CARMEL, Calif.--Church of God elder Lon Lacey died at his home here either late on the night of Jan. 11 or early the morning of January 12, 2000.

According to reports posted on the Internet by friends, Mr. Lacey, founder of A Church of God Ministry and publisher of The Logos Journal: Understanding Our Times, had been exercising, and his wife, Carol, had gone on to bed.

She woke up about 3 a.m. Jan. 12 and saw he had not come to bed. Then she found that he had died. Cause of death was not known, but a heart attack was suspected. Mr. Lacey had not complained of health problems.

Starting with a Bible-study fellowship group meeting in a home in the winter of 1994 in Albuquerque, N.M., the New Mexico Region Church of God and its outreach, A Church of God Ministry, reached an estimated 1,000 people weekly through its tape program, Mr. Lacey had told The Journal during an interview for an article that appeared in the April 30, 1998, issue.

Mr. Lacey had been a member of the Church of God for decades and was ordained a local elder in the Worldwide Church of God in the fall of 1992, "shortly before the church began to blow up," as he told The Journal.

He said that previous efforts had been made to ordain him, beginning in 1972, "but I prayed about it and it just didn't seem right at the time."

The New Mexico Region Church of God began in March 1995.

"Presently, about 40 people attend services here each week," he said in 1998, "with about 60 in attendance on holy days. We estimate that through our outreach program, A Church of God Ministry, we reach another 1,000 or so who regularly listen to our weekly taped messages."