This is a review that popped up on the Living Church of God's Yelp page. Let's see how long it stays there still someone in Charlotte gets butthurt and demands it be taken down.
Why should an LCG have concern for another person outside the church? After all, they are deceived and will receive their reward later. Let Christ help them whenever he returns.
I spent many years in LCG, and it was a very negative experience. The two locations I was at was in was lower S.C. and East Texas. This curch mindset is all about power. They believe their leaders are right under God. You should accept the ministry's power over you, and if it's wrong, God corrects it in His time, and therefore you should not question or be concerned with the problem.
In S.C., where I spent most of my time, I found some disturbing information about the group. Their tithe system consists of three tithes, of which you give a third tithe every three years on a seven-year cycle. The first tithe goes straight to the church. The second tithe goes towards the Feasts (and they say a tenth of that if you can afford it goes to them for paying for the meeting halls at the FOT). The third tithe, which I was first told, went to the needed; but found in a sermon later that they use it for whatever they want. I was also told ministers did not have to give the third tithe because they consider themselves the continuation of the Levitical priesthood. After sending these concerns into their headquarters in Charlotte, N.C., they had the local minister talk to me about my concerns. The minister told me that 'if I had these questions before I was baptized, that probably my baptism wasn't valid.'
The experience in the Texas congregation was a sad one. On a cold winter day, I notice a lady sitting outside with sandals on sitting on the sidewalk near our church. I talked with the lady, and she wanted to talk with the minister. The minister said he could not help her that it was more of a psychological problem. The lady did not argue and even said that made sense. She began to walk away. I told the minister she has been drinking that I smelled the alcohol on her, and I was concern that she could have been driving. He said, 'I don't think so. We need to keep our fingerprints off this'. He told me more than once to come in because I hesitated, and unfortunately, I did go inside; but thankfully, I told my wife, and she told me that yes, I should have stayed outside and helped her. I then went to look for her, and if looks could kill, the minister was not happy about it. I found the lady in a parking lot in a cranked-up car (she did have alcohol in the car). I talked her out of the car with the help of a passer-by who ironically use to be part of LCG's mother church ( Worldwide Church of God). He told her, 'those people don't care about you; they just care about the Sabbath .' Thankfully we got her the help she needed.
My take away from this church is that they are all about the bottom line and whatever is best for them at that moment. It does not have an outgoing love or concern for others. This organization is more like a greedy corporation than a follower of Christ. I could tell more stories that are really negative about this group, but I think you get the point of this group. This can be a really toxic group, and it is not isolated to these two areas. There are some really good people in these groups, and I hope one day they will be free from this unloving church.
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15 comments:
It's a common minister bully-boy power play to accuse members of not being converted or having an invalid baptism if they question or disagree with the church. This is rubbish since it's God rather than a church who gives the holy spirit, and a Christian is one who follows Christ rather than a minister or religious organisation. Obeying God rather than man will inevitably lead to disagreement with any church.
Christ's instruction to call no man a Master or Teacher is in regard to teachers of religion exercising undue influence and usurping members rights.
Yelp lets people rate churches?!
Who realistically would use it to rate something beyond Church's Chicken?
That’s not too bad.. It’s bad, but it can be worse. A lot of the COG’s have Yelp reviews, like this one for the RCG:
‘This is a cult that has literally taken over my grandmother's life because she doesn't know any better anymore. I wish so badly that they would just leave her alone.’
Place complaints here: www.ripoffreport.com/
@7:50, I'll give Church's Chicken a five star rating any day of the week, way better than KFC. As for the churches of Armstrong, they get a zero rating.
some ministers draw a hard line between "us" (Church) and "them" (world)...it should not be so.
those ministers tend to be old hardline HWA types....we had one for a time but he was not a good fit and eventually moved on to another organization.
Little wonder why Christian apologists like Hank Hanegraaf would call places like the LCG "a den of heresy."
More people need to comment on churches like this on yelp and Google. People need to know the truth and put their money toward their families not a corrupt organization. There has been so many families have suffer because of these groups.
You’re 100 percent right. Churches are more than capable of taking advantage of others. People need to use the brain God have them instead of blindly allowing themselves to be extorted under the guise of “following God”. The writer of this review is spot on!
Thanks wife!
It would appear someone created a LCG page on Yelp simply to leave the negative 1-star review. This "review" is baseless.
Just gave my review of lcg on google maps, and got them down to a 4.7 stars!!
Anon 8:30,
The definition of “baseless” is “without foundation in fact”. Your claim that the reviewer’s experiences are baseless is not simply an arrogant and manipulative attempt at psychological invalidation, is is also not supported by a multitude of anecdotal evidence. Evidence that shows many, many CoG ministers to be spiritually abusive megalomaniacs who put on religion as a pretense and yet do not conduct themselves as Christ did - in humility and servitude. For the most part, CoGs are nothing more than a cultish social club where people gather in order to feel like they are “special”, and where there is always a reason why it’s ok to not really grow or have genuine concern for others outside the group.
But keep telling yourself that it’s not true - none of these people’s experiences are true. They just have “bad attitudes”. It’s you I pity, because I used to be you, and the process of seeing things as they really are is extremely painful - but also extremely worthwhile.
Well I guess LCG got to yelp, because they took the review down and has it as not recommended.
Speaking of LCG... COGA moved ahead with a successful, full-blown winter family weekend, while fearful LCG cowered at home with their masks on. Or should I say "coward" at home.
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