By Thomas C. Hanson
Regional pastors and their wives met in Pasadena May 6 to 10 for their quarterly conference.
The conference began with an all-day event, Monday, May 6, in Riverside, California, about 90 minutes from church headquarters. There, the regional pastors heard Robert Webber, a professor of theology at Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois, talk about blending contemporary and traditional worship styles.
On Tuesday, Earl Grant, a professor in the school of theology at Azusa Pacific University, spoke about how the pastors can move from a dependency model to an interdependent model of being a pastor.
Pastor General Joseph Tkach spoke Wednesday, followed by comments by J. Michael Feazell, director of Church Administration.
Thursday morning the regional pastors heard from the evangelism team, made up of Craig Bacheller, John Comino and Don Mears.
That afternoon they heard Ted Johnston and Grant Spong speak about house churches.
The conference ended Friday with presentations by the spiritual gifts team: Mark Cardona, Mr. Comino, Mr. Mears, Fran Ricchi and Dan Rogers.
Mr. Tkach said that our identity is in Christ and that we need to proclaim the name of Christ and teach that our identity is in him.
He recommended two books about our identity: Victory Over the Darkness, by Neil Anderson, and Christ-Esteem, by Don Mazat.
He also recommended two tapes by Hank Hanegraaff of the Christian Research Institute titled Christianity in Crisis, in which Mr. Hanegraaff uses audio recordings of ministers' own words to expose their heresies.
Mr. Tkach said we need to emphasize church health over church growth. Unfortunately over the years, he said, we have emphasized numbers.
In our congregations we have two sets of people, he said. One group is made up of those whose experience in the Worldwide Church of God has been "nothing short of wonderful." Another group has had more negative experiences.
We also have a knowledge gap, he said. "We have some people who are so delighted about their freedom in Christ that they feel it is wrong to worship on Saturday or on the annual festivals. That is just as legalistic as saying we must worship on those days for salvation.
"And some say they've been observing these days all their lives and they want to continue."
When we emphasize the core issues and pray together the gap will close and real growth will occur, he said.
"The driving passion that has kept me going the past few years is God's sovereignty over eternity. God already knows the end from the beginning. He knew when Mr. Armstrong started his ministry that he was teaching some things correctly and that he was teaching some things that were in error. He knows that of everyone in his service.
"What demonstrates his sovereignty over eternity is that although we wandered for 50 or 60 years having some truth and some error, God corrected it all."
"I feel a part of God's history in all of that. George Mather, a Lutheran scholar, told me, `I'm jealous of your Christian journey, because it is nearly identical to the first century Christians,' " who lived under the old covenant and were converted to Christ.
In a discussion session, Ken Williams, pastor of the Rochester, New York church, said: "We're rejoicing in our opportunity to fellowship with brethren in other denominations. How can we protect the integrity of our own denomination while experiencing this freedom?"
Mr. Tkach replied: The Worldwide Church of God "has its place in the body. We're not looking for people to abandon the ship. We're looking for people who are willing to covenant with us to do the work that God has given us to do to edify the body."
Don Mears, pastor of the Big Sandy church, said: "We've gone from a situation where some were convinced that we were flawless and all other denominations were flawed. Now some see our flaws and easily come to feel that everyone else must be flawless. Of course, that is far from the truth. There simply isn't a perfect congregation anywhere."
"The way to encourage people to stay in the Worldwide Church of God," Mr. Feazell said, "is to provide for them a dynamic, interesting worship service that is feeding them spiritually, and provide them training and preparation to be meaningfully involved in the work of the body of Christ. We want to make our fellowship worth being in."
REGIONAL PASTORS CONFERENCE--Regional pastors talk with Ralph Orr, managing editor of Reviews You Can Use, a journal for ministers, at conference May 8. From left: Fran Ricchi; Mr. Orr; (cameraman Gary Ras, background); Rand Holm; Garvin Greene; and Ken Williams. [Photo by Thomas C. Hanson]
May 21, 1996, Worldwide News, page 14
| WCG Home | Issues | Contents |
Copyright © Worldwide Church of God,1996