In the latest Living Church News, Gerald Weston asks in his editorial, "Why the Church?" It is a good question and as anyone who has been in the COG's knows, answering "personal salvation" is a selfish, lazy and damnable answer.
"Despite this wonderful news about our future, many are surprised to learn that our personal salvation is not [emphasis, Gerald's] the main reason why God is calling people in this present age."
"Isn't that [personal salvation] enough?" many will ask? The answer is an emphatic No!"
"Jesus gave His followers a great commission, articulated in Mark 16:15-16 and Matthew 28:18-20. As we have this divine commission as Christ's followers, is it okay to choose not [again, emphasis, Gerald's] to take an active part in fulfilling it? Paul tells us that Jesus said, "It is more blessed to give than to receive" (Acts 20:35). Our Savior expects us to show outgoing concern for others. We must not sit back and wait for the Kingdom to come, as is the manner of some."
He goes on to equivocate the wise and faithful servant as being the one spreading the gospel of the good news AND trumpeting the "Ezekiel Warning" to the filthy house of Anglo-American Israel that has never been so wicked in all it's history as it is right now! And, of course, since you know the Living Church of God is the only qualified organization on earth to fulfill this God-given role at this end-time, you would be remiss not to support such a Work and can count on untold suffering and death if you don't.
"Warn and walk away" is not what Jesus instructed...It should be evident that the Church is both to give the good news and to warn, with the hope that some will repent."
Because we all know when we do the work...and someone repents...this is called...personal salva-
"Some who consider themselves part of the Church of God have disputed this point-either actively by misinterpreting the words of Scripture and proclaiming that there is nothing for us to do, or passively through laziness and inaction. So, are we to 'wait it out' until Christ returns, or are we to do a work?"
Gerald belittles those who may think Herb finished the work and we are simply to prepare the bride by saying these folks use "one-third of one verse" [Rev.19:7] as proof. Then he can't resist invoking the idol in closing:
"Mr. Herbert Armstrong died in January of 1986--about 34 years ago. Most people alive today know nothing of him. Two whole generations have grown up since his death. We are thankful for what he did, but we must follow his example and be found so doing."
COG ministers love to use the either/or fallacy. You either support my organization or you are lazy. You do the work as we define and direct you to support or you are an inactive Christian worthy of the flood Satan will be spewing from his mouth in 3 to 5 years. Seriously, who goes around saying Christians have nothing to do? The truth is you just don't like Christians who go around saying we don't have to do what "you" want us to do.
Herb claimed that he was commissioned by God to fulfill Matthew 24:14 and I find it interesting that Gerald stayed away from that verse and instead referenced Mark 16:15-16 and coupled it with the "Ezekiel Warning." How do we follow in Herb's footsteps? Should we proclaim Matthew 24:14 which would be going on 100 years now?
You bragged about the churches prowess in prophecy in the "Behind the Work" video at the feast. Are you going to follow Herb's lead and make wild prophetic announcements that backfire in epic proportions? How about sending faithful tithe payers threatening letters to send in special offerings needed for a "final push"? Should you buy a jet and bribe Prince Andrew for a photo-op? We could probably use another Elijah about now to get things going.
What all COG's have always failed to realize is that the purpose of the church and the 'work' is [emphasis mine] personal salvation at its genesis and its core. To rejoice with the angels in Heaven when one sinner repents. Personal salvation is then supposed to inspire personal evangelism, utilizing the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The goal (why the church?) is to fulfill Matthew 25:31-46. What the church should look like is a collection of spirit-filled individuals with out-flowing love and concern for humanity in their own spheres of influence. The church should be a public pillar in every community instead of a religious roach hiding in rented basements.
If the work you do in "spreading the gospel" does not begin with personal salvation and end in fruits produced by personal evangelism, then what kind of work is it?
If the work you do in "spreading the gospel" does not begin with personal salvation and end in fruits produced by personal evangelism, then what kind of work is it?
I believed in the work of the Living Church of God and supported it faithfully with tithes and offerings for over two decades. I believed Dr. Meredith when he said we were the "spear-point" of the work. Dr. Meredith was his own kind of buffoon but he at least put forth pretense to do a work.
In 2009, I bragged about the work LCG was doing compared to UCG. (Thanks for the numbers, Bawana Bob):
- LCG: Preaching the gospel: 45% Feeding the flock: 47%
- UCG: Preaching the gospel 24% Feeding the flock: 56%
I used this as evidence that all the COG's should be in LCG. A year later when UCG imploded, I screamed, SEE! Surely now, God will bless LCG and show the world who was going to do the 'work!'
Fast forward 10 years to 2019. You have the nerve to publish an editorial shaming people into increasing support in "your" work because you claim it is the ultimate expression in love toward others. Then on p.13 in the very same issue, you produce a pie chart showing where tithe money went in 2018.
- LCG: Preaching the gospel: 34% Feeding the flock: 58%
In the January, 1995 edition of our booklet, “When Should You Follow Church Government” RCM states that the church has over 7,000 people hearing sermons every Sabbath with over 60 ministers and elders around the world. He finishes with this on p.41, “We are growing every single month! This is God’s doing! He is blessing us because we are seeking to do His will in a genuine, heartfelt manner.”
25 years is a long time to grow every single month. How have we done? Current estimate is 10,000 in weekly attendance. 3,000 in 25 years. 42.9% increase overall. Factor in birth/death rate and take out those who are playing musical chairs between the COG's and are not "new" converts and you have a growth rate between 0.2-0.8% per annum. To put that into perspective, even the Catholic church with a billion members, still grows at 1.5% per annum.
Back in 1995, Dr. Meredith said he had 60 ministers and not all of them were on the payroll. Today, we have over 200. That is a 233% increase overall. In 1995, there were 117 members to each minister. In 2019, there are 50 members to each minister.
We all know what "feeding the flock" means. Add in the 7% that goes to Administration and 2/3 of all tithes and offerings go to paying ministerial salaries, mortgages, fleet cars, food, clothing and the Ambassador College retirement fund.
Gerald writes:
"We may think of the Parable of the Minas in terms of developing ourselves personally rather than in terms of multiplying our minas outwardly. And what happens to the man who does nothing with his mina?"
The COG's take minas and consume them upon themselves. And then tell the providers of those minas to bury what they have from Christ because they are not qualified to use them.
"But woe to you scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you shut up the kingdom of heaven against men; for you neither go in yourselves, nor do you allow those who are entering to go in." --Matthew 23:13
Your message is dead and year after year, you gather in your ministerial conferences, throw your arms in the air and make excuses like, "we can't figure out how to reach millenials" and "people are increasingly evil in this end time" and "we are not in the conversion business" and "real growth will be in the millenium."
You said, "We must not sit back and wait for the Kingdom to come, as is the manner of some." Does the evidence not show this is exactly what LCG is doing?
It is clear what the real work is in these dying COG organizations. I call on all brethren to stop paying unbiblical tithes and demand accountability from men who have proven over time to be unjust stewards. Declare, as the parable says, you can no longer be steward. In fact, any leader in the COG's today that was a minister in the 70's and was not fired for being a "liberal" at that time, should be retired immediately. These old men have proven to be the most unfit and unqualified men to lead according to biblical requirements. Send Ames, Weston and Winnail to Hawaii. A time-table should be established to remove the field ministry from the payroll and be required to seek employment like everyone else in the real world. Those who leave the ministry because it no longer comes with a paycheck will simply prove they were never shepherds. Dismantle the Roman Catholic governing structure and replace it with New Testament Congregationalism. Develop a Christ-centered message rooted in love that inspires growth in the body and inspires blessings to be poured out on all people.
Good stewards produce a return on investment. In 25 years, you have no fruit to speak of and the organization is clearly trending away from that which you pay lip service to. The real church (Gerald) does not require that I or anyone else support your painfully out-dated 'gospel', your flat, dead presentations, your pompous telecasts, and your inability to communicate with today's humanity. The real church is following in the footsteps of Jesus, not Herb.
Why the Church? I guess it depends who you ask.
V
I appreciate the sentiment that the "real church" is not dependent upon corporate organizations to exist, and I think part of the problem is that we collectively have been so steeped in the corporate institutional system, that we have lost sight of that. We have replaced the body of Christ and His spiritual community or assembly with the corporate organization of the "church", and in the process replaced our allegiance to Christ with an allegiance to that corporate entity to the point that most of us view them as one and the same and do not know how to function as Christians outside of that institution. I posted a similar but more explanatory comment over on Banned under your commentary but thought I would touch on it here as well.
ReplyDeleteConcerned Sister
Yes, I really appreciated your comment over at Banned. I thought about pasting it over here but didn't want to be presumptuous. I was going to comment that you have a way of summarizing succinctly what I am often struggling to say with more words than I probably need to.
DeleteFeel free to share my previous comment over here if you feel it would be helpful. I struggle with how to word things at times as well. I think it is something every writer has to deal with.
DeleteSome of these issues have been simmering in the back of my brain for years, and it has taken time and research to clarify my own thinking on them. Other things I am still in the process of studying and thinking about and am a little more hesitant to share my thoughts publicly on those issues. As stated in a previous post, I do not want to throw the baby out with the bath water.
One thing seems clear though, and that is that God did not intend His body to be defined by or limited to any corporate organization built by men. And if we only pay lip service to that truth, but act in the opposite manner, we become hypocrites. Which corporate club we warm a seat in for a couple of hours a week won't seem nearly as important when they all cease to exist, and it is each of us standing before God giving an account for our own thoughts and actions. Did we learn to be patient, kind, and merciful? Did we learn to have love, joy, and peace, even in difficult times? Were we faithful to the word of God as much as our understanding would allow us to be? Did we truly seek to follow Christ and not just some man who claimed to represent Him? This stuff is easy to put down on paper, but much harder to live out. At the end of the day though, these are the things that will matter.
Concerned Sister
Here is the comment Concerned Sister shared at another blog:
ReplyDelete"Part of the problem is that in asking the question "Why the church?" what is really meant by these ministers is "Why our corporate organization, which we refer to as church?" And basically this question becomes a catalyst for the self justification and promotion of the corporate entity or institution they represent or in some cases hide behind. In other words, Weston isn't really asking why God established a community or assembly of believers, which collectively is made up of individuals, or real people who have been given "personal salvation" through the spreading of the gospel message and their belief in Jesus Christ, and isn't dependent upon or synonymous with his or any other organization. He is really asking why should you support the corporate organization or "church" that "I" represent, or speak for? Or, put another way, why should you support(send in your money), follow, or submit to "me" and "my" institution?
While lip service is sometimes given to a spiritual organism, body of believers, or the individual Christians who make up this body, the actions and practices of almost every one of these men is to hide behind, promote, and support the corporate institutions that have come to be referred to as "the church". And so, it is the "church" that promotes and shares the gospel, and it is the "church" that establishes and teaches doctrine, and it is the "church" or the "ministry" within it that is the authority and must be submitted to and supported. This reasoning is used regardless of whether one is speaking of a large organization or a very small one. I have heard ministers who hide behind their one man corporate organizations give sermons on the importance of obedience to the "ministry", or the importance of supporting the "church", when the "ministry" and the "church" they are referring to is simply themselves. They just don't quite have the guts to openly admit it.
The result of this reasoning is that the individuals who make up the body of believers that Jesus actually established are viewed as somehow separate from the entity that is the "church", and so instead of being the "church", they join, support, work for, and submit to this other thing that is called the "church". Being a member of the spiritual body of Christ isn't seen as enough. Individually loving and serving others within that body isn't enough. Sharing the hope that dwells within you isn't enough. The personal efforts or gifts of the individual Christian is no longer viewed as being important to God at all, or only important to the extent that they benefit the system of whatever xyz institution they are supposed to join to be considered part of the "church", and their allegiance to Christ is very cleverly replaced by their allegiance to the "church"."
Concerned Sister
Here is another anonymous comment from that blog post:
ReplyDelete"SSS, there's another scandalous detail worth sharing.
For 2009, LCG reported spending $6,107,774 on preaching the gospel.
For 2018, LCG reported spending $6,227,147 on preaching the gospel.
That's a 2 percent increase, during a time when LCG revenue increased by 62 percent (from $13.6 million to $22 million).
When LCG was young, it aired a new TV program most weeks, with a short summer rerun season. Today, more than half of the time LCG shows TV reruns, and it isn't just a summer thing, as you'll see this week where their telecast page admits that this early December program originally aired on January 9, 2019. And that's the best part of LCG, as their website is an embarrassment, and their booklets and magazines are old and dated. But at least the minister/member ratio has jumped from 117:1 to 50:1, so there's far less danger of a member reading the Book of Enoch or buying a pink Buick."