotel at 9 a.m. and began the drive to the larger group’s location.

It was fascinating to see the residential areas of Luanda along the way. As a first-time visitor, several things stood out to me. The houses, crammed closely together, were perched on high ground. Wherever the land dropped away, people had thrown their garbage.

Consequently whole communities looked like they had been built in and around garbage dumps. The sweet, rotting odor so prevalent at garbage dumps permeated the air throughout most of Luanda, and flies were everywhere. People had long since given up trying to keep flies off their food, and many people had flies sucking moisture out of the corner of their eyes. It was amazing, given the health hazards that abound, that there were so many beautiful, healthy-looking people. The Angolans are an impressive people, beautiful and dignified.

Our first stop was at the hall of the larger group. About 800 people were in attendance, all neatly lined up, sitting on rows of benches. It soon became evident that the leaders of this group were still legalistic and Sabbatarian in their view. Not only had they not been adequately informed of our doctrinal changes, they had been contacted and negatively influenced by dissident elements in the United States.

As the service progressed it became clear that although they had not studied our current doctrinal beliefs, they had already rejected the WCG in its current form. James and I both agreed that there was no reason to create dissension among the lay membership, who had no clue what was going on. We would take the matter up with the leadership the following day. Christ would have to be the one to create the desire among them to leave Mount Sinai and come to him.

We were way behind schedule, and the other group was awaiting our arrival. We both gave a brief word of welcome and best wishes. James added an announcement that the representative of the WCG in Angola was no longer their leader, Raphael Ukukuakulu, but was now Nowa Tembe, and that all communication and decisions from the denomination would be communicated through Nowa.

The elders looked angry, and the people looked confused. James did not elaborate further. After best wishes and farewells to the assembled congregation, we departed, leaving them to continue with the rest of their service.

We drove as quickly as we could back through Luanda to the other side of the city. The hall that was being used by the smaller group (about 160 in number) was at the end of a dirt road in a suburb called Sambinzanga. We drove to the end of the street and walked the remainder of the distance along a railroad track. Below, a small river struggled through the city. The water in the river was black, and garbage carpeted the entire riverbank. Flies, as always, abounded. No one even tried to mitigate their activities.

We finally arrived, quite a bit behind schedule. But, as is often the case in Africa, the members did not seem to mind. They had waited in the oppressive heat patiently and were happy just to meet together.

Soon after we arrived, the worship began. It was extended and wholehearted. I was introduced first and gave the members a greeting from headquarters and a brief message.

Next, James announced to them that Nowa Tembe was appointed the WCG’s official representative in Angola, which was met with an incredible roar of approval, accompanied by thunderous applause. James and I were both astounded at the depth of feeling expressed by the group—another confirmation of the strife that had existed between the two groups over doctrine.

Next, we presented credentials to the other ordained elder in Angola, Pastor Oliveira Kitambala. He was one of the leaders who had been excluded by Pastor Raphael and his men. Again, the congregation expressed its approval at Pastor Oliveira’s confirmation.

James gave a brief but effective sermon, followed by closing worship. It was obvious that these people had a kindred spirit. After some fellowship and photographs we were escorted with singing and rejoicing back down the railroad track to where our car was waiting.

We were exhausted. We had left the hotel at 9 that morning. It was now getting close to dark. Our clothes were so soaked with perspiration that we had begun to think that wet clothes were normal. The ever-present red dust now tinted every item of clothing.

Over dinner and multiple large bottles of water, James and I discussed the reality that the actual WCG in Angola was not 5,000 to 7,000, as we had once believed. We actually had about three congregations or groups totaling between 180 and 300 people. We had planned a leadership training session for the next day, but now we did not know whether many would attend. As best as we could discern, a maximum of six young leaders would come on Sunday for the leadership training session.

On Sunday morning at the appointed time, Nowa, Oliveira and a few young men began to arrive at the conference room we were using in the hotel. James and I set aside our prepared material and decided to try to help the leaders who were assembled to cope with the situation they faced, and to edify the members.

To our surprise and delight, young men continued to arrive until nearly 20 were in the group. We answered questions and gave the men some basic principles of pastoral leadership. It was delightful. After a time of prayer, we said our farewells and told them we would try to return as soon as possible. It was again late in the day, and they had to get to their homes before it became too dangerous.

James and I left Luanda on Monday morning, Nov. 11, after saying good-bye to Nowa and Oliveira, who saw us off at the airport. We left heavy-hearted, yet with certain optimism about the future of the church in Angola. The small group we left behind is so dynamic and outgoing that there is no question that they will actively share God’s love with others.

They are a group of people who have some catching up to do, yet are enthusiastic and very much a part of the WCG family.

This leads to the question, “What can we do to help the Angolans?” James is committed (as am I) to do whatever possible to bring them as much equipping as we can. We will keep in communication and are committed to see the scattered members become cohesive congregations. The small but dynamic church in Portugal has committed to translate literature into Portuguese, and thereby make available to the Angolan members some key literature that is currently unavailable.

The Angolan leaders did not ask for money. They did ask for more tools to enable them to more effectively teach the gospel. I had several ask me to help them get a Bible and a concordance.

One leader who made it in from an outlying area brought a collection of pages to show us. It was what was left of a Bible. He said that their congregation had three Bibles between all of them, and this was the remains of one. He wondered if they could have help getting a few more Bibles for the congregation to share. They had obviously taped, pasted and patched that old Bible until it refused to be repaired again. I told him we would help them get Bibles and some basic study materials.

Please pray for them. They are aware of us, and pray for their brethren in the United States on a regular basis. They get bits of news from the occasional letter, and from Pastor General Joseph Tkach’s update. It is one of our blessings to have them as our brothers and sisters. Let’s be a blessing to them as well.

Randal Dick (left) with Nowa Tembe,
WCG representative in Angola,
en route to Sambinzanga congregation.
[Photo by James Henderson]

After stating his thesis, Paul explains the gospel in more detail, starting with our need for the gospel. Why do we need to be put into a right relationship with God? Without the gospel, we would be in a wrong relationship. Paul explains that we were not just going our separate ways—we were enemies of God. There is an important barrier to be overcome.

Paul explains our need starting in verse 18: The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of human beings who suppress the truth by their wickedness. God is angry at sin—angry at the passive sin of ignoring God, and angry at active rebellion. This anger is being revealed, perhaps in nature, or by scriptures that say that sin will be punished.

However, there is something odd about this. It is like a prison warden who is so angry at the prisoners that he sends his son into the prison to tell them how to escape, and he gives them the key to his own home so they will have a place to live. This is not what we normally call "wrath." The gospel reveals that our concepts of wrath are wrong.

Paul is turning religious assumptions upside down—he may begin with a concept like "wrath," but he does not leave it there. The gospel reveals how Christ has turned things around. We cannot take verse 18 as Paul's final statement on the matter, because it is not. It is merely the starting point in his argument. We have to see these verses as part of Paul's strategy of explaining the gospel. He is starting with ideas that his readers probably agree with, but he explains that the gospel calls those assumptions into question.

People assume that God is angry at sinners because they ought to know better. (In Paul's day, it was generally those from a Jewish background who made this assumption; today it is generally Christian conservatives.) But as Paul will soon explain, this would mean that God is angry at absolutely everybody. Instead, the gospel reveals a God who loves people even when they are his enemies, a God who justifies the ungodly, a God who rescues people from their addictions.

Verse 19 describes some of the common assumptions about why God would be angry at sinners: Since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. How did he make it plain? Verse 20: For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Modern science tells us that the universe had a beginning. There was nothing, and there was suddenly something—a big bang, creating and filling the universe. This colossal explosion had a cause, a cause that existed before time did, a cause that was not part of the world the big bang created. Many people conclude that the cause was God. However, this gives only a rudimentary understanding of what God is. People might deduce that God is eternal and supernatural, but it says nothing about morality, and nothing about salvation. The gospel reveals something different: a God who came to his people in a form they did not expect. God's most important characteristics are revealed not by creation, but by Christ.

God could make himself plain if he wanted to. He could be a pillar of fire, or he could write messages in the sky. He could make his existence unavoidable, but he chooses not to. He allows people to ignore him and reject him. We are not forced to cower in front of an overwhelming power, but our love is freely given.

But many people reject God: For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened (v. 21). This was the common Jewish explanation of idolatry, as we can see from other Jewish literature of this time period. Although people had an opportunity to know about God, they ignored him and did not show any appreciation to him. As a result, their thinking became futile—it did not produce any fruit. Indeed, if we try to make sense out of life without God in the picture, we will never get the right answer.

Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like mortal human beings and birds and animals and reptiles (vv. 22-23). Most cultures claim to be wise, but if they think it is smart to reject truth and build on falsehood, then they are foolish. They are giving up something wonderful and ending up with snakes and fools to worship. Their gods are imitations, and can never be anything more than imitations.

So what did God do? Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another (v. 24). In this standard Jewish critique of paganism, God lets people reap the consequences of their erroneous ideas. They miss out on the wisdom and guidance of God. Paul uses sex as his primary example, because that was one area in which Jews commonly criticized the Gentile world.

Paul repeats these thoughts in verses 25-26: They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen. Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. The people traded away truth and lived as if God did not exist. And God was so angry that he let them do what they want.

Paul says: Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural sexual relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error (vv. 26-27). Paul is not saying that God is going to punish them for their awful behavior. No, his emphasis is different. Paul is saying that God punishes them by letting them do these sexual sins. Paul is shifting the meaning of wrath, sin, and punishment. The sins that people commit are symptoms of their alienation from God, not the cause.

However, it is true that when we cut ourselves off from God, the things we want are often bad for us, and if God lets us do what we want, we end up doing things that are bad for us. Sexual sins are one example; Paul could have just as easily used greed as a different example, or dishonesty, or violence. Different problems appeal to different people, and if we just do what we want, we end up hurting ourselves as well as others.

Verse 28 puts it like this: Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done.

Paul then gives a list of examples in verses 29-31: They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy. People do not want to live in a world of greed and envy, murder and deceit. They don’t want a world of depravity, arrogance and slander, but without God, that is where they end up.

Paul is repeating the standard Jewish view of the world, and he is building rapport with his Jewish readers. But he is setting them up, we might say—after presenting this judgmental worldview, he is going to apply it to the Jews and show that it condemns them just as much as it does the Gentiles. This worldview does not represent the way God really is. The gospel has a different view of sin and judgment—it reveals the righteous mercy of God.

Verse 32: Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them. Maybe it seems harsh to say that a gossiper deserves to die, and that envious people deserve to die. If we take this verse at face value, this is what Paul is saying: Those people deserve to die. Paul is passing judgment, condemning the people to death for their sins.

However, there is a reason that we should not take this verse at face value, and it is in the very next verse that Paul writes—chapter 2, verse 1. (The chapter break tends to obscure the contrast in these two verses.) Paul immediately starts criticizing those who pass judgment and condemn others! Is he criticizing himself? No, he is criticizing the worldview described in verse 32 (indeed, all the verses from 18 onward are based on a traditional view that Paul is criticizing, not endorsing). The gospel reveals a God who gives salvation, and a God who is righteous in doing so. God's righteous decree according to the gospel is life, not death.

The gospel is the power of salvation, and the revelation of God’s righteousness is the solution not only for the sins of paganism, but also the sin of being judgmental. God has acted to rescue people, to save them, to restore them to righteousness. As Paul will explain in later chapters, he has done it in Jesus Christ. Click here for a study of Romans 2.

s we approach the halfway mark for 2003, our regular donation income continues to be less than our projections. However, overall cash revenue from all sources is still ahead of estimates.

For the month of May, we had projected donation income at $1.68 million. Total contribution income was just over $1.57 million or about $110,000 less than budgeted.

However, during this month other sources of income including estate donations, gain on investments and pilot program church apportionments added more than $460,000 to our funds. So total income was more than $2 million—almost exactly what we had forecast for our totals.

May expenses were just over $3 million. That, of course, means we needed to use roughly $1 million from the reserve fund. These ups and downs are, however, on target with our forecasts.

Last month I reported that between January and April, because of peripheral property sales and a litigation settlement, we had added $3 million to the reserves (after completing our accounting records, the amount was actually more than $3.5 million).

We projected our expense budget for the year-to-date, January through May, to be $14.95 million. Expenses so far this year have been $14.27 million. So with expenses being less than budgeted and other sources of revenue higher than budgeted, we have been able to add $1.9 million to the reserves so far this year. And that’s a welcome addition because our cash-flow estimates for the next couple of months were projected to be a little tight.

However, in July and August, two additional peripheral parcels of property are scheduled to close, so I anticipate holding steady for the coming third quarter of the year.

Many members have requested information on how best to make a gift to the Worldwide Church of God, either during their lifetime or upon death through wills, trusts or other means.

If you want to receive information regarding such gifts, the Legal Department of the church is available to aid you in this regard without cost or obligation. Please write to Legal Office, Worldwide Church of God, Box 111, Pasadena, California, 91123.

BIG SANDY, Texas—More than 200 people gathered from at least 11 churches in a citywide Honor Our Heroes Service, Sunday, May 25.

The event, sponsored by the New Beginnings Christian Fellowship, the WCG congregation in Big Sandy, took place at the Big Sandy School Auditorium.

Churches throughout the city canceled their regular Sunday services to come together in unity to recognize community heroes and worship and fellowship together. The different churches helped with the various parts of the service.

“Romans 13:7 reminds us to ‘give honor to whom honor is due,’ ” said Pastor Sonny Parsons. “This was a time of recognizing those among us who are heroes to us every day.

“Patriotic Christian songs were played as Rick Peterson served as worship leader. ALERT Academy presented the colors. Ward Livingston, pastor of the First United Methodist church, welcomed everyone and defined heroes. Fred Adkins, pastor of Livingstones Praise and Worship Center, gave the opening prayer. Owen Chandler, student pastor at First Christian Church, did the offertory. Charles Penney from First Baptist Church read of biblical heroes.

Bill Hardwick, mayor pro tem, recognized city heroes including military veterans, fire, police and sheriff’s department personnel, ALERT Academy, emergency medical service workers, teachers, school and city employees, pastors, Sunday school workers, Meals on Wheels, day care and nursing home workers, mayors and city council members.

Ronnie Fail, pastor of Solid Rock Fellowship, introduced the sermon given by Mr. Parsons, who showed that Jesus Christ is our real hero. Linda Austin, pastor of Rock of Calvary, gave the closing prayer.

Rick and Lois Peterson were in charge of decorations, lighting and sound. American flags, red, white and blue lights, and a praise band with backup singers set the tone for the day. They were assisted by Al Hoppe and Dwayne Canup.

The Mission America Coalition (www.missionamerica.org), an evangelistic organization of which the WCG is a member, has suggested that congregations conduct “Honor Our Heroes” events.

New Beginnings Christian Fellowship presented the idea of having such a service on the Sunday before Memorial Day. The congregation hung door hangers advertising the event.

LONGVIEW, Texas—Greg AIbrecht was guest speaker at Longview Grace Christian Fellowship, March 16. The Lufkin church was invited to this service. After praise and worship, Pastor David Orban introduced the guest speaker, who spoke about PTM and gave away a few books and CDs. His sermon was “When Trouble