Sunday, October 18, 2015

United Church of God: It's Pathetic Feast of Tabernacles Attendance Figures



United Church of God touts its self as the true restored Church of God that holds fast to the truth of Herbert Armstrong.  It does that while still living in the pre-1986 modus operandi of their former mother the Worldwide Church of God. As hard as they try, they cannot seem to make their brand of Armstrongism relevant to the world around them.  Twenty some years on, even with countless personal appearance campaigns, the UCG is not able to draw people in, let alone keep their present members engaged.

Just take a look at their Feast attendance figures for 2015. 7,700 total people in attendance!    This total is the equivalent of ONE medium sized WCG Feast site from the past.  Large sites like St. Pete/Tampa would have 15,000+ during the WCG glory days!  Jekyll Island would have 7-8,000+ when the WCG put it on...now UCG can only get 479 to attend!  It would be laughable if it wasn't so pathetic!





2015 Feast of Tabernacles Attendance 
 
United States Sites:
Bend/Redmond           684
Bigfork 152
Branson 528
Cincinnati 370
Galveston 456
Jekyll Island 479
Lahaina 311
Ocean City 362
Oceanside 554
Panama City Beach 1234
Phoenix 188
Sevierville 781
Steamboat Springs 313
Wisconsin Dells 744    

United States Satellite Sites:


Big Sandy 51
Tampa 37
Tucson 31
Canadian Sites:
Canmore 180
Gros Morne 42
Kelowna 163
Midland 
125
Total, U.S. & Canada Combined 7,785

Living Church of God: Rod Meredith Forces The New "Bob League" To Sell His House In Service To LCG


From an LCG source:



Rod Meredith's new henchman and Bob League's replacement, Michael Desimone has been forced to put his gorgeous Charlotte home on the market. Mike had a decent job and his family lived comfortably in a large home with acres of wooded property in a great Charlotte neighborhood. That is until Rod Meredith manipulated him into quitting his job to prove his loyalty to the Church of Rod.
 
Unfortunately,  the idealistic Desimone will now be expected to blindly obey Master Meredith's every command. His most recent order to sell his stunning 5 bedroom, 6 bathroom home was blindly obeyed as expected.
 
Rod and Lil' Jimmy don't want someone below them to have a nicer house after all. It just doesn't look right for a subordinate to be living higher on the hog than number 3 and 4 in all the universe. Ego and vanity. Vanity and ego.
 
Just like that episode of Star Trek where John-Luc Picard turns into a robot-human part of the Borg,  Mike Desimone has now become assimilated. Resistance was futile.
 
He was once a relatively nice guy, although fairly daft. Now, after several months of training for his new position assisting the tyrannical Rod McNair in policing the Charlotte LCG congregation, he has already begun to become less human.
 
What else could be expected? Can you imagine being trained by Rod McNair? The poor man hasn't got a prayer. I'm sure he has already been baptized into "the ends justify the means" club of which McNair is the chairman. He's already comfortable telling long-time church members that are twice his age that they can't study the Bible without a minister present.
 
The silver lining might be that he will now be able to keep his friends out of trouble. Everyone knows that favoritism rules at LCG and the close friends and family of ministers get the get-out-of-jail-free cards.
 
He was most certainly ordained and given the position that he is in because he is a "yes man".  Like a soldier, he is perfectly okay executing orders without questioning whether what he's being asked to do is right or wrong.
 
Mike once said that "if Mr. Meredith says it, it's the same as if it were written in the Bible". That type of obedience to Rod is how you get places in LCG!
 
Many of us feel a little sorry for Mike. He worked hard to make something of his career despite the lack of quick wit. He had a big heart and puppy eyes, truly believing that serving the "one true church" would sure up his position as a pillar in the kingdom. I'm sure he will hide is sadness and despair and march forward like all good soldiers do even after the truth becomes known to him. The truth that it is all a charade. The truth that LCG headquarters is filled with boasters, liars, back-biters and bullies. It's always a little heart breaking for new hires at LCG headquarters at first but then he will tell himself that it's a test of obedience or make some other excuse in his mind to prevent the truth and doubt from seeping into his perfectly brainwashed obedient mind. It's so much easier to make excuses and go with the flow than to stand up against the rampant bad behavior and risk the utter destruction of everything you THOUGHT was real.
 
Poor Mikey.