McNair writes:
God wants us to be happy. Jesus Christ emphasized that in John 10:10: “I have come that they may have life, and that they may have it more abundantly.” He wants us to inherit eternal life, but He also wants us to find joy in the process of getting there! When Jesus said this, He was echoing what He had inspired Solomon to write almost a thousand years earlier: “I know that nothing is better for them than to rejoice, and to do good in their lives, and also that every man should eat and drink and enjoy the good of all his labor—it is the gift of God” (Ecclesiastes 3:12–13).If one truly is a follower of Jesus and understands what was accomplished, that person knows that the "process of getting there" has already been accomplished. That is why the burden has been lifted and people can rest.
How can every man (and woman) "eat, drink and enjoy the good of one's labor" when 30-40% or more of one's fruit of that labor is required of the church to keep its leadership in their comfortable lifestyles? Its certainly not going to some massive gospel outreach to the world. Is it?
If we are chronically unhappy, we may need to meditate on and tap more deeply into what God is doing in our lives and submit ourselves to Him in every possible way. We must decide that we want to think differently. As former American President Abraham Lincoln famously said, “Most folks are about as happy as they make up their minds to be.”Chronically unhappy people really need to seek proper help from trained and licensed therapists or a doctor for a potential chemical imbalance in their body and not sit around gazing at their navel for something magical to happen. Going directly to a minister who has had ZERO training in proper counseling techniques may further exacerbate the problem.
A person can be richly blessed with all kinds of wonderful things and experiences in life and still be unhappy or depressed. When one hears sermon after sermon on how they are never are measuring up to the high standards that the church claims its god has set, what happens to a person when they don't meet those standards? Many of the expectations that LCG demands of their members are soul-destroying.
It is God’s desire for us to enjoy life. It is His will that we see life as a gift, an adventure, and a challenge we can brave with His help. With His help, we can optimistically choose to face life as an opportunity for learning and growth, even in the midst of troubles.While this may sound wonderful and a point one strives for, it also sets up a false expectation for members. They have to put on a "happy face" all the time when they are around other church members. God forbid if anyone was ever depressed in front of others. Setting those lofty standards, and I am not saying they are bad, sets the expectation that people are doing something wrong anytime they are not happy.
McNair then goes on to give an example of how to be happy...end consumerism.
Frankly, our whole modern economy is built to encourage us to consume. And our consumption—buying new items and discarding the old—keeps the economy going. So, in a very literal sense, we have come to the point where many leaders of industry, business, and government only see ordinary citizens as cogs in the wheel that keep the cycle of production and consumption going. Why else would we be widely encouraged by the “system” around us to spend rather than save?
If we are not careful, we can begin to view our lives largely in terms of being a consumer, because consumption is what we spend so much of our time and focus on! But life is so much more than just becoming an expert at comparing products and relishing a good purchase.While this is all well and good, in the Church of God movement this concept carries a LOT of baggage attached to it.
How many sermons, member letters, emergency appeal letters, and magazine articles have we read about lowering our standard of living because the end times were here? The church needed more money for that final Gospel push or, as it usually went down, Satan was attacking the church and income had dropped. Then, we find out later, church apostles and leaders were doubling down on the money they were spending to fund their lifestyles, remodel their homes, buy fine art, or remodel their offices at HQ?
Let’s make sure consumption does not become an obsession in our lives. Instead, let’s use the blessings that God has given us to serve Him and serve each other. Otherwise, our work will be nothing more than a futile “grasping after wind.”How many have ever seen Rod McNair financially help others? When has he ever served the regular members of the congregation? Has he ever mowed a widows lawn? Taken the child of a single parent to school? Driven a demon-possessed elderly person to the
Life wasn’t created to be meaningless. We weren’t made to be unhappy. We weren’t made for the sum total of our life to be merely 70 years of consumption. God created us to relate to Him, walk with Him, talk with Him, and—at the end of physical life—to step into an eternal relationship with Him upon our resurrection and glorification.
Yes, this life is temporary. The flesh truly is vanity, meaning “here today and gone tomorrow.” But there is a big purpose for each day we draw breath. Let’s view every day as a gift to be cherished and valued. Let’s impart that mindset to our children, so they know how important they are to God. He loves them and wants them to be happy. And let’s make sure we are using this temporary life to prepare for our awesome, eternal future with God.I can truthfully say that I have seen more vain men in leadership positions in "God's church" than I have ever seen in a people out here in Satan's world. The Church of God was a breeding ground for vainglorious men who are narcissistic and caustic in their leadership roles. They have weighed down the brethren with so many idiotic rules and regulations that members are bound to be unhappy and miserable. And they are! Only until they leave these spiritual abusers will they ever find happiness.
See: All Is Vanity...Or Is It?
17 comments:
Well of course McNair is happy, living it up on a Big Executive Salary
His harangue against consumerism rings hollow - like Eco-Lecturer, and fellow millionaire, Al Gore living in his massive Mansion with electric meters spinning!
So what is McNair doing with all that money? Spending it of course! Follow him, Follow the Money!
Well, I just clicked on the link posted at the end of your article (which was good btw), and now they have another “view” to gloat about. Yeah, those poor members are to give, give, give “to the work”, deprive themselves of life’s necessities because of “consumerism” , and be HAPPY about it all! Yeah, right. Been there, done that! So glad I’m free!!!
Hmmm, strange....I don't recall being told that God wanted me to be happy in this life. Being full of vanity, jealousy, lust and greed made me sad. Being the cream of the crude made me sad. Having a heart deceitful above all things and desperately wicked, who can know me? made me sad. My ways weren't God's ways. My wisdom was foolishness to him, and the church. God laughed at my knowledge and I was reminded I was part of the "You worm Jacob" heritage.
HWA made me sad when he jowl shook at me reminding me that the work came first and he thought not many in the church either "got it" or were even converted. That made me sad, not happy.
It made me sad to see my church paycheck was certainly not going to allow for much outside of paying the bills and really sad when making good friends, ended up getting moved all over the country to place I had never been to and probably never would have chosen in the first place.
IT made me sad, not happy when the moved me and paid for my mortgage in the old place until I could sell it and repay it all back after moving to the new.
I was sad when the church split in 1974 and I got fired for guilt for association but then rehired. It made me sad I let myself get rehired. Scandals made me sad not happy and the receivership really made me sad. Cancelling the Systematic Theology Project, which was some nice progress on stopping the majoring in the minors and minding people's business for them to their harm (healing, Divorce and Remmarriage etc) made me really sad.
Watching every church I ever pastored, 14 in all, evaporate made me sad and watching my last one dwindle from 450 to 16 was really sad.
Watching what all the moving and my own inability to stand up to the church and say no to a few dozen inanities along the way did to my boys and wife made me sad. Coming of retirement age with "we will take care of you, just sign away your SS before you are sent into the ministry" makes me sad.
Wasting weekends, spending money I did not have to spend, going places I did not want to go , meeting crazy people I was sorry I ever met and attending "Jesus performed a miracle in the Church and left me going full circle back to my Dutch Reformed Calvinistic roots, made me really sad.
Even ending up wishing I had never heard of Herbert W Armstrong or the Wildword Church of God made me a little sad.
Not being a paleontologist, geologist, or PHD in something that is really true, exciting to explore and helps to really understand what on earth is going on, makes me sad as well.
The True Church simply made me sad and if God wants us all to be "happy slappy in Him", as Tkach and Co wanted, well...that's sad too. I was happy once when I said "hell no, I"m not going to the Million Man March for Jesus and Promise Keepers" That made the powers that be upset and that made me happy. I told them that in two years they'd not ever hear of Promise Keepers again...and I was happy to be right! :)
Jesus tricked me all those years and then worked His sad miracle by revealing he was only kidding about WCG and The True Church. That made me sad in ultimately a happy kind of way.
Outgrowing the fear, fake authority and ridiculous beliefs that both Church and Bible can promote, however, makes me very happy, so maybe that's what God finally did for me to make me happy in Him :)
Sing brethren!
"Trust and Obey for there's no other way to be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey"?
I'm happy to say that is not true either.
This provides yet another example of the FUBAR perceptions of authority in the Armstrong movement. You can command someone to make their beds, or to take out the trash. I’ve unfortunately even met people who can fart on command. But, you can never, unless you are directing a play, motion picture, or TV show command others to be happy! In those enviroments, what you witness as happiness is called “acting”. The Jews of Jesus’ time on earth referred to actors as “hypocrites” because in their profession, they could appear one way while feeling the exact opposite.
There was always a great deal of acting in Armstrongism, which makes it difficult for most of us to see that movement as any sort of enlightenment. I mean, how does one fall away from what was an act in the first place?
BB
SMILES--REAL and FAKE--in the COGs
The Loose Screw
Church of The Dink, International and Incontinent Church of The Dink (Garner Ted Armstrong): Teddy the Dink's followers smile nostalgically as they think about GTA screwing co-eds, secretaries, stewardesses, and masseuses. Yes, it is a bit voyeuristic, but they are just trying to stay positive after making the fatal mistake of joining with GTA in his rebellion against his own father HWA in the late 1970s.
The Apostates
Graceless Community of Iniquity (Joseph Tkach, Jr.): The apostates smile in wonder at the mystery of iniquity as they think about the apostate Joey, Jr. inheriting everything from the Worldwide Church of God after orchestrating the Great Apostasy of 1995. The apostates smile because they now get to observe openly things like X-mass, while the Little Churches of Men (see below) have to pretend that they are not observing X-mass while they observe X-mass.
The Little Churches of Men
Living Church of Rod (Roderick C. Meredith): Rod's old people smile sheepishly and go along with all of RCM's so-called “doctrinal upgrades” that he came up with to compete with HWA by changing major doctrines that HWA had taught. They smile an embarrassed little smile when RCM says that almost nobody had ever heard of HWA but that RCM's little splinter group using less than 10% of HWA's former followers is going to “shake the nations.”
disUnited Church of Godlessness (Victor Kubik and the Council of Evil): UCG people smile like sneaky, unrepentant, unconverted, uncivilized imposters and phonies, which is probably what they are if they still go to the UCG. Or they smile like a newly credentialed fake minister, which is what they are if they fake it in the UCG. They smile like an apostate going into round two of the apostasy. They smile like they will soon be right back in the world, where they really want to be.
Church of Men, a Worldly Association (Jim Franks and the Council of the Lesser[?] Evil): COGWA people smile like they are better than the people in the other splinter groups even though they are not really all that much better. They all watch the same movies and observe the same X-mass weekend stuff. It is not that COGWA is so good but rather that so many of the other splinter groups are so bad. It is all relative.
Continued below...
...continued from above.
The False Prophets
Philanderers' Church of Fraud (Gerald R Flurry): Mostly, it is Satan and the demons smiling here because they were able to set up such a satanic imposter cult and pass it off as the continuation of HWA's WCG even though it does the exact diametrical opposite of what the WCG under HWA had taught. Immediately stopping the preaching of the gospel, replacing it with a bad news commission, and pulling off the identity theft of the ages by passing off a drunken runt (rather than Jesus) as the prophet of Deuteronomy 18:18-19 that everyone has to listen to, probably has the fatter Pentecostal type demons rolling down the aisle sideways laughing.
Restored Cash Grab (David C. Pack): There is nothing to smile about here, unless you get a perverse thrill from seeing a demon-possessed false apostle/Joshua/Elijah/prophet/messiah vomiting on his destitute scam victims.
Church of Ron--Preparing for the Kingdom of Ron (Ronald E. Weinland): Ron's fiction lovers can smile because that ex-con, fiction-writing clown is ridiculous. Ron is not all that funny, but other fraudsters are even less funny. So, his suckers smile while they still can.
Continuing Church of Paganism (Robert J. Thiel): Bob's fake followers/users smile fake smiles like they are mentally challenged too, and attracted to demons, and pagans, and fake news on television, and false prophets like Bob. What really turns them on, though, is the freebies, like the occasional laptop.
The Ditto-Headed, Yellow-Pencil Rebels
Serpent's News (Norman S. Edwards): Norm's stray cats (not sheep) smile smugly like they know better than all the other supposedly independent types who were each led off in a different direction by their own wrong spirit. They each smile knowingly as if they were the only wise one who lucked out and followed the right demon.
Shining Blight (James D. Malm): People smile awkwardly (and say “No!”) when that rebellious bum asks them to financially support him and his calendar confusion and other odd ideas that he came up with while trying to “think for himself” in his rebellion against what HWA had taught.
Worse Than Babylon (David ben Ariel): If you ever heard of bent Ariel, you should be truly gay (in the old fashion sense of the word) and smile like you are really happy and you know it that you did not die of AIDS like he did.
Had a minister once tell me that while counseling a couple, who were having sexual difficulties, that the wife complained about the husband, and about his habit of telling her ... " I COMMAND you to have an orgasm!".
Lets get real here... you can't tell people or command people to be happy , or "having an orgasm" by fiat and declaration. Life don't work that way!
Byker, I was thinking all day today along the same line of thought as to your comment at 1:32 PM.
I never understood the prohibition the WCG/COGs put against a member being an actress or actor. It always seemed in my mind to be just another profession and the person would return to their normal self come Sabbath services. I didn't know The Jews of Jesus' time referred to actors as hypocrites.
Your comment earlier today which is profound in its self, becomes even more so because there is an expansive element to it. You said: "Generally, people can accept and adjust to one factor, or a sequence of factors. Unfortunately the series eventually becomes overwhelming, and one realizes that the church has been devalued by its own leaders to the point of no longer being the commodity which we originally purchased".
Yes generally people accept and adjust to one factor or a sequence of factors. But when the series of factors become overwhelming many then look inward and can only see that they have become actors or hypocrites themselves. In a church environment where the motivation and standard is by decree only, the result is the member has to become someone they normally are not. If the church is dictating specific human emotions then the obedient member will be smiling while at the same time crying inside. I attended Spokesman Clubs where the minister was driving himself mad trying to get the men to change the way they pronounced words which were common to the area. He kept saying that the men needed to grasp and mirror Washington D.C. english. The men just couldn't do it and their trying just disrupted the flow of their speeches. The list goes on and on with decrees and dictates and commands from the ministry and leaders that forces the members to become actresses or actors and by extension hypocrites.
So the ultimate devaluing is the member himself/herself. And at some point in time the member is going to see that they have become what they are not. They will see that their expressions, their emotions, their speech, their beliefs and their understanding are all what is required by the entity mandating it only.
A catalyst for moving oneself out of the role playing scenario that many have fallen into is looking and seeing what Jesus Christ said is the reward of the hypocrites. Which by the way is not a reward to try and attain.
That, my friend, was very deep and profound!
Good job of taking the discussion to the next level, WATT!
BB
I once knew a member of wcg who tried so hard to become what he was not, that he lost all sense of who he was. As a result, he became a humorless dictating ruler to his family and a commandeer to his wife, trying to micromanage her every move, her every word, and even her thoughts. He also kept many secrets from his wife by the approval of the ministry. He was a very skilled liar and actor but, alas, his beaten down wife finally left him. The only time his wife and children saw him smile was when he saw women dehumanized. I feel sorry for the poor loser, if he’s still alive. He was only doing what he was told.
WATT said: "I didn't know The Jews of Jesus' time referred to actors as hypocrites."
IMHO I think JC's analysis wasn't far from the truth at all. Look around today and you see a lot of these men and women paid outrageous and obscene sums of money for playing pretend or playing games and they're usually beloved by society for their performance on the stage or the field not for the depth of their own character. So you might love a specific movie star or celebrity and his films, but in reality if you don't know him personally then you don't really know him. For all you know he might be a wife beater or a pedophile or a narcissistic sociopath when the camera's off and if you did know him you'd probably run the other way!
You are so right 11:32. I had an opportunity to go to a concert of a famous celebrity back in 1985, which I enjoyed immensely. I met him after the concert, had my picture taken with him, and gave him a hug. Later I was told that they had reserved a seat for me at his table at the nightclub next door to the theater he performed in, but no one told me till after the fact. I was glad I missed that part of it because it would have totally ruined my perception of him, which was pure, honest, and perfect. I didn’t want to see him drunk and disorderly. Whew.
https://mir-s3-cdn-cf.behance.net/project_modules/max_1200/f16f6584652873.5d6410fb196c4.jpg
Just another case of the church demanding that its members fake reality. Scratch the surface of the all bible verses that members are plastered with, and one finds bully morality beneath the surface.
Dennis
Has it ever occurred to you that you might be responsible for your 14 churches evaporating? It looks like apostate Dath Diehl let loose with his spiritual light sabre.
Fixed it for him:
McNair then goes on to give an example of how to be happy... stop tithing.
Frankly, our whole church is built to encourage us to tithe. And our tithing = buying new members and discarding the non tithing, which keeps the church going. So, in a very literal sense, we have come to the point where all leaders in the church only see ordinary members as cogs in the wheel that keep the cycle of recruitment and tithing going. Why else would we be widely required by the “church” to tithe?
If you are not careful, you can begin to think for yourself, because tithing is what I require you to spend so much of your time and focus on! But life can be so much more than just tithing to a self proclaimed expert, and comparing churches and relishing a good escape plan.
Where's Pharrell Williams amd Bobby McFerrin when we really meed them?
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