Dear Friend,
What would I say to Zola if I could have fifteen minutes with him now, fifteen months after his passage through the pearly gates?
I can imagine encountering him during an ethereal, near-death experience, perhaps as though under general anesthesia. After hearing him affirm that Heaven is all that it’s cracked up to be and more, I would offer a customary briefing about the ministry, reminiscent of the hundreds I’d given him during our nearly three decades of mortal ministering together.
Speaking of which, growing the Zola Levitt Ministries (ZLM) outreach with him seemed like the mother of all father-son projects. Beginning shortly after my Bar Mitzvah in 1973, I helped inventory Zola’s growing collection of teaching items, which had begun as just a few of our study booklets. As a teen, I periodically manned his book tables at church speaking engagements. After graduating college with a business management degree and garnering a few years of sales and marketing experience, I rejoined the ministry in 1988. By then ZLM had blossomed onto two national television networks and had tens of thousands of Levitt Letter subscribers, The Institute of Jewish-Christian Studies correspondence course, an Israel tour department, and a dozen employees.
Initially my mission was to streamline the operation by cutting expenses and hiring more efficient suppliers. Over the years, God sent the right people at the right times, often to meet the ministry’s needs and sometimes to clip my wings with valuable lessons. One of the best components of my God-provided grooming has involved the value and methodology of team building with discernment. I’ve learned to soft-pedal my gift of administration and to keep an open mind in harnessing the ministries of fellow Believers as they join this ministry, whether as employees or independent suppliers. It has been both gratifying and humbling to see how various members of our team contribute strengths that complement one another’s weaknesses and how adept we have become at making way for one another’s spiritual gifts.
The gist of my message to Zola, who used to sign these Personal Letters as “Your Messenger,” would be that the team remains intact, and we perpetually pull together. We continue to seek God’s will, to glorify His Name, and to keep the candle burning in anticipation of Jesus’ soon return. To our messenger-at-large, I would indicate that all is well with the ministry’s soul.
But where to begin? Probably with a few surprises mixed in with the more earthshaking updates.
1. Jeff. Jeff curtailed his career as a seminary professor and undertook a crash course on becoming a contemporary communicator. (It is noteworthy that Zola, despite his remarkable capability to interpret Scripture, never considered himself to be a heavy-duty scholar. It was his ability to deliver the fruits of his powwows with the likes of Dr. Tom McCall that he credits for his Bible teaching triumphs.)
2. Sandra. Sandra bade a sad farewell to her role in the ministry as the pastor’s wife and joined Jeff as a co-host on Zola Levitt Presents, reaching out on her own at speaking engagements in churches, with her blog at www.levitt.com/israelblog, and during our Holy Land tours.
3. Margot. Our Levitt Letter Editor, Lou Hays, dearly missed fellowship with Zola and returned to freelance writing. Fortunately, God had positioned a successor in the queue—Margot Dokken had joined this ministry only months before, after writing to say we needed better proofreading.
4. TBN. TBN dropped us like a hot potato, but it made no discernible difference in our readership or support. (Thank goodness we began building our Thursday morning TV audience years ago on the national PAX network—now called the iNetwork.)
5. Ken. Our television producer since day one, Ken Berg, never missed a beat. (At this point, I would want to hand Zola two gift-wrapped, tributary TV series: In Loving Memory—Zola’s Memorial DVD and Israel, My Love—27 Years with Zola Levitt.) Ken remains a walking encyclopedia of our ministry’s ever-growing library of Holy Land TV footage, and he never fails to stretch a production dollar to make our broadcasts look more expensive than they are.
6. Jerry. Via our TV syndicator Jerry Hodges, ZLM spends half of our total budget on television airtime. To fully appreciate the significance of Jerry’s effort and dedication, please read my “State of the Ministry” article, on page 1 of the January 2006 Levitt Letter, posted at www.levitt.com. To Zola I would report that Jerry, with God’s lead, transformed our ministry from national to international by adding the God TV network to our TV lineup. For details about this extensive expansion of our viewership, please see the “Now Broadcasting Worldwide” bulletin board announcement on page 15 of our May 2007 Levitt Letter, posted at www.levitt.com.
7. Our Clerical Staff. We have minimal employee turnover. Sandra leads weekly prayer meetings at our office, which is a humble basement suite. We offer solid benefits and a casual, comfortable atmosphere. Our close-knit staff readily covers for one another whenever personal circumstances require. Telephone callers enjoy prompt, courteous service from our 24/7 answering service at 1-800-WONDERS (966-3377). But if you want an extra measure of professionalism and insight about our teaching materials, call our office during business hours (CST) at (214) 696-8844.
8. Middle Management. Our bookkeeper, Cynthia, has been unusually busy booking speaking engagements, partly because we now offer four church speakers instead of just one. Jane, our Mail Processing Supervisor, continues her efforts to wrap up our database conversion. Tony, our Travel Manager, believes that we will take two busloads of pilgrims to Israel on the tour this October.
9. Shrinking the Levitt Letter and Catalog. Postal regulations recently made it expensive for non-profit organizations to mail “flat” pieces as opposed to letter-sized. Consequently, we decided to downsize to 6” x 11” both the Levitt Letter and the winter 2007 catalog of teaching materials.
10. www.levitt.com. Our web designer, Greg, has redone our entire website to give it a sleek, new appearance while preserving its user friendliness. It has been perennially challenging to highlight its numerous attractions so that cyber-guests easily see all that we offer. Please send your comments to .
11. Television Production. Aside from the two commemorative TV series we produced in the wake of Zola’s passing, we created Revelation: Approaching Armageddon, Daniel and the Last Days’ Battle for Planet Earth, The Feast of Lights—Hanukkah, and The Gospel According to Isaiah. Two more series are nearing completion: A Bad Moon Rising and She Shall Be Called Woman. These series amount to 39 programs (an incredible number for a single year), and that’s not counting the contemporary ones that we developed for single broadcasts such as our mini-series of three programs, entitled Shavuot—Pentecost. For free viewing, visit www.levitt.tv.
12. Four More Stars. For the third year in a row, Charity Navigator awarded us their highest rating of four stars for financial efficiency. A look at our ministry’s graphs and pie charts at www.charitynavigator.com will show that we expend less than 1% of our resources on raising funds and just over 11% for administration.
13. Israel Tours. Our summer ’06, fall ’06 and spring ’07 Israel tours each took a full busload of Holy Land pilgrims. Our fall ’07 tour, departing October 16 and 21 and returning October 31 and November 4, may require two buses. The airlines demand that we enroll passengers earlier than ever or else pay increased fares. We ask passengers to contact Tony during office hours at (214) 696-9760 for details or to call 1-800-WONDERS (800-966-3377) anytime. And, because of long delays, travelers should apply for their passports ASAP.
14. Finances. This ministry still never makes urgent appeals for contributions. Our dignified stewardship is as much a testimony of our supporters’ consistent loyalty as it is evidence of our management’s determination to function within our means. When God calls us to expand our outreach, we factually present the needs and opportunities to our readership, without any hype, and they back us.
15. Morale. Inasmuch as time heals all, our grieving of Zola’s departure is abating and giving way to our gratitude for the fruits of ZLM’s new era. Jeff maintains the highest regard for Zola’s legacy while staying true to his own calling which, with God’s help, he has melded into an integral component of ZLM’s ministry.
As Zola’s and my fifteen minutes together begins drawing to a close, he and I might appeal to Heaven’s gatekeepers to give us five more minutes. Most likely Jewish, they wouldn’t be pushovers, but they’d be kind enough to meet us halfway, giving Zola and me a couple of minutes to chat about the family. Over the years, it was a source of mild consternation for Sandra that, during family get-togethers, Zola and I talked incessantly about the ministry. She would insist that we “get off business,” so to speak, and relax. Then Zola and I would engage in deliberately stilted small talk until she laughed and let us get back to our labor of love.
Regarding the home front and family, though, I would tell Zola that:
Finally I’d comment to Zola that his heading off to Heaven before us, who miss him, has given us a taste of what many unbelievers will feel like after the Rapture when their Christian friends have left them behind—and how eager we Believers are for the Lord to return quickly for the rest of us!
P.S. Please visit the new www.levitt.com and email your comments and suggestions for the website to Greg at . You might even click on LLX—Levitt Letter Extra News—and comment directly on the articles posted there. We value your input. Thanks!
Dear Mark,
Based on the 15 items that you would share with Zola, he certainly would agree that “all is well with the ministry’s soul.”
“Here is my gift for August. Use it for ministry work such as finishing the television series Lights Out for Christian Europe and She Shall Be Called Woman.”
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