There are approximately 12,000 full-time and associate adult volunteer members in The Family working out of over 1,400 centers, or communities, situated in over 100 countries. Our members live with, and when possible are joined in their ministries by, their children. We are drawn from a multitude of nationalities, more than 90 at last count.

To help achieve our broad objectives, The Family has produced an array of inspirational publications and audio and video tapes which are distributed by the millions worldwide each year. Our members also regularly perform at musical benefits, and many of our communities are involved in helping the socially disadvantaged.

Members of The Family take seriously their responsibility to be a living example of the Christian love that they preach. Following the pattern of the earliest Christians, we maintain a cooperative lifestyle, sharing our material possessions, resources and responsibilities with one another. This economical and communal way of life enhances our efforts and plays an important part in the furtherance of our work.

We also aim to ensure that the children of our members receive the best Christian upbringing we can give them. Many of our members have chosen home-based education for their children, while others who live in larger communities have established their own small schools.

The Family traces its origins to 1968 and Huntington Beach, California. It was there that our founder, David Berg, also known as Father David, together with his wife and teenage children, began a ministry to the counterculture youth who flocked to that seaside town. Many of these experienced dramatic changes in their lives as they came to understand that there is a God and that they could have a personal relationship with him through Jesus Christ,  God's gift of Love.

Some of them chose to work with Father David, dedicating their lives to the service of God and others. Thus, The Family was born, although it was not to become known by that name for many years. At the end of 1969, when the group had grown to about 100 members, it was dubbed The Children of God by the news media. By 1972, there were 130 Children of God communities scattered throughout the world.

In early 1978, The Children of God was formally dissolved and a new group, The Family of Love, with a new organizational structure, was formed. In recent years, we have become known simply as The Family.

The Family sees its prime task as that of bringing the message of God's love to all. How successful have we been
at this? As of yet we have personally shared the Gospel message with over 237 million individuals, while billions have heard our message through the mass media. As a result, over 23.3 million people have personally prayed with our members to receive God's love, forgiveness and salvation. We have distributed over 850 million pieces of Gospel literature in 61 languages. A total of over 1.4 million videos and eight million audio tapes in more than 20 languages have also been distributed.

David Brandt Berg (1919-1994)

Berg's parents were both active Christian pastors and evangelists, and his early years were spent traveling with them in evangelistic work. In 1941 he nearly died of pneumonia, shortly after being drafted into the U.S. Army. After determining to rededicate his life to Christian service, he experienced a miraculous healing.

For most of the next 27 years he worked as a pastor and in various evangelistic endeavors until, in 1968, he
received God's call to take the Gospel to the hippies of southern California. There he and his then teen-aged
children began a ministry to the youth that grew and eventually became known as The Family. Today, members of The Family engage in missionary and humanitarian work in about 90 countries worldwide.

Berg called on his followers to devote their full time to spreading the message of Christ's love and salvation as
far and wide as possible, unfettered by convention or tradition, and to teach others to do the same.

Berg also decried the de-Christianization and decay in moral values of Western society. He viewed the trend
towards a New World Order as setting the stage for the rise of the Antichrist, a godless world dictator whom
the Bible predicts will rule the world in the last days before Christ's return.

Berg's lively, down-to-earth and sometimes unconventional approach to heavenly matters makes his writings a
unique contribution to Christian literature. He once said of his writings that his aim was to leave his readers
feeling either "mad, sad or glad." Without a doubt, he succeeded in doing just that.

In November 1994, The Family commemorated his passing from this life into the next. Surely he has now heard
his Savior's "Well done!" for his life of Christian service. In The Family's first 25 years, his leadership inspired
The Family to personally share the Gospel with over 260 million people in over 100 countries, nearly 18 million
of whom received Jesus and God's free gift of eternal life.