Something worth thinking about...

By Joseph Tkach

Member donations
fund discretionary
assistance ministry

I want to thank our members for their generous and consistent giving as we continue our journey of transformation in the Worldwide Church of God. I also want to update you on certain aspects of our progress in that journey.

In the United States, we are taking initial steps into a new financial model that is designed to provide our congregations with greater flexibility in the use of member donations for local congregational ministries. The first step involved spending more than a year designing the new financial system. We then began receiving offerings in our weekly worship services—collecting donations locally and then processing them centrally.

The next step was to use our 2002 regional conferences to train pastors and church treasurers in the new financial system. We also used the conferences to give our leaders and members a clearer view of our collective mission to be a church motivated by God’s law of love (the great commandment) to make Jesus’ great commission our "everyday commission." Our new financial system is designed to support this mission with an emphasis on local mission-advancing ministries.

All of these steps are part of our preparation to move fully into our new financial system following the completion of the sale of our Pasadena property. Regarding that sale process, we’ll keep you updated through The Worldwide News as we proceed. Latest news is also available on our website.

In the meantime, our current financial system operates with collections received both locally in weekly offerings and centrally by mail and credit card donations. These offerings are then processed in Pasadena using central accounting, banking and disbursement.

Central disbursement includes payment from our Pasadena offices of most local church costs, including hall rental, payroll and benefits for employed pastors, honoraria for volunteer pastors, business expenses for pastoral service and liability insurance and legal services for congregations.

In addition to these local church costs, your donations fund various central ministries including the staff for the above accounting work, the training and supervision of our pastoral ministry (including the work of our district superintendents), our printed and web-based Christian educational materials (including The Worldwide News), some administrative costs for international ministries and the costs for maintaining our Pasadena property during the sale process.

I also want to acquaint you with another significant centralized ministry funded by your donations. We refer to this ministry as the discretionary assistance program. This program assists qualified retirement-aged former employees of the Worldwide Church of God who meet certain ecclesiastical criteria as determined by the board of directors using its spiritual judgment in light of the tenets of our faith. We are currently helping to support about 240 such former employees at a total cost of about $350,000 each month. This cost is distributed proportionally among our 450 U.S. congregations based on each congregation’s financial resources.

The discretionary assistance program is a vital ministry of the church. Most recipients of the program have put their life’s energy into the work of the church and need our financial support for the twilight years of their lives.

In the past, the Worldwide Church of God in the United States and elsewhere made no provision for the retirement of its employees. This was a decision made by others before the current administration and was inherited by us.

In addition, because of our former doctrinal positions, many U.S. employees were exempted from the Social Security system. Some have criticized ministers who opted out of Social Security, but this opinion overlooks two facts.

First, in the early years, the church itself was not subject to Social Security (although secular employers were) and thus did not pay Social Security on any employees, ordained or not.

Second, when an employee or minister did not pay Social Security, the church also did not pay into Social Security on behalf of the lay employee (under the law the employer pays one half the tax), nor help offset the burden on ministers (who must pay both of halves of their Social Security bill, unlike lay employees who pay one half and the employer pays one half). Thus, when an employee or minister did not pay Social Security, the church also saved money and the saved money went into our mission.

As a result, many former employees now have no pension, Social Security or Medicare to fall back on.

The results of these unfortunate policies in our past are now being remedied. We are making plans to enroll U.S. church employees in a retirement plan funded by proceeds from the sale of the Pasadena property. When that sale occurs, current beneficiaries of the discretionary assistance program will be transferred to the retirement plan, and the need for the discretionary assistance program will cease.

In the meantime, the assistance program is providing a vital ministry to real people with real needs. Recipients of your generosity include men and women whom we have known and loved for decades. They include Dean Blackwell, Jim and Marge Friddle, Bill and Lois Quillen, Richard and Virginia Rice, Herman and Isabell Hoeh, Frank and Esther Schnee, Norman and Charlene Smith, Ken Swisher and many others.

I want to thank you for your support of this ministry, and the folks receiving the assistance also want to thank you—as some of them do in the sidebars to this article.

Please continue to pray for the completion of the sale of the Pasadena property and for God to guide us as we continue to take positive steps in the transition into our new financial system. Thanks again for your generosity and consistency in giving—a wonderful work is being accomplished in and through our church, even as we wrestle with some of the obstacles that stand before us.

Comments on the
discretionary assistance ministry

Randy Bloom, superintendent of the U.S. Central district, comments: "As I travel the Central district, I have been taking extra time to hold town hall meetings with members as well as meetings with advisory councils. I take time to explain how members’ donations help with the important need that discretionary assistance meets. Discretionary assistance has to do with people—men, women, widows, who served many years in our church. These people have faces—and real needs. They are without any income other than that which we give them, which is not much.

"Many members are moved when they hear about the 240 plus former employees and wives or widows receiving discretionary assistance. Many members have not been aware of the critical needs of these people. Oftentimes our discussions revolve around the Pasadena property and how it is keeping us from doing what we want with our donation income. But I point out that member donations serve a far greater purpose than the upkeep of property.

"Our members are to be thanked for their great patience and generosity as they continue to support our church with their prayers, service and donations. This is a time of testing and it is stretching us all. God is with us and wonderful things are happening all the time in our fellowship. And it is a result of our wonderful members yielding themselves to their Lord."

 

Comments from recipients

LONGVIEW, Texas—Having worked for the Worldwide Church of God for 50 years, moving 24 times, we did not pay Social Security, so I don’t receive Social Security or Medicare.

I had seven quarters on file with Social Security when my late wife, Maxine, and I returned to Texas when I was 68. I have a part-time job at Dillards department store in Longview, mainly so I can have a tithe to help the church.

Thank God for the support of the church through discretionary assistance for us old-timers.

At present I teach a discipleship class weekly in the Longview church, give a Bible study in Big Sandy each month to 20 to 25 senior citizens, preach regularly in Longview, Tyler and Texarkana, Texas, attend regional conferences in Dallas, and serve on the WCG board of directors, the Advisory Council of Elders, and a few other boards of the church.

Jim and Marjorie attended and were employed by Ambassador College from 1953 to 1955, and then pastored 19 congregations throughout their years in the ministry and conducted numerous Bible studies in areas that later became churches. Jim retired in 1995 at the age of 71, after serving the WCG for 40 years.

In 1998 they moved to Concord, North Carolina, near Charlotte, to be near their daughter, Becky, a widow, and their youngest son, Philip, and his family. Their other two sons, Stephen and Nathan, still live in California.

Jim gives sermons and discipleship classes from time to time. He is unable to work because of two hip replacements and two radical surgeries, one to remove his cancerous left kidney.

Marge has had breast cancer and a left knee replacement. She also has a 34-year-long, 24-hour-a-day, headache from undetermined reasons. She also gets migraines once a week.

"Some days are pretty good, others not good, and some just awful," Marge said. "I would love so much to be delivered from this huge burden, which has had such a huge impact on my life. I would love to live life without pain, but God hasn’t chosen to deliver me from this."

They thank God for having access to Medicare and the supplemental medical insurance provided by the church. Otherwise cancer would have taken their lives.

The Friddles have a small income, less than $500 a month, from Social Security. Jim had paid into Social Security before attending Ambassador College, but he lacked four quarters to qualify for receiving Social Security when he reached 65. After retirement he worked in a secular job for a year in order to qualify.

Thankfully, the WCG has given discretionary assistance to pastors and other retirees who have given their lives in service to the church. Jim and Marge are grateful to the members of the WCG for such love and generosity to give this assistance to its retirees.

FRISCO, Texas—Lois and I came in contact with the church through The World Tomorrow program in 1955, which led to our baptism in 1956. I was ordained an elder in 1963, and was hired full-time in 1967.

We served the church in the following areas: Des Moines, Iowa (our two daughters, Beth and Barb, graduated from East High), the Los Angeles area, Montana, Nevada, Arizona, and the last assignment in Victoria, Texas.

Shortly after retirement in 1997, we moved to Frisco to be close to our daughter, Barb Egbert, her husband, Jeb, and our three grandchildren. This made it possible to help them in some of the tasks relating to the Summer Educational Program.

Along with the discretionary assistance from the church, I have some Social Security benefits from previous employment, thus I have time to assist with various church duties. Occasionally I give a sermon or take care of other needs as they arise.

In retirement, we have no problem finding something to do and some place to serve, whether the church, the family, the neighborhood or the city. It has been a great relationship with the church over these many years and we hope to be in a position to serve as long as our health permits.

According to their daughter, Barb: "I have nothing but admiration and respect for my parents as individuals, as parents and as a pastor and wife. I continue to be amazed at how they find opportunities to continue serving their church family and certainly appreciated their involvement at the SEP camp the past several years.

"My parents continue to play a viable role in the Dallas congregations, specifically Dallas North, as well as continue their personal ministry to hundreds of our church family who have crossed their paths for over 40 years."

BATON ROUGE, Louisiana—Having been associated with the church since 1947 and an employee for more than 40 years, I have had a close connection to the Worldwide Church of God for three fourths of my life.

Thirty-eight years have been joyfully devoted to the ministry. Never in my wildest dreams did I expect to retire from the active part I so enjoyed in the church. But several health conditions began to surface, including degenerating vertebrae disks, which forced me to drastically slow down activities.

In 1972, I was asked to become manager of the Mail Processing Center, where I worked for 25 years. I have also been blessed to serve on the church board of directors and council of elders.

When the crisis in the church loomed in 1994 because of the doctrinal changes, I was asked to move into the Church Administration Department, where I assisted Joseph Tkach Jr. It was during this time that several recurring health problems began to take their toll. When Dan Rogers became the head of Church Administration, I sought his counsel along with other top administrators, to determine if retirement was the expedient path to take. The outcome of their counsel is now history. In the summer of 1996, Virginia and I moved to Baton Rouge, where we now live.

We cannot thank the church enough for its kindness in putting us on discretionary assistance. Most of us in the early ministry never signed up for Social Security. This was thought unnecessary and even discouraged. No retirement program was set up to care for our future needs, as the church believed the end time was near.

As my heart still beats for the church, I give sermons when able, conduct Bible studies, attend prayer meetings, give contributions and do computer work to help our son, Anthony, who pastors three churches here in southern Louisiana. But the wheels grind slowly.

Speaking for all retired ministers, wives and fellow employees who’ve laid down their lives in God’s service, we humbly and gratefully want to thank the members for standing by our side.

Copyright © Worldwide Church of God, 2003