Here is a preview of RCG’s 2022 Ministerial Conference:
“The Keynote Address” –
Former ministers and former members are evil and want to murder the church and want you dead. Exciting new prophetic understanding is going to be explained ad nauseam. Daniel has been unsealed…again and again. Revelation has been unsealed…again and again. The series is over…again and again. The math, the math, the math. Please do not remember “the Gateway Prophecy” or the W’s or all the other rock-solid metrics from all the other theories. “The State of the Work” – Is bad. No new literature, but outdated literature is still plentifully available. No new World to Come programs, but the Media Center is now a wonderful museum of ancient history. No “Behind the Work” for the Feast, but RCG produced a whopping 9 minutes of new video content in a 12-month period. No significant social media “buzz” or new campaigns, but endless meetings still cause the day to pass by quickly. No new “Personal From David C. Pack” actually written by David C. Pack for years. No significant membership growth, but the turnover rate remains pretty high. Oh and lastly, no “actively” preaching the gospel to the world, but we’ve got hundreds of hours of Dave to enjoy.
Marc Serbian
19 comments:
The empire is collapsing. Cracks are developing, and the exodus has been going on for a wile. I think he knows its happening and getting desperate.
For Pack, his productions , rather than being called "Behind the Work" would be more aptly named "UNDER THE WORK"!
Note: If you read the quote at the bottom of the other posting, 532 hours was back in 2020. There have been over 110 parts since then. :)
After all of those sermons, I can't imagine that a menstrual conference will do any good.
It looks like Dave is doing a Jim Jones. But instead of physically murdering his followers, he's spiritually murdering them.
I thought something was wrong when RCG failed to produce a new Behind the Work video last Fall. Could this be a sure sign of The End?
Advice to RCG ministers: Eat lots of garlic and muesli this week.
Thank for what you do here on this blog Marc in covering RCG. The information and satire are very interesting. I am also a former RCGer and appreciate the updates. However, I am sure you know that Brad boy is reporting all of this back to the Packster. Your're never going to be able to ride the horses at RCG again :)
"Not sure" was the name of the time traveler in the movie "Idiocracy" I can see a connection here
About an hour and a half into part 374, "Am I telling or foretelling? I guess I could say, NOT SURE" !?!;:'"%®✓¢$?
"RCG failed to produce a new Behind the Work video"
But there is a video of his slave laborers planting ever more flowers & trees.
Reminds me of the late 1980s ministry urging us to drive 300-mile-round-trip on weekend to pick weeds over massive Wisc-Dells blacktop parking lots in blazing mid-summer sun! - I refused to go
You see, Herbie's mega-feastsite was no longer in pristine condition..acres of blacktop had developed cracks and nature was reasserting itself in the form of weeds! In a few years they'd have a bigger problem: Tkach would actually read the NT and see this whole HWA-pipedream as a waste of money.
Marc, I actually look at this non media production as a good thing. Bear with me for a minute.
The all consuming effort to get the prophetic puzzle correct - the true gospel message according to Dave Pack, is of the most importance in the present time. What gets neglected and left behind becomes a story in itself and becomes a revelation for those who should be noticing.
On my out of the RCG, they put two ministers on the phone with me - both from headquarters. My plan was to beat upon one point of contention even though I had hours of back up material. The point that I chose to belabor upon (a Dave Pack commandment) had the very convenient for me backdrop of what I term grand hypocrisy.
The commandment that Dave Pack gave the church in early 2016 was this: you have to believe and obey all that this church teaches ("and this is the greatest doctrine of the church"), for if you don't, you have become a heretic who will go into the Lake of Fire.
Dave Pack's biggest problem with this teaching is that he dis-believed and disobeyed three iterations of what he termed was the true church of God. First was the Tkach led WCG in 1993. Second was the Meredith led Global COG in 1999. Third was Herbert Armstrong personally (he promised HWA in a phone conversation he would never depart from church teaching) and organizationally in 2015 when he framed Herbert Armstrong as a biblical antique who was restrained by God to fully understanding the bible and prophecy.
So, Dave Pack had already firmly established by his own definition that he had no problem operating personally as a hypocrite. Personally teaching his membership for hour upon hour and year upon year doctrinal concepts and realities that clash with already established and published beliefs and then willfully sending out to the public those discontinued beliefs shows, without any doubt that Dave Pack has no hesitation operating at large as a grand hypocrite.
The last I looked at media production of the RCG, it was all campus related. Behind the work - all about the campus. String quartet playing Mozart on the campus with a beautiful backdrop. Choir singing ? on the bridge over the creek out on the campus. A scene from after the winter storm on the campus. A beautiful picture of the campus. The ministerial conference minister's touring the beautiful campus grounds. The AYC youth spending a day on the campus.
It is easy to see that Dave Pack and the campus is; the true gospel and the greatest story never told. That is the worldwide announcement of just who he is. It is also Christ's price and ultimately it is the only salvation offered by the RCG. Christ's price according to Dave Pack is all that you physically have payable to him. It is according to him a pay to play - no different in God's church then it is in the world. This would be a great grand hypocrisy.
Media production if it was in full swing, has no true basis. It is firmly footed in rank hypocrisy. It only offers the fruit of the tree of a man's knowledge of good and evil.
Those two minister's that I talked to with one foot out of the RCG encouraged me to stay. I told them my right hand of fellowship was a right hand of hypocrisy if I continued. They told me don't worry about it! I immediately asked them both if they knew what Jesus Christ said is the reward of the hypocrite. I am still waiting for an answer.
What About The Truth,
I appreciate the observations regarding the media. For many years I felt grateful to be able to shoot such a beautiful place. It looked amazing in 4k. The campus was always a great backdrop for outdoor music like the violin duet and the chorale in the valley. It was also loads of fun from a production perspective. -- I see where you are coming from and I suppose there was always a push to "show off the campus" considering how much money went/goes into it.
It was both a blessing and a curse. I'm speaking from a MPS (Media Production Services) perspective. It was nice to shoot bees in slow motion during the spring, but annoying when "another damn tree" was going in that we felt "obligated" to cover. After a while, enough was enough. Even for the 3rd flood and we didn't have to run outside every time an ospray went fishing in the lake.
Both my editing partner and I lamented together about all the campus videos we were doing, but NOT religious content. We're a church that produces videos about flowers and socials instead of relevant TEACHINGS.
My former manager had the idea of doing in-house "Christian teaching" content in short form. Since Dave wasn't interested in doing World to Come's any more (far too busy with "the prophecy series"), we got the thumbs up and ran with it. This series of videos are still on YouTube and I feel a sense of accomplishment that three guys could crank out so much quality content.
After my former manager resigned fully from RCG in December of 2019, I was made manager. We continued the push to keeping putting out "real church" content. Now, with only two of us. Two guys and two ladies (very talented shooters who were a pleasure to work with and had great talent that could be cultivated) produced Behind the Work 2020.
(CONTINUED)
(CONTINUED)
A little after the 2020 Behind the Work was finished, I was informed that another manager/minister from another department was taking over MPS. And I watched over the next few months, the slow decline of what used to be called Media Production Services.
Decisions and creativity took on a committee approach. The first real video as a fully reshuffled department took over six week to post. (Instead of the two weeks that we'd established for a few years.) And even this video was spoken about as "missing the mark" for months afterwards. I had to hold my tongue in meetings to point out it was the fault of the men at the table who couldn't make up their minds. They had NO vision. We didn't have creatives, we had critics. They just wanted "quality" and "interest" and "engagement" -- yet had NO IDEA how to do it.
Don't ask the guy with over 25 years of production experience. The ministers tell the lay members what-is-what...not the other way around. I decided in my head, "I'm going to let this ship crash into the rocks." So, I didn't fight it for long. I tried to do it their way in the hope they'd come back around.
The new manager of the department was a nice man. I enjoyed our personal interactions for years before we worked together. I liked him very much. But the obvious occurred. This man had zero production or video experience. I spent weeks and weeks training him how to do my job. Then, we had another man who had zero production or video experience being the one we all reported to. The committee experience was heading for disaster. This was BEFORE I resigned in March of 2021. I told my coworker at the time, "There won't be a BTW this year. You watch."
Leadership failed the media department. They failed before I left and the fruit of their failure is a fact of history today. It's very sad. My co-editor and I put our hearts and souls and blood and sweat and tears into making MPS and Behind the Work and the Doctrinal Introduction series of the most top-quality productions the church could produce.
RCG and the leadership pissed it all away. It wasn't as important as Dave's prophecy series. I have no idea what internal disasters and shake-ups occurred after my departure. It was the best job I ever had. And looking over their social media and YouTube...wow...just 9 minutes since I left. Technically, that's 15 months. That is so very sad. All that momentum and potential...released into the ether.
Their public presence makes me ask, "What the hell are they doing over there?" - The answer is DCP sermons. But they don't even bother to edit them anymore, either. No clean-up. No graphics. No copyright. Just the raw recording is put up because "it's faster."
Mismanagement from the top has crippled what RCG once was. Decisions by committee destroyed MPS. Dave Pack is destroying himself. That makes me sad, too. I don't have a personal beef with DCP and I take NO pleasure in seeing him squirm and contort at the table, preaching in circles year after year. (I actually felt bad for him this week.)
But it appears the course is set and the rudder is too small to avoid whatever is coming at them from the darkness. I am not the iceberg. But I feel compelled to shout in every way I can that there IS an iceberg...get off the ship! And for the love of Pete, don't get on now!
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You struck a nerve, WATT. :)
Do I know you, man?
Write me privately (if you feel comfortable). I'd like to know which two ministers you talked to and perhaps we can exchange stories.
Marc
mcebrian71@gmail.com
"Anonymous said...
"...However, I am sure you know that Brad boy is reporting all of this back to the Packster. Your're never going to be able to ride the horses at RCG again :)
"Saturday, June 11, 2022 at 3:49:00 AM PDT"
I don't think anyone rides those horses except for Vernia Pack! Ha! Marc might be more disappointed that he can't putt around on a golf cart anymore though :)
Marc at 1:18 PM "you struck a nerve, WATT. :)
Do I know you, man?
Write me privately (if you feel comfortable). I'd like to know which two ministers you talked to and perhaps we can exchange stories.
Marc I did message you privately about three weeks ago. I guess Bradford Schliefer must have intercepted it as exhibit 56 for my future trial by sword.
I met you at the Feast in Lake Placid, NY. I was early every day working security and you were early getting the audio visual set up ready. We had a brief conversation.
I know the young man that headed your department and complimented him often on the quality of content and the efficiency of production especially coming from such a small group of people.
Most of my conversations were with THE headquarters minister. Entering the church in 2012, they gave me the whole sermon catalog starting in 1999 on CD and told me to catch up. That's what I did, on the job or off the job. So I had the 13 year oral history fresh in my mind to compare to what was recently written and given in recent sermons. Dave Pack's doctrinal problems which I attributed to unrestrained speculative exuberance were evident in many areas and growing worse by the years. Introducing some of those problems to that minister which was your minister, he was quick to end our conversations with: "that is official doctrine!".
Marc, thanks for your contribution and effort to help our friends and former members. the quality of your presentations matches the quality of your previous contributions in the video department. We can only hope for Dave Pack to have a great repentance or for the membership to come to the reality that something ... just .... isn't ..... right anymore.
I will re-contact you soon. So that you know it is me, I will give you the name of the "famous" maple tree that Dave had planted just past the gate on the left before the mail processing center.
Take care,
WATT
Over the past week or so, I've come to the conclusion that Dave actually believes his own stuff, and is experiencing difficulties understanding why it isn't coming to pass. Everything we do, everything we need is plotted against different time graphs. Unless they coincide, we are s.o.l. There are limitations inherent in cash flow, limitations to our lifespan, limitations to our continued ability to deal with pressures. Circumstances which appear conducive when we begin a project can change quickly. We're talking about a group here that has put its faith and substance into following a man they believe to be led by God. Every day their reality is contraction, diminishing ability to get the job done. Fewer members, less money, inflation diminishing the value of that money. Placing hope in the latest prophecy, only to witness its failure once again.
When these sorts of things happen in the mainstream, often a church with similar beliefs and greater resources will absorb the membership of one which is failing financially. I am wondering if that is what is in store for some of the shrinking ACOGs. Will there come a time when we see mergers and takeovers in play? Is that even possible, considering the philosophical differences and tremendous egos involved? Is that the way in which Humpty Dumpty gets put back together again? Or, do the fragments return to the elements, as smoke dissipates into the atmosphere?
Cue John: "Time will tell."
Really good post.
Personally I think this Cult always had a virus and it was even in its heyday really poor retention among the 2nd and 3rd gens. Even those that stay they didnt stay with that mentality mom and dad came in with. Yeah maybe they go to the feasts and enjoy the socials and stuff but Id love to see statistics on what 2nd gens tithing habits were/are. I think those numbers would crack people up theyd be so low compared to 1st gens.
Now we have the 1st gen membership aging and the internet age makes it much harder to draw young new converts with the information that circulates about what this movement was all about from the beginning. People can read histories and alternative theological views on their phones. It makes it far far harder to indoctrinate people fresh off the street.
Plus the world and the US is becoming less religious in general. Dont discount that it plays a big role when people in general read the bible less and take the book far less literally as a whole.
In the early years youd hear a message on the radio or the TV and think about it all day and there was nothing you could do but mind flay it until the next episode. Literature would arrive snail mail and youd hyper analyze or do the correspondence course 10 times until the next bit arrived. Young people dont read and their attention spans are shorter. Culturally this is good news for cult joining in general.
Ive been watching the Netflix doc on the FLDS and its really interesting. What kept them relevent was a hierarchal leadership transition where crowns were handed down internally combined with a net stable birth rate within the membership. The org being completely cut off from the outside world was key as well. Tens of thousands of people generationally born into it and bound in their own communities held together with family bonds father to son and mother to daughter. Few outsiders bringing in new thoughts from the outside world.
None of that happens in Armstrongism and none of it ever will. The people have always been scattered and the retention of the children has always been low as their exposures to the outside world became greater than what could be accomplished preaching Friday nights at the dinner table. The implosion of local congregations and Ambassador College where these kids had friends and peer pressures to actually stay or believe a certain way is also completely gone.... and even that says alot.
Great post but I think Gen Z is safe. Something new may replace it but it will be new in a whole lot of ways imo.
Dave pack & Jon Brisby both work the perks
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