Post-WCG Life and Theology ARCHIVES

The congregation is warm and non judgmental. People come dressed informally, although you can wear a suit if you wish. There is no pressure. The people are very caring. The minister is not the Sabbath Gestapo in the CoG7. There are a lot more young children and there are many younger families with the parents in their 20s and 30s. Quite a few people never attended church anywhere else before.There are, amazingly enough, altar calls. Tithes and offerings, though not demanded are collected as part of the praise service.Instead of a duty or burden, the Sabbath is considered a gift wherein everyone can leave the cares of the past week behind and concentrate on praising Jesus and worshiping God the Father. There is much more emotional content to the extent that the xcgs seem sterile by comparison.There is even an optional Fall Festival kept at the traditional time.The CoG7 is community based and the ministers of the CoG7 have a rapport with the Sunday keeping Protestant ministers and talk with them frequently. The CoG7 ministers have actual training in credentialed prominent Bible Colleges. One minister did his thesis on William Miller and has family ties to Dugger and Dodd. Some have taken extensive training in the Dead Sea Scrolls.While it may seem odd, with the modern evangelical music, the CoG7 believes in keeping the Commandments, clean and unclean meats but consider themselves New Covenant, devoid of legalism. The idea is to love God and keep the Commandments because they are a gift and because they want to show love to Jesus, not out of duty.The Bible Advocate is one of the most respected religious publications with around 150 years of history. Let us see any other xcg last that long and have a stable congregation of 10,000 strong a century from now.Indeed, the CoG7 from which Herbert Armstrong rebelled because they didn't accept British Israelism from him, is quite a world apart from the xcgs, musically and otherwise.

Despite my criticisms of both the historical and evangelical Worldwide Church of God, I will say that it has come a long way baby! You gotta give credit to what was a woman-hating organization (and I really believe the historic WCG and it's Armstrongist split-offs hate with a passion, the female sex, especially when the female sex becomes an adult---she is evil, the beauty of her body is especially wicked, women according to Armstrongism is a utility, all aesethetic aspects of a woman should never come into mind!) to an organization that respects women as an equal to a man in the eyes of God. The evangelical WCG went so far of doing a study paper on the issue of ordaining women to the ministry and has very recently ordained a woman into the ministry. The first woman to be ordained in the WCG to ministry is Debby Bailey of Kentucky. Where do I stand on this? I have taken a "moderate complementary" position on this issue. In other words, I have no hang-ups on women doing openening and closing prayer, even doing the occassional sermons and other active involements in the church but I was reluctant to have a woman as a "senior pastor" of a congregation or a "denominational leader" (whether WCG, Lutheran, Baptist, whatever). I believe God had a role for the men in the particular positions. Some friends from the place I attend services Good News Fellowship have contested my "moderate complementarianism" saying, "If you (Felix) can allow a woman to preach and teach, how come you cannot give the woman the recognition by ordaining them." Good question and I do not know all the answers. This is what I know, that the church, which is the invisible body of Christ, are a kingdom of priests---or in other words a preisthood of believers. We, the church are all ministers. When we believe the gospel, respond to it, we are empowered for ministry. It is not a option which you pick and choose what you eat from a menu, it is obligatory. God has created in us special abilities and talents, we should use them to our potential to glorify him. It doesn't matter what race, sex, ability or disability---believers are called to ministry regardless. I guess the issue is about "ordained ministry" is it the same as anyother ministry in the Christian church ---or something different. Obviously, the ultra-conservative splinters will take offence at the recent ordination believing that the WCG is truly apostate and going to The Lake of Fire. Some who have left WCG/XCG are quite happy about this, some have serious reservations and there are some who have left Armstrongism but who are very conservative Protestants believe that the WCG has committed heresy even if it is a minor heresy (which they mean it is non-salvational) it is harmful in some way. Anyway, I believe the Worldwide Church of God should have focused on more practical and pressing issues of dealing with accountability and dismantling the imperial power of pastor general, which if I had my way the office of the Pastor General would have resembled the office of the Archbishop of Canterburry as opposed to the Pope. If it is truly God's will and purpose for Mrs. Bailey to be in "ordained" ministry, I wish her well in her new office but my sympathies extend for her because the evangelical WCG is still an organization with sharks.

Read all about Mrs. Debby Bailey and her ordaination here at http://www.wcg.org/weekly/default.htm

On February 25 was the “Monday Massacre.” Garner Ted Armstrong had flown in from headquarters in Pasadena to end confusion and marshal the forces of righteousness. On the twenty-third he had delivered a blistering sermon at Sabbath services, inflaming the faithful with fresh distrust and, in some cases, hatred for the dissidents. IT was an inspired performance by a talented orator. At the end, several hundred people spontaneously leaped to their feet, cheering and waving. I had a vision of Nuremberg, 1935, and was actually frightened. I counted six of us who didn’t cheer.On the twenty-fifth, Garner Ted convened a minister’s conference at AC, and, after a forty-minute opening prayer, which saw him break into sobs, he harangued and intimidated the forty or so assembled church leaders for seven hours. Several entered the meeting with misgivings about the organization, but by the times it was over, only four still stood their ground, resisting the demand for total loyalty. They were fired from the ministry and disfellowshipped.The next day it was the student body’s turn to be purified. Kelly and an associate delivered wild-eyed diatribes calling on us to “purge out those who are not wiling to change!” Everyone knew who he meant; but of course it was the dissidents who had actually changed.) We were told there was a “morass of rebellion” and that the situation was “insane.” The Devil was attempting to divide and conquer God’s church, and the rebels were eon his side, partaking of evil. To cap it off, we were reminded, “there are things we shouldn’t even think; let alone say.”Next day the student body was assembled, and Kelly announced that twenty students had been fired from their campus jobs because they had contact with disfellowshipped persons. The kicker was that he wouldn’t release the names of those who were “terminated.” You had to guess if you were among the causalities, and, therefore, further incriminate yourself by asking for official confirmation.The next day Kelly kicked my friend Pam out of AC. She had been on the termination list and had gone to Kelly’s office to discuss her firing. She wondered why her job had been affected by a visit to a former member. Kelly replied that the salaries were paid via the donations of church members, so it was a betrayal of the brethren to use their money to pay dissidents. It would have been an appropriate moment to mention how the brethren’s money had been used top buy planes, limos, jewelry, and other extravagances for the WCG hierarchy, but Pam merely said, “I don’t think going to see a former minister should have anything to do with my job.”“Your job isn’t to think, “ Kelly replied irritably. “You aren’t paid to think.”“Oh, that’s right,” Pam countered, “Christians aren’t supposed to think.”Kelly began to shout. He yelled, “That’s enough!” He didn’t want to hear any more. He told Pam she was expelled from AC, and, right on the spot, he instructed his secretary to file the necessary papers. As Pam left his office, he slammed the door behind her.The “heretical underground” had grown cynical as the conflict in the WCG unfolded and we howled with mischievous delight when we discovered that Kelly had a bidet installed in the bathroom of his house. Some began to refer to him as “Clean Ass Kelly,” and mused that since so many true believers were “brownnosers,” Kelly’s posterior must be scrupulously maintained in a pristine condition.