This entire saga with Bill Watson starting his new group in a fit of rebellion is just like Bob Thiel's rebellious upstart. Two self-serving narcissistic men who think they know better than anyone else.
Courtesy of Lonnie Hendrix
An Open Letter to Bill Watson
Dear Bill:
I heard the announcement you made in Medina this past Sabbath (11/1/2025) regarding your decision to depart ways with the Church of God International and starting a new organization. In your announcement, you made some comments on some of the reasons for the decision. Since your statements were public, I’m making this an open response. It has already come to our attention that some of the church members appear to be quite concerned after hearing you say that the CGI Board of Directors issued three “ultimatums” to you and the Medina church. I want to take a few moments to address this.
The letter wherein the three options were mentioned was written by me and sent to other members of the Board of Directors the same day I sent it to you (August 6, 2025). So they did not read what I wrote regarding the three options before you did. And since I wrote it, I can tell you for certain that it never occurred to me that the three options I mentioned might have even remotely resembled “ultimatums.”
Bill, I was merely bringing up the options you already had. Those were options available to you whether I mentioned them or not. I was certainly not issuing ultimatums or mandates or demands of any kind; I was merely stating what was! I even began my statement with “It seems to me….” That’s just not the way one issues an ultimatum!
Ultimatum is defined as “a final demand or statement of terms, the rejection of which will result in retaliation or a breakdown in relations.”
With that definition in mind, let’s look at what I said. Here’s the paragraph mentioning the three options:
It seems to me that if our policies mean anything at all, you have three paths you could take: 1) You could do what any CGI elder “in good standing” is expected to do—abide by the policies for elders and chartered churches. 2) You could request of the MC to reclassify you and the Medina congregation as an “independent affiliate.” 3) You could simply declare your independence and go your way. [Emphasis added.]
I was referring to the fact that you are presently operating outside the parameters of the policies set forth for chartered churches in our Manual for Field Churches. Since you are not in compliance with these policies, you automatically (not by “decree” from me or the Board) have the option of bringing yourself into compliance—i.e., correcting the situation. But you can, if you so choose, declare your independence from the Church of God International. That’s another option you already had before I mentioned it. And finally, should your choice be independence from the Church of God International, you have the option of requesting that the Ministerial Council give you the “independent affiliate” classification. Again, all those options were already there before I made mention of them. They were not ultimatums!
You will note that I said, “It seems to me….” I put it like that because there may be other options, but as best I can tell (i.e., “It seems to me”) the only viable ones are the three mentioned here. Again, neither I, as Chairman of the Board, nor the Board of Directors collectively were giving you or establishing options; I was merely stating that these are options you have.
You will recall that in the email I sent to you on July 8, 2025, I asked you to clarify for me your intentions. This is what the options are about. I was asking you for clarity on what you wanted to do. We exchanged emails and letters, but you never answered the question. Finally you sent an email stating you would give me an answer after the Feast. About two weeks after the Feast, you gave me only a partial answer. You said that the Medina Board agreed to change the name. I then told you that this presumably means that option #1 was ruled out. I then asked you if the Board expressed a preference for one of the other two options, and you never answered…until you announced it last Sabbath.
You also stated in your announcement that “the Medina Board had been led to believe…that our name, Church of God International, Medina, could be used in perpetuity. That is, without expiration nor any stipulations. However, the Texas Board made it clear to us the last few months…that this was not true, despite their written statement of affirmation awarding Medina to use their name.”
This is another misunderstanding. Here is the written statement of affirmation I sent to you on July 1, 2024:
This is to affirm that the Board of Directors of the Church of God International has, for the sole purpose of the purchase of a building, approved the use of the name “Church of God International, Medina” by the Medina, Ohio congregation of the Church of God International. [Emphasis added.]
You can see that the affirmation I sent to you was not unconditional. As I explained to you in an email (around August 20, 2025), the part in bold allows us to withdraw approval should the Medina church go independent. Of course it goes without saying that as long as you’re officially a Church of God International congregation, we not only approve your use of the name, we prefer and encourage it. The name-change requirement applies only if you decide you want to operate independently of the Church of God International. That seems like a reasonable requirement to me. It also seems to me that any group parting ways with an organization would want a different name so as to avoid confusion. However, I must add that if the Medina Board had not agreed to the name change, we would have just left it alone. It’s not something worth arguing over.
You also stated that there had been “years of…growing tensions between the boards of Texas and Medina.” I was completely unaware of any kind of “growing tensions” between these two boards; this is news to me. The tensions I am aware of have been between you and the Board and/or home office and have concerned primarily organizational and procedural matters. In more recent times, the tensions have revolved around your non-compliance with the policies established by the organization that issued your credentials and paid your salary and expenses, though you once endorsed and upheld these policies. I’ve gone over the specifics with you, and will not repeat them here. In the end, we were unable to come to agreement on the matters I brought up to you, and your recollection of history as it pertains to these matters is quite different from my recollection or that of the Board of Directors or home-office personnel.
Nevertheless, I would like to apologize to you on one point—something I mentioned in my letter to you but would later realize was inaccurate. You briefly mentioned it in your announcement but did not elaborate. I had stated in my letter to you that your policy violations included soliciting donations from outside your area by posting a “donation tab” on your previous website. I had my “facts” wrong. It was not a donation tab (like the one on your new website); it was this:
Our address for written correspondence and donations:
Church of God Intl, Medina
PO Box 1162
Medina, Ohio 44258
Please specify on check where you would like the donation to go.
Example: Helping Hands, Tithe, Etc.
I would call the above (which was posted on the front page of your old website) a policy violation, but I was in error when I referred to it as a “donation tab.” So I apologize for that.
My initial email to you was for the purpose of getting clarity on where you stood with us and what your intentions were going forward. Follow up communications were for the same purpose and to openly and honestly set before you the issues and concerns that have contributed to the tensions between us and led us to the present situation. I initially believed the best option for you would have been the first one of the three, but because of our inability to come to terms on the issues and the history surrounding them, I have to say, sadly, that your decision to part ways was probably best for all parties concerned.
I wish you and the Medina brethren the best.
Sincerely,
Vance A. Stinson
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