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Forum Summary: “Quitters Never Win”

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Author: Juliette McNair | Student, Living Education Charlotte 2020

Estimated reading time: 1 min. 35 sec.

Mr. Dan Hall, the regional pastor of the southeastern U.S, attended his first Feast of Tabernacles when he was fourteen. Mr. Hall’s parents were called into the Church in the 1950s. He recalled, “During that early time, it was a rare thing for people to leave the Church.” But some people do leave the Church. Why?  

He began with a quote from Vince Lombardi, professional American football coach: 

“Winners never quit and quitters never win.” 

 Since the beginning, Mr. Hall explained, Satan’s modus operandi has been to incite doubt in God’s people and cause us to give up. Yet, we must learn to hang on. In 1914, Sir Ernest Shackleton led an expedition to cross the Antarctic continent. The story goes, after pack ice crushed the Endurance, he and his entire crew survived under brutal conditions for almost two years before reaching safety.  “What did Shackleton do that caused people to hang in there?” He kept hope alive for his men.  

A Dealer in Hope

Mr. Hall quoted Napoleon Bonaparte, “A leader is a dealer in hope.” A past leader, the Apostle Paul, shows us this in Hebrews 10:22-23, “Let us draw near with a true heart… Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering.”  We were reminded that if Mr. Armstrong or Dr. Meredith had given up, many of us would not be in God’s Church today. Our leaders can inspire hope in us. They remind us that there’s “only one way to grow and that’s forward.” 

Mr. Hall concluded, “It’s not a matter of who gets to the Kingdom first, we’re all going to be together as a family… I want to encourage you to be winners and not quitters because quitters never win.” 

This post is part of our new series of student-written content for LivingEd-Charlotte. These summaries cover topics originally presented by our faculty and guest speakers in our weekly Forum and Assembly. For more Assembly-related content check out our Second Thoughts posts.

Assembly Summary: Know Those Who Labor Among You

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Author: Juliette McNair | Student, Living Education Charlotte 2020

Estimated reading time: 3 min. 35 sec.

This past week, Mr. Gerald Weston gave a “This Is My Life” style assembly. He began with 1 Thessalonians 5:12, relating Paul’s admonition to know and understand where our leaders are coming from. To help the students know him better, he told the story of his life.  

Early Life

Mr. Weston moved nine times by the time he turned fourteen; his father served in the Air Force. Living at the Vandenburg Air Force Base in California during the Cold War, he said, “If there ever was a war, I would be sitting at ground zero.” Mr. Weston “grew up in the shadow of the bomb.” ICBMs were regularly tested at the base. Mr. Weston’s father helped develop MIRVs, and his squadron loaded nuclear weapons onto aircraft.  

As a young man, Mr. Weston was in the Boy Scouts, the Civil Air Patrol, and Search and Rescue. He played baseball, football, swam, and ran track in high school. When he was fifteen years old, a friend on his bus gave him The Book of Revelation Unveiled at Last; he finished reading it that evening. As he read more literature, his interest in the Church grew—as did his parent’s disapproval. Mr. Weston listened to The World Tomorrow on KGO San Francisco, with his hand on the dial—ready to switch stations should they walk into his room. He began to keep the Sabbath at the local library, finishing his work around the house earlier in the week to do so. Following the food laws was a challenge in his household; on one occasion, his father was not pleased when he refused to eat the pork spare ribs his mother had made. He said, “It was touch and go every time we had unclean meats for dinner.” 

From College to the Ministry

Finally, in 1964, he moved out to attend Ventura College. “The first thing I did was call up the minister.” After attending for only one Sabbath, he kept Atonement and then observed his first Feast of Tabernacles. The following year, Mr. Weston went to Ambassador College. He came to know Mr. Armstrong as a student in his “Principles of Christian Life” class.  Mr. Weston explained that he could not claim to be close to him personally. “He wouldn’t know me today,” he said, “But I do know how he thought on many different things.” Mr. Weston met his wife at Pasadena when she transferred from Big Sandy. Then, after graduating AC in 1969, he was hired to serve in the ministry.  

On March 11, 1995, nine years after Mr. Armstrong’s death, Mr. Weston gave his last sermon in the Kansas City congregation of the Worldwide Church of God. He asked three questions: Why are there such massive changes? Where is it heading? What should we do? After getting fired from the Worldwide Church of God ministry, he looked for where God was working and found Dr. Meredith continuing the Work in the Global Church of God. “That’s where the Work was being done and the flock was being fed.” He explained to us that we may one day have to make a decision that will affect the rest of our life and beyond—a choice between following our friends or following the truth.  

Over the years, Mr. Weston has lived in Houston, Texas; Lake Charles, Louisiana; Monroe, Louisiana; Michigan; Asheville, North Carolina; Kansas City, Missouri; Canada; the U.K; and finally, Charlotte, North Carolina. As a pastor in the Worldwide Church of God, he and his wife served at the youth camps in both Minnesota and Texas. In Global, he was asked to assist at the camps in Missouri and North Carolina. Then, from 1998 to 2008, he served as director of the Living Youth Camp in Michigan. 

Mr. Weston advised us to learn from history and people’s perspectives to understand what happens today. He encouraged us to “know those who labor among you.” 

This post is part of our new series of student-written content for LivingEd-Charlotte. These summaries cover topics originally presented by our faculty and guest speakers in our weekly Forum and Assembly. For more Assembly-related content check out our Second Thoughts posts.

Forum Summary: An Unshakeable Core

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Author: Juliette McNair | Student, Living Education Charlotte 2020

“What if everything changed instantly?”

Mr. Phil Sena, pastor of several congregations in Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio, presented the students with this question at the beginning of his forum. He explained that at some point, our lives will become drastically more difficult than they are now. “You may not want to live through the “beginning of sorrows,” but you cannot change the times in which you live. You can control your response.” 

Esther was a young woman thrust into a situation entirely out of her control.

Yet, she rose to Mordecai’s challenge. “For if you remain completely silent at this time, relief and deliverance will arise for the Jews from another place” (Esther 4:14). She didn’t run. Esther became “one who influences positively,”—Mr. Sena’s definition of a good leader. After seeking the people’s and God’s support, she made her choice: “I will go to the king… If I perish, I perish!” (v. 16)

Mr. Sena stated that a leader’s ability comes from “an unshakeable core.”

We build our core by making decisions. God used Esther to do His Work—to deliver His people. “Yet who knows whether you have come to the kingdom for such a time as this?” (4:14) Mr. Sena explained that a young person’s example has far-reaching implications. “You represent the Kingdom.”  

We don’t have control over the times in which we live, but we can control our response. Mr. Sena inspired us to learn from the story of Esther: accept the challenge, become a leader, do God’s Work. 

This post is part of our new series of student-written content for LivingEd-Charlotte. These summaries cover topics originally presented by our faculty and guest speakers in our weekly Forum and Assembly. For more Assembly-related content check out our Second Thoughts posts.

Forum Summary: “Dating, Courting, Attraction, and Engagement”

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Author: Juliette McNair | Student, Living Education Charlotte 2020

Est. reading time: 1 min. 30 sec.

Mr. Paul Kearns, an area pastor in New Zealand, introduced himself by relating to the students his experience as a Living University student at the regional Church office in Adelaide, Australia.

He said his experience was, “one of the greatest periods in my life.” With the LU motto of “Recapturing True Values” in mind, Mr. Kearns redefined dating, courtship, attraction, and engagement.  

Dating, Mr. Kearns explained, is not “a dirty word”…

but a “non-romantic opportunity to serve somebody of the opposite sex.” Through dating widely and avoiding pairing off, young men and women serve each other and learn.  

In today’s world, courtship is an old-fashioned, meaningless term.

Courting occurs when two people date exclusively towards engagement. This stage requires maturity to cope with the emotions that accompany it. Mr. Kearns shared a piece of advice he had received from Mr. Bruce Tyler, “The right thing at the wrong time is still the wrong thing.”  

Mr. Kearns asked, “Should there be attraction in dating?” 

Attraction, the force by which one object attracts another, is a physical pull in the world around us. For us, attraction should not be the motivator in dating; serving should be. In courtship, while attraction is good, there should be more that attracts us than looks. 

Mr. Kearns concluded with the term, engagement.

This stage should not be a “cooling off period” in which we re-evaluate the deal—it is a formal decision to marry and a stage of relationship God treats seriously.  

By redefining these terms, by God’s standards and not our society’s, Mr. Kearns hoped to help the students recapture true values in their relationships. 

This post is part of our new series of student-written content for LivingEd-Charlotte. These summaries cover topics originally presented by our faculty and guest speakers in our weekly Forum and Assembly. For more Assembly-related content check out our Second Thoughts posts.

Assembly Summary: Living a Life of Creativity

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Author: Juliette McNair | Student, Living Education Charlotte 2020

Est. reading time: 1 min. 17 sec.

“How much have you exercised creativity in your life?” Mr. Jonathan McNair asked in today’s assembly.

We watched a YouTube video of Ben Folds, singer-songwriter and record producer, build an orchestral piece in ten minutes inspired by a random sentence in a brochure. This is the ability of a single individual working with 120 musicians to create unified, harmonious sound out of practically nothing.  

Mr. McNair then took us to Genesis 1. The creativity of God uses elements of design, power, beauty, and sound mechanics. God constructed the systems of our world through His creative genius—from vast environments and specific ecosystems, to different animal species and their complex social behaviors. But as we saw in the Folds’ video, we have inside us this desire to create. 

“Have you asked God to help you develop your creativity? If you haven’t, you need to ask—not just for playing video games or entertainment but for a productive, creative skill God can leverage in your life in service to others and for your own good.” Mr. McNair said emphatically, “It doesn’t happen magically.”

He gave three principles to apply to develop this:  

  1. Use proven patterns 
  2. Get the little things right 
  3. Work in harmony with others.  

If we live a life of creativity, we exercise a quality of God Himself—a quality placed in us for the very purpose of creation. 

This post is part of our new series of student-written content for LivingEd-Charlotte. These summaries cover topics originally presented by our faculty and guest speakers in our weekly Forum and Assembly. For more Assembly-related content check out our Second Thoughts posts

Forum Summary: Initiative and ‘Getting the Job’

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Author: Juliette McNair | Student, Living Education Charlotte 2020

Est. reading time: 1 min. 36 sec.

Mr. Michael DeSimone, Manager of Broadcast and Digital Media for Tomorrow’s World, gave the first Forum after the students returned from the Feast. He presented four major steps to stand out to employers and “get the job”. 

The first is preparation. “Put it on paper” Mr. DeSimone said. Write down your skills and your professional goals—who you want to work for and how much you aim to make. Without this preparation, people follow “a recipe for failure.”  

The second step is securing the interview. A resume only places you in a stack of applications. You can gain recognition through several well-timed “connections.” Only 1–2 % of applicants make a follow-up call after sending their resume. But this one small bold step increases your chances of a job offer from one out of 254 resumes sent to one out of only 15 resumes sent. “You have to stand out to get the job.”  

The third step is mastering the interview. Practice interviewing; understand the company for which you want to work. Mr. DeSimone also stressed the importance of the first two minutes of the interview; in that time, the hirer can see how you will fit into company culture over the next decade. Your body language, eye contact, and manners all influence their first impressions.  

The final step is negotiating compensation. Our speaker emphasized there should be no money-talk until the position is yours. “You need leverage in negotiation.” 

The initiative is the job-seeker’s—the onus is not on the hiring manager to drive the process. Waiting for somebody else’s initiation is, Mr. DeSimone says, “a sure way to not get the job.” Mastering these steps will make you stand out from the other candidates and help you get the job. 

This post is part of our new series of student-written content for LivingEd-Charlotte. These summaries cover topics originally presented by our faculty and guest speakers in our weekly Forum and Assembly. For more Assembly-related content check out our Second Thoughts posts

Forum Summary: The First 12%

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Author: Juliette McNair | Student, LivingEd-Charlotte 2020

Estimated reading time: 1 min.

“12 percent of your Living Education experience is already behind you.” Mr. John Strain, the Charlotte congregation pastor, spoke to us on September 22, prior to the Feast break.

This program is only 9 months long; it is a brief chance to accomplish something good. But do we know what we’re trying to accomplish? “Could you tell me why you’re here?” Mr. Strain asked. More importantly, how will we know if we’ve met our goal? Our speaker told us to make our goals measurable. Whether on paper or in a Word document, we need to have a model by which we measure our progress.  

Laying a foundation

This program is unlike Ambassador College: church resources and size don’t allow for it. But Living Ed gives us the same opportunity to build a solid foundation. Mr. Strain told us to build that foundation by learning doctrine, exercising communication skills, building lifelong friendships, and doing jobs that support the Work. He said that this is “the most concentrated period of time you will have in your life to study the Bible.” The foundation we build here will be the frame for everything we undertake in the future.  

This post is part of our new series of student-written content for LivingEd-Charlotte. These summaries cover topics originally presented by our faculty and guest speakers in our weekly Forum and Assembly. For more Assembly-related content check out our Second Thoughts posts

Forum Summary: What’s Your Worldview?

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Author: Juliette McNair | Student, LivingEd-Charlotte 2020

Estimated Reading Time: 1 min.

Mr. Peter Nathan, regional director of Europe, Africa, and the UK, spoke on the alternative worldviews—or “universes”—people have today. He posed the question, “Why is it that we come to very different conclusions?”

Two Realities

Mr. Nathan walked us through the history of Thomas Aquinas’ introduction of Aristotelian views into mainstream Christianity in the 13th century. The world, according to these philosophies, is made up of two realities: the spiritual and the natural.

As the centuries passed, humanist personalities like Charles Darwin contributed to an emphasis on the natural world over the spiritual. The subsequent secularization of society has closed off our “universe” from any spiritual reality. The modern world, as we know it, contains little trace of God or religion in its thinking.

Free from the trap

We are living in a sea of worldviews blinded from the reality of the spiritual. Mr. Nathan exhorted us to take on the responsibility of looking to God to provide “a perspective for interpreting every subject” and to grasp the spiritual metanarratives that accompany our physical realities. If we do this, we free ourselves from the blinded, closed-off universe in which our society is trapped. 

This post is part of our new series of student-written content for LivingEd-Charlotte. These summaries cover topics originally presented by our faculty and guest speakers in our weekly Forum and Assembly. For more Assembly-related content check out our Second Thoughts posts

Assembly Summary: “You Don’t Know”

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Author: Juliette McNair | Student, LivingEd-Charlotte 2020

Mr. Gaylyn Bonjour opened his session with a piece of advice: “You don’t know what people need, what they require, and how to help them…You don’t know…” On our own, we struggle to perceive other people’s needs and are often blind to our responsibilities toward them. We have little control over the events that will occur in our lives—we can’t even control how they shape us. Yet, Mr. Bonjour explained, there is purpose in this reality of life: to learn and gain understanding. For young people, striving to live up to God’s standards—in times of our lives when we just don’t know—Mr. Bonjour gave several solid principles to apply. 

The first is, find an older person at your work, and take care of them—do the heavy-lifting.

While Mr. Bonjour was specifically referring to a job he had in the past, the principle carries over for young people in the church. If we can learn from the experiences of older men and women, be it in a practical working capacity or regarding spiritual issues, we save time. We fast-track ourselves in our development, and we learn the lessons without the pain that may have accompanied our teacher.  

A second principle is be a multi-purpose tool.

The speaker compared a 3 mm Allen wrench to a pocket-knife that contained several different tools. Both tools have different utility—but the Allen wrench’s usefulness is extremely narrow. It can accomplish one thing. Mr. Bonjour encouraged us to be the pocket-knife. Pick up skills, however small they are, to become valuable to employers, to our family, and to the church.  

Mr. Bonjour read Proverbs 3:5-6, “Lean not on your own understanding; in all your ways acknowledge Him, and He shall direct your paths.” Not knowing what’s going to happen or how to fulfill each other’s needs is just the way life works. God uses this reality to teach us, to challenge us, and to bring us to change. 

This post is part of our new series of student-written content for LivingEd-Charlotte. These summaries cover topics originally presented by our faculty and guest speakers in our weekly Forum and Assembly. For more Assembly-related content check out our Second Thoughts posts

Forum Summary: “Combat Distractedness”

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Author: Juliette McNair | Student, LivingEd-Charlotte 2020

Estimated Reading Time: 1 minute 40 seconds

The forum speaker for the day, Mr. Jonathan Bueno, spoke on the topic of maintaining focus in a world of distraction. Mr. Bueno explained that this distracted state is a way of life for many in our world, but a young person in God’s church cannot afford to lose focus on their purpose. The speaker outlined three categories of purpose in a Christian’s life: daily tasks, life goals, and the ultimate goal of being in the kingdom of God. So how can we combat our propensity to be, as “distracted” literally means, dragged away from our purpose? 

Two major distractions that draw people away from their goals are technology and entertainment. The average American household watches 8 hours of TV per day and iPhones are constantly in hand, grabbing attention with catchy alerts. Mr. Bueno calls these and other similar activities non-essential pursuits. He reminded us that the time spent on these non-essentials adds up. By spending our time in that way we willingly risk becoming, quite literally, chemically “hooked” on our distractions. Mr. Bueno quoted Deuteronomy 5:32, “… you shall not turn aside to the right hand or to the left.” God wants His people to maintain their focus on the important things. Mr. Bueno used the parable of the sower in Matthew 13 to emphasize the danger that distractions pose to the young in the faith. The “thorns” of our day can easily choke out our understanding, simply by overwhelming us with notifications and endless choices.  

Mr. Bueno encouraged us to put God first, to be purpose driven, and to evaluate the distractions we allow into our lives by the word of God. We must not be drawn away from our purpose. Distractions kill, but “focus will bring us to the finish line.” 

This post is part of our new series of student-written content for LivingEd-Charlotte. These summaries cover topics originally presented by our faculty and guest speakers in our weekly Forum and Assembly. For more Assembly-related content check out our Second Thoughts posts.