At the close of the 2024 General Assembly, I will have been afforded 8 years of service to the Church of God denomination as it’s General Overseer. Those years are part of a larger panoramic of 20 years in elected leadership consisting of two eight year terms on the Executive Committee and 4 years directing the ministries of Church of God World Missions. Considering an additional 8 years of leadership at other full-time levels, I have spent more than a third of my life in an office connected with an election or an appointment originating at the International Offices of the Church of God. It is hard to imagine, but in that time, Paula and I have visited almost 3,000 different congregations around the world while logging an almost unbelievable amount of air miles traveling to visit our church in over 100 nations of the world. There’s nothing really impressive about all of that travel. It just indicates that we have spent many nights away from our home and grandchildren. We are grateful however, to have been privileged to give of ourselves to the work of God’s kingdom on the platforms afforded us by the Church of God.
In approximately one hundred days, new leaders will be chosen to lead this denominational movement. Of course among those leaders will be a new General Overseer. I gladly promise you that the individual chosen will have my full support and encouragement. No, I will not check in with him every day with calls, visits or text messages, but I will be consistently praying for he and his wife while cooperating fully with the vision of his heart.
Entering into the final 100 days of my service to the Church of God, at least from this role of ministry, I think it is important to remind you that a persons departure from a leadership role is as important, at least in some ways, as their entrance. I am finding that in many significant ways, the last 100 days is strongly linked to the first 100 days. That being the case, I need to review what the first 100 days was like.
Accepting the nomination as General Overseer, I remember saying that the Church of God must be a church of Continual Prayer, Committed Purpose and Critical Presence. I used those words intentionally to simply convey the message that- “It has to matter that we are here.” With that firm conviction in my heart, I set out with the Executive Committee to relay a vision that if adopted, could guide the Church of God for years to come.
From late July, 2016 through the end of October, the Executive Committee of the Church of God introduced a vision we called the FINISH Commitment. On the closing night of the General Assembly, thousands of delegates walked away with a 6 page, pocket sized fold-out which outlined the simple plan to FIND-INTERCEDE-NETWORK-INVEST-SEND and HARVEST and aggressively help complete the Great Commission. That vision was the umbrella that provided covering to all the efforts we would put forth over the next eight years.
Flowing out of the FINISH Commitment came the launch of numerous initiatives birthed in the first 100 days that continue to provide a path of direction even now. The meetings of the Executive Committee in those days were long but effective. When we walked out of the room just prior to the first leadership meeting we would have with all denominational appointees, we had laid out the specifics of a global path of expansion and what we prayed would be revival. That path was described with 10 words and initiatives that would carry us through most of a decade. We called it the FINISH Focus:
We committed to:
Accelerate Spiritual Renewal through Prayer, The Word and Discipleship
Address Relevant Issues through Prayer and Transparent Communication
Advance Local Church Growth(Membership) through Prayer, Revival and Revitalization
Activate Budgeting Missionality through Prayer and Great Commission Intentionality
Achieve Debt Elimination through Prayer and Focused Financial Stewardship
Acquire a Church Planting Endowment Through Prayer and Maximization of Resources
Attain Optimum Ministerial Effectiveness Through Prayer and Resourced Training
Assist in Identifying and Empowering New Generations through Prayer and Purposed Engagement
Align for International, State and Regional Impact through Prayer, Ministry and Benevolent Partnerships
Arrange for Maximum Gospel Delivery through Prayer, Multi-Generational and Multi-cultural Lay and Ministerial Mobilization
As you can see, the common thread bringing all 10 of the visions steps together was prayer. Prayer remains as our focus to this day.
Admittedly, the global pandemic of Covid-19 threatened to slow and even stop our efforts. Many other daunting challenges confronted and threatened the FINISH vision on a daily basis. Political divisions, heartbreaking racial disparity, skyrocketing inflation, inner-denominational struggles, global persecution of Christian workers and missionaries. It just wouldn’t stop-but neither would you.
You stayed the course and held tightly to the vision.
Your efforts have resulted in millions of souls saved in the last 8 years. World Mission’s global efforts have now taken us into 191 nations and regions of the world.
Over 1,000 new churches have been planted and you have eliminated all debt on the International Offices as well as other obligations. All of these efforts have brought us to the very steps of being a debt free denomination. Global membership in the Church of God has grown to over 8.5 million and the FINISH Commitment has been adopted by over 200 global denominations as their own specific marching orders.
You did that Church of God, as the Lord enabled you.
The outcomes we have experienced and even enjoyed have affirmed even more specific areas resulting in:
Doctrinal Affirmation
Visional Actualization
Ministerial Activation
Generational Acclimation
Structural Accommodation
Spiritual Acceleration
God has helped us.
So here we are facing a General Assembly where another leadership team will step forward and move us on into the next phase of global expansion. No one celebrates that fact more than I do. It is time and I am most ready to bring to a close my role in this season and hand off to capable hands the responsibility of leading our beloved church.
In essence, the last 100 days will be much like the first 100 and the 2,720 days in between. There is no tapping of the brakes and no tapering off. There is no gearing down and operating in neutral. My office will be packed up as soon as the last Ministerial Internship tour group has come through at the end of May. I will conduct a final Executive Committee meeting in between Camp Meetings sometime in June. I will moderate one more General Council and General Assembly and then find my place sitting again among those who have trusted me with various roles of elected leadership for the last twenty years. Together we will continue to participate in life’s greatest call and do so until Jesus comes again.
We will help FINISH this thing called the Great Commission.
Tim Hill
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