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.