COG Bigshots: Dosen't Everybody Want To Be One?

Doesn’t Everyone Want to Be A Big Shot?

By

LonnieHendrix

Within the culture of Armstrongism, all of the men were/are expected to aspire to give a sermonette or attend Ambassador College. After all, the pastors and the leadership in Pasadena were held up to be the epitome of Godly manhood. All of the lesser men within the congregation were encouraged to emulate them or “to covet earnestly the best gifts.”

In the splinter groups, these notions about aspiring to participate in church leadership have taken on even more significance. In short, asking a man to give a sermonette or sermon is seen as a means of keeping people involved/interested/invested in the particular group. By stroking egos and flattering someone with an invitation to speak, it is hoped that they will not wander off or consider joining one of the other splinters.

Of course, these notions and practices are not peculiar to Armstrongism. Flattery and other enticements have been used from time immemorial to keep people engaged. After all, it is heady stuff to be placed in a leadership role – even if it’s only for 30-45 minutes on a Sabbath!

But what about the men in the church who never got wrapped up in this kind of thinking? What about the folks who don’t want to be in charge or speak? What about the men who had absolutely no desire to emulate Herbert or Garner Ted Armstrong? What about the guys who think that church leaders should serve members and exude humility?

“That man is dangerous!” the other men declare. “Everyone wants to be Garner Ted – he must have some kind of agenda!” “If he doesn’t want to deliver a sermonette, he must secretly want to run the whole show!” OR “He must be planning to start his own group or cultivate a following for himself!” They simply cannot understand anyone who is not motivated by the same kinds of things that motivate them.

Throughout my association with Armstrongism, I have never desired to be an apostle, minister or deacon. I have never desired to start a new church or accumulate a following. I have been asked numerous times by others to speak or write. “I will do anything I can to help you, but I have no burning need to speak or put myself forward,” I would always answer.

Sometimes that would evoke a knowing smile, but I remember one time when the pastor who had asked me to speak understood what I meant. He acknowledged what I was saying and then quoted Plato. “Wise men speak because they have something to say; fools because they have to say something.”

Unfortunately, many of the folks within the Armstrong Churches of God want to say something. They like the prestige and respect associated with standing in front of a congregation or being the one that folks turn to for advice. For them it’s not about serving and helping others, it’s more about being the big shot – the top dog. It would almost be funny if it weren’t so very sad/pathetic!

LCG: Do you refuse to listen to correction because of your hardened heart?

Can LCG members EVER do ANYTHING right? 

Good teachers and good preachers never have anything to worry about especially when they are preaching grace, justice, and mercy, and are followers of Jesus.  Instead, we witness daily the men in various COG's who focus upon Moses, rules, and "proper" church government. Jesus could care less about those things and pointedly made it part of his ministry to do the opposite of what all that the vain-glorious leaders said was the law and commands of their god.

Once more Jesus gets short-changed and left out of the picture. He is just an inconvenient guy in the way of the kingdom of God which trumps everything.

Are You Teachable? The Scriptures reveal that one of the most important qualities of character that God is looking for in Christians and future leaders in the Kingdom of God is teachability—the desire and willingness to listen and learn. Abraham was teachable and responsive to God’s instructions (Genesis 12:1–4). Moses was a very capable leader, yet a most humble and teachable individual (Numbers 12:3). David’s attitude comes through in Psalm 119:33, where he writes, “Teach me, O Lord, the way of Your statutes.” Solomon recognized his human inadequacies when he asked God for wisdom and an “understanding heart” so he could learn to rule wisely (1 Kings 3:9). When Jesus said the meek and the poor in spirit will be blessed, He was emphasizing their teachability and their willingness to be corrected and to learn and grow (Matthew 5:3–5). This is in stark contrast to an attitude that refuses to listen to advice or correction and is only focused on one’s own ideas (Proverbs 13:1; 18:1–2). The Scriptures also reveal that when we harden our hearts to God’s instructions, we will reap serious consequences (Proverbs 28:14). We have been called to reign with Jesus Christ in the Kingdom of God, and being teachable is one of the keys to attaining that incredible reward.

Have a profitable Sabbath,

Douglas S. Winnail

Did Sheldon Get "Munsoned"?

I tuned in to Sheldon's sermon and heard exactly what I expected. It's the same old story that goes all the way back to Gilbert Cranmer swearing off his corporate mistress, Ellen. Then Herbert slandered his master, Dugger. And then Roderick pilfered his boss, Tkach. And now Sheldon is mowing down cold faithless Weston. Yes, the incumbent takes on too much power, becomes lukewarm, smug, insensitive, self-righteous, hypocritical and indifferent. This is not good. Someone should do something. Why not me?

The body of Christ is infected once again and needs vaccinated with a good ole fashion dose of "living faith." It's really very simple according to Sheldon. He prayed and fasted about the Texas camp (multiple times). Then he bullied the Seventh Day Adventist President into letting him have his way. Then they took temperatures throughout camp. The result: no one got sick. And that is how you walk on water. (The title of the sermon was, "If You Want to Walk on Water, Here is How")

You talk a big game of faith and by the looks of you, I believe you could kill a lion and a bear just like David. It really takes some kind of man's man to come out with a sermon title like that a week after being fired. No doubts in Sheldon's mind. In fact in Sheldon's he-mind, doubt is the ultimate faith-killer. But is doubt really a faith-killer? Is wearing masks proof of oh ye of little faith? You said when doubt enters, bad things happen. You said doubters are unstable and double-minded. Oh, I know the verse too. You said God doesn't hear us when we are sinning. God only loves us when we are "all in." Classic HWA. Gods got this...but when He doesn't, it's your fault. Sheldon pointed to Revelation 12 to show how God does not protect Laodiceans.

According to Sheldon, "Gods got this." Every Sabbath, Gods got this...except that time Terry Ratzmann murdered 7 people during services just miles away from where Sheldon was serving. Every annual holy day, Gods got this...except that year a hurricane ruined Hilton Head just a week before the feast and everyone had to go somewhere else. At our camps, Gods got this...except that time one of our precious daughters was killed by a passing speed boat at the Ohio camp. Yeah, you were there, Sheldon. Where was God? Who sinned?

Understanding that there is a place for doubt is wisdom. Doubt is the sign of a thinking mind. Doubt is what helps a sound mind sniff out bullshit. Doubt reveals a profound complexity as it relates to man sorting out God. No one in COGland is capable of grappling with doubt, helping hurting people with practical applications in understanding doubt, coming to grips with it, managing it or overcoming it when necessary. The all-stupid answer to many things in COGland is: "Sin? Don't do it!" "Doubt? Don't do it?" "Depressed? Smile!" God is blessing HIS Church but when He isn't...well. Horrible things are swept under a rug and thinking brethren should place their doubts under there, too.

LCG carted out Dick Ames during a fast to sure up the faithful and I kid you not, both Sheldon and Dick essentially concluded their sermons using the same classic tactics of labeling the opposition Laodicea and themselves Philadelphian. And next week, Sheldon said the sermon will be, "We Ought To Obey God Rather Than Men." Of course.

About 150 were watching on Youtube so that could be somewhere in the neighborhood of 300-600 people. This could be as much as 10% of Living's membership but probably closer to 5%. Sheldon and Fritts are both very popular with the youth. This should be interesting because Weston has put all of HQ's resources toward wooing the next generation of tithe-paying dupes to secure retirements and paychecks of ministerial sons being trained as we speak. Not even Walrus Smith has the pull he once had with kids and their parents since HQ has brought out his true colors.

So Sheldon got "Munsoned" for his living faith. So my question for Sheldon is, ARE YOU GOING TO GET A JOB? OR are you going to fleece Jesus' flock for 10%-30+% using false doctrine? Is it going to be the same old COG song and dance, my friend? Knowing you to be an Armstrong purist, I'm afraid I already know the answer.

by Stoned Stephen Society

Gerald Weston: If You Go Against His "authoritative judgement" are "you doing so at your own peril?"

 

Why do COG leaders have the incessant need to CONTINUALLY threaten members? Scripture is filled with stories of Jesus and other faithful people breaking bread or associating with prostitutes, lepers, menstruating women, eunuchs, tax collectors, and other undesirables or "unclean" people. What we also see is Jesus CONSTANTLY pointing out the evils of CHURCH LEADERS and how they bind people up with absurd and offensive teachings, doctrines, and constant threats of losing one's salvation.

Geerald Weston has a problem with ANYONE questioning his leadership.

COGNews had this up:

...the Sabbath service on August 8th, streamed live to all congregations – sermonette from Wallace Smith and sermon from Gerald Weston – was devoted to explaining why church members are required to obey all leadership decisions, and therefore comply with the new (temporary) normal in hymn singing, i.e. “for those of you at home, you will be singing along, and those at services will be contemplating and humming along as we can.”

Gerald Weston referred to Wallace Smith’s sermonette, noting, “these were not decisions made by lay members, but by duly ordained leaders and judges that God had placed in a position of authoritative judgement. We have a situation today where people are saying, well, if I can’t sing, I’m not going to go where the church has placed its name for the feast. We’re just going to have our own feast. Did God ordain you with the responsibility to decide where Christ is going to place His name? If you do that, you are doing so at your own peril.”

Why Do They Stay?

Here on Banned, after reading all of the various and crazy seeming behaviors, ideas and perspectives of the spiritual leadership in the myriad of Church of God splits, splinters and slivers, we often are forced to ask ourselves, "Why do they, the membership, who can't be this naïve and gullible. stay?" 

One valid reason is that indeed they are that gullible and naive. Another is the sincere belief that have that in spite of the seeming craziness and prophetic blunderings, "I sincerely believe this is God's True Church."

 But also, and perhaps a more primordial and subconscious belief,  is the absolute fear of the loss of connection and of belonging.  I get that and so do you.  

For several years before I departed WCG as both minister and member, I could see it coming. 

Originally I thought that my generation of ministry would right the wrongs of the WCG and stop majoring in the minors as well as practice minding our own business on topics which are not actually the church's business.  

That idea got crushed early in my ministry , which began in 1972, with the failure of the Systematic Theology Project, in 1974,  that addressed just such needs in the church.  Herbert would have none of it nor would he yield his supposed authority to others to recognize the need for changes on such topics as healing, divorce and remarriage and a number of other topics that were both meddlesome and troublesome in endeavoring how to apply them in our times.  The church nor HWA could err on the side of compassion , love and common sense.  It had to be technically and literally correct if it was to be "God's true Church." The rest is history. 

But even more than simply choosing to quietly not apply some church teachings and requirements to the congregation because I disagreed with them, it was the loss of community, connection and belonging that also weighed heavy in the background.  It is a subconscious human need that goes back a very long ways. 

. Being "disfellowshipped" or "marked" is a very old way of stirring up the fear people have of these losses and was used by the Bronze Age Old Testament types and the Iron Age New Testament types to keep the "all speaking the same thing, that there be no divisions among us" family together in peace and harmony. In the OT the penalties for stepping outside the box of the Israelite religion was severe and often fatal. In the New Testament it was a more conscious attempt to make the person lonely and cut off from the herd with the hope that would teach them good not to stray again. 

In the ancient history of tribal man, being put out of the group was literally a death sentence. Being put out of the church was deemed a mere death to the flesh in turning one over to Satan, but so the spirit could eventually be saved in the tale of ultimate salvation. I doubt it worked either.  

Somehow it never seemed to strike the NT types to wonder just why someone felt as they did, asked the questions they did, had the doubts they did or made the mistakes they did, and perhaps actually get them help and encourage them. 

Today with the increase of knowledge, a good thing, that approach has lost much of it's punch in motivating people to pray, obey, pay and stay where they are not comfortable.  And yet, the need to belong and the connections people have with family and friends in their faith is still strong and the major reason people stay put. 

It is when they find themselves sitting on the outside to Church beliefs but standing up on the inside when they disagree.  The inside and the outside don't yet match and may never depending on the degree of loss of connection and belonging a particular person is willing to live with. Perfect love, the opposite of which is not hate but fear, does not strike the NT church as a way to keep a church together. Fear of loss works just fine. It also causes a church to be made up of people who seem one way but are another. 

The reality of "why they stay" is perhaps illustrated in the life of Charles Darwin as well in relation to his wife Emma.  His "evolving" views on the Origin of Species" caused great distress in his personal relationship with his very religious and church going wife Emma.  

But in his personal life and relationship, Emma wrote him of her concerns. 

" My reason tells me that honest and conscientious doubts cannot be a sin, but I feel it would be a painful void between us."

Emma, wife of Charles Darwin,  upon her recognition of potential consequences to Charles discoveries as to the Origin of the Species. 

"May not the habit in scientific pursuits of believing nothing until it is proved, influence your mind in other things that cannot be proved..." 

Emma to Charles one year later in 1839.

Charles Darwin's "Sandwalk " Path where he often spent time alone in his thoughts. 

By the 1840's, Charles is escorting Emma to church, stopping at the door to drop her off and going off to take a walk alone while she is in Church.  It was this fear of the loss of his bond to Emma that caused Charles Darwin to postpone the publication of his Origin of  Species for another 20 years. 

Some do feel that this had little to do with Darwin's fears about either the reactions of his peers or his wife and were more a function of being busy and in poor health, but "all of the above" would seem true with such a revolutionary theory and understanding in that day. Today we have ample proof he was correct where Darwin simply had the concept lacking all but some relatively simple proofs of his time and by observation during his trip on the Beagle. 

https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/%C2%93darwins-delay%C2%94-the-stuff-of-myth

In modern times and in such cases where walking away from religious practice, people and beliefs that one no longer can support or count as a credible reason to stay put, we can see the same fears expressed when contemplating the losses and realities that will come from no longer being able "going along to get along. "  Going along to get along is the dilemma I see many of my former and now older minister peers stuck in because of age and the price of leaving being way too high if not impossible to do at this stage in their lives.   I get that. It's a dilemma they never would have imagined when young and it is not a function of doubting their sincerity.  

"I have a compelling reason to believe in God. My parents are deeply committed Christians, and would be devastated, were I to to reject my faith.  My wife and children believe in God...Abandoning belief in God (or a specific faith and church as with the splinters) would be disruptive...sending my life completely off the rails."

Carl Giberson, "Saving Darwin: How to be a Christian and Believe in Evolution"  2008

In my own experience in coming out of ministry and membership in WCG many years ago now, I participated in The Clergy Project. This was a private and secure website for members of the clergy, male and female, to talk with those who have already had the experience, about their loss of faith and how to navigate all the potential emotions and losses associated with it. It was always the fear of loss of a marriage, the love of children and the safety and comfort of belonging to community that held them back or was the stuff of nightmares "coming out." . One pastor asked me if the divorce he feared  and his children rejecting him had to happen.  He wanted reassurance that it would not.   I could not give him that. No one could. It is often inevitable depending on what actually holds a relationship together. If it just church, then no.  And if no is not something one is willing to consider at this time, the struggle for one's personal authenticity and the consequences of a  loss of faith in faith will come calling again another time to see how it's going.