We are now looking forward to next year’s Feast and making plans for it more quickly than usual. There have been several fast moving developments that have led to our making some quick and easy decisions that have now been made about this coming Feast. It is evident that God and Christ are preparing us for an even much greater Feast next year. With the latest post that has just come out concerning this coming year being one of a “Year of Dedication,” we should indeed be able to see how next year will prove to be a most awesome Feast!
By Feast time, the Church will have become much, much stronger spiritually. The growth and blessings people will experience, coupled together with the incredible importance of the time we are currently entering, will all work together to make the 2015 Feast of Tabernacles the most important we have experienced since the remnant Church was formed. By Feast time, we will be at the pinnacle of the “Year of Dedication,” and will have witnessed the fruit that “this year” will have produced.
Consolidated Feast Sites
We are consolidating a lot of sites for this coming year. As a result, the Church will be helping some who are most affected by the need to travel a lot of extra distance in order to attend the site closest to them. However, not all will be able to receive such assistance. There also will be some who may receive assistance for travel, but it may not be the full amount of travel expenses that they will incur. This information is being sent out early so that you can begin making plans, which will include financial ones, so that you can start preparing now, seeking extra work you might be able to pick up, and/or to save extra in order to insure you can attend.
By consolidating sites, we also recognize that due to age and/or factors of health that hamper mobility that there will be more individuals who will not be able to attend this next year. However, God will bless those individuals with an extra measure of help and spiritual strength as they seek to glean all that they can from the messages of the Feast.
For any who will be traveling long distances, above all things, do not make early airline reservations unless you have the money in hand to do so, as such funds are not refundable if you have a change in plans or do not receive the full assistance you need for travel. We will have an early sign-up for the Feast. Hopefully the information on all sites will be out before the end of this year, and then you can begin to make lodging reservations right away.
Anyone who desires to attend an international site should feel comfortable and free to do so. This is being stated because sometimes in the past there has often been some reluctance to travel far from home because of uncertainty about when tribulation might begin that might prevent one from returning home. After the last post, it should be clear that any physical destruction from the sounding of the trumpets cannot begin until some point after the Year of Dedication is over.
Those who plan on traveling to the Gold Coast in Australia, lodging reservations need to be made as soon as possible since there are other activities taking place in that region that are already resulting in fast booking of available lodging. If you are going there you will need to contact Wayne Matthews right away to get what you need concerning the meeting location and lodging information.
It has been decided that there will be no Feast site in New Zealand this year. There will only be the one in Australia on the Gold Coast for everyone in that region of the world.
Another area being consolidated is in Europe, as there will only be a single site in the Netherlands and there will not be one in the United Kingdom.
The site in the Niagara Falls, Canada region will remain the same. Just as a side note to any in the States who might want to attend that site, please be advised that you must have passports in order to cross-over into Canada.
There will only be one site in the United States and that will be in the Cincinnati area. It will be at the same location as last year, except that by the time of the Feast, the entire hotel will have been renovated. There will be no site in Hawaii, or any other location in the U.S.
That makes only four Feast sites to choose from for this coming year, which includes the Gold Coast of Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, and the Cincinnati area. So you have some decisions that you will need to make concerning this next year, as we plan on having our sign-up for the Feast to be out by the end of the year, and we are requesting that everyone sign up as quickly as possible for planning purposes. Any who fail to sign up early and then have need for assistance to attend will not receive assistance. It is highly needful that everyone sign up early.
Ministerial Organization
On another matter, we want the Church to be aware that we are going to begin making quite a few changes in the structure of the ministry. There are several reason for this, but it is something that everyone needs to be aware of since we will be making this information known to the Church when the primary changes have taken place and as other changes are made throughout the following year. The Church needs to know who is serving in their region within the ministry, so we will be updating this information when it is time to do so.
The ministry is beginning to be streamlined and organized in a fashion that better prepares everyone for what lies ahead of us, including the Millennium. Some of those changes have already begun. One important change involves the preparation of the immediate structure of the Church once we enter the Millennium. Although it did not strike me at the time when it took place, the recent ordination of a third prophet in the Church was picked up by quite a few people as they realized this could mean that a woman, if not part of the 144,000, would be the physical head of the Church at the beginning of the Millennium, just as I am now, as an apostle, the physical head of the Church under Jesus Christ. It is wise to note here that God is preparing someone for that role and it will be someone well trained and molded for it.
Our focus 2008 and forward, as we began to have much growth in the ministry, was that of Pentecost 2012 being the time for Christ’s coming. This focus for the ministry also included the work that would need to be accomplished through an incredible increase in the requests for baptisms. That increase would be the result of more and more people repenting, the farther the world is thrust into end-time tribulation, as the return of Christ drew nearer.
Certainly, that time is still ahead. There will be much work for God’s people before Christ returns, and there will be much more after he returns. But much has happened since 2008, and the primary fact is that all in the ministry have grown older, and within this process, those who were older anyway have in many cases weakened physically and/or even become more incapacitated due to lessened mobility and sicknesses that often accompany the aging process.
So some individuals in the ministry are going to have the stress and potential demands (many which will be multiplied mightily once the tribulation begins) of the ministry removed from them by no longer requiring their service in the ministry. In some cases, a lesser level of service will be made, as in moving an elder to the role of an associate elder, or a sr. elder to an elder. It will be along the lines equivalent to employment that goes from full-time to part-time or even retirement due to age or health.
There will also be changes for others to a lesser role in the ministry that is the result of other ministerial issues such as the “actual need” in a particular region, which has changed. In some cases, things that will happen in the future and where they will occur have changed. Only God and Christ are knowledgeable of those conditions and will lead the government of God to make those changes, which are a matter of their direction and will, just as they were made when a person was ordained or raised in position of responsibility.
Then finally, there will be a few changes that will occur in the ministry because of correction that is being given, and the role of the ministry did not fit a person’s life. Some other changes will be the result of “personal needs” in a person’s life that are more important for an individual to deal with than with the issues of the ministry at this specific time.
There are yet other issues, needs, and inspired purposes for some changes that only God and Christ have in their knowledge and control, which are for the purpose of molding and fashioning the Church through various experiences, training, etcetera. When that is the case, only God and Christ alone can perform (work to accomplish) a creation of greater growth and transformation in the lives of individuals who are being prepared for different parts of the body, specific places within the temple, which require different circumstances to exist in their life to accomplish such a work.
The bottom line is that one does not have to be in the ministry, nor does one need to remain in the ministry in order to receive the kind of experiences, growth, learning, and transformation that God is creating in each person in order to be in a specific part of the Family of God. We are all different and are all being prepared for different places within the temple. Ours is not to question God, but to yield ourselves to the process and awesomeness of such a calling. Nor should anyone try to figure out why any such changes are being made, as these are from God and His Government alone and not open to judgment from anyone else, lest one find themselves guilty of judging God.
[The next post will begin the new series entitled, A Heightened Dedication.]
The Church of God - Preparing for the Kingdom of God