Warm greetings from Charlotte!
God's Work moved forward on all fronts during 2003. It was a year of steady growth and progress and we have much to be deeply thankful for. The income is starting out a bit sluggish in 2004, so please remember that in your prayers for God's Church and Work.
CHURCH ADMINISTRATION
Ministerial Transfers
Mr. Roderick C. Meredith has approved the following ministerial transfers and changes for 2004:
Mr. and Mrs. Paul Shumway are transferring to Florida to be the Area Pastor there and to oversee the Work in the Caribbean. Mr. and Mrs. Jonathan McNair are replacing the Shumways in the Northeastern area congregations. Mr. Rod Reynolds is being hired full-time and he and his wife will replace the McNairs in the Baton Rouge area congregations. Mr. Ben Faulkner is being retired after he and his wife have given many years of sacrifice and faithful service to God and His people. All of these ministerial changes are scheduled to take place May 1, 2004.
Other moves are: Mr. and Mrs. Phil Sena will transfer from Denver to Florida to assist Mr. Shumway. They will be moving August 1, 2004. Denver will then be served by Mr. and Mrs. Ben Whitfield, assisted by Dr. and Mrs. Scott Winnail.
Mr. Charles Ogwyn is being hired April 1, 2004 and he and his wife will move to Kansas City and enter the Pastoral Training Program there. Mr. Mike Ellertson is being hired, June 1, 2004 and he and his wife will enter the Pastoral Training Program at that time. They will move to Headquarters for three months training and then transfer to Toronto, Ont., Canada, to finish their training and, if all goes well, continue to serve there to fill a growing need in that area of the Work.
Congratulations to all of these dedicated servants of God! We will be asking God's blessings on them as they undertake all of these changes. We are deeply grateful for their attitude of cooperation and service.
Prayer Request from the Greer family
Lambert and Nancy Greer request your prayers for Nancy. On Tuesday, December 30, Nancy had outpatient surgery to remove a small abnormal growth in her breast. The results from pathology show that the growth was malignant. Further tests are scheduled to confirm that the cancer has not spread from the breast. Your prayers would be very much appreciated. We are very thankful for the family God has provided us in His Church.
Mr. Jonathan McNair sends this encouraging news:
This past Sabbath, I baptized a young man. It was an exciting day for the family, of course. He had come into contact with the Truth when his parents began attending some years ago. He had gone his own way, however, until about a year ago, when he called and asked if he could attend Bible Study. Things developed from there. The reason I mention this, though, is because it is indicative of a very positive trend that I've seen both here and in the Caribbean. More and more young people who have grown up in and/or around the Church are making a commitment. From here in Louisiana, I've baptized five young people in the past two years. They are all in their early twenties; all grew up in the Church, and all are serious about their commitment. There are two more who have wanted to talk about baptism, but I've encouraged them to take more time for study, since they are a bit on the young side.
In the Caribbean, it's the same story. There are a number of young people who have grown up in the Church who are now either baptized or counseling for baptism. Although we certainly reflect a national aging baby-boomer population in the Church, there are young people who are being called and responding. I know that's encouraging for their parents. With all the effort to woo young people into the Church in the 70s & 80s, perhaps the example of their parents holding fast to the Truth during the turbulent 90s made a greater impact at the end of the day.
MEDIA
Mr. Bill Bowmer writes:
New Online Audio Bible Study—The Book of Proverbs
The www.lcg.org/ Web site has begun a weekly Bible Study series on the book of Proverbs, by Mr. Charles Bryce. New installments, of approximately 20 minutes each, will be released each Tuesday. For those who prefer text, a transcript of each program is also available. The series is available online at URL: www.lcg.org/bstudy.htm
Church Web Sites Set Records In 2003!
The www.lcg.org/ and www.tomorrowsworld.org/ Web sites were very busy throughout 2003! Activity on the sites increased by 21 to 84 percent over 2002 levels, depending on which figures are compared.
The sites recorded 676,235 visitor sessions in 2003, up 21 percent from 2002. Just under 76 percent of those visitor sessions came from the United States. More than 1,912,000 page views were recorded during 2003—a 50 percent increase over 2002.
More than 1,086 gigabytes of data were downloaded—that's more than a terabyte—an increase of 84 percent over 2002! The largest portion consists of audio and video files of sermons and Tomorrow's World telecasts. RealMedia is still the dominant format on our sites, but Windows Media files—made available on our sites for the first time during 2003—accounted for approximately one-fifth of audio and video activity.
Mr. Meredith's "Will You Be Left Behind?" was the telecast most often downloaded from the online Telecast Library. His "Apostolic Christianity and the Way" was the most popular sermon in the online Sermon Library.
More than 107,000 PDF files—mostly booklets or issues of the Tomorrow's World magazine—were downloaded during 2003. "The Beast of Revelation" was the most popular booklet, downloaded 8,196 times in PDF format. Thousands more read the booklet online, in HTML format, and 7,152 ordered a printed copy of the Beast booklet via the online "Order FREE" form.
A total of 57,894 visitors came to the "Order FREE" pages of the sites, and during 2003 we received more than 30,000 online Literature Request Forms from those visitors. Of these, 28 percent reported that they had learned of our Web sites through the Tomorrow's World television program.
As of January 8, 2004, visitors in 181 countries are known to have come to the www.lcg.org/ or www.tomorrowsworld.org/ sites since 1999. Countries recorded for the first time in 2003 include: Andorra, Anguilla, Bahrain, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Eritrea, Gambia, Guadeloupe, Guinea-Bissau, Honduras, Kuwait, Lesotho, Libya, Malawi and Mongolia.
COMMENTS
The Passover and Days of Unleavened Bread are about three months away. We should make sure that halls are booked and supplies and materials are on hand or ordered, if need be, so that we are prepared when the spring Festival season arrives. Time rushes by so fast nowadays that we dare not neglect planning ahead for this most important time of the year in God's Church, or we could find ourselves "up the creek without a paddle!"
Have a pleasant and restful Sabbath day!
Charles E. Bryce