January 6, 2010 – Ministers and their wives began arriving at the Galt House in Louisville, Kentucky, yesterday in preparation for an organizing conference for the Church of God, a Worldwide Association that will be held here January 9-11.
A pre-conference planning team co-chaired by Mike Blackwell and Mark Winner in conjunction with the temporary leadership team will use today (Thursday) and tomorrow to finalize the conference agenda. Other committees will also meet prior to the conference to discuss governmental structure and to ensure the continuity of important church programs.
Today, the interim governance committee, the long-term governance committee, and the administration committee will convene to work on how to structure the new organization. Festival coordinators, camp directors and youth corps administrators will meet on Friday.Good luck fellas. Considering just who will be turning up, don't expect a smooth ride. More predictable is bull roaring, deal making and back room grandstanding.
Who won't be turning up are the common garden variety members. Except... the hoi polloi have been graciously permitted attendance at the church service.
Members are welcome to attend the Sabbath service that will be held at the Galt House in connection with the conference. Arnold Hampton and Richard Pinelli will deliver split sermons that will be webcast to newly formed congregations around the world.The hoi oligoi in the Armstrong tradition have always had a robust sense of their own entitlement, and it seems that will continue in the new body, with a few extra bells and whistles thrown in. It seems that lay members of this church will certainly be expected to know their place.
Split sermons?! It isn't even a double Sabbath!
ReplyDeleteImagine, if you will, organizing the 2,000 year old "Church of God" here in 2011...it is truly mind boggling why they waited so long.
ReplyDeleteI don't know...maybe the apostles were too stupid to do that back in 30 AD or maybe these 'johnny come lately's' are not really connected to that organization at all. I wonder which it is?
Maybe it is because cults are destined to failure? Maybe the money is running a little short after the Christmas rush? Maybe it's because "someone" needs to exert their "authority"?
Does it matter? Does anyone care? Can anyone "understand the signs of the times"? Do they not understand that - it's over and the apostle was buried 25 years ago? Or, is he really alive and well and living with Hitler in Venezuela? Inquiring minds want to know - others just don't care.
Isn't doing the same thing over and over expecting different results the definition of insanity?
ReplyDeleteDefinition of Church of God History: One damn thing after the other....
ReplyDeletewell what other kinds of sermons can they give but "split" sermons, since the church has split??? :)
ReplyDeleteIf a Winner is involved, I don't hold much hope for harmony or inspiration. I had the bad luck to have a Winner for minister on two different continents, one of the worst ministers I've come across.
ReplyDeleteExpect escalation of mental noise.
ReplyDeleteThere will be no peace.
A good indication of the level to which they have fallen is the presence of Richard Pinelli who has been behind so much of the conflict which has racked the Armstrongist community. I will remember his Sabbath Sermon about the tipping over the barrel given September 9, 2001 in Tacoma to send a clear message to the couple being tormented by the stalker in the UCG to just bear it quietly.
This CoGaWa meeting is going to need a lot more than good luck. Not to expect a smooth ride is a very good call and entitlement is at the core. It should be clear that the hoi oligoi have an expansive inflated opinion of themselves not at all shared by the rest of the Universe.
If you hear ringing in your ears, it is from the tolling of the Bells of Hyperbole.