Dear Christian Friend,Thank you for your interest in the Association for Christian Development. We produce The New Millennium (TNM) a journal of Truth & Hope, as the Lord provides financial support from readers. Our goal is six (or more!) issues a year. On alternative months you will receive the ACD Newsletter. We welcome your comments on articles and your prayerful and financial support. We have some back issues of TNM available should you like to catch up on past topics. We also have an extensive library of taped sermons, seminars and Bible studies which the late Dr. Charles Dorothy, myself, and others have produced.
The Association for Christian Development is committed to making the Grand Plan of Yahweh plain and compelling. This means proclaiming the true Gospel, The Kingdom of God, with power and conviction. What God has in store for our race is at once both frightening and exhilarating! When the coming Kingdom is presented in its biblical purity, nothing on this planet shines so brightly, nothing is so capable of capturing human imagination.
What a
pity that the Grand Plan has been almost obscured by false teaching, airy notions of
heaven and the afterlife, and crusty, paganized traditions. Our task is clear. We must wage
war at two levels: aggressively revealing the Kingdom and God’s Great Calling in
all its beauty and excitement; challenging and exposing false dogmas that have attempted
to cloud The Great Mystery which God plainly revealed through Christ, his Apostles and
Prophets. ACD and its supporters are already deployed in that righteous war.
As our name implies, we are an association of Christians helping people develop into the
very image of God—his likeness in heart and character. That process begins with
believing the Gospel, which at center is God’s plan for all mankind ultimately
becoming like Him. It requires conversion and continues as a life-long growing process of
specifically developing the mind of Christ; it is completed at the First Resurrection when
we take on the very shared Glory of God and become "like Him."
ACD’s mission is largely one of education. To become like God we must know what God
is like. What is his character? His Plan? His Law? His Salvation? What does his Word
teach? How does he want us to live? Becoming like God is walking the narrow path of The
Way. It is eating a balanced diet of truth from God’s Word. It is practicing Pure
Religion and living Christianity at the practical level. I believe ACD is making a
contribution in each of these areas.
Yes, our voice is small. We are not a "big time," "prime time"
operation. I wish we were larger so we could be reaching more people with the Kingdom
message. I ask you to help ACD increase its voice. We want growth—solid, Godly
growth. We believe it will come if we keep our focus on the Kingdom message, work hard,
and seek God’s will and his blessing. But we also realize bigger is not always
better. I’ve been involved at the highest levels in big, dynamic religious
organizations. I’ve seen the good that could be accomplished by sheer size and
resources. I’ve also seen the downside—the politics, the abuses of power, the
"corporation first" preservation mentality. Small organizations, of course, are
subject to the same viruses and I could cite many examples. It is also true that not all
large religious organizations are automatically corrupt—they aren’t, and there
are many proud examples of fine organizations. But certain viruses seem to thrive more
easily in the bigger ones.
As our generation enters the Third Millennium since Messiah’s First Coming, I sense a
growing hunger for spirituality, for meaning, for answers to all the big questions of
life. The human race has never been in more desperate need for God’s help. We at ACD
invite your participation, your association, in answering our Maker’s call to
proclaim the Good News!—loud and clear.
Thanks again for your interest and good reading.
In His Service,
Kenneth Westby