COG Veritas writes:
The Rick Shabi tenure as leader in UCG ended with a lot of confusion. Many members liked him, but chalked it up to "Politics". Home Office was not transparent on the issues that led to Mr. Shabi's departure.
"He was hard on the Home Office Staff" was a common refrain.
Remember, UCG's home office Ministry wants their Ego's stroked and to stay in their comfort zone. Accountability is not a high priority.
We were going to write an article on Rick Shabi, but his son did us a favor.
Rick Shabi believed in Fiscal responsibility. We have heard 2nd hand that the costs to produce a Beyond Today episodes by Peter Eddington and Darris McNeely and that crew were significant. If someone knows Peter Eddington, ask him the cost to produce each episode and post it here. (Is it North of $100,000 per episode?).
Rick Shabi produced a podcast that was a fraction of the cost and had more followers. Would this produce jealousy?
We are aware of a situation that got out of hand involving Steve Meyers. He refused to meet Face to Face with the members who repeatedly requested a meeting. Mark Welch, Vic Kubik, and Darris McNeely did nothing to deal with Steve Meyers or require him to have a meeting. They looked the other way.
Rick Shabi at least forced Steve Meyers to meet with the brethren where he was exposed as Incompetent, lying, and a fraud.
So, Rick Shabi was willing to make the Home Office Ministers have the hard conversation with the members when they made a mistake, in this instance.
In his son's words, here is what went down at the end of Rick Shabi's tenure.
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Today marks the one-year anniversary of my father’s death, closing out a year that has felt like a heavy blur of grief and reflection. I have always preferred to remain quiet, keep my focus on my family and move forward. However, given the impact of the recent General Conference of Elders’ (GCE) tribute on my family, it became clear that silence isn’t an option when the truth is not faithfully represented.
Seeing the GCE printed booklet was a painful catalyst, forcing the realization that quiet restraint was no longer an option. After I presented my father’s records to the Council of Elders earlier in the year and received their formal response, I had begun to resign myself to letting the matter go—accepting that administrative channels for review were closed and trying to focus instead on honoring my father’s memory through this website. While I always intended to write something to mark the one-year anniversary of my father’s death, this message would have looked far different had that misleading tribute not been published in their official record. Seeing an alternate narrative printed for the entire Church made it clear that our silence was being used against us—and with my father no longer here to defend himself, I realized that if his true account was ever to be known, I had to speak on his behalf.
My family initially kept our heartache private, hoping prayer, time and thoughtful dialogue would bring peace. However, our silence allowed a convenient narrative to take hold—one that risks framing my father’s presidency, his exit, and his final warnings through the lens of personal conflict rather than his unwavering commitment to biblical principle. Standing for the truth requires setting the record straight, ensuring history is remembered accurately, and fulfilling my promise to him.
There is a literary concept which has stuck with me, which is that a person dies twice. The first is physical, but the second happens when their true story is erased, replaced with a false narrative, and eventually forgotten. While that second fading usually takes generations, here it is happening less than a year after my father’s death. To ensure his true legacy is preserved, and his memory and true experiences are not lost so soon, I am choosing to honor two promises I made to my father in his final days: first, to keep his messages permanently and publicly available, and second, to bring the truth of what he endured in secret into the light.
This second promise grew directly out of the tragic timing of my father’s death. Throughout June 2025, my father carried a crushing spiritual burden. In his original resignation letter, he spoke openly of the “literal lies and betrayal” he had witnessed and experienced—a pain compounded as he realized that church leadership’s promises about his returning to pastoring in Orlando were empty, and that the church organization was moving down a path he viewed as deeply alarming. This unresolved distress took a heavy physical and emotional toll on him and never left his mind, even during our family cruise. Tragically, he suffered a sudden, fatal heart attack just one week after we returned, leaving him no opportunity to share what had happened with the brethren or address it publicly. During his final days in the hospital, knowing the time was short, he asked me to eventually bring the things that happened secretly into the light, if possible, realizing it would be incredibly difficult because he had struggled deeply with how to approach it himself.
Even though many of these events happened a year ago, the spirit behind them remains today.
Spiritual Cancer —
Preserving the True RecordThe public statement made at the recent 2026 General Conference of Elders (GCE) was difficult for our family to hear, as it did not reflect the reality of his final months. First and foremost, my father was explicit with us before he died that he did not want a tribute presented to him at the 2026 GCE or any future conference.
There is a clear distinction between the public narrative and the private reality. Praising my father from the pulpit while quietly setting aside his final warnings creates the very condition he warned against in his sermon,
Spiritual Cancer—where institutional appearances are maintained while foundational principles are quietly set aside.
While some are aware that my father stepped down shortly before the conclusion of his presidential term, many do not know the biblical convictions that guided his decision. In his original resignation letter, he explained that continuing his active participation as president would make it appear as though he condoned an environment incompatible with God’s standards of Christian leadership. He wrote that he had to follow his conscience, choosing to "obey God rather than men." For this exact reason, he asked my mother and me to ensure his wishes were honored—specifically to avoid having his story reshaped into a more convenient narrative.
Despite his explicit request, the Council and administration (church leadership) moved forward with a tribute for my father without consulting our family. In the official GCE booklet, they printed an alternate story, stating that my father passed away "just months after completing his presidential term" and "while looking forward to resuming his service in the pastoral ministry" in Orlando.
Neither statement reflects the documented reality, as the official narrative leaves out two critical facts:
The reality of my father’s exit: Stating that my father simply “completed his presidential term” attempts to erase his formal resignation and to alter what he stood for in his final days. He did not quietly finish his time in office and ride off into a contented retirement. We wish that had been the case. Instead, he felt it necessary to take a definitive, documented moral stand against the direction and conduct within church leadership—specifically resigning early and choosing not to participate in the 30th Anniversary GCE celebration so as not to appear to condone what had occurred. By omitting his April 27th resignation, the official account reframed a profound act of biblical conscience into a standard administrative transition.
His pastor’s heart and desire to serve: My father never viewed the presidency as a status symbol. His true heart was always that of a pastor. In both of his resignation letters, my father made it clear that stepping down as president was not a resignation from the ministry. He affirmed his commitment to serve the brethren and stated his clear desire to pastor in Orlando following the local pastor's retirement, writing in his May 1st resignation letter that this was “for the record.” He simply wanted to spend his remaining years serving the local congregation he loved.
Instead, my father died with the firm, painful knowledge that he would never be permitted to pastor in Orlando again. While still president, he learned that other individuals were already being contacted to fill that exact role—a reality later confirmed in a conversation my mother overheard when Chairman Tim Pebworth noted that “under normal circumstances” a former president would naturally have the option to return to pastoring. While leadership publicly presented the image of a peaceful, seamless transition to the church, my father was left with the realization that behind closed doors, his situation was being treated as abnormal. Carrying the heavy weight of that reality, my father never attempted to defend himself publicly, choosing instead self-control over self-defense.
Are You Living by Every Word?
Unwavering UrgencyThe current direction of the church as described in recent public Council reports stands in clear contrast to the principles my father lived and taught—marking a direction the church has never taken before. As president, my father operated with an absolute urgency to preach the gospel, holding a firm conviction that God’s resources should be actively invested into the work today. Historically, tithe funds have been protected from market risk and investment speculation, reserved instead for immediate use in preaching the gospel. However, recent official reports highlight an administrative shift that has allocated millions of dollars of tithes into long-term investments. While the stated goal is to protect the organization’s assets for the future, placing security in long-term financial accumulation risks replacing immediate, active faith with human reasoning and physical safety.
Long before these financial strategy shifts were made public, my father warned that institutional self-preservation runs counter to God’s calling. In
Our Collective Part in Advancing the Mission, my father reminded the church that “God’s will is that His Church moves forward… He never called us to be status quo,” cautioning against allowing a desire for physical security to distract from the work at hand. Relying on the stability of a fragile economic system undermines the core call to preach with true urgency about the end of the age and the coming Kingdom of God. As my father warned in
Are You Living by Every Word (Carefully, Diligently, Willingly, Now), financial accumulation can create a false sense of security that obscures how rapidly events can unfold:
“Suddenly is going to come suddenly… any morning we could wake up and life as we have known it has changed. The economy could fall. It is that perilous. It is a bulge in the wall, just willing, just ready to break.”Are You Living by Every Word? (Carefully, Diligently, Willingly, Now)—Rick Shabi, March 16, 2024
This financial shift stands in clear contrast to the example my father set even in his final hours. Though none of us expected him to die so suddenly, he shared with us in that hospital room that he was completely at peace, precisely because he had lived and served with unwavering urgency, holding nothing back from what he believed God required of him.
If my father had prioritized long-term material security or personal comfort over immediate faith, his final days and the legacy he left behind would have been entirely different. The true danger of the church’s financial shift is not merely where tithes are placed, but the subtle spiritual decay that institutional mindset can create within us. When the leadership of a church begins relying on long-term financial accumulation rather than immediate faith, that same lack of urgency can quietly creep into our own personal lives. My father’s example leaves us with a sobering question for our own lives—when our time eventually comes, will we be able to face it with that same absolute peace? The answer depends on whether we choose to place our trust in physical security today, or in fully surrendering our lives and resources to God’s work.
The Danger of Politics —
A Warning FulfilledAt the beginning of his presidency, my father established his personal boundary plainly— “I don’t play politics, I don’t respond to politics because I don’t like it, I don’t like what it does. I’ve seen it firsthand.” In that same sermon,
The Danger of Politics, he warned the church how easily corporate mindsets can infiltrate the church and spiritual leadership, noting that “politics is a dangerous thing... it leads to destruction, politics leads to strife, politics leads to death,” noting that its root cause is simple — “it’s about self, it’s about what I want… who I favor.” He explicitly cautioned:
“Political maneuverings in a church or anyplace else… lead to factions that can develop and that can lead to decisions that can be hurtful and painful to others.” The Danger of Politics (Sermon)—Rick Shabi, November 5, 2022
Looking back at his private records today, those words carry remarkable foresight regarding the very environment he later encountered at the Home Office. As the executor of my father’s estate, I began organizing his personal records earlier this year and cataloging his physical and digital files. What I found were not casual notes, but official written communications, timelines, and primary documents detailing the severe, ongoing opposition he experienced behind closed doors throughout the spring of 2025—an environment marked by resistance to his leadership, disrespect, bitter jealousy, and direct hostility from leadership.
Some have asked whether the resistance my father faced was simply a clash of personalities. In his original resignation letter, my father addressed the severe environment behind closed doors, recording his perspective that the ongoing disruption was “to remove and discredit me.” His private archive contains both his comprehensive April 27th resignation detailing these institutional and spiritual concerns, as well as the brief, sanitized May 1st version he was pressured to submit four days later—a compromise he agreed to out of a personal commitment to obey Christ’s command to reconcile with an adversary along the way (Luke 12:58). In reality, the Council voted to end his presidency because his presence stood as an unyielding barrier to institutional compromise, political maneuvering, and centralized administrative control. Removing him marked a turning point for the fundamental shift in governance and church resources that we are beginning to witness today. While his private archive contains extensive documentation regarding the administrative environment he went through, my goal is not to engage in conflict, but rather to honor my father’s consistent call for biblical integrity.
To ensure proper spiritual counsel and biblical wisdom were followed, these records were independently reviewed and verified by a group of elders. Their evaluation reached the same conclusion—my father’s documented records stand in direct contrast to the public accounts presented by leadership. This documentation reveals a stable presidency suddenly disrupted by unverified private claims. My father spoke out because he believed the church was facing a defining “now I know” test, referencing God’s words to Abraham after he showed his willingness to obey. My father felt church leadership was at a similar crossroads where God was examining their true hearts, facing a choice that would permanently define the church’s trajectory.
The Deceptive Heart —
A Need for Biblical TransparencyNear the end of his presidency, my father delivered a sermon titled
The Deceptive Heart, reminding the church how easily human reasoning can trick believers and leaders into compromising God’s standards:
“They watered down what He [God] said and somehow, they’ve convinced themselves that’s okay. It’s not okay.” Drawing from Galatians 5, he highlighted the spiritual danger of prioritizing personal or organizational self-preservation over God’s truth, noting that deception often manifests as “a self-willed opinion… which is substituted for submission to the power of Truth, and that leads to division.” The Deceptive Heart (Sermon)—Rick Shabi, February 22, 2025
I brought my father’s records directly to the Council to give them a complete, transparent picture, sharing the heavy burden my father carried in his final months hoping some sort of open dialogue could occur. I hoped the Council would review these matters with pastoral care and work toward resolution and peace for our family.
Instead, I received a formal response from Chairman Tim Pebworth on behalf of the Council of Elders. While the letter opened with condolences, the primary focus centered on our family’s grief rather than the documented timelines I had presented, leaving the evidence, records, and contradictions surrounding my father’s final months unaddressed.
Rather than addressing the substance of the documents or even acknowledging sorrow for how my father felt in his final days, the Council focused on the tone of my request—characterizing a call for transparency as “the language of ultimatum” and stating they were “collectively saddened—not angered, but genuinely saddened” by my approach. They declined my proposed terms, asserting that these matters must“remain in private channels” under the framework of Matthew 18.
In practice, keeping these records exclusively within private channels prevented any broader organizational review. When I inquired about an independent review, it became clear that no governing body—including the General Conference of Elders—was designated to receive or act upon such findings, leaving no structural channel for impartial evaluation or accountability for church leadership.
Ultimately, rather than engaging with the documented records, the Council conditioned any future discussion on a process “free from public pressure” and “performative urgency” that they felt “forecloses the very space for genuine reconciliation.” But asking for truth and transparency regarding a father and former president’s final weeks in office is not “performative urgency”—it is basic
Biblical Accountability. My requests to the Council were straightforward—acknowledge or explain the documented contradictions and share the facts with the GCE, the body their own governing documents define as the ultimate human authority.
As Jesus Christ made clear in John 3:21,
“He who does the truth comes to the light, that his deeds may be clearly seen.”
Truth naturally welcomes the light, whereas incomplete narratives rely on restricted access. Choosing to keep the documented records within closed channels leaves the brethren to discern their own conclusions for themselves.
Reflecting on this outcome reveals a persistent pattern. In his resignation letter, my father recorded that when he submitted his formal March 16th warning letter—outlining key concerns regarding church governance and administrative direction—directly to the Council and Ethics Committee, his warning was met with complete silence, despite his earnest efforts to follow the scriptural order of Matthew 18. A year later, when I presented his documented archive, the Council provided a formal response, yet the core contradictions remained unaddressed. A full year has passed, but the spirit behind that response remains completely unchanged.
The Allegory of the CaveIn the final month before my father’s sudden heart attack, he spoke with me at length about Plato’s Allegory of the Cave. We talked about it right before our family cruise to Greece, which had led him to reflect on ancient history, language, and how patterns of human behavior repeat themselves all through Scripture, from Joseph and David to the prophets and Jesus Christ Himself.
The allegory describes a group of prisoners chained inside a dark cave, facing a blank wall. For their entire lives, they watch artificial shadows cast across the wall by handlers or puppeteers, mistaking those illusions for reality. When one prisoner is finally freed and forced outside into the true light of the sun, he is initially overwhelmed but eventually sees the world as it truly is—beautiful and full of truth. However, when he returns to the cave to share that truth out of love and a desire to free the others, he is ridiculed and rejected. The prisoners prefer the comfort of the familiar shadows over the light, becoming defensive and even violent if forced to face reality.
My father wrestled deeply with why God had allowed him to witness what he saw during his presidency. Looking back, I realize he was using this concept to process his own grief. He saw a timeless biblical parallel—the same struggle early Christians faced as they had to step out from the religious cave of the Pharisees to find true light and transformation. Having stepped into the leadership of the church, he witnessed firsthand the painful difference between what was told to the brethren publicly and what was happening in secret. He found that simply trying to speak the truth was met with immediate resistance.
“Once a person’s eyes have adjusted to the light of uncompromised truth, it becomes spiritually impossible to remain in the shadows of self-deception or to pretend that human control can ever take the place of God’s truth.” Rick Shabi—June 16, 2025
End Time Readiness —
Loving the Truth & Discernment
The true weight of these patterns came into sharp focus on July 19, 2025, when my father delivered what would be the final sermon in his physical life:
End Time Readiness: Loving the Truth and Spirit of Discernment. While spiritual discernment is often viewed by many as a safeguard against external influences, my father’s focus was centered on a subtle and more serious concern—the danger of spiritual compromise arising from within the church.
My father shared with my mother, wife, and me that throughout his presidency, his sermons reflected what he was experiencing and what was happening to him in secret. At times, following prayer, he felt moved to change his planned sermons, even when facing opposition from church leadership over their content. It was only later that the tragic reality would surface—the spiritual warnings my father felt moved to deliver were a mirror-image exposure of the very administrative maneuvers transpiring against him in secret.
In what would be his final sermon to the church, my father spoke from the heart to equip the church with essential principles for spiritual discernment. Midway through his sermon, he turned his focus toward the internal condition of those in spiritual authority, reminding the membership that spiritual compromise within leadership rarely presents itself openly. Instead, it enters quietly through gradual, subtle shifts that require deep spiritual vigilance to recognize.
"And it could be that even in our lives, right in the church, sometimes it isn't a lie as in, you know, a blatant lie that we would all say is absolutely wrong. But there can be a twist here or a twist there or you see something that's not quite right. And what does that mean? We live by the word of God. You know, Paul as he was talking to the elders of Ephesus, he warned them in Acts 20 that even from among you, some will come in and they will teach perverse things. But it really is misleading things is the correct translation there. You don't have to do that. That doesn't apply here.'" End Time Readiness—Loving the Truth and Spiritual Discernment (Sermon), Rick Shabi, July 19, 2025
He was exposing an institutional mindset that risks prioritizing institutional convenience over scriptural righteousness. To help the church navigate such an environment, he provided a vital key of spiritual discernment, drawing directly from the account of Isaac in Genesis: “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. Something’s not right here. If it doesn’t seem right, just do a little more investigation. Seek the truth.” When Isaac was old and his sight failed, he sensed that something was wrong, yet he moved forward anyway, wanting to believe the illusion so he wouldn’t have to face a harsher reality. My father warned us never to fall into that same spiritual trap.
Following my father’s death, these very spiritual principles became strikingly relevant. The nice, polished GCE tribute presented a reassuring, unified message—the comforting “voice of Jacob” meant to signal peace across the church. But as my father urged us, true discernment requires examining the “hands of Esau”—the actual actions taking place behind the scenes.
A direct review of the official YouTube channel reveals media actions taken regarding my father’s final warning messages. Key sermons, including
The Deceptive Heart,
Spiritual Cancer, and
Our Collective Part in Advancing the Mission, were changed from public status to ‘unlisted,’ removing them from public search results and main channel visibility. Regardless of whether these specific messages are currently hidden or have been selectively restored to public view by the time you read this, the underlying objective remains apparent.
End Time Readiness —
Loving the Truth & Discernment
The true weight of these patterns came into sharp focus on July 19, 2025, when my father delivered what would be the final sermon in his physical life: End Time Readiness: Loving the Truth and Spirit of Discernment. While spiritual discernment is often viewed by many as a safeguard against external influences, my father’s focus was centered on a subtle and more serious concern—the danger of spiritual compromise arising from within the church.
My father shared with my mother, wife, and me that throughout his presidency, his sermons reflected what he was experiencing and what was happening to him in secret. At times, following prayer, he felt moved to change his planned sermons, even when facing opposition from church leadership over their content. It was only later that the tragic reality would surface—the spiritual warnings my father felt moved to deliver were a mirror-image exposure of the very administrative maneuvers transpiring against him in secret.
In what would be his final sermon to the church, my father spoke from the heart to equip the church with essential principles for spiritual discernment. Midway through his sermon, he turned his focus toward the internal condition of those in spiritual authority, reminding the membership that spiritual compromise within leadership rarely presents itself openly. Instead, it enters quietly through gradual, subtle shifts that require deep spiritual vigilance to recognize.
"And it could be that even in our lives, right in the church, sometimes it isn't a lie as in, you know, a blatant lie that we would all say is absolutely wrong. But there can be a twist here or a twist there or you see something that's not quite right. And what does that mean? We live by the word of God. You know, Paul as he was talking to the elders of Ephesus, he warned them in Acts 20 that even from among you, some will come in and they will teach perverse things. But it really is misleading things is the correct translation there. You don't have to do that. That doesn't apply here.'"
End Time Readiness—Loving the Truth and Spiritual Discernment (Sermon), Rick Shabi, July 19, 2025
He was exposing an institutional mindset that risks prioritizing institutional convenience over scriptural righteousness. To help the church navigate such an environment, he provided a vital key of spiritual discernment, drawing directly from the account of Isaac in Genesis: “The voice is Jacob’s voice, but the hands are the hands of Esau. Something’s not right here. If it doesn’t seem right, just do a little more investigation. Seek the truth.” When Isaac was old and his sight failed, he sensed that something was wrong, yet he moved forward anyway, wanting to believe the illusion so he wouldn’t have to face a harsher reality. My father warned us never to fall into that same spiritual trap.
Following my father’s death, these very spiritual principles became strikingly relevant. The nice, polished GCE tribute presented a reassuring, unified message—the comforting “voice of Jacob” meant to signal peace across the church. But as my father urged us, true discernment requires examining the “hands of Esau”—the actual actions taking place behind the scenes.
A direct review of the official YouTube channel reveals media actions taken regarding my father’s final warning messages. Key sermons, including The Deceptive Heart, Spiritual Cancer, and Our Collective Part in Advancing the Mission, were changed from public status to ‘unlisted,’ removing them from public search results and main channel visibility. Regardless of whether these specific messages are currently hidden or have been selectively restored to public view by the time you read this, the underlying objective remains apparent.
Figures 1-3 show this pattern - Official YouTube player settings for "Spiritual Cancer," "The Deceptive Heart," and "Our Collective Part in Advancing the Mission," showing 'Unlisted' status on the official United Church of God channel.
This pattern extends even to his final sermon, End Time Readiness, which was made available solely as an audio file on the church website, while several of his Biblical Worldview messages were removed. My father did not preach to earn institutional approval or applause but preached with end-time urgency because he genuinely cared for the spiritual welfare of the brethren. Seeing his final warning messages placed on 'unlisted' status or restricted from public search feeds does not diminish their truth. The character of a faithful shepherd is revealed in his willingness to preach uncompromised truth even when it becomes uncomfortable, and ensuring those messages remain publicly accessible allows his living work to continue serving the Church.
