CEO of the Century, Jack Welch’s main regret is that he did incremental change instead of radical-sweeping change. He said: „Strike boldly if you believe something, if you wait and build step by step, the resistance will built as well.“

I believe our movement is changing too slow and we can learn from Jack Welch’s approach. Jack Welch successfully transformed General Electric Company, which is of a similar size (404,000 in 1981) as our UC community.

What was a single most important thing, that Jack Welch implemented, which is, in my oppinion, crucial for our Unification Church community? It is cultural values or what Jack Welch termed as GE’s social architecture.

First element of the GE’s social architecture is dialogue. The wide-open dialogue on any subject from anybody. And that came from Work-Out.

Second, is maximazing individual and collective intelect. And that came from boudary-less behavior.

Third peace of social architecture is about trust and responsibility. Everyone knows that making a numbers is a ticket to the game, but we have a values card, that talks about trust, responsibility, individual dignity and people, all about people. And you get promotted on your values. You get in the game on your numbers, but you get promotted on your values.

Jack Welch, 2001

To join Unification Church you need to have certain values. But later all goes of hand: people get promoted based on their seniority and nationality. Surely, those who joined during early days in Korea sacrificed a lot and were persecuted. So, we have them as leaders. Supposedly, our social architecture should be built on family structure, but, if we look closely, it’s lacking dialogue, as a consequence, we can not share our knowledge and experience, and leaders, even when they loose the values and don’t deliver the numbers, are being kept in their positions, because of their seniority and nationality.

Still, because of incredible effort of True Father, our movement is a fastest growing religion during the lifetime of the founder. But can we, as UC members, claim that victory? We better not speak up, because it’s True Father’s victory, not ours.

False reports and bureaucracy became the norm of UC in Korea and the world. The easy money coming from Japan (blood, sweat and tears of Japanese members) became the target of corruption of Korean leaders. So, we have countless providential organizations with paid staff on it, all based in Korea, and, at the same time there are empty local church buildings, because there is nobody, who is willing to be a pastor with no financial support.

It isn’t surprising that since 1980’s our membership is not growing. Why is it happened and how to make a change?

I’ll come back to it, but for now I want to focus on GE’s transformation, because then we can talk using the GE’s two-decade transformation and Jack Welch as a model for UC community’s change.

What is so incredible about Jack Welch and his leadership? Why should we learn from him?

He was divorced two times, living with his third wife at this moment. He is certainly not qualified to teach us. Maybe not, maybe yes. I would like to explain a little bit about it.

He and his wife Carolyn had 4 kids, when kids grow up and youngest son went to college, Jack and Carolyn find out that they have no common interests. Jack likes to play golf and watch his favorite baseball team “Red Socks” playing during his leisure time. And, of course, his only love is GE company, where he spends most of his time.

His second wife is lawyer, a 17-years younger than Jack, she was a 10 years project of Jack Welch. They relationships were some kind of contract, where they traded. He went to opera with her, she did golfing with him. It worked for a while, but ended.

Third wife Suzy has it all, mother of four kids, smart and witty, she was an editor of Harvard Business Review, when they met each other. Now, they are very prominent and ambitious couple, ready to reach the stars. Jack Welch and his wife write books together and separately, participates in conferences around the world together and individually. They both discuss all great ideas that fascinates them in share time and it is most filling for both of them to see each other helping to fulfill the other’s dreams come true. That is where they find true happiness. They both do so many things for the public purpose and both a capable with it.

So, what was the strategic changes that shaped GE to be named the best company of the world?

1. #1 or #2: Fix, Sell, or Close (from 1981) – he got rid of low-profit business. He was nicknamed “Neutron Jack” because in his fight against bureaucracy he removed four hierarchical levels of management and all businesses reported directly to him. Number of employees at GE declined from 404,000 in 1980 to 330,000 by 1984. That was first stage – hardware effort.
2. “A company can boost productivity by restructuring, removing bureaucracy and downsizing, but it cannot sustain high productivity without cultural change”- Jack’s priorities changed by mid-1988.
   1. The initiative called “Work-Out” – a practice to create the culture of a small company, where all felt engaged and everyone had a voice. “Work-Out” was patterned after the open-forum style of New England town meetings, where groups of 40 to 100 employees shared their ideas openly for 2-3 days. On the last day unit boss was invited and had to resolve 80% of proposals at the spot, and deal with the rest on agreed-upon decision date.
   2. The second initiative called “Best Practices” – where GE learned from the best companies and introduced new thinking throughout the organization by implementing a major new training program.
   3. Going global initiative – from 1987 every business has to be #1 or #2 on world market position (before only USA). Global revenues were growing three times the rate of domestic sales.
   4. Developing leaders initiative – in big company like GE employees perceived their work as lifetime employment. This produced a paternal, feudal, fuzzy kind of loyalty. With this loyalty people tend to focus inwardly. As a role model, Welch spent at least 70% of his time on people issues, most of that teaching and developing others and created the environment in which people could do their best. As a result four types of leaders were defined:
      1. The first is one who delivers on commitments – financial and otherwise – and shares the values of the company. His future is easy – onward and upward.
      2. The second type of leader is one who does not meet commitments and does not share values. Fired.
      3. The third is one who misses commitments, but shares the values. He or she usually get a second chance in different environment.
      4. The fourth type – the most difficult to deal with – that leader delivers on commitments, but doesn’t share the values. This is the individual who typically forces performance out of people rather than inspires it: the autocrat, the big shot, the tyrant. Too often all of us have looked the other way and tolerated these “Type 4” managers because “they always deliver” – at least in the short term.
3. Into the 1990s: The Third Wave
   1. Boundary-less behavior – GE became a “learning organization” and self-centered people, who didn’t share ideas, weren’t searching and learning were removed from organization. The award and bonus options were changed to include the criteria of boundary-less behavior.
   2. Achieving the Impossible initiative – Jack introduced “stretch” goals, described as “using dreams to set business targets, with no real idea of how to get there”. That became a bigger driver for GE than “Work-Out. Important: people must not be punished for dreaming big, even if they don’t achieve their goals.
   3. Service Businesses initiative – GE depended on its traditional industrial products, but Jack wished that 80% of profits would come from services. He pushed for products with added-value services. The opportunity to grow services for a customer was unlimited.
   4. Six Sigma Quality initiative – focus on quality on production. It was well developed program with detailed plan for its implementation. Jack Welch was relentless in acting on it. The massive training started of thousands of managers to create a cadre of “Green Belts”, “Black Belts”, and “Master Black Belts” in Six Sigma Quality.
   5. “A Players” with “Four E’s” initiative – before his retirement Jack Welch seemed to focus on the quality of the organization more than anything. He wanted GE to be a company of only “A Players” – individuals with vision, leadership, energy, and courage. What were the qualities of “A Player”, called “Four E’s” surrounded with Passion:
      1. Energy – “exited by ideas and attracted to turbulence because of the opportunity it brings”;
      2. Energize – ability to energize others (“infecting everyone with their enthusiasm for an idea and having everyone dreaming the same big dreams”);
      3. Edge – “the ability to make tough calls”, decision making (yes or no);
      4. Execution – “the consistent ability to turn vision into results”.
      5. Passion – a heartfelt, deep, and authentic excitement about work. Those people are usually exited about everything and really care.
   6. Last initiative: e-business – Jack Welch described the impact of Internet as “the biggest change I have ever seen”. The challenge of GE company going on-line was left to Jack’s successor.

Who is the center of change in UC community at present? When Jack Welch explained his twenty years in the company, he said that he went from operational and systematic changes to cultural changes. I think we have Kook Jin Nim, who is an expert in a Structure changes and we have Hyung Jin Nim, who is center of Culture changes. Jack Welch started from local changes and built organization in America before he went global. In the same manner, Kook Jin Nim and Heung Jin Nim focused on Korea, moving to Japan, and to USA, where In Jin Nim is working and is united with True Father.

There are three pillars of our movement: the Unification Church, the Family Federation and Universal Peace Federation (Abel UN). The recently appointed president of all these organizations is one person, youngest son of True Parents, Heung Jin Nim. Why he is the one, why not somebody else? Heung Jin Nim reports to True Father and is working in accordance with Father’s directions. I think until True Children stepped up and took charge of the movement, True Father was surrounded by Korean leaders, who gave True Father false reports and each of them tried to get a bigger peace of the pie. Each Korean leader was surrounded by his supporters and worked to make his faction within organization a dominant one. Basically, True Father was rapt in lies and false assumptions of those leaders and real change and action was not in place, the bureaucracy grew. Leaders chose what to follow and what not to follow and they were choosing a more comfortable direction. Basically, they started to interpret True Father to worldwide movement according to their whims and desires. For example, after True Father appointed UPF leaders chosen by lottery, Korean leaders changed it and appointed only Koreans as leaders based on seniority. And there are many more examples to it.

True Father is considered not applicable to modern society by Korean leadership (even membership) and his directions and words have been edited to fit (fit what? – simply leader’s thinking cannot contain True Father). When I proposed that all Father’s videos (Peace TV has loads) and words should be published on Internet, one Korean sister came and sincerely asked: “Isn’t it dangerous, because Christians will pick up True Father’s words out of context and will attack us based on it?” I answered, that we have to fight and defend True Father by giving a correct explanations. The status quo, when things are kept the way they are is working against us. We should create controversy. There were a lot of controversy around Jack Welch as well – “from pig to prince and back to pig” says Welch about media coverage about him during one year period.

As Unification Church community became more and more institutionalized, leaders don’t want any more controversy and they resist True Father. After first 21-years course (1960-1981), when True Parents accomplished their responsibility, next 21-years course (1982-2003) should be walked by Blessed Families instead of True Parents. And third 21-years course (2004-2025) does belong to second generation. True Father announced Home Church (1978) as the path of every Blessed Family, later he spoke about Tribal Messiah (1988) and Tong ban giokpa, finally National Messiah (1996) and National Kings (2006), but all these levels are inclusive, in other words, we have to built the later one on the foundation of previous level. Since the Providence has certain time limit, Father has to move on, by conditionally claiming victory and paying indemnity for us. There are no Blessed Families (as far as I know, only Jose Ellias de Almeida (Brasil) accomplished Home Church mission by restoring 500 homes), who were successful in Home Church (360 homes), it means there are no substantial Tribal Messiahs or National Messiahs as well.

Korea (Adam nation) has responsibility to become Cheon Il Guk nation by uniting North and South Korea centered on True Parents. Japan (Eve Nation) has responsibility to provide funds for God’s Providence. USA (elder son nation) has to create Parents UN using its international and multicultural nature based on Christian foundation and using its present world dominance. I believe that Heung Jin Nim is focused on unity of Korea, Kook Jin Nim on Japan and In Jin Nim on USA. But I would like to see Hyun Jin Nim going worldwide and doing radical-sweeping changes in the rest of the world, because he was the first one, who started to do it with Settlement Age workshops. Since there is no unity in True Family, our movement has been changing too slow.

I see Hyun Jin Nim as most fitting for “hardware” changes around the world. If not, the other nations (except Korea, Japan and USA) has to wait a decade, until Heung Jin Nim and Kook Jin Nim will reach us. I do believe we need more radical approach in Unification Church leaders evaluation, something Kook Jin Nim did with Tongil Group in Korea, by kicking out corrupt and unproductive leaders from their positions. I think by looking closely we can find young CBFs, who can replace old and tired leaders. As far, as 1982, True Father said that we need “member-centered” not “leader-centered” movement led by love not law. In my understanding, it means every CBF stands on the start line, it doesn’t matter nationality, seniority or position. What is the finish line, where we all as CBFs should arrive? It’s Home Church, it’s our final destination, where all indemnity ends. I think all CBFs should be evaluated according to their success in Home Church and only after fulfilling it, they can be qualified to lead any Providential organization.

I want to mention one important change which Jack Welch did in GE. He met another CEO, who said he was a mentee. This CEO chose brightest guy in his company, young, under thirty years old employee, who couched him in e-business, the very fast-changing economy. Jack Welch was so inspired by that idea, that in 48 hours all CEOs of GE businesses had somebody couching them and all organization was turned upside down.

Now, I will go through all strategical changes Jack Welch did and comment on them in relationship to our UC reality and front line application:

1. #1 or #2: Fix, Sell, or Close: I see application as distribution of our resources (people, money and time) to the organizations which are successful. And if organizations can’t be fixed, they have to be put on hold, until right leaders are found.
2. “A company can boost productivity by restructuring, removing bureaucracy and downsizing, but it cannot sustain high productivity without cultural change” – it’s true for our movement as well.
   1. “Work-Out” – a practice to create the culture of a small company, where all felt engaged and everyone had a voice. We need it very much, with our leaders listening to members and making changes.
   2. “Best Practices” – we need to find best and learn from them. I would suggest as a start to visit Home Church of Jose Ellias de Almeida in Brasil and learn from him. Make his case known to all UC community.
   3. Globalization – even we say that we a global organization, but in reality each tries to be “a big fish in small pond”. We have to compare ourselves with world level religions and learn from them. Especially it is applicable to Oriental and Western members learning from each other. I think Korean UC community is still like a hermit kingdom. They don’t know about other nations and cultures.
   4. Developing leaders – people are the most precious asset UC has. UC members few years in the church become tired, lifelong commitment produces a paternal, feudal, fuzzy kind of loyalty. After starting a family, members focus inwardly, putting family in front and leaving the rest of the world behind. Our leaders don’t put necessary effort to develop CBFs. I think leadership of UC is the place, where this problem starts. Jack Welch defined four types of leaders:
      1. The first is one who delivers on commitments – financial and otherwise – and shares the values of the company. Do we reward such leaders? Are they celebrated? Anybody heard of Jose Ellias de Almeida being praised?
      2. The second type of leader is one who does not meet commitments and does not share values. We keep them, when they supposed to be fired a long time ago.
      3. The third is one who misses commitments, but shares the values. Leaders are under pressure to deliver reports, and values are not priority criteria evaluating performance.
      4. The fourth type – the autocrat, the big shot, the tyrant. We have plenty of those, and members are leaving our church deeply hurt. “Kick down and kiss up” is their policy, so, HQ don’t touch them. 360 degrees evaluation of members should be introduced to remove them. Culture first, not structure.
3. Perfection stage
   1. Boundary-less behavior – organization can become learning institution only if we share and have dialogue. Self-centered people, feudal type of leadership has to step down.
   2. Achieving the Impossible – do we dream big, stretch and challenge? I think we are over stretched and over challenged and we are being pushed, but most of UC members lost inspiration.
   3. Service Businesses – UC doesn’t produce products, but only services. We educate. But we don’t adopt our services to our customer. In many cases we stay irrelevant to modern society. We lack marketing and public relations Simply put, we don’t know how to advertise.
   4. Six Sigma Quality – Kook Jin Nim challenges Tongil Group leaders to adopt Six Sigma. It is not easy and takes a lot of precision and discipline organizing processes. By writing my thesis on Home Church I would like to make it into a simple guide book with practical suggestions for management and strategy.
   5. “A Players” with “Four E’s” – does our Korean leaders surround themselves with “A Players”? I think they feel much safer with “B” or “C” players, because they are lower than them. It is hard to be surrounded with people better than you are. Our leaders think they must control, instead of inspire, they think they must manage instead of lead and couch.
   6. E-business – our e-business is to spread good news using Internet. As soon as Internet discussion group starts, many negative members or ex-members join and all discussion goes into complaining and criticizing to such a degree, that it has to be closed. Why do we, UC membership, loose our battles on Internet even we have such a great truth and great Parents? Because our reality sucks. We need dialogue with leaders, who take our proposals seriously. All or most of those negative facts are true, it means we need drastic and radical change ASAP. All the negative facts should be reviewed and solutions and answers provided from UC leadership. I heard that our PR department doesn’t speak English (Peace TV too!). How can we expect to win on Internet, if we don’t take it seriously?

Our members do “know”, but do not practice. As Jack Welch likes to say: “we have to walk the talk”. We have to take a hands-on approach in Home Church. We have to expose ourselves bravely as UC members to all our friends, neighbors and colleges. And, we have to, if necessary to “put fire under the leaders” in order to reach dialogue. As True Father says:

“I would visit either the most controversial home church or the most successful home church, the one where you have won over every home and are welcome in every house. The book of Revelation clearly states how I feel: don’t be lukewarm; be either hot or cold. Cold means controversy and hot signifies complete welcome. Don’t be greedy and want your home church be hot from the beginning; start out cold and make your home church hot.”

Jack Welch is the one CEO, who raised so much controversy and havoc in the beginning, but later made GE so hot, it became the “Most admired company in the world” (by “Financial Times”) and Jack Welch “Manager of the Century” (by “Fortune” magazine). I want us to create controversy around UC and make it hot when everyone welcomes it in the end.

I want to start controversy proposing that Home Church is the key to UC success.

Aistis Vaicekauskas

During the last hundred years of the 20^th century we have seen unprecedented growth of technical development in the field of communication. If we think about the time of Jesus, the Roman Empire was the most advanced place in the world. God prepared an external foundation to spread Jesus’ teachings through the common Greek language and the extensive road system, which linked every part of vast Roman Empire to the heart of Rome, where Jesus was supposed to speak and convince the senate of the Republic. It is the same situation today, with the advent of the Lord of the Second Coming, God has prepared an external environment of advanced communication in order to spread the Messiah’s teachings.

What are those means to educate humanity to become God’s children?

PART I

Definition and qualities of broadcasting

Broadcasting forms a very large segment of mass media.

Broadcasting is the distribution of audio and/or video signals which transmit programs to an audience. The audience may be the general public or a relatively large sub-audience, such as children or young adults.

The original term “broadcast” referred to the literal action of ’sowing of seeds’ on farms, by scattering them over a wide field.[1] It was first adopted by early radio engineers from the Midwestern United States to refer to the analogous dissemination of radio signals. Broadcasting to a very narrow range of audience is called narrowcasting.“

From Wikipedia

Historically, there have been several different types of electronic broadcasting mediums:

• Telephone broadcasting (1881–1932): the earliest form of electronic broadcasting (if Ticker-tapes,counting data services offered by stock telegraph companies from 1867, are excluded from the definition). Telephone broadcasting began with the advent of Théâtrophone (“Theatre Phone”) systems, which were telephone-based distribution systems allowing subscribers to listen to live opera and theatre performances over telephone lines. It was created by French inventor Clément Ader in 1881. Telephone broadcasting also grew to include telephone newspaper services for news and entertainment programming which were introduced in the 1890s, primarily located in large European cities. These telephone-based subscription services were the first examples of electrical/electronic broadcasting and offered a wide variety of programming .
• Radio broadcasting (experimentally from 1906, commercially from 1920): radio broadcasting is an audio (sound) broadcasting service. It broadcast through the air as radio waves from a transmitter to an antenna and, finally to a receiving device. Stations can be linked in radio networks to broadcast common programming, either in syndication or simulcast or both.
• Television broadcasting (experimentally from 1925, commercially from the 1930s): this video-programming medium was long-awaited by the general public and rapidly rose to compete with its older radio-broadcasting sibling.
• Cable radio (also called “cable FM”, from 1928) and cable television (from 1932): both via coaxial cable, serving principally as transmission mediums for programming produced at either radio or television stations, with limited production of cable-dedicated programming.
• Satellite television (from circa 1974) and satellite radio (from circa 1990): meant for direct-to-home broadcast programming (as opposed to studio network uplinks and downlinks), provides a mix of traditional radio and/or television broadcast programming with satellite-dedicated programming.
• Webcasting of video/television (from circa 1993) and audio/radio (from circa 1994) streams: offers a mix of traditional radio and television station broadcast programming with internet-dedicated webcast programming.

From Wikipedia

Economically there are a few ways in which stations are able to broadcast continually. Each differs in the method by which stations are funded:

• in-kind donations of time and skills by volunteers (common with community broadcasters).
• direct government payments or operation of public broadcasters.
• indirect government payments, such as radio and television licenses.
• grants from foundations or business entities.
• selling advertising or sponsorships
• public subscription or membership

Broadcasters may rely on a combination of these business models. For example, National Public Radio, a non-commercial network within the U.S., receives grants from the Corporation for Public Broadcasting (which, in turn, receives funding from the U.S. government), by public membership and by selling “extended credits” to corporations.

From Wikipedia

Web-casting is the best choice

I think the future is in webcasting. Essentially, webcasting is “broadcasting” over the Internet. We know the Internet is something that is everywhere, it is global and free. The growth of webcast traffic has roughly doubled, year after year, since 1995.

When I think about future strategy of Peace TV, I think that webcasting is the only way for it to go.

Webcasting is a part of broadcasting and broadcasting is a part of mass media.

What are the relationships between media and religion?

True Father on the role of media

True Father defined the goal of World Media Association as an organization which was founded to advance the cause of world peace by championing freedom and moral responsibility in the press. It has to bring freedom of media to autocratic nations and educate media about moral responsibility it holds in free democratic nations. Recently, August 24-26, 2004 during 20^th Anniversary of Washington Times newspaper, True Father established goals more pertinent to the times: in the 80’s the goal of media was to fight communism (for freedom), in the 90’s it became promotion of family values and in the 21^st century’s first decade it must be focused on educating people about spiritual world and strengthening their faith in God.

Father said: “You may have made great efforts on the Earth to accumulate money, knowledge or power, but these will not guarantee your happiness in the spirit world.”

Everybody knows the Google Company. It has 134 millions visitors daily. If you check the word “Google” it has more than 1,5 billion clicks. The Google Company has the primary mission “to organize the world’s information”.

True Father’s words:

“The world is overflowing with information. The development of digital communications technologies has produced a sea of information. In the past, it was difficult to get news from out of the way sources. But now there has been a revolutionary change and people can be overwhelmed with the amount of news from all around the world. It the midst of this quantity, there needs to be responsibility for the quality of people’s lives. While the media can provide all the facts, they also have the responsibility to provide values to prevent confusion and to provide leadership and direction, especially today when the entire world is flooded with news and information. The Washington Times and its affiliated media properties are taking a leading role in this regard.”

PART II

First I want to discuss the history, models and formats of religious broadcasting based on the doctoral dissertation of Dominic Emmanuel “Challenges of Christian Communication and Broadcasting.

Religious broadcasting is a special kind of broadcasting along with sports, classical music, drama, news and current affairs and so on. In the 1930’s a Christian-fundamentalist movement emerged in America. Through radio they could reach larger audiences. In America each major denomination started radio broadcasting before 1940, and moved into TV after it’s widespread introduction in 1950’s. Cable offered increased market possibilities.

In 1974, Harold Ellens, in his “Models of Religious Broadcasting” has identified four types or models of religious broadcasting based on analysis of North America.

1. “Pulpit model” – sermon type program, the preacher is the program.

2. “Mighty Acts of God model” – it was a spectacle with show elements, and preaching was an important part of it (famous “prophets” Billy Graham, Rex Humbard and Oral Roberts).

3. “Instructional model” – Christian power to teach the truth (lectures, documentaries, dramas).

4. “Leaven model” – less than 1 minute long religious messages inserted into TV programs, a kind of Socratic approach, which startle people’s minds and causes them to ask questions.

Religious broadcasting eventually moved from a monolog approach with heavy emphasis on preaching, manipulation and conversion (pulpit and the Mighty works of God models) to a model using dialogical principles of communication (instructional and leaven models) in relationship to audience. According to the author, the future of religious broadcasting is in dialogue with an audience.

First, because people are so busy, and their attention spans are really short, they can only focus on small amounts of information at any given time. Only about a 20 minutes long interactive dialogue can retain their attention, but no longer. Second, the gospel (the truth) will be in high demand in the future, because people will feel more and more alienated, less focused, more mobile and more preoccupied with today’s external affairs then before.

20 years later, 1994, Robert A. White has come up with different models of religious broadcasting:

1. Religious broadcasting as a part of the public sphere (public service, where religion is seen from the perspective of culture, non Christian religions are welcome).

2. Religious broadcasting of revivalist evangelical movements (televangelism – opposite to public, focused on conversion and changing the audience) .

3. Religious broadcasting controlled by, and serving the needs of, an institutional church (for a members of particular church, quality and professionalism is usually the problem, it can only work if it is based on dialogue).

4. Religious broadcasting as “alternative” media and protagonist of social change (opposition to other models, poor people and grassroots community speak up and criticize the powerful, a revolutionary model).

Eliens, in the 1974, noted only one model, “leaven model”, as being clearly dialogical, and of “instructional” model moving towards it. But, in 1994, White found 3 out of four model as being dialogical and only one was based on conversion, propaganda and manipulation.

Social broadcasting, to which religious broadcasting belongs, is perceived as clearly dialogical, participatory, communicative and interactive. The earlier models of propaganda, manipulation and monologue are left behind as dominant models of the first half of last century. This is based on a BBC research study completed in N. America and Great. Britain.

The proselytizing model is a popular form in religious broadcasting, but it leaves no space for a dialogue. The modern listener doesn’t want to be spoken down to and manipulated, he wants to be acknowledged and respected.

Dialogical communication plays a central role in being and becoming a society. More than that, our technical advantages brought humanity to a point where either we learn how to communicate or won’t survive at all. Broadcasting ministry should focus on inter-religious dialogue. A good example is the cold war between two superpowers; they could solve their animosity through communication and dialogue. Ecumenical dialogue is the next step. So, what is the purpose of communication and where it should lead? It’s goal is to create “one family under God”.

We need a common culture and values to unite us. This can be achieved through dialogue, communication and building of ideal community.

PART III

Second, I want to derive a strategic orientation of Peace TV from a case found in The Harvard Business Review journal about the Google company.

Let’s see what we can learn from Google (HBR, April 2008, p.59-68), the most successful Internet-based company on Earth (compared only to Microsoft). To be sure, some of Google’s attributes – two are it’s category-killing search engine and a massive, scalable IT infrastructure – would be very hard and very costly to emulate. But others – technology explicitly architecture for innovation coupled with a well-considered organizational and cultural strategy – can be applied diligently and successfully by businesses across many industries.

Google’s mission “to organize the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful” is so broad, but Google takes it seriously. The company’s managers are strategically patient. Somebody has estimated that it will take 300 years to achieve the mission of organizing the world’s information. It shows Google’s long-term approach to building value and capability. Google can afford its broad mission and collection of innovations simply because its search-based advertising is fantastically profitable and can offset the loss of the non-profitable ones. Executives believe that over time the business model and the money will take care of themselves. “Ubiquity first, revenues later…” says company’s CEO.

Google’s Innovation Ecosystem

Who Should Use Google as a Role Model?

If your company aims to improve innovation capacity, consider emulating these key attributes that have contributed to Google’s success.

PART IV

Strategic Orientation of the Peace TV

Scale and innovation is what Peace TV lacks. It could definitely use Google’s strategy and take over the virtual Internet world. Of course, Peace TV is only a part of broadcasting ministry, but it is a crucial part. It is so important because as soon as True Father speaks, even if it is that day, Peace TV publishes Father’s speech (usually HDH) contents on the Internet. This speed is incredible and it is the strongest asset Peace TV has, it owns copyright of True Father’s words and publicizes it quickly!

But this is applicable only to the Korean website. The English website, however, does not share this same virtue. The most recent post was Father’s Hoon Dok Hwe material from more than one and a half years ago. Not only has it not been adequately updated, Peace TV also lacks staff members who speak English. I don’t know about Japanese site, but there is only one translator and that is clearly not enough to satisfy the appetite of Unification Church of Japan, which only in last month witnessed 3,500 new members and is planning to raise 40 thousands new members over the next year.

When I started researching Peace TV a couple of months ago, I couldn’t find it. The all knowing Google couldn’t find it! Then when I finally obtained address, I couldn’t open it! I tried to do it with the Mozilla Firefox Internet browser, but it just didn’t work. Then, I experimented by using Internet Explorer and I was finally able to open it, but it took me a week to figure it out. I had to ask people, who actually used Peace TV in the seminary.

From this, my natural conclusion was that Peace TV is not user friendly and doesn’t care about the potential (English speaking) costumer.

I decided to delve into this problem a little deeper and asked my friend, Yaroslavl Shatkevich, a former president of Open Source Association (a very fervent Linux promoter in Lithuania) to find out what was the problem.

These are the answer I received on Sunday, November 8, 2009 (about English site):

Safe Browsing/Diagnostic page for

ipeacetv.com

Q.: What is the current listing status for ipeacetv.com?

A: Site is listed as suspicious – visiting this web site may harm your computer.

Part of this site was listed for suspicious activity 5 time(s) over the past 90 days.

Q.: What happened when Google visited this site?

A: Of the 357 pages we tested on the site over the past 90 days, 3 page(s) resulted in malicious software being downloaded and installed without user consent. The last time Google visited this site was on 2009-11-06, and the last time suspicious content was found on this site was on 2009-10-15.

Malicious software includes 2 Trojan(s).

Malicious software is hosted on 5 domain(s), including 3e0.ru/, t-age.ru/, llfe.ru/.

This site was hosted on 1 network(s) including AS3786 (ERX).

Q.: Has this site acted as an intermediary resulting in further distribution of malware?

A: Over the past 90 days, ipeacetv.com did not appear to function as an intermediary for the infection of any sites.

Q.: Has this site hosted malware?

A: No, this site has not hosted malicious software over the past 90 days.

Q.: How did this happen?

A: In some cases, third parties can add malicious code to legitimate sites, which would cause us to show the warning message.

Professional’s conclusions:

The website’s administrator has to take care of it and fix it. Peace TV can not be accessed by people, who use Mozilla Firefox – about 45% of Internet users! Everybody, who will search using Google’s search engine will get the same message, that site is infected with virus and most likely they will not open it (even UC members).

“It is very unprofessional not to take any action!”

Yaroslavl Shatkevich

Next, he checked how website is working. He couldn’t open the Peace TV using Mozilla Firefox, even when he ignored all the warnings. He uses MacOSX (“Apple” company) and Linux (Open Source) operational systems, but neither could open the website. He said, that people like him can’t use the site. Do you know how many people in the world use MacOSX and Linux?

According to professional’s opinion the are very few visitors of the site, maybe only 50-100 people a day.

General conclusion – there is no scale, no innovation and no professionalism.

I have been using Peace TV Korean site for the past two months in Korea and (even if there were a few days, when I couldn’t open it) it worked pretty well. My wife used it in Lithuania (of course with Internet Explorer only!) and she was most happy, even to see True Parents and listen to them in Korean.

The only site that works is Korean site. I could give it an average evaluation from the customer’s point of view. Is it is worth the subscriber’s fee? I think more yes, than no.

Main qualifications of Peace TV:

• In regards to electronic broadcasting mediums – Peace TV uses webcasting (television station broadcast programming with Internet-dedicated webcast programming).
• In regards to the method by which stations are funded – public subscription or membership.
• In regards to typology of Harold Ellens, in his “Models of Religious Broadcasting” Peace TV uses two types or models of religious broadcasting – a “Pulpit model” and “Instructional model” (lectures, documentaries, weekly reports), but there is no give and take with the audience (not in English site). It still utilizes the old monologue approach, there is no dialogue.
• In regards to the typology of Robert A. White, Peace TV embodies 3^rd model of religious broadcasting – religious broadcasting controlled by, and serving the needs of, an institutional church (for a members of particular church, quality and professionalism is usually the problem, it can only work if it is based on dialogue). Quality and professionalism are the problem, and there is no dialogue (English site) as well. According to the author, without dialogue this type of broadcasting is destined to failure.

The previous information is a technical evaluation.

SOLUTIONS:

From a technical point of view, I think Peace TV (PYONGIL, Inc., CEO: Kim, Seog Byung) should continue with the Korean site, but give the English site to the UC of USA and give Japanese site to the UC of Japan. USA and Japan should get raw material of True Father’s videos (other videos too) and do the websites on their own. Peace TV could sell it as a license (official or legal permission to do or own a specified thing) or franchise (authorization granted to someone to sell or distribute a company’s goods or services in a certain area) and complete a contract with them.

Another evaluation from my perspective as a UC member:

How can somebody have a copyright over my Parents words?! Shouldn’t it be free for children to hear True Parents speak? I think Peace TV is monopolizing True Parents words. It should share them freely and unconditionally.

It means doing as Heung Jin Nim does on his website (http://hyungjinmoon.iunificationist.org/), where you can find and download free videos, audios, texts of his sermons and sermon translations in 18 languages. Only problem – there is no possibility to comment.

You can comment in a separate site in iUnificationist Cyber Congregation (http://iunificationist.net/) on Facebook. Rev. Toffey, the assistant pastor of Heung Jin Nim, is an editor of this forum.

Peace TV has no texts only videos. Since it is essential for our life of faith to understand True Father, we need every tool possible. I am not a native Korean speaker and True Father with age tends to swallow words and speaks unclearly and quietly even for Koreans. It would definitely be a huge advantage having subtitles on Father’s videos and complete texts of his words. It would take two professionals, one as the video operator and another as a typist. There is also a necessity for a qualified webmaster in order to put the content (video and text, audio too) on the Internet.

It would be strategically important to prepare high-quality translators, who are familiar with True Father’s terminology in Korean. The Cheongshim Graduate School of Theology and True Parents Language Institute is an ideal starting point for this search.

Another problem is that the staff of Peace TV are all professionals, but they are not theologians. There should be a UC publications department overlooking and choosing the material, which can be posted online. Not because True Father has to hide something, but sometimes True Father speaks to a specific person and not related to anybody else. The audience needs to get True Father’s words which are relevant and dedicated to the whole. Including instructions or comments given to individuals may cause misunderstandings and confusion.

SUGGESTIONS:

1. Make materials a free resource.
2. Materials should include video and text to accompany it (typist). Audio is also preferable.
3. A Department of translators needs to be implemented.
4. A Department of publications needs to be created.

5. A forum, where an explanation of True Father’s words is offered by a close disciple (best by Rev. Chung Hwan Kwak, Rev. Bo Hi Park or Rev. Won Pil Kim or Rev. Heung Jin Nim).

I know, that Peace TV is run by PYONGIL, Inc. (CEO: Kim, Seog Byung) and it works to make money. Can you make money by spreading True Father’s words in short term? NO.

Historically, every king had a chronicler, usually an educated monk who wrote letters for the king and recorded his history as well. Shouldn’t True Parents, king of kings, have the same? It requires at least 3 people, a video-operator, a typist and a webmaster. If there are no people willing to do it for free, we should mobilize 2^nd generation University graduates for an Internship program. There will be plenty of volunteers for such high-tech and providential mission. I am sure.

If I were single, not married and 10 years younger I would gladly do it myself. Peace TV could provide a lot of skill-training and professional development.

Breakthrough in the long-term vision for the UC broadcasting ministry found in True Father’s speech (May 21^st, 2002):

“The newest member of our media family is one of the oldest privately held news services in the world. United Press International, with almost a hundred years of continuous operation, provides news all throughout the world. UPI will soon unveil a major technology breakthrough. It will have the ability through an aggregated database to collect stories from all our media properties and sort them and distribute them based on content and topic to subscribers around the world.”

I think the center of this database should be innovative, futuristic, professional Peace TV simply because it holds the most recent True Father’s words in its videos. I suggest to build a Broadcasting Ecosystem (internal, based on God’s truth), which uses the Google’s platform (external, science and IT) and grow with it. Then Google’s consumers, content providers, advertisers and innovators will be educated and will become a part of True Parents vision to build God’s Kingdom.

Search engine and sharing should be the main mission of this site. It should limit and center it’s search on True Parents, Central Blessed Families, Providential Organizations and other religions.

Vision „One Network under God“ fits perfectly.

Core values from Family pledge Nr. 7:

„Our family, the owner of Cheon Il Guk, pledges, through living for the sake of others, to perfect the world based on the culture of heart, which is rooted in the original lineage, by centering on true love.“

The site’s name can be “peace.com” or “cheonilguk.com”.

Aju!

I never really understood a reason why North American continent is flourishing economically, but South America is so poor. True Father have mentioned, that North America was blessed by God, because people who established USA, were looking for God and escaped Europe in the search of religious freedom. On the other side, South America, even founded earlier and with the support of Spain, but people who came there were interested in gold, they were driven by greed above other things. So, it never gave a fruit and South America is underdeveloped and people are poor.

Max Weber, a very sophisticated German sociologist and economist, gave a detailed and deep explanation to it. In the book he explained the kind of Christian movements were born after Reformation in 14^th century and how they faith influenced their daily life practices. For Max Weber the laws of history don’t exist, he believes in a very complex and different causes, which influences society and changes it. But nevertheless Max Weber collected so much data and each conclusion he makes is based on the case study. He uses many examples. He surely recognizes the external causes as well, but he is one of the rare authors, who argues for the sake of internal causes and even thinks that they are more important then external (or as important).

I find out a lot of details about theological thinking of Christian reformers since 14^th century. There were quit a few definitions, which gave me clarity in understanding Protestantism, Capitalism and Christianity, as well as Europe at XIV-XIX centuries and America in XVIII and XIX centuries.

Sometimes details and complex words were overwhelming and I needed to use dictionary often. The words like “intermittent, irredeemably, unequivocally, reprehensible, assessed, indolence” and others, not used in common language, sprung from every page.

I wouldn’t review the book in order, but try to give a short impressions. There were interesting notions promoted in order to break free from Catholic traditions. Martin Luther abolished the monasteries and protestants arrived in this secular world and tried to conquer an everyday chores with dedication and religiosity of a monk. More than that an alternative was for a Christian to live all his life as a monk living not in solitude, but with everybody else.

A very important concept, which is most likely the main reason for the growth of Capitalism, was the doctrine of predestination, advocated by John Calvin and spread in England, France and Netherlands in XVI and XVII centuries. The Catholic Church gave it’s believers a possibility of salvation through “magic” of sacraments, it gave possibility to relieve emotional stress through confession, but the doctrine of predestination didn’t gave a believer a way out. It differed from Lutheranism, because they still believed that they can be saved by faith alone, but believers in absolute predestination were left with deep anguish in their hearts. By dividing all people in saved and not saved, Calvinists wanted to make sure they are saved. But the criteria of it was not of this world, they could achieve salvation only by the grace of God.

That made them look for the proof in their lives for workings of the grace of God. They had no choice, but to testify to it through they action. Since life is short, they were under pressure to use it well. Time became well and rationally organized life. Martin Luther was first to mention a “vocational calling”. It started to be a main criteria if one is “saved”. To be successful in one’s profession was same as bring glory to God. The doctrine of absolute predestination was to be found in every Reformist church to some degree. Of course, different denominations emphasized different means to salvation. Pietism emphasized feelings, Calvinist – asceticism, rationalization of life, Methodist – feelings (salvation by Holy Spirit) and holy conduct (God’s laws). Quakers believed in mystical manifestation of Holy Spirit, which can give rebirth to their conscience and reason and free them from sin by the end of person’s life.

All protestant churches denied Catholic practice of sacraments, confession, monastic lifestyle and salvation through good works. Believers testified to their faith as being chosen by rigorously and ascetically organizing their lives.

If we took an average worker of Medieval Ages and examine him, we will find out, that he has no ambition. If paid more, he tends to work less hours. He wants to take care of his basic needs and he has no need for more. Why then protestant workers continued working no matter the pay? They justified acquiring of possessions and wealth as “vocational calling” – mission from God, which, if fulfilled, gives them salvation. It was good and justified to earn profit, but a believer should not enjoy this wealth but invest further. He has to live an ascetic life, no matter how much wealth he possesses. There is no time for contemplation, only Sundays. Religious devotion dominates every part of reformed Christian’s life to smallest things. Sex in puritan family was only to fulfill God’s blessing to be fruitful and multiply. Working hard was considered the best prescription against all sexual temptations.

St. Paul’s saying “if anyone will not work, let him not eat” was brought further: “you must work, even if you have wealth”. Ascetic Protestantism adopted Old Testament laws into their lives. To prove that they are chosen, Christians worked tirelessly to the extreme. “Blamelessness” was caused by God’s grace, so, to proof to others, that they are saved, they tried to look confident and assured of their status as saved people.

That pain of not knowing for sure if they are saved, drove them crazy. Religious value set on restless, continuous and systematic work in vocational calling was defined as the highest. Soon those people became rich. They didn’t help the poor (because the poor are not “saved”), but invested into business. The church controlled they lives, to which they willingly submitted. Pastors preached and fought against greed and temptation of wealth. An unusually high possession of capital was accumulated. Calvinists and Baptists viewed work and industrious pursuit of a trade as their duty for God. “Acquire all you can and save all you can” and “give all you can” was thought in churches.

Surely, that fire of faith was most common to converts, “first generation” and in time it diminished. Nowadays, clerks on Wall street work as hard as their ancestors, but surely they look for money. But in those ages there were revivals inside the protestant churches. Some new sects were formed, especially in America. Surprisingly, most of them relied on lay-men. The institution of professional priest was not needed, anyone, who felt he is inspired by spirit, could talk in the meetings.

In the last part Max Weber spoke about his experiences and observations in America. In America everybody belonged to a Church or sect. A kind of “quasi-society” was formed. If somebody didn’t belonged to a church or a club, he couldn’t be trusted, that was common belief, when Max Weber visited America in 1904. The difference between sect and church was that sects were very selective of their members, but church was where a member is born into. The sects were very proud of their identity. As an example was used Lord’s Supper – “keep Lord’s Supper pure…”, so, in order to be accepted one had to be checked thoroughly up to his childhood and parents. Businessmen trusted each other because belonging to certain groups guaranteed they trustworthiness – “honesty is the best policy” was a wide belief. So, a sect was a voluntary association of high quality individuals, who did they best to gain respect in the society. So, in sects lay-man could preach, the only criteria was carizma, no special knowledge or education was required.

Max Weber argues, that everyone trying to do his best was a foundation for modern “individualism”. I think the freedom to read Bible and figure out your faith by yourself was a lot harder, than just following as was done in Catholic church. Individuals in American sects were so concerned with their own salvation, that even refused to talk to individuals outside of their group.

The sects had a very high and specific requirements for their members. It attracted businessmen, who tried to get inside, just to be able to make business in the local area. It was called “elective affinity” by Max Weber. That wasn’t necessary a bad thing, because everybody tried to comply to a certain ethic, common to the Christian society.

The guilds of Medieval Ages also had strict acceptance rules for the members. But the motivation was just opposite, they were competitors and tried to protect the market, so, the profit would be enough. But the sects led a methodical and devotional way of life in order to be saved – that created the modern way of Capitalism.

Surely, internal reasons were lost on the way. In many cases even by the time Max Weber wrote there were plenty of signs of that. But the way people work in USA and Western Europe (especially North America) is still shows us the roots of peoples faith and asceticism of the past. So many books in America teach on time management or on positive thinking, thinking to be rich. Also, philanthropic activity of American millionaires is another proof, that in order to be decent and accepted you better give. Isn’t what Bill Gates is trying to do among others?

In essence, I can understand those devoted Christians of the past, because I think many UC members feel similarly. True Father teaches hard work, so, Japanese members work and give like those Puritans or Calvinists trying to prove that they are saved. In today’s world hard work for higher purpose has disappeared in America and Christianity. Now, the Oriental world is raising. India, China, Japan, Korea are trying to reach the riches and possessions of Western world. They have the lifestyle and training necessary to sacrifice and work hard. The heavenly fortune came around the globe and God’s kingdom is about to be build. We, as UC members are fortunate to be in the middle of it.

While reading Max Weber’s “The Protestant Ethic and the Spirit of Capitalism” I found a saying, where protestants describe the Catholic Church: “The heretic must be punished, but the sinner must be treated leniently”. Why is it so?

First Catholics who started reformation movement were burned, because they took the freedom to interpret Bible and draw their own conclusions without consent of Church’s leadership and instructions. Heresy in reality became a gravest sin more then any other acts.

No wonder that textual analysis of Cheon Seong Gyeong, a collection of True Father’s words, is a fearsome thing. An average member may interpret Father’s words in the way, that his leader wouldn’t like him too. Leader would try then to persuade the member to listen to him instead of his understanding of what True Father says. The conflict may arise and divide the membership.

From Heung Jin Nim’s sermon on November 14th “Unity with True Parents” we can understand that even if leader is of the highest caliber, maybe even one of True Children, we still have to follow True Father’s words. We are not obliged to follow our leader if his direction and words are contrary to True Father. Recently three executives were fired from the “Washington Times” newspaper, because they chose to follow True Father’s words instead of direct command of their central figure. I think, now is a very important time in our movement, where many initiatives will spring out free and some members will go ahead and some leaders will be left behind.

The paradigm is changing from “leader centered” to “member centered” movement. They will be changed based on Father’s words, not based on their position and stature. This system is known long time ago and it is called “meritocracy”. Heung Jin Nim and Kook Jin Nim started it in Korea, Japan and it has not yet reached the other parts of the world.

It can be destructive, if someone interprets Father’s words incorrectly. I took chapter in Book 13 on topic of “Home Church as the Internal Foundation of the Providence”. It consists only of 14 pages (2021-2036), but has a very important content for my life. I already read a book of Father’s words in the book “Tribal Messiah” and I started reading a thick book of Father’s speeches called “Home Church”.

Since this is textual analysis on the subject of “The Critical Study of the Cheong Seong Gyeong”, I will not touch the other books, but focus only on CSG text. But ideally, the other two books can really give me a broader context of Father’s words, because many times text can be self-explanatory, where phrase used in one sentence is not clear, but it is explained in other context vividly and clearly.

The German term Sitz Im Leben, roughly translated means “setting in life”. Traditionally it used to describe on what occasions certain passages in the Bible were written for. It is hard to find out it’s meaning in CSG, because there is only date, when Father said it and number of volume and page of Father’s speeches in Korean. So, in CSG we can discern only when Father spoke, we can’t say where and to which audience. I heard that volumes of Father’s speeches also have the place, which were omitted in the CSG. I think learning Korean could be a decisive moment here. In fact, Reformation expanded and progressed, partially because Christians started to use not only Latin, but also Greek Bible texts, which gave different insight into understanding and interpretation of the Bible.

The unanswered question remains: to whom True Father spoke? It would slightly differ, if Father spoke to members in USA or Japan, to leaders of Church or VIPs and so on. I think we need historical study to such a detail, that we know exactly were Father was that certain day. Information can be obtained through bits and peaces (memories of members, videos, audios, notes and so on).

There were occasions, when leaders changed Father’s words. I can give some examples. True Father went to communist China and leader changed Father’s speech a bit, so, it won’t raise suspicion from Chinese government. On another occasion, Father spoke to a conference participants in a very direct way and translator didn’t had the courage to translate Father’s words, so, he skipped them. Also, during translation of CSG there were words about meaning of original sin, which were changed, because leaders thought, that members may misunderstand them. After I heard about it, my trust to leaders shattered. They are people, and their take their fears and imperfections on Father and prevents his word to be spread.

We have to be aware of Sitz Im Leben, because Father is a very controversial man. Also, the key to understand Father’s words is Father himself. If we chose what is more important – the text or the man who spoke it, definitely more important is the person. So, Father’s life and circumstances are keys to understand his words. We have to search for a true meaning with prayer and action practicing the words. Then Father words will become alive to us, because we will start to embody them.

So, when you act based on Father’s words you must use hermeneutics (rules of interpretation), exegesis (meaning of Father’s words at he time he spoke) and through Sitz Im Leben understand their application to today’s situation. Our mission as UC members is to preach Father’s words, but that is very hard. Father said, that in order to teach DP for an hour, you have to pray for two hours. And study too.

We need to study Korean culture as well. Without knowing Korean tradition and culture we will not understand Father’s heart and words even if we speak Korean. We need to know history of Korea as well, because a lot of things are hidden in the past.

And as time goes by, Father reveals more, so, we believe in progressive revelation. With time, as Father’s contents become clearer and fuller, we get to know more. It means, if we find tension between Father’s words, we have to check the date and follow the updated words. Actually, this fact is a bit scary to outside world – while founder is alive, this religion may turn to anywhere depending on last words of Rev. Moon… Also, if we take some of Father’s words to heart, like I did with the Home Church, there is still a small doubt in my heart: “maybe, later on or recently, he said something that completely changed his previous message”. But from studying Divine Principle we, as followers, know, that scope and circumstances may change, but main principles remain the same, because every central figure had different situation, but God’s given human portion of responsibility remains fundamentally the same.

When we read about spiritual world without actually having experienced it, we are left with only concepts, but if we could experience spiritual realm, I think Father’s words would have a whole new meaning to us. And we will be ready for more.

Since imagination is such a powerful tool to drive person’s life, Father often uses symbols and speaks figuratively. I think Father tends to repeat himself, he, as any person, has a limited share of symbols, figures, allegories and examples. When we meet them again and again in different texts, we can understand if Father spoke literary or figuratively. At this moment in time, in my opinion, only closest disciples of True Father could be qualified to interpret Father freely and even they are not free from mistakes. Father quotes Bible often, but his use of passages from the Bible differ from conventional Christian understanding and so on. There can be many examples. In fact, True Father is known as inventing new words with meanings, specific only to him.

I will start analyzing Father’s words on Home Church topic in order as they are written in CSG:

From now on, I will suspend or dis­solve all the organizations that hinder Home Church. The Home Church move­ment is the priority. (107-127, 1980.4.15)

I never heard Father closing providential organizations. If someone could answer me this question, I would really appreciate. Definitely, at that point in time, in 1980, Home Church was top priority.

If you do not have a Home Church, then later when you go to the heavenly kingdom, you will not be able to follow me. In the future, if there are 240,000 Home Churches worldwide, then we will arrange for them to deal with the people of the world. The church will complete­ly disappear. Koreans are within the realm of the benefit of receiving gover­nance from the Home Churches. Since we have yet to establish Home Church­es throughout the world, a mass migra­tion needs to occur. In order to receive a Home Church assignment, we must move from here to Africa. We are now entering the time when we must migrate throughout the world. (114-163, 1981.10.18)

A very rich passage, where I would distinguish three main points. First, without Home Church we can’t be with True Father in the same realm, if we haven’t accomplished Home Church mission. Second, when Home Churches will include all the people of the nation, the church as an institution will disappear. Third, because of Home Church providence we must migrate all over the world. It is going to be mass migration related with Home Church. When and how this mass migration is affecting my life at this moment? How it can affect our Church members? Do we still have to do Home Church, because our focus now is Peace Temple?

All the members of the Unification Church should purchase thirty Divine Principle books, lend one out each day, and receive one back each day.(240-46, 1992.12.11)

It sounds as a very practical method to me. Should I do it? Probably so, then I need Divine Principle books, but at this moment we focus on Father’s autobiography, it might be important to do just that with autobiography.

Will Rev. Moon go to your home to teach you? I am assigning the task to others. This strategy will connect to the Home Church system. Once the Home Church foundation is set up, since you are responsible for 360 homes, you should first work with 10 to 20 homes in your neighborhood. You then assign each of these families another 15 homes. By overlapping, our efforts will be dou­bled or tripled. (143-327, 1986.3.21)

In Church Management discipline we learned about small group activity and management of small groups. Father speaks exactly about it. Should I start small group first or visit each 360 houses?

…you can say to your church leader, “I’m not going to service today because of Home Church”, If you say this so you can work hard for your Home Church, he can’t say you were absent from church service. It is the age where Home Church is the top priority.(141-221, 1986.2.22)

According to this words (if Home Church is still top priority), I should neglect my leader and focus on my Home Church area. Is it correct in my situation?

First, you must choose an area of 360 houses for your Home Church. If you do not decide on the 360 homes of the Home Church altar, the principled significance disappears, and it cannot become the conditional altar that would allow spirit world to return to earth. That is why it is important to choose 360 homes first.(105-158, 1979.10.14)

If I start my Home Church it has to be clearly settled and clear to every person and house, almost like a country, it has to have citizenship and border, then spiritual world can help me. If I have a wage idea, where my Home Church territory is, I can not harvest spiritual support.

Even when they tell you not to come, you grab a broom and sweep their yard or garden. If it snows, you shovel the snow. You do everything. If rainwater stagnates in their gutters, you clean out their gutters. If the man of the house voices his discon­tentment saying, “Hey you! I said I don’t like it! Why do you keep doing these things?” and if he tries to fight against you, the people of the village will fight for you, saying to him, “What is wrong with you?”(105-191, 1979.10.21)

A very interesting peace, telling not to give up after being rejected. True Father proved, that with absolute service you will win. Should I practice it or run away? Do I have guts for it?

Home Church is a place of settlement! What is Home Church? Home Church, centered on Rev. Moon, is the result of going through a history of persecution and receiving the recognition as total victors and champions. The Unifica­tion Church went through the course to restore the standard of historical indem­nity. That is the world standard of res­toration on the level of the individual, family, people, nation, and cosmos. In Home Church, you can settle down and be free of all the indemnity conditions for the first time. (123-170, 1983.1.1)

I am so tired to move around! Wouldn’t be wonderful to settle, make heaven where you live and be free of indemnity!? True Father says just the way to do it! Home Church is the answer.

There is something that is absolutely necessary in the Unification Church, it is Home Church. Before the appearance of Home Church, there were the True Parents. Since Home Church began, the completion of Home Church has become an absolute priority. Only when you achieve this, will the True Parents become your True Parents, will the world of True Parents become your world, will the heavenly kingdom of True Parents become your heavenly kingdom, and will the love of True Parents be passed down to be your love. (122-132, 1982.11.1)

Many leaders claim they are close to True Parents in heart. It’s hard to judge from appearances or words, some look and speak very well. Here, Father gives clear criteria whether anyone can claim his parents are True Parents. Just ask your leader: where is your Home Church? And you know by the answer where he stands in relation to True Parents. It is very simple. I like it.

If there is no Home Church, then we cannot create heaven. If there is no Home Church, then nothing will get done. Home Church is the base of heav­en. What kind of place is heaven? Heav­en is a place of rest, a place of happiness, and a place where love and peace dwell. (106-265, 1980.1.1)

We remember Jesus saying that heaven starts in your heart, but Father goes further and suggests that it is Home Church. Actually, Father is much more strong than just “suggesting”.

When did I first talk about Home Church? It has been sev­en years. Have you accomplished what you promised to do? It is something that must be done, even if a hurricane comes, even if your leg or head is cut off. (218-21, 1991.7.1)

Actually, Father speaks in 1991, but Home Church providence started not seven years ago, but fourteen years ago, as we would see from later quote. Probably, Home Church providence lasted seven years until tong ban gyeokpa mission.

Fourteen years ago, I ordered you to do Home Church. Is there anyone here who has done that? It has taken fourteen years to do that. I have talked about Home Church since 1978, and it has already been seven years since the start of the tong ban gyeokpa (local level breakthrough) mission, but you have all failed. The church exists for the sake of the nation and the world. However, you have only taken hold of your families and yourselves, and pushed the church to the back and out of the way, haven’t you? (234-160, 1992.8.10)

So, Home Church started at 1978 and tong ban gyeopka 1985 (?), but seems that nobody did it. It could explain the fact, that we don’t hear leaders emphasizing Home Church. In fact, they probably rather feel guilty and would try to avoid the topic, because they failed it. Should a young person follow leader who failed or follow True Father’s words, because they have eternal meaning? Answer is clear, we must follow True Father, but in order to do it, correct interpretation of Father’s words is necessary, as well, as prayerful understanding of it.

You have all been like a group of beggars, living a carefree and irresponsible life until now. You should set a fire under the leaders to get them to respond. If you had done that, then I would not have to do this. You must educate the people, even if you have to do it alone. Do you under­stand? The lifestyle of just suffering in the wilderness course will not do any­more. We must get victory over it. We must bring the groups who are slander­ing and devising strategies against each other into submission. (221-133, 1991.10.23)

Here, True Father pushes membership to push their leaders. More than that, Father tells us to educate people, even if we got no support of leadership. I think, it is very clear, that Home Church responsibility remain to be completed. Interesting fact, first national witnessing campaign was 1968-1971, where members (wifes) had to establish 120 houses and church center. Seven years later is time of Home Church providence. Again, as Father said in 1991, seven years earlier, was tong ban giokpa. 1989 Father proclaimed era of tribal messiahship, because Korea betrayed him:

I have proclaimed the era of tribal messiahship. Do you know why I had to do this? It is because Korea betrayed me. Therefore, it must be restored through indemnity. I have restored America’s betrayal through indemnity, but I must do it again here. Isn’t that right? (188-59, 1989.2.16)

And we heard about National Messiahs from 1996, and about “kings” (pong pok kwans) from, maybe, 2006? Seems to me, that all the previous stages are inclusive and have to be indemnified and completed on higher level each time. If not, as with Abraham’s symbolic offering (condition of lesser indemnity), we will have to pay greater indemnity (as Abraham’s willingness to kill his son), but still it took 400 years to catch up with the outside world and built a national foundation for the Messiah. And as an indemnity these years were spent in slavery! Sounds scary to me, if we keep dreaming of Cheon Il Guk, but don’t make our Home Church foundation. Even Father accomplished everything, but because members betrayed Father by following him picking what they think is good and “living a carefree and irresponsible life until now”.

Another example from Moses course: in DP it says, that his family’s law and tradition had to become an object of faith, but for various reasons (no faith, no unity), there had to be a tabernacle (temple) to be built to replace it. Seems to me, that a glorious Peace Temple, which will come by 2012 is not so glorious after all. As Jesus crucifixion was not primary purpose, so, in our times, the Peace Temple is not what True Father expected, when he said, that when home churches will cover the nation, there will be no need for a church (the Peace Temple?). I have more questions, but who can answer them? I guess, only True Father can answer them.

I am happy, that God gives me such inspirations, because I actively look for them. I think salvation can not be forced on anyone. If members are content with their lives and think they will go to Heaven without Home Church, let it be. But the words must get to them, because later part is their desire and responsibility.

My time in seminary is a preparation to build Home Church after coming to my hometown. In my opinion, Home Church is the bedrock of the nation of Cheon Il Guk, but most members are waiting for a miracle. That’s not gonna happen.

Sincerely Aistis Vaicekauskas

If I start to speak about spirituality in general, then I have to admit, that we are still on a way in a restorational era. Why? Because we base ourselves on words, rather than the heart of God. Even more than that, many members are not even based on words, but only on the directions of their leaders. It’s most simple way to go with your life – just follow your leader, whether it is World HQ, Continental HQ or National HQ of Unification Church.

In someway, it is not a bad thing to do. But that’s not the level of children, not even adopted ones. It is a level of servants, good servants on God’s side. I would say that next level it is life based on words, and I believe this is where majority of Unification Church members would stand. If I add these two groups of servants and adopted children I think that would sum up to 99 % of Unification Church membership.

I don’t know if there exists, but I feel there should be a members, who base their life on God’s spirit more than the truth and intellect. I believe that they are coming close to Cheon Il Guk spirituality. The previous two kinds, based on directions and words, are in restorational era still.

I know it, because I passed servant’s road, when I followed my leader with absolute obedience without questioning his directions. I know it, because I spend hours everyday reading Father’s words even while I was eating or walking. But I know now, I am not there yet. There is a whole world missing.

I believe the world I am missing is not a spiritual world. I will attain mastery over spiritual world when I gain the position of Adam and Eve before the fall. Instead of repeating the fall, I must gain three spiritual children and then my blessed family can cross the line from Satan’s side to God’s side. Only on the foundation of subjugating spiritual children (spiritual world) I can receive Blessing.

I think our movement saw the success of True Parents, but only by helping them to fulfill their vertical and horizontal responsibility on 8 stages (servant of servants, servant, the adopted son, the illegitimate son, the direct son, mother, father and God) we are not going to make God happy. Our human responsibility remains unfulfilled. I do remember Father saying, that if you have twelve spiritual children, you will bypass the level of Jesus, who in his life on earth couldn’t have them defending him with their lives and they all run away. But I surely know, that there are members, who stand on level of Jesus and have 12 spiritual children. But that is level of direct son, responsibility is not yet completed. I think, that in order to complete your responsibility on earth, we, each Central Blessed Family, must find and restore 360 homes. It is our mission of tribal messiah.

True Father speaks about two types of people. One type are people of intellect, who search for God from outside. Another type are people of heart who search for God from inside. But either way is not complete. I think in Spirituality of Cheon Il Guk class I realized, that I will not get anywhere, if I only focus on truth or spirit. Unity of both of them means action. And action starts in your home church area.

What improvements I could make based on lectures? I realized the importance of ritual. True Parents life should be re-lived through celebrating Holy Days and memorable days. Also, I actually understood, that my home must have external center – an altar, where I can come with my family and invite God. Also, my wife and me, we are now much more willing to do Hoon Dok Hwe at 5 AM, because we believe that through it heavenly fortune will flow to our children.

Another thing I understood, that I must restore my ancestors, all 210 generations. It is a great, though not vital asset for my mission here on earth. Why it is not vital? Because it has to be done by paralleling liberation of ancestors with liberation of my parents and sisters, my physical family. How can I do it? By doing spiritual conditions first, by prayer and fasting, by bows and study. It brings discipline and focus into my life. Focus on action, which must follow. I very much agree with prayer as report to God, of what I will do and what I did or didn’t after time passes. There can not be only theory or only spiritual practice. Unity is action based on spirit and truth of Heavenly Father.

I would call a theoretical man a theologian, I would call a spiritual man a monk. That is not what we want or seek for. That’s the road of individual salvation.

To save my physical parents and sisters. To bring them to understanding of God’s heart means to establish my family as citizens of Cheon Il Guk. And it is what Jesus tried to do with families of Joseph and Zachariah. That is the starting point of Kingdom of Heaven. My family united with my immediate relatives. It has to be expanded family though. I think it should go to the grandparents of father and mother on both sides and include all their descendants. Same way as we do liberate our ancestors in Cheongpyong according to Daemonim’s guidance, which include our grandparents parents on both of their father’s and mother’s sides. All their descendants are our Abel tribe. But our Abel tribe not necessary lives in our neighborhood, but it is important here not only restore our relatives based on blood relations, but also restore based on my birthplace, my hometown. Kingdom of Heaven on Earth has to have physical teritory. Later, by uniting with other tribes, sovereignty and people can be restored and bring about nation of Cheon Il Guk.

There is something I still do lack here. It is ability to speak Korean and understand True Parents directly without any mediator or translator. More than that, after understanding True Parents and fulfilling my responsibility as Tribal Messiah, I always can search for God, who will give me love and inspiration forever. It is adventurous life and it is fun.

I am such a geek (a person who is single-minded or accomplished in scientific or technical pursuits but is felt to be socially inept.), because I knew most of what you said from the study of True Father’s words. The problem I face is with people. I couldn’t succeed in witnessing. And I know why. Witnessing on the street would take centuries to restore the world. Main way is living and working where people are. And meeting them at home, where they are safe. My National Messiah is the geek too. Most of first generation lost the inspiration and became geeky. They have certain position in providential organizations or call themselves a Central Blessed Family. They do believe their original sin is eradicated, they go to Cheongpyong, they give tithing, they even attend all the meetings and conferences. But are they seen in outside world? No, nobody knows them. They afraid to go out and meet they neighbors and relatives. They moved around so much, that they forgot that it is possible to have a home. But reason is simple. True Father said, that those who created Blessed families without foundation of 3 spiritual children, can not stay, but must travel and wonder like gypsies. True Parents spent their time in Korea, in the Heavenly Palace. We should do the same. First we establish the church, then the school and only then our “home sweet home”. Otherwise we live unprotected. We could be fine, because of our foundation of faith, but our children will be snatched by evil world. They, of course, can inherit our foundation of faith, like Izaak did, but they still have to make a foundation of substance, that is 360 homes and tribal messiah responsibility is awaiting them. It can’t go anywhere. It is only there to be accomplished. Of course, if we wait long enough, there will be plenty of others, who will grab this responsibility and fulfill it. Then the first will become the last. And we have to drag behind them.

I love the story of Jose Ellias de Almeida (http://www.tparents.org/Moon-Talks/Moon-Family/JS930700.htm), the only one person in our worldwide movement, who restored 500 families in his home church. He couldn’t write or read well, having only education of elementary school, but he surely went Cheong Seong like True Father. His son Sam is studying with us. He is oldest 2^nd generation child in Brazil. That example inspires me more than all lectures and words put together. The champion and hero is not only True Father, we have more…

Also, yesterday I find out about sergeant Justin Harding. I believe he is on the right track (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RVB7GvowQd4). He is very proud and brave unificationist and he witnesses in army’s marine unit. But that’s the way we all should be doing.

Ability of seeing and sensing spiritual world will come when we need it. It is not our decision to make. Our responsibility is to love people and follow in True Parents footsteps. We’ll be granted the spiritual world when we accomplish everything here, on earth.

Sincerely Aistis Vaicekauskas

Martial arts as an educational tool for building a human character

Mano pranešimo tekstas anglų kalba. Buvau paskutinis pranešėjas. Įdedu ir skaidres: http://www.box.net/shared/csicko65z4

We all know about war. That’s how our human history started: with war. After archangel Lucifer spiritually murdered Adam and Eve, their children, two brothers Cain and Abel, murdered each other physically. The conflict didn’t stop in Adam’s family – Satan’s blood lineage multiplied and wars were fought among individuals, families, tribes, societies, nations throughout all of human history. They are being fought at this very moment as I speak, because brother is still killing his own brother.

There is nothing beautiful about war – people, fathers, husbands, brothers and sons are being ruthlessly killed and the one, who survives, rules. Why then martial arts came into being? Why they are called arts, because every art that exists is about beauty and emotion, searching for that state of mind, which gives joy and inner peace?

Let’s look at the most world famous example of Shaolin Temple. It was established at 5th century by abbot Batuo, also called Fotuo or Bhadra (the Chinese translation for Buddha), an Indian dhyana master who came to China from India in AD 464 to spread Buddhist teachings. Buddhist monks had a rigorous daily schedule of prayer and meditation. To keep them healthy, the gymnastics and exercise were introduced. In China, as everywhere in the world, many conflicts appeared. The defeated side was killed or hunted until they were killed. Surely those people were skilled warriors, but as rebels they had no place to hide, except Shaolin Temple, which provided safe haven for all in need. The government didn’t persecute them in respect to a holy place, also temple proved to have the ability to change and educate those cold-blooded killers. Through sincere religious devotion and daily meditation they were able to overcome they hate and desire for a revenge. They also become a very useful asset for a monastery since they were a very skilled warriors in the past. They not only provided training for the other monks, but they were used as fundraisers, going around the country and bringing necessary funds to monastery. Monks were carrying money and robbers and gangsters were more then willing to take it and kill them. They had to defend themselves. Surely, there was times, when temple was destroyed, because it had interfered into states affairs defending the weak. In 1732 destruction is also supposed to have helped spread Shaolin martial arts through China by means of the five fugitive monks Ng Mui, Jee Shin Shim Shee, Fung Doe Duk, Miu Hin and Bak Mei. It became a nationwide movement fighting injustice.

Who are we, as Unification Church members? True Father calls us “spiritual warriors”? In fact, Father says that our path is very similar to those training in martial arts. According to Father, the purpose of religion is to inspire and discipline body to obey the mind, centering on God. “Is this not strikingly similar to the tradition of martial arts, to train its students in the physical and spiritual principles of self-defense based on the highest moral standards?“ – that is True Father’s conclusion.

So, martial arts can be used as an educational tool for building human character, because they seek not only outer beauty, but inner beauty as well, developing an honorable character. People with honorable character can become responsible members of society. It is essential to strenghten individual character in order to build a moral society. Also, in modern world martial arts are not anymore just phenomena of the Orient, it spread as a worlwide movement, involving around 200 million practitioners. Through dialogue and practise they are able to overcome the barriers of race, cultures, languages, age, gender and social status. In fact, martial arts is an important means of bringing us together and building true world peace.

True Father speaks about two ways to secure mind-body unity. Let’s read an excerpt from his opening speech of MAFWP:

“There are only two ways to secure mind-body unity. One way is to negate and keep pressing down your bodily desires. The second way is to focus absolutely on the connection with God and love God more than your children or your parents. Then you will be connected to God and your bodily desire will be negated.

Then, what is the purpose of pushing down our bodily desires? It is to unite mind and body and then unite with a spouse who has the same mind-body unity; it is to find our love partner. So first, we have to unite mind and body and second, we have to find our spouse.“

We all, as Unification Church members, know it. Surely, there is even better way to reach mind-body unity than martial arts. Father often spoke about Ocean Church being such a way. Also, loving is best way of all. But martial arts is popular among many people and it serves the same purpose as well. So, if you practice martial art, you become a better person, a better spouse.

About 3 billion people in the world live on less than 2 dollars a day, around 1 billion doesn’t know how to even sign their name, they are completely illiterate. We all know, that people are the problem, because humanity produces enough for everybody. Many of those poor young people turn into gangsters, thieves and robbers, because they don’t know the better way. That’s why they must be educated. Martial arts education gives young people not only disciplined mind, which as a result allow them to reach they dream, it can really be a very inspiring and uplifting practice as well. Martial arts centers, created based on True Father’s teachings, can give them a vision, which can change their fate as a poor nations, dragging behind the rich and depending on them.

First of all, those young people can become martial arts instructors as well and play their part in the providence of MAFWP. True Father explains a vision, through which those instructors can support their family as well and secure a set income. Martial arts teachers, they are like religious leaders, they can inspire young people to follow righteous way of life. They can teach easily, because young people follow their instructors well. Martial arts embody oriental culture of vertical order and family structure. It is really important for Western countries, where individualism is sweeping and destroying the families. So, through martial arts education not only young people in poor nations, but also those in rich Western democracies, individualistic and materialistic nations, can benefit.

True Father is a very practical man. He paid important spiritual conditions and a very special and spiritual martial art could be born. It’s name is Won Hwa Do. True Father defined 4 main purposes that WHD has to follow.

I. First, mind-body unity.

II. Second, a good health.

III. Third, self-defense, especially for missionaries and women it’s important.

IV. And last, but not least, securing income and obtaining experience how to take care and manage people.

Mind-body unity and health corresponds to the 1st Blessing, self-defense to 2nd Blessing, which means principled relationships between Cain and Abel, Adam and Eve. Income and management is 3rd Blessing, in order for us to become the leaders and rulers of creation. Also, WHD was created in spiritual world, where grandmaster Han Bok Hi trained for many years with grandmasters of the past. You as well, if you try hard and make enough spiritual conditions, can make your training a spiritual training, a mind world training. Without learning how to properly manage spiritual and physical worlds, we can not claim 1^st Blessing or, in other words, our character as citizen of Cheon Il Guk, is incomplete. So, comparing with other martial arts, Won Hwa Do is a very spiritual martial art, which came from the ideal world. Main quality of WHD is circular, unifying power, Universal Prime Energy, which has no evil trace in it. By practising WHD you change your character and let go of your fallen nature by harmonizing with your partner in a dance like movement.

I believe some of us can find a great use of martial arts in order to built his/her character, but you can choose any art. We just saw Hoon Suk Nim, which has such a profound character. Religion and ballet played most important role in her life and, I think we would all agree, she is really a true person. Let’s polish our character through religious devotion and dedication to True Parents in the best way by doing what we think is our calling by God.

Vakar kalbėjausi per SKYPE su savo šešerių metų sūnumi apie tai kuo skiriasi berniukai nuo mergaičių. Pirmiausia aš jo paklausiau, tai kuo gi jie skiriasi? Jis man išvardijo keturis skirtumus: berniukai grubiai kalba, o mergaitės – ne, berniukai turi daiktą, kuris kabaliuoja tarp kojų, o mergaitės – ne, berniukai trumpais plaukais, o mergaitės – ne, mergaitės nešioja sukneles ar sijonus, o berniukai – ne. Apie paskutinį skirtumą sūnus pridėjo, kad anksčiau ir vyrai nešiojo sijonus…

Aš Joriui išdėsčiau trumpą paskaitą, kad vyro svarbiausia savybė rūpintis moterimi, o moters – kad ji būtų apsaugota ir ją būtų pasirūpinta. Vyras, – kalbėjau aš, turi būti vadovu, jis privalo vadovauti su meile ir rūpesčiu, nes kiekvienas ateityje taps vyru savo žmonai ir mokės ja rūpintis. O mergaitė (moteris) su malonumu seks broliu (vyru), kuris moka ja rūpintis ir galvoja apie ją. Joris paprieštaravo sakydamas, kad Ramunė, jo sesuo, nori pati vadovauti. Aš atsakiau, – “ji nori vadovauti todėl, kad tu elgiesi egoistiškai ir negalvoji apie ją. Jei tu ja rūpintumeisi ir ji jaustų tavo meilę, ji su malonumu tau paklustų.” Kaip pavyzdį pateikiau save: “Juk Ramunė manęs klauso ir su malonumu žaidžia kartu, nes aš ja rūpinuosi ir stengiuosi, kad ji būtų laiminga. Ir tu turi to išmokti.” Na, čia mano šešiamečio išmonė baigėsi, nes jis taip ilgai dėmesio išlaikyti negali, todėl aš jį paleidau žaisti su palinkėjimais, kad apie tai pagalvotų.

Po to aptariau tai su savo žmona. Ji papasakojo, kad Joris yra sakęs, kad visi žmonės panašūs į vienas kitą, nes visi nori valdžios, kiekvienas nori tapti prezidentu. Bet tai, kad Jorio idėja apie vyro modelį yra jo grubumas, man nepatiko. Su žmona aptarėme veiksmų planą, kaip tai pakeisti. Aš apgalvojau, kokie mano veiksmai galėjo Joriui duoti tokią idėją, – “ar aš būnu grubus?”

Ramunė, mano keturių metų dukrelė, vakar manęs prašė, kad aš atvažiuočiau su ja pažaisti nors vienai dienai. “Kitaip”, tvirtino ji, “aš tave galiu pamiršti”. Ji norėtų su manimi žaisti ir kalbėtis. Aš kiekvieną dieną kalbu su savo šeima po valandą, vakar diena nebuvo kuo nors ypatinga. Man esant Korėjoje, o jiems Lietuvoje, mes dažnai pritrūkstame laiko, nes yra tiek daug apie ką pakalbėti.

Aš kartais pagalvoju, kad kaip dažnai tėvai neturi apie ką kalbėti su savo vaikais, nelaiko jų niekuo daugiau nei savo nuosavybe, ypač kai jie maži. Jie turi tokį turtingą vidinį pasaulį, kad kartais galva svaigsta pagalvojus. O ir tarpusavyje tėvai neturi apie ką kalbėti. To irgi nelabai galiu suprasti. Man patinka Jack Welch ir jo trečia žmona, nes jie gali ištisas dienas kalbėtis apie juos jaudinančius dalykus. Mes su žmona, manau, irgi galėtume.

Tiesa, Jorio išvardytas antras skirtumas tarp vyro ir moters yra pagrindas, kuriuo remiasi visa Tikrojo Tėvo idėja apie vyro ir moters paskirtį:

Kam buvo sukurti Adomas ir Ieva? Vyras buvo vienišas, todėl Dievas sukūrė moterį ir pasakė, kad ji yra gera, bet kodėl ji buvo gera? Dėl kurios moters dalies? Dėl lytinių organų! Jie yra įdubimas, susitinkantis iškilimą. Dievas sukūrė įdubimą iškilimui. Adomas kaip Adomas, bet kodėl Ieva buvo sukurta? Dėl jos akių, nosies, veido? Kuri Ievos dalis buvo sukurta Adomui? Dievas sukūrė įdubimą iškilimui. Meilės šaltinis glūdi Adome ir Ievoje, kuriuos sukūrė Dievas. Mes turime žinoti, kad lytiniai organai yra patys brangiausi, jie yra meilės šaltinis. (294-270, 1998.8.5)

Ko Joris dar nežino, kad su tuo susijęs ir žmogaus nuopuolis:

Vyro baisiausias priešas yra moteris. Moterys tapo gyvatės, prasižiojusiomis burnomis, pasiruošusiomis įkąsti, įėjus vyriškam organui. Tai pasklido visur ir perduodama iš kartos į kartą. Lytiniai organai yra pats baisiausias dalykas. (281-215, 1997.2.13)

Ateis laikas, sužinos.

Be šalies, nesvarbu kokia gera ar laiminga būtų jūsų šeima, blogi žmonės gali ją sunaikinti. Štai kodėl privalome surasti šalį. Religijos žmonės to nesuprato. Mes privalome surasti gėrio šalį. Toks yra religijos tikslas. (57-260, 1972.6.4)

Norint suformuoti šalį, reikalinga teritorija, tauta ir suverenitetas. Kas yra suverenitetas? Tai santykių kūrimas su pradiniu Dievu. Net kai šalies žmonės miega, jos vadovas turi susijungti su Dievu ir tada vadovauti šalies valdymui. Aukščiausias vadovas turi visiškai susivienyti su šios šalies piliečiais. Tapęs su jais viena būtybe, nepriklausomas vadovas daugiau negali galvoti, kad viskas egzistuoja dėl jo, bet privalo galvoti, kad viskas egzistuoja dėl šalies. Tai įgyvendinus, ta šalis klestės ir vešės. (30-88, 1970.3.17)

Kuriant dangišką šalį, kaip ir bet kurią kitą šalį, reikalingas suverenitetas, tauta ir teritorija. Suvereniteto padėtį užima tėvai, tautos padėtį užima sūnūs ir dukterys, o teritorija yra tauta. Tai yra absoliutus principas, kad turi būti visi šie elementai. (35-279, 1970.10.25)

Norint įkurti šalį, reikalingas suverenitetas. Todėl, kuriant dangišką šalį žemėje, svarbiausia, kas yra dangaus šeimininkas ir kas yra aukščiausias valdovas? Be abejonės, Dievas yra aukščiausias valdovas. Tada kas yra tauta? Visi žmonės. O kur yra teritorija? Žemės planeta. (96-15, 1978.1.1)

Viskas, ką darote, turi būti skirta tam, kad surastumėte šią šalį, būtumėte jos ištikimi patriotai-įkūrėjai ir atkurtumėte mūsų gimtinę. Turite galvoti, jog turite įvykdyti šią misiją. Galvokite, kad jūs kaip slapti Dangaus pasiuntiniai gavote nurodymą šiandien ateiti į šį blogio pasaulį ir įvykdyti šią misiją. Prašau supraskite, kad to nepadarę, negalėsite įgyti savo prestižo ar orumo kaip mūsų ieškotos šalies piliečiai. (50-255, 1971.11.7)

Manote, kad šėtonas, maištavęs prieš Dievą šešis tūkstančius metų, paprasčiausiai pasakys: „O varge, aš pralaimiu,“ apsisuks, nulenks galvą ir išeis namo? Jums gaila išmesti net seną grindų skudurą, ar ne? Tikriausiai prieš išmesdami, dar apverčiate jį ir patikrinate kvapą. Šėtonas lengvai neatsitrauks. Jis atkakliai kovos iki galo. Štai kodėl turime išlikti sutelkę dėmesį į centrą. Jei aš, Gerbiamas Mun iš Susivienijimo bažnyčios, nukrypsiu nuo centro – žlugsiu. Einant neteisinga kryptimi, nebus augimo. (57-276, 1972.6.4)

Susivienijimo bažnyčios nariai, jei reikia, net basi turi išeiti, kad sukurtų gimtinę. Jūsų išteklių likučių neužtenka išgelbėti šią šalį. Jūs neišgelbėsite šios šalies kreipdami dėmesį į tai, ką valgyti, kuo vilkėti ir kokiu automobiliu važinėti. Susivienijimo bažnyčioje mes ryžtamės tapti pradininkais plikom rankom ir basi. Štai kokį darbą atlieka mūsų Bažnyčia. (14-201, 1964.10.7)

Žmonės, kurie užklysta į šį puslapį turėtų suprasti, kad jie čia neatsitiktinai. Jei jūs pasiruošę išgirsti, tai čia, šiame bloge jūs rasite, jog Dievas kalba jums per naują tiesą, kuri skelbia Pasaulio pabaigą ir Dangaus Karalystės pradžią. Tie, kurie yra nuoširdūs tikrai ras čia daug peno savo sielai. Siūlau įsigilinti į Dieviško Principo ir Čiong Song Gjong knygas, kuriose Mesijas kalba vėl.

2.2.6. Dvasiniai reiškiniai paskutinėmis dienomis (Penktas DP skyrius: Prisikėlimas)

Adomas ir Ieva nupuolė būdami augimo stadijos viršūnėje. Dabar žmonės yra atstatomi į augimo stadijos viršūnę per atkūrimo apvaizdą perėję per Senojo Testamento ir Naujojo Testamento amžius. Paskutinės dienos yra laikas, kuomet žmonės grįš į pirmųjų žmonijos protėvių dvasinį lygį, pasiektą prieš pat jų Nuopuolį. Kaip Adomas ir Ieva iki Nuopuolio galėjo tiesiogiai bendrauti su Dievu, taip daugelis žmonių žemėje gali bendrauti su dvasiniu pasauliu. Pranašystę, kad paskutinėmis dienomis „aš kiekvienam kūnui išliesiu savosios Dvasios. Tuomet jūsų sūnūs ir jūsų dukterys pranašaus, jūsų jaunuoliai matys regėjimus, o jūsų seniai sapnuos sapnus” ^{16(Apd 2,17)}, galima paaiškinti remiantis šio Principo įžvalga.

Paskutinėmis dienomis daugelis žmonių gaus apreiškimą, „Tu esi Viešpats.” Dažnai šie žmonės suklys tikėdami, kad jie yra Antrasis Kristaus atėjimas. Kodėl jie išklysta iš tiesaus kelio?

Sukūręs žmones, Dievas davė jiems teisę viešpatauti pasauliui. ^{17(Pr 1,28)} Tačiau dėl Nuopuolio jie negalėjo išpildyti šio palaiminimo. Kuomet puolę žmonės per atstatymo apvaizdą bus dvasiškai atstatyti į augimo stadijos viršūnę, jie pasieks širdies lygį, prilygstantį Adomo ir Ievos lygiui iki jų Nuopuolio. Tam tikriems šioje stadijoje esantiems žmonėms Dievas duoda apreiškimą, kad jie yra Viešpats, taip pripažindamas, kad jie yra pasiekę tą brandos lygį, kuriame Jis jau vieną kartą palaimino žmonijos protėvius leisdamas jiems viešpatauti pasauliui.

Asmenys, kurie tiki paskutinėmis dienomis ir kurių tvirtas tikėjimas leidžia jiems gauti apreiškimą, kad jie yra „Viešpats”, atsiduria padėtyje, panašioje į Jono Krikštytojo padėtį. Jonas Krikštytojas atėjo turėdamas vieną misiją – taisyti Jėzui kelią. ^{18(Jn 1,23)} Tuo pačiu šiems tikėjimo žmonėms yra duodamas uždavinys paruošti jiems pavestose srityse dirvą Antrajam Kristaus atėjimui. Kadangi jie turi veikti kaip Viešpaties atstovai jiems pavestose srityse, Dievas duoda jiems apreiškimą, jog jie yra Viešpats.

Kuomet kažkas, apdovanotas dvasinėms galioms bendrauti, gauna apreiškimą, jog jis yra Viešpats, jis turėtų suprasti šį reiškinį remdamasis Principo mokymu. Jis neturėtų elgtis klaidingai palaikydamas save Kristumi per Antrąjį atėjimą. Kitaip jis gali baigti tuo, jog suvaidins antikristo vaidmenį. Dėl šios priežasties Biblijoje pranašaujama, jog paskutinėmis dienomis pasirodys daug antikristų. ^{19(1Jn 2,18)} 

Dvasiniai mediumai dažnai sutrinka ir nesutaria vienas su kitu, nes dvasinio pasaulio, su kuriuo jie bendrauja, lygiai ir jų gaunamų apreiškimų turinys skiriasi^{. 20(1Kor 15,4)} Nors dvasiškai imlūs žmonės bendrauja su tuo pačiu pasauliu, bet dėl skirtingų aplinkybių ir pozicijų ir skirtingo lygio charakterio, intelekto ir dvasingumo jų dvasinio pasaulio suvokimas skirsis. Šie skirtumai ir sukelia šiuos nesutarimus.

Prisidedantys prie atkūrimo apvaizdos žmonės paprastai yra atsakingi tik už savąją apvaizdos dalį. Sutelkdami dėmesį tik į vertikalų santykį su Dievu, jie dažnai nejaučia horizontalaus santykio su kitais dvasiškai imliais žmonėmis. Tarp jų kyla nesantaika, nes kiekvienas mano, kad Dievo valiai, kuriai jis tarnauja, skiriasi nuo valios, kuriai tarnauja kiti. Jų nesantaika pagilėja, kai kiekvienas iš jų gauna apreiškimą, kad jis yra geriausias. Tačiau Dievas tokią paskatą siūlo tam, kad kiekvieną paskatintų kuo geriau atlikti savo misiją remiantis didesne apvaizda. Dievas duoda tokius apreiškimus ir dėl to, kad kiekvienas, tiesą sakant, geriausiai tinka pavesto darbo sričiai.

Be to, kai pamaldaus tikėjimo žmonės taps dvasiškai atviri ir pasieks širdies lygį, prilygstantį Adomo ir Ievos lygiui prieš pat jų Nuopuolį, jie susidurs su panašiu išmėginimu, kurio Adomui ir Ievai nepavyko išlaikyti. Jei jie nebus atidūs, jie gali suklysti ir padaryti tokią pat klaidą – Nuopuolio klaidą. Yra be galo sunku nugalėti šią pagundą nesupratus Principo. Deja, daugelis religingų žmonių neišlaikė šio išmėginimo ir taip akimirksniu nubraukė visa, ką buvo pasiekę savo uolumu ir atsidavimu.

Kaip dvasiškai imlūs žmonės gali įveikti šias kliūtis? Atkūrimo apvaizdai įgyvendinti per trumpą laiką Dievas skiria skirtingas misijas daugeliui asmenų ir kiekvienam atskirai nepriklausomai nuo kitų. Vadinasi, yra tiesiog neišvengiama, kad tarp dvasiškai imlių žmonių kyla nesantaika. Tačiau istorijos pabaigoje Dievas duos jiems naują tiesą. Naujoji tiesa leis jiems suprasti, kad jų unikalios misijos, kurios jiems buvo patikėtos, yra skirtos vienam galutiniam Dievo tikslui. Naujoji tiesa nuties jiems kelią į tarpusavio bendradarbiavimą ir darnų darbą didesniam atkūrimo apvaizdos tikslui įgyvendinti. Šioje eroje visi dvasiškai imlūs žmonės liausis primygtinai reikalavę, kad vien tik jie tarnauja Dievo valiai. Jie turėtų ieškoti gilesnių ir išsamesnių tiesos žodžių, kurie leistų jiems teisingai suprasti savo pozicijas ir tikrąją jų apvaizdos misijų prigimtį. Tik tada jie vėl galės įveikti buvusios horizontalios nesantaikos sukeltą painiavą. Tik tuomet kiekvienas galės užbaigti savo individualų tikėjimo kelią ir nuskinti jo puikius vaisius.

Negaliu neparašyti apie šį žmogų. Aš praleidau visą mėnesį ir ne mažiau nei 30 valandų studijuodamas Jack Welch pasiekimus ir asmenybę. Pirmiausia “Church Management” disciplinoje išnagrinėjome Harvardo atvejį “GE’s Two-Decade Transformation: Jack Welch’s Leadership”, po to perskaičiau viską ką radau Internete (ypač youtube.com) ir galų gale bibliotekoje radau ir perskaičiau jo knygą paprastu (kaip ir autorius) pavadinimu “Winning”. Tai dar ne viskas, radau jį Twitter ir dabar seku jo pranešimus, nes nežiūrint į jo garbingą amžių (gim. 1935), jis aktyvus Interneto socialiniuose tinkluose.

Sudomino ir jo paskutinis projektas – įkurtas Jack Welch universitetas, kuris siūlo MBA (Master of Business Administration) programą on-line, kuris kainuotų 21,400 $. Jack Welch, 2001 metais atsistatydinęs iš Genereal Electric kompanijos CEO (Chief Executive Officer) pareigų, dažnai dalyvauja įvairiose konferencijose visame pasaulyje, bet nevengia ir akademinio darbo – jis dėstė kartą per savaitę MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) 31-am MBA studentui. Jam tai pasirodė per mažai, kad padaryti globalų poveikį pasauliui, todėl Jack Welch’o vardo MBA on-line, kuri gali pasiekti neribotą skaičių studentų, pasirodė kaip ideali išeitis.

Aš noriu truputį sustoti ir papasakoti apie patį Jack Welch. Jis, būdamas 27-metų chemijos inžinierijos daktaras, pradėjo savo darbą didžiausioje pasaulio kompanijoje General Electric 1961-ais metais. 1981 metais jis tapo šios kompanijos CEO ir išdirbo juo dvidešimt metų, kai sulaukęs 76 metų 2001-aisiais, atsistatydino. Per dvidešimt Jack Welch’o vadovavimo metų GE kompanija užaugo nuo 13 iki 400 milijardų dolerių vertės. Kas metai kompanijos akcininkai galėjo džiaugtis 24% didesniu pelnu negu metais anksčiau. Kompanija, kuri 1981-ais turėjo 440,000 darbuotojų ne tik jog nepadidėjo, bet netgi sumažėjo iki 240,000 darbuotojų 2001-aisiais.

Jack Welch’as, išėjo į garbingą pensiją turėdamas beveik milijardą dolerių turto. Žinoma, kaip dažnai būna, jo neaplenkė ir asmeninės audros – jis išgyveno dvejas skyrybas. Pradėjęs kukliai, su žmona, kuri praleido visą laiką namuose ir augino jo keturis vaikus, su kuria jis išgyveno kartu virš trisdešimt metų. Vėliau jis vedė WallStreet teisininkę, daug jaunesnę moterį, su kuria išgyveno virš dešimties metų. Trečias vedybas galima pavadinti vedybomis iš išskaičiavimo (antras irgi kas be ko), nes jo dabartinė žmona – buvusi Harvard Business Review redaktorė, kurią atleido iš pareigų, nes imdama interviu iš Jack Welch’o (kaip pati papasakojo) jį ir sugundė.

Kodėl šios vedybos sėkmingos Jack Welch’o ir Suzy Welch karjerai? Nes ir vienas ir kitas laimi. Jis leidžia knygas ir jam naudinga žmonos patirtis redaguojant ir aptariant naujas idėjas. Ji taip pat leidžia knygas ir naudojasi vyro vardu ir pinigais. Bet tai greičiau jau galima pavadinti karjera po karjeros, nes abu turi jau suaugusius vaikus ir didesnė gyvenimo ir karjeros dalis jau praeityje.

Norėjau papasakoti šiek tiek iš Jack Welch’o gyvenimo ir vadovavimo filosofijos. Tapęs CEO GE kompanijoje, kurią sudaro daugybė skirtingų ir visai nesusijusių verslų, Jack Welch’as paskelbė naują misiją, kuri atnešė turtus ir sėkmę – “#1 or #2: Fix, Sell or Close”. Tai yra, visi verslai, kurie priklausė GE turėjo būti geriausi savo srityje, jei jie tokie nebuvo, būdavo priiimamas vienas iš trijų sprendimų: taisyti, parduoti arba uždaryti.

Lygiai taip pat paprastai būdavo tvarkomasi ir kompanijos viduje. Visi darbuotojai buvo įvertinti pagal rezultatus ir suskirstyti į tris grupes: 20% žvaigždės, kurie yra savo srities čempionai, 70% vidutiniokai, kurie yra pagrindinė kompanijos jėga ir 10% looserių, kuriems duodama žinoti, kad jiems laikas palikti kompaniją.

Apie 10 metų prireikė, kad pakeisti kompanijos kultūrą ir vertybes. Vadovaujantys menedžeriai privalėjo turėti keturias E ir vieną P (energy, energize, edge, execution and passion). “Energy” – tai įkvėpimas, kuris yra būdingas idėjų ir galimybių žmogui. “Energize” – tai žmogus, kuris visus gali užkrėsti savo entuziazmu ir idėjomis, suteikdamas kitiems galimybę turėti dideles svajones. “Edge” – tai sugebėjimas padaryti sunkius sprendimus ir įveikti iššūkius. “Execution” – tai pastovi savybė paversti viziją realiais rezultatais. Ir žinoma, “passion” – tai didelis rūpestis ir noras nugalėti. Tokie žmonės yra aistringi apie viską, jie atiduoda visą save.

Pirmiausia, Jack Welch’as pasistengė sumažinti biurokratiją ir sumažino iki minimumo vertikalią komandos liniją. Jis taip pat įdiegė tokią kultūrą, kurioje visi buvo skatinami kalbėti ir atvirai išsakyti savo nuomonę. Tai nebuvo lengva, iš pradžių tokie visų darbuotojų susirinkimai vykdavo kartą per mėnesį, po kurių padalinio vadovas į 80% pasiūlymų stebint CEO turėjo pasakyti taip arba ne čia pat, vietoje, o likusias problemas išspręsti mėnesio bėgyje. Organizacijos efektyvumas netrukus išaugo, nes kas geriau už pačius darbuotojus gali žinoti kaip pasiekti geresnių rezultatų.

Dar vienas įdomus lyderių skirstymas į keturis tipus pagal du kriterijus, t.y. vertybės ir rezultatai. Pirmas lyderio tipas, kuris turi kompanijos vertybes ir atneša rezultatus, puiku. Antras, kuris neturi vertybių ir neatneša rezultatų, viskas aišku, jis atleidžiamas. Trečias tipas, kuris seka kompanijos kultūra ir vertybėmis, bet prastai su rezultatais. Jam suteikiamas antras ir trečias šansas. Ir ketvirtas, paskutinis, yra pats sunkiausias, nes lyderis atneša puikius rezultatus, nors neturi vertybių, o pavaldiniai neapkenčia vadovo, nes jis “šypsosi aukštyn, o spardosi žemyn”. Šis tipas dažnai yra neliečiamas, nes firmos vadovybė yra patenkinta rezultatais, tačiau tik atleidus tokį vadovą ir paviešinus tikrąją priežastį, galima pasiekti, kad firmos kultūra ir vertybės būtų priimamos rimtai visų darbuotojų tarpe.

 Man asmeniškai Jack Welch patinka todėl, kad jis sugeba viską paaiškinti labai paprastai ir taip, kad nieko neįžeistų. Tai yra jis yra kietas, bet išmintingas, atviras, bet gerbiantis, vizionierius, bet labai praktiškas savo gyvenimo kelyje. Net ir dabar jis komentuoja JAV prezidento veiklą, krizę, dalyvauja aktyviai visuomenės gyvenime ir daro didelę įtaką, nes biznio pasaulyje jis yra CEO Nr. 1. Aš tikiu, kad jo MBA on-line programa bus sėkminga ir surinks daug studentų iš viso pasaulio. Tarp kitko, jo nuomone, pats geriausias menedžerio tipas – tai žmogus, kuris turi pastoriaus ir tėvo savybes, nes toks žmogus gali atleisti ir daryti kartais skaudžius sprendimus neįžeisdamas ir su dideliu jautrumu.

O paskutinis klausimas jo knygoje “Kaip jūs manote, ar jūs pateksite į dangų?” buvo priimtas su tokia Jack Welch replika: “Tikiuosi, tai galima priskirti ilgalaikio planavimo sričiai!” Bet, Jack Welch nori, kad jį prisimintų kaip žmogų, kuris padėjo kitiems augti ir būti sėkmingiems. Lyderystė – ne apie tave, o apie kitus. Jo žodžiais tariant, Jack Welch nori išlikti atmintyje kaip “candor and meritocrasy” (atvirumo ir sistemos, kur žmonės vertinami pagal sugebėjimus)  advokatas.

Dar apie dangų: “Aš nesu tobulas, bet kadangi stengiausi rūpintis žmonėmis visomis savo jėgomis, tai gal ir turiu šansą ten patekti… Bet netgi ir jį turėdamas, nenoriu tai sužinoti greitu laiku, nes aš turiu dar tiek daug nuveikti!” – užbaigia senelis, kuris jau prieš septynis metus nustojo žaisti golfą ir pergyveno jau ne vieną chirurginę operaciją, bet kaip ir anksčiau yra pilnas jėgų ir energijos. Senelis, nes turi ne tik keturis vaikus, bet ir devynis anūkus. Gaila, tik kad moterys su savo “grožybėmis” apsuko jį aplink pirštą. Jo antros skyrybos kainavo jam tik “menką” sumą, virš trisdešimt milijonų dolerių.

Nenustebkite, bet tokie miestai kaip Bostonas, kuriame yra geriausi pasaulio universitetai (Harvardas, Kembridžas ir Bostono universitetas) turi didžiulį nusikalstamumą. Iš tikrųjų JAV valstybinių mokyklų nebaigia net 30% besimokančiųjų. Kur tie 30% nebaigusių mokyklą mokinių patenka? Atspėsite, manau, iš pirmo karto. Taip, į gatvę. Į gatvės gaujas, taip vadinamus “street gangs” gretas.

Būtent apie tai ir kalba šis Harvard Business School paruoštas atvejis, kurį pristačiau “Church Management” paskaitoje. Istorija galima pradėti nuo Martino Liuterio King’o ir segregacijos. Mes žinome, kad Martino Liuterio King’o svajonė, kad juodaodžių diskriminavimas JAV išnyktų, buvo įgyvendintas (Obama).

Tačiau septintame ir aštuntame dešimtmečiuose prasidėjo priešingas procesas – desegregacija. Nors JAV įstatymai, teisinė bazė ir net politikai, viskas už tai, kad juodaodžių teisės būtų lygios su visais, tačiau tikrovėje didmiesčiuose egzistuoja “neighbourhoods”, t.y. ištisi rajonai, kur gyvena beveik šimtu procentu tik vienos rasės atstovai. Taip ir Bostone yra rajonai, kur juodaodžių tik 1% arba priešingai, kur baltaodžių yra tik 10%. Ką nusprendė teisėjai, norėdami pakeisti padėtį? Jie pradėjo “desegregaciją”, t.y. mokiniai nelankė mokyklą, kuri buvo pašonėje, o autobusais buvo vežami į mokyklas kituose rajonuose, kur visos rasės turėjo būti atstovaujamos lygiomis dalimis. Aišku, pripratę prie savo saugaus rajono, kur visi balti ar juodi, paaugliai paskelbė karą vienas kitam ir net suaugusiems.

Buvo organizuojamos gaujos, kurios turėjo užtikrinti, kad jų kaimynystė būtų apsaugota nuo kitų gaujų. Tėvai paskelbė 24/7 taisyklę, kai vaikai grįžę po mokyklos neišeidavo iš namų 7 dienas per savaitę ir 24 val. per parą. 1990-aisiais krekas-kokainas buvo naujovė, kuri leido jauniems paaugliams tapti turtingiems per labai trumpą laiką. Gaujos tapo organizuotos, gerai ginkluotos ir nebesiskaitė su niekuo.

Taip 1992-aisiais Bostone buvo užregistruota virš 1000 susišaudymų ir beveik 200 jaunesnių nei 17 metų paaglių buvo nužudyti - nušauti ar nudurti gatvių karuose. Viso to viršūnė buvo “Morning Star Baptist” bažnyčioje, kai buvo laidojama eilinio susišaudymo auka ir tuo metu, kai buvo vardijami velionio nuopelnai ir gerosios savybės, į bažnyčią įsiveržė keliolika paauglių ir visų akivaizdoje užpuolė kitos gaujos narį, dalyvaujantį laidotuvėse.

Jie sumušė jį ir jis buvo nuveštas į ligoninę su devyniais peilio dūriais gyvas tik dėka keletos vyrų, kurie apgynė jį nuo sužvėrėjusios gaujos. Šis įvykis perpildė kantrybės taurę ir atsirado žmonių, kurie nutarė veikti. Gal daug kas iš jūsų yra nusiteikęs prieš religiją, tačiau keletas juodaodžių pastorių pasiekė, kad po keletos metų, t.y. 1997-1998 ištisus aštuonioliką mėnesių nebuvo nušautas nė vienas paauglys. Šis Bostono atvejis žiniasklaidoje žinomas kaip Bostono stebuklas (the Boston Miracle).

Kas įvyko? Dvylika pastorių nutarė veikti. Jie ėmė vaikščioti kiekvieno penktadienio naktį pačiomis baisiausiomis Bostono gatvėmis, eidavo į tokius užkaborius, kur tamsiu paros metu drįsdavo įžengti tik SWAT komandos su oro priedanga. Juos labai paveikė vieno narkotikų dylerio žodžiai: “Jūs esate pastoriai, jūs pamokslaujate bažnyčiose, kalbate, bet ar jūs esate šalia, kai jūsų reikia? Ne, po pamokslo sekmadienį jūs grįžtate namo, į savo gražų namą, į savo šeimą saugiame rajone. Mes laikome savo duris atidarytas 24/7 ir paaugliai bet kada užėję gaus narkotikų.”

Jie ne tik vaikščiojo po tamsiausias Bostono vietas penktadienio naktimis, jie ketvirtadienio vakarais eidavo į esamų ar potencialių gaujos narių namus ir bendraudavo su jų šeimomis. Per pertraukas mokykloje, vakarais krepšinio aikštelėje, visur kur tik įmanoma, jie ėjo ir bendravo su gatvės žudikais, grobikais, narkotikų dyleriais ir visais kitais blogiukais.

Kaip vėliau papasakojo pastorius Brown, – jis suvokė, kad visi tie ginkluoti, grandinėmis ir džinsais nukritusiais iki kelių apsikarstę paaugliai yra tik vaikai, kurie ieško tėvo vaidmenį atliekančio suaugusio. Tikro tėvo, ne tokio kokį jie turi kažkur  - gal kalėjime, gal kitur…

Labai dažnai gatvių gaujos jiems atstoja šeimą, nes čia jie yra priimti ir vertinami.

Ilgainiui pastorių liko tik trys, tačiau jie įgavo ne tik paauglių pasitikėjimą, jais ėmė pasitikėti ir su jais tartis visos valdžios struktūros: policija, teismai, mokyklų administracija, šeimos ir visa bendruomenė. Jie sugebėjo koordinuoti visų jų veiklą taip sėkmingai, kad jų žodis praktiškai nulemdavo paauglio likimą. Dažnai paauglių nepavykdavo išgelbėti, nes nepklausę pastoriaus jie pasitikdavo mirtį nuo perdozavimo ar kulkos. Bet jie asmeniškai rūpinosi ne tik šimtais, bet tūkstančiais paauglių atiduodami visą save, miegodami po keturias valandas, dėl pervargimo ir per didelio krūvio kartas nuo karto atsiguldami į ligoninę, prarasdami savo šeimą, nes žmona nematydavo savo vyro per dienas ir naktis.

Tačiau jie išgelbėjo daug gyvybių, vietoj mirties pasirinkę gyvenimą paaugliai įstodavo į koledžą arba susirasdavo legalų darbą. Visi kiti Amerikos miestai ėmė domėtis, pastoriai pateko ant “Times” viršelio ir į Baltuosius Rūmus, kur juos priėmė Bušas ir Klintonas. Jie tapo tokiais įtakingais, kad jei būtų panorėję, būtų galėję tapti senatoriais ar kongresmenais.

Tačiau jie dirbo savo darbą ir nepaisydami finansinių ar kitokių sunkumų, jie gelbėjo gyvybes ir gyvenimus. Problemos prasidėjo dėl nesutarimų tarp trijų pastorių, nes kiekvienas turėjo savo charakterį ir kiekvienas norėjo būti bosas. Galų gale 1999-aisiais jų koalicija žlugo. Šiandien dienai jau virš penkiasdešimt Bostono paauglių per metus palieka šį pasaulį ne savo noru. Tik pastorius Jeffrey Brown liko ištikimas šiam uždaviniui, praradęs savo šeimą ir patyręs skyrybas, jis atkūrė veiklą su dviejų milijonų dolerių biudžetu ir keturiasdešimt darbuotojų-savanorių.

Kova už gyvybes tęsiasi. Tai aš pavadinčiau pačia tikrąją NAMŲ BAŽNYČIOS veikla, tai yra tai ką turėtų daryti Palaimintos šeimos, pradėdamos nuo tokių vietų, kurias galima pavadinti pragaru. Argi ne tai mesijo misija išgelbėti net pragare esančius?

Aš išskyriau keletą pamokų iš šios istorijos, kurios tiktų ne tik Susivienijimo bažnyčiai ir bet kuriai religijai, bet ir bet kuriai šeimai ar sąžiningam žmogui. Visų pirma vietoj to, kad kalbėti apie problemą, reikia eiti ir daryti. Antra, pradžioje reikia išklausyti, o tik vėliau veikti išvien, vis klausiant “ar būtent to jums reikia?” Trečia, bendradarbiavimas tarp skirtingų institucijų, grupių, žmonių yra raktas į sėkmę.

Kokius trūkumus aš pastebėjau: pirma, pastoriai “sudegė” nuo pervargimo ir asmeninių aplinkybių naštos. Antra, “vienišo kario” kelias neveda į sėkmę. Kitaip tariant jų patirtis liko nepadauginta, kaip sakoma “vienas lauke ne karys”. Įvardindamas žodžiu ”vienas” turiu omenyje priešingybę “šeima”. Tuoj paaiškinsiu.

Visų šių paauglių problemų šaknis yra neveiksni šeima, todėl jie pasirinko gatvės gaują, kuri pakeitė šeimą. Būtent pastoriai nežiūrint į visas jų pastangas neparodė paaugliams sveikos šeimos pavyzdžio, kuriuo jie galėtų sekti, todėl jie ir liko “vienas”.

Antra problemų šaknis yra rasizmas. Paaugliai siejo savo tapatybę su savo rase, tai buvo svarbi vertybė jiems, panašiai kaip gauja-šeima, kuriai jie norėjo priklausyti ir ją gynė. Iš mano pastabų jau turėtų būti aišku ką aš siūlyčiau, norint šį sėkmingą modelį paversti ilgalaikiu ir pasiekti, kad taikus Bostonas be susišaudymų, žudynių, smurto taptų kasdienybe, o taip pat ir likęs pasaulis. Aš matau, kad tai gali padaryti tik sveika šeima, jos modelis, kuris būtų paskleistas į šalies ir pasaulio lygmenį. Būtent čia religijos gali suvaidinti pagrindinį vaidmenį, bendradarbiaudamos tarpusavyje sprendžiant socialines problemas.

Susivienijimo bažnyčia šiandien yra pačiame centre, nes jos pagrindas – šeima. Trūkumai, kuriuos matau Susivienijimo bažnyčioje net plika akimi, yra šie:

• Per daug kalbame, nuo konferencijų net galva sukasi. Reikia “action, action and action”. Panašiai kaip filme su Briuce Willis “Kietas riešutėlis”.
• Mūsų bažnyčios skleidžiamas mokymas, idealas, utopija ar ideologija dažnai yra per daug abstraktūs. Jei jau krikščionys, paėmę paprastą istoriją apie Jėzų, kuris buvo nukryžiuotas už mūsų nuodėmes ir prisikėlė, sugebėjo pakeisti pasaulį, ar neturėtume mes, turėdami gyvą Mesiją su mumis, pakeisti pasaulį jau šiandien?
• Mūsų veiklos metodai remiasi aklu tikėjimu, o ne profesionalizmu “business approach”, todėl dažnai didžiulės pastangos, lėšos ir laikas yra skiriami tam, kas nėra efektyvu ir pamatuota. Mes naudojame tuos pačius metodus, kuriuos naudojome prieš penkiasdešimt metų ir mes galvojame, kad būdas, kuris buvo veiksmingas Japonijoje, bus veiksmingu ir Lietuvoje ar Čilėje.

Mano pasiūlymas paprastas: išmokti iš geriausių; bendradarbiauti su geriausiais; tapti geriausiais!

Mano skaidrių paskaita PDF formate yra čia: http://www.box.net/shared/396omb10ip

Esu nustebęs, nes ką tik peržiūrėjau Heung Jin Nim vakar dienos pamokslą, kurio metu buvo pademonstruotas reportažas apie Susivienijimo bažnyčią. CBS arba Christian Broadcasting System yra didžiausia Pietų Korėjos krikščionių žiniasklaidos kompanija, kurios TV ir radijo programos turi apie 10 milijonų abonentų vien tik Korėjoje. Šis reportažas – tokia nuostabi reklama mūsų bažnyčiai, kad, mano nuomone, jie geriau galvoja apie Susivienijimo bažnyčią nei aš.

Siūlau pasižiūrėti patiems. Jei nenorite žiūrėti viso Heing Jin Nim pamoklso, o tik CBS reportažą, tai jo pradžia 28:40, o pabaiga 41:35 nuo video pradžios. Reportažas parodo tikslius faktus kas šiuo metu vyksta mūsų judėjime Pietų Korėjoje. Krikščionys atrodo susirūpinę, bet jų žodžiuose nėra ugnelės, todėl jie jau dvasiškai prisipažino esą pralaimėję, kovodami prieš Susivienijimo bažnyčią.

Reportažas toks geras, kad, jei jis būtų sukurtas mūsų bažnyčios pastangomis, aš nebūčiau juo patikėjęs. Būčiau manęs, kad mes esame linkę pagrąžinti savo veiklą ir darbus. Tačiau, kada mūsų pagrindiniai seni oponentai, jau daugiau kaip pusšimtį metų kovoję ir persekioję Susivienijimo bažnyčią, taip išdėstė reikalus yra stebėtina. Anksčiau jie ne tik mus pravardžiavo sektantais, bet ir dažnai imdavosi veiksmų, net smurto, kad sustabdyti ir visiškai sunaikinti Sun Myung Moon. Dabar, jei aš būčiau krikščionis, rimtai pagalvočiau – o gal Tikrasis Tėvas vis dėl to Mesijas?

Norėdami pasižiūrėti patys, nes pagalvosite, kad ir aš pagražinau kaip Susivienijimo bažnyčios narys, sekite nuorodą:

http://www.ustream.tv/recorded/2412773

Jei nesuprantate angliškai, aš patalpinu reportažo tekstą, kurį galite išsiversti su Google translate:

Recently the UC (Unification Church) invested a large sum of money to purchase the Yongsan Community Center. Voices of concern have been raised about the UC’s recent steps to secure its domain through real estate purchases.

This move by UC to make large capital investments marks an increase in non-religious activities by the church which has led to concern and confusion among the Korean religious community.

Before we go further, let’s watch this video:

“True Father is the King of Peace. and he is working to complete the unfinished mission of Jesus.”

Large capital investments ranging from real estate, to education, sports, recreation and leisure facilities… diverse beverage products, pharmaceuticals.

Today, Korea is becoming the holy homeland of the Unification Church. Let’s join Deokwon Kim to take a closer look.

- Good afternoon, Mr. Kim. Can you start by giving us a brief explanation of what kind of religious teaching the UC follows.

- The UC has long been proud of its economic strength. The church’s power can be felt not only in the religious sphere, but also in the financial sector, the cultural sector and the media.

The church has branches in fifteen countries, including the United States, Japan and about four million followers around the world. Let’s look at each area separately:

- It seams the most visible work of the church is in real estate sector and related fields.

- The UC is expanding its influence by making sizeable investments in land and real estate all around the country. Let’s take a look at the next video clip:

-The UC recently purchased the Yongsan Community Center in Seoul. The purchase of the property which cover 4900 m2 is said to have cost 70 million dollars. Plans are to develop the property into a shrine to world peace and unification, including worship facilities to accomodate 20,000 followers. The center will be used to offer praise and devotion with a variety of diffrent styles of worship services. With the facilities of the Segye Ilbo (daily newspapaer)located in the same neighbourhood there are concerns that the relocation of the headquaters of the UC to the Yongsan area will give the church too much influence in the area.

“I remember these people saying a while ago that at some point time will come when Christians and the rest of society would have no choice, but to make use of the enterprises that we are operating.”

- Also, the UC town that has been built at Cheongpyeong is referred to by members of the church as their original holy ground. The building site is huge, covering 26 million m2 and 320 million dollars has been spent developing it. The site already includes an international training center, a hospital, a middle school and high school, a seminary as well as a museum and a senior citizen’s rezidential center and other facilities and is being organized and developed as a dedicated UC rezidential community. In addition, the church has revealed plans to develop an extensive beach resort area in Yeosu on Korea’s south coast. Work has also begun and rental contracts are being accepted for a business center in Yoido (tai sala, kurios reikšė Seule, kaip Manheteno Niujorke) that is being constructed on a scale four times the 63 building (buvęs pastatas).

“We can not help but be concerned with the UC reaching beyond Cheongpyeong to Pyeongyang and Yeosu, and aggresively expanding their influence all across the country.”

- As you can see from this scene, the UC has tremendous financial recources. Therefore, whether we know it or not, their influence probably touches our lives in a number of ways.

- That’s right. The UC is particularly focused on the financial and political sectors. The Tongil group has 15 affiliated companies and is ranked 70th among nation’s businesses, with annual sales of 830 million dollars. In addition, with the media and advertising impact of Segye Ilbo, Cheongshim International Academy middle and high school and the Sun Hwa Arts middle and high schools, and Kyungbok Elementary school in the education sector, and the Peace Cup International soccer tournament in the sports and leisure sector, the church is spreading int influence in many diverse areas.

Let’s discuss further as we watch this next video segment.

Some believe that the UC will hold the biggest stake in the 2012 Expo in Yeosu. One reason is that the UC’s Ilsung Construction is working on a large scale development in Yeosu covering about 10 million m2, with an estimate construction cost of 1,2 billion dollars. Land prices in the area have already skyrosketed to twice what they were. Experts in the area estimate that by the time of the Expo, the income from this investment will reach several billion dollars.

It is said that the UC plans to invest this income in the political sector. In the last general elections, candidates entered the race for national assembly seats in 240 districts under the Peace Unification Family Party.

“They are able to work in all areas, including political campaigns and they have made large-scale preparations to do so.”

- As you can see in the video the UC is involved in a whole range of areas, including politics, economics, the media, culture and sports. There must be some reason that the UC is working in all of these diverse areas.

- As a religion, the UC has clear reason for this kind of work. The church can expand its missionary activities by accumulating financial resources. The UC uses income from its businesses and land investments to support its work to spread the church’s theology. They can be seen as stepping stones to help the church’s leader, Sun Myung Moon, to complete his mission as the Lord of the Second Advent. In particular, this most recent real estate investment by the UC represents an extension of the church’s holy ground. Let’s hear a few words from the administrative director of the Korean Christian Exchange Federation, who escaped after 31 years of working as the UC minister.

“The UC teaches that Jesus was unable to complete his mission because he did not have a country that believed in him. Because of this the UC is buying a lot of land to create God’s nation. They are working to develop the land into a holy nation.”

- In that case, this sounds like another effort to gain converts.

- Yes. One method is by offering free travel opportunities. For example, tour groups are formed, who then visit Japan, the US, China and other places with the church covering the costs of the airfare and lodging to participants at a minimal cost. Following the trip, participants are sent promotional materials inviting them to participate in church activities. Also, the church offers to help find marriage partners for men searching for wives, reccomending that they join one of the church’s mass weddings. They also operate video centers, where they invite people to come and hear good messages, without revealing that they are from UC. They also sponsor a lot of events like golf tournament, fishing tournaments or marathons. Christians should not participate.

- The UC seems to have very diverse range of activities. In addition to UC activities here in South Korea, aren’t they also involved in joint business ventures with the North Korea?

- In May 1987 the UC organized a group called the Citizens Federation for North-South Unification. In January 1991, church leader Sun Myung Moon met with North Korea’s President, the late Kim Il Sung. And signed an agreement to work toward North-South exchange, which led to the start of the church’s joint business ventures with the North. The UC’s joint ventures with the North were revealed to be flourishing in the later period, following the financial assistance offered to the North by Korean society in the 1990s, the UC’s ventures in the North have been assesed as being more financially succesful and on a larger scale than those of other South Korean organizations.

- If that is the case, we should take a look at what kind of ventures the UC is conducting in North Korea. Let’s look at the video:

The center of the UC’s North Korean ventures is the Pyonghwa Motor Company, which produces eight models of automobiles which are being sold in the North. There is also the Botong River Hotel and the World Peace Center in Pyeongyang, the one million m2 Peace Park and family church are also among the enterprises that the UC is currently operating in North Korea.

- But I have heard that church leader Sun Myung Moon is getting to a very advanced age. And after the helicopter accident last year, I have also heard that he is passing on responsibility for the church to his successors.

- Yes, I heard that recently there was a 90th birthday banquet for Rev. Moon. There is a speculation about what direction the church, including Sun Myung Moon’s successors would take if anything were to happen to him. Recently we have seen some of Sun Myung Moon’s children taking over in leadership positions. The responsibility for religious and financial workings of the church have been handed over to Rev. Moon’s children. In particular, it is clear that Sun Myung Moon’s seventh son, Hyung Jin Moon is taking responsibility fro the religious activity of the church. And other preparations, both doctrinal and substancial, are being made to support this transition. Recently Sun Myung Moon’s successor participated in his 90′th birthday celebration and support staff needs are being assessed to strenghten his ongoing leadership abilities.

- So, work is being done to more the the task of succession along, and the UC continues to expand. It seems like urgent meassures are needed to block this expansion. Is there a reaction that can be seen in the religious community?

- Yes, in 2003, Korean Christians formed the Korean Federation to Oppose the UC, which is working to expose the evils and abuse in the UC. This federation is founded by Juncheon Park, who escaped from UC in 2001. Currently his wife, Yeongseon Lee serves as the Federation’s administrative director and is leading activities aimed at the blocking the UC’s efforts to expand. The Federation provides churches throughout the country with information about the UC’s heretical teachings. Activities have been organized to urge the discountinuance of the Peace Cup Soccer Tournament and to boycott the sales of Tongil Group products. In addition, most recently the UC’s plans in relation to the 2012 Yeosu Expo have been exposed. Another key focus of the group is the support, protection and re-education of those who have escaped from the UC.

- It sounds like the Federation is doing some very important work. This seems like a good time to take a close look at the UC, which is moving forward through massive financial investment and at the massive scale of operations.

- One of the most dissapointing things I discovered while researching this story is that while the influence of the UC continues to expand, the Federation has been working under very poor conditions while tackling this large problem. One secretary and the director, who is a working mother are working in a space of barely 10 m2. The federation has been working for 5 years now, facing severe financial dificulties and fierce resistance from UC in the form of lawsuits and legal meneuvers making it difficult for the Federation to meke progress in their work.

- They are doing such an important work, it’s a shame that they are having such difficulties. Finally, what steps must our churches and followers take in order to reduce the risk of damage at the hands of the UC?

- The UC shrewdly imitating Christian Churches, following the pattern of a traditional Christian Church. This means that the most important thing is to know about the UC. In addition to education and media, religion and business, in our society at large there are more than 500 UC products that can be found in our daily lives, including bverages and pharmaceuticals unfortunately. I can not list all of them to you. If you get assistance from the Federation which we mentioned earlier you can get much more detailed information about the UC. Also, they present lectures in churches about the UC so, that members of our congregations can gain a better understanding of the UC heretical teachings and infiltration tactics.

- The Bible warns that false prophets will arise in the last days and among many heretical religions, the UC with its strong financial influence has deeply infiltrated our daily lives. We must approach this mission with faith and wisdom. Thank you to Daukwon Kim for today’s report.

Įvyko santuokos Palaiminimo ceremonija, kuri įdomi ir mums, Susivienijimo bažnyčios nariams jau dalyvavusiems tokioje ceremonijoje. Kodėl? Nes joje turėjo dalyvauti visi, net ir anksčiau gavusios Palaiminimą šeimos. Tikrasis Tėvas skuba, nes Dievo tvarkaraštis nelaukia. Atėjo laikas, kad visas pasaulis gautų Palaiminimą. Mesijui jau devyniasdešimt, todėl, atstovaudami visą pasaulį mes gavome Palaiminimą, o ateityje, net ir Tikrajam Tėvui nesant gyvam, visi galės gauti Palaiminimą.

Nežinodami Dieviško Principo ir netikėdami Dievu, jūs atsakysite: “Kam man tas Palaiminimas? Mano šeima ir be jo laikosi gerai.” Tačiau, visi gimstame su gimtąja nuodėme, kurią paveldėjome po Adomo ir Ievos nuopuolio. Ne tik krikščionys, bet ir budistai, induistai, musulmonai ir net ateistai sukuria šeimas, kurios daugina šėtono giminę. Todėl žmonės po nuopuolio yra Dievo priešo šėtono vaikai.

Tik Mesijo suteiktas Palaiminimas gali nukirsti giminystės ryšį su šėtonu. Šėtonas – tai puolęs angelas, sukurtas kaip Dievo ir žmogaus tarnas, iki šiol valdė puolusius žmones.

Kiek kartų mes darėme tai, ko nenorėjome daryti, kiek kartų mūsų sąžinė jautėsi išduota ir manipuliuojama? Kiek kartų mes gailėjomės išsprūdusio žodžio ar veiksmo, kuris įskaudino kitą ir išvijo meilę. Argi ne tai vyksta visą istoriją tarp tėvų ir vaikų, brolių ir seserų, vyro ir žmonos?

Tik nukirsta gimtoji nuodėmė perkelia žmoniją į Dievo vaikų padėtį, kurioje mes galime didžiuotis, kad esame geri, nuostabūs, idealūs ir mūsų gyvenimo pagrindas meilė. Iki tol mes bėgome kaip voverė ratu, nes blogis vis sugrįžtavo: nukirtus galvą drakonui, vietoj jos išdygdavo trys.

Žmonės beveik priprato prie tokios padėties ir net krikščionys nusprendė, kad idealus pasaulis, Dangaus Karalystė įmanomi tik po mirties, dvasiniame pasaulyje. O daug kas nutatė, kad Dievo nėra, todėl neverta stengtis, o geriau gauti kuo daugiau tol kol esi gyvas…

“Gauti kuo daugiau kūniškų pamatuojamų malonumų, nes viskas kas esi, tai žemės dulkė…” – sako dabartinė popkultūra.

Koks svarbus yra Mesijas? Jis svarbesnis už visą žmoniją kartu paėmus, nes jis yra čempionas, kuris nugali blogį kartą ir visiems laikams. Juolab, jis parodo ir mums kelią, kuriuo eidami, mes galime padaryti tą patį. Todėl gavus Palaiminimą ir atsikračius gimtosios nuodėmės, mūsų kelias turi eiti paskui Mesiją, atkartojant jo gyvenimo kelią.

Apie tai aš noriu parašyti savo magistro darbą. Apie “giminės mesijo” kelią, kuriuo mes visi privalome nueiti, nes visos Palaimintos šeimos – tai maži mesijai. Mes stovime aukštesnėje padėtyje nei Jėzus, nes jis buvo nužudytas dar prieš sukurdamas šeimą. Mes būsime sėkmingi.

Būdamas čia išgirstu visokių naujienų, kai kurios iš jų blogos, net labai. Tikrasis Tėvas neveltui paskelbė tris taisykles, kurių nevalia sulaužyti:

   1. Saugoti savo giminės kraujo liniją (skaistybė iki vedybų ir ištikimybė santuokoje, vienas vyras ir viena moteris visai amžinybei).

   2. Nepiktnaudžiauti viešomis lėšomis.

   3. Neįžeisti brolių ir seserų širdies.

Tos taisyklės skirtos Susivienijimo bažnyčios nariams ir jos parodo tai, kuo serga mūsų bažnyčia. Jei vyras ar žmona, gavę santuokos Palaiminimą, vis tiek galvoja apie kitus, jie neverti meilės.

Jei bažnyčios pastorius, kurio atsakomybėje yra narių paaukotos dešimtinės, o kartais ir viskas, ką jie turi, tačiau jis lošia ir pralošia akcijų biržoje bendras lėšas, po mirties jo laukia pragaras.

Jei vietinis bažnyčios vadovas taip susirūpinęs rezultatu, jog nepastebi žmonių aplink, stengdamasis “išspausti” viską iš narių, jis žeidžia jų orumą ir skaudina jų širdis. Jam ne vieta mūsų bažnyčioje. Jei jis išdidžiai vaikšto, kaip povas, papūtęs uodegą ir laukia, kad jį garbintų, jis nesupranta Dievo širdies ir nėra pas jį Jo meilės.

Nesenai įvyko santuokos Palaiminimas. Spalio 14-ą Pietų Korėjoje, Sun Moon universitete susirinko 20.000 žmonių, iš jų pusė – tai poros, kurios naujai tuokiasi, o likę tai tie, kurie gavo Palaiminimą anksčiau. Dar 20.000 susirinko dalyvaudami ceremonijoje savo šalyje, stebėdami ceremoniją, gautą Internetu. Tačiau vėl esame priversti gerti šventą vyną ir vėl gauti Palaiminimą. Kodėl? Nes esame jį pažeidę, nes Palaiminimas taip ir liko tik žodis, o ne mūsų kūnas ir kraujas.

Kad gyventi palaimintą ir šventą gyvenimą ne tik, kad reikia nelaužyti trijų taisyklių, dar daugiau, reikia paveldėti Dievo tikrą meilę ir perduoti likusiam pasauliui. Mes, Palaimintos šeimos, pasirodėme prastai. Todėl Mesijas, Tikrieji Tėvai, priversti vėl kviesti mus dar kartą pereiti per vartus, kad patekti į Dangaus Karalystę.

Tačiau dvasinė realybė yra šalia. Dvasinis pasaulis irgi dalyvauja visuose įvykiuose, supančiuose Tikruosius Tėvus. Jie yra daug svarbesni už prezidentą Barack Obamą ar visus įvykius, kurie vyksta pasaulyje. Tikrieji Tėvai yra Dievo dėmesio ir apvaizdos centras.

Man buvo sunku, todėl nerašiau. Dabar rašau, nes po truputį atsigaunu. Taip, daug kas kaltina Tikruosius Tėvus dėl kitų klaidų: nes jis buvo vedęs tris kartus (jis nebūtų to daręs, jei pirmos dvi žmonos nebūtų palikę jo ir Dievo), nes bažnyčios nariai elgiasi laužydami nustatytas tris taisykles ieškodami naudos sau (toli gražu ne visi). Tikrasis Tėvas santuokos Palaiminimo metu tuo pačiu atšventė ir savo penkiasdešimties metų santuokos su Tikrąja Mama, Hak Ja Han Moon, jubiliejų. Jie kartu susilaukė keturiolikos vaikų ir ji buvo sėkminga kaip moteris, žmona, mama ir ji ne tik šventoji, bet ir Šventos Dvasios iš Trejybės įkūnijimas.

Čia pateikiu vieno dvasiškai atviro brolio, kuris dalyvavo ceremonijoje ir matė dvasinio pasaulio viziją, pasakojimą. Paskaitykite:

VISION OF THE GATES OF HEAVEN  seen by Phillip Hill

I saw a huge crowd of people, unfathomable in number, millions/billions.  They were all wearing holy robes, and so I knew they were all blessed ancestors and absolute good spirits in the spirit world.  The crowd was gathering from 4 different corners all moving to a cerntral point where there was a door.  To imagine an ant next to a huge gate, may give some idea of the proportion.  Not only was this gate enormous, reaching up into the clouds, it was also solid gold and metres thicker than any banks’ safe vault.  This gate was cast into rock, like a cliff face that it seemed completely imprenetrable from any kind of force known to man.  though it is beyond imagination that this door could ever open due to the size and solidity of it, all these billions of blessed ancestors are in front waiting for the moment of its opening on the 14th of October. 

While watching this incredible scene, I also heard thousands of strong voices singing together.  It seems they were actually practicing for the event on the 14th where they will be singing Handel’s Messiah.  This only added to the awe instilling atmosphere.

When viewed from above, the whole image was encompassed within the shape of our unification church symbol.  The four directions that the absolute good spirits were moving in from were the four corners of the symbol and not only was there one huge gate, but about 12, surrounding the central core.  I was not able to see through the closed door but I know that compared to the barren wasteland that was outside where the masses are waiting, there is an oasis of beauty on the side where God is.

Many of these gates were already unlocked by Father in the past and like the 12 gates of heaven, they are an opening for God to be freed from the prison he has been enclosed in since the beginning of the creation and finally be able to ‘walk the earth’ more substantially than ever before, through those that are receiving the blessing.

For quite a while now I have felt the general spirtual atmosphere becoming more and more intense as this important occasion approaches.  If only people would see the spiritual significance of this grand event.  No one would ever have been able to open these gigantic gates to heaven if it were not for our True Parents.  This must be why they are so desperate to achieve these victories in their lifetime, and so it must be that the cheon song (devotion) that the true family is doing must be incredible to have the power to open such a gate.  As Father said if it were not done now by him it would take humanity centuries to reach the level and strength of being able to open such a direct path to God.

Therefore, I hope with all sincerity that everyone takes the time to pray and try to understand the value of such a providential and historic grace that we are so lucky to be a part of and benefit from.  This is so much more valuable than $1,000 (He is referring to the requested blessing donation).  This is a priceless blessing from heaven that we have the grace of experiencing in our earthly lives.  Let us share this blessing with as many as we can and offer as much sincerity and devotion as we can to support our True Parents in this enormous task.  Let us not take this time for granted, but use it as an opportunity to bring great victory and blessing for all our future descendents that they will be free to experience the true kingdom of heaven, Cheon Il Guk.

1994-ais Wendy Cop buvo pripažinta Time Magazine kaip viena iš 40-ies geriausių lyderių (iki 40 metų). Jos noras prieš įkuriant “Teach For America” (TFA) buvo noras palikti socialinį pėdsaką visuomenėje. Studijuodama Princetown universitete, jis ieškojo socialinės problemos, kurią imtųsi spręsti. Vienoje iš konferencijų išgirdusi apie nelygias švietimo galimybes skirtingose mokyklose, ji nutarė mobilizuoti Ivy lygos universitetų auklėtinius, kad jie, pabaigę universitetą, skirtų du metus mokytojavimui pačiose blogiausiose mokyklose.

Wendy Cop  buvo drovi ir nerangi mokinė mokykloje, tačiau, matydama daug geresnius už save mokinius, ji nutarė juos įveikti pasiekimuose tiesiog investuodama ir dirbdama daugiau nei bet kuris kitas. Ji pateko į geriausių mokinių dešimtuką (iš 400) ir įstojo į Princetown universitetą. Princetown universitete, be savo studijų, ji dirbo po 70 val. per savaitę vadovaudama studentų organizacijai, kuri leido žurnalus ir rengdavo konferencijas. Čia ji išmoko tų pagrindų, kurie vėliau pravertė kuriant TFA. Jos magistro darbas ir buvo TFA įkūrimo pagrindimas.

Baigusi universitetą, ji ėmė dirbti po 100 val. per savaitę ir pasiekė stulbinančių rezultatų. 1990-ais metais, gavusi pusę milijono dolerių pradžiai, ji mobilizavo 500 savanorių iš geriausių universitetų ir organizacija ėmė augti.

Pagal organizacijos planą, 2010 metais ji turės 8000 savanorių įvairiose JAV mokyklose. Pasiekimai per šiuos beveik dvidešimt metų tikrai įspūdingi: svarbiausias iš jų, jog vaikai per metus įgauna pusantrų metų vertės akademines žinias. 2005 metais TFA biudžetas jau 60 milijonų dolerių ir 2010-ais metais planuojama pasiekti 100 milijonų vertės biudžeto veiklą.

Mano kolegė, Marry Curry iš Vašingtono, Susivienijimo bažnyčios antra karta (tėtis japonas, mama baltaodė amerikietė), baigusi seminariją planuoja įstoti į TFA. Ji ir pristatė šį atvejį antradienį. Buvo tikrai įdomu.

Didžiausias Wendy Cop iššūkis buvo padaryti organizaciją stabilia finansiškai. Praėjus trims metams po jos įkūrimo, jos vykdoma veikla atvedė TFA į 2,5 miljono dolerių vertės skolą. Pavyko ją įveikti tik įkūrus aiškią strategiją ir pasitelkus profesionalią managmento programą. 1995 metais buvo sudarytas penkmečio planas. Jo penki prioritetai buvo šie: pasiekti finansinį stabilumą, palaikyti centrines planavimo veiklas, padidinti personalo kvalifikaciją, pagerinti organizacijos patikimumą ir skaidrumą ir paįvairinti pagalbą bendruomenėms.

Šiuo metu daug žmonių, baigusių TFA dveijų metų programą užima svarbius postus JAV vyriausybėje ir valstijose, kurie susiję su švietimu ir mokyklų reforma. Jie remia TFA ir Wendy Cop ir aktyviai dalyvauja jos veikloje netiesiogiai.

Man patiko ši istorija, kurią pristatau trumpai. Norintiems daugiau sužinoti apie Wendy Cop, siūlau perskaityti jos knygą, išleistą 2001 metais: “One day, all children…The unlikely triumph for America and what I learned along the way”.

Ji paskatino mane pamąstyti apie savo tikslus gyvenime. Iš tikrųjų ir aš norėčiau pakeisti visuomenę, sprendžiant socialines problemas. Mane domina šios sritys:

1. Religinė (bažnyčios įkūrimas arba Palaimintų šeimų bendruomenė).
2. Edukacinė (mokyklos įkūrimas arba on-line education).
3. Media (žiniasklaidos priemonės įkūrimas – broadcasting ministry).

Kai kuo esu panašus į Wendy Cop: esu drovus ir nerangus, o dažniausiai mokykloje turėjau geresnius rezultatus, kadangi miegojau mažiau ir mokiausi daugiau. Tą darau ir dabar, nuo pirmadienio iki penktadienio miegu po keturias val., o savaitgalį po šešias.

Kokias problemas spręstų bažnyčia? Manau, visus jaudina šeimos padėtis. Tiek daug skyrybų nebuvo Lietuvos ir pasaulio istorijoje. Tiek daug paauglių, kurie įbrenda į seksą per anksti. Todėl šeimų bendruomenė būtų pačiame šios problemos sprendimo centre.

Ką darytų mokykla? Ji paremtų šeimą, ji jaustųsi saugi, leisdama savo vaikus į ją. Šioje mokykloje būtų pabrėžiamas charakteris, o ne tik akademinės žinios. Disciplina,  o ne tik laisvė. Apie tai jau esu rašęs.

Ką turėtų daryti žiniasklaida? Suteikti stiprų moralinį ramstį šeimai mūsų kultūrinėje erdvėje, kur daugiausia laisvalaikio yra praleidžiama prie TV ir Interneto. Norėčiau matyti tokias TV programas, kurias žiūrint nereikėtų raudonuoti ir uždenginėti vaikams akių. O ateitis ne tradicinė  TV, o TV Internete, nes jai neegzistuoja jokios šalių ar kontinentų ribos ir ji pigesnė, nes prieinama didesniam žmonių skaičiui (google ir yahoo gyvena iš reklamos “paspaudimų”, todėl ateis ir TV eilė). Esu rašęs ir apie žiniasklaidos ateitį.

Tikra velniava (gal neturėčiau taip sakyti, vis dėlto apie velnią kalbu, o kaip kitaip nusikeikti nežinau) - jei neparašau į blogą, jaučiuosi blogai. Mano problema – aš turiu per daug idėjų apie ką rašyti, todėl nežinau kurią pasirinkti. Norėčiau papasakoti keletą, nes, norint padaryti pilną postą iš vienos idėjos, reikėtų giliau ją pastudijuoti, atrasti šaltinius, pasitikrinti sąvokas. Čia irgi matau problemą, nes jei pradėsiu dėti postus kasdien, tai kokybė smarkiai nuketės. Tačiau kasdien dėti postus turėtų būti norma, nes dedant dažniau nei kartą per dieną, reikia už tai gauti pinigus, tai paprasčiausiai užimtų pagrindinę dienos dalį ir laisvalaikio neužtektų.

Aš, žinoma, esu labai užsiėmęs: be to, kad studijuoju teologinėje seminarijoje, dar mokausi korėjiečių kalbos institute. Be viso to, turiu Won Hwa Do treniruotes kasdien, kas užima nemažą laiko dalį. Visa kita likusi dienos dalis yra irgi užimta: pokalbis su šeima per Skype kasdien po vieną valandą, meditacija vieną valandą. O kur dar visos knygos, kurias paėmiau iš bibliotekos skaityti. O dar reikia ruoštis prezentacijoms tokioms disciplinoms kaip “Church Management” ir “Providential Organizations”. Kiti dalykai nereikalauja tiek daug pastangų: “Introduction to Sociology of Religion” reikia perskaityti ir parašyti knygos “review”. Kitos dvi likusios disciplinos, kurias dėsto profesorius Carslon (“Spirituality of Cheon Il Guk” ir “Critical Study of Cheon Seong Gyeong”) reikalauja tik daug skaityti, tačiau atsiskaitymas tai “textual analysis” ir “reflection paper”. Šių darbų dirbti dar negaliu, nes dar neišklausiau viso kurso.

Aišku, be viso šito, turiu ir savo agendą. Skaitau ir galvoju apie mano gyvenimą po seminarijos. Tyrinėju kaip sukurti mokyklą, bažnyčią, kaip sukurti media. Yra ir praktinių reikalų, nes ieškau darbo, kadangi mano atsivežtos lėšos tirpsta taip greitai. Nariams, dalyvaujanties Palaiminimo ceremonijoje, t.y. visoms Palaimintoms šeimoms privalu sumokėti. Sumokėti man reikėjo ir už Tikrųjų Tėvų kalbos instituto paslaugas. Dar planuoju išlaisvinti savo žmonos protėvius, tai irgi kainuoja.

Pagrindinės naujienos mūsų judėjime yra šios. Užvakar išleista ir jau parduodama Tikrojo Tėvo autobiografija japonų kalba. Šiek tiek anksčiau, spalio pirmą, buvo TT autobiografijos pristatymas Washington D.C. anglų kalba. Ten dalyvavo nemažai VIP. Šio renginio įrašą mačiau Peace TV, kurią esu užsiprenumeravęs. Jei kas nori pasižiūrėti autobiografijos pristatymą, tai jis čia: http://www.youtube.com/user/bishopweeny#p/f/5/WxVrooI7Y2g

Be autobiografijos, žinoma, didžiausias įvykis yra ateinantis Palaiminimas, kuris vyks Sun Moon universitete, netoli Čonan miesto. Aš įdėjau video įrašą apie tai savo bloge. Ten dalyvaus apie 12,000 porų, iš kurių naujai besituokiančios bus 5,000 porų. Šį savaitgalį privalėsiu vėl išgerti šventą vyną Sorak bažnyčioje netoli mūsų seminarijos. Pagrindinis rūpestis iki antradienio – tai “Church Management” dalyko prezentacija, kurioje pristatysiu dar vieną Harvard Buisness School atvejį apie “Boston Miracle”, kurio pagrindinis herojus Rev. Jeffrey Brown. Trumpai, nuo 152 paauglių, jaunesnių nei septyniolikos, kurie buvo nušauti Bostono gatvėse 1992-aisiais, šešis metus vėliau, juodaodžių krikščionių pastorių dėka, aštuoniolikos mėnesių laikotarpyje nežuvo nei vienas paauglys. Žinoma, girdėjote apie gatvės gaujas, organizuotą nusikalstamumą ir t.t. Šis atvejis toks ypatingas, kad buvo pavadintas Bostono stebuklu. Apie tai ir kalbėsiu antradienį, o čia įdėsiu postą su visa medžiaga.

Aišku, sekmdieniais išeis mano TV programėlė. Stengsiuosi daryti ją įdomesnę ne tik techniškai, bet ir dvasiškai. Tai tiek naujienų trumpai, nes jau laikas į korėjiečių kalbos pamokas. Šiandien po pietų, PhD kandinatas pristatys savo disertaciją apie tai, kaip auklėti jaunus žmones kovos menų dėka. Labai laukiu, nes tai mane tikrai domina kaip dirbusį tokį darbą šešerius metus Kovos menų klube.

Greičiau konspektai, nes knyga pasirodė gana nyki. Gal aš nesuprantu JAV krikščionių, nes negaliu įsivaizduoti, kaip galėčiau pritaikyti įgytas žinias. O žinios be realaus įgyvendinimo tik nereikalingas bagažas. Kraunu jį čia, gal kam įdomi JAV patirtis.

Ieškau daugiau praktinių patarimų. Nors knyga turėtų išmokyti įpročių, kurie padarytų bažnyčią sėkminga ir produktyvia. Man buvo įdomios kelios mintys. Pati svarbiausia buvo ta, kad dauguma žmonių, kurie priima Dievą ir Kristų į savo gyvenimą ir to laikosi, tai padaro iki aštuoniolikos metų amžiaus. Iki 18 metų priima Kristų net 63%, 18-25 metų amžiaus 18% ir visi likę 20% likusi amžiaus grupė nuo 26 metų.

Dar daugiau, patį svarbiausią ir lemiamą sprendimą priima vaikai nuo 8 iki 14 metų amžiaus. Iš tikrųjų, Dievas turėtų remtis vaikais ir paaugliais, nes jie sudaro 2/3 visų tikinčiųjų. Ta proga prisiminiau vieną pasakojimą, kai vienuolikos metų berniukas musulmoniškoje šalyje priėmė Kristų. Jis nuoširdžiai įtikėjo, tačiau šioje šalyje yra įstatymas, kad bet kuris musulmonas, pakeitęs tikėjimą, bus nužudytas. Jam buvo liepta atsisakyti tikėjimo viešai. Kai jis to nepadarė, jis buvo nušautas vietoje, jo kūną pervėrė keliolika kulkų. Mes net nepagalvotume, kad kai kas moka tokią, pačią brangiausią kainą už galimybę laisvai išpažinti Dievą.

Knygoje autorius aprašo šešis bažnyčios veiklos išmatavimus: garbinimą, evangelizaciją, krikščionišką švietimą, tikinčiųjų bendruomenę, tarnavimą ir paramą vargšams. Siekiant būti sėkmingu visose šiose srityse, pabrėžia autorius, reikia:

1. Veikti su intencija.

2. Strateginis elgesys, suderintas su bažnyčios vizija, misija ir pagrindinėmis vertybėmis.

3. Elgesys, atnešantis vaisius. Vaisiai – tai pakeisti žmonių gyvenimai.

4. Reikalingos ribos, kurias nustatome pasiremdami Dievo žodžiu.

Tai kokie tie devyni įpročiai, kurie yra tokie jau sėkmingi (ne visi įpročiai man tiko):

1. Remkis strategine lyderyste.

2. Organizacija turi būti tokia, kad efektyvi bažnyčios veikla būtų įmanoma.

3. Pabrėžiamas reikšmingas ryšys su bažnyčios bendruomene.

4. Bažnyčios nariai įsitraukia į nuoširdų garbinimą (tas žodis man nepatinka).

5. Įsitraukti į strateginį evangelizmą.

6. Žmonės dalyvauja sistematiškame teologiniame augime.

7. Tarnavimas turi būti visa apimantis (stewardship – turima galvoje finansinius reikalus, aukojimą ir t.t.)

8. Padėkime vargšams mūsų kaiminystėje.

9. Duokite priemones šeimoms, kad jos galėtų savimi pasirūpinti.

Įdomu buvo tai, kad efektyviose bažnyčiose pastorius, gaunantis algą, yra tik tas, kuris moka ir supranta kaip vadovauti ir vesti pasauliečius. Tiesa, išskiriamos dviejų tipų bažnyčios: edukacinė bažnyčia (kai pastorius yra geras pamokslininkas) ir efektyvi bažnyčia (kai pastorius yra lyderis ir geras organizatorius).

Kadangi visi efektyvus lyderiai – pasauliečiai, pastoriui geriau susikaupti ties pamokslais, o vadovauti leisti pasauliečiams. Jei pastorius mokės atpažinti ir pasinaudoti pasauliečiais, jo bažnyčia klestės.

Bažnyčioje negali būti per daug lyderių, juos reikia pastoviai auginti ir treniruoti, jų ieškoti.

Kaip atpažinti lyderį? Jis turi jausti Dievo pašaukimą, turėti dvasinę lyderystės dovaną, charakterį, kuris įkvepia kitus, sugebėjimus, kurie tinka lyderiavimui. Taigi, koks lyderis aš esu?

Kokybė turi būti svarbiausia, jokiu būdu nedaryti kompromisų todėl, kad norisi daugiau skaičių, daugiau žmonių, pinigų, daugiau daugiau… Ne, turi būti geriau, tobuliau, aktyviau…

Žmonės negali bažnyčioje būti stebėtojais, jie privalo būti dalyviais, dar geriau šeimininkais. Kaip „atsikratyti“ stebėtojų: kartas nuo karto duoti „kietas“ žinias ir pamokslus, siekti vis aukštesnio moralinio standarto, net riboti vaikų skaičių, kurie lankosi sekmadienio mokykloje, kad neprarasti profesionalumo ir kokybės.

——-Jei sieksi kokybės, o ne kiekybės užaugsi neapsakomai didelis——-

Pastorius privalo egzaminuoti save, atsiskaityti nuoširdžiai už savo veiksmus. Turi būti kriterijai, kurie būtų suderinti su vizija, misija, vertybėmis. Aistra tobulumui – tai varomoji jėga, struktūra turi tarnauti rytojaus vizijai, o ne šiandienos patogumui.

Tikra bažnyčia – tai ne sekmadienis, o žmonių ilgalaikiai tarpusavio santykiai. Žmonių santykiuose nustatomi prioritetai:

1. Dievas pirmas.

2. Jūsų šeima antra.

3. Tikinčiųjų bendruomenė trečia.

4. Visi likę.

Kad turėti jėgų ir būti rezultatyviu, šie prioritetai leidžia veikti strategiškai ir kryptingai. Dar keletas pastebėjimų:

• Bendruomenė pritraukia labiau nei beasmenė reklama (TV, skelbimai, žiniasklaida).

• Efektyvūs bažnyčios lyderiai moko savo parapijiečius, kaip sukurti ilgalaikius tarpusavio santykius ir palaikyti draugystę.

• Bažnyčios lyderis – bendravimo modelis.

• Santykiai turi būti pastovūs – šeimos ryšiai aukščiau nei organizacijos struktūra ar kokybiškas tarnavimas.

Autorius George Barna labai pabrėžia garbinimą, nes, jo žodžiais tariant, tai laikas, kai žmonės susijungia su Dievu. Dabar tik papasakosiu Barnos nuomonę. Garbinimas – tai ne renginys, o sielos ir proto būsena. Garbinimas yra veiksmas ir požiūris (mes dėkingi Dievui ir nuolankūs Jam). Čia truputį su krikščionimis nesutinku.

Aš manau, kad negali patirti inymumo su Dievu, jei nemoki patirti intymumo su kitu gyvu žmogumi. Priedo, prieš garbindamas Dievą iškėlęs rankas į dangų, išsišluok savo sieloje, išnaikink blogus įpročius ir išmok apginti savo protą nuo pagundos. Apie tai kalba ir Simeonas Naujasis Teologas.

Aš sutinku, kad prieš ateidami į bažnyčią, žmonės turi pasiruošti dvasiškai (skaityti Bibliją ir melstis) ir tai yra pačio žmogaus atsakomybė.

Aš manau, tai ne garbinimas, o pasišventimas. Mūsų bažnyčioje mes tai vadiname „čionsong“, kas reiškia „žodis tampa kūnu“, tu kalbi taip kaip gyveni, o gyveni taip kaip kalbi. „Čionsong“ taip pat reiškia nuoširdumą, darymą iš širdies. Būtent darymą, elgimasį, o ne vien tik garbinimą. Garbinimas, mano nuomone, turėtų būti daugiau apie priminimą sau, jog už viską esu dėkingas Dievui, tačiau Dievas mano tėvas, kodėl aš turiu Jį garbinti. Mes esame tėvas ir sūnus, nežinau, kodėl sūnus turi garbinti tėvą, net jei Jis karalius, ar net Dievas.

Patiko skyrius apie švietimą. Barna sako: „švietimas tai žinojimas ko tu nori, žinojimas kur tai gauti ir žinojimas ką su tuo daryti, kada tai turi.“ Dar „protas kaip skrandis, ne tai svarbu, kiek tu į jį įdėjai, o kiek suvirškinai“. Ir paskutinis „pasakyk man ir aš pamiršiu, parodyk man ir gal prisiminsiu, leisk man pabandyti ir aš suprasiu“.

Lavinant kitus turime gerbti žmonių laiką, tai pagrindinė valiuta mūsų laikais. Reikia nubrėžti labai aukštus standartus ir lūkesčius. Dvasinis subrendimas pasiekiamas kai bažnyčios edukacinis planas ir asmens pasišventimas eina ranka rankon.

Išsilavinimas ir vystymasis pasiekiamas bažnyčioje, kuri panaši į teologinę seminariją, bet su praktiniu požiūriu į pasaulį. Jos tikslai turi būti specifiniai (vertinamas rezultatas, turime žinoti, kur esame, matuoti pažangą žinant kiek pasistumėjome iki idealo). Lavinimas per bendras programas, praktiką ir asmeninius pokalbius. Turi būti įvairūs metodai, kūrybiška veikla.

Pabaigoje, Barna tvirtina, kad tik įgalinant šeimas pasirūpinti savimi, jos galės padėti bažnyčioje. Su kuo pilnai sutinku. Nefunkcionalios šeimos negali duoti, jos nepajėgios. Įdomus faktas, kad tik 5% bažnyčios narių moka dešimtinę. Dar įdomus tyrimas, kuris klausė bažnyčioje nesilankančių, kas paskatintų juos ten lankytis. Atsakymas buvo „jei bažnyčia rūpintusi ir padėtų ne bažnyčios nariams labiau, mes ten eitume“. Problema yra ta, kad suirus įprastinei giminės struktūrai, vienaląstės šeimos (tėvai ir vaikai, kai suaugę vaikai palieka tėvus) krūvis yra labai didelis ir nėra senelių, dėdžių ar tetų, pusbrolių ar pusserių, kurie padėtų sunkiais laikais, todėl bažnyčia vaidina tokį išplėstinės giminės vaidmenį. Bažnyčia turi padėti ir žmonėms esantiems už jos ribų, ir tiems, kurie yra jos nariai. Tačiau balansas yra būtinas, dažnai bažnyčia atgyja ir auga, kai ima gyventi vardan už jos ribų, bet kaimynystėje esančių žmonių.

Tarnauti kaimyninei bendruomenei yra labai svarbu, čia bažnyčios privalo vienytis ir mokytis vienos iš kitų. Dažnai pagalbos projektai nepavyksta nes:

1. Pasauliečiai neturi reikiamo pasiruošimo.

2. Nėra lyderių.

3. Nėra tinkamo plano.

4. Nėra lėšų.

5. Nerealios viltys.

Sėkmingos šeimos – sėkmingos bažnyčios pagrindas. Kokios pagalbos šeimoms reikia labiausiai?

1. Patikimų patarėjų.

2. Tikros partnerystės santuokoje.

3. Geresnių vaiko auginimo sugebėjimų.

4. Mokėjimo būti tėvais, – mokėjimo bendrauti, paversti namus teigiamo mokymosi vieta, mokėti spręsti konfliktus, išskirti aiškius prioritetus ir valdyti laiką, mokėti planuoti ir valdyti finansus.

5. Kartais privalu pabėgti nuo rutinos ir turėti drąsos pasikeisti.

6. Reikalinga emocinė parama (ypač sunkiais laikais).

7. Šeimos krizės apsaugos tinklas (numatyti krizę ir apsisaugoti nuo jos dėka tikinčių draugų).

Paaugliai nori panašių dalykų. Jie nori būti suprasti, gerbiami, pripažinti, jausti dvasinį artumą šeimoje, toleranciją tarp tėvų, nori būti apsaugoti nuo skurdo ir nusikalstamumo.

Tai kokia Dievo svajonė? Kokia tikra bažnyčia, kurią Dievas nori matyti? To ir noriu išmokti mokydamasis čia, šioje seminarijoje. Tikiuosi, jums nebuvo nuobodu, nes man nelabai patiko ši knyga.

Pagalvojau, kad reikėtų dar parašyti trumpą komentarą apie Willow Creek bažnyčią. Iš tikrųjų, nors ji ketvirta pagal dydį bažnyčia Jungtinėse Valstijose ir nors Pietų Korėjoje tokių mega bažnyčių, kurių lankytojų skaičius viršija Willow Creek bažnyčios 27,000 pasekėjų skaičių, yra ne mažiau penkiasdešimties (pvz.: Yoido Full Gospel Church - 830,000 žm. yra didžiausia pasaulyje), tačiau Willow Creek yra ko gero pati įtakingiausia mega bažnyčia pasaulyje. Ir, nors Willow Creek bažnyčios pastorius Bill Hybels tvirtina, kad jiems nerūpi sukurti didelę bažnyčią, nežiūrint į tai, žmonių skaičius pamaldose yra pagrindinis vertinimo kriterijus, kuriuo jis vadovaujasi.

Ne taip senai, 2004 metais, antras pastorius Greg Hawkins Willow Creek bažnyčioje uždavė klausimą: “Ar tikrai mes leidžiame žmonių pinigus teisingai, taip kaip nori Dievas?” Jie ėmė klausinėti žmonių ir štai ką jie sužinojo:

Visus Willow Creek mega bažnyčios lankytojus galima suskirstyti į keturis tipus:

1. Exploring – žmonės, kurie lankosi, nes jiems yra smalsu, jie nežino apie krikščionybę ir nori sužinoti daugiau.
2. Grow – žmonės, kurie tapo krikščionimis, bet dar aiškiai nepatyrė kas tai yra. Jiems reikia augti ir jie dalyvauja 90 skirtingų veiklų bažnyčioje, skirtų savanoriams.
3. Close – tai krikščionys, artimi Kristui. Jie galvoja apie Dievą kasdien, stengiasi jog jų tikėjimas įtakotų jų sprendimus.
4. Centered – jų gyvenimo centras Kristus, jie nori daryti tik tai, kas padarytų juos artimesnius Kristui.

Savanorių komanda apklausė lankytojus ir tai, ką jie atrado, nustebino. Pasirodo Willow Creek patenkinti yra tik pirmieji du tipai, “exploring” ir “grow”, tačiau vėlesni, labiausiai subrendę ir pasišventę nori palikti bažnyčią. Kodėl?

Pastorius Bill Hybels prisipažino padaręs klaidą. Kai žmonės susipažino su krikščionybe, priėmė sprendimą tapti krikščionimis ir ėmė dalyvauti savanoriškoje veikloje, vienintelis ir pats aukščiausias bažnyčios vertinimo kriterijus buvo “aktyvumas”. T.y. kiek žmonių dalyvauja, kiek pinigų aukoja, kaip dažnai dalyvauja ir t.t. Tačiau visų nuostabai, tai nereiškė, kad žmonės augo dvasiškai.

Tai iš tikrųjų atskleidė gilią visų mega bažnyčių krizę, – jų labiausiai pasišventę nariai jaučia dvasinę tuštumą. Nėra patenkinti, nepatiria Dievo bažnyčioje, jų dvasinis augimas užstrigęs. Pastorius Bill Hybels tvirtina, kad jo klaida buvo ta, jog reikėjo mesti jiems iššūkį tuo metu, kai jie pereidinėjo iš “grow” į “close” lygį. Tačiau, išklausęs jo ir jo “dešinės rankos” pastoriaus Greg Hawkins pasiūlymo išgirdau tik, jog jie gaus dar daugiau paskaitų, buvo nusamdyti teologijos seminarijų profesoriai ypač pažengusiems “close” ir “centered” tipo žmonėms. Pastoriai ketina išmokyti juos dvasinių praktikų, kurių dėka jie galės augti savarankiškai, tokių kaip malda ir Biblijos studijos, nes iki dabar visi bažnyčios nariai “gaudavo žuvį”, bet “neišmokdavo žvejoti”, todėl buvo priversti grįžti vėl ir vėl “naujos žuvies”.

Willow Creek bažnyčia pradėjo judėjimą visose 12,000 narių-bažnyčių, kad išsiaiškinti ar situacija yra panaši ir ten. Tai geras dalykas, nes atvėrė akis daugeliui pastorių ir parodė aiškiai jog nepatenkintų yra tikrai daug. Neužtenka būti tik paviršutinišku krikščionimi ir vien tik socialinė veikla nepaskatins intensyvaus Dievo jutimo.

Šiandien kalbėjausi su savo kolega seminaristu. Jis korėjietis ir buvęs katalikas. Tai, kas paskatino jį prisijungti prie Susivienijimo bažnyčios yra labai paprasta – viltis sukurti Palaimintą šeimą. Apie tai nemoko ir nežino ne tik katalikų, bet ir visos likusios religijos. Tik Susivienijimo bažnyčia moko apie tai. O įstoti į teologinę seminariją jį paskatino tai, kad joje mokysis visų religijų tikintieji ir ji skatins visų religijų susivienijimą (realiai žinau tik du ar tris iš keturiasdešimties, kurie seminarijoje turi kitokią, ne Susivienijimo bažnyčios nario praeitį).

Bet mūsų bažnyčios nariai yra pasimetę tarp instrukcijų, kurias gauna iš bažnyčios lyderių. Nors visi mes turime tapti tiesiog Giminės mesijais ir suburti 360 Palaimintų šeimų bendruomenę. Ir tai viskas. Tačiau lyderiai nenori paleisti savo narių. Jie bijo atsisukti veidu į pasaulį ir eiti Giminės mesijo keliu. Jie bijo prarasti įtaką. Todėl tarp daugybės nurodymų pats tikriausias ir vienintelis yra suburti Palaimintas šeimas. Šeima – tai pagrindinė vertybė, kurią mes turime. Dievo meilė, kaip po tokia neegzistuoja atskirai nuo šeimos sąvokos. Dievo meilė plaukia šeimoje ir yra išreikšta per vaikų, brolių ir seserų, sutuoktinių ir tėvų meilės sferas. Dievas nėra atskirtas nuo žmogaus ir jo šeimos, Jis yra viena su Palaiminta šeima, kuri neturi pradinės nuodėmės.

Vakare, prieš pusvalandį sužinojau, kad mūsų bažnyčioje yra čempionas, kuris įvykdė Giminės mesijo misiją. Jo vardas Jose Elias de Almeida. Jis subūrė daugiau nei 500 Palaimintų šeimų bendruomenę Brazilijoje. Kilęs iš šiaurinės šalies dalies, kuri necivilizuota, jis įsigijo tik pradinį išsilavinimą. Jis trečias sūnus šeimoje, tačiau jo brolių ir seserų skaičius – 22 žmonės. Ir aš nejuokauju, nes tai man papasakojo jo vyresnis sūnus Samwon Almeida, kuris mokosi tame pačiame kurse su manimi. Kilęs iš labai giliai tikinčios katalikiškos šeimos, sūnaus žodžiais tariant, jis pradėjo dvasinę kelionę lankydamasis ir priklausydamas visoms bažnyčioms, kurias tik galėjo surasti. Tačiau jis visą laiką jautė dvasinę tuštumą. Tik tapęs Tikrųjų Tėvų pasekėju, jis užpildė savo gyvenimą prasme. Ir paaukojo save Namų bažnyčiai ir jos bendruomenės įkūrimui.

Apie jį man minėjo ir misionierius Panamoje amerikietis Regis Hanna, kuris studijuoja doktorantūroje. Jis man pasakojo apie žmogų, kuris surado šimtus dvasinių vaikų pardavinėdamas Dieviškojo Principo knygą. Pardavinėdamas šią knygą jis sugebėjo išlaikyti savo šeimą taip pat.

Šiuo metu centrinė Brazilijos bažnyčia sostinėje suburia mažiau lankytojų, negu tik pradinį išsilavinimą teturinčio Jose Elias de Almeida įkurta namų bažnyčia. Jis mirė praeitais metais nuo kepenų vėžio, tačiau jo namų bažnyčiai vadovauja jo jaunesnis sūnus, o vyresnėlis, besimokydamas seminarijoje, suteikia jam dvasinės-teologinės medžiagos.

Aš labai apsidžiaugiau tai sužinojęs, nes jau maniau, kad Susivienijimo bažnyčioje nėra nei vieno žmogaus, kuris būtų įvykdęs Namų bažnyčios (Giminės mesijo) misiją iki galo. Siūlau paskaityti apie jį čia:

http://www.tparents.org/Moon-Talks/Moon-Family/JS930700.htm

Harvard Business School garsėja visame pasaulyje. Tai turbūt pati geriausia biznio mokykla. Mūsų teologinė seminarija pirko 50 atvejų iš HBS, kuriuos mes nagrinėjame. Rytoj aš pristatau Mega bažnyčios “Willow Creek Community Church” atvejį. Ši bažnyčia – pati įtakingiausia bažnyčia JAV, yra įsikūrusi Čikagos priemiestyje ir sutraukia apie 27,000 lankytojų kas savaitę. Jos salė talpina 7,000 žmonių, New York Times žurnalistas pajuokavo, kad tai Dievo atsakymas į Wallmart (JAV tipo MAXIMA) sukuriant Walmart tipo krikščionišką bažnyčią. Bet ši bažnyčia nejuokauja, jos sukurtoje asociacijoje, kur ji dalijasi savo strategija, yra virš 12,000 narių-bažnyčių, kurios perima Mega bažnyčios modelį.  Pateikiu mano skaidrių tekstus anglų kalba.

Church Innovation #1: Willow Creek Community Church (A)

CONTENT

1. Intro

2. Trends in the Traditional Christian Church

3. History of the Willow Creek Concept

4. Purpose of Willow Creek

5. Philosophy of Willow Creek

6. The 7-Step Strategy

6.1 Market Focused Strategy

6.2 Internally Focused Strategy

7. Organization

8. Future Challenges Confronting Willow Creek

9. Leadership of Willow Creek in the 21st Century

10. Lessons to be learned from Willow Creek Community Church as Unification Church entered Settlement Age

1. Intro

Willow Creek Community Church was founded in 1975.

„It was never our intention to build a big church. From the very start, our vision was to just ‘be’ the church that God intended us to be.“

Bill Hybels

Senior Pastor

Willow Creek Community Church

Question to start:

What are the reasons why you don’t attend church?

Simple concept:

Knowing your customers and meeting they needs.

Answers:

• Churches were always asking for money (yet nothing perceived as personally significant seemed to be happening with the money).
• Church services were boring and lifeless.
• Church services were predictable.
• Sermons were irrelevant to daily life in the “real world”.
• The pastor made people feel guilty and ignorant, so they leave church feeling worse than when they entered the doors.

Results (1991):

• Best attended church in America with 14,000 people on an average weekend of services and about 5,000 returning during a week for yet another service.
• Volunteer work force of 4,500 people who served in 6,000 positions in over 90 ministries.
• Yearly income topped the $12,000,000 mark.
• Full time paid staff of 147 with average annual salary of approximately $30,000, and 110 part-part time staff.

Two major issues:

1. How effectively assimilate even large numbers of attenders?
2. How could Willow Creek assimilate the growing number of unconnected visitors when in promised them anonymity in its services?

2. Trends in the Traditional Christian Church

USA remains solidly religious

85% of Americans identified themselves as “Christian” and 60% of these identified themselves as Protestant. (Exhibit 4)

Decline of Christianity in US

• Most “mainline” traditional Protestant churches have been losing members for the last decade (1980-1990, Exhibit 5)
• Research shows that number of Americans who consider religion to be important has been declining (Exhibit 6)
• Number of Americans calling themselves religious has also been going down (Exhibit 7)
• Church used to be most revered institution, but it has dropped to about “third or fourth on the list”.

Some reasons for decline

• Highly publicized scandals involving well-known television evangelists.
• Strong divisions between different denominations and theological bickering within denominations (Exhibit 8).
• “Unchurched person” was finding the church to be increasingly less relevant to his/her life (Exhibit 9)
• Recent research shows, that “substantial numbers of people do not describe their church experience as inspiring, fulfilling, exciting or satisfying”.
• Even traditional Protestant churches don’t lack money or resources (income of $50 billion in 1989 alone), they generally spent very little of their budget on activities toward that end.
• People less loyal to their church and tend to “shop around” and even attend many different churches. Fewer people automatically accepted the denomination of their parents as a given.

3. History of the Willow Creek Concept

The dual church service concept

The “seeker service” was specially designed to expose the Christian faith in a relevant and nonthreatening way to basically unchurched people. The new idea made Willow Creek famous.

Another service was designed to meet the additional needs of people that have already converted to Christianity. It was similar to existing worship services in other churches.

The dual church service concept of Willow Creek emerged from the pastoral and life experiences of Bill Hybels:

• An understanding started when he was 13 yrs old.
• 1972, when he was at the age of 20, Bill Hybels made a conclusion that “seekers were fundamentally different than someone who was already convinced and there was no way to meet the needs of both with a single service structure!”

What was the changes, that he did:

• The place was changed to the one which wouldn’t be embarrassing.
• His teaching time was cut to 20-25 minutes.
• Only one topic at the time.
• And the messages should somehow relate to young people’s lives.
• They started playing upbeat music at the meetings.
• Meetings were titled “Son City”.

The results:

• Starting from first meeting of “Son City” at May 1973 group grew to 1,000 kids in a one year.
• Around 100 teenagers left the ministry to start a Willow Creek Community Church. They invited their parents to the first service on October 12, 1975.
• Again, at that time only 100 volunteers grew church attendance to over 1,000 people in a year.
• In the following three years attendance tripled.
• In 1979 the church bought 90 acres of land and began construction of its existing auditorium.
• In 1981 the church moved its services to new location, but retained the name of Willow Creek.

4. Purpose of Willow Creek

The foundation of Willow Creek is anchored in its four-fold purpose statement:

1. Exaltation: Willow Creek Community Church exists to provide believers with the opportunity to worship and glorify God together.
2. Edification: Willow Creek Community Church exists to help believers build a foundation of Biblical understanding, establishing a devotional life, discover their spiritual gifts, and encourage believers to become participating members in the church.
3. Evangelism: Willow Creek Community Church exists to reach people who are facing an eternity separated from God. Believers are encouraged to seek out the unchurched and look for opportunities to share God’s love with them.
4. Social action: Willow Creek Community Church exists to act as a conscience to the world by demonstrating the love and righteousness of God in both word and deed.

5. Philosophy of Willow Creek

The uniqueness of Willow Creek lies not in its statement of purpose but in its philosophy and strategy for accomplishing its purposes.

7-step strategy was guided by four philosophical principles:

1. Every believer has the responsibility of being a witness in one’s faith and relationships with God.
2. The needs of a seeker differ from those of the believer.
3. Believers must respect the individual’s process of a faith decision and the journey one must travel to maturity in their relationship with God.
4. Every believer is a minister, gifted by God for the benefit of all in the church.

6. The 7-Step Strategy

The 7-step strategy has both a market and internal focus. The external part of strategy was designed to bring unchurched Hary/Mary to conversion. The internally focused strategy was designed to mature the newly converted Harry/Marry to the point where he/she was ready to meet other unchurched people and help them along the way to conversion. Their strategies worked together and fueled each other (Exhibit 10 is describing the 7-step strategy)

6.1 Market Focused Strategy

STEP 1 – Bridge Building

Bringing unchurched Harry/Mary can be accomplished only when believers built a relationship of integrity (based on honesty and authentic concern) with them.

Evangelism Ministry

Willow Creek provided training to empower believers by offering Evangelism Seminar. It was a four-week series which covered topics such as Being Yourself, Telling Your Story, Making the Message Clear, and Coping with Questions.

Defenders Ministry

was designed prepare believers to be able to answer tough questions about Christianity that might be asked by atheists, agnostics, or members of other world religions. It was monthly teaching sessions and outside “field trips”.

Surveys shows

…that 4 out of 10 unchurched people would willingly attend a church service if invited by a friend. “This represents some 15-20 million adults each Sunday… if they have been invited.”

STEP 2 – Sharing a Verbal Witness

Once relationship of integrity was established, believers were able to share what it means to be a Christian. The believers were encouraged to be sensitive to right timing and give seekers “their own space and time”. At that point believers needed a place to bring their seeking friends.

STEP 3 – Providing a Service for Seekers

There were two seeker services each Sunday morning at 9:00 and 11:00 and two Saturday evening services at 5:00 and 7:00 with the capacity of 4,550 people.

The target person for the service:

professional men between the ages of 20 and 50. The reason was simple – it was the toughest segment to reach, so, if their could be reached, then all other segments would follow as well.

The seeker service was build on the following six principles:

1. All people (not just believers) matter to God; therefore they matter to us.
2. Nonbelieving unchurched people needed to be reached.
3. Meeting the needs of believers and seekers cannot be done in the same service since the needs of the believer and seeker differ greatly.
4. Respect for the spiritual journey of the seeker must be communicated, allowed for and legitimized.
5. Seekers do not want to be embarrassed, singled out, pressured or identified.
6. Excellence reflects the glory of God and has positive effect on people.

All “man-made” traditions or biases were thrown out the window except Biblical doctrine.

Use of dance, drama and other forms of art and communication to illustrate the problem the service is trying to adress. Service has to be hard to predict.

Total service excellence – see through the eyes of the seeker.

The path of first impression – “Main Street”:

• Trees and flowers have been planted to make nice view.
• The church looked more like a modern community college (Exhibit 11).
• Policemen at the entrance – only to facilitate traffic.
• Later seeker is met by traffic control team identified by a bright orange uniform.
• Inside the building seeker founds individuals who a happy to answer any questions.
• Inside is comfortable theater like atmosphere surrounded by background contemporary instrumental music.
• The auditorium was designed to be neutral. There were no crosses or other religious symbols.

The seeker services lasted approximately 65 minutes with six components:

1. Music – upbeat and contemporary, relevant to the message, planned six weeks ahead, performed by the vocal team, orchestra, or band.
2. Drama – locally written sketch performed by the Willow Creek volunteer drama team designed to provoke questions and always relevant to the message.
3. Scripture Reading – a personal story or current event corresponding to the scripture was related, also the Scripture reading was always relevant to the message of the service.
4. Announcements – informative to the seeker and believer. Smooth transition to the offering part.
5. Offering – presented on a very low-key style. A disclaimer was given that guests were not expected to participate.
6. Message – final component. Using contemporary examples to illustrate Biblical principles, the message dealt with with current issues and problems and emphasized the relevancy of Christianity in the lives of seekers and believers today.

The underlying belief was that seekers desired anonymity.

The only connection between the seeker and the church was a friend-believer.

6.2 Internally Focused Strategy

STEP 4 – Attending the New Community Service

Two New Community services were held every Wednesday and Thursday nights at 7:30. Some 5,000 believers attended these services each week.

They attend worship services during a more inconvienent time of the week for the sake of reaching unchurched people.

The New Community service attendees was an actual financial church supporters.

It also gave a platform to encourage believers to take the next few steps in the 7-step strategy.

STEP 5 – Participating in Small Group

Each small group consisted of four couples, each in a similar stage in life. One of the couples was trained by the Small Group Ministry team.

Single adults and high school students were encouraged to join small groups through the Single Adult and High School Ministries.

These groups provided accountability, instruction, encouragement, and support of its members.

To pray and read Bible is not enough, the next step is fellowship (Christian friendships). Christian need someone who knows them well enough to be able to give them guidance and hold them accountable to Christian beliefs.

STEP 6 – Involved in Service

One of the major strengths of Willow Creek Community Church. It had mobilized 4,000-person volunteer work force. First believers had to discover their “gifts” and then have the opportunity to display them.

Networking Ministry

140-200 people went through Ministry each month.

1. Spiritual Gifts – leadership, teaching, preaching, helping, administration, encouragement, counselling, hospitality, craftsmanship, wisdom, mercy, etc.
2. Ministry Passions – identifying the right area of service.
3. Personal Temperaments – take a personal survey in order to identify somebody’s personality and character traits.

STEP 7 – Responsible Money Management

Good $ense Ministry

To reject excessive indebtedness, live within their means, be gracious with their possessions, share with those in need, and give generously to the Lord’s work.

7. Organization

In 1991 Willow Creek organization consisted of 147 full-time and 110 part-time staff members and 4,500 volunteers who served in over 90 ministries (Exhibit 12).

Board of Elders – consisted of seven lay people and the Senior Pastor (Exhibit 13).

Responsibilities of providing a Godly role model; ensuring that the church received quality preaching and teaching; refuting those who worked against the church; and praying for the people of the church; providing oversight and direction to the Senior Pastor, the Board of Directors, the staff, and the members of the church. The Elders issued policy decisions and provided long-range planning.

Board of Directors – 17 individuals.

They carry responsibility of overseeing legal and financial matters and providing for the care and maintenance of all properties of the church.

Organizational philosophy

Over 95% of the paid staff were people developed within the Willow Creek Community Church (example: Exhibit 14).

In order to reach excellence the Willow Creek would not start new service products unless the right leader was available. Why? Because it is so much easier to build a program from scratch then it is to correct the existing poorly run ministry.

Higher standards were used in hiring full-time staff (strength of character and spiritually authentic, in addition a passion for ministry, the right gifts, personality, talents, and right relational fit with the staff). Most of staff came from volunteers.

Church management strived to provide clearly established expectations, personalized leadership, and honest, accurate, and constant feedback.

Leaders were trained to use four levels of worker development:

1. Heavy instruction required.
2. Coaching.
3. Support.
4. Delegation.

Two main criteria were used for evaluation:

1. Is the person’s ministry fruitfull?
2. Is the person fulfilled?

Feedback was provided every week (Exhibit 15).

And every month (Exhibit 16).

Yearly performance reviews was done as well.

Bill Hybels, a Senior Pastor, was evaluated each week.

The objective is very simple: to look how they could do things better.

8. Future Challenges Confronting Willow Creek

A problem of the establishment of relationships between believers and seekers

Despite the fact that Willow Creek advertised very little, it attracted huge amounts of attention. There were large number of seekers without an established relationship with the believer. They were stepping into step 3 of 7-step strategy, skipping step 1 and 2. But for a conversion the relationship with believer was absolutely critical.

The leadership decided to establish a small groups only as a social gatherings in certain neighborhoods in order to make the missing link between seekers and believers.

In Touch Ministry

A small tear-off section on the bulletin was provided for seekers to fill out if they wanted to meet with someone for some reason.

Church leadership was struggling with the question of how to establish relationship between a seeker and believer without braking the promise of anonymity.

9. Leadership of Willow Creek in the 21st Century

Leadership change

In 1989 Senior Pastor Bill Hybels find out that he was unable to provide both preaching and leadership at the level of quality demanded by church attendees and staff. He spent 30-50 hours preparing for a sermon while providing no leadership to 250-member staff and 14,000-attendee church.

Many churches find themselves evolved from “mom and pop” type church to larger “shopping center” type when they reach more than 1,000 people.

Leadership function would provide much of what a CEO (Chief Executive Officer) provided for a for-profit company. These leaders would cast a vision for the church, attract high quality people, align them with their unique gifts, and have them all pulling together in the same direction.

Willow Creek was evolving to this sort of church leadership model in 1991. Church added another preacher, Jim Dethmer, to help carry the preaching load. This gave Hybels the freedom to lead. Hybels would continue preach but to a lesser degree.

They help people find out what God made them to be and then empower them to provide that as a service to other people.

LESSONS TO BE LEARNED FROM WILLOW CREEK COMMUNITY CHURH AS UNIFICATION CHURCH ENTERED SETTLEMENT AGE

I think UC has to ask the very same question which Bill Hybels asked in very beginning: “What are the reasons why you don’t attend church?”, because for the last 30 yrs UC membership was constantly going down. There can be more special questions, targeting different categories of people. People, who listened to an introduction and never came back; people who joined, but left church at some stage; people who stayed, but remain inactive with “dull eyes” and depressed spirit; people who tried to witness, but weren’t successful.

What kind of answers we would get can tell as exactly what we should do and what shouldn’t do.

But even quicker way is to collect all the positive and successful strategies in our church as well as outside religions, especially Christianity and it would clearly indicate the way. Father says things, but we don’t know how to apply it to reality in this modern world.

My common sense tells me, that our church really lacks professionalism in Church Management. Even without surveys or research papers we can see how different our UC is from Willow Creek Community Church. We simply don’t have a clear vision, mission and strategy or core values. We behind modern times in many cases continuing practices for 40-50 yrs without adjusting ourselves to the environment/culture we are surrounded.

Another problem I see is disconnectedness between members heart and True Father’s heart. One reason is language, we don’t speak Korean, but main reason is Korean leadership, not willing to transmit Father’s teachings to us – to much responsibility. UC membership gets a very delayed and filtered guidance from True Father, many times without an explanation only in the form of direction.

Leaderships of UC only enjoys their status inside UC, being no leaders of society of any importance. The moment we stopped aggressive expansion as it used to be in the beginning we are slowly spiritually dying. More than that, we can not keep our Second Generation inside the church. They are leaving in hundreds if not thousands. I think if we asked them, they would answer very similarly as those outside people did – UC has no relevance to their life and they don’t want to follow in parents footsteps.

At the top of our church usually are Korean or Japanese leaders. As long as they place more importance on structure as “top-down”, but not on culture as round “give and take” true love type, our movement will continue to be an outcast and irrelevant to the rest of society. If leaders can’t truly love members, how can a member want to bring his brother or sister or parent to this kind of church?

We need to clean our house first, then invite the guests. I think this is what True Children are doing now. I haven’t seen more honest leadership as Heung Jin Nim, Kook Jin Nim, In Jin Nim or Heun Jin Nim. But our movement is resisting changes, especially older members. And it takes time to change a paradigm, leftovers from “desert” era.

I haven’t seen leaders who want to be evaluated by members, they try to save their face by getting rid of honest and sincere members. Isn’t it true?

Leadership gives dishonest reports to True Father, mistreats members, hurts their hearts and finally misuses the public money, our blood, sweat and tears.

Every church leader must be accountable to members, but in reality rather 90% of members would leave the church, but leadership wouldn’t change anyway. That’s how deeply some leaders are corrupt in their old ways. Some only have faith, but not love, only securing their position by all means.

Then, when compared to Christians, what do we have? Only pride I have is in True Parents, True Children and Divine Principle. I don’t have pride in UC yet. Not in UC in its present state.

Man įdomu, kada Susivienijimo bažnyčia bus sėkminga. Ką tik perskaičiau TT žodžius, kad ji bus turtingiausia pasaulyje. Iš tikrųjų taip ir bus, jei tie turtai tarnaus kitiems, tiems, kuriems labiausiai reikia. TT pasiruošęs paaukoti Susivienijimo bažnyčią, kai tik tam ateis laikas. Galų gale jo, kaip Mesijo, tikslas nėra ir niekada nebuvo sukurti dar vieną bažnyčią. Jo pagrindinis tikslas toks pat kaip Jėzaus – sukurti Dangaus Karalystę žemėje. Tai Dievo utopija, kuri bus įkurta  TT pasekėjų rankomis.

Todėl prieš rašant man atrodė, kad aš sprogsiu dėl to, kad nesutalpinu visko, ką jaučiu savyje. Priežastis labai paprasta, bet ir dramatiška: turint tokius tikslus, o realybėje matant nesėkmes ir ne vieną…

Nesenai, tik praėjusį liepos mėnesį, įvyko Peace Cup futbolo čempionatas. Jaunų korėjiečių komanda, visi antra karta, gyveno Ispanijoje du metus ir, gavę kelis milijonus dolerių iš TT, rengėsi šiam dideliam įvykiui. Visi žinome, kad futbolas sutraukia ne mažiau žmonių nei Olimpinės žaidynės. O žaisti futbolą už taiką pasaulyje yra tikrai graži idėja.

Kas gi įvyko? Pagrindinis prizas laimėtojams – 2.000.000 eurų, todėl į varžybas atvyko geros komandos, aukšto lygio komandos iš viso pasaulio. Tačiau visi žaidimai įvyko beveik be žiūrovų. Į finalą atvykęs TT neužskaitė šio renginio. Kodėl?!

Man čia Korėjoje pavyksta sužinoti daug daugiau, nei įmanoma kur nors kitur. O sužinojau štai ką:

Atvykę korėjiečiai veikė jiems įprastu būdu, taip kaip jie įpratę Korėjoje. Jie susitikinėjo su atsakingais asmenimis, kvietė juos į restoranus, tarėsi ir maitino, tikėdamiesi, kad vėliau gaus nuolaidas už reklamą ir stadionų nuomą. Kai atėjo laikas mokėti, jie net nežinojo kainų. Europoje niekas nesitiki, kad pakvietimas į restoraną suteiks didelę nuolaidą, todėl visi europiečiai paprasčiausiai galvojo, kad tai yra dalykinis pokalbis malonioje aplinkoje. Kai korėjiečiai susigaudė buvo jau per vėlu – visi kontraktai pasirašyti, nuolaida tik 5%. Galų gale neliko pinigų reklamai, tik stadionų nuomai. Jauni korėjiečiai kvietėsi savo žmonas iš Korėjos, kad jos gamintų valgyti sportininkams, nes neliko pinigų ir tam. Jie prašė TT dar duoti pinigų, tačiau į tai buvo atsakyta kietai: ieškokite sponsorių.

Tai dar ne vienintelė priežastis, kodėl stadionai buvo tušti. Pasirodo, karščiausiu vasaros metu, kai liepos mėnesį Ispanijos pietuose oro temperatūra siekia apie 50 laipsnių karščio, buvo išnuomotas stadionas finalinėms varžyboms pačioje karščiausioje Ispanijos vietoje, kur vasarą net nebelieka žmonių, taip ten yra karšta. Ar įmanoma surinkti sirgalius tokiose sąlygose? Net su reklama tai nebūtų pavykę. Šitą faktą žino visi ispanai, net tūlas europietis tai žino, tačiau korėjiečiai to nežinojo, kaip ir fakto apie europiečių verslo kultūrą.

Įpratę derėtis iki paskutinio, korėjiečiai neatkreipė dėmesį į tai, kad biurokratinėje Europoje pasirašytas dokumentas/kontraktas tai tas pats kaip kilpa ant kaklo – privalai juo sekti.

Kai pasikalbėjau apie tai valgykloje prie stalo su doktorantūroje studijuojančiu amerikiečiu (Susivienijimo bažnyčios narys jau 41 metus), jis sureagavo labai paprastai. Jo žodžiais tariant TT tiesiog investavo pinigus į jaunus korėjiečius, kurie ateityje taps judėjimo lyderiais, o dabar jie mokosi iš klaidų. Aš pasikarščiavau ir drėbiau - ”Juk japonai vos ne miršta rinkdami tuos pinigus! Ar sunku jiems buvo bendradarbiauti su kuo nors iš vietinių ispanų, juk ten yra bažnyčios nariai, galėjo priimti vieną į savo komandą!”

Korėjiečiai tokie subjektyvūs ir agresyvūs, kad gali veikti bet kokiomis sąlygomis, jie mokosi pakeliui. Tačiau kas jiems šį kartą pakišo koją – paprasčiausias “top – down” kultūrinis fenomenas, taip būdingas rytų kultūrai. Jiems net neatėjo į galvą klausti patarimo. Nesenai perskaičiau, kad “Korean Airlines” keičia organizacijos kultūrą, nes jos prestižas stipriai smuko dėl sudužusio lėktuvo (žuvo apie 250 žm.), kai jaunesnysis pilotas nedrįso pasakyti apie vyresniojo piloto klaidą, kuri ir nulėmė tragišką baigtį.

“Church management” disciplinoje gavau užduotį pristatyti Peace TV, kurios atvejis panašus į Peace Cup. Tai Internete veikianti TV, kuri informuoja bažnyčios narius apie tai ką veikia Mesijas. Tačiau veikia tik puslapis korėjiečių kalba, jei paspausite anglų ir japonų puslapius dešinėje viršutiniame kampe, sulauksite siurpizo: “Reported attack side! Get me out of here!” ir panašiai… Ir taip jau pusantrų metų!

Pasikalbėjau su buvusiu Peace TV darbuotoju (veikiu kaip geras žurnalistas, todėl neišduosiu savo informacijos šaltinio, nes jis to paprašė) ir štai ką sužinojau:

Peace TV – tai tik dalis firmos, kurios pavadinimas “Pyonghva Communications”. Žinoma, ši organizacija įkurta TT ir už jų duotus pinigus, tačiau Peace TV yra nuostolinga. Todėl ši kompanija veikia kaip komercinė organizacija ir uždirba pinigus ruošdama aukštos kokybės video produkciją visiems, kurie pasiruošę sumokėti. Norėdami sumažinti savo išlaidas, jie tai daro Peace TV dėka. Jų komandoje nėra angliškai kalbančio žmogaus, todėl niekas nepalaiko angliško puslapio. Kodėl nėra tokio žmogaus? Nes jie nenori už tai mokėti padorią, žmonišką kainą.

Nenoriu jų vien peikti, nes korėjietiškas puslapis veikia gana neblogai. TT nufilmuotų kalbų nereikia versti, todėl minimaliai apkarpytos, jo kalbos ir pagrindinės žinios patenka auditorijai. Jų stipriausias bruožas – tai jog operatorius seka TT visur kur jis bebūtų ir filmuoja. Todėl Peace TV yra sukaupę krūvas nufilmuotos medžiagos. Tačiau ten dirba profesionalai-technikai, nėra priežiūros iš bažnyčios pusės, kurie nuspręstų ką rodyti, o ką ne. Nes kartais TT kalba ne bendrai auditorijai, o tam tikrais organizaciniais reikalais tam tikram žmogui.

Ką siūlysiu savo prezentacijoje? Reikia įsteigti Susivienijimo bažnyčios departamentą, kuris peržiūrėtų viską, kas yra publikuojama apie TT. Taip pat reikia įsteigti vertėjų biurą, kuris dirbtų tik tam, kad visas likęs pasaulis, kuris nekalba korėjietiškai, gautų žinias ne po metų ar kelių, o kaip galima greičiau. Gal savaitės bėgyje, gal dar greičiau.

Tačiau kai buvo verčiamas CSG (Čong Song Gjong), paaiškėjo, kad nėra kvalifikuotų vertėjų į anglų kalbą. Verčiant iš korėjiečių į anglų kalbą vertėjo gimtoji kalba turi būti anglų, tačiau vertimą darė korėjiečiai, o tie, kurių gimtoji kalba anglų, tekstą redagavo. Vertimas buvo labai skubus, reikėjo išverti į dvyliką kalbų iki 2006 m. Pasaulyje atrado du žmones, kurie kvalifikuoti šiam darbui, bet abu negalėjo padėti (vienas dirba Washington Times, kitas Sun Moon universitete). Todėl būtina įsteigti vertėjų rengimo institutą, kurie specializuotųsi TT kalbų vertime.

Heung Jin Nim žino apie šią idėją, tačiau kol yra reformuojama Susivienijimo bažnyčia, iki to projekto dar neprieinama, neužtenka jėgų daryti viską.

Dar vienas pasiūlymas: tegul korėjiečiai jų nufilmuotą medžiagą siunčia JAV Susivienijimo bažnyčiai, nes ji atstovauja likusiam pasauliui (Japonija ir Korėja turi daug daugiau bažnyčios narių nei JAV ir likęs pasaulis). Tačiau, kaip supratau, būtent sėl savo subjektyvumo Peace TV valdantys korėjiečiai nenori dalintis subsidijomis su niekuo, todėl laiko šią privilegiją sau, nors anglų kalbos nei bum bum. Paskambinus į Peace TV teko kalbėtis korėjietiškai. Nežinau, kaip aš galiu paruošti prezentaciją, kai negaliu susikalbėti su TV darbuotojais?

Aš galėčiau tęsti ir tęsti… Bet laikas sustoti, jau ir taip šitas postas labai ilgas, nes problema didelė. Tikrieji Tėvai yra ten, o mes čia. Mes taip toli nuo jų atsilikę, kad net tvanku darosi apie tai pagalvojus. Neadekvatūs, neprilygstantys jiems. Tačiau Dievas neturi išeities, kaip veikti per mus. Juk nėra kitų žmonių, kurie darytų Dievo valią ir sektų Mesiju, kai jis yra žemėje. Esame tik mes, vargšai ir apgailėtini. Pabaigai pacituosiu Biblijos ištrauką apie Avinėlio puotą (Mato evangelija 22:8-10), kuri aprašo Tikrųjų Tėvų santuokos Palaiminimą, kuris įvyko 1960-aisiais:

Galop jis tarė tarnams: ‘Vestuvės, tiesa, surengtos, bet pakviestieji nebuvo verti. ⁹ Todėl eikite į kryžkeles ir, ką tik rasite, kvieskite į vestuves’. ¹⁰ Tie tarnai išėjo į kelius ir surinko visus, ką tik sutiko, blogus ir gerus.