Dear Church Family,
It is an historic time for our collective nations around the world. A shared crisis has each country, state, city, village, and family managing through this challenge in similar ways. The effort to slow the virus and to protect those most susceptible is being practiced by almost everybody around the globe.
I am very proud of our church family and how church leaders and pastors have united to thoughtfully and carefully serve the membership. It is impressive how so many of the pastors are utilizing technology to stay in touch with members and to stream sermons online so that we are able to gather in our homes (this Sunday, my wife and I were so glad to gather with our children and hear an inspirational message online from a GCI pastor).
As we collectively process through the weeks, and possibly months ahead, I believe it is appropriate that we go before the Lord as a denomination in a day of prayer and fasting. In order to include our members spread across the world, I am recommending that either Sunday March 22nd or Sunday March 29th be your day to join the Grace Communion “International Family” in our time of special focus toward our amazing Triune God. (For those with health challenges please be mindful that a fast does not have to be a strict 24 hour period without water or food.)
Paul’s encouragement to the church at Philippi frames our mindset:
4 Rejoice in the Lord always; again I will say, Rejoice. 5 Let your gentleness be known to everyone. The Lord is near. 6 Do not worry about anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known to God. 7 And the peace of God, which surpasses all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:4–7 NRSVA)
As we spend time in prayer and fasting, certain thoughts come to mind:
- Jesus is our foundation, and the personification of our hope;
- Jesus is near, and promises to never leave nor forsake us;
- God is Healer, and we pray for his intervention for those who are sick throughout the world;
- God strengthens those who are weak, ask for his strength for the medical personnel serving tirelessly;
- God provides wisdom from above, pray for insight to be given to researchers seeking solutions;
- God tells us to pray for our leaders, may his guidance encircle the civic leaders and health officials;
- God is Provider, seek his provision for those whose income and economic standing have been greatly impacted by this crisis;
- Holy Spirit guard us from fear or anxiety, and give us your divine peace which is beyond our human understanding;
- Holy Spirit open hearts and minds to the glorious light and saving power of Jesus which lifts us above any human crisis.
Greg WilliamsPresident Grace Communion International
13 comments:
This is to be sent all 500 members! (now old people with mental sclerosis)
My local GCI has like 5 members (it used to be like 1500)
The GCI execs have lost all credibility after the money from sale of HWA treasures & real estate disappeared!
(to the tune of "tell him No")
♪Tell him "no", oh-oh-oh♪
♪Tell him "no", oh-oh-oh
♪When Joe asks for a buck
Tell him no-oh-oh-oh
Tell him "no"
Tell him "no", oh-oh-oh♪
Tell him "no", oh-oh-oh♪
When Joe asks for more dough
Tell him no-oh-oh-oh♪
Tell him "no"
I am no fan of GCI, but I applaud them on this. They are thinking outside their denomination and praying for those in the world, whether they be those infected, the caregivers, the scientists searching for a vaccine, and the public at large.
It is also good that they recognize that one can fast and NOT do a full 24 hours like the old WCG demanded and current groups do.
I am so sick of COG's still demanding that their followers meet on Saturday, give money to the church, and many other uncalled for things during this time.
Gerald Weston (my church "leader") made a complete ass of himself in refusing to step forward and do what's right. The fact that Weston, Flurry, Thiel, and Pack still demand that their members continue to meet for services is appalling and disgusting.
Will millionaire-Joe be lining up for a Trump bailout along with the multi-millionaire Airline, Boeing execs?
one can fast and NOT do a full 24 hours
Yes, traditionally Jewish fasts are from sunrise to sunset, except for Yom Kippur and Tisha B'Av.
refusing to step forward and do what's right
Non-COG ministers can put their congregations at risk for personal reasons too. A community church whose biggest foe is natural attrition recently suffered the pastor's whim. Being staunchly anti-Catholic, he heard that the local Catholic and Lutheran churches restricted the communion service due to the COVID-19 outbreak. With an in-your-face to them, he insisted communion "the most important part of the service" goes on as usual. So, the common plate of bread/juice was passed around, followed by the collection plate to collect the dollar bills. The pastor himself is on heavy medication for prostate cancer, but he has to look macho.
Well, it doesn't take long in GCI Canada's homepage to get right past sympathy and onto the money. Little Billy Hall has made it a priority to assist the sheep to still Donate to the cult in these difficult times. From the website:
Coronavirus Update
"Because of the Coronavirus, all church services of Grace Communion International Canada have been cancelled until further notice, starting Sunday March 15.
We are experimenting with offering a Sunday service via the internet and will update this information soon.
Those wishing to donate to their local congregations during this quarantine period can simply mail in their donations to our national office, call our office with your credit card information, or use the DONATE button in the right hand corner of this page. The address and phone number are listed below."
Bill Hall
An old friend of mine, who knows people in the financial department at the current GCI (formerly WCG) told me that the GCI actually had a total income of less than $5 million last year. Inflation adjusted in 2020 dollars , the WCG had an income of $400 million at its top in the late 80s. My have the mighty have fallen! That is a fall of 98.75% !
Still a mystery on what happened to the $150 million+ that the WCG received during its fire sale of church assets.
For the sake of poster Dennis Diehl, who mentioned his father who worked at Kodak, and who received a pension after retirement, even after the company closed down, a regularly managed pension fund can distribute about 6% a year for decades . This would imply that WCG could have distributed $9 Million a year in pensions. If one assumed a $1500 dollar a month inflation adjusted payout for life, that would have covered some 500 retirements. At an 8% payout, and 20 to 25 year fund life, the number would have been $1000 a month for 800 retirees.
There is a story to be discovered here, as no one has properly accounted for the disappearance of that money. It ranks higher than the famous Lufthansa JFK airport heist of $23 million in todays dollars by the mob, and made famous by the movie "Good Fellas".
That amount is baby poop compared to what Tkach and company lifted from the church. Criminal and disgusting is all I can say!
“Grace Communion International Day of Prayer and Fasting Concerning Coronavirus”
The Chinese virus – or COVID-19 as it is sometimes called – may have started with people in China eating biblically unclean animals.
You can read God's own laws in Leviticus 11:1-47 of the Bible about how to distinguish between the unclean and the clean, between living creatures that may be eaten and those that may not be eaten.
Religious groups like Grace Communion International might actually be part of the problem. They teach that God's good laws about what not to eat are arbitrary and meaningless and of no value today, and were done away with.
Liam Grabarkewitz,
Think RICO law violation.
"Religious groups like Grace Communion International might actually be part of the problem. They teach that God's good laws about what not to eat are arbitrary and meaningless and of no value today, and were done away with." Anon 5:21pm
Do you really think the Chinese give a rat's behind about some Podunk Christian church's views concerning Jewish dietary law?
The Chinese virus – or COVID-19 as it is sometimes called – may have started with people in China eating biblically unclean animals.
Okay, but what started H5N1? Eating clean animals - poultry.
6.46 PM
H5N1 outbreaks came from Asian countries with a history of poor hygiene.
The ACOGs won't admit it, but their church fasts amount to "soak the (spiritually) rich" in their midst, who are typically treated like dirt in these churches.
The Avian flu is bird flu, not all birds are poultry, therefore 6:46pms comment is pure bunk!
Big Bird
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