The Assembly of People Drawn to God Through Jesus Christ

This is what the "ekklesia" really is. It is Not a denomination or other manmade organization. It is NOT a building or meeting place. It is composed of all of those individuals who have accepted Jesus as their Savior and have received God's Holy Spirit. All of its members stand before God pure, clean, and Holy!

An Open Letter to Bill Watson

Dear Bill:

 

I heard the announcement you made in Medina this past Sabbath (11/1/2025) regarding your decision to depart ways with the Church of God International and starting a new organization. In your announcement, you made some comments on some of the reasons for the decision. Since your statements were public, I’m making this an open response. It has already come to our attention that some of the church members appear to be quite concerned after hearing you say that the CGI Board of Directors issued three “ultimatums” to you and the Medina church. I want to take a few moments to address this.

 

The letter wherein the three options were mentioned was written by me and sent to other members of the Board of Directors the same day I sent it to you (August 6, 2025). So they did not read what I wrote regarding the three options before you did. And since I wrote it, I can tell you for certain that it never occurred to me that the three options I mentioned might have even remotely resembled “ultimatums.”

 

Bill, I was merely bringing up the options you already had. Those were options available to you whether I mentioned them or not. I was certainly not issuing ultimatums or mandates or demands of any kind; I was merely stating what was! I even began my statement with “It seems to me….” That’s just not the way one issues an ultimatum!

 

Ultimatum is defined as “a final demand or statement of terms, the rejection of which will result in retaliation or a breakdown in relations.”

 

With that definition in mind, let’s look at what I said. Here’s the paragraph mentioning the three options:

 

It seems to me that if our policies mean anything at all, you have three paths you could take: 1) You could do what any CGI elder “in good standing” is expected to do—abide by the policies for elders and chartered churches. 2) You could request of the MC to reclassify you and the Medina congregation as an “independent affiliate.” 3) You could simply declare your independence and go your way. [Emphasis added.]

 

I was referring to the fact that you are presently operating outside the parameters of the policies set forth for chartered churches in our Manual for Field Churches. Since you are not in compliance with these policies, you automatically (not by “decree” from me or the Board) have the option of bringing yourself into compliance—i.e., correcting the situation. But you can, if you so choose, declare your independence from the Church of God International. That’s another option you already had before I mentioned it. And finally, should your choice be independence from the Church of God International, you have the option of requesting that the Ministerial Council give you the “independent affiliate” classification. Again, all those options were already there before I made mention of them. They were not ultimatums!

 

You will note that I said, “It seems to me….” I put it like that because there may be other options, but as best I can tell (i.e., “It seems to me”) the only viable ones are the three mentioned here. Again, neither I, as Chairman of the Board, nor the Board of Directors collectively were giving you or establishing options; I was merely stating that these are options you have.

 

You will recall that in the email I sent to you on July 8, 2025, I asked you to clarify for me your intentions. This is what the options are about. I was asking you for clarity on what you wanted to do. We exchanged emails and letters, but you never answered the question. Finally you sent an email stating you would give me an answer after the Feast. About two weeks after the Feast, you gave me only a partial answer. You said that the Medina Board agreed to change the name. I then told you that this presumably means that option #1 was ruled out. I then asked you if the Board expressed a preference for one of the other two options, and you never answered…until you announced it last Sabbath.

 

You also stated in your announcement that “the Medina Board had been led to believe…that our name, Church of God International, Medina, could be used in perpetuity. That is, without expiration nor any stipulations. However, the Texas Board made it clear to us the last few months…that this was not true, despite their written statement of affirmation awarding Medina to use their name.”

 

This is another misunderstanding. Here is the written statement of affirmation I sent to you on July 1, 2024:

 

This is to affirm that the Board of Directors of the Church of God International has, for the sole purpose of the purchase of a building, approved the use of the name “Church of God International, Medina” by the Medina, Ohio congregation of the Church of God International. [Emphasis added.]

 

You can see that the affirmation I sent to you was not unconditional. As I explained to you in an email (around August 20, 2025), the part in bold allows us to withdraw approval should the Medina church go independent. Of course it goes without saying that as long as you’re officially a Church of God International congregation, we not only approve your use of the name, we prefer and encourage it. The name-change requirement applies only if you decide you want to operate independently of the Church of God International. That seems like a reasonable requirement to me. It also seems to me that any group parting ways with an organization would want a different name so as to avoid confusion. However, I must add that if the Medina Board had not agreed to the name change, we would have just left it alone. It’s not something worth arguing over.

 

You also stated that there had been “years of…growing tensions between the boards of Texas and Medina.” I was completely unaware of any kind of “growing tensions” between these two boards; this is news to me. The tensions I am aware of have been between you and the Board and/or home office and have concerned primarily organizational and procedural matters. In more recent times, the tensions have revolved around your non-compliance with the policies established by the organization that issued your credentials and paid your salary and expenses, though you once endorsed and upheld these policies. I’ve gone over the specifics with you, and will not repeat them here. In the end, we were unable to come to agreement on the matters I brought up to you, and your recollection of history as it pertains to these matters is quite different from my recollection or that of the Board of Directors or home-office personnel.

 

Nevertheless, I would like to apologize to you on one point—something I mentioned in my letter to you but would later realize was inaccurate. You briefly mentioned it in your announcement but did not elaborate. I had stated in my letter to you that your policy violations included soliciting donations from outside your area by posting a “donation tab” on your previous website. I had my “facts” wrong. It was not a donation tab (like the one on your new website); it was this:

 

Our address for written correspondence and donations:

 

Church of God Intl, Medina

PO Box 1162

Medina, Ohio 44258

 

Please specify on check where you would like the donation to go.

Example: Helping Hands, Tithe, Etc.

 

I would call the above (which was posted on the front page of your old website) a policy violation, but I was in error when I referred to it as a “donation tab.” So I apologize for that.

 

My initial email to you was for the purpose of getting clarity on where you stood with us and what your intentions were going forward. Follow up communications were for the same purpose and to openly and honestly set before you the issues and concerns that have contributed to the tensions between us and led us to the present situation. I initially believed the best option for you would have been the first one of the three, but because of our inability to come to terms on the issues and the history surrounding them, I have to say, sadly, that your decision to part ways was probably best for all parties concerned.

 

I wish you and the Medina brethren the best.

 

Sincerely,

Vance A. Stinson

 

The Most Egregious Sins of the United States

Throughout our history, too many Americans have had much too high an opinion of themselves and their own righteousness as a nation. Unfortunately, the history of the United States is one of many national sins. In considering this question from the perspective of our entire history (I am a historian), it occurred to me that both the Ten Commandments and the Seven Deadly Sins of Christianity would provide an excellent framework for such a discussion. Please consider the following:

1. Idolatry or making the nation into an object of worship and devotion - which manifests as extreme nationalism/patriotism, elevating service to and participation in the national arena a kind of civic religion. We see this in things like the Pledge of Allegiance to the flag, the playing of the National Anthem, Hail to the Chief, and the promotion of patriotic mythologies.

2. Pridefulness - which manifests as pride or boasting about the nation's political system, wealth, military strength, history, education, natural resources, power and influence on the world stage, etc. Americans actively believe and promote the notion that they constitute the greatest nation on the face of the earth, and the corollary view that all other nations are inferior to them.

3. Greediness - which manifests as the relentless exploitation of both natural and human resources. Slavery, child labor, disregard for workers' safety and hygiene, human trafficking, and inadequate compensation and housing for workers are all examples of the exploitation of human resources. Mining, logging, polluting, intensive farming of marginal lands, wanton destruction, waste, and ignoring all problems relating to sustainability are all examples of the exploitation our natural resources.

4. Violence and vengefulness - which has manifested itself in the nation instigating many unjust military actions both within its own borders (think raids against and massacres of Native Americans) and around the world (think Mexican-American War and Spanish-American War). The United States killed large numbers of its own citizens and damaged vast stretches of countryside as a consequence of the American Civil War. The United States also has a reputation for having one of the highest incidences of violent crime of any industrialized nation in the world, and its populace is armed better than most of the nations of the earth!

5. Covetousness - which has manifested itself in the forced acquisition of Native American lands, the internal imposition of the principle of eminent domain on its own populace, the misappropriation of public resources (think lands and forests), and imperialistic policies toward the other nations of the earth.

6. Lustfulness - which has manifested itself in the promotion of prostitution, pornography, advertising, movie making, television programing, misogyny in the workplace and home, abuse of power, pedophilia, the flourishing of serial rapists and murderers, divorce, promiscuity, teen pregnancy, gambling, lotteries, etc.

7. Overindulgence - which has manifested itself in the fact that as high as forty percent of the population suffers from obesity, and large numbers of people have suffered the ill effects of diabetes, smoking, and the consumption of food and drinks with high sodium, sugar, and fat contents. Likewise, this phenomenon has manifested itself in large numbers of folks who regularly abuse alcohol and other mind-altering substances (drugs).

8. Laziness - which has manifest itself in extreme apathy about voting (it has been estimated that more than a third of the eligible voting population didn't vote in the last presidential election), the reluctance of many citizens to fill jobs in certain labor-intensive sectors like agriculture and service. The reluctance of large numbers of people to train for available jobs in the medical or high-tech sectors of the economy. The overall decline in the work ethic of the folks who do participate in the work force (something which is hard to quantify but is readily discernable to employers).

9. Unrighteousness of leadership - which has manifested itself in numerous dirty tricks against political opponents, intentionally lying to the public and each other, the ruthless pursuit and persecution of enemies, marital unfaithfulness, widespread graft and corruption on a grand scale, back-stabbing, and an overall failure to put the country before one's own narrow personal interests or aggrandizement.

10. Hatefulness - which has manifested itself in numerous failures to love America's neighbors. Instead, America has often pursued its own interests at the expense of her neighbors' interests and well-being (think oil and strategic interests related to it). In particular, Americans have often failed to show love to their African brethren - exploiting them for free labor in times past and often ignoring their interests and concerns altogether more recently. Likewise, Americans have often failed to welcome immigrants and political refugees from other nations into their midst (think Chinese, Japanese, Irish, and Latin Americans more recently).

What do you think? 

Bill Watson of Medina, the Latest ACOG Schismatic!

This blogger has watched and commented on Bill Watson's journey into the fringe of the ACOG movement for years. Over those years, Bill has absorbed and embraced extreme right-wing politics in the United States and many of the conspiracy theories endemic to that group. Simultaneously, Bill has resisted any modifications/changes to the core Armstrongist theology of the old Worldwide Church of God. In other words, he has stubbornly refused to let go of teachings (like Anglo-Israelism, headline theology, ministerial authority, etc.) from which others have tried to distance themselves or repudiate altogether.

We have also reported on Bill's efforts to quietly disentangle himself from the Church of God International - the very group which credentialed him as a minister. Bill quietly diverted tithes and offerings away from CGI headquarters in Tyler and began accumulating funds in Ohio in anticipation of forming his own independent ministry. During this period, he also began organizing his own independent feast site for the observance of the Feast of Tabernacles by his followers. He also quietly repaid Tyler the funds used to purchase the building where the Medina congregation meets. More recently, he also abandoned the internet platform provided for him by CGI and created his own website. Moreover, seeing the writing on the wall, Tyler has itself pulled back from Bill and quietly distanced themselves from some of his more extreme teachings.

Now, as is the pattern amongst ALL of the Armstrong Churches of God, Bill has finally pulled the trigger and taken the last official step toward complete independence - He has formally formed his own ministry. Bill's church is now known as Church of God Independent Ministries. Likewise, Tyler has removed Medina, Ohio as one of its United States congregations (Columbus is still listed on their website). More schism, more rancor and bitterness - this is the legacy of the ACOGs. The death spiral continues, and it isn't pretty to watch!