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Can’t
Find a Church to Attend Near Me – SO NOW WHAT?
By M. John
Allen
There was a time, not so long
ago, when the Worldwide Church of God was, by and large, loyal to God’s
Truth, and they had congregations within driving distance all over the world. In addition to that, there were other
smaller, scattered groups, and, finally, God also had some of His people in
churches like the Seventh Day Adventists, The Church of God, 7th Day,
and a few others.
While these others may have only
had a few of God’s people there, the WCG and its offshoots by and large
comprised the majority of doctrinally sound organizations to attend.
With the rampant apostasy of the
Tkach regimes for almost 20 years now, not only has
the WCG shrank to a fraction of its former size [about 1 fifth of its former
size, last I heard, and still rebelling against God and still shrinking], it
has lost almost all of the Truth it once possessed, and so it is not
recommended that anyone seeking God’s Truth attend with them any longer.
In the past 15-20 years, God’s
people have been scattered across many organizations, schisms and
splits. Some of the biggest groups go by
names such as United Church of God [the biggest], Living Church of God, Church
of God, International, and a whole host of smaller organizations,
all competing for your attention and attendance.
What has happened has not been
pretty, by and large. It has long been
my opinion that many of these so called “church leaders” need to grow up and
stop playing little territorial head games with God’s people, drop the
pretensions, and start treating each other like the Brothers and Sisters we
all are.
The last few years have been
very trying on all of us, and it is time for there to be peace and
cooperation, rather than division and strife.
If you do find yourself
attending one of these organizations, we are sure that most of what you hear
will be sound, doctrinally, but please remember that we are all part of one
big family – the Family of God.
Even though we long ago formulated
sample by laws, a doctrinal statement, etc., for a Restoration Church of God,
God revealed to us some time ago that we needed to be a part of the SOLUTION,
and not a part of the PROBLEM.
By being a part of the solution,
our job is to lead people to God’s truth, and then to repentance, baptism,
and a Christian life. We are shepherds
and guides, not attempting to gain power, or a following, or glorification
for ourselves. We are here to serve
everyone, no matter which organization of men they might belong to.
After all of this scattering,
there is now a movement of small, independent groups meeting in people’s
living rooms every Sabbath day, which some have called the “living room Church
of God.” Some may take this as a derisive term, but
it is not, because this was the way it all started so long ago, before there
was a great organized “Work” being done by the late Herbert Armstrong.
But, for many, it will not be
possible for you to find even a small “living room church” to go to, and you
may find some of the quirks of the large corporate churches not entirely to
your liking. So, what do you do?
First, take the situation to
God. Ask Him to either show you a
group He wants you to fellowship with each week, or guide you into how you can
start your own. Eventually, He will
show you the way, we are sure.
Some of you will be inspired to
start your own little fellowship group in your own home. If God leads you in this way, we are here
to help as much as we can.
One of the things we will start
providing again very shortly, within the next couple of weeks, we hope, is
our online cybercast services each and every week. This is designed to be a full service, so
that you can get the benefit of a good, solid, church service each and every
week.
If you have a small group
meeting in your home, all you need to do is get a good internet connection, a
decent sound system hooked up to your computer, and then, when your group is
ready to begin, hit the play button and you will have services right there in
your own living room!
This method will work for any
number of people you might be meeting with, and we encourage that you have a
discussion about what is discussed in the messages after services are over,
followed by a potluck meal and lots of fellowship so that you can truly make
the Sabbath a delight!
As your group grows, God may
call into it men who have experience with the Word of God. As your group grows, if you have someone
there with the right experience, you may wish to start your own local
Spokesman’s Club.
For years, God’s church used the
Spokesman’s Club model to train the men of the church in how to become
leaders, and eventually speakers, in the Church. We will upload the Spokesman’s, Graduate’s,
and Director’s manuals to this church development section of this website for
you to use in developing your local talent and leadership.
You should not forget, either,
the principle of tithes and offerings.
For your small group, members can bring their contributions to the
local meetings. The leader of the group
should then keep what is needed for the local Work, and then send some
portion on to us, so that we can get God’s word into more and more homes
around the world, pay our bills so that we can
continue to serve you, and expand this outreach.
It is important that you
remember that the primary mission of God’s Church and His people is to
proclaim the Good News, or GOSPEL MESSAGE, of the soon coming, world ruling KINGDOM
OF GOD, and to act as a witness and a warning to a dying world
about the consequences of continuing down its evil path towards self
destruction. This is MISSION #1 – not only
for the CHURCH as a whole, but also for each and every MEMBER of Christ’s
body, the church, which means each and every one of YOU!
We need to be a light to the
nations, a City upon a Hill, and an example to those around us of the TRUE
way to world peace, happiness, and joy!
We should be radiating out this
Divine LOVE AND JOY AND PEACE to the entire world.
People are in dire straights
today. They don’t know where to turn.
Religion has failed them. Science has failed them. Government has failed them. ONLY GOD WILL NOT FAIL!
This, my friends, is the GOOD
WORK that you have been called to do.
So let’s cast aside EVERY weight that besets us, and keeps us from
heading towards our goal, and let’s start living God’s way every day and
every moment of our lives.
So, if you have been thinking
about starting your own fellowship, we will help you to get started. Who knows what great works God has in store
for His small flock of scattered, despised sheep!
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