Those fun boys in Cincinnati are getting all twitterpated about the endless opportunities laying at their feet as they march forward into their next 25 years. If the past is any indication, they are are in for a hard struggle ahead of them. They have been an utter train wreck this past 25 years.It is kind of comical reading their expectations and also rather sad. They have had minimal impact in their "witness" for 25 years now and as they face another 25 years spent ignoring that inconvenient dude they claim to follow, they will continue to have minimal impact.
What Millennial, GenX or GenZ out there truly cares about what they have to say? I guess Jelly is the road to the hearts of the new generation. It sure isn't Jesus.
There has been much discussion about the next 25 years in recent months here at the home office. In a September letter, Victor Kubik said he believes “the best years of the United Church of God still lie ahead.” He asked three major questions: “Where have we been? Where are we now? And perhaps most importantly, where are we going?”
Additionally, at the August Council meetings, Chairman Donald Ward commented on the importance of the Church “reinventing itself to address . . . critical societal changes and provide highly relevant spiritual tools for young people to survive and thrive.”25 years ago these boys had the opportunity to reinvent themselves and truly start fresh. They did not. The old boys club continued to reign and continued the abuse of members that they carried on while in the Worldwide Church of God. Not one thing new happened with them.
Mr. Kubik has also recorded several podcasts with Darris McNeely about looking forward to the next 25 years. These can be accessed online at ucg.org/ inside-united-podcast. They have discussed the current leadership transition of this organization, passing true doctrine on to the next generations, reinvigorated preaching, the development of the pastoral ministry and preaching the gospel in a way that reaches people where they are without compromising the truth.Passing "true" doctrine on? Seriously?
Reinvigorating its preaching? Seriously? UCG members on COG Facebook pages beg to differ. How many times can these boys preach the same sermon they have preached over and over for 25 years?
The UCG ministry is now "pastoral"? Double seriously?? These are the same guys who disfellowshipped people left and right while in WCG as they defended the changes. Then, once money was set up for them to transfer paychecks, they did. The old WCG values stayed with them and they continued abusing members. Look at how "pastoral" they were when they kicked people out during the COGWA explosion.
Mr. McNeely noted in one pod- cast, “The Bible is full of transitions. You see the transition from Moses to Joshua . . . from Elijah to Elisha . . . decisions that are made today impact the years ahead of us and the next generation.” You may have noticed more pastoral development programs being held all over the U.S. and abroad in recent years. These events rep- resent the intentional effort to train future spiritual leaders.Empathy? WHEN has the Church of God EVER had empathy? Since the 6 months Herbert sat in a public library while neglecting his family? Not much empathy there and certainly NO example for anyone to follow.
Reflecting on the next 25 years of the Church, Mr. McNeely also talked about the importance of meaningful relationships to preserve unity and to develop the empathy to “address relevant issues that are impacting the world today—from the foundation of the Word of God.”
You can read this rather sad article and discover this new direction starts with a green masthead for their newspaper! Whoopie! I can just see the new members flocking in as UCG members hit the pavement showing off their new masthead as they convert new members on the sidewalks of their towns. Oh, and they moved the page numbers to the top! Hallelujah! Isn't the gospel message great!
How could this publication help contribute to the development of a church going forward—full of Christians who are pursuing their calling, pursuing baptism and gospel in genuine ways whenever they can and making meaningful relationships?Jesus must be so excited! Heck, he may even stop in Cincinnati on his way to Wadsworth. What a glorious time to be alive!
The decision to migrate to a green masthead and color scheme aims for consistency with the members website...
We found it was time to holistically look at every design element in the UN and assess its value to the reader.
With this new layout, we strove for a cleaner feel that puts more focus on content, and visually harmonizes UN with our website and other media. We moved the page numbers to the top, we reduced the size of the masthead, and we redesigned low-contrast graphics elements so they are now easier to read.”
52 comments:
I see when anyone starts to uncover the real agenda going on within this website you quickly pop up alot of new posts within a few hours.
This is a decoy post. Your fooling no one.
"Jesus must be so excited! Heck, he may even stop in Cincinnati on his way to Wadsworth. What a glorious time to be alive!"
Now THAT is funny!! Good satire must have a basis in order to be effective. LOL
Herb Trek - the next degeneration.
2.19 AM
Please enlighten us about 'the real agenda going on within this website.'
We are all ears and very open minded.
OK, 2:19. What is the real agenda going on on this website? Because it appears to me that the agenda is still to expose HWA/WCG, his heirs, the ACOGs, and to hold them all accountable for the deceit and badness they brought into peoples' lives. What you call decoys are totally consistent with that agenda.
BB
"Anonymous Anonymous said...
I see when anyone starts to uncover the real agenda going on within this website you quickly pop up alot of new posts within a few hours.
This is a decoy post. Your fooling no one.
February 2, 2020 at 2:19 AM'"
LOL, learn to spell. It's you're!
What else are they gonna say? I don't they are gonna admit that the glory days are in the past. On another note, I am shocked Bob Thiel hasn't got some article or dissertation on the evil origins of Groundhog Day.
Comment was stated saying: "UCG Claims The Best 25 Years Are In Front Of Them As They Reinvent Themselves"
The Best years? What does that say for the previous 25 years?
Also, Victor Kubik: "...asked three major questions: “Where have we been? Where are we now? And perhaps most importantly, where are we going?”..."
And this isn't the first time Victor has asked those same questions. Will he ever get his answers? If he hasn't gotten them yet, then when will he?
Time will tell...
John
2:19. This sight is notorious for covering up for Dave Pack. š You ain't from around these parts ya boy?
Oh? What real agenda is that?
Still pissy that no one has responded to the post about RCG?
Shifting back to the original topic, I can't help but wonder about the 25 year figure. We're so accustomed to hearing about the next 3-5 years, as would seem to be the boiler plate Armstrongite "understanding" of prophecy. Has UCG departed from this? Is Vic anticipating living to be 100? Are they optimistic that we as a species have finally turned the corner on climate change in 2019, and can now be united in combatting and reversing it?
Just seems like a rose colored glasses thing for an ACOG leader to be saying, let alone executing.
BB
Very good point Byker Bob! It is very un-Armstrong-ish to contemplate life in this present evil "end time age" beyond 3 to 5 years - let alone 25 years. Personally, I now believe when Herbert Armstrong use to say "Time is short", he really meant HIS TIME is short!
Richard
Victor Kubik said, "In a September letter, Victor Kubik said he believes “the best years of the United Church of God still lie ahead.”
MY COMMENT - Correct me if I am wrong, but didn't Herbert Armstrong make a similar statement to the Church in one of his final letters to the Church before his passing (if not THE final letter)? Like "1975 in Prophecy" and 200+ other failed prophecies I have seen documented, time since his passing has shown how inaccurate Armstrong's predictive statement about the future of the Church has been.
Richard
United once had 20k people in the USA, it now has 7K people. This is a growth rate of NEGATIVE 4.11% per year.
Compounded by the fact that there is now a built in 2.5% annual death rate now for the much older UCG membership, (based on a social security actuarial tables) and UCG has to bring in nearly 7% new members per year just to replace defectors and deaths.
Last year, the UCG baptized just 120 people. This is a replacement rate of just 1.7% . It is thus "baked into the pie" that over time, the UCG will shrink by about 5% per year. This is a halfing in just the next 14 years. I predict that the only places that will have any type of congregations will be cities with populations of one million or more , which is about the top 20 of size in the USA. Even then the congregations at the lower end of that scale will only have 20 to 30 people in them.
Will the UCG ministry stay loyal to each other as the unsustainable central business model crashes and burns around itself? I doubt it, and the "prima facie" evidence is the many splits and divisions that have happened over the last 25 years. I dont think it will be orderly once "abandon ship" is announced. Again all of this is likely within just the next 15 years or sooner.
Sears, JC Penny, Payless Shoes, Radio Shack all had obsolete business models and in spite of best efforts, could not reinvent themselves. There are still too many HWA sociology members and ministers in UCG to allow for the meaningful and "creative destruction" that is necessary for a future. Especially if the risk to paychecks is involved in that reinvention.
Now a nursery rhyme for you...
WCG sat on a great wall...
The WCG had a great fall...
And all the WCG horses and all the WCG men...
Couldn't put the WCG together again!
“UCG Claims The Best 25 Years Are In Front Of Them As They Reinvent Themselves.”
Talking about a Great Apostasy could raise some suspicions that something bad is going on. That is what the Tkaches did.
A drunken runt (like GRF) babbling about his imposter cult being Flooded With Much New Revelation should be an obvious warning sign.
Anyone talking about Doctrinal Changes should also raise some suspicions that something bad is going on.
Even talking about so-called Doctrinal Upgrades is a tip off that someone (like RCM) is up to no good.
Talking about Reinventing Themselves rather than about REPENTING tells you all you need to know about those “funny boys” in what is left of the split-up UCG.
Tonto at 11:02 AM said...“Again all of this is likely within just the next 15 years or sooner.”
Tonto's math left out the spirit world and the supernatural. UCG wipeout could happen in 3 to 5 years if they really do work hard at “reinventing” themselves.
I thought Tonto claimed to have friends of friends on the UCG Council of Elders ?
What went wrong Tonto? Or is this another name ?
Is Tonto Stoned Stephen Society ?
Byker, bite your tongue! As a young adult on the autism spectrum, Greta is pretty much the ideal recruit for an ACOG. She could be another Bobby Fischer or Terry Ratzmann for the group that gets her!
Oops! You are right, 6:26. Comment deleted in the interest of "Do no harm!"
BB
6:26 PM said... “As a young adult on the autism spectrum, Greta is pretty much the ideal recruit for an ACOG.”
I always thought HWA was on the spectrum or at least OCD. After all his WCG and its children were made in his image.
Anon February 2, 2020 at 12:23 PM
"A drunken runt (like GRF) babbling about his imposter cult being Flooded With Much New Revelation should be an obvious warning sign."
--------------------------------------------------
Like get guns to protect against persecution by the D.A's office?
Protect hard assets, like the pedophile's that love the children so much?
Something along those lines?
I read most of the articles in this months United News. What stands out is that there's nothing new. It's cut and paste from the 1970s. Unless members have read the odd self help book, they don't realise that they are being fed spiritual milk.
John wrote:
Also, Victor Kubik: "...asked three major questions: “Where have we been? Where are we now? And perhaps most importantly, where are we going?”
Herein lies the problem, imo, the focus is on developing, maintaining, and growing a particular ORGANIZATION instead of preaching and teaching the Gospel. That causes separation of believers which continues today. There is not a lot of "esteeming the other" being shown.
It appears that when the WCG broke up in 1995, people with two different spirits moved over from the WCG to the UCG.
These two different types of people with the two different spirits later clashed, resulting in the UCG splitting into the UCG and the COGWA.
The extreme godlessness in the UCG suggests that it has a wrong spirit. Its current plan to reinvent/apostatize itself will turn out badly.
Hopefully, the COGWA has a better spirit and will do better.
I never noticed before how little actual religion is discussed by ministers. I've heard as much 7 habits of highly effective people at times as the bible. And when the bible is read its treated the same... Like a giant manual instead of words that pierce the soul.
Leanring you have failed god and deserve death but he will forgive you if all you do is ask is a very deep and heavy and life altering thing.
Being taught religion with ideas like "principle centered living" or "servant leadership" feels like trying to gain a full stomach by licking envelopes.
9:04AM, the message of the ACOGs is not " you have failed God and deserve death but He will forgive you if all you do is ask." The message of the ACOGs is, "you have failed God and deserve death, but He will forgive you if you trust in His ministers." The problem is that it then becomes obvious that not even "His ministers" trust His ministers. It's not the membership that keeps making more and more church splits; it's the ministers' desire to emulate Satan and take control of some part of God's creation.
Anonymous said...
I thought Tonto claimed to have friends of friends on the UCG Council of Elders ?
What went wrong Tonto? Or is this another name ?
MY RESPONSE: The COG universe is incredibly small. Virtually everyone is just 2 or at most 3 degrees separated from virtually 100 percent of the entire COG across all spectrums. This probably includes everyone who reads or posts on this site.
People can be poor organizational managers and still be decent people. They simply lack the talents or gifts to be entrepreneurial or creative. The COG has not fostered initiative , or "out of box" thinking, and is stuck in hierarchical or oligarchical structures that will not allow for sociological reinvention (and Im not talking about doctrine either). It suffers from inability to accept new ways of doing things, with new social dynamics. Change is never easy, and many a corporation has suffered from the same problems in the business world.
Also, to address someone else's inquiry on this thread, I am not Stoned Stephen Society.
Tonto
Out of the box thinking is still thinking like man. God says what to do. Selfless serving and obedience to his ways are what would turn things around. But the COG is filled with greedy and selfish men twisted by their desires for power and control. They are blind to the most simple compassion.
No new structure or clever marketing will make any difference at all. You are thinking like a COG minister. Go back to the bible and see what God said about teaching and leading. Its light on rules and heavy on responsibility and righteousness.
The worst managers with good hearts will always do better than geniuses bent on doing evil.
12.12 AM sounds like troll guy. The COGs have an anti-thinking mindset. They are not interested in going forward, but only in remaining static or going backwards.
The ancient Spartans come to mind. They murdered free thinkers, and anyone who came up with better ways of doing things.
Yeah
12.12 sounds like that guy in that Indiana Jones movie, waving his sword wildly and dangerously like a madman, whilst Indy just looks at him and shoots him in the face.
I'm too bored to shoot. Just sitting on the porch smoking a cigar looking at the rattling of the Sabre.
Nck
Well said 12:12.
cogwa and ucg are just the same in my opinion. Both these corporations teach people that you should keep the sabbath, but they change the scriptures re how this is to be done. They both say it is ok to get people to work for you on the sabbath, and for you to do things that the bible says not to on the sabbath. They say, that for the sake of unity you are not to raise these examples of breaking one of the commandments. You can't have your cake and eat it too - you either teach what is written in the bible or you stop claiming to be righteous. Both of these corporate churches seem to be afraid of people speaking up about what the bible really says. I think this is pathetic. Viktor Kubic seems to think everyone needs to have unity with him and his corporation and not with God. If anyone really thinks that pleasing Viktor Kubik is important, then they are delusional. I can see no corporate church that i want to belong to/be owned by. When will we get over the idea that we have to be controlled by a corporate church. We need to come out from the bondage of men and their wanting to rule over others.
nck at 12:31 PM said...“Just sitting on the porch smoking a cigar looking at the rattling of the Sabre.”
Shame on you, Nck. HWA had used his newfound apostolic authority to decree that smoking is a sin.
Tessa Cogwa and UCG are not the same.
Anonymous at 9:04 AM said...“I never noticed before how little actual religion is discussed by ministers. I've heard as much 7 habits of highly effective people at times as the bible.”
Shortly before the WCG totally broke up in 1995, the local minister started to read from that boring 7 Habits book.
2:15
It was a manner of speech to express my state of non belligerence.
I do acknowledge the 1875 decree by the cog elders in the Dakotas (source the cog bulletin) , it's true I found the historic Herald and announcement myself) condemning grandma Wilson's smoking of the pipe. In 1890 they condemned the going to the skating rink. I saw a documentary on why skating rinks were all the rage at the time.
Nck
Anonymous said Tess, UCG and COgwa are not the same. However, since neither of them teaches to keep the sabbath holy as per the bible, i put them in the same category.. That said, i would rather go to cogwa than ucg anyday. I wouldn't consider Living or Philadephia or David Pack.
Tessa,
The members of Cogwa are generally younger, more fun, and wealthier than those in UCG.
Anonymous, those things - being younger, more fun etc aren't important, We are supposed to be righteous and keeping the commandments of God and teaching others to keep the sabbath holy. Both these churches teach that you can hire people to work on the sabbath, cook, and not go to your usual job on the sabbath. They are teaching people to break this commandment. They are contradicting the words of God as written in the bible that these churches are supposed to follow. They are both wrong. Their main claim to fame is that they are sabbath keeping churches - that is the niche in the market that they occupy, but they then proceed to teach people to break the sabbath. What a joke!
"They are teaching people to break this commandment."
In case you hadn't heard the Ten Commandments were the words of the old Mt. Sinai covenant which ended at Jesus' death. Disagree all that you want but t hat is exactly what the bible says.
Exo 34:28 - And he was there with the LORD forty days and forty nights; he did neither eat bread, nor drink water. And he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant, the ten commandments.
Gal 3:19 - Wherefore then serveth the law? It was added because of transgressions, till the seed should come
Tessa
According to their philosophy, the sabbath is NOT a commandment for those not yet called. Therefore your entire premise is wrong. A joke is when a catholic burns believers to save them, since God knows his own or a protestant church in Wittenberg should not touch the medieval edifice since it portrays Jews suckling on pigs symbolizing "judensau".
It is not a joke to allow (non believer) people to proceed as they were, cooking, waiting or watching the Super Bowl, that is the right thing to do.
Isn't there anyone on these blogs who is able to properly discuss Armstrongism. As has been said before. Most dissenters discuss as if they are pharisees.
Nck
This post will only make sense to people who grew up in the Church of God but who secretly, without their parents' knowledge, played Dungeons and Dragons and similar RPGs and used the D&D alignment system:
Chaotic evil: PCG, RCG
Lawful evil: COGWA, UCG, LCG
Chaotic good: Living room Churches of God
Lawful good: Nowhere that I can see.
nck carelessly wrote:
According to their philosophy, the sabbath is NOT a commandment for those not yet called.
WCG taught, as do the splinters today, that God blesses commandment-keeping, whether or not "called" people do it. The WCG philosophy was that if you had two groups of cannibals, and one group kept the seventh-day Sabbath and never ate their mothers and fathers, God would bless that group more than He would bless cannibals who ate their parents and didn't keep the seventh-day Sabbath.
11:46
No!
A bit smarter than most but your posting is not true.
WCG did not believe that GOD would bless the one group of cannibals.
WCG believed that "blessings would come by keeping or adhering to certain standards".
WCG believed in the "rational process."
So by learning about "not eating their parents", they would besides being healthier than the other group be more prosperous and "blessed" by their different lifestyle.
It would be an autonomous process and God would not be involved, other than having set in motion the laws that govern this rational process.
It 's like you living in America "being blessed" by EVERYTHING available and provided by your culture and the rules that govern your community, whilst God might not have ANYTHING to do with possessions or education you might have garnered over the course of time.
Or a Hindu Indian entrepreneur who followed the 6 "rules of success" and became incredibly wealthy.
It was HWA who added the 7th rule as the most significant but it was not a prerequisite for becoming rich, it was the defining principle according to his philosophy.
So the waitresses at the Feast got "blessed" more than others because the nice people of WCG had 2nd tithe to spend. Not because they served God in any particular way, but because they served their fellow man, and special 2nd tithe spending people in this particular case.
Nck
Tessa at 1:23 PM said...“Anonymous, those things - being younger, more fun etc aren't important,”
Do not be so sure about that. The older the people grew in some splinter groups, the worse they became. If you knew how badly some of those dirty old men and filthy old women in splinter groups like the UCG and PCG behaved, you would want younger people around. Rather than becoming better with age, they got worse. Much worse. This is the opposite of the way it was supposed to be.
HWA called it "the law of cause and effect" and it works both ways.
Again the sabbath was not commanded for those not called. But people might benefit by adhering to the 10 commandments and perhaps additional rules of organizing aslong as they are rational.
A person cannot be saved by works alone. Although God might bless those who seek his will. Even if he has no specific purpose for them at present.
And God seems to have changed his mind at times, but in the case of cancer patient sometimes or mostly he has not deviated from the laws that govern human bodies.
Nck
Anonymous - i don't think anyone should belong to a corporate church.
1:25
Radio Church of God would not have corporated if in I believe 1954 the IRS would not have threatened to withhold tax exempt status if it would not speed up the process to form local bodies or disband.
Until then Radio listeners were just encouraged to become "co-workers".
Nck
RE: “UCG CLOSED FOR RENOVATION”
The UCG could end up permanently closed as a result of all the damage caused by its attempt to renovate, reinvent, and re-apostatize.
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