Tuesday, April 21, 2015

Epic Failure: Living Church of God Claims That Its Leaders "...Must Be Self-Controlled—Not Quick To Get Angry "



We have all witnessed over the last few years the deep seated anger that Rod Meredith has towards certain members of his church.  This anger is so deep that entire families have been disfellowshipped and publicly marked from the pulpit.  In his decades in the Worldwide Church of God that anger was manifested over and over in his actions towards ministers he was over and to the membership.

We saw that anger again as he bad mouthed the WCG as he was starting up his own church, the Global Church of God.  We then witnesses his anger towards Raymond McNair and others in Global as he rebelled against them and apostatizing to form yet another group.  That anger also led to him taking all of Global's money with him an essentially bankrupting Global.  That in turn sent Raymond and Eve McNair to get on their knees in front of Meredith begging his forgiveness "with trembling lips."

That anger was also manifested a couple of weeks ago when Meredith stood up and kicked out the remaining Scarborough's from LCG - and - warned his members to NOT read this blog.

An LCG member sent me this today from the Pastor's Manual for LCG.

Apparently Meredith and Rod McNair have not paid too much attention to this section of the manual as they continue to lash out at members and employees seeking to find out who is leaking information.

Pastoral Manual         
Chapter 1: Pastoral Ethics  Being Qualified pg 1-5                                                                                                                                                   
A Pastor Must Be Self-Controlled—Not Quick To Get Angry 

“…A bishop then must be… not violent…but gentle, not quarrelsome…” (1 Timothy 3:2-3) 
Pastors sometimes have to deal with frustrating and exasperating situations.  A Pastor must have the character—and LOVE for others—to control his own spirit, even in the midst of difficult situations, and even with people who are irrational or belligerent.  In Paul’s second letter to Timothy, he said: 
2 Timothy 2:24-26 “And a servant of the Lord must not quarrel but be gentle to all, able to teach, patient, in humility correcting those who are in opposition, if God perhaps will grant them repentance, so that they may know the truth, and that they may come to their senses and escape the snare of the devil, having been taken captive by him to do his will.”  

When a problem arises, imagine that you are arriving at the scene of a fire.  The fire is the problem you are facing.  Imagine that you have two buckets in your hands—one is filled with water, and the other is filled with gasoline.  Which one you use upon arriving at the scene has a lot to do with the outcome of the situation.  Can you defuse the situation by using a calm but firm hand?  Or do you react with anger in kind, further exacerbating an already bad situation? 

A Pastor must exhibit emotional control to successfully function in his capacity.  He must be able to bear insult without retaliation.  Jesus set that example.  He did not lash out or take revenge on those who ridiculed Him.  As Peter wrote: 

1 Peter 2:21-25  “For to this you were called, because Christ also suffered for us, leaving us an example, that you should follow His steps: ‘Who committed no sin, nor was deceit found in His mouth’;  who, when He was reviled, did not revile in return; when He suffered, He did not threaten, but committed Himself to Him who judges righteously; who Himself bore our sins in His own body on the tree, that we, having died to sins, might live for righteousness--by whose stripes you were healed.  For you were like sheep going astray, but have now returned to the Shepherd and Overseer of your souls.” 

This does not mean that a Pastor must not defend the members or the office of the ministry or must not occasionally act with decisive action.  But he must keep his own personal feelings out of it, as much as possible, with God’s help.  He must not fall into a “siege mentality” where he begins to see everyone as either for him or against him.  He must strive to minimize controversy and polarization wherever possible.  He must deal squarely and decisively on the facts, based on sound biblical principles, with all due patience and long-suffering and without personal antagonism or anger. 

This takes careful self-examination of motives and intentions.  It takes deep reflection to examine one’s own personal motives—and the humility to admit to oneself when one is acting on pride Proverbs 16:32 “He who is slow to anger is better than the mighty, and he who rules his spirit than he who takes a city.” 

Proverbs 14:29 “He who is slow to wrath has great understanding, but he who is impulsive exalts folly.”  

Proverbs 15:1 “A soft answer turns away wrath, but a harsh word stirs up anger.”

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Doug Winnail and his son Scott wrote the LCG Pastoral Manual. Meredith had nothing to do with it, and feels no obligation to do what it says.

The difference between the manual and Meredith's practice reveals a lot about what an LCG split will look like, with one split striving to live by (or fake the appearance of) what the manual proclaims, and the other split striving to worship Jim Meredith with the obeisance he requires.

Byker Bob said...

Personally, I haven't seen or talked with any ACOG ministers in years and years, so don't know anything about their general demeanor first hand.

All I know is that HWA would have been a candidate for anger management classes if society had been so enlightened in that day. He was one raging fool!

BB

Anonymous said...

No one should expect "servant leadership" from someone who was mentored by HWA, had a fourth floor office in the Hall of Ad, lived on Waverly Drive, drove a company car (Buick I think), wore Brooks Brothers suits, was power hungry, considered himself to be number 3 and eager to move up to number 1. I think that servant leadership was too wimpy a term for him. He liked the idea of STRONG, POWERFUL, FORCEFUL leadership.

Anonymous said...

Meredith and Ames have out of control tempers. I have seen them both red-faced, bulging veins, spewing spittle mad.

These men are like spoiled children, used to always getting what they want when they want it.

Of course most brethren never see this side of them and it would be hard for them to imagine. I gurantee that anyone who has worked at LCG headquarters for any length of time knows that what I say is true!

Anonymous said...

"Doug Winnail and his son Scott wrote the LCG Pastoral Manual."

In the latest blog entry it's called, "Rod McNair's Pastors Manual"

Not that it matters all that much in the larger scheme of things, but I'm wondering who's the author(s).

Or are there multiple versions, just like there are multiple versions of the Gospel within Christianity?

Anonymous said...

There's really not much anyone can do: It is apparent that all of the leaders of the major ACoGs have inherited the Anger / Warrior Genes -- they simply can't avoid it -- it's built into their genetics.

No one should be surprised: Herbert Armstrong had his legendary temper; Roderick Meredith, after all, won the regional Golden Glove award.

You're a fool if you think these men can change.

And Proverbs says not to go with an angry man.

Why don't you at least try to even pretend you obey the Bible, instead of committing idolatry by putting up these raging sociopaths on a pedestal as your idols?

Anonymous said...

Just remember and understand that ALL the new testament characters,Apostle types and even gospel Jesus did not do so well with these bible ideals at times and for the bigheads among them, most times

Anonymous said...

LCG also wrote a 15 point fact sheet on "Steps To Ensure Righteous Judgment" for the Leadership Training classes which many in Charlotte participate in. I received the handout years ago as I sat in one of the classes but forgot about it until a friend emailed it to me again recently. The handout basically outlines the principles in Matthew 18 and other common sense things like "in order for justice to appear fair, similar offenses must receive similar punishments".

You would have to be lobotomized to think LCG distributes punishment with equally or that it's leaders are self-controlled and not quick to anger.

I watched some known adulterers get disfellowshipped while others remained in LCG.

I watched people I never heard utter a negative word about LCG leadership get disfellowshipped and marked and yet every Sabbath I am subjected to a couple that openly vocalized hatred for Bob League & Rod McNair; say Dr. Meredith is losing his mind with dementia; say Mr. League was possessed with a demon and spoke in tongues, etc., to anyone who was willing to listen. I can barely stand to see their faces each week. I don't know how they sleep at night through all their lies and backstabbing. It's almost like their guilt forces them to keep rambling on and on and on in an attempt to justify their actions. I have learned to avoid them as much as possible because their hypocrisy makes me sick. It's almost like they have been rewarded for betraying their closest friends (at least it seemed like they were close friends from my perspective).

Some of the Book of Enoch crowd escaped unscathed while others lost their jobs and were disfellowshipped and marked. Several of the victims reported on Facebook that they had worked for Meredith in some capacity for over 23 years and yet they were discarded like worthless trash.

It is hard to maintain a positive view of the judges (ministers) when their justice seems corrupt and heavy-handed.

Before the purge I felt like LCG was more on track than any other COG group. After the purge I have become disillusioned and despondent. I miss the people who are now gone. It feels like WCG all over again. The undercurrent of mistrust in LCG leadership is palpable.