COGaIC a Blogless Vision

Ancient Laodicea

David Hulme of COGaIC was once UCG’s president, and he left when he was not re-elected to that position. COGaIC seems to be the fourth largest group (in terms of attendees) that came out of the old Worldwide Church of God.

Someone that I know personally told me that one of the reasons that he supported David Hulme was that he felt that David Hulme would be able to make better use of the internet than the older Roderick C. Meredith (who is the presiding evangelist of the Living Church of God).

One of the reasons that I report little about what goes on with that group is that they have taken the position that they do not want to make news of their group publicly available. Specifically, shortly after I first wrote the article, Teachings of Church of God, an International Community, COGaic’s Church of God News was removed from public access on the internet and requires a login, etc. procedure for that group to approve one seeing that information. And even though years ago one or more in COGaIC (and not any who became LCG members as far as I know) offered to give me login information, I decided that if COGaIC did not want me to see their news, I would not go around their security system.

Now, the part of their public information that I have tended to report about is occasionally something from two blogs on COGaIC’s Vision site (their public site). Yet, I have reported little, because they have reported relatively little.

And while there are four blogs on that site, most of them simply are not updated very often. Thus, my headline about a blogless vision.

As far as internet impact goes, COGaIC simply does not do well.

FWIW, LCG’s Tomorrows World telecast was put on YouTube by an individual member and has had over 1,000,000 views in the past 18 months. Plus, as of 11/14/10 COGwriter.com (another unofficial LCG’s supporting website) has an Alexa popularity ranking of 230,513 which is much better than Vision.org’s 372,205–essentially this means that COGwriter is probably twice as popular as Vision.

And as far as David Hulme being better able to utilize the internet than Roderick C. Meredith, let me simply state that LCG’s official websites reach more people than I do. And if you combine LCG’s official website numbers, with mine, and the youtube videos of LCG’s official telecast, LCG has possibly the highest or possibly the second highest, internet reach of any of the COGs.

Hence, as far as effectiveness on the internet or television, David Hulme’s vision has not been nearly as effective as LCG’s. And this proportionally worsens further if YouTube and COGwriter are counted. Overall, LCG probably reaches 5 or 10 times as many as COGaIC does on the internet (and of course, LCG receives more television responses than all of the groups once part of the old WCG have combined).

I felt 15 years ago that Roderick Meredith would be more successful in public proclamation of Christ’s gospel of the kingdom to the world as a witness than David Hulme. And this has proven true, not only on the internet, but also in print media and the telecast. Perhaps those in COGaIC may wish to consider what all that means.

What about you? Do you believe that you should support the group better fulfilling Matthew 24:14 in proclaiming the gospel of the world as a witness or a group that has been relatively ineffective in that mission?

Will you follow the criteria of the Bible or your own? Please look at the fruits, look at what the Bible teaches, and pray and ask what God would have you do.

Some articles of possibly related interest may include:

Polycarp, Herbert W. Armstrong, and Roderick C. Meredith on Church Government What form of governance did the early church have? Was it hierarchical? Which form of governance would one expect to have in the Philadelphia remnant? The people decide and/or committee forms, odd dictatorships, or the same type that the Philadelphia era itself had?
Unity: Which COG for You? Why so many groups? Why is there lack of unity in the Churches of God? Has it always been this way? What can/should be done about it?
Church of God, an International Community (COG aic) This is the group led by David Hulme. It seems to minimize parts of biblical prophecy and have limited gospel proclamation effectiveness.
In Their Own Words: Doctrinal Differences Between the old United Church of God and the old Global Church of God Older quotes from the leadership and some of the membership of these two organizations are included without added commentary (until the end and the 7/31/98 update) which highlighted some of the differences between them. David Hulme was UCG president when much of this article was written.
There are Many COGs: Why Support the Living Church of God? This is an article for those who wish to more easily sort out the different COGs. It really should be a MUST READ for current and former WCG/GCI members or any interested in supporting the faithful church. It also explains a lot of what the COGs are all about.
Should the Church Still Try to Place its Top Priority on Proclaiming the Gospel or Did Herbert W. Armstrong Change that Priority for the Work? Some say the Church should mainly feed the flock now as that is what Herbert W. Armstrong reportedly said. Is that what he said? Is that what the Bible says? What did Paul and Herbert W. Armstrong expect from evangelists?
The Laodicean Church Era has been predominant circa 1986 A.D. to present. These are non-Philadelphians who mainly descended from the old WCG.