How art the mighty fallen!
It doesn't appear as though COG Feast of Tabernacle attendance is going to recover from the 2020 pandemic. According to the feastgoers website (see link), the number of feast sites in the US has fallen drastically.
Branson and Florida have always been hot spots for feast attendance. But compare the number of sites for 2019 to the number of sites for 2023. Same with Florida (see attached pictures).
Why the drop off? It would seem that — once we were clear of the pandemic and its restrictions — feast attendance would be back to pre-pandemic levels. But it is not. The reason for less feast sites today is because the demand is lower. I mean, if people were chomping at the bit to get back to the Feast, there would be more sites to accommodate them. Feast sites have proven to be great money makers.
But the demand for sites is lower. Why?
— Demographics. The average age of members in Armstrongite churches has increased. Many of these people are too old for travel. And many have just died of old age.
— Pandemic Deaths. Many Armstrongites died from Covid.
— Lack of Personnel. Some of the corporate COGs lack the manpower to run feast sites because of death and resignations.
Most of us expected a gradual reduction of Feast sites over the years. But who could have imagined the cratering that we have seen since 2019?
Wes White
Feastgoer.org has been serving feastgoers since 2002
Wow - that's more than 20 years of feastgoer!We started out just listing Feast sites by city, state and country. Several years ago we added a Cybercast and Phone Link page for those people who had to stay home. We also added a listing of “Spring Festivals” as there are a number of groups who host week long Passover/Unleavened Bread Celebrations and Pentecost weekends. Please let us know if you are hosting such a celebration so that we can add yours to the list.We would also like to add a listing of Feast sites who cater to Special Needs, such as Signing for the Deaf; language translation; services conducted in another language; a gathering of special interest groups i.e. Singles; the blind, etc.; and any other services you have to offer.Sadly, all of us here at feastgoer speak only English, but we would love to list sites from other countries, in other languages. If someone wants to gather the info and work with us, we would post the pages here on feastgoer.
Find a Feast SiteLooking for a site to attend the Feast of Tabernacles, or planning your own site?Feastgoer is here to help.
U.S. Sites:
Alabama
- Orange Beach (Church of God Ministries)
- Orange Beach (COGWA)
Arizona
Arkansas
- Fairfield Bay (Tulsa Church of God)
- Hot Springs (Fellowship in Faith)
California
- El Portal (Torah Truth Seekers Sep 30-Oct 8)
- Murrieta (Rock Valley Christian Church)
- Oxnard (Church of God the Father's Call)
- Palm Desert (COGWA)
Colorado
- Estes Park (UCG)
Florida
- Clearwater (CGI)
- Daytona Beach (CGI Auburndale)
- Fort Myers (COGWA)
- Panama City Beach (Common Faith Network)
- Panama City Beach (UCG)
Georgia
- Jekyll Island (UCG)
Hawaii
- Kohala Coast (COGWA)
Idaho
Indiana
- Syracuse (COGMI)
Iowa
- Manson (Sukkot, the Rehearsal)
Kentucky
- Gilbertsville (Fellowship in Faith)
- Salt Lick (Rowan Church of God)
Maryland
- Ocean City (UCG)
Maine
- Waterford (Western ME Fellowship)
Massachusetts
Michigan
- Gladwin (The Sabbath Day Group)
Minnesota
- Woodbury (COGWA)
Missouri
Montana
- Troy (Truth Seekers of Montana Sep 29-Oct 9 )
New York
- Poughkeepsie (CGI)
Ohio
- Cincinnati (UCG)
- Medina (CGI)
Oklahoma
Oregon
Pennsylvania
- Lancaster (COGWA)
Rhode Island
South Carolina
- Greenville (COGWA)
- Myrtle Beach (CGI)
- Myrtle Beach (COGMI)
- North Myrtle Beach (Church of God Parkersburg)
South Dakota
- Rapid City (Discipleship Church of God)
Tennessee
- Gatlinburg (UCG)
- Sevierville (Independent Church of God Seventh Day)
Texas
- Galveston (CGI)
- Galveston (UCG)
- Glen Rose (The Cartmel Family)
- New Braunfels (COGWA)
- New Braunfels (South Texas Church of God)
Utah
- Park City (COGWA)
Vermont
Virginia
- Yorktown (Sabbath Church of God)
Washington
- Seabeck (Congregation Beth El)
- Spokane Valley (UCG)
West Virginia
- Triadelphia (COGWA)
Wisconsin
- Amery (Sukkot Yes)
- Eau Claire (Congregational Fellowship of God Sep 29-Oct 8)
- Portage (The Church of God)
- Wisconsin Dells (Truth on the Web Sep 29-Oct 8)
47 comments:
Remember that the Restored Church of God, Philadelphia Church of God, Living Church of God, and Bob Thiel's Continuing Church of God all feel they are better than everyone else and their words so sacred that the unclean masses of Laodicean COG members are not worthy to cross their thresholds.
God placed His name in Jerusalem. No other place.
“Manasseh even took a carved idol he had made and set it up in God’s Temple, the very place where God had told David and his son Solomon: “My name will be honored forever in this Temple and in Jerusalem—the city I have chosen from among all the tribes of Israel.”
2 Chronicles 33:7 NLT
It’s not just where you want to vacation. Go to Jerusalem if you must.
Didn’t realize Wes White is still alive. Why is he concerned about this, OR is he concerned at all?
I don't see any sites listed for Sheldon Monson's COG-ASS. Has he stayed secretive like his former bosses in LCG?
"God placed His name in Jerusalem. No other place.
“Manasseh even took a carved idol he had made and set it up in God’s Temple, the very place where God had told David and his son Solomon: “My name will be honored forever in this Temple and in Jerusalem—the city I have chosen from among all the tribes of Israel.”
2 Chronicles 33:7 NLT"
The time is coming when it will no longer matter whether you worship the Father on this mountain or in Jerusalem. The Feast can be kept anywhere God's people are.
I don’t think this is an accurate reading of the data. It looks like LCG and a few others are not represented
Unless, 2:09, God's end time apostle made necessary changes. Sometimes scripture comes up short and an apostle needs to re-organize things! Believe in the apostle!
COGWA has 11 sites? UCG has 9? What a logistical nightmare for the organizers! How many people are attending at each of these sites?
Also, since we don't discuss many of the groups on the map, I've actually never heard of some of them. Sure is different from the mid-1970s!
There are many others not listed here. International sites, independent groups, Messianics and/or Hebrew Roots, … aren’t listed here either.
I didn't see Flurry's Philadelphia Strumpet group. Maybe they are going to hold the feast in Petra, Adullam or Anus Oklahoma.
Ya know? Wouldn't it be nice if there actually were a place we could go to get the answers to all of our deep philosophical questions, instead of listening to and following someone's fake crap??? I wish it were as simple as inventing an Apostle and putting on the ol' blinders! In a way, I understand the inner inquisitiveness that led the parental units down that primrose path. In a way, it's kind of a shame that it really wasn't what they thought it would be.
I remember back in the early '70s when right at Feast time, the Guess Who released a beautiful anthemic song called "Share the Land". The good little boys and girls didn't hear it, because you weren't supposed to listen to rock n roll. But, it was on every radio station, and became the sound track for my feast that year. The Guess Who never let me down. But, Herbie sure did. His endtimes were just a short time away from then. But, ultimately, he just couldn't deliver! That hasn't stopped people from continuing to book personal appearances for Jesus without actually even asking Jesus if He could make it. They're still doing it, and they're still making the whole idea of a final awesome solution into a mockery. A pox on all those buzzkillers houses!
The really sad part is places like Branson Missouri which has several COG group meeting there. Yet the chances of them ever meeting together are slim to none. Groups like Restored, Living, and Philadelphia tell their members to not associate with the Laodicean riff-raff.
ACOG members are getting very old. This is to be expected.
What's Wes White on ?? So much for following in Ron Darts footsteps.
Those spitefilled ones who rub their hands in glee watching the data, lurking in the darkness, wanting death and disaster to befall COG Feast sites.
Many are struggling with high cost of living, which Wes White seems oblivious of. COG social media is filled with discussions on how COG members are struggling.
7:15-"Wouldn't it be nice if there .(was). a place we could go to get the answers"
there is...wikipedia
5.18 pm, many people have been greatly harmed by these ACOGs. Dave Pack has robbed many widows of their homes. Yet you have come here for many years indirectly poking fun at the victims with your trolling comments. May your heartlessness be returned on your own head.
Well, you have to understand that God's church is a little flock. It's also a little body of Christ so they would have little feasts sites.
The true goal of Ambassador College:
"The aim of public education is not to spread enlightenment at all; it is simply to reduce as many individuals as possible to the same safe level, to breed a standard citizenry, to put down dissent and originality.”
— H. L. Mencken
Lord Jeef
In the Torah, sacrifices and ceremonies involving first the Tabernacle and later the Temple were an integral part of holy day worship. When the Second Temple fell in 70 AD, that system was truncated. The question then arises, how did the holy days get separated and retained when the Temple worship system became obsolete? Why did the holy days not cease in 70 AD along with the sacrifices and ceremonies with which they were firmly integrated? Further, Solomon was given the authority to place the name of God (2 Sam 7:13, 1 Kings 5:19). It was placed in Jerusalem at the Temple forever. And according the Torah, that is where the holy days are to be kept.
An important issue that bears on this question is what happened to the Torah after the fall of the Second Temple. In Jewish tradition, the Torah was repackaged by Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai at the Yeshiva at Yavne. This was done with the approval and sponsorship of General Vespasian who later became the Roman Emperor. This was the beginning point of Rabbinic Judaism that involved Rabbis deciding how the Torah was to be kept without a Temple and the inauguration of documented Oral Tradition to define the practices of Judaism. The modern-day outcome is that in the Diaspora the pilgrimage festival of Sukkot is observed locally.
Although the Talmud may contain the reasoning used by Rabbis to permit local observation of the holy days sans Temple and sans the placing of God’s name, Armstrongism does not extend the decisions of Rabbinic Judaism to its holy day practice. Armstrongism separately originated its sukkot practice that does not flow from the Jewish interpretation of the Torah. In its early history, the Armstrongist church received a donation of land in the Big Sandy, Texas area. Based on this circumstance, Armstrongist leaders decided that this was where God had placed his name. This is a radically liberal decision that disregards the clear statements of the Torah and permits men to interpret the will of God based on circumstance. It flies in the face of the jot and tittle view that Armstrongism otherwise holds and also the Midrashic views of the Jews.
The upshot is that the Jews might hearken to the Sanhedrin as the source of their authority to repackage holy day practice. But Armstrongism has no historic authority for its holy day practice. Instead, it relies on the ad hoc decision of a single man, disconnected from any relevant Biblical roots. Also, both the Rabbinic system and Armstrongism interpret the truncation of the Temple (consonant with Ephesians 2:15, Colossians 2:14) as merely a speed bump in the observation of the Torah.
Scout
A couple of other factors not mentioned is that an increasing amount of COG folks are now retired, and living on just small social security checks. Many , if not most, have little to no retirement savings or pensions.
Long gone are the days when a motel room was just $8 a night too. Simple economics is saying that people are just staying at home for the FOT, and watching online.
The bleed rate for most churches between both just quitting or death, is about 7% per year. Of course there are a handful of new people and second or even third generation youth getting baptized as well. ( The USA UCG as example has only a total of about 100 baptisms a year for a group of 7000 or so). So about a total net loss of around 5% a year, which is a halfing every 14 years.
Once upon a time, the FOT sites had huge buying power with local chamber of commerces, and usually got free facilities and large blocks of free rooms for the ministers too. Not so today. Most FOT sites are less than 300 people , and at most 900 or so. A far cry from the day when there were 5 to 10 thousand at just a singular site.
Armstrong descended churches are in a slow spiral to oblivion both economically and sociologically. Curiously enough, the Messianic movement or Hebrew Roots, continues to show traction and growth.
My first FOT was at Jeckyl Island, then Squaw Valley while attending AC in Pasadena. The crowds were huge. I was at Squaw Valley when GTA spoke about what the "world needs now, is love sweet love" and then he allegedly flew off in the Falcon jet with his mistress before being sacked by HWA. What a soap opera this was with power hungry people like RCM and a money hungry lawyer (SR) both seeking more power for different reasons. Meanwhile, the "little people" who paid all the bills were more Christian in their values and behavior than some of the high-ranking. arrogant clergy.
I thought Wes White was alive and well and living in Argentina , helped to move there by the Odessa Ratline . Glad to see that he is still "ticking"!
You missed United in St. Geroge Utah, which currently has over 600 registered.
Tonto,
Interesting. COGWA is wealthier and younger than those they left in UCG. I suspect COGWA is about 5-10 years behind UCG in the same slow downward spiral.
I hope everybody traveling to a feast site stays safe and has an enjoyable feast. The COGs however need to change their model.
9:56:00 AM
"Interesting. COGWA is wealthier and younger than those they left in UCG."
The COGWA splinter group was born using outright lies of UCG going Protestant. And almost everyone who now a member blindly followed their minister who were looking to become a bigger fish in a small pond. How will they explain their selfish actions when they meet their Creator?
In response to anon 4:06
You may not understand, see he is using the Jerusalem/Feast command argument as a point to show the hypocrisy of the COGs picking and choosing when they want administer between the Old Covenant and the New Covenant.
Don't think the Israelites kept the Feast in Jerusalem for quite some years after the Feast days were revealed.
Like forty years in the desert, and then more before Jerusalem was conquered.
Ha ha 😂
Know alot allegedly "Tonto" for a nobody from 7th day adventists.....God's correcting all the wrongs "Tonto". Oh but not in the burnt out athiest, believe in nothing, but their own opinion way. In God's way he is bringing HIS people back to HIM in ways believers don't fully understand now.
In the end "Tonto" through the love of God our Father all will be well. But a person's got to have faith to believe...do you have faith "Tonto" ? You and this mire in the mud slinging blog?
1.29 PM
When the original splintering occured, most of the worse members went to UCG. These non-Christian church goers did what they always do, they abused and pecked on their betters. This gave birth to the breakaway COGWA.
Even when I attended the old WWCG, it was obvious that the only reason some people came to services was to have access to victims. When their pool dried up, they stopped attending. This is always present to some degree in all churches.
What in the world is The Cartmel Family. Feast to be held in Glen Rose, Texas. I tried to find something about them on the web out of curiosity and found nothing.
Any ideas?
"In God's way He is bringing HIS people back to HIM in ways believers don't understand now."
This is pure Calvinism. In their theology, humans either have no free will, or only crumbs of it. It's determinism. Why was the thrust of Christ's massage repentance if free will is an illusion. Why did He rebuke cities for not repenting if they have no freedom and everything is predetermined? Inherent in this doctrine is that God is a micromanager, a control freek. This Calvinism is implied by many ACOG ministers when they claim that they are personally mentioned in the bible or some secular figure like Trump. Which is why they effectively believe in time machines and that God knows every decision that people are going to make.
Which is why I've read in church literature that God can know the future but He has chosen not to. No, He cannot. Not while humans are free moral agents.
Scout said: "And according the Torah, that is where the holy days are to be kept."
I am still waiting for someone to show me where the Torah says the holy days are to be kept in Jerusalem. After all, it was hundreds of years after the entry into the promised land before Kings David and Solomon even brought the ark to Jerusalem and built the temple. Was Israel keeping the holy days in the wrong place all those years?
There was a time when the Church of God was on the right track, living Biblical truths and spreading the true gospel. But it seems to be necessary that these things come to an end, lest people come to rely on the traditions of men (like the Pharisees, the Catholics, the Mormons) rather than the truths of scripture. Today, the true followers of God are finding that the churches of God are not the right path. A very large number of smaller, local groups are popping up all over the place. Back in the 50's, it was suggested that perhaps Big Sandy was the only place on earth that the Feast of Tabernacles was being kept. Today, there are hundreds of groups keeping the feast who have never heard of Herbert W. Armstrong. The truths of the Bible and the worship of God will survive.
Yes, COGWA was founded on fraud. Bottom line is that the elders of UCG were unhappy with the leadership of the men who would found COGWA and voted them out. These men, in their arrogance, simply knew that they were right, and could run a church better than their replacements. So they decided to start a new church. They had no justification other than their own superiority, and that wasn't enough to get many to follow them, so they had to make up lies about UCG. They couldn't make these accusations outright, because they knew they weren't true, so they used multiple anonymous forums to spread their lies. It was remarkably effective. They even got naive dupes like James Malm to go along with them. Thus, COGWA was founded on fraud.
Still bitter ?
Correct. COGWA seem much wealthier and have a tremendous amount of youth but the power leadership structure could sink them still.
Whilst UCG change leadership and have a new breeze with President Shabi, COGWA are still stuck with Frank's and the old guard never change. Same old, same old. Time will tell.
Depends on one's definition of 'small'.
Anon 3:08
"mud slinging blog"
It's not this mud slinging blog that created the divisions and spinterdom. Nobody on here is the leader of UCG, CGI, PCG, LCG, RCG etc. You gotta point the finger at the the greedy guts at the "top" of these groups.
The COG's didn't create the Blogs.
Even if the COGs were not so toxic, you'd just have to scratch your head in wondrous bewilderment at their sheer arrogance! And, as always, that is indicative of a group covering its own inadequacies!
That's exactly what it is, arrogance. It's really no different than the attitude of the pharisees. It's sad.
When the plandemic and lockdowns came, many churches decided not to have a Feast site, and not to have regular in-person services, at least for a while.
COG members realised that with things like YouTube and Zoom, they no longer had to spend all their money attending boring services where ministers said little of any relevance to the members.
With the higher costs of living, the high costs of Feast attendance, and more people waking up to realise that tithing on money is not in the Bible, and thus not setting aside 2nd tithe for a Feast, more COG members are now keeping the Feast at home. Especially when we consider Deuteronomy 12:21
"If the place that the Lord your God will choose to put his name there is too far from you, then you may kill any of your herd or your flock, which the Lord has given you, as I have commanded you, and you may eat within your towns whenever you desire."
We can use the principle in this verse as well to say that if it is too expensive to go the Feast, you can keep it at home.
Last time I went to a Feast site was in 2020, and have stayed at home since.
@11:31 ~ Have you experienced any curses since 2020? Illness, financial reversals, marital discord?
When you consider the expensive hotel rates during the feast, guess what. You’re giving the majority of your money to the hotels and not your cog organization. Think about it. If your going to use the OT so much, it doesn’t say anything about using so much of one’s second tithe just to stay somewhere for a week. It doesn’t make economic sense.
" Anonymous Anonymous said...
I don't see any sites listed for Sheldon Monson's COG-ASS. Has he stayed secretive like his former bosses in LCG?"
Sheldon and the CGA have a feast site this year in Daytona Beach, Florida. Although I stopped listening to the CGA after it turns out that their ministers behave just as bad as in other churches, bullying people, and forbidding people to study the Bible without a minister present.
Anonymous at 5:19 AM said...“Even when I attended the old WWCG, it was obvious that the only reason some people came to services was to have access to victims. When their pool dried up, they stopped attending. This is always present to some degree in all churches.”
So sad. So true.
Godless perverts from the WCG moved over to the UCG when the WCG/GCI got too small and their victims were no longer in it.
Gerald Flurry's satanic filth cult, the PCG, was full of old sex maniacs, sex perverts, and predators who went there entirely for their own selfish and immoral reasons.
The splinter groups are not about God calling people. They are about predators high and low looking for victims.
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