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Build Your Work!

By M. John Allen

For years, in the churches of God, we have had a corporate mentality.  We have “left it all to Headquarters.”  IN the corporate churches, HQ prints the magazines, feeds the sheep, and coordinates the media effort.  But many of us today find ourselves in an independent group, often times a small home church.  We feel frustrated that we can’t seem to “do the work” because we lack the tools.  The truth is we can’t do it all on our own.  But there is a new way we can do the work “hands on” and still maintain our identity.  Here’s how!

Many of us, after the initial exhilaration of our new found independence form the corporate church and its many problems, have lately begun to experience a feeling of helplessness before two daunting tasks.  We know that we must somehow increase the size of our congregations, and we also know that this can only be done through an effective effort to preach the Gospel to the world.  If we do not follow Christ’s instructions to preach the Gospel, we experience stagnation, and face eventual death as an entity.  Yet, we find affiliation with one of the corporate entities to be so distasteful, that we just can’t bring ourselves to go that route.

Some organizations have made a great start at empowering the local church.  Perhaps chief among these is Christian Educational Ministries, which has a tremendous radio work under way through local sponsorship.  it has been a huge success, but there needs to be more, yet somehow, we seem confused as to which way to turn.

I am presently living in a country that has grave infrastructure problems.  The roads are filled with potholes.  It can take a year just to get a phone line, and in some areas it is not possible!  The airport has just been downgraded to a Class II status because of much deferred maintenance and other problems.  The infrastructure of this country, Costa Rica, is in grave need of repair, yet it is not as bad as someplace like Nigeria or Guyana, where rolling blackouts are common place and tap water is undrinkable even when it is running. 

In fact, Costa Rica is one of the only countries in Latin America where you CAN safely drink the tap water in most areas.  Recognizing this problem, the government here is finally taking steps to correct the problems, but it will take time, as any centralized effort does.

Centralization used to be the way to go.  In the 19th Century economies of scale meant that the bigger and more centralized your organization or government, the more money you could save per unit, and the more you could do.  It was all the rage 100 years ago and was so successful that most people still think this way even as we are about to enter a new century and millennium.  But things just aren't that way anymore.

Innovations like the PC have made it possible to have on your desk top more computing power today than you could have in a computer filling a garage as recently as the ‘70’s, and this trend is continuing.  When you combine this with growing international telecommunications and other factors, the economies of scale are disappearing.

The factors that made for the creation of giant, centralized, corporations and governments in the last century are finally giving way to the new paradigm of empowerment of the individual at the end of this century.  If you want the full picture, you should pick up the book, The Sovereign Individual, which explains all of these factors in great detail. 

The same thing that is starting to take place in the world around us is more advanced in God’s church than anywhere else.  This is because we had an extremely concentrated situation similar to the old Soviet Empire, and it is falling apart like that outdated old empire too.  Those that are trying to put it back together again are failing in a big way, too, each time they try to put the system back together again.  They just don’t understand yet that the old ways simply won’t work in the new century.  But they will.

Now that I have briefly explained the dynamics of the problem, we are left with coming up with a solution.  Even if one doesn’t have a big central government or corporation running the show, the fact is that if you don’t have some basic infrastructure, you are n big trouble. 

If a nation doesn’t have roads, ports, railways, colleges, schools, telecommunications, banking, and all of the other services that underpin our daily lives, it will soon fall apart.  Likewise, if a church doesn’t have a way to get its word out to the public, it can’t get new members.  If it doesn’t have a way to train a new generation of ministers, it is doomed to eventual extinction as the shepherds die of old age.  These are just facts of life, and I think most people realize this.  The only problem is, the solutions seem to not be there.

What we have witnessed in the past few years with the demise and decay of the corporate churches, which like big government maintained our church infrastructure for us, has been the decimation and decay of what we need for our own survival. 

One dirty little fact that no one for some reason seems to want to address is the fact that the average age of the remaining ministry is 56 years and counting.  IN the world of normal work, all of these guys would be either retiring or about to retire in 9 short years.  We know that ministers in the church usually stay at it for life, so that gives us some breathing room, but not much as these old men become incapacitated or start dying off very soon.  IN other words, we are faced with the prospect of our children not having any ministry left when they grow up, which, like the water in the faucets in our kitchens, we have taken for granted all of these years.

This is a problem Mr. Armstrong faced years ago, and so he went out on a limb and started Ambassador College with four students and eight faculty members.  Everyone thought he was doomed to failure, but it worked out.  Despite all the criticisms leveled against Ambassador over the years, it did work out.

Another problem we face is that many of us in our small groups don’t have a systematic follow-up method to get out the Gospel and to keep our unique message in front of people and on their minds. 

I know one man who had a local radio broadcast for several years, but he didn’t have any literature to send people, so even though many people were interested, there was no system in place to bring people into a deeper understanding of the truth of God. 

Let’s face it.  Most of us don’t have the resources to print and distribute the regular publication that must go to interested people every month or the basic booklets or Correspondence Course to give people a deeper understanding.  And while the internet may be great, it is not yet mature enough to stand totally in the place of print, radio, and television to bring in the new people that we must have to survive. 

I have thought for some time about the solutions to these problems.  I thought that my Restoration website could take the place of the traditional ways, but, sadly, it still can’t.  While the old methods are fading fast, the new methods are not yet mature enough to reach the average Joe whom God has traditionally targeted with His Truth. 

Pieces already exist here and there from independent service centers such as Christian Educational Ministries.  They and a few others, such as the IBLC, are doing a good job at what they do. Things have started to move off of square one.  But there is still a gap -- a BREACH if you will -- that needs to be filled and filled fast!

We are making a start at part of the solution to fill in some of those holes, and as time goes on and God willing we plan to do more.  Here is what we are introducing now and in the near future:

1.  To help you preach the Gospel more effectively to those who become interested in your outreach efforts t the world, we are introducing a follow-up piece called The Real Truth Newsletter.  No matter whether you are sponsoring a local station for a radio broadcast, are holding evangelistic campaigns, etc., we are designing this newsletter to be a custom made follow up vehicle for those in your area who are interested in what you have to teach them.  It will have basic articles of interest and news to help people keep up on current events. 

What we offer that is different form all the others, though, is the ability to private label this publication with your local contact information.  Since we are publishing this for general consumption, we will stay away form some of the picky little doctrinal issues that have divided many of us.  So what you will have is a custom made newsletter written as if it came directly from you rather than some big corporation.  And it will come from you, because we will send you a camera ready master copy with your local contact information already printed on it, so that all you have to do is have it printed up, affix your mailing labels and postage [unless you have us imprint your postal permit number], and send it off to your mailing list!  Everything will be directed to you and your church so that you can deal with the people in your area.

2.  Each month you will also receive The Restoration Times newsletter, which, unlike its online cousin, will be filled with articles and ideas on local evangelism, church administration, and development of leaders in your local church.  We plan to have sermon ideas and other items of interest to help YOU build your own infrastructure and take advantage of the ideas and impute of others around the world. 

3.  In the very near future, we plan to introduce our Christian Leadership Course, which will help you to develop leaders in the local congregation to assist in serving the brethren and provide additional trained people to help spread the Gospel and serve the local church.  Some elements of this course will resemble the old Spokesman’s Clubs, but it  will be a lot more thorough and directed.  We will have training manuals and even taped lectures to assist you in building local leaders for the next generation.

4.  Very soon, we will help you with inexpensive custom website creation so that, even if you know nothing about computers, you can almost instantly have your very own custom website that has tons and tons of resources for those people interested in what your group is doing.

Our programs will be offered in segments, so that, like a smorgasbord, you can pick and choose the proper mix for your local efforts.  there are absolutely no strings attached!  You will not be coerced into joining some big corporate body, you will not have to worry about us trying to “steal” prospective members from you, you will not have to worry about us attempting to control, coerce, supplant, or compete with you in any way!  We are here to serve you, and in so doing, serve the commission that Christ has given us to preach the Gospel.  By helping YOU to more effectively and efficiently structure YOUR efforts, we are doing what God tells US to do, which is to go into all the world as a witness and preach the Gospel!

Interested?  Great!  To get started, simply send us the coupon below, checking off those items you are interested in.  We will then send you samples of what we are doing, and then you can decide whether you want to proceed.  there is no cost or obligation on your part!  Or, you can email your request to the email address below, and browse our extensive website while you are at it!

But, what if you are just an isolated individual, and you have no local group for hundreds of miles around, but would like to start one and begin doing something in your area?  Don’t fear, we are developing a Church Builder package which will work even for individuals!

And you can use our package without fear of later having someone else pull the rug out from under you, as happened with one man who put together a video group in his city for one of the corporate churches who at first SAID that they believed in local autonomy, but what ACTUALLY HAPPNED was that down the road the person who founded the local group came into conflict with an HQ that wanted to control everything contrary to past promises, and this individual found himself kicked out of the local group he himself founded by the corporate “big wigs.”  Don’t fear, that won’t happen with us.  we do not condone such unchristian practices!

So, find out more today by contacting us in any of the ways mentioned below, and let’s start to work together to fulfill both commissions:  Preach the Gospel and Feeding the Sheep!