Living Church of God has been faced with one crisis
after another over the last few years. As more and more members become
disgruntled with the leadership and they way they are being treated, they are
pulling back or away from the church. As they pull back they
participate less and less in church activities and gatherings. This also
results in a withholding of tithe money, which inhibits the church leadership
being able maintain their lifestyles. All of this is happening in spite of the fact that the LCG big boy's continues to claim the church is the most unified it has ever been.
LCG recently opened up registration for their feast
sites around the world. To date, the registration numbers are running
close to 3,000 people less than last year. When 2,000-3,000 fail to show
up at LCG feast sites, this causes one huge finial drain on the church.
This is a significant drop in income for them and they are NOT happy!
LCG HQ has been compiling names of all those
rebellious members and have reported them to their local ministers. The
Church of God Gestapo at work once again! They have instructed the
ministry to go after those members and make them register for the LCG feast.
Pastors:
This week we sent you an e-mail with a list of those members in your pastorate who are not yet registered for the Feast of Tabernacles. It is the “Unregistered Festival Report” of your congregations. Please use this report to encourage brethren in your congregations to register for the Feast. Or, you may wish to ask your Festival Advisor to take care of this responsibility. Thank you for helping us encourage everyone to register!
Let’s get serious brethren! How is Lil’Jimmy going to be able to afford another feast in Hawaii if you don't register and send in to LCG your tithe of the tithe and excess second tithe!
26 comments:
The interesting aspect to this is that the people who didn't register have probably knowingly missed deadlines, and also know that they can easily be tracked, or "caught". Therefore, this list probably includes people who have finally realized that LCG is not the one true church, no longer care, and are planning to leave. At the very least, there is a certain lack of zeal or enthusiasm. In the old WCG days, people raced to get their reservations in early. No way did anyone want to miss out!
Further evidence that LCG has a systemic morale problem.
BB
Maybe LCG should join forces with one or more of the other dying Armstrongist churches.
The problem is, the LCG is pretty "dead-in-the-water" on their own, if they choose to 'go it alone'.
If they get together, maybe they can even afford to give some Steuben Crystal to The Donald! He can hide it up his trophy wife's ass when he declares bankruptcy once again.
(That's how 'silent witness' Laura Weinland hid her jewels while traveling to Switzerland, and gave Ron a taste for "ass-play", that was fulfilled for him in prison.)
Zechariah 14 gives LCG ministry the pre-millennial right to declare a pox on their heads and both withold rain and plague them until they go to FOT joyfully. It's in the bible
Since the average age of members is 75, they know that they are at deaths door, the waiting room. They just want to stay home and rest their old bones. Members to Rod, 'So sue me.'
Perhaps they are waiting to see if the church still exists this fall. It might be in a 1000 splinters by then.
In the old days, I don't remember having to register, you just went to your assigned site.
This is more control. So the easiest thing to do is register. Then Rod is happy, minister is happy, everyone is happy. Then just don't show up, or show up sign in and go where ever or to whatever feast site or church you feel comfortable with.
This would be fun.
.
what about people who can't afford to go, in this economy who can afford the ritz.....
No, Charles, in the old days, there was a special department that made all of the hotel and motel reservations. You had to register with them, and to provide them with the information required In order for them to set you up with living quarters appropriate to your budget and needs. You also had to have transfers to other feast sites approved.
BB
In the old days the faithful members (aka suckers) would call the reservation desk of their preferred hotel the minute the festival instructions allowed, only to find in all too many cases that the hotel was already filled by people who booked early.
With so few people going, there's no rush to book a room. Plus there's every reason to wait to see where friends are going. Plus some people may switch churches before the fall.
I have relatives in UCG who have relatives (my in-laws' in-laws) in LCG. They trade off, attending a UCG site one year and an LCG site the next.
BB, it varied from year to year. Some years, as you said, a local festival coordinator (usually a deacon) collected all the information and sent it to Pasadena where transfers were approved or denied and all the reservations were made. In some years, members could make their own reservations. At first members had to get permission to transfer before making reservations at a site that their congregation was not assigned to. Then they started listing some sites as open sites to which any member could go without having to request a transfer. As attendance dropped, they started listing most sites as open and only a few (small sites with limited capacity) as requiring permission. (My experience is with WCG and UCG. Other splinters have their own practices.)
Charles, my memory is the same as BB's. I'll add a few comments. There were stories that some members lived between the feast site and the motel where they were assigned, and they had to drive past their house to go to services. Also, before about the mid-1970s, hardly any requests to transfer to other feast sites were approved. Probably in the late 1970s we were allowed to choose our own accommodation, but from a list that we were sent. In 1979 I rebelliously did not get a place, and put a tent and a sleeping bag in my car and drove to Saint Petersburg, where I found a campground. (It turned out I was the only one in the entire campground who didn't have either a trailer or a motor home.) I had no trouble parking my car and attending services, but one day I drove north to Jekyll Island where the parking attendants didn't want to let me in because I didn't have an "FT" bumper sticker. (Back at home my pastor was Richard Pinelli. He let us get away with a lot. I was amazed 16 years later when he went with UCG.)
As usual this moderator spins the worst possible scenario as to why any organisation may want potential attenders to register early.
- knowing who and how many you are planning for, allows planners to make good, appropriate decisions commensurate with the needs of attenders
- it allows early discussions with vendors citing numbers they may be catering for
- if housing is assigned it permits the person with that thankless task to do their job
Out of the heart the mouth speaks. Haters will only be divisive in their words. They are unable to readily imagine positive motives in other people. By his years of words this moderator has revealed himself to be a hater.
What positive things has LCG done for its members? What positive things has Rod Meredith ever done? He is just as crooked as the rest of the ministry of the church.
Where was any accountability when one of his members slaughtered LCG members during a church service? Where was there any accountability from Meredith that he was the cause of the slaughter? Countless news services reported that Ratzman was upset of one of Meredith's doom and gloom sermons.
Where was Meredith when Beyersdorpher need help? Meredith has made it one of his priorities to mock professional counselors and psychiatrists over his decades of preaching.
Where was there any accountability when Rod Meredith lied about Leona McNair at the ministerial conference? He let WCG defend an day for his diarrhea mouth while he was plotting with Don Davis to start Global Church of God.
Where was Rod Meredith when his son Jimmy was cavorting all over Hawaii at LCG tithe payers expense? Where was Meredith when his sons were hopping bed with anything that was attracted to them and abusing alcohol and drugs?
Where is there any good in Meredith's nauseating and endless demonization of gays and lesbians? Was he upset over the actions of one of his sons?
At this early in the game none of the hotels, resorts, etc. will loose any money by LCG members not registering. Though with any luck LCG might be charged for those promised rooms. Ha Ha!
The root of the entire issue is that LCG is upset that members are NOT obeying them. That's the entire problem right now. If it were not a problem than there is no need to sic the ministry on the members to shame and blame them. Less members registered means less offerings at a feast site? Anyone with any brains can understand that!
If the moderator of this blog is wrong, then please post the ACCURATE facts here so we can all see how magnanimous and loving the leadership of the LCG is and how it is such a shining example of positivity. Inquiring minds want to know!
Anyone who is in business appreciates the reasons for early commitment. The earlier facts are established, the more efficiently and cost efficiently the event can be staged.
Here's the rub. An announcement could have been made prior to sabbath services stressing the importance of the success of the event, made possible by timely or advance registration. But, they did not do that. They immediately went heavy handed, as per usual Armstrongism. They generated a report of "offenders" and sicked the gestapo on them. Of course they used the euphemism "encourage" but basically in Armstrongism that means that you remind members of "authority" and threaten them with the Lake of Fire if they don't comply. So, due to this abuse of power, the member whose nature this rubs the wrong way must wrestle with his attitude probably right up through the feast, when more Christlike spiritual guidance may have produced the desired result without the rancor. As it is, does anyone seriously believe those who have been "encouraged" are actually going to enjoy the Feast? These "ministers" provoke members to anger, and then via the doctrine of top-down authority, expect members to just suck it up. That Nicoliatane system of management stinks!
I.M.O., a good minister would stand before his congregation, and he would explain the situation and the list, and the instructions he received. Then, he would state that he respected the members, andwas not going to treat them like children, and he would tear up the list right there at the podium. He would ask the people who had not yet registered to please do so. Finally, he would mention that if anyone could not attend due to financial difficulties, assistance was available, and to please see him after services. Somebody has got to stand up and to start making a positive impact on the ACOG culture, or it is going to continue to degenerate to lower and lower levels. The problem becomes that the "leaders" won't do it.
BB
well....since I have found no biblical instruction to do so, I have never sent in a "tithe of the tithe", nor have I sent in any unused 2nd tithe, also because I have found no biblical instruction to do so.
if everyone would do as God says, the excesses of certain of the ministry might be curtailed.
Anonymous 12:40....Your comment really was stupid and uncalled for, we can all spew out that kind of garbage but some of us refrain from doing so.
Like I said, in the late 80's, in Canada you made your own reservations and only registered for a transfer. Some of my friends always went to Florida, without a transfer approval. This was before every thing fell apart..
To this day I go where I want, without asking their permission. I followed their rules once, and THEY made me this way.
Where does it say two services on holidays or on Sabbaths during the feast? So I only go once.
Enough of treating us as idiots.
8:14 PM Many members have been torn down and scarred for life as a result of an abusive ministry. David Pack has robbed blind his members. Do you expect the victims to say nice things about these churches. Blaming the victim/s is the typical church cop out. And why did the ministers not abuse you? They obviously thought you a loser not worth bothering about.
In any transaction where money is involved, the one with the money holds the power until that money is relinquished. This simple fact has been lost on the members of the various COGs for decades.
In effect, Armstrong and the other COG leaders have extorted money from people for decades, and they've done it right under their noses.
Once members decide, "You can't have my money" -- in the old days, by leaving; these days, by sitting on it until they make up their own minds what to do with it, and when -- the COGs go into panic mode. They cannot function without the members' money. All the pontificating and decreeing is for naught when the member-funded pulpit is not there.
The arrogance that led to HWA overspending on buildings and other material things, which has been repeated by the likes of Flurry and Pack, is built on sand. Frighten people into sending you their money, then overspend to create "evidence" that God is blessing you. Rinse and repeat. It's a shell game.
To all you UCGers, PCGers, LCGers, RCGers, and any other CGers, just stop sending your money. Better yet, just walk away. Watch how quickly those voices crying out...just end up crying. (Exhibit A: David Hulme.)
If you truly believe no man stands between you and your God, then you have the right to do with your money what you wish. Personally, I think you should use it on your family's needs and to help reputable charities and/or ministries that are doing actual good, but that's just my opinion.
Regardless, you have the power, not them.
12.40 your comment is so crass and redneckish.
I have a few ideas.
HQ needs to have a Feast of Tabernacles form for members to send back, with the following checkboxes on it-
* I am a woman, and according to the Bible am not required to attend, so I choose not to be attend.
* I am one of the very few LCG women who still gets her period, and will be having my period then and therefore unclean, so cannot attend.
* I like the idea of attending, but due to having only $___ second tithe from my social security checks, and since my only option would be the Chuck E. Cheese Feast site near me (which doesn't have gluten free pizza), I will be unable to attend this Feast.
* I would like to attend, but only if Lil’Jimmy will bring me to Hawaii with him, and we avoid the leper colonies.
* Yes, I will attend, but please suggest a FOT site most full of suckers, because I'm now selling a 'multi-level-marketing' product that I'm totally excited about. My local pastor's wife is my 'upline' and is depending on me for huuuuge results.
* Recommended: Check here for paying only a $19 per night premium for the popular option of having 63 percent less bedbugs and 65 percent less cockroaches in your room. Guaranteed, or anointed cloths for bug bites will be provided free of charge.
Charles and BB,
Ah, yes, the good old days of registering for the FoT in the WCG.
Don't forget that for "negro" members, they were assigned to Big Sandy and assigned to their "special" campground which was separate from the campground for 'whites'.
It was actually a larger burden on those people, who usually had less second tithe than others, to travel a larger distance, all the way to Big Sandy.
At least, when they arrived, they knew they were truly "special", because they were ushered in and funneled toward their segregated "negro" seating area when walking into those FoT services.
You are not alone in thinking that. Many brethren struggle with the vost of the fot. The ministry have turned it into a money spending spree. If I happen to have any second tithe left over I keep it and use it to help towards the next fot.
When Paul urged the leaders of the Corinthian church to expel an immoral believer (I Cor 5) he then went on to say that he doesn't judge those in the world. He didn't expect non believers to behave like believers. RCM should keep his damn mouth shut and focus on issues within his church and not condemn those who do not claim an allegiance to the church.
There is some question to what the state of LCG will be come next fall. Meredith looks like a decrepit bag of bones, members don't want to follow Jim OR Jerry and it's quite possible they will be bankrupted by punitive damages awarded by a North Carolina jury by the end of their little lawsuit problem which should be right around Feast time.
LCG is a house of cards and the wind is beginning to blow.
Amen brother. You do your thing. I do similar.
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