Saturday, October 17, 2015

Living Church of God Nepotism and Jim Meredith


Lil'Jimmy Meredith's Humble Tar Paper Shack

In December of 2012, Exit and Support published a letter from a Living Church of God member detailing the things they witnessed happening in the Living Church of God.

One of the things mentioned in the letter was this:

Then there is the nepotism! Many of Meredith's family members and friends are employees at LCG headquarters or are evangelists and pastors. The pastor of the congregation I went to is the father of Sue Meredith, Jim Meredith's wife, son of Roderick Meredith. I knew that Jim had a successful business in construction in California before the housing crisis but that went south with the housing downfall. So now Jim Meredith is a pastor and his wife are both working at headquarters. A member of the congregation quit a good job because of having to work on a Saturday once a month. The pastor's wife told her that everyone has to make sacrifices, including her son-in-law Jim. He choose to leave a very profitable business in California to work at LCG headquarters! What hypocrisy! Dad bailed his son out.

Then in august of 2013, Living Armstrongism, published the same excerpt and a reader responded with this:

Hello. This statement about Jim Meredith is absolutely true. I have first hand knowledge of the details of this situation as well. I was a member of LCG from 2007 until 2011. I personally knew pastor Martin Fannin and his wife Jane. My family and I were members of one of his congregations. Jane personally told my wife and I of Jim's struggling business in 2009 and 2010 because I also had a struggling construction business. Jane told us her daughter Sue had to find part time work to get by. In 2010 Jim was engaged in ministerial training and then we were told he would be relocating to Charlotte, NC sometime in the future. In the spring of 2011 the LCG weekly update stated that Jim Meredith would be coming to Charlotte, NC as Rod Meredith's personal assistant and a festival coordinator. I am certain that this appointment was not ordained by God, but by the desire of the head of LCG to help his son and family overcome a serious financial situation. The personal assistant/festival coordinator position was never posted as an opening within the churches official job site poster. I understand that a father wants to help a son that is in need, but to create a position for someone who's lucrative business is failing due to time and chance just seems wrong. The tithes and offerings being sent in to support this type of hypocrisy is astounding. I thank God that he opened my eyes to these wolves in sheep's clothing.

It has always been well known in Charlotte that Rod Meredith takes care of his family first. This has provided a perfect spot for Lil'Jimmy to travel on the tithe-payers dime to exotic locations for "feast" business and to have all expenses paid.

Charlotte employees are getting tired of Lil"jimmy's behavior and wasteful spending.  Perhaps he had better start constructing that escape chute out of his office window like he wanted to do for Rod.  The day may be coming when he needs to escape the wrath of the Charlotte employees!

HT to a reader for this information...

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

if lcg does not like this site then they should quit empowering such sites with their sinful goings ons; otherwise just grin and bear it:

because as long as you continue the kind of behavior as described in this article (and such behavior is widespread) you will be viewed as lacking integrity, and your efforts to preach the gospel will be hindered...

Anonymous said...

A few years ago, when I saw the video of Jim explaining how he moved to Charlotte. A red flag came up. Reminded me of Joe T and Joe T jr, and what happened after jr took over!
Now that should've been a warning to everyone, who was ever in WW, and followed a man to global and then over to lcg. The sheep who are following a man, and aren't paying attention to Math:16:11, will soon find out.
Will the sheep be hurt, maimed and scattered again like old WW? That my friend is a very good possibility.
Even know, I bet the so called ministers are making their secret deals.

DennisCDiehl said...

"In 2010 Jim was engaged in ministerial training and then we were told he would be relocating to Charlotte, NC sometime in the future."

So it took him about a year to complete the Bible Correspondence Course, read the "Four Hosemen of the Puckerlips" and "Just What Do You Mean Bored Again" for his ministerial education and credentials......

Lake of Fire Church of God said...

Good point Dennis considering you probably did all the same as little Jimmy PLUS attended Ambassador College for 4 years and then had 25+ years of experience in the field pastoring/ministering larger WCG congregations. Heck, now that I think of it, I took the Ambassador College Bible Correspondence Course and read the 2 aforementioned booklets. Does that now qualify me to be a LCG minister in line to succeed the Pastor General?

Richard

Anonymous said...

Its a business folks, that is all it is. Nepotism is common in the COG's because the leaders see it as a business. That is why the leadership is passed down to the next generation. We all know that small businesses are passed down to the next generation. That is the natural progression. So the same is true with the COG's.

DennisCDiehl said...

Yes Richard...a double portion give I you! :)

Byker Bob said...

Nepotism is always a tough topic. I've been around a number of people in business (and that's what these churches really are!) and have witnessed widely divergent outcomes. Who do you trust most in life? Usually, it would be those from a very similar background, and it would most often be difficult to find a more similar background than what is produced by a family. But, there are an awful lot of wild cards that can come into play.

My younger son and I are both successful business owners, but we are in different fields. Judging by the comments about him on Yelp, people say the same things about him as they do about me. We have very similar attitudes towards customer service. But, we are both entrepreneurial types, and both perfectionists, so neither one of us would probably function as well if one of us were subservient to the other. If it were possible, he would be the person I would most prefer to hire. Somehow, quite by accident, and through great trial and tribulation, my values ended up being transmitted to him. And in some cases, he has improved upon them, taking them to the next level. But, I've watched too many clashes, and too many separations between fathers and sons, and realize that we are better off the way things are currently configured.

People don't realize the many setbacks one can experience through time wastes resulting from unsuccessful hirings. In my case, If I were to hire a salesman, and the guy had faked good character during the interview, I might end up having to correct and cover all of his lies and misrepresentations out in the field. If I were to hire a service technician, and it took me two years to train him or her to the point where they could be profitable to the company, and reliable for the customers, what would I do if he suddenly accepted an offer from a competitor? All the training and value would be down the tubes. If I hired a receptionist, what would I do if I found out that she was on the phone to her boyfriends and doing non-work things like painting her toes every time I left the office? I've witnessed such things at places where I have worked and customer locations in the past.

The bottom line is that whatever pragmatic decisions a business owner makes, have got to create a synergy or equilibrium which work, and produce the measurable growth which leads to a successful, health, and manageable business. The vision needs to be preserved, as well as do customer perceptions. I used to say that success depends on being correct 51% of the time. The problem is, that leaves no safety margin for challenging times, or unexpected events. The fact that these ACOGs are all contracting shows that nepotism is failing miserably in Armstrongite endeavors, because it appears to be based not on talent and abilities, and people skills, but on default and entitlement.

BB

Anonymous said...

It wouldn't really bother me that much that a father wanted to help his son after his California business went bankrupt.

BUT in this case, Jim has been given the keys to the treasury. Does that seem like a good idea when he's already proven to be bad with money? When he has already bankrupted several companies with his bad management and over spending?

It also wouldn't bother me if he was of sterling character and clearly inspired to serve God. We have all been around people who are filled with the Holy Spirit, people who make us want to be better ourselves. Jim is not one of these people.

Jim is more like the kid who pays you to do his homework because he's been out drinking with the frat boys all night.

He's a straight 'C' student if I've ever seen one.

When he initially came to Charlotte he acted like it was a jail sentence. Every time he spoke we had to hear him complain about moving from the all glorious California to North Carolina. He really looked at the position with absolutely NO gratitude as if it were only slightly better than remaining in California as a homeless man.

Lake of Fire Church of God said...

I am much more sympathetic toward business bankruptcy than personal bankruptcy although in today's world a major medical matter can bankrupt a person and I am certainly sympathetic in that situation. It takes a hell of a lot of skill to run a business and business cycles do happen and economic downturns can take out the best of businesses.

Not to toot my own horn, but in the recession of 1990 - 1991 I experienced a business downturn that almost bankrupted me. An attorney told me that I would need to file Chapter 11 (business bankruptcy and that I would face years of litigation. I said "Hell no - I am too young to file bankruptcy" and for the next decade spent my life digging out of the financial mess from the recession. I would have been ashamed to have anyone come to my house in the 1990s because of the way I had to live as I sold all my furniture and even a large valuable baseball card collection ($5,000 raised) to payoff my business debts. EVERYONE eventually got paid back. NO BUSINESS BANKRUPTCY OCCURRED and my business prospers and exists even to this very day.

I share this personal story because my observation is that the Meredith family doesn't practice Herbert Armstrong's 7 laws of success. Specifically, perseverance. Rod Meredith forms Global Church of God - it goes BANKRUPT! Little Jimmy's construction business experiences an economic downturn and he goes BANKRUPT! In each case, the dumb tithe slave sheep had to bailout both BANKRUPT Merediths - either directly or indirectly.

So, little Jimmy reads the Ambassador College Bible correspondence course and a couple of old WCG booklets and suddenly PRESTO he is lord over the brethren living an affluent life ON OTHER PEOPLE'S MONEY received from dumb sheep under threat of eternal damnation lake of fire.

The Meredith's are BANKRUPT people - financially, mentally, spiritually, ethically and morally. They couldn't make it in the real world without the brethren's financial support and bailing them out if their lives depended on it!

And I thank Dennis for the "Bob Thiel double portion". Considering my mother was a large contributor to LCG while she was alive, and considering I have read the same material as Little Jimmy, I honestly think I am more qualified to be CEO of Living Church of God than Little Jimmy is. I certainly know the Armstrong religion inside and out.

Richard