After watching the video, read the comments over at youtube.
Is Your Church Dying?
All churches will eventually die. That’s a given. Most think they must and will survive. A church might be hanging on physically, but is dead spiritually. The following questions give a good indication of your church’s health, if it is growing or dying out.
Last COG Standing
Several months ago, after reading a few of the Friday night specials from RCG, I wrote the following, but forgot about it when I got Gilbert and Sullivanish.
After glancing at the last two RCG postings â 17 and 18 I think, I wondered ⌠what if another COG had decided to amalgamate somehow with RCG? That action could be made to appear like a fulfilment of the Haggai prophecy, with the hope of other COGs following suit…
Last COG Standing
One can look forward to Friday to find the latest installment of why the RCG is the best COG ever.
Some time ago, former RCG members mentioned how Mr CEO Pack was trying to run his organization like a business â actually, like a health food business. But now, rather cooperative merger discussions with the competition, like the new Pope is holding with Lutherans and Eastern Orthodox (at least thatâs what I gather from COGWriter) Mr CEO Pack has been moving closer to a buyout, merger or even a hostile takeover. In a sermon a while back, APG (Apostle Pastor-General) Pack indicated how C21 wanted to merge with RCG, but this failed over disagreement on corporate structure, including of course, top dog of the new COG.
Rather than attempt merger, the move is asset stripping â like the corporate practice of buying a company, taking what it wants, and dumping whatever remains. The assets sought are the members, and any ministers who will subordinate themselves in the expanded RCG.
One of the RCG audio programs some years ago gave a sign of the âTrue Churchâ was it was small in size, a remnant flock. So the move afoot would be to become the âbiggest small flockâ. As the other COGs fold, the RCG will be the Last COG Standing. We know the other splinters will belly-up, because Mr CEO Pack said so. Showing true Philadelphian brotherhood to his fellow COG leaders, APG Pack told us the decrepit state the others were in. To prove this assertion, we were informed the other COG ministers will either admit to their members their organization is floundering, or they would do a cover-up. Nice to give two points of view, both negative. Â
After thoughts…
After re-reading this, an alternative to WCGâs view of early church history came to mind. Orthodoxy and Heresy in Earliest Christianity, by Walter Bauer (1934 in German, 1971 in English). Bauer argued that as Christianity developed, and spread from Jerusalem, it diversified, being adapted and modified by diverse cultures. (also covered in Lost Christianities, by Bart Ehrman, which is easier to read than Bauer…) Eventually, Rome dominated. Perhaps we could substitute Pasadena for Jerusalem, and Wadsworth for Rome…