LCG members need to remember that the ministry can treat you like crap but don't you dare criticize them!
A good team player will forgive LCG ministers when they say or do something that hurts you.
After all, if the ministry says something it is as if God is speaking.
Good team players will always promote harmony like the ministry does, especially when they deal gently, respectfully, and patiently with people.
LCG leaders and ministers have always done this, right?
Skills that Promote Teamwork: Members of successful teams (families, congregations, business groups, and athletic teams) develop the necessary skills to work together smoothly to accomplish goals. These skills can be identified and learned. As Christians, we must develop the same skills—and many are clearly biblical. Effective team players avoid saying or doing things that offend others (Matthew 18:7; 1 Corinthians 10:32). Team players learn to forgive and overlook slights or hurtful comments because they have learned the value of not being easily offended (Proverbs 10:12). Effective team players do not sit in judgment of others—accusing, criticizing, spreading their discontent, or saying or assuming negative things about others on the team. Instead, they make sure their own lives are in order (Matthew 7:1–5; James 4:11). Team players are peacemakers (Matthew 5:9) who can promote harmony and work smoothly with others (James 3:17–18). They deal with people gently, respectfully, and patiently, and are willing to listen ithout trying to justify their own position (James 1:19). Effective team players appreciate that a team is made up of individuals with different talents and abilities who can make unique contributions to the team (1 Corinthians 12:12). They know the main priority is to work together smoothly to achieve a goal while showing love to one another (Ephesians 4:16). In summary, good team players have learned how to love their neighbors. Let’s all strive to develop these important skills so we can do God’s Work effectively!
Have a profitable Sabbath,
Douglas S. Winnail
Editor
9 comments:
Doug Winnail writes brilliant satire without realizing what he has done!
In the ACOGs, unity and teamwork are traditionally used as clubs to beat members into conformity. Members who stand up to church bullies or disagree with others opinions, are often accused of offending others or causing disunity. Bullies are fully aware of this. When one looks beneath the surface of Doug's nice sounding words, something else is being advocated. It's like mafia with their coded words.
In all these types of writings, assertiveness is always taboo. It's all about creating a paradise for criminals.
How Phariseeism Militates Against Teamwork
It is an uphill, breathless climb, like transiting the Death Zone on Everest, for Pharisees to gain any constructive level of teamwork. The group dynamics is simple. People who judge other people don't make good teammates. People who are competing to acquire roles of importance and influence in an organization don't make good teammates. People who see themselves as righteous an others as unrighteous can't be good teammates. I have an anecdote.
When I first came into the WCG, I was naive and in my early twenties. I got recruited for a WCG work project. We were cleaning up a donated plot of land for use as a church picnic ground. I was with a team moving some cinder blocks by hand and mashed one of my fingers. Up to that point there had been lots of good cheer. But when I injured myself everything went suddenly cold. Nobody wanted to have anything to do with me. No sympathy. No concern. It was as if I were cursed and people had to stay away from me. I came to understand after sometime in the WCG what their reasoning was. They reasoned that I had done something wrong and God let me get hurt as a punishment. There was none of the mutual support that a team provides to its members. Just judgmentalism. Everyone was artfully dodging away lest they also be caught in the peril of the unrighteous.
I concluded that these people could not be trusted. They did not have the psychological capabilities to function in a team setting. I remember the lesson. The odd outcome is that I brushed it aside and learned nothing from it and spent another 30 years in the WCG. God's efforts to educate us sometimes meet with a hard head.
******* Click on my icon for my Disclaimer
Ha, very ironic that they write this as they are in the process of booting out ministers that hold a slightly different opinion...seems like once again, "do what we say, not what we do."
How effective is Doug Winnail, who is a former WCG hireling, who apparently left WCG to become more effective doing "God's work" elsewhere? When will the living group ever be effective enough? Doug has been with the living group since about 1995, some approximately 26 years, but doing what? Accomplishing what? When did Doug become so effective? How many more years does Doug need before his group is effective enough in doing "God's work," a phrase nowhere found in scripture.
True be known, God does His own work and He does not need Doug's help in any way, shape or fashion, b/c God just does His own works:
"He hath made his wonderful works to be remembered: the LORD [is] gracious and full of compassion." Psalm 111:4 He does that! Huh?
"Known unto God are all his works from the beginning of the world." Acts 15:18
What does Doug know about God's works? Those works of God? Is Doug's god so weak that he needs Doug's help or the help of a group of people from "living?"
Doug wrote: "...Effective team players do not sit in judgment of others—accusing, criticizing, spreading their discontent, or saying or assuming negative things about others on the team...
How effective is Doug? 26 years associated with "living" and he is sitting in judgment of those of his group as being not as effective as he thinks they need to be. Is Doug accusing, criticizing, spreading some discontent, saying negative things about his team, his "living team?" He can't even call them a church, or even an association. Is Doug ashamed? Does Doug think his group isn't a church: that it is a team only?
Doug concludes with saying: "...In summary, good team players have learned how to love their neighbors. Let’s all strive to develop these important skills so we can do God’s Work effectively!"
Well, to love neighbors as Jesus Christ mentioned requires God's Spirit; does it not? Does those of Doug's team lack God's Spirit, b/c if they are driven, guided by God's Spirit they will be loving their neighbors. But Doug gives the impression that those of his team just are ineffective.
I suggest that the works of God that God wants to be remembered are worth remembering. God is effective.
Here is something else we may read about the works of God: His "...works were finished from the foundation of the world." Hebrews 4:3
So, for Doug and his team, how can you ever become more effective than God in accomplishing any of God's works?
God is also faithful:
"Faithful [is] he that calleth you, who also will do [it]." I Thess 5:24
God is a doer?
If that weren't enough, will Doug be so effective striving to develop his skills so as to earn, qualify, get eternal life for himself? Doug is not very effective. Here's why.
We know Doug sins, and sins have wages associated with them:
"For the wages of sin [is] death;..." Romans 6:23
Those wages must be satisfied, and they will be. Doug and his team players will all satisfy the same wages. So how effective is that? And, yes, I am in the same boat, b/c I am no more effective than any of them.
Will Doug someday come to appreciate how God, a real Doer, will accomplish giving: "...the gift of God [is] eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord?" Romans 6:23
When will Doug ever begin to teach the following?
"To wit, that God was in Christ, reconciling the world unto himself, not imputing their trespasses unto them; and hath committed unto us the word of reconciliation."
I'm looking forward to God's being effective enough to work out those words in our lives, but when will Doug appreciate those words and effectively teach/preach others of his team those encouraging words, instead of lording it over his followers with burdens that they could never become effective enough at to satisfy Doug's desires?
Time will tell...
John
The tithe payers of the LCG should expect more spiritual depth from their highly paid Doug.
His message is no deeper than what every little league coach, across the nation, would say to their team.
Doug’s message is all about works the people must do and nothing about the victory already won in Jesus.
Doug is wishing his people a profitable Sabbath, but never mentioned Jesus, the fulfillment of the Sabbath.
The people cannot rest from their works and enter the Sabbath Rest, if they don’t know Jesus.
LCG people should seek information and inspiration about Jesus from any of the many ministries that preach about Jesus.
If you are interested in inspiration, don’t waste your time reading the shallow writings of Doug.
I agree, 8:51. Winnail's commentaries are milk and not meat for the people. LCG like the other churches put a lot of emphasis on the law and justification by works rather than on faith. They are far more concerned about the financial state of the corporation than they are of the people. Even Weston told me personally that we are called primarily to "do the (proclaiming) Work" (HWA's mantra), while ignoring the fact that the Work is to "believe in Jesus" (Jn 6:29) and that "WE are the Work (of God in Christ, as JWT emphasized)". So often they go off on a tangent and lose that focus. Until we practice what we preach the house will continue to be divided against itself.
Winnail wants team players (as RM did) but their sins keep setting them back.
Clearly, Winnail is not on team Jesus.
Uggh, he makes me physically ill with his hypocrisy....if you want to induce vomiting, just read the stuff this guy writes!
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