The new and improved, 'authentic' splinter group, Church of God a Worldwide Association, has laid down the law regarding how it's leadership will be run. The grumpy old men still rule.
In a typically crafted COG document they have laid out a plan that keeps the old guard in power yet again. They were trained in WCG, jumped ship to UCG where they wielded the same power they thought they had in WCG, and now plan on continuing with that same power structure. New ideas will be left by the wayside.
Only ministers who have been ordained more than 20 years will be allowed to sit on the Board of Directors.
Board members will serve eight year terms. If five out of the seven members object to a person they can vote to have him removed. Elders can request a ballot to removed a board member if they gather 25% of the elders signatures. Then it will take 60% of the elders voting the person officially out.
(According to J Malm) In practical terms this 20 years point narrows down the Board to AC Alumni only. This means that the split leaders will be in total control of COGWA regardless of the selection option chosen. ONLY they meet the required qualifications. In reality this is a choice between irrelevant options. Elders are being allowed to decide the method they will use; and will have no real choice as to WHO leads! With very little exception they can choose between members of the same group only!
Only those currently employed or ordained in the last five years are allowed to nominate men to the Board. This is slick because the ministers who have been employed by the COGaWA are those that were hand selected out of the entire group when they all jumped ship.They are being told to choose between two irrelevant issues! The Franks/McCullough/Kilough group wins either way! THE BIG CON!
Malm writes: That is a condition which disenfranchises those unpaid elders who have not had paid jobs for the past five years in UCG; this is great for the Old Guard. It may be preferred by the paid Old Guard like McCullough/ Franks/Kilough and friends. This is the key issue behind the power struggle in COGWA; only the inner circle of friends and AC alumni have been hired; and may nominate candidates if Option One passes. This entrenches the Old HWA Guard. This gives the lie to the mantra of "Servant Leadership" as they define it; because it maintains the same old Caste System of the past.
The president of the church must have fifteen years experience and at least five years with 'pastoral' experience. He is chosen by the board and must serve their desires and needs. In other words, he will not be a spiritual leader like Meredith is.
13 comments:
See, now -- you have to give Mr. Malm credit big time here: He's hit the nail right on the head!
The Armstrongist CoGs are such a piece of work (not The Work, mind you).
My thought: Here's a perfect chance for the CoGWA to scrap British Israelism and the crumby history of a stupid church (the title of a coming new booklet -- already have the cover page). But then, what would they have left? Really. What would they have left? No BI and fraud history to validate their claims to legitimacy, just what would be left?
What would happen to the Feast Days without the United States and British Commonwealth as false prophecy? And what would happen to tithing? And what would happen to their salaries? Rethink all their booklets, website and publications, videos? It sort of reminds me of my trip to the dentist yesterday. It's been awhile. Painful to remove all that plaque.
In Buddhism it is said, "Sometimes in life, there is nothing left to do but have a good laugh."
It also says, that clinging, grasping and attachement is the source of all suffering.
As a result, we can have a great laugh while we watch the suffering inflicted upon themselves and others continue.
All flesh is grass. All these men will die relatively soon and the silliness will be over. Jesus will not have returned nor will he when you understand that all the Jesus is coming soon was the big mistake made by the boys way back in the beginning and is just a worse one now.
The wind blows, the flowers grow, the rivers flow and the chosen still don't know...they were wrong and lived their entire life teaching falsehoods, misconceptions and misunderstandings.
Sigh.....
M.T.Boardman
As my old Systems Analysis professor used to say, "These men too shall pass, and be removed from the scene."
Unfortunately, there's another rung down of white men 20 years younger, that are just waiting for their chance to drive the gravy train.
Why don't they just include height, weight, eye and hair color and finger prints too.
That would make it even simpler to keep the False Doctrines of Herbert W. Armstrong firmly embedded in this group.
"The first generation founds it.
The second generation maintains it
The third generation loses it."
And this seems true
M.T.Hall
"The first generation founds it.
The second generation maintains it
The third generation loses it."
In my opinion, the second generation has done a very lousy job of maintaining anything what with all the splits, etc. I'm not complaining. The sooner it gets to the "lose" part, the better.
Michael...is it not a bit unfair for you to comment freely here, which is just fine by the way, yet filter out comments questioning your views on your own site?
Just askin.
My comment of days ago now was in reference to your thread on 1975 in Prophecy and how that the entire New Testament "time is short," "Shortly come to pass," "Even at the door," "the hour now is," etc is just as suspect as the booklet since we know nothing has happened shortly at all in the last 2000 years.
M.T.Prophecies
M.T.Prophecies, don't you know that just because nothing has happened, it is a sure sight that something will!?!!??
And only 2,000 years?!
Honestly, some people have NO patience at all!!!
Armstrongist ministers taking salaries is a White Collar Crime.
M.T.
Your comment was from the 24th. I moderate all comments and have not been able to yet. I am doing that work today and just published two ahead of yours.
Your comment on Revelation as a failed book of prophecy may not be the way I view it. Some areas of concern are:
1) Many of the things prophesied came to pass in the years following the early church era.
2) Time has not ended, so there is still time for the fulfillment of those things.
3) Many religious groups reject Revelations all together and some Bibles do not contain it.
4) Eusebius' list of disputed books that were finally canonized in the Bible contained Revelations. So by vote it ended up in the NT.
5) The Eastern Orthadox Church rejected Revelations and only accepted it as part of their Bible recently.
6) Some question Revelations because it's content does not fit or follow in the tradition of the Gospel of Grace and faith for salvation.
So this is a disputable issue and the jury is still out as far as my personal research.
But I appreciate your comments on the booklet 1975 In Prophecy which caused enormous damage to many members by turning their lives upside down.
So long as the ACOG groups see HWA as "God's Apostle", they are going to continue with the blueprint which he laid down. This means that they will continue to see the so-called "restored truths", even those which are now laughable or easily proven false as oracles, including "government from the top down" as opposed to transformation of the heart from the bottom up, one Christian at a time.
It's a mindset, one that they consider to be God-given, despite the lack of unity and continued splintering which destroyed the power their collective voice once had.
I believe that we should fervently pray for these people, as well as the victims of all false teachers. Sudden realization that they have based much of their lives on falsehoods would all but kill some of them. But, with God, all things are possible! We need to be praying for a soft landing for them!
BB
But sometimes hard landings save lives.
A soft landing for hard heads?
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