The Words of the Bang Family

New Cheese

Cheol Ho Bang
February 2, 2004

Good Morning everyone!

The title of my speech this morning is "New Cheese". Did you hear me correctly? I said, New Cheese"! You know, the kind you can eat. Are you surprised? Don’t worry, I’ll explain it as I go along.

Before I begin, I would like to quote True Father’s Speech on page fifty-seven in volume two. This quote is in your Sunday Service Bulletin, so you can follow along as I read it.

"Even if you give your best character, your present character is the character that has been approved by the satanic world. Even if you give your best heart, it is the heart that has been whispering with Satan. And this is the same with the Will. Therefore, you who are facing the last day must change your satanic character and heart. You must change your view of life and the universe. This is because with the view of faith that you’ve been having until now, you cannot win Satan and you cannot go through the stage that has been hooked to Satan’s accusing condition’.

Today is a very important day. Do you know why?

It is because today, this morning can never return to us again.

This is why today is very important.

If that is so, there is no doubt that this era also is very important.

Why is this so?

That is because we have entered the Era of Great Transition of the Realm of Authority and The Settlement of Noon. Have you heard about this? In this beginning of May, 2003, True Parents announced that we are entering the Era of the Settlement of Noon.

According to True parent’s word, this era is the era of new beginning. The uniqueness of the Era of Settlement of Noon is the beginning.

What, do we have to prepare, in facing this new era?

Facing the new millennium era, the world is experiencing a huge change. We have entered the era when the community of Unificationists must also change. True Father has said that the Era of Settlement of Noon means the settlement of noon after the night-time has passed. The Bible illustrates this when it says, "So the evening and the morning were the first day".

Where is our church and where am I? Are we standing still as if we are the people who resist changes? If that is the case, our night-time never end.

It has been already seven years, since May of ’97, that the signboard of Unification Church to Family Federation. How much has our church changed during the last seven years? There is only one clear change we can say took place and that is that the signboard of Unification church has been taken down. Nevertheless, how many Unificationists are changing accordingly? I can see that the New Jerusalem Family Church is struggling with this issue. I can see that the service format is changing. This change is like the struggle for survival.

How about you? Are you changing? Change comes to us in the element of our faith.

Help me now! I want to ask you to do something, a small experience. Please turn to the person sitting next to you now. I want you to discuss a certain question with your partner.

My question is: Do you have anything that you have decided to change about yourself in this changing era? If so, what is it that has begun to change? Please share this with the person next to you.

I’ll give you a few minutes to discuss, okay? I’ll repeat the question. "What are you changing about yourself in this changing time?"

(Clap, clap, clap)

Okay, are you ready? Are you finished? I hope it was interesting to share.

In order to prevent change from remaining just a concept, we must make some kind of decision on how to put it into practice. The New Jerusalem Family Church is attempting to change toward a more service. How about your family? How about you, your community?

Even in the world, nations, businesses and corporations are struggling to stay alive. The books that deal with these issues become best sellers. Among them, I would like to talk about the book "Who Moved My Cheese?" written by Spencer Johnson. This book became very popular as a motivation to modern people to change.

In this book, the main characters are two mice, named Sniff and Scurry, and two human beings, named Hem and Haw. The four of them once discovered the cheese storage and enjoyed comfortable lives just eating cheese. Then, one day, the cheese disappeared. Cheese was their life line. The two mice realized early on that the cheese was disappearing little by little, and therefore, they did not get confused but left the place to search for cheese. However, the two human beings could not accept the fact that the cheese was gone and stayed inside the empty storage being confused. They returned to the storage everyday, but the cheese never returned. Meanwhile, the two human beings became skinny, to the point of starvation and almost death. Finally, they gave up on the cheese and left to search for new cheese. The two human beings represent people who can not quickly adjust to today’s changes.

We have become people who must leave our comfortable situation to search for "new cheese" during the ??? ear(Cosmic peace for a unified world). This "cheese" represents the lifeline for our life. We must think of ourselves as if we are Hem and Haw, who are still remaining in the old storage room.

What is the real situation in our church? When I studied UTS, during the Internship activity for two months, I was shocked about the reality of the Kushiro Church of Hokkaido Region in Japan. When I first visited the church in 1993 almost 80 members attended as opposed to almost half number, currently. How was this New Jersey Family Church? Is our church growing up now?

I am seriously feeling that it is more difficult to change when we are in a leader’s position. There is no doubt in saying that change is dangerous to a community. For twenty years, we’ve established biological growth within our church through the birth of second and third generations. However, we have rarely made growth through pure conversion. This shows us how much we have not changed.

How can we establish ???? In order to establish a ??? that God desires, there must be ??? people, there is no nation. ??? people must be the ones who accept True Parents and inherit their victory. This is the establishment of a people, and without this, ??? will not be established.

We are appointing envoys of peace. However, envoys of peace without manpower have no power. Manpower comes from the people of ???. Without changing ourselves and our church, it will be very difficult for Unificationists to establish manpower. It is very crucial to have our way of life and view of the universe absolutely changed.

The Family Federation Unification Church in America is very active in the FFWPU, ACLC, IIFWP movements; however, this is only a part of the process to establish ???. That is not the ultimate goal. Our final goal is to establish ???.

In the beginning of May of last year, True Parents said that ??? is not a concept but a reality. In other words, ??? must not remain as an idea. It must be experienced in a practical way and firmly established. In order to establish this, we must absolutely change and to change, a huge price must be paid.

The two human beings, Hem and Haw were very frightened to leave in search for new cheese, without knowing that their cheese had been moved. They were stuck in the concept that the cheese would reappear. Everyday, they returned to the cheese storage. But the moved cheese never reappeared. They could not tear themselves from that spot. They became weak, starved, and anxious. For us, cheese is a common food. However, to them, cheese was a symbol that gave them hope and happiness.

To them, the fact that the cheese was moved was not a concept but a reality. For them, survival required an attitude of change. However, their habits kept them from changing.

What do you think about ???? Are you not also thinking it is a good vision, hope or concept to establish? What of those who have no difficulty living, those who think that they still have enough cheese to eat, do they bother to think about change? It would be a sad case if ??? is only a dream for them.

True Parents have said "Dreams become a condition for human beings to establish our desire, but on the other hand, it brings us discouragement and despair if the desire is not established."

For us to live, we much change. We must leave behind our old ways and search for new cheese.

Another good example of the inability to change is Pat Mclagan’s book, "Change is Everybody’s Business". This book says that we must have strong faith, strong character, and strong action for change. Mclagan says that the first condition one makes to become a possessor of strong character is, one "must show clear position" and has some conviction. In this world, there are various characters and contexts. What do these have to do with your change? Your purpose is to give life to your beloved community and your beloved people. For this, you must show your clear position and have conviction.

Dear brothers and sisters, what kind of clear position are you showing to establish ???? Are you keeping silent rather than showing your position? The silence that I am speaking of is the fearful silence of inaction that will eventually collapse our community.

What did you feel before when you were sharing with the person next to you? Was there silence instead of words?

According to McLagan, people say that there are many times when "say beliefs" (gesture) and "do belief" (gesture) are different. The "say beliefs" is given by word. However, there must be "do beliefs." Otherwise, beliefs cannot transcend the concepts.

Since I came to the New Jerusalem Family Church, I’ve been trying to overcome the "say beliefs" by establishing the "Friday evening Service for Japanese Community" and the "Kodan local area meeting". The hope is that this small activity will give new birth to people through confessing bad habits or shortcomings and practicing love.

After this Sunday Service, I hope we overcome our hesitation to change. To do so, we must become something other than what we have been. Becoming a ??? owner is possible only after becoming a ??? person. To become ??? people, what part of myself must be changed?

Okay, I need your help again.

Please turn to your neighbor again and share "the most important issue that ‘I" must change first. Please don’t hesitate. Please share it with the person next to you. I will give you about two three minutes. Lets me repeat the question: what is the most important issue that I must change?

Okay, are you finished? It’s good to think about these things sometimes.

If you don’t have anything to share, then, from now on, please think about it. We must leave in search for the location of the new cheese. This is because this new cheese or these new ideas are our lifeline.

If you were unable to share an issue that you must change in your life, then you need to do something. However, there is a price for the change. People are afraid of the price so they hesitate to change. The resistance against change is stronger than we can imagine. However, please do not think of change as something we must avoid, but rather face it as a signal of repentance that requires that attention.

Those who change always face challenges that are not popular. Is there anyone who does not know about the World Wide Web? Are you aware that the World Wide Web was a project that once failed in the 1990’s? By 2000, it has become very active and successful.

Always, change in the world was instigated by a small number of sacrificial groups. When they released their potential energy, the world changed.

I am not saying that you must change the world all by yourself. But please consider this: Because of you, is your family changing? Because of you, is your church changing? Because of you, is your community changing? To bring results, we, ourselves, must change.

The new cheese can be found in the establishment of ???. We must not be like Hem and Haw, the two human beings who kept their attachment to the cheese storage. We must leave that place. Unless we change, ??? has nothing to do with us.

Brothers and sisters, thank you for your kindness in letting me speak to you today. I really appreciate this opportunity. But please, don’t forget my message! I want to encourage you to become people who can change------change for the sake of ???.

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