Hat tip to a reader here for this information:
What a glorious time to be in the Church of God Assembly! Just when you thought the latest Armstrongist splinter group had finally found its groove after splintering off in 2020, the whole operation decides to treat itself to a good old-fashioned ministerial bloodbath in May 2026. It’s almost like the Holy Spirit looked at the org chart and said, “Yeah… no.”
Co-founder and big-name minister Jason Fritts? Gone. Terminated. Shown the door. Sheldon Monson graciously accepted what he called Fritts’ “resignation” after receiving an ultimatum about preaching the gospel. Translation: Get in line or get out. Fritts has now been scrubbed from the official ministers' list faster than you can say “doctrinal disagreement.”
But wait — there’s more! Like a biblical plague of departing elders, the following ministers have also waved goodbye:
Mike LoperRandy WayneLarry AlverioDanny BaisleyTodd Lawrence
That’s a solid chunk of the preaching roster deciding the grass is apparently greener somewhere else. Meanwhile, Monson’s own son has reportedly left the fold. Yes, one of his own kids. Family business is thriving, folks.
Left standing in the “loyalty bunker” are the remaining stalwarts — lovingly referred to by observers as the Yes Men:
Jack LoweMike KreyerGreg KaidannekEric CaseAnd of course, fearless leader Sheldon Monson himself
Truly a murderer’s row of independent thought.
The Board? What Board?
This latest meltdown didn’t come out of nowhere. Back in 2025, Sheldon Monson pulled a classic one-man-rule move and dismissed the entire Board of CGA. Why? Because he didn’t want to risk getting voted out, of course. Heaven forbid a little accountability get in the way of having total control over those sweet, sweet tithes. Nothing says “servant leadership” like firing the people who might ask pesky questions about the budget. Financial Improprieties? Perish the Thought!
Adding extra spice to the exodus are the whispers (and not-so-subtle sermon jabs) about financial goings-on. Members noticed shiny new Cadillac Escalades for Sheldon and his wife Joette. Then came reports of a lavish Disney trip that raised more than a few eyebrows about whose money was funding the Mouse House memories. An ex-employee’s sermon on Judas stealing from the money bag was widely interpreted as shade thrown directly at leadership. Coincidence? In COG world, these things are never coincidences — they’re just “the work.”
One sharp-eyed reader put it perfectly: “If the whole congregation knew the whole truth as to why so many have left, there would be even more to leave.” But don’t worry — if God wants it revealed, it will be!
For those keeping score, CGA was born in 2020 when Monson and Fritts dramatically exited the Living Church of God over masks, singing, and the sheer audacity of having church during a pandemic. They were going to be the bold ones. The faithful ones. The ones who wouldn’t bow to tyranny or compromise.
Fast-forward a few years and we’re watching the classic COG cycle repeat like a broken record: board dissolved for easier control, questions about finances and luxury purchases, family members on the payroll, and sermons that somehow always circle back to “support the work.” Shocking, we know.
Now the gospel-preaching ultimatum has apparently become the hill too many were willing to die on — or at least resign from.The Future Looks… Smaller
At this rate, CGA’s next Feast of Tabernacles might be held in Sheldon Monson’s living room with the remaining five ministers taking turns nodding enthusiastically. The website and podcast will surely keep soldiering on with fresh sermons from the Approved Roster™.
This is, of course, exactly how God’s one true remnant church is supposed to operate in the end times: shrinking, splintering, firing boards, dodging financial questions, and loudly insisting everything is fine while half the leadership walks out the door.
Truly inspiring.If you’re still attending, congratulations on being part of this exciting new “faithful remnant of the faithful remnant.” Just don’t ask too many questions about the board, the Escalades, or the Disney trips — that seems to be the fastest way to join the growing club of former CGA ministers enjoying their newfound freedom.
Stay tuned. If God really does want the full truth revealed… well, the way things are going, He might not have to lift a finger. The exits (and the empty board seats) are doing the talking.
45 comments:
The fantastic days when HWA would travel the world 340 days per year meeting or speaking to the world's entire diplomatic corps with the most expensic plane, handing out America's finest chrystal craft.........descended into major church schisms about visiting Mouse House in the Magic Kingdom........bwahahahahahaha
nck
I've had an opportunity to observe several people in the secular realm who had worked under the discipline of major companies for years, leave those companies and start their own businesses. it was absolutely amazing how quickly these mens' true personalities, strengths, and weaknesses became obvious as they transformed from the "harnessed" state into one of self-actualization. While some flourished, others truly needed the accountability they had left behind. They became outrageous and nearly unrecognizable.
Most of the men who have started splinters, end up proving that they really needed to work in the context of a larger organization, one with a report structure to which they were accountable. They needed the fund of knowledge, the system of ethics, and the clearly defined people skills which are all part of a corporate culture. Some continued to be moderately successful. Others ran amuck.
It seems we are being treated to yet another example of this. Some people need regulation to curtail their natural tendency to burn the bridges that had been necessary and responsible for their success. Eventually, they all have their "Oh, shit!!!" moment. Some make their way through it, others fail and fade away.
BB
Of course he travelled 340 days per year. After the 1975 debacle, being a coward, he ran for his life least his victim/s do something nasty to him. All that travelling was his way of hiding under his mother's bed, but in five star luxury. Nck, he doesn't deserve to be your hero, the father you never had.
By their schism you shall know..............
This is why I've never been a work boss, never desired to be a work boss, or asked God to give me a management position. When I joined the workforce, it didn't take long to realize that management positions, with their power and limited accountability, had destroyed the morals of their holders. Some of my work bosses should be doing prison time for the way they mistreated those under them.
Interesting analysis BB.
I was thinking how does the RCC pull it off where Local South American Bishops are catapulted into being the Princes of Vatican City...
In 1986 WCG was close to the Zenith of its influence of power which actually kept increasing until 1988 everything was poised and alligned for WCG to take a leadership role amongst Sabbath Keeping Churches Worldwide......suddenly it all collapsed as the Tkach crazies squandered everything for becoming your next local evangelical shit show.
nck
The travel with cronies pretending he was doing a commission to warn something or spread something to various people which time itself has proven to be all a total farce and a vanity because whatever he warned about was fake/pretend as much as his apostleship was fake/pretend and this must rate as one of the most ludicrous religious connected events for a very long time. The man was so deluded he even conned himself.
and as a PS the collapse of the empire is I like believe something God allowed because the lies and hypocrisy in CHRIST'S name, and abuse of people, could no t be allowed to persist
The Roman Catholic Church survived and expanded for 2,000 years because it built a system that is institution‑centred. Armstrong's system on the other hand was all centred on his false claims of commission/warning/apostle authority built entirely around himself.
Because Armstrongs personality‑centred system was based on his own prophetic claims, and his own self‑assigned authority - and despite his nominating a successor such a system fractures upon his death. No nostalgia is warranted though as it was deserving of complete failure.
The man of god went to Germany himself in his jet flown by his son in 75'. And he stopped the Keizer, it will be written in the canon! The man stopped the world war three, and the GT. Those were your two witnesses they went up in a whirlwind. You missed it. He finished the work! Where do we go from here?
Morris Chang! BB, Morris Chang ( TSMC)
Great point 2:00, or you can look at the Mormon Church and how off one may think they may be. It too is institutionally centered, even though they still honor Joseph Smith. Armstrongism had Armstrong BUT the pattern is based on following the leader, or another leader, or that leader. Or it can be following a leader that has passed away not improving with an institution. It's the ego.
One of the many things that invalidates HWA and his system, is his choice in nominating his successor. Moses nominated Joshua, David his son Solomon (although he had an issue), Elijah gave the mantle to Elisha, Jesus discipled (Peter, James, John) and John discipled Polycarp. Think about who HWA chose and the consequences of it.
Tank
...travelled 340 days per year.......there's that mysterious 2300 evenings and mornings in Dan 8:14, subject to myriad interpretations...
Evening, beginning, of the Day of Atonement, Sept 30, 1979 to the morning of Jan 16, 1986 when HWA died ? There was a near fight between 2 (or more) "ministers" at the stage one time in Pasadena.....was that on Oct 1, 1979?
Nck: I do not believe that Joe Sr. was any more talented than, intelligent than, or had any greater charisma or leadership abilities than most of the people who started the splinter groups or had major roles in them. Therefore, even if he had stuck with the original R/WCG doctrines, the Armstrongite church would never have maintained the lofty heights to which HWA had taken it. It was going to go into a dive regardless. The only factor which could have changed or postponed that outcome would have been GTA walking the talk, instead of living the dual lifestyle that he did. I believe that HWA profoundly realized this, and was filled with a deep inner sadness for the rest of his life. He did one hell of a job cloning himself, only to watch his dream disintegrate before his very eyes. Nobody else, none of the originals had been groomed to the extent that HWA groomed his own sons. Even if they had been, they would not have been able to absorb the grooming and effectively use it. ANY successor other than HWA's son would have been a throwaway.
The Tkaches were not the only blameworthy individuals for the demise of the Armstrong empire. The only reason why there are so many splinters is that all of these wonderful AC-educated ministers had such immense complexes and egos that they could not humble themselves to work with one another to maintain the one large body of believers. For most of these men, the personal price tag for that would have been way too high. Even if they had been willing to sacrifice and ante up, the Gamaliel principle would still have eventually taken its toll. 1972-75 would still have been a non-event. We'd just be having slightly different discussions in the aftermath.
BB
Where do we go from there, 6:13? We had to wait for E. & W. Germany to be re-united, eh...for the Euro coin to be minted...for the internet to "increase knowledge"...to see which splinter would get along with which splinter or extend hand to each other instead of ministerial ego trips into isolation yet today...had to wait & see if any bumbling stuntmen like Bradox & Radson & Dave Pack & Monson & Kitchen & Osamu Gotoh & Clyde Kilough & Ratzmann & Allwine & others would fall away off the Tommy Bartlett water show spotlight...had to see if Rod M. would pay for Ms. Montgomery's funeral costs...we had to see if G. Flurry would remarry some widowed chickypoo like Ms. Bareiro...had to see if Ms. Manon Chaisson would be tricked into selling off the family's winter clothing when her chicken-little Pastor Gen. Dave Pack says "the sky is falling" & "kingdom come arrives before winter" (that year)...{who needs winter clothing anyway under Pack's RCG "weather forecast?"}...had to see if Cal Culpepper would continue a regime as oppressive as Cuba's Castro...
Now we wait to see how long The Hague or the Strasbourg Parliament Bldg.'s tower of babel has patience for U.S. when we resist following that snot nosed girl Greta Thunberg into green energy for a so-called "clean earth" before some some Bavarian herr superman pulls the rug out from underneath all the debt ridden former superpowers & imposes some sort of Constantine-style Sunday keeping "tarriff"...guess we just wait & see who wants to party-like-it's-1975 again & make jokes about what was once banned or not banned or to see who wants to keep watch as Jesus said...👀
Excellent comments all and BB always.
When my kin joined one of the early splinters this was exactly the question that I asked. What if so and so would break off keeping good things together would that "leader of yours" join them in harmony???
Of course non of it did happen although UCG and the Association people would disagree.
My beef with the Tkach sr is not so much his gross incompetence as an administrator ............as he admitted himself he was not charismatic at all by saying it and by action to never appear on TV. My beef is actually that he allowed the lie that he was a Pacific Veteran.
Now. All the posts that I attributed to HWA over the past 25 years do not claim that any of the incompetence was the reason the edifice faltered. I have always maintained the line that HWA's rise exactly followed the pattern of the rise of the American Empire and its projection of soft power and its exact moment of collapse was the moment the Soviets lowered the Soviet flag on the Kremlin.......All my posts have supported that thesis.
nck
You forget Herbert Armstrong believed the work of the church was centred on his efforts and ideas, and it would end when he died. Such was his belief.
Garner Ted knew this and tried to emphasize in the 80's explaining how his dad wasn't an apostle and it was possible for Holy day observance and 7th day sabbath church to not be about one man at the top.
i've come to ask a question. It came to mind with the discussion of Herbert flying around the world. A minister I knew in the church when I was in it many years ago now told me that the pilot of the plane had said he'd fly the plane into the ground if the apostle ordered him to. Such was the devotion. Has anyone heard the same , or at least consider what I was told has a ring of truth ?
So is Jason Fritts starting a new church? Did Sheldon Monson address the controversy this past Sabbath?
Bradox & Radson were supposed to fly that plane into the ground but they said no way José
no way Hose B
I know that Stan Rader took a Commercial 1st class Flight from Brussels to Paris just 2 hours before the GII would fly the same route with HWA.......just so Stan could "prepare things.'"
nck
That's one report, 4:24. The problem is that HWA made many statements throughout his ministry, just as he reinterpreted and modified doctrines. During the time that I was a member, it was universally believed that HWA would lead us into the place of safety and be there, rising with us to meet Jesus Christ in the air as He returned. Some have quoted HWA as stating that there would be a greater work after him, an Elisha to his Elijah. If such statements were made they would have occurred after I got a clue and left in 1975.
When GTA started his ministry, I was shocked and disappointed that he had not "come clean" and entered a more honorable profession, such as TV news anchor, musician, commercial airline pilot, or motion picture actor. Instead, it seemed as if he was playing the role of Samson, bringing down the house of Armstrong, while retaining his own picked and chosen doctrines. He had the opportunity to make a clean break, and didn't take it. That and his pathological vices destroyed any respect or admiration I had once had for the man. Not that there ever was a moral high ground to Armstrongism, but GTA certainly did not have any moral high ground which would have qualified him to reform his father's doctrines.
BB
This is very hurtful. These ministers gave outstanding messages inspired by God. Now they’re scattered. There’s a prophecy in Daniel that speaks about the scattering of the saints.
Well, nck, there is no question that the American Empire is currently faltering, and the rise and fall of the Armstrong empire often appears to have been an ante-type, roughly speaking. I've concluded that this is simply a Pink Floyd/Wizard of Oz level coincidence like some stoned out hippie discovered back in the '70s. (See Wikipedia article "The Dark Side of the Rainbow")
BB
People talked big. I actually wanted to die when I first started learning irrefutable truths about HWA and the WCG. It was awful! Questions came into my mind, like should I send my tithes to Billy Graham. Should I keep whatever doctrines were salvageable in private, at home? Gradually, things cleared up, and life went on. I still don't have completely satisfying answers to some of the deep philosophical questions which are part of life, but it is much better than having lies and heresies as answers.
Nck, you say it was a lie that JWT was a Pacific vet? His bio says he served a short time at the end of the war in the navy. My understanding is that he was there when the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbour.
8.12, I've found that many televangelist' sermons were far better than Herb's ministers. The televangelists obviously had researchers handing them material. Kenneth Copeland use to have guest speakers who were well versed in some religious technical topics. It was one of these speakers who taught me that Christ leads individual Christians directly without a middleman minster being involved. This is something that power hungry ACOG ministers still deny.
The other thing is that most ACOG ministers are not book readers or intellectually inclined, so no, most of their sermons are not outstanding. Rather they are Mickey Mouse quality, which is why so many of their members, after decades of attendance, are still socially backward and easily morally stumped.
Could be...It was just not the heroic thing that was presented in the Feast films when he was introduced to the People.
nck
Well yes BB....."The Yellow Brick Road, just follow the yellow brick road.......".......which was quite the quarrel when the original book was written about "The Gold Standard." An issue that was later resolved at Jekyll Island by creating the Fed.
nck
All I’ll say is I’ve never been so disappointed in so many men over so many years 😓
Let's not keep throwing the tomatoes at these old heroes faces forever...a WW II vet can come home after the war & freely join WCG itself if he wanted to.
K. Copeland was less than a Mickey Mouse the time he drank the blood of his assistant hireling buddy :
https://youtu.be/holquwtgUn4?si=wPyYnOSBuGsizkcM
Try not to expect us to respect Copeland at all, eh?
No, no David Gilmore didn't really know what he was doing with those strings. Speaking of strings, what happened with Armstrongism is the "wizard" pulled back the curtains and we got what we got, splinters. I will say with you too, the boomer generation turning out the lights of both empires is not just a coincidence it's fitting.
4:11 Thank you for that response. I guess you covered everything (except for Brexit, Bobwana , and Artificial Intelligence). Oh and electronic bibles.
Bravo, 3:26
In the early days of COGA I listened to several messages over the Net. Some were better than others. It was a lot of the same re-cyled COG stuff. I listened to the tone of SM and didn't care for his wanting to micro-manage people.
We have free moral agency. Somehow most COG organizations have forgotten this. I'm not surprised that things fell apart. I didn't think it would take this long...
From what we have read here, would you say SM fits the Jon Brisby mold? He's another one that never ceases to amaze with the ways his followers (spiritual masochists) allow him to have such power over their lives.
Maybe Rod Meredith was the real W. Of Oz lurking behind the curtain.
I did for a while watch the services online of CGA, and started to lose interest due to boring messages, Sheldon being a control freak, and their false understanding of some prophecies. I do wonder though where Fritts is now and does he have a website yet?
What were Sheldon's falsities? Enquiring minds need to know, I am curious since I have no time to sift out this guy from that like I once tried to.
Agoura -
I watched their broadcasts for awhile as I wasn't interested in the Big 3 - United, Living, or COGWA. Unfortunately their congregations were too far to attend.
After Sheldon and Jason, the rest of the speakers collectively were dry as dirt. Like alot of independent splinters, after the initial buzz / excitement there was no growth. I personally got tired of the browbeating and the control, along with the outsized focus of the end times and Revelation. It was like Philadelphia church lite.
I am still curious if Jason Fritts would go out on his own. He is young, charismatic and a leader, with many that would follow him. It is an undertaking to form a church, however. An advantage he has is that many splinter groups started 20 - 30 years ago have died off, and he is in high growth area of Tennessee.
United and COGWA ARE growing, especially in certain areas of the country. But he might get enough for say 150, with multiple congregations. Most independent splinters have 1 congregation, between 40 and 60 people. The ones that are "scattered brethren " follow online but attend with COGWA or United for socialization. Most splinters are in the South, especially Texas, where people are moving to.
Anyone on Banned know if Jason is starting his own church?
He says NO he is not!
If he's not starting a new organization, does Jason Fritts plan to return to Living or join another existing group?
It's doubtful Fritz would return to LCG.
Most probably not, he most probably will join UCG
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