LCG has ordained some new evangelists, most notable are the two McNair boys and Wallace Smith. Some in LCG said this was only a matter of time till the McNairs and Smith were raised in rank. The three of these men do not have the best reputation in LCG with many members.
This has been an exciting and enlightening week for those of us on the Council of Elders. Nineteen of the 20 members were able to meet in person, and Mr. Robert Tyler participated online from Australia, despite the significant time difference. Some of you have asked who is on the Council, so I am providing a list of the men below. Brethren, I hope we can all appreciate the benefit to the Work received from counsel given by loyal and dedicated men—I certainly do! Most of these men have served in the ministry for 30 to 50 years or more and come from different backgrounds. Our experiences down through the years have been different and our gifts from God are different, just as Paul explained in 1 Corinthians 12. A highlight of the meetings was the ordination to evangelist of Messrs. Peter Nathan, Jonathan McNair, Rod McNair, and Wallace Smith. Another highlight was presenting to Peter and Karen Nathan a crystal eagle in recognition of their fifty years of service in the ministry. We pray all will return home safely and energized to pass along news of the Work.—Gerald Weston
31 comments:
I remember pre-minister Wally as a really nice friendly person.
I have not been part of LCG for a while.
What happened?
BIG EVANGELIST SALARIES - how much? - you are not to know!
Nothing - he is just the same in that regard, extremely personable and helpful.
Those four men are not all equally qualified. Clearly LCG is a lot like WCG in how it hands out evangelist titles, placing as much emphasis on politics and organizational structure as on conversion and wisdom.
Where is the Biblical or ACOG parallel for having 20 men on a Council of Elders? Is Weston afraid that some of those men will rebel if he retires them from his council?
Peter Nathan --- WCG, UCG, then Hulme, and now LCG, must really know how to work the system, as he always floats to the top!
I see things haven't changed as far as the secret LCG council of elders goes. Back in 2005, after Don Davis and Charles Bryce were secretly removed, I asked Rod Meredith why we don't even know who is on the council of elders. His answer: "We try to put a picture in the LCG News once a year."
Honest churches tell the members when a vote is coming up involving money expecting them to show up since they pay the tithes and offerings.
It is made a month in advance immediately following the service. There is supposed to be transparency.
I, err, hate to mention this. My last two essays were on The Hierarchy as a philosphical stance of Armstrongism. So you probably have heard enough about this. But "evangelist" is a role or function and not a rank. An evangelist has the vocation of taking good tidings to people. In 2 Timothy 4, Paul exhorts Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. Nowhere in the context does it describe an administrative position in charge of other ranks of ministers. Or does it suggest the comforts of a sinecure with a high salary, prestige and autocratic authority. Just before Paul mentions doing the work of an evangelist, he says "endure affliction." No doubt if you are constantly in the field taking the Gospel to places where it has never been, you may run into trouble.
This is just another place where The Hierarchy has been imposed without justification.
Krischan
I asked Rod Meredith why we don't even know who is on the council of elders. His answer: "We try to put a picture in the LCG News once a year."
I suspect Rod did not like sharing the limelight with potential rivals. The less attention they get the fewer people they can take with them if the start their own split.
20 men on the council?! Strength in numbers to all think alike. Say what you will about RCM, but since his death, the many goats of LCG have moved to Charlotte. Many thought Weston would clean house when first taking control but he quickly fell in line and opened the flood gates of vomit/sin that likes to pool up around HQ. To have 20 men on an advisory committee shows weakness in ones ability to lead. Wally is set to take over when Ames dies, and Rod McNair will take over when Winnail goes out to pasture. Nathan heads up the Europe mission and J. McNair leads their educational services. New titles = new level of expected respect.
A healthy church has a neatly typed of folder to prospective members who ask to have more information showing exactly where the money goes in each category and to whom. Besides evangelism in different countries with pictures of each couple and their children, listed are the shelters they support in their own community along with their own building upkeep expenses. This is normal.
What a shinning example Peter Nathan is. Trying out various cogs of the cog. We should all aspire to be like him.
Based on the natural ways in which things tend to fall, one might expect a certain amount of diversity on the council, and amongst the newly ordained evangelists. Back in the day, the old WCG was very proud of its Negro and Colored elders. Does HWA's tradition still exist in any sort of healthy way, or are all of the LCG "leaders" white?
A 20 man council implies that they don't trust each other. And from a shrinking church?
"20 men on a Council of Elders"
What happened to all those big Six-figure-$alaries when the WCG folded?
LCG needs to boost Evangelist salaries to $250k if they wish to keep this talent!
RCG is waiting in the wings to snap up these Evangelists with big Common funding!
$100k per year no longer considered sufficient for high life!
cnbc.com/2023/05/17/why-so-many-people-making-100000-dollars-a-year-dont-feel-rich.html
Promoting people just for the sake of diversity is corrupt and unchristian.
I wouldn't begrudge evangelists getting a six figure salary if they were feeding their members spiritual meat. But instead the members get the same stale spiritual milk. And most evangelists are wall flowers.
If members want spiritual meat, they are forced to read self help books, which is ridiculous considering the amount of money that give to their church.
The more duties that Smith has gotten the more haughty and arrogant he comes across. I do have to hand the compliment that he utterly decimated Bob Thiel on his blog several years ago. It was delightful to witness.
Anon, Wednesday, May 17, 2023 at 6:38:00 PM PDT, wrote:
"...I, err, hate to mention this. My last two essays were on The Hierarchy as a philosphical stance of Armstrongism. So you probably have heard enough about this. But "evangelist" is a role or function and not a rank. An evangelist has the vocation of taking good tidings to people. In 2 Timothy 4, Paul exhorts Timothy to do the work of an evangelist. Nowhere in the context does it describe an administrative position in charge of other ranks of ministers. Or does it suggest the comforts of a sinecure with a high salary, prestige and autocratic authority. Just before Paul mentions doing the work of an evangelist, he says "endure affliction." No doubt if you are constantly in the field taking the Gospel to places where it has never been, you may run into trouble.
This is just another place where The Hierarchy has been imposed without justification.
Krischan
******
Excellent points made there, as these babes, posing as evangelists, use their authority to lord it over others. Who are these babes? Most, if not all, are hirelings who came out of the former WCG, to form an organization that would do more than was accomplished under HWA, and continue to receive a $paycheck$ and have sufficient $ for their retirement.
What new truth have any of these babes learned since the day HWA died? Joe Tkach senior said he would would not walk in the shoes of HWA, but would walk in HWA's footsteps...which, since he spoke truthfully, only went backwards into Satan's counterfeit doctrines...back towards Protestantism, etc.
Evangelists would follow the example of Philip:
Acts 21:8 "And the next [day] we that were of Paul’s company departed, and came unto Caesarea: and we entered into the house of Philip the evangelist, which was [one] of the seven; and abode with him."
Philip was one of The Evangelists:
Eph 4:11 "And he gave some, apostles; and some, prophets; and some, evangelists; and some, pastors and teachers;"
The word "SOME" should be replaced by the word "THE."
Well, Krischan, you did not err...
We've had enough of "lord it over" others, Fear Religion, spiritual milk and/or junk food nourishment. Where's the beef? The strong meat? These babes don't have it, or do they?
Does anyone today need a modern-day evangelist, when we are all still learning from The Evangelists of the Bible?
Time will tell...
John
so then who will take over when Weston dies since they had no children? winnail? Both are snakes in the grass.
Ignoring, suppressing, and passing over qualified people of diversity is corrupt and unchristian.
Anonymous Anonymous said...
Promoting people just for the sake of diversity is corrupt and unchristian.
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Anonymous Anonymous said...
Ignoring, suppressing, and passing over qualified people of diversity is corrupt and unchristian.
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Exactly, this organization a couple years ago just named Mario Hernandez an evangelist who is way more qualified than these other individuals. The reason why it took so long is because he wasn't white. So if you think God is not working in "non white" individuals to be considered or qualified for such positions, you're sadly mistaken annon 7:44. It's actually part of the problem in armstrongism, ironically WCG had more diversity back in the day than now.
I can assure you, it's not for diversity
Exactly, this organization a couple years ago just named Mario Hernandez an evangelist who is way more qualified than these other individuals. The reason why it took so long is because he wasn't white.
The mistake Mario Hernandez made was in obeying Rod Meredith's demand that he move from San Diego to Charlotte back in 2010. At that time, Mario was already working as an evangelist, serving all the Latin brethren and the brethren in southern California. Rod Meredith couldn't let him continue to work pretty much independently, as effective as that work might have been. Instead, he had to control Mario, and brought him into the Charlotte bureaucracy, swamped him with non-productive tasks, and his talents were greatly squelched. A similar story happened with Wally Smith. He was an effective local pastor, so he had to be brought to Charlotte, where his talents were mostly wasted. Rod Meredith always misread Eph 4:12, where the purpose of building up the church was to support the ministry in headquarters. Supporting the brethren in those congregations was of little importance, except to tithe-farm them.
Well, they could have ordained Ted Nugent as a local elder, and he would have been a more effective recruiting tool than all these so-called evangelists combined. Damned good special music for the holy days, too!
“The mistake Mario Hernandez made was in obeying Rod Meredith's demand that he move from San Diego to Charlotte back in 2010. At that time, Mario was already working as an evangelist, serving all the Latin brethren and the brethren in southern California. Rod Meredith couldn't let him continue to work pretty much independently, as effective as that work might have been. Instead, he had to control Mario, and brought him into the Charlotte bureaucracy, swamped him with non-productive tasks, and his talents were greatly squelched. A similar story happened with Wally Smith. He was an effective local pastor, so he had to be brought to Charlotte, where his talents were mostly wasted. Rod Meredith always misread Eph 4:12, where the purpose of building up the church was to support the ministry in headquarters. Supporting the brethren in those congregations was of little importance, except to tithe-farm them.”
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Correct, RCM would do this to good local ministers as you mentioned and another one I can think of was Mr. Harold Way, same thing. It’s like Meredith couldn’t look at Paul’s example with Apollos. The leadership either misreads or misinterprets Biblical examples.
Anon 8:13 Nathan wont be around for many years. He's the past not the future. He'll turn 80 next year
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