Almost immediately after Living Church of God settled in at home after experiencing a foretaste of the millennial life, Gerald Weston instituted a church-wide fast. Apparently, fresh off that millennial experience, LCG members had immediately retreated back to their sin-filled lives, so much so that Weston needed them to repent, again. After all, it is always the memberships fault that LCG has issues and not those in leadership positions.
Weston mentions in his latest HQ update that 4,200 people watched the streaming program. If one is to believe that total, one has to then question the total membership that LCG has listed on Wikipedia of 11,300 members. Is Weston subliminally saying below that 7,100 members did not bother to listen to the streamed service? Did well over half of the LCG membership chose not to fast? Did they all skip services?
Most of us realize the totals listed for membership counts on any COG Wikipedia listing is a load of crap. LCG no more has 11,300 active members than Grace Communion International has 50,000 active members in 900 congregations.
Also below, Weston tells the LCG faithful that the church is dropping many of its television stations as an act of good stewardship. As LCG programs become more and more irrelevant to people's lives, more and more stations will be dropped. Its message in its programs carries little that people can relate to in a messy world. After all, vaping is much more important than helping people understand the meaning of life while living in a messy world. Pretending to preach about a kingdom to come has little significance to people who experience serious illness, death, war, and other tragedies of life. If comfort cannot be implemented in the present day life, what good is a kingdom message to those people?
Sadly, in the COG movement, words are more important than getting one's hands dirty in the everyday life of those around them. When was the last time an LCG member fed the homeless, cleaned up a prostitute, gave a drug addict a warm meal or invited an immigrant family or a Muslim to sit at their table during the Thanksgiving meal?
Instead of declaring a fast for the LCG membership next year, how about cancelling church services that Saturday and instruct members to spend the day feeding the homeless? In Charlotte, LCG's home base, 1,668 people are without shelter on any given night. Imagine what a warm meal or some blankets might feel like to these people What a foretaste of the kingdom that "might" represent to some of them if LCG did its gospel message right!
Fasting to torture oneself in order to please the elite LCG leadership or getting one's hands dirty caring for the other, which one would the God of the Living Church of God find more pleasing?
October 25, 2018 By Gerald Weston Greetings from Charlotte,
Reports indicate that the live stream of last week’s service during the fast transmitted very well. Approximately 3,800 successfully viewed the program in English, with another nearly 400 viewing the Spanish translation, for a total of about 4,200. Final edits of the November/December Living Church News are being made. There is an important article regarding the relatively new phenomenon of e-cigarettes and vaping, and I hope all of you will take time to read it, as it contains a lot of good information that is not widely known about this new and popular habit. We are attempting to build up our television presence with strategically placed stations. Sunday, November 11, Tomorrow’s World will begin airing over KRCW Portland, Oregon at 7:00 a.m. Cost per response (CPR) varies from station to station and we drop those stations that do not produce well in favor of newer stations. This can sometimes cut our CPR in half. I mention this because members are understandably disappointed when we drop a station in their area, but we must remember that the primary purpose for the program is to preach the Gospel to the world. We hope all of you watch the program where you can, but we must concentrate on our first priority and be good stewards of the resources available. Remember, the telecasts can be accessed at any time at our website, www.TomorrowsWorld.org. We will continue to drop stations that do not produce well, try new stations, and retain those that are producing. Although television is not as effective as it once was, television is still a powerful tool in doing the Work.—Gerald Weston
10 comments:
LCG used to report responses to each TV program - they stopped reporting this several years ago.
The magazine circulation is shrinking every issue and is less than half of what it used to be.
The number of new members coming in has dropped dramatically - even more if you exclude members who dropped out who have returned.
It seems that most churches have some type of good works program.
Why is Mr. Weston putting an article about vaping in the Living Church News ? That's LCG's magazine for members. What is Weston telling us about his members by directing the "don't vape" message to them rather than to the worldly Tomorrow's World audience? Are LCG members really so unhappy or so rebellious that they might turn to vaping if Weston didn't remind them of its danger?
Gerald Weston's equation of cost per response equaling the relevance of the gospel witness message is bad math at its best. First of all, if the LCG were given the Matt. 24:14 commision and the knowledge of the true gospel why would cost per response or any response for that matter have anything to do with preaching the gospel message as a testimony before all nations?
Gerald Weston's own words in this article exposes him as guilty of operating a business of recruitment instead of delivering a warning message to the whole world. That his own members don't see through this folly means they are not reading with understanding his words.
This is a time of year when many politicians go door to door trying to get one vote but Gerald Weston would skip those same doors because of cost per response.
This is another misstep by Mr. Weston that keep adding up to a church that is eventually going to need CPR of the symbolic kind.
6:26 ~ In a lot of cases, old guard ACOG ministers assume that the members aren't up on the latest culture, style, sins or whatever, and have to learn about them from "God's" ministers, as they euphemistically call themselves. So, they need sermons and articles to let them know that this or that haircut is not OK, some of the songs on the easy listening radio station are not pleasing to God, or that smoking chemicals in steam is still potentially harmful to your health. It's just automatically assumed that most of the members function on a childlike level, and wouldn't even know how to tie their shoes (Pack doesn't even allow non-laced shoes as sabbath wear in his splinter) without the ministers.
"(Pack doesn't even allow non-laced shoes as sabbath wear in his splinter)"
Wow. Just wow.
In response to "What About The Truth" - no church was given the Matt 24 v 14 as a commission - this is a prophetic timeline, not a commission. The commission is Matt 28 v 19 and 20 - which is in summary is to make disciples (proselytize) and teach them all the things Jesus commanded them to do.
The Ezekiel watchman was Ezekiel's commission. It was not given by Jesus to His disciples.
This is like your boss telling you to go get him a wrench, and you bring him a Big Mac instead.
What About The Truth said...
Gerald Weston's equation of cost per response equaling the relevance of the gospel witness message is bad math at its best. First of all, if the LCG were given the Matt. 24:14 commision and the knowledge of the true gospel why would cost per response or any response for that matter have anything to do with preaching the gospel message as a testimony before all nations?
Good point. That was Rod Meredith's thinking, too. As long as he's spending money on TV, and minimizing everything else, he's done his job. The problem is that Matt 24:14 is not a commission. Read it. It is a prophecy. Rod disregarded completely Jesus' commission to go and make disciples and created his own commission to preach the gospel as a witness, which is something Jesus never told us to do. This is clear from Rod's response to Isaiah 58:1 (cry aloud and spare not). "We can't speak on TV as loudly as we'd like about homosexuality and abortion." Why? Because he might lose TV stations, compromising Rod's commission. Never mind what God said. He squandered the opportunity that God had given him by being afraid to spare not. He did not show faith.
Gerald Weston's own words in this article exposes him as guilty of operating a business of recruitment instead of delivering a warning message to the whole world.
That's because he is obeying Jesus, who specifically told us to make disciples and never told us to preach the gospel as a witness.
That his own members don't see through this folly means they are not reading with understanding his words.
Hopefully they do see through it and follow Gerald as He follows Jesus.
You don’t follow a man, you follow Christ. Gentiles coming out of paganism were told by Paul to mimic the way he lived as they were completely without understanding at this point. Grown mature men follow Christ, not a man.
7.36 PM
Exactly. With the ministers (murderously) treating everyone like children, there's no way God will bless such a group. Their fasts are a waste of time.
One of Gods great traits is that He never lowers His standards. Which is what these groups really want from God. Dream on!
Insanity....wholesale insanity...I calls it.
Post a Comment