If the USA remains on Lock-down due to the Coronavirus through April 30th, 2020 the following will happen:1. Many of the Church of God Members will loose their jobs and in turn lose their incomes, homes, etc. 2. Many of the Church of God Members that own a small business will be in bankruptcy and lose their incomes.3. If the predicted unemployment rate of 25% – 30% takes place, every COG congregation will be impacted by the financial crisis.4. Every COG congregation that has a debt (back loan) will not be able to make their payments due to the decrease in donations.5. If the COG State Office of a State has underwritten millions of dollars in loans – that State Office will be Bankrupted.6. If the combined State Offices do not have enough money in reserve to cover their underwritten loans – the Denomination HQ has to pay the loan debt.7. If COG HQ cannot pay – Denominational Bankruptcy occurs and the COG will be dissolved in debtors court.
If history serves us well, our organisation came out of the 1918-1920 pandemics much stronger financially than ever before as the early minutes show clearly. We were even able to undergo the 1923 split with consecutive lawsuit and come on the other side of the Great Depression still swinging. And that is without the government spending trillions in aid or revers loan insurance. The one thing that can shake us this time is extending terms without a GA________________
I say thou art a false prophet. God is able to carry the COG. God is bigger than a pandemic. If a denomination fails it will not because of a pandemic. Same with a local church. Who do we serve________________
It is my opinion, the trauma of the of the 1918 Pandemic, and the after effects of the recession which followed WWI contributed to the split in 1923. In January of 1918 the new Bible school was started, with new staff and expenses. During the year the publishing ministry was expanded with new equipment, while at the same time many church members were lost to the flu, church services were canceled by the government (which at the same time was investigating the COG for its members not going to war teaching), and the General Assembly had to be canceled. Keeping the printing ministry and the school opened fell on AJT, who used his home as the first dorm for many of the students – they lived with the Tomlinson and ate at their table. Some of the students did fall sick of the flu, with one dying. Though not reported widely, AJT’s young granddaughter (Thelma Hughes) died of the flu in April of that year. Reduced income, greater expense due to expansion, a building in Harriman, TN that was going unused, and great personal sacrifice due to housing the students had a greater effect on AJT then some historians fail to recognized. Following the end of the pandemic and the war, COG begin new ministries, such as the orphanage and the building of a new church/tabernacle in Cleveland. The publishing house was expanded to accommodate the Bible school. This may have led to the terrible change in the financial system where all local tithes where sent to Cleveland, and in turn a committee of seven (which may have never operated) was to send money out based on need and effectiveness.This led to financial shortages, for funding all the ministries going on in Cleveland. AJT made the mistake of moving money around to keep everything up and running. In the end it was, in my opinion, over expansion, the lack of money and AJT being too personality invested in the continued operation of the church. For those who opposed AJT, the use of an incomplete audit and the claims he profited personally led to the split of 1923 (both claims were proven wrong in court). It was the COG who engaged in the lawsuits against AJT following the split (didn’t someone say, the COG has never lost a church building), and I have always felt AJT’s belief in not taking your brother to court failed him. He should of gotten lawyer-ed up like the COG did.His since of believing he was called by God to lead the COG has its roots in the many personal sacrifices and vision he cast to get build the organization. Also, there were those false prophets in the assembly (1914) who stood up and said AJT should be GO for life. So pastors and leaders, what will you sacrifice to keep you local church and denomination going? After its all over, how will you react when a someone says you did not wrong and its time for you to go?
Reading the court case minutes, COG had plenty of money to split and to spare.You could be right of course, we could blame the split on WW1, pandemics, recessions,when we all know it was centralized government that caused it, but my point was: We are still here after all, aint we? I guess we are fixing to find out today ________________
God and the church is bigger than the buck. We may have to adjust, streamline, consolidate, etc. but this situation has not taken Gd by surprise. Is it time for states and territories to be consolidated and reduce the number of ABs? YesIs it a good idea four three small churches in close proximity to be consolidated? It makes good sense. (Oh that will change the number of churches in the state–Oh cry me a river. Our church roles haven’t been honest for decades)Is it time for some small churches to be weaned off of state budgets? Yes, and right now you can probably think of some.This may cause the local,state, and general church to rethink programs and practices. Make it a good thing________________
Mixing 3 church cultures overnight could be an administrative nightmare!Do you have an actual working example of such 3 near you________________
Mixing 3 church cultures overnight could be an administrative nightmare!Do you have an actual working example of such 3 near you? Not locally. We live an hour away from our church. But I have ministered in areas where it would have been quite feasible. The toughest question might be, What will the pastors of the consolidated churches do?________________
Hopefully, not becoming the pastor of the church you’re pastoring ________________
RE:
I never post here, but I disagree with this. I would better say it that a denominational consolidation will take place. Churches well capitalized will absorb the other smaller churches and properties and make life giving churches out of them.
Rick, I think you are right. When you look at the Generational Theory of Strauss and Howe, it seems that we are entering the peak of our Crisis Turning. The most recent Crisis Turning was World War II, and you can see the parallels between the society living in the current pandemic over the past few weeks and the society that lived through the Great Depression and war. The Surgeon General likened this week to Pearl Harbor and people are looking to the institution to consolidate our efforts to overcome the hidden enemy threat to the nation.Crisis Turnings begin with a strong economic downturn (like the Great Depression and the 2008 financial crisis) and end with a total war that fundamentally changes society from that point forward. During this time, the institution strengthens and individualism weakens. We have already seen this take place as a moratorium on peaceful assembly is embraced with relatively little kerfuffle about Americans’ individual rights and the suspension of elections for the good of public health is discussed and widely embraced. We will continue to see the strengthening of the institution at the expense of the individual through the peak of the Crisis, and it will be at its strongest during the next Turning—a High—and it will be embraced by society.In the same way that the institution of government is bolstered during this time, the institution of the church will also be embraced. We should expect to see denominations consolidate and independent churches move toward folding into these denominations, whether by choice in the name of greater ecumenical unity, for the legal protection or administrative support they will receive, or out of necessity due to financial circumstances________________
I just don’t understand why I see postings especially on social media about being so excited to get things back to normal. Things will never be as they were. EVER.We will have gatherings again of course, but that will be a smaller emphasis and the online streaming/youtube etc will become more of the frontdoor rather than the sidepiece. You’ll have more people engaged and I think our emphasis will be less on numbers (butts in seats) to influence and how many people we are reaching weekly with the combined totals.
If the USA remains on Lock-down due to the Coronavirus through April/May/June… 13th, 2020-21 the following will happen:1. Many Americans will loose their jobs and in turn lose their incomes, homes, etc.2. Many Americans that own a small business will be in bankruptcy and lose their incomes.3. If the predicted unemployment rate of 25% – 30% takes place, every Americans will be impacted by the financial crisis.4. Every Americans that has a debt (back loan) will not be able to make their payments due to the decrease in finances.5. If the COG State Office of a State has underwritten millions of dollars in loans – that State Office will … sell few smaller churches and patch the budget! 6. If the combined State Offices do not have enough money in reserve to cover their underwritten loans – the Denomination HQ will order that State Office to sell few smaller churches and patch the budget!7. If COG HQ cannot pay – Denominational Bankruptcy will not occur, because several buildings around the globe could be quickly sold and converted into a cash flow that can patch the 20 million annual budget of the organization; few millions can be saved from not having an Assembly, and so on and so on.When you approach our movement not as a body-organism of living people, but as a business, a few corporate moves can save the day.THE CLOCK has been TICKING for years and we’ve been doing this for years________________
A few things to address as I have read over these things:It was NOT centralized government that caused the 1923 split. It was a form of jealousy. There were men who would never be able to be the GO if AJT stayed in power. There was also likely significant disagreement at times with his direction…which contributed to the endgame. The whole misappropriation things was a just the reason given. The truth was that this could have been resolved gently and quietly, but two things contributed to it not being settled that way: 1) The gameplaying of using AJT’s misappropriation to question his integrity; and 2) AJT’s umbrage at having his integrity questioned, when he felt he had acted only in the larger interests of the church.It never occurred to me how the 1918 flu epidemic and the following recession might have contributed to the matter. That’s actually a very good point. If everything had continued as it had before, there might have been no need to have to move funds around.Recessions and Depressions can INCREASE the need for church. People may not have as much money, but they will give as generously as they can to keep a place of refuge and encouragement open. I shared the other day how W.A. Criswell, while pastoring a small Texas church during the Depression found it important to expand the church. People bought in big time! They sold saddles and the such in order to provide money for the building. And it got done!There may be some strategic mergers. That makes sense in virtually any economy. But in my small town, the nearest Church of God is over 11 miles away. The district church is about 20 miles. That’s not a long way to most folks…but it is utterly impossible for the very poor children who come here. And that would be a tragedy, I think….The Church of God can reduce it’s expenditures in a number of ways, one of which (at least regarding Florida) is:
It’s going to force us to really take a hard look throughout different regions and see fruitful churches/ flourishing and then shut down some of the other ones who are way behind. Some of those properties are worth millions. Sell those facilities and distribute them among the stronger churches and merge them. Consolidate, Consolidate, Consolidate.
But the reason you have strong regions is not past consolidation, but steady growth. Once you Consolidate, Consolidate, Consolidate, will you have these strong regions? No! They are consisted of people who will simply leave. These are churches, not small or big companies we can merge without consequences on people, families and lives.For crying out loud, even when you merge companies you have to let people go. Should we also let members go when we merge churches________________
Consider what happens when we merge two churches. Who is going to be the Adult Sunday School teacher? The one at the take-over church…or the the one from the took-over church? How will we decide? By going with the one who is better. Good luck pulling that off without losing someone.Sis. Betty has been playing the piano for 30 years at the took-over church. She can’t play all that well, but she’s been faithful. The pianist at the big church has been the pianist for 3 years…. Good luck with that one too.Pastors? The took-over church has a pastor who has been in ministry for 40 years. The take-over church has a pastor who has been in ministry for 12 years. Whose the pastor? When does the old pastor get a chance to preach?When musicians and ministers find that they aren’t going to have much of a chance to play or minister, most will move on. On the bright side, that means some other church may benefit. On the down side…it can mean that the merger only retained a small percentage of the took-over church.I am not disputing that there are times when a church might need to be taken-over. But it’s gonna hurt…and it’s gonna cost us.
I would agree, that most of the resistance to the healing of the 1923 split that resulted in the COG and COGOP, is strongest in Cleveland, followed by state/regional/national offices.So what’s it going to take for leadership to let go of their positions – which is primary what needs to happen in the COGOP – and what needs to happen to cause the COG leadership (and denomination) to accept COGOP members and ministers as equals in the body? Is the answer a pandemic, followed by a recession, mixed with the older generations not willing to forgive and move on dying off? Maybe so.The church landscape has changed for denominations with multi-level leadership structure which practices forms of hierarchical government. Smaller local churches are dying off and large local churches are running, leaving a diminishing base to support the various ministries above the pastor (they are my brothers, and they are heavy at times).When you add in the great sin of not even trying to bring about reconciliation for the Kingdom sake and the Church’s witness, something got to give. As far as I’m concerned, it would please the Lord if all the COGOP leadership in Cleveland and the state/regional/national offices when back (or started) to being a pastor (our COGOP leaders are always decrying the lack of pastors on the field, put up or shut up). Now the employees at the COGOP International Offices, I would hope the COG would consider them for helping with a few in the transition.Here’s the thing, COG has voting and term limits – if there are any COGOP leaders who are gifted, they will rise to the top. 2023 could be the time of unity in the Church of God Movement.Mat