To Continental Leaders

Hyung Jin Moon
August 8, 2008

Good morning, Continental Directors. It’s been a long time.

It’s a great pleasure to see you all, once again. As you may be aware, you can see many changes and developments taking place in the Unification movement through the Korean church. Many changes are already taking place in the Unification Family unprecedented. The church system nationwide has been restructured and reorganized in preparation for the year 2013.

A few days ago, inaugural ceremonies for newly appointed church leaders were held across the nation. In the process of this, for the first time in the history of the Unification Church, retirement pay has been prepared for the retiring church leaders with the blessing of True Parents. They have worked until now to open the way and pave the road for their successors for the future of the Unification Family. I firmly believe that the missions given to the elder church leaders by True Parents are not yet finished. Now the elder church leaders who walked the path of the providence in attendance to True Parents will not leave their pastoral duties, but instead will continue to work as elder church leaders through the hoondok churches, and guide their juniors.

To bring about the further development of the Korean church, a restructuring of the nationwide church system will be carried out by implementing a system of regional and sub-regional directors centering on Rev. Yang Chang-shik. We will establish goals towards which our Church will newly strive, and thus we will lay a substantial foundation for the settlement of Cheon Il Guk in 2013.

Until now, the exertions of our church were dispersed as a means of expanding its foundation. The church was run with the mindset and attitude that each individual was working as a seed, to pioneer. Now our Unification Church has passed through the [time of] being structured for battle and is headed towards an era of settlement and development. I believe our church system should be restructured in keeping with the demands of the age and the providence.

Our framework has been too small to restore our massive society, and our system inadequate to educate and convey to everyone the truth they have all craved. Now is the time to pool together all our dispersed efforts and meet the advances of society head-on in order to satisfy the demands of the society and the providence.

We can do many things when our church grows bigger. First, we will be able to provide more benefits to our members, and we will be able to carry out volunteer work for the benefit of society. These are absolutely necessary factors for the restoration of the nation. Through transparency, fairness and thorough management of the church organization, we will prevent the ill effects that can arise from church growth.

Then a question may arise: how are we to make a very large church, especially when we consider that it has been difficult to successfully witness to even one person per year. Yet this question can be easily answered, for the answer lies with our members. Through them, our Church can either grow or regress. Of course, the words of True Parents are forever, but their fruits, that is, their products are the members and people make ready judgments looking only at the result. In other words, the words of True Parents are the theory/ideology, and the members are the results of True Parents’ words. When good and exemplary results are multiplied everywhere, True Parents’ words will be verified by the world as the truth.

Though we have published hundreds of books and held tens of thousands of rallies, our Church has failed to grow. This is clear proof that the Word was not properly conveyed to the rest of the world.

To state it plainly, though countless seeds of the Word have been scattered far and wide, they failed to take root and be resurrected as beings with life. It is time for us to check our methods of sowing and managing. I intend to find the solutions to such problems in the words of True Parents. True Parents have said that we should value our members, and from a very long time ago True Parents implemented a small-group movement, which is currently being practiced in other churches as the most important means to bring about church growth, in the form of a movement reaching out to the local neighborhood.

We will first evaluate why we are having problems when other churches have grown huge based on the two factors mentioned above, and then on the foundation of True Parents’ words we will put all our efforts into making everyone connected to our organization into members.

In short, we will recognize the value of the members as the “the fruits of history, the fruits of the present age and the fruits of the future” -- as True Parents have called them -- and treasure them accordingly. Centering on the fruits of True Parents’ words, we will run a grassroots organization and thus realize True Parents’ goals within society.

I believe that witnessing will not be a problem for our members when their value is recognized and they are armed with the words of True Parents. On top of that, we will organize and manage small groups. And when the entire organization is run in a transparent and just way, our future headed for 2013 will be a bright one.

This is what is taking place in the Father nation as we speak. We are making preparations and effort so that we can succeed.

A few days ago, Father appointed In Jin Nim as the overall Chairperson of the United States. I believe that there will be a great revival in the US as well.

I would like to thank all the continental directors for coming all this way. Moreover, the Chil Pal Jeol celebration was a truly inspiring one. I feel / think that when we consider the results and accomplishments for each continent, the number of people mobilized or educated is not the final result. That is only a part of the process and not the ultimate goal True Parents desire to achieve. I believe the final result is when all people are connected to us and become members, and when they attend and support True Parents as the True Parents.