Church of God Seventh Day: WEAR A MASK! No exceptions

Will Dave Pack, Gerald Flurry, Bob Thiel, and others continue to flout rules set in place regarding holding church services during the uptick in COVID cases, another COG is setting the example. Of course, Thiel, Pack, Flurry, Weston, and others believe these are not real Christians and certainly NOT true COG members, the COG7 continues to preach and witness better than any Armstrongite COG does.

Wishy-washy Thiel lets his own ministers make the decision whether they want to follow the rules instead of being a real manly leader and tell them to stay home. No COG service is that important and certainly, no sermon is that important to miss.

Pack and Flurry flout the rule be having services on thier compounds while telling local churches to stay home if they want.

Armstrongism has always been filled with double standards.

Here is COG7 recent statement on COVID-19 and what they expect from those that still hold services:

Central District – Church of God (Seventh Day

Dear Pastors and Leaders

Greetings to you in the name of our Lord, Jesus.

I pray that you, your family and your church are well and staying safe during this difficult time. I am writing to you to encourage you as a leader in your church to do all you can, in a responsible and thoughtful way, to keep your members safe.

Not all leaders are doing that.  Some are ignoring suggested guidelines, for what- ever reasons, and by doing so, put their families and members in jeopardy. Just this week, in a Superintendent “ZOOM” call with Loren Stacy and Jody McCoy, we learned that one of our churches in the Southeast District, where the pandemic is now increasing rapidly, “refused” to follow any guidelines like masking and social distancing – with this result.  Every member in attendance at their services now have the virus and are under a strict individual 14-day quarantine. The authorities came in and shut them down until further notice. Several churches in the S.E. District and the S.W. District are being mandated to shut down, again.

In both the Southeast District and Southwest District, the number of members of the church with COVID 19 are increasing rapidly. We have had several of our leaders and pastors who have had and some who now have the coronavirus.  In two entire churches, almost all members have the virus. 

As I have written before, as a Leader/Pastor, you are responsible to make wise and compassionate choices to keep your people safe. This is your responsibility, and also in making your choices, you accept the liability for the choices you make.

I URGE YOU to google the following research experiments of the following individual.  RICK DAVIS, EXPERIMENTS REGARDING COVID-19. Reading this should make us well aware of the absolute value of WEARING MASKS and SOCIAL DISTANCING. PLEASE take the time to read his experiments.  His work is the result of measuring droplets, by coughing, sneezing, talking and singing into identical culture plates, from various distances. The results are a bit startling to say the least.

After you have read that, I urge you to make the wisest decision for the safety of your congregation.  I encourage you to make it mandatory that every attendee in your services WEAR A MASK!  No exceptions.  I encourage you to practice social distancing of 6 ft.  I encourage you to insist that there be no close contact or hand shaking allowed.  I encourage you to sanitize your facility and have hand sanitizer available to your congregation.  I encourage you to design a worship experience and fellowship that is SAFE!  Ask them to use hand sanitizer when they come in and when they leave. I would not and will not, at this time, attend any church where even one member attends refusing to wear a mask. To behave in such a manner puts every vulnerable attendee at risk.  Now, even young people, not just the elderly are getting sick.

Everyone of our District Superintendents and our GC Leadership are alarmed at the response of individual members, and some leaders, who have put their church at risk by irresponsible choices. Watch for a coming statement from the GC Leadership with their recommendations.

If you have already opened up your church for services, PLEASE study again your choices for the safety of your congregation. Make whatever adjustments you need to for their safety. Make wise choices, not based on your politics or your view of constitutional rights.  Think first of others and their needs and the seriousness of their vulnerability.

If you have visitors come to your church from other cities/states, you MUST have them wear a mask and practice social distancing.  To not do so is not being responsible as a leader. Many churches may have visitors tomorrow, July 4^th.

Leaders and Pastors, we need to be a pro-active part of the solution, and not make choices that put us in the area of being part of the problem.

May our God be with you and may His Holy Spirit be in you.

Sincerely in Christ

Superintendent – Ken Lawson

Laodicean Jones: No sense at all

Victor Kubik: UCG's Empathetic and Humble Leader

“We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us” (2 Corinthians 1:8-10, NLT).

Through direct experience, Paul clearly relates how he learned to trust God for deliverance from mortal danger. His key point? God brought him through challenging trials again and again. Today, most of us have not even come close to facing such life and death situations. But we can certainly apply what Paul learned to the rocky road of life that we may be traveling on.

In this same chapter, Paul goes further to explain that life as a disciple of Jesus Christ isn’t just about mere survival. Our trials elevate us to a higher level of thinking and conduct. Our trial is not just about us. Trials give us an opportunity to learn how to reach out to others. God’s rescue is a big part of the story—but not the only part. In the narrative quoted here in 2 Corinthians, the more complete story is revealed by Paul:

“All praise to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. God is our merciful Father and the source of all comfort. He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ. Even when we are weighed down with troubles, it is for your comfort and salvation! For when we ourselves are comforted, we will certainly comfort you. Then you can patiently endure the same things we suffer. We are confident that as you share in our sufferings, you will also share in the comfort God gives us” (2 Corinthians 1:3- 7, The Living Bible).

These passages first came to life in my Epistles of Paul class at Ambassador College. They made a vivid impression on me as a 20-year-old student. Over and over in my pastoral career these words repeatedly demonstrated where true leadership shines.

I have found that to be true leaders, we must step outside of ourselves and show ourselves exposed and humbled. A leader draws on his or her own pain as one sufferer among a common sea of sufferers. A leader uses his or her own experience to empathize with others. In my ministry over the years, my own personal tribulations helped me genuinely empathize with people in great pain.

Where was that empathy when he was still on Worldwide Church of God payroll as he was disfellowshipping people left and right because they disagreed with Tkach's new teachings, even though he himself did not agree with them and was privately working behind the scenes while on WCG payroll, to fragment the church and form a new one W.hen has Kubik ever suffered through tribulation in the church?

Jesus Christ left us a sterling example of going through painful ordeals for the purpose of encouraging us: “For we do not have a High Priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but was in all points tempt- ed as we are, yet without sin. Let us therefore come boldly to the throne of grace, that we may obtain mercy and find grace to help in time of need” (Hebrews 4:15-16). UN

Jesus Christ certainly left us a sterling example of what a spiritual leader should be like.  Sadly, most COG leaders have never even tried to follow the guy. They are too busy trying to maintain the status quo they have assumed they deserve.