Steve Conover: Thank you for joining us for The Friends of Israel Today. I'm Steve Conover, executive director of The Friends of Israel. With me as our host and teacher, Chris Katulka.

Chris Katulka: Steve, there's two different types of people, those who like change and those who don't like change. But you know what? Today we're going to talk about good change, change at the Friends of Israel for the positive and for its future. Today we're going to have Dr. Jim Showers join me and Steve Conover here at the studio to talk all about the future of Friends of Israel, some amazing branding changes that we have, but also transition and leadership changes because today sitting across from me is Steve Conover, the executive director of The Friends of Israel. We're excited to have both of them in the studio.

Steve Conover: I’m looking forward to our conversation. But first in the news, The House of Representatives passed the "Illegitimate Court Counteraction Act" with a decisive vote of 243-140. The legislation, spearheaded by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Brian Mast and Representative Chip Roy, imposes sanctions on the International Criminal Court in response to its issuance of arrest warrants against Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and former Defense Minister Yoav Gallant for their roles in the Gaza War.

Chris Katulka: Well, Steve, here's my take. The International Criminal Court at the Hague in the Netherlands has no authority over Israel just as it has no authority over the United States. Our two countries rejected the Rome statute of 1998, a statute that outlines the ICC’s structure and areas of jurisdiction. So good on Congress for sanctioning the ICC and exposing their anti-Israel sentiments. And let's hope the Senate passes this quickly. 

Chris Katulka: Well, I am excited to have Dr. Jim Showers and Steve Conover. Jim is the president and CEO of Friends of Israel and Steve is the executive director. We're going to talk more about that later on in the program. But over the past few months we have been working really hard at Friends of Israel to rethink the way that we have been doing branding and really the language, the way we want to communicate who we are as an organization.

And Jim, last year, actually at this time, I went to NRB and the Friends of Israel Today radio program received an award. And while I was up there receiving it, I used our brand new tagline, which is Passion for God's Word and Compassion for God's Chosen People. And I remember Mr. Bott, who owns Bott Family Radio, came up and said, “Chris, that'll preach.” And so we've been going through this process of Passion for God's Word, Compassion for God's Chosen People, this new tagline that we have and how it reflects the mission of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. Can you share what inspired that as we've been rebranding Friends of Israel?

Dr. Jim Showers: Well, thank you Chris for asking. This is something that really came out of some really serious discussion we had as a leadership team, as we stop to think about who are we exactly as an organization and how we can best communicate that so that people get a real sense of what we're about as an organization. And it really goes back to our founding as a mission. Every Christian organization comes into existence, it’s because God lays upon the heart of Christians that he calls them to do his particular work. For the founders of the Friends of Israel, the mission was very clear: to bless the Jewish people. We get that out of Genesis 12:3. And to bring comfort to the Jewish people, Isaiah 40:1 talks about comfort. “Yes, comfort my peoples, says your God.” And so we came into existence to help Jewish refugees who were facing the Holocaust in 1938.

But as we've grown as a ministry, we've stayed true to that original mission. And we really primarily do two things. We communicate biblical truth about Israel and the Messiah. We teach, we have conferences. We have Israel My Glory, we have teaching, we have this radio program. We have so many ways that we communicate biblical truth about Israel and the Messiah, but we also bring comfort, both spiritual and physical comfort to the Jewish people. So these two statements really summarize all that. Passion for God's Word. We are passionate about God's Word. We love to teach the Word of God. And particularly we love to talk about Israel because Israel is the unique group of people that God raised up for a particular purpose, to bless the world and to bring redemption to God's creation. And so Jesus said, “Salvation is of the Jews.” It goes through the Jewish people.

And as you begin to study the Word of God and begin teaching it and seeing what God says about the unique role that the Jewish people play, if you're passionate about God's Word, then you should be compassionate for the Jewish people. And so we are passionate for God's Word and out of that passion, that's what led the founders of this ministry into forming this organization. They were studying the Word of God and they were seeing the unique and important role Israel played, not just in history past or even in history present, but in history future. In fact, we come into existence 10 years before there's an Israel and yet we were called the Friends of Israel from our founding because the founders believe that God's promises to reestablish the nation of Israel were true and that they would be fulfilled someday. Little did they know it was just 10 years later that that would become a reality. And so it was their passion for the Word of God that led them to have compassion for God's Chosen People and to say it's not enough just to pray. The word to bless that God uses in Genesis 12:3 is an active word. It means that we have to get involved physically, we have to become involved actively and not just passively in praying. Prayer is wonderful, it's important, it's necessary, it moves mountains. But God also calls us to get involved. And so that's what these two statements really represent.

Chris Katulka: And that's, like you're saying, that goes back to our founding. I was just in Philadelphia the other day and I was right at the Witherspoon building right on Walnut and Broad Street where our founders were. And as you said, Jim, they believed in God's Word. And we really believe that if you hold to the truth of the scriptures, if you read it plainly, you can't help but see God's love and passion for and compassion for his people. They work together, they go hand in hand. And we really wanted to communicate that in the branding and who we are as an organization to continue this ministry on into the 21st century.

Dr. Jim Showers: Exactly.

Chris Katulka: Steve, what steps have been taken to ensure that this branding update connects with both longtime supporters and new audiences? What kind of feedback have you received? Because this is always the tension when you begin to change things, sometimes you might get a phone call, you might get an email. How have we been able to connect with both our longtime supporters who love the Friends of Israel, have been with us for years and are future ones as well?

Steve Conover: Yeah, thanks Chris. One of the things we did, the entire leadership team got together to work through some of the core essentials, our purpose, our vision, our mission, our values. And we're committed, as Jim said, to the same things that our founders were in 1938. We wanted to ensure that our longtime supporters recognized any language that we used as 100% the FOI DNA. At the same time, we wanted new people to immediately recognize that our mission, our vision, our purpose were rooted, as Jim said, our passion for God's Word drives our compassion for God's Chosen People.

Chris Katulka: That's amazing. The big thing though is also making sure, have we heard any great comments? I know people have come up to me and said, I love that tagline because I do have passion for God's Word and that is the reason I'm at our conference. It's the reason I like listening to the radio program. I've heard some positive things. I don't know if you've heard anything either.

Steve Conover: Yeah, absolutely. I'm hearing the same things that they get it right away. I just had a conversation this weekend and someone took my business card and they read Passion for God's Word. Compassion for God's Chosen People. And they said, “Oh, that's great. I know what that means.”

Chris Katulka: I want to throw this out to both of you here as an organization, The Friends of Israel, with nearly a century of history, which is amazing to think about. How does this tagline help position The Friends of Israel for its impact moving into the 21st century?

Dr. Jim Showers: Well, I think one of the unique things, Chris, about this is it is both inward and outward focused. Inwardly, it keeps us on focus, right? It helps remind us all the time why we exist. We are a ministry to teach biblical truth, particularly about Israel and the Messiah, and we are also a ministry to bring comfort, comfort to the Jewish people. And comfort takes different forms, right? So it helps us as a staff to know who we are, our identity, and as new people join the ministry, it's very clear what we're about. But as you and Steve have been talking about, externally as we go out to share the ministry with others, branding is just simply a word for communication and being consistent in the way you communicate so that people understand who you are and what you're about. And as you found at the National Religious Broadcasters Conference, when you used it for the first time, it connects very easily. So to be able to share with people in a very succinct way, we live in a society where people have short attention spans and they're very busy. And to be able to give them two short sentences and say everything about what we're really about. These things, if you boil down what we're about, this is what you get. Passion for God's Word. And that drives our compassion for the Jewish people.

Chris Katulka: Steve, same thing to you. How do you see this impacting our future constituents, those who love listening to the program, as we move into the 21st century?

Steve Conover: We read the Bible plainly at the Friends of Israel. When the Bible uses the word Israel, we believe it means Israel and that Israel is distinct from the church. We're in a world where churches are generalizing their mission statements on their websites, their doctrinal statements, and we see churches taking that language out that Israel is separate from the church. So that's one thing. But we're committed to expressing this, since our founding, and there's a future for Israel. That's our firm belief and our commitment to loving the Jewish people is based on God's Word. And this is really important because we all know antisemitism is on the rise. So our initial mission to love the Jewish people is needed more than ever. Our tagline, Passion for God's Word. Compassion for God's Chosen People. You hear me say it at the end of this broadcast each week it's a clear message that we at The Friends of Israel stand with the Jewish people and Israel as God has commanded to do in His Word.

Chris Katulka: They say if you say it seven times, it sticks in the listener's ear. So I think we've gotten out Passion for God's Word and compassion for God's Chosen People. Jim, I just want to ask this as we wrap up this segment here. Sometimes when people hear things are changing, they get a little nervous because they think the whole thing is getting changed. Can you tell our listeners or maybe bring some comfort to them that this is only changing the tagline and really the forward facing look of what we're trying to do in images and things like that. It's not changing the heart of who we are at the Friends of Israel, our mission, our doctrine, and all of that.

Dr. Jim Showers: A hundred percent true, Chris, that this is not a change of who we are. It's just a change of how we communicate who we are. And so we want to, as an organization, consistently communicate to the world and remind ourselves internally as well of who we are and what we're about. Organizations get in trouble when they drift, when they begin changing the beliefs of their original founders or the mission for why they exist. We are as committed to that today as the day this organization was founded. I believe everybody who founded this ministry could sign our doctrinal statement because it's identical to the beliefs of the original founders of this organization and the mission we're carrying out. We have the fortune, if you will, of having a publication, Israel My Glory, goes back to four years after we were founded. So from four years on, we have records of what the organization was doing, what it was about.

And in that first issue of Israel My Glory, they wrote about the founding of the ministry. So we can even go back to the days of the founding, understand why they brought this organization into existence and what it was designed to do. And we are today continuing that legacy of the founders. So when October 7th, 2023 occurred, the tragedy in Israel, as Israel was attacked brutally and mercilessly, we responded in raising funds and bringing comfort to the Jewish people. I didn't have to give an order. I didn't have to explain to people. Our organization was in motion before I could even reach out to people because everybody that works for Friends of Israel understands who we are, what we're about. And so this is not a change at all in what we're doing as a ministry. It is simply a better way to communicate to people in a very simple way that will give people a great grasp and understanding of who we are.

Chris Katulka: The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. Passion for God's Word. Compassion for God's Chosen People. We're going to take a quick break. We're going to be coming back with Dr. Jim Showers and Steve Conover to not only just talk about the transitions that's been going on with branding, but also leadership transitions for the positive and the glory of God as he continues this ministry into the 21st century. Stick around.

Steve Conover: Chris, I’m sure you’re familiar with the phrase, “the night is always darkest just before the dawn.” 

Chris Katulka: You know what comes to mind, Steve? I’ve actually experienced that darkness the most when we had newborn twin boys screaming in the middle of the night. 

Steve Conover: Well, I’ve never dealt with twins, but that’s one way to look at it. But I’m thinking of a part of the Bible that we can easily overlook, but it needs some explanation. A time is coming called the Day of the Lord, when God himself will intervene in human history. In the future he’ll show his wrath towards sin by judging the nations for their treatment of Israel and the Jewish people.

Chris Katulka: Yes, it’s going to be dark. But we can be encouraged that the same God who judges the world in its darkest hour also provides a future that is bright.

Steve Conover: On March 6th and 7th, The Friends of Israel is inviting everyone to register for our free Look Up Online Conference to study the Day of the Lord: When God Intervenes. 

Chris Katulka: To join The Friends of Israel online for our free Look Up Conference on March 6th and 7th, you can register by going to lookup.foi.org. Again, it’s all free and it’s lookup.foi.org.

Chris Katulka: Welcome back everybody. We're with Dr. Jim Showers, the President and CEO of the Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry, and Steve Conover, who is the brand new executive director of the organization. This is a brand new position for you, Steve. So Jim, with Steve stepping into this role as executive director, how will your role as the president and CEO compliment this new leadership structure that's going on? And I'd love to note what excites you the most about it?

Dr. Jim Showers: Well, there's several things that excite me, but to address the first question you asked me, I did have the role up until January 1st of this year of being the president and CEO as well as being the executive director. So what we've basically done is split those roles in two. Steve is as of January 1st, taking over the executive director's role, which is about half of what I have been doing. And we did this in a way, and this is what excites me about it. We turned to the Word of God. We talk about being passionate for the Word of God, for God's Word. And when you're facing major things in life, the best place you can turn for guidance is God's Word. So I began doing a search and scripture of leadership transitions. I wanted to see, how does God handle leadership transitions? Certainly how he handles them would be a great way for us to handle it.

And I learned that first of all, there's not one size that fits all and not all leadership transitions in the Bible are done exactly the same way. But I did seem to pick up on a pattern, Chris, that was going on. That is a pattern in which the future leader was brought in for quite a period of time before they became the leader. And they were groomed, if you will, under the current leadership. And then eventually as the current leadership passed away, the new leadership took over. And really there's, just to give you a few examples of that, Moses and Joshua, right? Joshua is Moses' assistant forever. And then God takes Moses home and God comes to Joshua and says, “You're in charge now.” God for years was preparing Joshua for this day when he would lead the nation. And then we have Samuel who as a young child was taken to the tabernacle and groomed by Eli and the men there and became a great leader in Israel. He grew in stature and understanding by the people.

We have David. David's a teenage boy when he's anointed by God to be the next king. And then we have this incredible story of David and Goliath. And Saul takes notice, and Saul actually brings David into his palace and he lives with Saul. David lives with Saul for a few years for a period of time, and God is teaching them what it is to be a king as a young boy. He's seeing how kings function, the kind of issues they deal with, what kings permit, what they don't permit and those kinds of things. And then when his life is threatened by Saul and he flees, he leads a band of men. He's learning leadership skills. And so we see that with Elijah and Elisha, right? In how Elijah comes by, throws his cloak on Elisha, and Eisha follows him. And for a long period of time, Elisha is learning Elijah's ministry.

And then God takes Elijah away and Elisha takes over. And by the time that happened, the people accepted them because they'd seen him working with Elijah and he grew in stature and understanding by the people. And so you see these patterns.Jesus, 12 disciples, right? The kings in Israel, they often appointed their sons in the last years of their rule as coregents to get them ready. And we even see that with Paul, like with Timothy and Titus and John Mark again training them up so that he could turn ministry over to them. So as I really began thinking about, in terms of, I know my time with Friends of Israel, I'm 69 years old, I can't keep going forever. This is a wonderful ministry. The last thing I would want to do to the ministry is hold it back by staying too long. I began thinking in terms of how best to transition and working off some of the things I observed in the scriptures that God teaches, in the way he did leadership transition.

I began to say, we can do that here. And Steve Conover for quite some time to me was the man God was preparing to be the next leader. And so I sat down with our board, I had a discussion with them. They saw Steve as the man to lead this ministry for the next many years. And so what we did in January is we began a process. A process by which for the next three years or so, I will still be around. Steve has taken over the executive director functions, and this gives him time to really work into the position to get to know it well. And then as time goes on, I will transfer to him more and more of the responsibilities I still have. So I become like a working mentor with Steve where he now takes over responsibilities of the day-to-day operations of the ministry, and I'm still around to handle the president CEO functions and also be a resource to Steve to help him as he settles into this new role.

Chris Katulka: And so this is a big change that's going on in the organization, which is amazing. And Steve, mazel tov to you for an awesome new position. So what are your priorities as you take on the role of executive director and how do you envision building on Jim's legacy while bringing your own vision to the ministry as well?

Steve Conover: It's a great question. I've been privileged to be mentored by the last three executive directors, and I'm starting my 31st year here at The Friends of Israel. as hard as that is for me to believe. I've never been more energized by how critical our ministry is, as we said in that first segment, and it'll continue in the future. I'm committed to the course that's been set. Early on, my priorities will be to continue the process, as Jim said, of turning over responsibilities to others as I take on others from Jim. I'll be doing a lot of observing, learning, evaluating, and I plan to visit our international field. We have many places that I've not yet been. I'm strongly committed to the mission, as we talked about in the first segment, but I want to give an example of how I see building of vision. 

When it comes to vision, it's really how we accomplish our mission in the current world and future realities that will come and being able to adapt without losing our way, without ministry drift. The example I think of will be relatable to the radio audience. When we first started to go from tape to digital in our editing of the program, that was probably in 95, 96, those years. And in 95, we were still cutting tape for every edit. Now it's all done on a computer. But in the Fall of 95, prime Minister Rabin was assassinated, and the amount of time it took to recreate programs, get them overnighted to the radio stations compared to what you can do now. So just the speed of communication and how that's changed. So to use a very obvious, absurd example, if we were still doing it the old way because that's the way we've always done it, then we wouldn't be able to meet the communication needs of the world we live in today. But our mission didn't change, the message didn't change. So that's how I see just the future opportunities, being aware and just asking the Lord to give us vision, to understand how to wisely apply our mission to the current realities.

Chris Katulka: You know what I see sitting in the seat that I'm in is a bright future for the Friends of Israel. There's a baton handing off going on as we speak right now between you, Jim, and you, Steve, which is amazing to see the leadership of the Friends of Israel continue on into the future. And then also our messaging and communication to our constituents and those who love The Friends of Israel and those who don't even know about us yet who will get to know us. So I'm very excited about the future of the Friends of Israel. I want to thank you both for being with us and look forward to more great conversations about what Friends of Israel is doing all around the world.

Dr. Jim Showers: Thanks, Chris. 

Steve Conover: Thanks Chris. 

Steve Conover: Thank you for joining us for today's episode of The Friends of Israel Today. Chris, where are we headed next week? 

Chris Katulka: Well, we've been talking about great changes that are happening here at the Friends of Israel, but there's also changes that are happening among the Jewish community all around the world with a rise of antisemitism, and that's what we stand for here at The Friends of Israel. We stand against antisemitism. So for the next three weeks, we're going to be looking at that shapeshifter antisemitism and how it's moved throughout history and what we can do as Christians. For the next three weeks, we'll be looking at antisemitism.

Steve Conover: We hope you'll join us then. Our web address is foiradio.org. Again, that's foiradio.org. You can call our listener line. That number is 888-343-6940. Once again, that's 888-343-6940. Our host and teacher is Chris Katulka. Today's program was engineered by Bob Beebe. Edited by Jeremy Strong, who also composed and performs our theme music. Lisa Small is our executive producer. Sarah Fern is our associate producer. And I'm Steve Conover, executive director of The Friends of Israel. The Friends of Israel Today is a production of The Friends of Israel Gospel Ministry. Passion for God's Word. Compassion for God's Chosen People.