Reflecting on Seven Years of United Church of God
A time to look back and give thanks
by Don Hooser
The United Church of God, an International Association, has just passed its seven-year anniversary! We can pour out our thanks to God for His blessings of protection and progress!
United began with virtually nothing physical except people, but they were enthusiastic people with a rich spiritual legacy to which they were dedicated to carry on. Now, after seven years, it feels good to pause and survey what God has done through those and many other people God has added. A good foundation has been laid, and we are enjoying much visible growth and spiritual growth. And we have peace.
A Conference of Elders in Indianapolis, Indiana, from Sunday, April 30, through Tuesday, May 2, 1995, inaugurated United Church of God. All interested elders and wives were invited to come--at their own expense--and over 300 managed to attend. May has become an increasingly special time in United. The anniversary of the Church (as a whole) is Pentecost, which occurs in May or early June. Now that United’s annual meeting of the General Conference of Elders is scheduled for early May, it seems also to be an anniversary celebration.
And this 2002 gathering in Cincinnati of elders and other personnel and spouses on May 4-6 was the best yet, marked by added maturity, joy, peace, and considerable unity. How welcome is this condition at the seven-year anniversary! And to top it off, the timing coincided with the dedication of a new and beautiful home office building! The excitement of that was very much like a couple moving into their first home after having lived in rented apartments during the first years of marriage.
This was also the climax of a very peaceful and respectful transition for the offices of president of UCG and chairman of the COE. Even the weather added to the pleasant atmosphere. Cincinnati had considerable rain before that weekend, and it rained on Tuesday, the day after its conclusion, but the weather was sunny and mild for the dedication and on through Monday. The Milford area of Cincinnati is always beautiful in the late spring, and it seemed extra lush and green this year.
A look back at United’s history
It is good to preserve and learn from history. In some ways it is good to look back and reflect--to learn from mistakes and to give credit for the miracles along the way. But we don’t want to spend too much time dwelling on past headaches and heartaches, especially those that led to the need for another church organization. But the memories of the spiritual downward spiral suffered by those who were in United’s parent organization until 1995 have helped us from the very start not to take United Church of God for granted. And for those who were not involved with United at its start, a little knowledge of that time will help them to understand the trauma and its effect on us.
United’s formative meeting in May, 1995, was an emotional time. For months, the elders and members who still sincerely sang, “Oh, How love I Thy law”(rather than “loved,” past tense), had been going through the various stages of grieving, such as after losing a close family member or being the victim of a robbery. Typically they had been experiencing shock, confusion, anger, depression, and deep sorrow. Just as desertion and divorce are often worse than a death, likewise we had experienced what seemed to be the worst possible tragedy. We had been faithfully committed to a church, but the church had deserted us.
The church had represented our whole way of life. Our calling was our life. We largely felt like Jesus expressed, “My food is to do the will of Him who sent Me, and to finish His work” (John 4:34). But then we wondered, what now?
We had experienced a giant churchquake. And for a long time we had been experiencing many aftershocks as we saw who was accepting the “new stuff” being taught by the church and who wasn’t. Of course, the “new stuff” wasn’t really new since “the carnal mind (has never been) subject to the law of God” (Romans 8:7), and virtually all the arguments against the validity and value of God’s commandments have been around for centuries if not millenniums.
To many, the startling doctrinal changes had credibility because top leaders of the church endorsed them. To most it seemed unimaginable that God would allow the top leaders of His Church to fall away—to apostacize! We expected major end-time trials, but naively assumed they would come from outside rather than inside the church.
Only God knows all the factors that led many to accept to one extent or the other the false interpretations of the Bible that were being praised and pushed. The list would include a lack of spiritual understanding, a lack of familiarity with doctrinal proofs, trust and belief in the leaders, the temptation of a seemingly easier way, the influences of family and friends, and a desire to fit in with one’s environment.
Another factor led to many members staying in Worldwide Church of God. Many members had come to equate the church organization with the Church organism, the body of Christ. One result was to assume that what the church organization taught was what the Head of the Church, Jesus Christ, was teaching. Another result was the conclusion of some that they should never leave the church organization, even when they knew that organization no longer taught God’s truth.
So while some members felt convicted or compelled to stay in that organization, many knew they had no other choice but to withdraw. This resulted in an incredible splitting up of relationships! Those we considered brothers and sisters in Christ were going different directions! Dear friends, extended family members, core family members, even some spouses were split apart! And that apostasy has led to more and more splitting up of relationships and organizations.
Even though many have tried to maintain old relationships, it is difficult when people no longer have the greatest possible bond, that of spiritual like-mindedness. They no longer go to Sabbath and Holy Day services together, and religion becomes a touchy subject. Jesus said, “I did not come to bring peace but a sword” (Matthew 10:34). We are familiar with how family divisions occur when one starts obeying God’s laws. The new experience was seeing how divisions occur when some cease to obey God’s laws.
We speculated as to why some members obviously understood and stuck by God’s truth and others did not. But we tried to not be self-righteous or condemning. We mainly thanked God that somehow we had come through Satan’s awful and awesome deception without becoming victims.
In addition to what the faithful members were experiencing, the like-minded ministers and wives were further dismayed and distressed. Ministers had received a double calling—to be disciples of Christ and also ministers for Christ. They felt the urgent burden of trying to steer members in the right direction without getting immediately fired and cut off from any opportunity to influence the members. And generally those who were employed by the church had loved spending all their time serving God’s people, and now anticipated they would have to spend much of their time employed at doing something else. Most did not hesitate though to stand up for the truth, and either resigned or got fired.
It was after these experiences and emotional sorrows that elders and wives gathered at Indianapolis in May of 95. But it was such a relief to have hope--hope that we could rebuild what had been destroyed, hope that we could join together as a team effort and church family, hope that God’s work of preaching the true gospel would be restored. The gathering was a giant support group of people who had been suffering the same miseries. It was like Israel starting out of Egypt with a high hand!
After all the frustration and grieving, there was abundant joy because of the fellowship of like-minded people and the anticipation of forming a new church organization in which we could preserve, preach, and practice the teachings of the Bible. We had never anticipated starting a new church. But our church did a U-turn when we wanted to go straight ahead. We wanted to preserve all that was good from our church culture, but this was also a window of opportunity to correct past mistakes and weaknesses—to start over from scratch and to do our best to get everything right. There was a pioneering spirit, but more importantly, God’s Spirit was there.
That doesn’t mean all was perfect. With human nature, there were bound to be some negative feelings, such as doubt and suspicion, such as abandoned children tend to have. But it was mostly a time of sincerely good intentions and high hopes.
And our unique situation was conducive to humor. Never had there been a gathering of so many unemployed ministers! It was interesting that we were meeting in Indianapolis in May, the month of the Indianapolis 500, which, incidentally, is the oldest automobile race in the United States and the largest one-day sporting event in the USA. Here we were, representing only a fraction of what had been a small church organization to begin with, facing a very long “race track,” but we had big ideas. So although we had about 300 in attendance, we referred to this conference as “The Indy 250.”
It seemed amazing that no church organization had incorporated with the name “United Church of God.” That name seemed ideal! And we learned that The Good News was not a copyrighted name and, amazingly, no large group was any longer publishing a magazine with that name. And we realized that we were blessed with many capable and dedicated ministers and other leaders. It seemed God was greatly blessing us right from the start. And God has added so many wonderful members and ministers and wives since that time!
God blessed United from the start with spiritually mature statements of intention. The “Attitude and Conduct During Transition” list included We will welcome to Sabbath Services all who sincerely desire to visit and peacefully worship with us, and We will not criticize, judge, or condemn any individual or group publicly or privately. We didn’t want to try to judge or explain or compete with what God was doing or not doing in other groups. We just knew we had a job to do and wanted to get on with it. We didn’t look at ourselves as heroes or even “profitable servants”(Luke 17:10). We just wanted to keep on doing our duty--what God had called us to do—to preach the gospel and take care of God’s people.
One of the best examples to the world has been the efforts and humility of United Church of God, Church of God a Christian Fellowship, and Remnant Church of God in listening to and learning from each other, and then joining together to more effectively do the work of God.
Working toward unity
At Indianapolis, we thought we were unified from the start, but before long it became clear that we were not all on the same page. Somewhat later, Bob Dick articulated an explanation for our naivete. Being unified only in what a group is against is much weaker than a group being unified in what it is for. We all started out against apostasy, but that wasn’t enough. Over time, sadly, some have left United, but the remainder have sought God’s guidance, collaborated, and worked hard to agree on goals and how to work toward those goals. We now are much more unified.
Back to the Indy 250. Many of the elders and wives arrived a day or more early and were there for the special church service on April 29. In one of the split sermons, Bob Dick made an analogy that largely explained and amplified the feelings of many of us.
He said what we had experienced was like being deserted by one’s mother, with all the devastating trauma that results from that. The Church (organism) is always there as our mother, and the church (organization) is supposed to be the face of that mother that we see and feel and interact with on the human level. Bob reminded us that our Father had never left us and never would. He too was grieved at the desertion, but knew that tests of our faith such as this were necessary. The sermon was emotionally reassuring as it portrayed the upcoming conference as an optimistic effort to reestablish an organization that would faithfully submit to the Father, represent Him, and lovingly pass along His teachings to all of us.
We’ve been going through a transition of adjustment, a little like children adjusting to a new parent. The people I really feel sorry for are all those who, because of real and perceived abuses, are suspicious and unaccepting of any church organization. The attitude can be likened to a previously abused child who has vowed he will never submit to any parental authority. That seriously weakens our collective potential for doing a powerful work, and I wonder what Father will say to them when He comes home?
Having been deserted once, the elders and members helped to fashion this organization to insure that it will not be too easy to make major doctrinal or administrative changes. Progress in UCG seemed slow the first few years, and to some, it seemed way too slow. But we should be happy that we pursued a careful, methodical, and meticulous approach in establishing policies and procedures so as to avoid mistakes, injustices, and poor results in the long run. And the slow approach was wise in light of the previous loss of trust and respect toward ministers and churches.
Now United is largely past the foundation-laying. The superstructure is being built. We are enjoying seeing more visible fruits of our labors. We want to strive to live up to our name. We want this work to increasingly to be international. And in pleasing God and doing His work, we want to be united.
We believe we have much work to do. God is probably propping up the economies of the world (especially the United States), holding back terrorism and other disasters, and maintaining open doors of communication so the gospel can go forth in power.
After seven years of United Church of God, we have much for which to thank God and our Lord Jesus Christ!
MQ, Summer 2002