Brian Orchard, you remember him, right? Most today will say, who? Many thought he was no longer alive. He has the distinction of leading three different insurrections in the church, WCG to UCG, UCG to David Hulme, and David Hulme to Father's Call.
Never has a COG splinter group faded into nothingness quicker than the Father's Call group did. No one hears anything from them anymore and they are just one more pin on the bulletin board of splinter churches.
Like so many other men before him. he thought he knew better how to do things and led an insurrection against David Hulme starting in late 2013. A large group of Hulme's ministers walked out.
Brian Orchard, Peter Nathan, Matt King, Bill Hutchison, Bob Rodzaj, Cliff Veal, Marshall Stiver, Stephen Elliott, Steve Andrews, and Ted Budge, are just a few of the ministers who rebelled against Hulme.
A member from Australia had this to say about Orchard:
Brian Orchard may get an invitation to become the goalie for the Australian national ice hockey team. He has mastered the splits! First, years ago, with a behind-the-scenes campaign that led to WCG Australian Regional Director Dean Wilson being ousted and then Brian and his co-conspirators disciplined, with a split ministry in Australia that took years to heal. Then Brian participated, albeit as part of a larger movement, in the UCG split from WCG. Then Brian honed his skills developed in the Wilson ouster by helping to foment the 1998 Hulme split from UCG , and now Brian is involved in yet another split! He has truly mastered “the splits” and would likely make a great ice hockey goalie!
Orchard plotted along with Vic Kubik and others while they were employed by the WCG in Pasadena. They met often in the SOG 360 Apartments plotting and scheming their exit from the mother church, but not before they stole member lists and had set up a bank account that funded their ministerial lifestyles when they jumped ship into the United Church of God.
Then, dissatisfied with the United Church of God, he along with David Hulme and others split off to set David up in the Church of God and International Community. Which turned out to be another meaningless blip on the Church of God splinter group map.
It wasn't long till he was fed up with Hulme's stance on marriage and divorce and British Israelism, so he rebelled again and started the Father's Call splinter.
Once fully ensconced in the Father's Call splinter group, Orchard then preached a sermon about Jesus. No, no that kind of a sermon but one in which he declared that the church talks TOO MUCH about Jesus!
Mr. Orchard said something that surprised me. He said that in the past the Church of God has focused too much on Christ and not enough on the Father, and that COGFC is trying to put the focus on the Father. It surprised me because I do not think that Mr. Armstrong taught the Church too much emphasis on Christ, rather, when he was alive I thought we were properly focused on the Father. Perhaps Mr. Orchard was speaking of only the past 16 or so years since COGaic formed under Mr. David Hulme. I have not attended that organization enough to know if they were negligent in focusing on the Father. But Mr. Armstrong was not negligent. He focused on the Father, and so did the Church of God when he was alive. I think many or most converted members of the Church of God today in various fellowships put primary focus on the Father, addressing our prayers to the Father for example. Avoiding a Spirit of Hostile Competition / Church of God, a Family Community at Six Months
All of these self-appointed saviors of the church, each with their own special message that the rest of the church is supposed to be in need of, have turned out to be one great big fat...