Gerald Weston wants to give the impression that there are a lot of former Worldwide Church of God members returning "to the faith". Which "faith" is that? Traditional Christianity? 1st Century Christianity? Other Church of God movements? To Theilism? Traditional Armstrongism?
Former church members who never really abandoned Armstrongist teachings are those minuscule numbers that may be returning. Many left WCG searching for the one true church and became wanderers in a sea of church splinters, filled with self-appointed men thumping their puny little chests about how great they are. Those wanderers then discovered that none of the groups really captured the lost fantasy they still held up as the standard. So, they dug out old literature, watched online videos of HWA sermons, and kept flipping the pages of worn-out color-coded Bibles with a booklet next to it that claimed to PROVE how things were supposed to be. After many years of this lonely lifestyle and an occasional undercover visit to a COG Feast site, a few have returned to LCG and other COG groups seeking missing fellowship. That doesn't last long till they discover the same old crap that destroyed the Worldwide Church of God still infects the current COG movement. Soon, they will leave again and become stay-at-home true believers.
The nineteen men on our Council of Elders gathered this week for three days of deliberations. The first day was mostly devoted to updates from the men regarding their areas of responsibilities, and the reports were overall very encouraging. One trend we notice is that people with a past Worldwide Church of God association are returning to the faith after being away from it for several decades. We are also seeing people who never had such association coming along and progressing toward baptism. We had lively discussions on how better to reach the world with the message of the Gospel and with a warning of where our world is heading. Much focus was on how to broaden our appeal to a larger demographic and how to cut through the clutter of information available today, while realizing that our message will be rejected by the majority, just as was the message of the prophets of old. Some very interesting ideas were presented, and I am truly grateful to have these men of wide experience to give good counsel going forward. Thank you for all your prayers regarding these meetings. Due to the time-consuming nature of these council meetings, there will be no video update this week.
—Gerald E. Weston
7 comments:
Well Gerald, can you give us some numbers please of those who are dipping their toes back to Armstrongism from the old wwcog. You say that others who have had no prior association with the 'sect' are coming along and progressing towards baptism. Numbers please. You had some lively discussions on how to reach the world with your message and now to appeal to a broader, larger demographic than before. Have you opened up this discussion to the membership, those at the coalpit itself of living your 'message' and not in some ministerial retreat. Who actually have face to face contact with the outside world. That is how the gospel was spread originally. Some very interesting ideals were presented you comment. Well what are they? The gospel was preached openly, are you able to be open with the membership and to those who may be looking on from outside as to what these ideals might entail? Looking forward to your reply.
I take this wishful thinking of Weston's just as seriously as I take Dave Pack's "Jesus has just got to return by (insert latest date)!" Or, Bob Thiel's "I am a prophet!" Ridiculous statements are being made by all of the Armstrong franchisees. Not one of them has the misguided aplomb of HWA!
BB
Weston is correct. Those former WCG members are returning to their old faith. 2 Peter 2:22 (quoting Proverbs 26:11) is the verse that applies here.
Probably some new windows are returning in order to get special attention. When I attended services, I drove some of them to church events, and they were definitely not Christian like in their behavior.
Well silly, what other groups of people are there besides those who have a WCG background and those who do not have a WCG background? The other thing is that there is a revolving door to some extent. In our congregation even some of the old stalwarts are leaving LCG. either they go to another COG like cogas or Flury, or they end up going back into the world and doing the very things they would have never done years ago. Also the conduct of some of the members and their ministers here can turn sensible new attendees off more than any LCG belief will. Bad conduct bad results. Hidden conduct hidden troubles.
With our LCG ministers and their hangers-on here it is kind of the inmates running the asylum. It should not be this way, and it does not have to be, but any change would mean that various ministers and their enforcers would have to repent for real. Not likely. I've seen this before in government work where organizations become more important than what they were mandated to do. The structure becomes more important than the people. And our LCG ministers circle the wagons, even around one who is clearly way out of line.
So in one congregation alone here we have a woman openly shacking up with her man, and anyone who comments to her and says that this is not right is accused by "God's true ministers" of gossipping and judging. And yet another of the same thing where a man was openly shacking up with his girl was not tolerated. Why the lady's living in sin but not the man's, and he did repent? Because Jerry Weston and these ministers go by which people can make a social impact on the LCG scene, and on who gives more money. So the lady and her shack up were inconsequential socially and she never gave much money so they let her go and they dont care about her. But the guy with his girlfriend had a strong impact on the church, and he gave a lot more money, so they had to deal with it. So sounds like ministerial partiality here, when in fact both situations are the same as for their sinning. And we also have a guy here who is a closet homosexual who married a girl, and get this, he did not even tell her. And that's just some of what he's up to. And another guy here who lives a double life with a police record as long as his arm, and he derides Mr. Armstrong's work and the LCG teachings behind the scenes, but in church he is the perfect little LCG suck up to the brass member. And so on and so forth. And this all in just 1 of our LCG congregation. What need one say about this LCG administration, and what of the new people who come into LCG and see this stuff? As soon as they raise their concerns they get the loving ministerial boot treatment. Does this sound like a church where God's Word is upheld and Jesus is the center of worship? So. Newbies, beware.
Yea, they can talk about the prophets of old, to try and draw some comparisons. But it’s quite a contrast as they live very comfortably compared to Daniel who grew up in captivity, Ezekiel also in captivity, Zechariah killed, Jeremiah put in prison, as I can go on and on. None in armstrongism challenge world leaders and are persecuted like the apostles or prophets of old. LCG is too caught up in the nebulous culture wars of what is crt, dei and what is woke or socialism. They are too conformed into their own little bubbles isolated from the spiritual lineage necessary to turn the world upside down for Christ. They have a few academic answers, but deny the power.
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