A reader here sent this to me this morning. It is a minister who realized that the church did not revolve around him, that members need not be giving him their money and more importantly, that they as members have all the gifts they need to truly be witnesses to the world.
One of the biggest sins of the Armstrongite Church of God movement is its continual demands for members to follow church government. Members are too stupid to understand or the follow scripture without some one on high telling them what they should or should not be doing.
Government in the Church of God has always been used as a tool to keep the members in submission and in a place that was lower than the ministry and the top leaders. Leadership from the top down meant that those at the bottom were always inferior to those at the top. Those at the top always had some kind of a "god" speaking to them while those in the lower ranks were rarely ever visited by the "god's" of these men.
Government in the Church of God allowed abusers of all shapes and sizes to wield power over the people. Church leaders have been spiritually abusive and have literaly destoyed the spiritual lives of members. Some church leaders have been sexually abusive as they molested, stalked, and raped their members. Church leaders have demanded money from their members with unbiblical tithing demands, thus letting them build vast empires and corporate boondoggles that have left members in literal poverty, while they as leaders live lives of excess.
If only the members truly understood that the power of the church truly resides in them and not in the leaders. The power to love and care for neighbor rests solely in the hands of the members and not in the leaders. The leaders truly do not care while the members however do...at least many of them do.
It is the members who are the face of what grace filled Christianity is all about. The bombastic self-appointed liars filling the ranks of the Church of God today are wicked shepherds who are destroying the lives of the members as you read this. No matter how many self-appoint themselves to leadership positions, give themselves all kinds of biblicly sounding titles and names or continue to vomit out how zealous or law abiding they are, they are all wicked liars that deserve no respect or members money.
If members truly desire the kingdom to come then they would be out hitting the streets sharing that joy and letting others have a foretaste of what that kingdom has in store. Which is more important, sitting in a church service listening to a mind and butt numbing 2-hour sermon or serving a hot meal to a homeless person or giving a ride to a homebound senior to the doctor? Is it more important to be screamed at about zealously keeping the law or stooping down to clean the dirty feet or vomit off a homeless person? Is it more important to listen to a church leader preach doom and gloom in a sermon or work at a suicide prevention hotline and possibly prevent another Terry Ratzman?
It is time members step up to the plate and practice that "first century Christianity" that so many claim to believe and follow. It cannot be found in the rantings of false COG leaders but in the hands and feet of the members who show the world what grace filled love is. God doesn't need your money to buy jet planes, another auditorium or for yet another "final push." That is the god that the self-appointed COG leaders follow; a weak and impotent god who is incapable of doing anything without their help.
John 13:35The Message 34-35 “Let me give you a new command: Love one another. In the same way I loved you, you love one another. This is how everyone will recognize that you are my disciples—when they see the love you have for each other.”
