ⓒ 2018 WATV

2018 marks the 100th anniversary of the birth of Christ Ahnsahnghong, who restored the new covenant and rebuilt the Church of God which had disappeared from history, according to the prophecies of the Bible. A few days before the first day of the first month by the sacred calendar (March 17) in this special year, the General Assembly 2018 was held at the Okcheon Go&Come Training Institute in Korea.

The General Assembly 2018, which was held in the presence of the Holy Spirit from March 14 to 18, helped the pastoral staff members from inside and outside Korea realize that the gospel was spreading as quick as lightning in this age, and also provided the opportunity for them to become more mature in their faith. During the General Assembly, the awards ceremony and the Sabbath worship services took place, being attended by the members from local churches in Korea as well; they strengthened their faith even more.

Unity, the key to God’s overflowing blessings

In 2017, the gospel spread rapidly that the number of the Churches of God all around the world increased to 7,000. The General Assembly 2018 started with the awards ceremony to celebrate the rapid growth of the gospel. As the gospel bore such abundant fruit all over the world, many of the churches received awards. A total of 508 awards in five categories, including Gospel Region Pioneering and Gospel Worker Production, were presented to the churches that brought forth excellent gospel results.

Mother personally presented awards to the overseers of those churches. Then She blessed not only those attending the ceremony but all other members including the pastoral staff around the world, saying, “Let us all receive eternal rewards and compliments in the kingdom of heaven.” She added, “As you united together and obeyed God’s word, God was moved and wrote a new history for you,” and asked the members to work for the gospel, in unity as parts of Christ’s body in 2018, too.

ⓒ 2018 WATV

The next day, the 2017 Gospel Results Report, the 2018 Gospel Plan Presentation, and the International Pastoral Forum were held. The keyword of all these programs was also “unity.” General Pastor Kim Joo-cheol explained how volunteer services and mission work were carried out during the past one year, and he commented, “There were trials and hardships in the process of preaching to seven billion people. However, as the members from all age groups united with one another, cherishing Mother’s love and firm faith, God’s glory was displayed worldwide. As a result, we’ve been able to experience the tremendous growth of the gospel.”

The forum presenters, including Pastor Kim Wang-hyeon from Fawcett, Peru, said that such good results were brought forth because not only the individual members including the pastoral staff but also the churches in different regions and countries worked hard together with one mind, helping one another. In Peru, the local members who were like-minded willingly went to other countries such as Argentina and Bolivia as well as a remote village in Santa Teresa (which takes three days to get there on foot); they preached the gospel and prepared worship places for the members in those regions. The churches in Nepal, the U.S., South Africa, and so on, established Zion in neighboring countries and even on other continents across the ocean. The churches in Korea supported volunteer services and mission work by training gospel workers and sending 340 short-term and long-term mission teams to 62 countries.

ⓒ 2018 WATV

Godliness, a virtue necessary to accomplish the gospel work

Mother reminded the pastoral staff who wished to take a bigger leap in the gospel, leaving the blessed year 2017 behind, that they should have another virtue in addition to unity. It is godliness that those who have a mature faith must have.

Mother said, “God is most pleased when one soul repents. Seeing His children reflect on themselves and repent of their sins, He gave them even greater blessings. In this new year, train yourselves to be godly, so that you can be fully changed into perfect beings with a beautiful faith and behavior,” and She explained in detail the characteristics of godliness. According to the Bible, godliness has value for all things and keeps oneself from being polluted by the world; God rescues godly people from trials; if anyone does not agree to godly teaching, his mind becomes corrupt and he will be robbed of the truth (Ps 4:3; Tit 2:7–14; 1 Ti 4:7–8; 6:3–6; Jas 1:26–27; 2 Pe 2:4–9). Throughout the General Assembly, Mother taught the pastoral staff, “If you live godly lives with faith mature enough to consider others better than yourselves, being united with one another, you can experience miracles of the gospel.” She earnestly desired all Her children to be changed fully enough to resemble God in love and godliness and to accomplish their wishes and goals for the gospel (1 Co 13:1–6, 11–13; Ps 133:1–3; Php 2:3–8; Col 3:1–10; 2 Pe 3:14).

General Pastor Kim Joo-cheol said, “Blessings are for those who make efforts to put Mother’s words into practice, just as Father has taught us.” He also emphasized, “God assured us that we could accomplish the movement to preach the gospel to seven billion people by allowing us to experience amazing results of the gospel in 2017. So, let us devote ourselves to our mission given by God with 100% faith, 100% passion, and 100% obedience.”


The pastoral staff engraved the teachings of God on their minds, broadened their gospel perspectives, and asked Mother for the Holy Spirit and grace. With new visions and overwhelming passion, they returned to their churches. Pastor Lee Dong-il from the New Windsor Church, U.S., which received awards in all categories, expressed his ambition toward the gospel, “We will complete the gospel work in North America and fulfill world evangelism, with perfect faith and unity that can move God who has been patiently waiting for His children to become mature in faith for such a long time.”

The Church of God shines the light of life and love by preaching the gospel of the new covenant from the east to the ends of the earth. In the hopeful year 2018, the clock of the gospel kingdom where the sun never sets will continue to run to accomplish the great work of salvation for all people.