Living Church of God has a little blurb up by Doug Winnail about seeking "wise counsel" from the ministry and others instead of not relying upon your own intuition on some things.
Given the abysmal track record of the ministry of the COG interfering and destroying lives of their members due to their "wise counsel," why would any COG member in this day and age EVER considered a minister telling them what they should or should not be doing? Most COG ministers are not trained to actually do "wise counselling." They rely only upon gut feelings, just as the person who is seeking counsel is doing.
CAD Comments - Friday, August 04, 2017The Value of Counsel
One common pitfall in life is trusting in our own judgment when we only see part of the picture or when we only see what we want to see. When we make decisions or take actions based on how we feel or how we see a situation, the results can be costly for ourselves and for others. This is why Solomon advised in Proverbs 3:5, “lean not on your own understanding,” and in Proverbs 3:7, “Do not be wise in your own eyes,” and again in Proverbs 28:26, “He who trusts in his [or her] own heart is a fool…” Solomon also warned in Proverbs 14:12, “There is a way that seems right to a man [or to a woman], but its end is the way of death.” To help us avoid making serious mistakes in life, God inspired Solomon to write in Proverbs 11:14, “Where there is no counsel, the people fall; but in a multitude of counselors there is safety” and again in Proverbs 15:22, “Without counsel, plans go awry, but in the multitude of counselors they are established.” We can obtain wise counsel from parents, the ministry, and from older, more experienced friends, relatives and associates who can be objective and help us see a bigger picture than we perceive on our own. Seeking wise counsel is a habit we can develop that will help us succeed and avoid making serious mistakes.Have a profitable Sabbath,Douglas S. Winnail
Of course, there is nothing wrong with seeking wise counsel on different issues and circumstances in life. People who have the experience or been in similar situations have a multitude of knowledge to share. Many of the ministry in the Church of God do not. Their so-called training has come from booklets and sermons, not from spending hundreds of hours taking training on how to be empathetic listeners. Instead, they lash out with absurd and sometimes dangerous conclusions that members are required to follow, or else they are kicked to the curb. Truly, is there an LCG minister actually trained by an outside college or institution, in therapy and counseling?