Why I love the WCG

I get this from friends, family, former church members, current church members, other pastors and basically people all around. It’s not just those outside the WCG, but also those inside who don’t understand why people stay, even themselves.

Sharing my heart

I think the main question here is, "Why do I love the WCG?" It’s a question I’ve continually asked myself, asked God and been asked of by others. For this reason I write to share my heart and part of my journey in this with you, as you may ask yourself, "Why do I love the WCG?"

I could begin to say that you in the WCG are my people. I’m a Worldwidian practically by birth, being raised in the church by parents who came in right about the time I was born. I’ve been through fasting and pagan bashing, matzos and not eating Ho-Hos, and Sabbath days that kept me from sports, not keeping holidays and watching what we put on our food trays.

I say all of these things with a big smile on my face as even the hardest-sounding memories bring joy to me because I had so much fun as a child. It wasn’t the activities, the lessons or any programs that are the most fond to me, but the people, the community and the sense of belonging that are imprinted in my mind.

It was right around the time of The Changes that I gave my life to Christ. As a teenager in the church, we had no youth group or even youths, but the love of the adults in the congregation kept me coming, even while my parents had stopped.

With the help of our pastor and others in the church, I had learned the gospel, what it meant to be a Christian and finally, I decided to be baptized.

What joy it was! Even in a cow trough in someone’s basement, I felt as if I was with some of the most important people in the world, making the most important decision of my life. Those people surrounded me like a family, and began to raise me up in the faith, helping me along the way.

While finishing high school and continuing in my walk with God, I felt his calling on my life to be a pastor. I was going to many churches at the time, as well as the WCG, and started having connections with other pastors and youth pastors. Some put me in leadership positions over youth groups that out-numbered my whole congregation, and more and more talked of internships at major churches with good pay and good training.

At the same time I had been going to the Summer Educational Program camp for the summers. It was my main youth connection with our church, since we didn’t have much in my congregation. I started to feel some of the same things happening there that I felt in the other larger churches back home, but even better!

I was growing in Christ and helping others grow just by what went on there and how the camp was run. It was there that my confidence in the Lord was boosted, and a lot of my training began. Even more important though, is that it was there where my true love for WCG was hatched.

Through the SEP leaders, campers and staff, I felt the need and realized the part God had for me there. It hit me that many in those other churches could do my job, but not many had the specific skills I had for the work cut out there. It’s not so much the skills but the heart, and mine was beginning to develop for our church.

I liked the process going on in our denomination about theology and structure. I could see how headquarters was doing a lot of good things, and was full of great leaders for this church.

Spark fanned into flames

One thing touched me at camp that blew my spark of love for this church into flames.

In the continuing battle inside of me of whether to stay or not, to work here or there, I started to seek the Lord in prayer more and more. I wanted to know where he wanted me and why. It didn’t make much sense logically to me or others around me to stay with the WCG, yet something inside of me was keeping me and I couldn’t figure it out.

One night at camp, as all of this built up and was weighing on my soul, we had a praise and worship session. It was the usual joy and worship going on in the room with us all, as I could feel God’s presence in the room and especially in my heart. I write this with tears, as I can still remember and feel what I felt even then, as the worship leader spoke a quick word before a song that dropped me to my knees.

The song started to play, the words started to speak, and I knew I was getting my answer. "I have heard my people calling to me. Whom shall I send?" So the song went, and it was a question directly to me.

The tears flooded down my face as I slipped to the back of the room to hide from those who might see. God continued to churn inside of me what he wanted me to see, and through my blurred eyes I began to see the people in that room. They weren’t merely numbers or bodies or faces, but lives. I could see names and stories, and hurts and joys, all of them, and all that they needed, and all that God wanted them to have was what I saw.

Kids in desperate situations

"Whom shall I send?" was the question now asked. I knew how desperate the situation was in most cases. Kids who didn’t have much for them back home, who had so many struggles and needs, people with wounds that needed healing and questions that needed answering were all around me.

It was the scriptures from Isaiah 6 that this worship song came from, and so the song continued to answer back: "Here I am Lord. I will go." I walked out of the place with all of the people still on my mind, not able to see anything else when I closed my eyes.

It was there at camp that I realized just what or who the WCG really is. It’s not the size, the suits, the singing or even SEP. It’s not the programs, the preachers, the pews, the past or the problems. The WCG is the people. That night I realized who it was, instead of what it was that I loved.

I said: "Wouldn’t it be a lot easier to just go somewhere else? Dear God, this job is too hard. The task is too great!" But he answered me: "These are my people. I’ve heard their crying. Who can I send?"

I opened my Bible and it flipped right to a quote from Isaiah, the same book from which the song came from. The quote was in Luke 4:18-19: "The Spirit of the Lord is on me, because he has anointed me to preach good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners and recovery of sight for the blind, to release the oppressed, to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favor."

Right away I knew this was the message God was giving for those who were going to be his workers in our church, not just pastors, but all who would have this heart in them for the people. I could see the poor in that room, the prisoners, the blind and the oppressed. Those words in the Scripture each had pictures with faces on them now, but the message was that he would be with us. He has a plan for our people and our church, and right then I felt his love for the WCG, the people.

Here I am Lord, I will go

It was that night listening to my people, watching my people worship the Lord, and feeling his burden for them, that I said to the Father: "Here I am, Lord. I will go!" I go to church now and don’t worry about how good the service is, or if my wants are being met, but instead to look at those faces and see Jesus. It is this mind-set that has radically changed my life.

I can go to any WCG church all around and know that I’m welcomed and loved. I have a family here, a people that need me and whom I need. I feel like God is calling out to all of us, to be the ones he sends. We have a task that we’ve been created for, a history that has molded us for God’s purposes and a mission from him that we are to carry out.

I have a love for all people, for all lost and for all saved. Yet just as the apostle Paul had a special place in his heart for the Hebrew people, so I’ve got a special place in mine for the Worldwide Church of God. Forget all the wrongs you’ve done and the wrongs done to you, leave them at the cross of Jesus and look with him at what lies ahead.

I think you’ll see with me, just as God sees, just why we love the WCG. It’s because of you that I love this church, and for that I say: "Here I am, Lord. I will go!"