Living Church of God: A Series Of Unfortunate Events

Living Church of God has had a rough patch lately with one mishap after another.  While this has been a long term problem in the LCG, it has been pronounced over the last few weeks, leading many to ponder whether God is displeased with the church and its leaders.

An LCG  source reports:

Two Sabbaths ago, Rand Milach (Kansas City pastor and member of the COE) passed out during his sermon as if he were being struck down. That same Sabbath Mrs. Byersdorfer, wife of another LCG minister fell at Sabbath services and fractured her hip. Last Sabbath, Bruce Tyler (head of LCG's work in Europe, Australia and Asia) had a major stroke and is not expected to recover. (Tyler has since died) Then a couple of days ago Scott Winnail (son of Doug Winnail, LCG headquarters minister) fell and broke one of his legs in 3 places. All of this on top of LCG member from Paris dying on her flight to Egypt.

Mishaps happen every day in life, but when one thing after another happens in church leadership members start taking notice.  Many are asking, "How could God be letting this happens to his "True Church?" Many members know first hand how dysfunctional the church has become over the last few years as Rod Meredith ages and how he has lost the capacity to make sound leadership decisions.

This dissatisfaction has carried over into the ministry and church leadership too. In the past the ministry got up at the following Sabbath service after the COE meetings and reported on the "best COE meeting ever" and that the "COE has never been more unified." That has not been the case this time around.  One individual remarked that the COE was a compete mess.   One COE member said that the the COE was NOT unified and another said that there were a lot of "issues" right now.

The COE meeting that took place in Charlotte a couple of weeks ago was a total disaster as tensions mount over doctrinal changes and budget cuts due to LCG's failing income. Normally after a COE meeting, the ministers talk about how unified and wonderful everything was. This time, there were no comments from the pulpit. 

Things have become so dysfunctional that members and ministers are leaving LCG congregations.  There have been several ministers of late that have left LCG and taken their members with them.  This has been confirmed by more than one person.  The Charlotte Boy's are keeping a tight lid on this.  They are concerned that if word leaked out about these defections that it would cause more division in the lay membership.  Roland Lequoc's defection is just the tip of the iceberg.

The disunity of the ministry and membership of the LCG is having huge ramifications right now.  Reports of coming doctrinal changes, possible church mergers, the appointment of rules enforcer extraordinaire as Meredith's successor, issues with financial abuse and waste in the Charlotte offices, the purchase of new luxury homes for the useless Living Church of God "university", and Rod Meredith's rapid mental/physical health decline, are creating a coming hurricane of upheaval.

Persecuted Bob Elijah Elisha Amos Thiel "Nearly" Jailed

Jailed French Adventists 1917

Its so comforting to know that God's most important Church of God leader in these last days was nearly jailed for his refusal to work on Saturdays.   Elijah Amos Thiel has added this little tidbit to his roster of "Why I Am The Most Logical Choice To Be A Church of God Leader EVVVVVVER" profiles.

We have double blessings, double anointing, double dreams, various prophet monikers, and other delusional self describing fantasies.  Now we can add "Nearly Jailed" to the list.

I personally was nearly jailed (while working for the government) and threatened with job loss throughout my earlier careers, because I kept the Sabbath.  As it turned out I was not jailed nor fired, but there still is a risk for many.

"Nearly" Jailed Bob Elisha Elijah Amos Thiel is reacting to an article published in COG7's magazine Bible Advocate on  Keeping the Sabbath and Keeping Your Job

What title is left for Nearly Jailed Elisha Elijah Amos Thiel to take?  One of the two witnesses? Since he claims to be a god in training he might as wells add "God" to his title.

Mark Armstrong Weekly Melt Down...You Won't Find Him Riding In A Gay Parade!

Mark Armstrong is following in his daddy and grand-daddy's shoes.  The world is going to hell in a hand basket and its his duty to wake every one up.

The entire country's falling apart and he's not able to say the things he wants to say.

If you don't despise the authors of our Constitution; hate our national history; root for the eradication of our traditions; support an unlimited and unlawful influx of foreigners from central America, the Middle East and northern Africa; agree with the socialist mandate of Obamacare; believe in man-made global warming and unlimited spending on “green energy”; support the "right" to same-sex homo-mony; and agree with whatever the first black president says or does, then you're a bigot, racist homo-phobe. This stance of "liberal progressivism" has been pretty clear for some years now, and has been one of the subjects covered in numerous monthly letters, weekly updates and articles.

Before Mark spouts his nonsense about racism and bigotry, he had better examine his own worthless thoughts and imaginations and especially those of his daddy that he just cannot ever seem to imitate.

This organization was founded by Garner Ted Armstrong to educate, to witness and warn our peoples of the curses for having turned away from God and His laws; if you're waiting for us to hop aboard the anti-American bandwagon and ride down Broadway in the "gay" parade, it may come as a surprise, but you've come to the wrong place.

A Child Speaks: By Former COG Minister

A Child Speaks by John O

Here is an excerpt from a blog entry on The Painful Truth site by John O (a former WCG minister).  It is typical of what went on in many families in the Church of God.  Remember, this is the church with all "the truth once restored."

April 20th. Two men arrived at our house this evening. I don’t like them. They’re not happy people like we remember mom and dad once were. They are stern and cold. These men are not loving. They tell mom and dad to send us to our rooms. Mom and dad obey and then talk to these men alone for about an hour.

April 25th. It’s a Saturday and Becky and I wanted to go play today, but dad said no. Mom said to go get dressed in our best clothes because we were going to a meeting that was ordered by God. We go to the meeting and listen to some men yelling at us. We’re no good, they say, we’re sinners and need to go to God to get forgiven. They alone will tell us how. I’d rather be playing. What’s tithing?

May 16th. Dad said that we’re taking these services of God too lightly. We’re old enough, he said, to listen to the speakers who are anointed of God. We can finally learn something from these men about how evil our lives had been, and how we are now learning not to be pagans. What is an apostle?

September 12th. Tonight we listened upstairs as dad told mom that their bills were getting too high. He said that tithing and offerings came first, but after all that was paid, there was little left for anything else except food. He said he owed a month’s mortgage on the house. He’s going to sell mom’s car so he can continue to tithe.

September 25th. We were sent to bed at seven o’clock at exactly the time when those two ministers came to the front door. I still don’t like them. Becky and I listened, as always, and we heard a lot of yelling from the men. Dad answered a couple of times quietly and mom said nothing. They needed his finance statement, they said, with a list of all the money he spent every week. Then they said that they would show dad and mom how to tithe properly. What does “carnal” mean?

October 15th. Today a woman, called a realtor, came to our home and looked around. We heard dad tell mom that the only way we could reconcile with God is to sell the house, and with the little profit remaining, send in that money to church headquarters to pay for back tithes owing. We are going to lose our home. I don’t think I like this God.

December 13th. We’ve now started to live in a small, cheap apartment. It’s not all that clean. I don’t like our neighbors because they’re always picking fights with us. Becky and I share a bedroom. Mom and dad are fighting. Becky is crying. I am hurting.

Read the entire story here:  A Child Speaks

Patriarchy in UCG Not Happy With Women Writing Biblically Based Articles

UCG has been letting women write articles for blogs and their main web site for some time now.  Some men in the church have been highly offended with this over the years and now it has reached a boiling point. How dare women write articles based upon bible teachings!  Men are only allowed to do that!

Chairman Webber welcomed those that joined the gallery for this discussion. He welcomed the media department and the women who came in to hear this session. Mr. Webber mentioned concerns had been raised in the Media and Communications Committee (MCC) regarding the role of women writers dealing with certain biblical subjects. His desire with the Council’s approval was to keep this in open session. 

Rex Sexton led the discussion as the chairman of the (MCC). There have been articles written by women in our official UCG publications (Beyond Today and United News) and that have appeared in our blogs (unofficial) on specific subjects that have been raised as whether being appropriate for women to address. The question was asked if there were any written policies for what kind of articles can be written. Currently there are no specific policies written up. One of the Council’s responsibilities is to have oversight and write policies when questions and needs arise. Input was already received from the media department, and Mr. Sexton thanked them for it.

Its a fact that there are many women in the Church of God who are better educated and understand scripture than many of the men.  This does not sit well with some of the men who feel that no woman should ever tell them what to believe.

Peter Eddington, operation manager of Media and Communications Services, mentioned the August 1999 Council report under the media section that was discussed by the Council. It was a non-issue for there to be women writers. Mr. Sexton asked if the substance of the content had changed over the years since then. Mr. Eddington said since 1999 we now have more women writers, and one of the reasons is because the media department wants more ways to relate women to women in our writings.

Robin Webber then enters the fray:

Chairman Webber desired to establish focus of what was being discussed. We are discussing the role of women in media, so we are looking at what might women do with our understanding of Scripture. We are not talking about women ministers or preachers or getting up now to give messages in services. We understand there is a structure in the Church that has been recognized through the ages, so we are not going there. We all agree with that. Now we are dealing with comments by Paul about women being silent in the Church. How does that apply to teaching through writing? Culture needs to responsibly move forward, and we have to look at the context of the Scriptures. What was the apostle Paul addressing, and why was he saying it? If we use our heads and hearts and trust the administration with monitoring, the one article that came to our attention on repentance was dealing with the heart and the approach. It wasn’t dynamically preaching to the world to repent. We need to use wisdom. He was concerned that we need to take our time with this. A year or two ago we had a policy on the role of women in the Church that was not complete in tone and emphasis, so we withdrew that paper. We need to be very careful about the policies we might possibly create.

Don Ward then weighs in with at lest a slightly more enlightened point of view

Don Ward advised that we be circumspect with what commentaries might be used and their rendering interpretations towards explaining the culture of Paul’s day. He advised some interpretations convey that Paul didn’t really mean what he said because of the culture of that particular time. We see the culture has shifted as a result of the Industrial Revolution and many other things that have come to pass. Dr. Ward does not see the Word of God shifting with the culture. Dr. Ward read from 1 Timothy:2:11-12 (KJV). The Bible does give clear instruction why Paul wrote that, and it wasn’t based on the culture of the day. The question is not if they can teach. Women teach in Sabbath school. Titus 2 gives clear instruction that the older women are to instruct the younger women. 

Mr. Bradford raised the questions we need to be asking ourselves are: 1) What are the unique reasons that women do not preach at church and, 2) Do the same principles apply in writing corrective articles? 

Then to backpedal and blame the woman who wrote the article, Rainer Salomaa  says it could have all "been a mistake or poorly written", all of which ignores the fact that a MAN approved the article to be printed in the first place.

Rainer Salomaa was asked if he had any comments. Mr. Salomaa said nothing really jumps out at him that has been a problem. Regarding the article in question there shouldn’t be hours and hours of time put into policy for one article. The article could have just been a mistake. It could have been stated better perhaps. He would just trust those in that position to monitor it. He’s not sure there needs to be a Council-driven policy. He then asked if they could get the input from some of the women in the audience. Robin Webber agreed that he was going to do that. He asked for a few comments from the women or media department in the audience. 

Then Beverly Kubik dared to rock the boat and asked some pointed questions:

Beverly Kubik asked if there was a well done study paper on the verses brought up today about women not speaking at church, because if you take these verses literally then women have to put gags in their mouth when they enter the building. She asked if there was a study paper and said we should have that when addressing this topic. Robin Webber agreed that there are many commentaries on this, and they could be put together. Mrs. Kubik said she would like to see an unbiased study into those scriptures. 

She went on to comment that we encourage discussion of the sermon after service and, if we take those verses literally then women can’t talk about the sermon after services. She didn’t feel that interpretation of those verses make sense with the context of rest of the entire Bible. When Christ came He showed more respect to women than had been in the culture prior to that. She asked why that was. She asked why some women are called “prominent women.” Why were they prominent, and what were they doing in the churches there? She feels we are so fearful of anything that comes near preaching for women, yet we have no problem with women singing scriptural words. She would like to understand why these lines are being drawn, and she wants to know what is right or isn’t right. She isn’t trying to promote any idea over another. 

It will be interesting to see if the men can do what is right.  But this is the UCG after all.

You can read the entire March 2016 report here.