Dear Friends,

Attending CCG

We are often approached by people with a view to attending CCG. Sometimes those people are frustrated by what we do. One man wrote to us and said words to the effect: “I have studied you in depth. You have got it all right. It is just too hard!” He just could not meet the standard required by our teachings. Most of the time the real problem is keeping the New Moons in a society such as the US where the structure is specifically arranged so that no one can easily keep the Laws of God. Europe is going to be the same when the Catholic system takes control of it.

Some people like to come to CCG services to cause trouble and are frustrated because we will not let them. Those people are not and never will be welcome in CCG. Those people are not the focus of this message.

For those in it, CCG is a great learning experience. It is in effect a continuing university course on Religious Studies among people who actually want to be together serving God. It has the largest composite study group of any Religious Studies curriculum in the world. Every week between 150,000 – 200,000 papers are downloaded from 160-165 odd countries by some 30,000 people. These figures are rising exponentially each year. Of these people a significant percentage are under 18 years of age. 17% of our audience in CCG.org is between 11 and 17 years of age. We have a significantly younger audience than any other of the Churches of God. We also have a significantly better educated audience. Logon.org has a different demographic with a larger audience and one that is more widely spread. It is ranked lower because its audience is less in the USA.

For some reason our Chinese statistics rank second on our registrations at some 8.5% but do not register on the Quantcast Statistics in anywhere near the actual figures. That is probably because of the tagging system. The registrations on Alexa and other web stats systems are completely erroneous guesswork. These web ranking systems are also US oriented and ranked. Their results are what might be described as xenophobic. Fortunately we have our own registration access stats that provide us with a very accurate breakdown. There are actually over 3000 regular visitors in China alone.

In Africa we have an increasing church structure that is not reflected in these statistics. These church groups grow by approximately one church a week, somewhere in Africa. Each group copies its own sermons and preaches from them. This educational program is growing exponentially and involves who knows how many thousands. For example, the stats for Burundi and the Congo DR show a few computers coming in and downloading a few papers. However, we know that it is the church computers coming in and those few papers are copied and given as sermons, in either French or Kirundi or Lingala, to over 3000 people in over twenty-five churches. The same happens all over Africa. We think it is happening significantly in Asia as well.

We hope to have the program provide an accredited University degree, by correspondence, in the foreseeable future. The aim is to provide multiple degrees with a Religious Studies component as well as a degree in Arts in Religious Studies. This will be of benefit to Home Educators as well.

In order to assist those who simply cannot retain employment and do not feel that they are able to step out in faith to keep the New Moons and survive we have decided on an option that may assist them.

As those with us know, we have an admittance to fellowship on baptism that leads to the granting of full voting membership of the Church after three years or as many as seven years for national church groups.

We have what is termed Guest or Co-worker status for people married to CCG spouses or studying to be baptised by CCG.

Those people simply sign a form and are permitted to attend while they are with us prior to baptism. As baptism is conferred on those 20 years or older, the Guest status is allowed to those under 20 without limitation. For those over 20 it is limited to twelve months.

What we have decided to do is to relax the requirement for this Guest and Co-worker status.

What those who wish to attend Sabbath Services and Feasts with us will now be permitted to do is to read and study the Statement of Beliefs. If they agree to that and agree to be bound by the constitution of the CCG they will then be asked to sign the Guest and Co-worker admission form.

They can then attend the Sabbaths and Feasts. The normal standards of behaviour will be required of them. They may ask questions and will be answered at the end of each session or as directed by the Coordinator.

They will be asked not to argue against the doctrines of the church or cause trouble in any meetings but they will not be excluded because they are not fully keeping the New Moons.

They will however remain as Guests and Co-workers while ever they are not fully keeping the doctrines of the CCG, including New Moons. When they are able they may begin to keep the New Moons on a permanent basis and then they will be considered for Fellowship with a view to attaining voting Membership.

Until that time they will be aware that there is no prospect, express or implied, that they will be admitted to either fellowship or voting membership of CCG.

Most people will realise that those people from the Churches of God as a rule have no voting membership in any of the Churches of God except CCG. In UCG for example only the ministry have a formal vote. LCG is even more restrictive as is PCG and so on.

So many will say: “Who cares! I never had a vote anyway.”

Many will say: “At last now I can keep the Feasts and Sabbaths and keep my job and help the work of God.”

We are aware that this will create two levels of people in CCG. However that situation occurs under the fellowship to membership trial period anyway. We intend to trial this structure for a year or two and we will review it then. No one will make anyone feel uncomfortable in this arrangement. All that is required is agreement to the Statement of Beliefs (A1) and the Constitution (A2). If any one is unable to agree to those two documents then they would not fit into CCG in any case.

We will place this message as a notice on the CCG site for general information.

Wade Cox

Coordinator General