Weekly Update

July 18th, 2025

Greetings from Charlotte,

The Living Youth teen camp in Athens, Texas, is on the homestretch, with the last day planned for this Sunday. Mr. Weston reports that things have gone extremely well, including beautiful, cooler-than-expected weather. You can catch his on-site video update at https://members.lcg.org—click on “Learn More” beneath “Weekly Member Updates” to view the latest video. By the way, this year’s Feast of Tabernacles Behind the Work film is about Living Youth Programs: why we do what we do and the philosophy behind our camps. As Mr. Weston sometimes says, we don’t just “throw a basketball in the middle of a group of kids and say, ‘Go have fun.’” A lot of work and thought goes into every camp tradition and activity. Whether or not you have children going to camp, we think you will find this year’s film enlightening and encouraging. Please continue to pray for our teen camp and for all of the activities going on in God’s Work around the world.

—Rod McNair

Church Administration

Tomorrow’s World Presentations

Last week, we held two in-person presentations, in Quebec City, Canada; and Plymouth, England. We also held two online presentations from the Canadian office. All told, these presentations drew a total of 16 in-person guests and 423 online connections. This week, we will hold three initial presentations, in Blue Ridge, Georgia; Jacksonville, North Carolina; and St. Helier, Jersey, United Kingdom. We will also hold the third in a series of presentations in Roanoke, Virginia. Thank you all for your continued prayers and support for the Tomorrow’s World Presentations.

Feast of Tabernacles

New Bern, North Carolina, Closed to Further Transfers

The Feast site in New Bern, North Carolina, has reached capacity and is closed to further transfers.

Sermons for Those Unable to Attend the Feast in Person

Attention Pastors: Because some members, for legitimate reasons, are unable to attend the Feast of Tabernacles in person, the Church provides access to Feast sermons by various means.

Many Feast sites will offer livestream or telephone connections to those assigned to that site. This is the preferred option. Though not a substitute for being present at the site, these connections give access to live Feast services, including prayers and hymns.

Prerecorded Feast sermons will also be available for brethren who are unable to attend in person and for whom the livestream or telephone connections are not feasible. The prerecorded sermons will be published online—one per day—throughout the Feast:

Additionally, links to these prerecorded Festival sermons will be emailed to pastors in advance of the Feast. Before the Feast, you can forward that email to the members in your areas who are not attending in person.

We request that as many as are able access their assigned site’s Feast sermons by livestream or telephone or view the prerecorded sermons online. However, if there are brethren in your areas who cannot take advantage of these options and need to receive physical sermon disks through the mail, please send us their names and addresses before the following deadlines:

  • The deadline for international requests for prerecorded Festival sermon disks is August 16. For those in regions with slow postal service, please send in your requests as early as possible in order for the sermons to arrive before the Feast.
  • Requests for recipients in the U.S. must be received by August 30.
  • If possible, please do not wait until the deadline to send in your requests.

Festival (Second Tithe) Assistance Requests—U.S. Only

Attention U.S. Pastors: The deadline to submit Festival Assistance Request forms to the Church Administration Department is Friday, August 2. All forms should be properly completed by the members requesting second tithe assistance to attend the Feast this year. Then the Pastors should first review the application to ensure it is complete and then write their recommendations/comments on the forms before submitting them to CAD. The forms are available to ministers on the MyLCG website (www.cogl.org). —Festival Office

Living Youth Program

Living Youth Camp

The teen camp in Athens, Texas has been a buzz of activity! The weather has been mild—at least for summer in Texas—as 110 campers and 88 staff members have enjoyed spending almost two weeks together. Every morning begins with a Christian Living message focused on “The Wisdom of the Proverbs.” Each day continues with an array of activities, which include basketball, volleyball, disc golf, music class, canoeing, and more! For a glimpse into all the activity, just go to https://www.livingyouth.org/ and click on “Camp.” This year, we’re featuring a special interview with each of the activity leaders as they describe their activity!

Comments

What Motivates You? Many people are motivated by a desire for position, power, pleasure—or a paycheck. However, failure to achieve these goals can lead to frustration and problems—especially when individuals jostle for positions and seek to be noticed. This can happen in the workplace and even in our congregations. Jesus noted this tendency among the religious leaders of His day (Matthew 23:1–12), but He advised His disciples, “Whoever desires to become great among you, let him be your servant… the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve” (Matthew 20:25–28). Christians are advised to avoid self-seeking motives and focus on ways to serve others (1 Timothy 6:3–5; 1 Peter 5:1–4). Let’s strive to develop the attitudes of humility and service that Jesus exhibited so we can be instruments in His hands.

Have a profitable Sabbath,

Douglas S. Winnail

News and Prophecy

The Futility of War: Whether it’s the conflict in Gaza, the war in Ukraine, or recent actions against Iran, many are quick these days to cry “war crime”—though, generally, they only do so about actions taken by the side they personally find offensive. Frankly, the idea that only certain acts in war, with all of its murder and destruction, should be designated “crimes” is fundamentally odd. War is terribly destructive physically, mentally, and ecologically. In humanity’s attempt to “moralize” war, governments devise conventions and treaties banning what they believe to be the worst of war’s atrocities. For example, the 1949 Geneva Conventions represented an attempt to protect human rights during war through proper care and treatment of prisoners of war (such as by banning torture), the treatment of civilians in war zones, and the treatment of military personnel. Other treaties ban the use of landmines and chemical and nuclear weapons. Still others seek to define “legitimate” versus “immoral” targets. Yet these treaties are voluntarily agreed to by nations generally not at war. What is more, many nations opt out of these conventions or legalistically circumvent them when the constraints they impose are no longer advantageous.

But is war noble or futile? The Apostle James asked, “Where do wars and fights come from among you? Do they not come from your desires for pleasure that war in your members?” (James 4:1). The principle to which James pointed applies broadly: Wars are generally fought for selfish reasons. History demonstrates that mankind seems to take the old saying “All’s fair in love and war” to be a way of life, as nations show themselves willing to do whatever it takes to win. Only God makes war in righteousness (Revelation 19:11). Conventions aiming to govern morality in war are often discarded because human motivations in war too often are, or become in time, morally compromised at best or inherently immoral at worst. Thankfully, the Bible reveals that there is a time coming when there will finally be no more war—weapons of war will be converted into farm tools and humanity will no longer be schooled in war (Isaiah 2:2–4). War results when human beings choose to live contrary to God’s laws. After Jesus Christ finally returns, war itself will become an artifact of history! To learn more about this wonderful future, you can watch “Will War Ever End?”

Scientific Discovery and Creation’s Groan: A landmark study published by the Royal Netherlands Institute for Sea Research and Utrecht University reveals a startling reality: The North Atlantic Ocean contains some 27 million tons of nanoplastics—pollution so fine that it had long evaded detection. These tiny particles are smaller than the width of spider silk, yet according to this new estimate, their combined mass outweighs the entire collection of larger plastic fragments found throughout the whole Atlantic Ocean—and, perhaps, all the oceans of the world combined (NIOZ, July 9, 2025). According to Sophie ten Hietbrink, PhD student in Geochemistry at Stockholm University, it is “a shocking amount.” The vast amount of these invisible pollutants illustrates how human activities have impacted even the most untouched parts of creation.

Such research highlights the relevance of the Apostle Paul’s writings for us today. Paul wrote in Romans 8:22, “For we know that the whole creation groans and labors with birth pangs together until now.” This verse comes alive in the context of this recent study on nanoplastics. Though largely unseen, these pollutants permeate the waters of our planet. The ocean—often hailed as a symbol of life, renewal, and majesty—now endures the burden of microscopic human excess. The oceans groan under the weight of synthetic materials, reflecting the bondage Paul describes. However, we can look forward to the times of restoration (Acts 3:19–21), when the sea will again be a fitting picture of God’s pure word (Isaiah 11:9; Habakkuk 2:14). In many ways, the groaning of creation is not just an abstract concept. Rather, it is also a scientific and ecological fact—one with many spiritual lessons to teach. To learn more, you can watch “Let’s Fix the World!” —Scott Winnail, Richard Franz, and Francine Prater