Living Church of God: Did Doug Winnail Take A Swipe At Rod Meredith's Lack Of Love?

Doug Winnail really laid it on thick in his December 18, 2015 LCG Weekly Update. His remarks were made following the latest LCG Counsel of Elders meeting in which there was much disunity in the "most unified church EVER" about the direction of the church, doctrinal upgrades/theories, tactics to address all the bad PR they have earned in the last year and most especially WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE FACT THAT THEY ARE OVER-EXTENDED FINANCIALLY.  Counsel members all had to put their pet projects on the table for possible budget cuts. Alliances were formed and politics ruled the week. Winnail likely had all of that fresh in his mind when he penned this Update.

Sadly, anyone close to LCG headquarters or close to any honest minister who is willing to openly share his thoughts and observations about church government, knows what a load of crap these statements are coming from the head of Church Administration of one of the most corrupt and carnal church headquarters ever in the ACOG movement.

Winnail admonishes those in LCG to "develop and exercise Godly Love". Most of us would completely agree that Godly love is a real rarity in LCG's higher ups. Doug goes on to define Godly love as, "an unselfish outgoing concern for others" which again is true but in stark contrast to the self-serving, greedy, power hungry RCM and his LCG ministry that demands total obedience and admiration from their subjects. They expect to be served and are far too high and mighty to ever lower themselves to the level of a servant. The admiration and submission that many in LCG give them (think of the long lines at the Feast just to meet and shake the hand of Richard Ames or Rod Meredith) just fuels the flames of their over grown egos. The men at headquarters really impress themselves!

The best line in the whole piece is, "Godly love does not seek its own way; it is calm and not easily provoked, it does not jump to conclusions or assign motives or sit in judgment of others. Instead, Godly Love is gracious and forgiving". Seriously?! Rod Meredith is one of the most spoiled, narcissistic, self-seeking men I have ever met. He FREQUENTLY jumps to conclusions and assigns motives. He is RARELY gracious and forgiving and feels that as 3rd in all the universe, it is not only his right, but his duty to sit in judgment of WHOMEVER HE CHOOSES. 

It really makes one wonder if Winnail was aiming this piece directly at Meredith himself...

The Most Important Quality

Most of God’s people understand the importance of keeping the commandments, the Sabbath, the Holy Days and the health laws of the Bible. They also know the importance of government, tithing, faith and watching for the fulfillment of prophecy. Yet sometimes, in our zeal to obey the laws of God, we can overlook something else that is even more important—the need to develop and exercise Godly Love. We are told in the Scriptures that without Godly Love, we are nothing (1 Corinthians 13:1-3). Here the biblical word for love (agape) refers to an unselfish outgoing concern for others. In 1 Corinthians 13, the Apostle Paul states that Godly Love does not seek its own way; it is calm and not easily provoked, it does not jump to conclusions or assign motives or sit in judgment of others. Instead, Godly Love is gracious and forgiving. It is positive and focuses on what is right and true. It never fails or falters. Godly Love is the most important fruit of God’s Spirit that we must nourish and cultivate if we hope to become like our Father and Elder Brother Jesus Christ because God is love (1 John 4:8). Let’s make that our goal. Let’s ask God to help us learn how to love Him and love others as He does, so we can develop this most important quality of Godly Love. Have a profitable Sabbath,Douglas S. Winnail 

UCG Still Doesn't Know What It's Members Think After 10 Years of Surveys

You would think that the United Church of God knew what their members thought and felt.  Apparently not.  Its been 10 years now and they still can't figure out how to survey their members correctly, so they are giving it another shot, not that the UCG Big Boys really care what members think.  If they did why would they continue to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars every year on wasted campaigns and personal appearance campaigns?  That money has been wasted due to its inability to attract new members from the public.

Bill Bradford, as the chairman of the Strategic Planning and Finance Committee (SPFC), led the discussion looking to improve and prepare for the future survey for 2017. The SPFC has consulted with Julie Brown to work through this process. After 10 years of utilizing the same basic survey with occasional edits, it was felt best that we produce a new survey that specifically will meet our needs in serving the brethren, the ministry and the home office employees as we evaluate its input for the major strategic survey in 2017. They will also move up the time schedule to send to the brethren so that the Council will have additional time to review its content before the winter meetings of 2017. The emphasis is serving the brethren. There was much input to the topics they would like to know more about for the future survey.

If the Big Boys of UCG really want to serve the brethren why don't they go out and paint the poor members homes, help them repair their cars, buy food for their tables and truly be SERVANTS!  Better yet, how about becoming a 100% volunteer ministry instead using tithe money for your own personal interests.

Living Church of God Annual Christmas party

LCG is getting ready to have another wonderful Christmas at the Renaissance Hotel in Charlotte. There will be games and fun for all! Lil Jimmy is even planning a Hawaiian luau (Lil Jimmy LOVES Hawaii after all and he just can't get enough hawaiiana, even after a tithe payer vacation in Kauai from before Atonement until a week after the Feast [nearly a full month]). See: Living Church of God: Lil Jimmy Has A Great Feast In Hawaii (Again) 

People will travel far and wide to celebrate the season surrounded by Christmas trees, nativities and plenty of faux fireplaces for Santa to come down to deliver gifts to a the good LCG boys and girls (if he can find any). Although I'm guessing Rod McNair and Spanky will be getting lumps of coal.

LCG members and ministers have flooded Facebook with articles and videos about the evils of Christmas but for some reason, instead of "coming out of the world" as they admonish us to do, they have decided to immerse their members and children in  a super Christmas environment for a little seasonal fun.

Armstongites view themselves as superior, more enlightened, more Godly than the "people in the world".  They look down their noses at all the "blinded" worldly "so called Christians" who "worship Pagan God's" by putting up Christmas trees and by commemorating the birth of the Savior on December 25th because it coincides with the winter solstice. In true LCG form, all the Christmas regalia at the Renaissance is okay because it suits their purpose. But they withhold the right to judge others for doing the same thing should it suit their narrative in the future.

Your average LCG member agrees with all the points made in the Dead Babies, Nimrod's Testicles, Satan's Snake and Christmas article posted on this site earlier this month (Dead Babies, Nimrod's Testicles, Satan's Snake and Christmas) but no one seems to object to having their Charlotte Family Weekend in this Christmas wonderland. It seems a bit hypocritical but hypocrisy is LCG's strong suit.

Many of us can't wait to hear LCG's inflated, outlandish attendance numbers. Is there any way we can get the entire front desk staff, all managers and hotel wait staff in the banquet room during services at some point so that we can count them? Or maybe we could count the non-LCG people having coffee in the hotel lobby? Whether it exists or not, we must show growth brethren! 

Living Church of God: Gerald Weston the New Dictator in Chief

Recently the Living Church of God held one of their Council of Elders meetings. During this meeting it was revealed that the ultra conservative Gerald Weston would be taking over the reigns of the church at the death of Rod Meredith. Many were shocked at this prospect considering it has always been assumed Richard Ames was the heir apparent.  With the declining health of Ames, this is no longer a possibility. Younger meat is necessary, though it is still aged too. 

Weston has a long history of tyrannical leadership where he has left a trail of abused members in every single church he has ever pastored. Even with LCG’s history of being filled with abusive pastors, Weston stands out above them all.  It is expected by many that once he is in power the reigns of conservatism will be tightened even further.

Rod Meredith apparently is still trying to figure out how to tell his membership what he has wrought upon them. As if right now only COE members know, the laity  still in the dark.

Weston has already begun to look for a home in Charlotte and is expected to move to North Carolina some time next August.

Meredith and Ames will stay on at LCG but in a smaller capacity. They will likely come to the office for a few hours a day and focus primarily on writing articles.

This change in leadership in combination with major financial problems and a growing number of discontented members should be interesting to watch.

Rod Meredith: Like Herbert Armstrong I Am Incapable of Making A "Huge" Mistake

Several years ago Rod Meredith declared that he had never committed a major sin since baptism. Now he declares he cannot make a "huge" mistake.  It must be a grand life knowing that you are incapable of ever doing anything wrong or sinning in a big way.  That logic is about as sound as being "doubly blessed" and starting your own church.


Sinless Herbert and Loma, the father and mother of us all, apparently were guileless and sinless, till a bunch of sniveling backbiting members entered the scene.

We have brethren right now – and my word doesn't prove it to you – one thing I'm grateful, we have a lot of very human people in the work, but at least the leading ministers overall have been the most dedicated, the most solid, the most loyal men closest to God that I have ever experienced since the earliest days of the Church when just Mr. and Mrs. Armstrong were the father figure and mother figure. Pretty quick after that human nature came in and people were playing games – not horrible, I'm just saying we had a lot of [it], very obvious – now so many of the men like Mr. Ames, and Dr. Winnail, and Mr. Gerald Weston and others have been tested and tried, and tried and tested, and they have been walking with God, they've been put through the mill so to speak, and you have a group of men, that if anything happens to me, that have been tried and tested for DECADES, DECADES in the way of God. Will they make mistakes? YES! Did Mr. Armstrong ever make mistakes? Of course he did; he said many times, he said, "Herbert Armstrong has made HUNDREDS of mistakes." But he said, "God has never allowed me to make a huge mistake to destroy the Work." So he'll let us make little mistakes, but not huge mistakes, and then he'll straighten it out in his time.