United News: What is your vision for the Church in terms of what you will focus on accomplishing over the next three to five years?

Clyde Kilough: The short-term vision is no different than the long-term vision that has always existed for the Church: It must be a home in which both Church "veterans" and newcomers alike are spiritually growing and dedicated to the mission God has given us.

Being mission-focused drives the hunger to preach the gospel, make disciples and care for those disciples. That steers our focus away from ourselves, and that is critically important for a healthy spiritual mentality. Being inwardly-directed sows its own seeds of destruction for individuals and organizations alike.

Therefore, we must cast our eyes on something bigger than ourselves, on God and the work He has given us to do. We have the greatest calling, work and future anyone could ever have in this lifetime. That focus will make us zealous and upbeat, but also realistic and sober, responsible and accountable.

That big picture drives the short-term work we have in specific areas of operations. One of our strengths is our track record of being fiscally conservative and healthy, which speaks to responsible financial stewardship. Considering the limited resources in both members and finances, it's quite amazing how much product we have turned out in 10 years, which speaks to the dedication of the Church members.

We can't determine the number of members and the amount of money we'll have, so we always have to work on more effectively coordinating those resources. That means carefully evaluating the efforts of the past 10 years to identify the most effective tools we've had to reach the world with the gospel message and care for the disciples.

We need a greater passion and zeal for our calling. Satan operates both overtly and covertly to try to kill our zeal, and we cannot be ignorant of his devices. We have recaptured the beliefs of the early New Testament Church; now we have to recapture the zeal of that Church that we see in the book of Acts. The God that instilled that zeal in them is the same God we serve today, and we have the same mission. We just need to be the same type of people who are zealously dedicated to this mission.

Frankly, we still need to be more unified and peaceful than we have been at times during the past 10 to 15 years. We need to put negativism behind us, and we need to shoulder our individual responsibility for constructing a healthy church environment into which God can bring new people.

Human problems inevitably arise, but I believe we can do better in minimizing them by trying to anticipate and deal with them earlier and more effectively. I pray that in the last 10 years we, as a church, have learned lessons about how to better handle conflict and differences of opinion, the folly of unnecessary division and the need to lock arms instead of horns. It is dependent on each individual, of course, but we will be doing what we can within the administration to improve our efforts.

Overall, United has established its willingness to be at peace with other groups, and I hope we can encourage the right relationships with all the people of God. As Paul said in Romans 12:18, "As much as depends on you, live peaceably with all men." We've all fallen short in this, with resulting hurts along the way. If we all treat one another more respectfully, then maybe God will be pleased and will open some doors to help repair the breaches.

These are some of the areas of vision, and each establishes numerous focal points for the president. One of my main responsibilities is to keep the mission and vision before the Church, to keep us centered on the greater calling and picture of life.

Jesus Christ is a purveyor of hope and optimism, directing and rallying the troops, with an unwavering zeal to be about His Father's business. We all need to study the leadership style of Jesus and humbly draw daily from the strength of God's Spirit. In it we will find direction, wisdom, discernment, solutions to problems, the right attitude in times of stress, faith, commitment—in essence, everything we need.

What is your perspective regarding the current direction and state of the Church in areas such as the administration, ministry and congregations? Can you identify issues of concern and how you would address them?

First, one of the steadily growing strengths over the last few years is the manner in which the Council of Elders is operating, and that has a profound impact on the direction of the Church. We have a wide variety of individual perspectives and experiences on the Council, but it's the chemistry that is vital, and it's "cooking" well—we operate in a spirit of camaraderie and consensus, which has helped us grow in clarifying the respective roles of the administration and Council.

In essence, the Council has steadily moved away from managing details to putting more time on the greater leadership issues of the future—where we are going and how to best get there.

In that process, a few months ago the Council analyzed in depth UCG's strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats. We were brutally honest in all areas. The list of strengths was particularly encouraging because it showed where the Church is moving in the right direction. We can list a lot of positives, including such things as:

• A biblically-based, balanced governmental system.
• A strong doctrinal foundation.
• A solid ministry and membership with stable congregations.
• A broad media base for preaching the gospel.
• Healthy financial management.
• A commitment to openness in communication.
• Growing international representations.
• A sensitivity to ethics.
• Multilayered educational efforts.
• Equitable processes and procedures for dealing with everything from doctrinal papers to member appeals when someone feels he has been wronged.
• Excellent youth and young adult development programs ranging from Sabbath schools to camps to ABC to Youth Corps.

We need to remember this, and always give credit to the greatest positive of all: God in His mercy kept us alive when all human reasoning says we should not have survived.

On the other hand, while heading the right direction in many ways, I wish we could accelerate the rate of speed—we strain at the bit to do more, but when your resources are limited, it is hard to do what you want, as fast as you want to do it. So we're not satisfied with the status quo and will be bold enough to self-examine, honestly confront our weaknesses, pull together the "think tanks" necessary to come up with action plans and implement solutions.

I sense a bit of weariness at times in the Church, not "weary in well-doing," but weariness of the turmoil over the past decade. But I also sense that most of the Church is committed to God, loves the truth and simply wants to see so much positive going on that it overcomes the negative voices of pessimism and cynicism. We just always need to keep in mind that our strength lies not in numbers but in our spiritual condition. Likewise, our greatest threats are spiritual—things like complacency, disunity, the cares of the world—and loom large if we let down our guard.

We are blessed with a dedicated group of elders and wives who are giving all they have in service to the Church. Physically, we're a bit more tired, but we're learning to pace ourselves. For the last decade we ministers have been pressed to do things we never did before—write booklets and articles, staff camps, pastor multiple congregations, work on task forces, do radio and TV work and so on.

However, I'm not wringing my hands over the aging ministry issue, because we have a good pool of developing leaders, plus we see strong leadership qualities emerging in many young adults. While we work toward better organization to use our existing manpower more efficiently, we are also putting in place programs that will accelerate the growth of new leadership through effective mentoring.

As per the president's job description, how do you see the president working with the international areas?

We are first and foremost a spiritual body that has no national boundaries, and I will try to do everything possible to further the spiritual work of the Church of taking the gospel into all the world and caring for the disciples God may call. However, we operate in a complex world and it has been challenging for all the parties involved—home office, Council and various national offices—over the last few years to understand the exact role of the president vis-à-vis the international areas.

Developing the Rules of Association was a great step, but even a well-crafted governing document cannot anticipate all the intricacies of operating in many different countries. In some areas a foreigner is legally prohibited from having much influence in that country, while in other areas he may be quite involved.

Overall, though, I will always work to establish a good personal relationship with everyone in the international areas, make sure we have clear lines of good communication, try to better coordinate efforts and facilitate problem solving when challenges arise. It's not a matter for the president to tell international areas what to do, but I do believe the president is in a great position to have a global overview, to understand the needs in all the various nations and to help communication between the international areas, Council and home office.

You mentioned zeal earlier. How would you instill zeal and a sense of urgency in the Church?

True zeal is a spiritual issue and therefore must ultimately come from within, that is, one's relationship with God. However, its stirring can be strongly affected by outside sources that God uses. Every one of us has been fired up by the zeal of another person, just as we have been discouraged by the negativism of another.

The key is passion! The gospel has at its core optimism and hope, and if we cannot be passionate about that, then we need to reexamine our priorities. True passion for this work is not driven by personality or style or anything else artificial, but by a genuine and fervent heart. Genuine, eternal passion comes from the truth of God, His way of life, ever present awareness of what He did for us, the love of God, the belief in His calling and our future.

The Church, though, needs a consistent voice of mission, vision, encouragement, inspiration and focus on the future. It needs a passionate voice that shifts our thinking from the negative to the positive in a very consistent way. The president does have a responsibility to strive to motivate people through a message that is hopeful, relevant, encouraging and goal-oriented.

It all centers on seeking first the Kingdom of God and His righteousness. Matthew 6:33 is very personal, conveying to each of us the need to be visionary. However, it helps to hear a constant voice lifting our vision higher. When we fervently preach this, not only will we properly carry Christ's message, but we will distinguish ourselves from other religions that derive their motivation from fear or elitism or escapism or the promise of prosperity or temporary emotional highs or anything else. Our drive to "seek His righteousness" should not be based on trying to escape the tribulation, but on striving to enter the Kingdom of God!

The Church should also derive great motivation from being a part of the biggest thing going on right now on the earth. Everyone needs to understand how they are a vital part in this work, and it must be relevant to them. Each member is a link in a chain that Jesus Christ, the head of the Church, has been building for 2,000 years. We talk of being the first-century Church in the 21st century, and perhaps we think of that primarily in terms of doctrine, but what took place in the early Church in terms of zeal and passion also has to be present at the end times.

God has placed each one of us in the Body as it has pleased Him, and what else in this life can ever give us more purpose? We must ask Him, "Where do you want me to fit within Your temple?" Humans need meaning in their lives, and we must effectively relate to everyone—from the children to the elderly, from babes in Christ to the old veterans—the meaning God has given us. That breeds zeal. And people filled with zeal for serving God and one another will find their opportunities to contribute effectively to their congregations and to the Church as a whole.

We need to use all the spiritual tools at our disposal, including Churchwide "positive fasting" such as we had recently. Not fasting out of crisis, but fasting in faith, asking God to bless us with deeper vision, commitment and righteousness. When that ball starts rolling, we will see God's hand and His blessing, and His zeal will inspire more zeal.

Where do we go from here? What will be happening over the next few months?

Personally, I'm getting up to speed as fast as possible on all the areas that affect my responsibilities, and the home office staff is being very helpful. Our priority will be on performance assessment of all areas of the administration. Let's figure out what we're doing well and can capitalize on, find out what isn't working so well and either discard it or find solutions, then resolve to do whatever's necessary to make needed changes.

We will see some changes in organizational structure, some moves in personnel, some changes in programs. We will streamline our efforts in certain areas in order to better coordinate our resources and prevent duplication of efforts that don't use money and manpower to its greatest effectiveness.

The media center facility construction is nearly completed, and TV production will start very soon. This will boost our Internet presence and open additional opportunities for cable TV. Technology, especially in the Internet world, is opening doors for preaching the gospel in ways few of us comprehended a decade ago, and we are running to keep up with it as much as possible. We will always be looking for ways to improve our delivery of the gospel to the world, and in the next few months we will be on that road of assessment.

We also have a number of ideas on the table for how Ministerial Services can strengthen the Church's wide-ranging educational efforts that are so essential for the growth of the Body. We're rapidly moving along in the developmental stages, and we will soon unveil some major initiatives that will have quite a positive impact.

I want to express how much Dee and I have been touched by the outpouring of support and prayers from members around the world. We deeply appreciate it and will do our best to serve God, and you, in this responsibility. UN