The Intense Persecution of the Churches of God

Every time a Church of God leader screams  "persecution" remember this...

United Church of God: It's Pathetic Feast of Tabernacles Attendance Figures

United Church of God touts its self as the true restored Church of God that holds fast to the truth of Herbert Armstrong.  It does that while still living in the pre-1986 modus operandi of their former mother the Worldwide Church of God. As hard as they try, they cannot seem to make their brand of Armstrongism relevant to the world around them.  Twenty some years on, even with countless personal appearance campaigns, the UCG is not able to draw people in, let alone keep their present members engaged.

Just take a look at their Feast attendance figures for 2015. 7,700 total people in attendance!    This total is the equivalent of ONE medium sized WCG Feast site from the past.  Large sites like St. Pete/Tampa would have 15,000+ during the WCG glory days!  Jekyll Island would have 7-8,000+ when the WCG put it on...now UCG can only get 479 to attend!  It would be laughable if it wasn't so pathetic!

2015 Feast of Tabernacles Attendance
United States Sites:
Bend/Redmond	684
Bigfork	152
Branson	528
Cincinnati	370
Galveston	456
Jekyll Island	479
Lahaina	311
Ocean City	362
Oceanside	554
Panama City Beach	1234
Phoenix	188
Sevierville	781
Steamboat Springs	313
Wisconsin Dells	744
United States Satellite Sites:
Big Sandy	51
Tampa	37
Tucson	31
Canadian Sites:
Canmore	180
Gros Morne	42
Kelowna	163
Midland	125
Total, U.S. & Canada Combined	7,785

Living Church of God: Rod Meredith Forces The New "Bob League" To Sell His House In Service To LCG

From an LCG source:

Rod Meredith's new henchman and Bob League's replacement, Michael Desimone has been forced to put his gorgeous Charlotte home on the market. Mike had a decent job and his family lived comfortably in a large home with acres of wooded property in a great Charlotte neighborhood. That is until Rod Meredith manipulated him into quitting his job to prove his loyalty to the Church of Rod.
 
Unfortunately,  the idealistic Desimone will now be expected to blindly obey Master Meredith's every command. His most recent order to sell his stunning 5 bedroom, 6 bathroom home was blindly obeyed as expected.
 
Rod and Lil' Jimmy don't want someone below them to have a nicer house after all. It just doesn't look right for a subordinate to be living higher on the hog than number 3 and 4 in all the universe. Ego and vanity. Vanity and ego.
 
Just like that episode of Star Trek where John-Luc Picard turns into a robot-human part of the Borg,  Mike Desimone has now become assimilated. Resistance was futile.
 
He was once a relatively nice guy, although fairly daft. Now, after several months of training for his new position assisting the tyrannical Rod McNair in policing the Charlotte LCG congregation, he has already begun to become less human.
 
What else could be expected? Can you imagine being trained by Rod McNair? The poor man hasn't got a prayer. I'm sure he has already been baptized into "the ends justify the means" club of which McNair is the chairman. He's already comfortable telling long-time church members that are twice his age that they can't study the Bible without a minister present.
 
The silver lining might be that he will now be able to keep his friends out of trouble. Everyone knows that favoritism rules at LCG and the close friends and family of ministers get the get-out-of-jail-free cards.
 
He was most certainly ordained and given the position that he is in because he is a "yes man".  Like a soldier, he is perfectly okay executing orders without questioning whether what he's being asked to do is right or wrong.
 
Mike once said that "if Mr. Meredith says it, it's the same as if it were written in the Bible". That type of obedience to Rod is how you get places in LCG!
 
Many of us feel a little sorry for Mike. He worked hard to make something of his career despite the lack of quick wit. He had a big heart and puppy eyes, truly believing that serving the "one true church" would sure up his position as a pillar in the kingdom. I'm sure he will hide is sadness and despair and march forward like all good soldiers do even after the truth becomes known to him. The truth that it is all a charade. The truth that LCG headquarters is filled with boasters, liars, back-biters and bullies. It's always a little heart breaking for new hires at LCG headquarters at first but then he will tell himself that it's a test of obedience or make some other excuse in his mind to prevent the truth and doubt from seeping into his perfectly brainwashed obedient mind. It's so much easier to make excuses and go with the flow than to stand up against the rampant bad behavior and risk the utter destruction of everything you THOUGHT was real.
 
Poor Mikey.
 

Will Dave Pack Soon Be Getting His Wish When Two COG Leaders Die?

It has been reported on several sites, including Facebook, that Gerald Flurry had to be helped to the stage desk when he spoke at the Feast this year.

Exit and Support has this letter:

October 7, 2015
Gerald Flurry is getting frail. He spoke at the Feast Saturday night in Columbus, Ohio, but instead of being able to stand behind the podium and speak, he had to sit behind a desk on stage. Wayne Turgeon’s son [Grant Turgeon] had to assist him in getting about, too. --Ohio

The info posted on Facebook said that  he had to be propped up at times so he could speak.

With Flurry's rapidly declining health and Rod Meredith's recent stroke, two of the larger Church of God's will soon be rudderless at the upcoming deaths of their leaders.

Dave Pack is hoping to capitalize upon these deaths and draw their respective church memberships over to his organization.  Pack knows the deep discontent that members of both of these churches have for the sons who are being groomed to take over.  If he works this discontent to his advantage he will not need to worry about his god striking them all dead, old age will do it for him resulting in major upheavals.

For three miserable years now Pack has been boasting that his god was going to strike down three Church of God leaders and bring their entire churches over into the Restored Church of God.  For three humiliating years now, Dave's god has failed him.  No leader has been struck down.  No members have defected over to Dave's group, and the money stream he was anticipating has never materialized.

Living Church of God Nepotism and Jim Meredith

Lil'Jimmy Meredith's Humble Tar Paper Shack

In December of 2012, Exit and Support published a letter from a Living Church of God member detailing the things they witnessed happening in the Living Church of God.

One of the things mentioned in the letter was this:

Then there is the nepotism! Many of Meredith's family members and friends are employees at LCG headquarters or are evangelists and pastors. The pastor of the congregation I went to is the father of Sue Meredith, Jim Meredith's wife, son of Roderick Meredith. I knew that Jim had a successful business in construction in California before the housing crisis but that went south with the housing downfall. So now Jim Meredith is a pastor and his wife are both working at headquarters. A member of the congregation quit a good job because of having to work on a Saturday once a month. The pastor's wife told her that everyone has to make sacrifices, including her son-in-law Jim. He choose to leave a very profitable business in California to work at LCG headquarters! What hypocrisy! Dad bailed his son out.

Then in august of 2013, Living Armstrongism, published the same excerpt and a reader responded with this:

Hello. This statement about Jim Meredith is absolutely true. I have first hand knowledge of the details of this situation as well. I was a member of LCG from 2007 until 2011. I personally knew pastor Martin Fannin and his wife Jane. My family and I were members of one of his congregations. Jane personally told my wife and I of Jim's struggling business in 2009 and 2010 because I also had a struggling construction business. Jane told us her daughter Sue had to find part time work to get by. In 2010 Jim was engaged in ministerial training and then we were told he would be relocating to Charlotte, NC sometime in the future. In the spring of 2011 the LCG weekly update stated that Jim Meredith would be coming to Charlotte, NC as Rod Meredith's personal assistant and a festival coordinator. I am certain that this appointment was not ordained by God, but by the desire of the head of LCG to help his son and family overcome a serious financial situation. The personal assistant/festival coordinator position was never posted as an opening within the churches official job site poster. I understand that a father wants to help a son that is in need, but to create a position for someone who's lucrative business is failing due to time and chance just seems wrong. The tithes and offerings being sent in to support this type of hypocrisy is astounding. I thank God that he opened my eyes to these wolves in sheep's clothing.

It has always been well known in Charlotte that Rod Meredith takes care of his family first. This has provided a perfect spot for Lil'Jimmy to travel on the tithe-payers dime to exotic locations for "feast" business and to have all expenses paid.

Charlotte employees are getting tired of Lil"jimmy's behavior and wasteful spending.  Perhaps he had better start constructing that escape chute out of his office window like he wanted to do for Rod.  The day may be coming when he needs to escape the wrath of the Charlotte employees!

HT to a reader for this information...