LCG Theme for the family weekend – trials are good – the longer you are in the church, the longer the trials!
Instead of an uplifting Bible Study, LCG starts off with more of a sermon with the theme of trials are good, the longer you are in LCG, the longer your trials will last – maybe they will never end until you are dead.
Have a heart LCG – you have families coming in looking forward to an uplifting joyful weekend of activities, of meeting and making new friends – the children and teens especially. This theme is a killjoy.
Instead of a kick off Bible Study showing how God loves His people getting together and rejoicing, you hit them with a gloom and doom sermon.
Ecclesiastes says there is a time and place for everything – this was not the time and place.
Jesus (remember Him?) started off His ministry at a wedding feast and turned the water into wine. Jesus knew how to celebrate and have a good time, and make people happy at a joyous occasion.
The problem with being a prophecy first church is you are always seeing the bad behind every event.
Lighten up – church services can be fun and inspirational.
submitted by TLA
32 comments:
Sadly I am not surprised at this topic. The church has a great tendency in sucking the joy out of everyday life.
The last few thousand years of history show that only the well off can afford to have fun. For most people, life has been a constant pain and they need meaning in life to make it worth it. That's what the Bible is for. The focus on fun is mostly a modern Western thing, or a thing for the rich, or the rapers, pillagers, and emperors of old.
"The church has a great tendency in sucking the joy out of everyday life."
The same could be said for most places I've worked, and a few of the blogs I've seen (hint hint).
When I briefly attend Intercontinental Church Of God I encountered a family that observed x-mas and I was told by the minister that it would be okay as long they didn't flaunt it.
For the sake of the people - especially the children and teens, lets hope they go more positive in the Sabbath messages.
Matthew 11:29-30: "Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and lowly in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For My yoke is easy and My burden is light.”
If you feel that you are under a difficult, heavily burdensome yoke, you aren't yoked to Jesus Christ.
LCG is full of depressed people who don't really want to be there, but who don't think they have a better alternative than staying.
Don't forget the weekend's incredibly boring and simple-minded seminars, which are labeled as seminars for parents, or singles, or teens, but which really all teach that loyalty to LCG is more important than finding fulfillment in parenting or dating or growing up.
When it starts as an attempt at passive-aggressive humor, but gets turned into a straight-up whine about unsanitary fellow-workers, you know LCG HQ is a depressed and unhappy place for many.
The winter solstice weekend is not supposed to be joyful. Any of the cogs that put on one of these events are trying their best to fit in with world. They seem to forget where it says come out of her my people. Oh wait its for the children so they will be attracted to the church and may follow one of the cogs and become a tithe paying member. Their hypocrisy abounds as I must ask where in the scriptures does it say to have a winter gathering?
RUN!!!
"... trying their best to fit in with world."
They are just trying to fellowship while they are all off work at the same time. And I think you know that full well.
"... where in the scriptures does it say to have a winter gathering?"
Where does it say you can't?
"Their hypocrisy abounds as I must ask where in the scriptures does it say to have a winter gathering?"
Where does it say you can use toilet paper? Better stop using toilet paper.
Many of you who left the cult were clearly too stupid to understand WCG doctrines--as evidenced by your comments here--or too lazy to read their literature.
Some mainstream Christian churches have periodic “retreats”, during which the members “come out of the world”, to enjoy edifying seminars, fellowship, and activities.
During the 1970s, someone in the WCG had a large property in California, a ranch or something, and it was occasionally used for retreats. I found out about it because my ex wife had gone there for a weekend, but that was during the summer months.
As I see it, the ACOGs have several problems with their WFW. One is that it has the appearance of a substitution for Christmas because of the timing. Secondly, they are leaving their sanctuaries (individual homes), and actually going into places where the celebration of a holiday in which they do not believe is more “in your face”. This is not a retreat or a weekend of coming out of the world. Anything but. Lastly, wouldn’t it be nice if for just one long weekend, church members could come together in an environment where they could temporarily escape their own message of gloom and doom, judgmentalism, and authoritarianism?
One observation that could be made is that these weekends are just made for the climbers within the church, like Spokesmens’ Club heroes aspiring to become part of the authority structure. It’s also good for ministers who crave a more effective position from which to snoop on the inner lives of members. It is also a place for people with weird and extreme personal views to casually spread them.
I don’t know how the poor in the church are handled. Are they left out? Subsidized? Encouraged to attend at all cost, giving rise to using their credit cards? Is this a “be there or be square” situation? Is it almost a commanded assembly?
One thing is certain. These annual weekends continue because church members support them in sufficient numbers to justify them. Seems like another area in which they could vote with their feet, but do not.
BB
Actually, Jesus went to a "winter gathering." The one COGs hardly ever talk about.
It's called Hanukkah, or "feast of the dedication" in John 10. But it's over already.
I do not know of any of the cogs giving money to those who can not afford to attend the solstice weekend. They are so stingy with help especially cogwa. They want you to attend everything and give to everything they deem worthy. Cogwa now has the biggest bank account and sits on it for Israelite nations who gave most of it.
"These annual weekends continue because church members support them in sufficient numbers to justify them. Seems like another area in which they could vote with their feet, but do not."
By going there, they are voting with their feet, by "walking" in. But, unless someone votes the way YOU think they should, you say they are not voting. Good grief.
When Jesus entered Jerusalem, the people waved palm fronds to greet Him.
Those same palm fronds are part of the Biblically-commanded Feast of Booths (Tabernacles).
Where does the Bible say it's OK to wave resort hotels at Jesus Christ instead of palm fronds?
If it's OK to keep the Feast of Tabernacles the WCG way, having a party in the winter is simply no big deal.
hey, can somebody tell exitsupportnetwork.com that their site is getting misdirected to an online pharmacy site?
GW - now that I have you trapped, I am going to nag you for 70 minutes and tell you how bad you are. To set the theme, we will have the most depressing special music we can find. You are just pacing the world with a 5 year lag time. The world is evil and you are only slightly better.
My response to that, 10:17, is that they are not voting. They don’t even realize that they get a vote. What they need is a spiritual version of ANTIFA.
BB
@ 10:17 AM, if they are voting with their feet by walking in, this year's LCG Winter Weekend seems to have fewer voters than in recent years, judging by this panoramic photo of the Winter Weekend Sabbath Service.
Are people getting together for the social events but skipping the buzz-kill Sabbath activities? Or are there just fewer people attending at all?
While you're at it, time to stop pretending your comments are coming from multiple "enlightened" people
What's wrong 12:51, is your brain to small to take it all in?
I think the Family Winter Weekend are steep in the WCG tradition going back to my years in the Worldwide Church of God (1968 - 1976). Our Washington D.C. congregation under Ken Westby use to host yearly Social events at Christmas time (dances and talent shows) that attracted WCG brethren throughout the region. We weren't celebrating Christmas of course, but it was a convenient time since children were out of school and work schedules were reduced during the holidays giving people of like minds (at least we all thought at the time we were of like minds) the opportunity to to gather and fellowship together while the rest of "The World" celebrated Christmas.
Church Deacon King Finlay (Clyde Kilough's future father-in-law) organized a band that played our music for the dance. Our Preaching Elder Glen Purdy played the drums in the band. A lot of practice went into the band I am sure. I remember one year, it had a Hawaiian theme. People came dressed up in Hawaiian shirts and dress. Ken Westby came dressed as a Hawaiian King. We had great times socializing at the rented fire halls each year. No one thought it was a Christmas function. NO ONE!
Richard
LCG is continuing in the old WCG tradition of putting ministers in charge of things they don't know how to do.
Rod Meredith wanted LCG to have the very best music programs it could possibly have, so he hired a non-minister with experience as a conductor and arranger to help train people and organize LCG's special music activities. If you noticed that the special music yesterday was, to put it mildly, a cut below the usual, maybe you also noticed that the task of leading special music had been given instead to Pastor-rank minister Jonathan McNair, who is also the head of Living Education, even though his education ended with his Ambassador B.A. in theology, which apparently qualifies him to supervise employees with M.A. and Ph.D. degrees.
Also, a recent announcement revealed that minister Michael DeSimone, who worked for a decade in HVAC installation and maintenance before being ordained, has been selected to replace Wyatt Ciesielka as head of LCG's Television Department. Only in LCG is a career in HVAC a good preparation for managing the many artistic and technical details of television production.
It looks like UCG and COGWA had much bigger winter gatherings than LCG.
LCG may have hit its peak church attendance a couple of years ago and now is on its way down.
People have had some nasty comments about RCM, but at least he had a sense of humor and could get people laughing. He even had open church services for anyone to attend online for the big winter event.
If you had listened to GW's sermon you would have found out that the song "Baby its cold outside" is not so bad, except it is so bad, and other interesting and inspiring trivia.
It looks like it is starting to get cold INSIDE at LCG.
Anon 1:52 pm "If you noticed that the special music yesterday was, to put it mildly, a cut below the usual" - you are too kind to them - it was sad, it was dreadful, it was pathetic, it was depressing.
I wonder what happened to the previous guy (McCullough) who was fantastic?
They also have a few really inspiring and energetic speakers - but you rarely hear them, and then only for short messages.
TLA wrote:
If you had listened to GW's sermon you would have found out that the song "Baby its cold outside" is not so bad, except it is so bad
How ironic! "Baby, It's Cold Outside" isn't directly a dirty song; it relies on innuendo. It is about two people who don't actually do anything sinful, but who know that the busybodies around them will falsely assume that they have sinned, and will spread false gossip. It's actually a perfect description of life in LCG.
TLA wrote:
It looks like UCG and COGWA had much bigger winter gatherings than LCG. LCG may have hit its peak church attendance a couple of years ago and now is on its way down.
I think you're right, but LCG has to keep holding these events so its members don't use the free time to check out a similar event held by UCG, COGWA, or independents. This year's event was pretty sad, though, and I wouldn't be surprised if next year LCG's Kansas City event over New Year's draws a higher attendance than Charlotte's not-Christmas event.
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