The Words of the Schanker Family

Conference Call notes (Witnessing and Education)

Phillip Schanker
June 9, 2004

Dear Chicago family members here are some notes from last night's Conference Call.

Thanks and let us continue are witnessing activities this month.

John Prevost

Vice Regional Directors Conference Call
June 8, 2004
Notes by Mary Anglin

Rev. Schanker: Good evening. How's everyone doing? Im glad to have this time to talk about witnessing outreaching and education. Actually I know that all of you have been faced with so many providential demands and activities, monies to raise, members to pull. Also blessing coming up July 26th. Blessed Family Department - when we met at ocean city, Dr. Yang quoted Father's original point that we should become a beautiful healthy orchard. We know growing our community is not just a matter of witnessing methods. A lot of you are anxious to get materials from HQ. But our focus these first 120 days is to get the consciousness to reach out. In order for us to grow it's not just our methods and materials. We need to strengthen our marriage bonds and families. Jim and Hiromi Stephens will be the leaders of the Blessed Family Department. We'll work together with the grass roots organization. Many are anxious for materials. One regional director said please give us the chance. DC has many outreach programs going on. Good ideas are coming out of so many places. Our focus is getting the consciousness of witnessing. There are so many many methods our regions are employing. We want to create an opportunity for breakthroughs.

Rev. Compton: I'll give a brief report. This is not necessarily of tremendous success, but our methods to move forward with the witnessing providence. I came a few months ago to Westchester. I first began with a Wednesday night program at Belvedere. For the first few weeks no one came. Gradually a few members came and began witnessing here. We tried to develop guest-friendly service. The first wasn't too guest-friendly. Afterwards I got about a dozen e-mails from members who didn't like it. We tried - but it's not easy to change our culture quickly. Finally we got an office space in downtown White Plains and began witnessing and bringing guests. What we've down is use the Video Center to have a regular service each Sunday which is focused for guests. Once a month the congregation..the guests from the video center participate in the larger meeting. Last time we had 6 or 7 guests. Now we have around 12-14 members who are coming every week. About 12 full time guests are coming to study Principle. Our method of teaching principle is UTS 2-day workshops. I teach with white boards. If it's between 5 - 15 people the goal is to make it more personal. I found that is better than power point. We're developing a tract through which we can bring guests. No special materials beyond basic DP. The new Introduction Video has been very helpful. More videos would be helpful. If we can invest time, effort & money to develop good quality DP series it would be a very helpful tool.. The English videos we have are too old and boring. We need inspiring clear basic Divine Principle content videos. Tom Corley is showing those old videos on cable TV. He gets about 3-4 calls each week. A better video would bring better response. I think a lot of members would be willing to donate if they were confident we'd get good videos; good teaching materials. We need professional things to being people of good quality.

Rev. Schanker: Region 2 is doing a 1-day workshop each week. Two weekend workshops have been done. An advanced workshop will happen in a few weeks, focused on raising blessing candidates. Many people are asking what we are witnessing about, who we are. I tell people just share True Parents. Have that heart. Emphasize membership growth based one of the many gates. The goal of Rev. Lee is to involve them to find a place to live for the sake of others. Next step is mission. People can go 1st, 2nd, 3rd level. Don't get bogged down on organizational confusion. Just share True Parents. Minnesota, without new materials, just picked up the DP book and are teaching 3 day intensive workshops.

Rev. Jim Bard: Father gave direction in 1994 to teach from the Book. Rev. Suh started doing that. He witnessed to his entire family and he also has many other spiritual children. He taught his wife's family through this method. He sits with guests and they read together red & blue sections of the book, with him answering questions. He teaches one on one. Then more intensive study. 33 hour workshop is intensive workshop to teach them God's Providence and God's Heart. Nurturing for one year. when he came to our region he set up teams. The team leaders make sure the nurturing is done. Holy songs are sung before each session. Just 2 songs; Grace of the Holy Garden and Song of the Garden. Then he prays using the person's name in the prayer. He shows an intro video first. Three main texts: Divine Principle, Unification Thought and VOC. Then he describes the learning style, sharing that it was recommended by the Founder. Two pages are read together "How to study the divine principle.' After the fall lecture he shows the video on the blessing. He also shows Truth Is My Sword at some point. Rev. Suh started this ten years ago. Many of his spiritual children are leaders in the church. When he came to our region he started this with the Second Generation. He says if we don't get them, what are we doing. They have to get it, to know it. He usually has a 2nd Gen testify after studying with him. They testify that they didn't understand and appreciate DP and their parents until now. Rev. Suh is really focused right now on guests. Three day intensive Divine Principle Study, from 8:00 am to 10:00 pm. Eleven out of the twelve students he's taught have joined and committed to the blessing. One man donated $300 after going through the teaching. The student reads the red text, then the teacher reads the blue. After a page or two he asks if there are any questions. He sometimes draws on the white board to explain more deeply. The eye contact and personal connection is very concentrated when you have this one-on-one. It takes commitment. Rev. Suh says it's like a three day fast. He prays before and after each session, sings three times. Song of the Garden and Grace Of The Holy Garden. It's simple, it just takes our commitment. It just takes the book you probably have already. My first impression was that this would be so boring and not affective. I'm teaching someone right now, 3 kids of my coworker. Its takes time, and they're coming back. Rev. Suh is now teaching in South Dakota. He's taught PhDs. He's teaching a professional model. He teaches people the sisters just met on campus. Also old contacts. He's reaching everybody with this.

Rev. Jenkins: This is something everyone could do. All of our members could be empowered. There's a lot to learn here. We want to know how you're getting guests in. How are you getting people to agree to hear this?

Rev. Bard: One man, Rev Suh thought he didn't get it. So Rev. Suh gave him Father's life course. Then he went on a long walk. He called and told us Father's the Messiah. Then he called his brothers and went to the fishing tournament. The birth process is just intensive truth.

Rev. Schanker: I'm really anxious to hear from each region. We have upcoming in the Midwest block, a block level summit. Leaders and also tribal messiahs are invited. In Chicago on June 21, 22, 23. We encourage each block to put together one of these summits. Focusing future and life in our movement. I want to hear from each of the regions. We'll be out in the field a lot in the next few months.

Rev. Jenkins: Dr. Yang approved today a tentative date for the next pilgrimage as August 7 - 15th. This is tentative, but approved. Rev. Daugherty got approval for the next Divine Principle Convocation to be the week after July 4th. These dates are not finalized yet. Wait for written communications. Please bring more testimonies, everyone. Good night.

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