God’s Kingdom In Our Midst
Leaders of the World Christian Leadership Conference (WCLC) recently discussed what is needed for humanity to actualize God’s Kingdom on Earth during the January 31 webinar, “God’s Kingdom In Our Midst.” They said God’s Kingdom is a reality created within each person that will then manifest outward into society.
“God is love and He is in our home,” said featured speaker Dr. Tyler Hendricks, president emeritus of the HJI Graduate School for Peace and Public Leadership. Echoing the biblical revelation, “The Kingdom of God is within you” (Luke 17:21), Dr. Hendricks said, “God is our spiritual center, so our physical center is God dwelling within us [in our homes].”
Dr. Hendricks noted the work of the homemaker as being the most important role in society. “True Mother is the ultimate homemaker, having given birth to 14 children,” he said. Dr. Hendricks pointed out how people create all sorts of things — jobs, products, inventions — for the sake of the family and home. Workers return home from their jobs, students return home from school, and everything in society circles back to the home, he said.
World leaders have also recognized this critical aspect of family, Dr. Hendricks said. In May 2023, the Pope alongside President Giogia Meloni publicly urged Italians to have more children. In October 2023, Chinese President Xi Jinping pressed for a “new trend of family” before North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in December 2023 called for women to have more babies.
Webinar speaker Dr. Katsumi Kambashi, district pastor of FFWPU Western Canada, shared how True Parents, working assiduously toward world peace, long equated peace with God’s heart. “Father always understood ‘peace’ as [a] profoundly spiritual concept. Whenever he [used] the term ‘peace,’ he always thought first and foremost ‘God’s heart,’” Dr. Kambashi said, quoting Mr. Kwon Jin Moon.
Dr. Kambashi noted that, even when broken-hearted, True Parents still felt peace. “This explained to me that Heavenly Parent is with them and within them; therefore, they can have peace at the core of their heart,” he said. “I firmly believe if each one of us ... welcomes Heavenly Parent within us, we can build the Kingdom of Peace on Earth.”
Senior Pastor Rev. Dr. T.L. Barrett, another featured speaker from Life Center Church of God in Christ, said our words and actions matter as much as our belief. “True Parents said they feel God so prominently,” Dr. Barrett said. “We must start speaking as if we know we reign in the Kingdom of God ... because the Kingdom must come into our consciousness before we can manifest it.”
As God’s children, “the true identity of each person is God,” he added. “If you are breathing in and out, you are breathing God ... We cannot love our enemies, or love our neighbors, unless we feel God ... [and ultimately,] everything that we do that is good for mankind is an expression of God.”
You can learn more about the mission and ongoing work of the WCLC here.