Grace Communion International (Worldwide Church of God)

Grace Communion International (GCI) is an Evangelical Christian denomination. Formerly known as the Worldwide Church of God (WCG), the organization underwent major changes after the death of its founder, Herbert Armstrong, in 1986. For much of its history, the denomination was considered to be on the fringe of mainstream Christianity, and some even viewed it as a cult. Following a drastic overhaul in organization and beliefs that included a name change in 2009, GCI became a member of the National Association of Evangelicals, gaining the acceptance it had lacked under Armstrong’s leadership. Into the mid 2020s, the denomination—which was originally based in Glendora, California, but relocated its headquarters to Charlotte, North Carolina, in 2018—had 550 churches in seventy countries. GCI also had a membership of thirty thousand followers.

History

WCG began in Oregon in the 1930s. In the previous decade, Herbert Armstrong, an advertising designer for a newspaper, had begun studying the Bible. However, his interpretation of most biblical passages was unorthodox. Despite this, Armstrong joined the Oregon Conference of the Church of God, and he was eventually ordained. He began preaching and had a small group of adherents. Several years later, Armstrong started a radio program that was first called The Radio Church of God and later renamed The World Tomorrow. His church was also called the Radio Church of God. He later started a magazine called The Plain Truth.

On his radio program and in his magazine, Armstrong espoused his unique set of beliefs, which included the idea that the Bible did not change the Sabbath to Sunday. Instead, Armstrong believed that the seventh day, Saturday, was holy and should be used for religious worship and reflection, not leisure. Although many Jewish traditions recognize Saturday as the Sabbath, most mainstream Christian sects worship on Sundays. Armstrong also did not believe in the Trinity, which asserts that there is one God that exists as three persons—the Father, the Son (Jesus Christ), and the Holy Spirit. Instead, Armstrong believed in two Gods, the God in heaven and Jesus Christ. He also asserted that faithful believers could become part of this "God family" in the afterlife. Much of Armstrong’s teachings focused on biblical prophecies concerning the end of time and the return of Jesus Christ to Earth.

At the end of the 1940s, Armstrong moved to Pasadena, California, which provided improved access to radio networks. This allowed him to spread his message across the United States and into Canada. He also founded Ambassador College to train prospective church ministers. The organization grew throughout the 1950s and 1960s. Armstrong’s radio program made its way overseas and attracted new members in other countries. Soon, the Radio Church of God became the Worldwide Church of God. Eventually, the radio show The World Tomorrow became a television program.

The WCG had strict rules for membership. Members were not allowed to celebrate any holiday with pagan connections, including Christmas and Easter. They were also prohibited from celebrating birthdays, taking medications, seeing physicians, wearing makeup, voting, serving in the military, divorcing, and marrying after divorce. Members were expected to keep the Sabbath, which was observed from Friday evening to Saturday evening, and to contribute a significant portion of their incomes to the church. In addition, Armstrong exercised great control over his organization, which he considered the one "true" church. Other Christians did not keep the Sabbath. To Armstrong, this was the defining characteristic of "real" Christians. Over the years, these factors eventually led some members to leave the church and contributed to outsiders viewing the WCG as a cult. Despite this, the church had more than one hundred thousand members and an annual income of nearly $200 million at its height.

However, the WCG experienced great upheaval after Armstrong’s death in 1986. In the years that followed, church leaders and Armstrong’s successor, Joseph Tkach Sr., began questioning their founder’s interpretation of biblical scripture. At first, most of the changes were small. These changes included removing prohibitions against going to doctors, using medications and makeup, and celebrating birthdays. Soon, more changes came. Many of these were moderate, but they were enough for some members to leave the church to form their own groups. The biggest change to the WCG’s doctrine came in 1994 when Tkach announced that members were not obligated to keep the Sabbath. This was the factor against which Armstrong measured a person’s Christianity, and many longtime members of the church could not accept such a drastic change. Over the course of the next ten years, thousands of members left the WCG. During this time, the organization became even more orthodox in its beliefs. To reflect this change, the WCG became Grace Communion International in 2009. In 2024, Grace Communion Internation celebrated its fiftieth anniversary with a jubilee in Ghana.

Beliefs

Since the 1990s, GCI has acknowledged Armstrong’s errors in biblical interpretation and adopted more conventional Evangelical beliefs. Today, the church acknowledges the Trinity and accepts other Christian faiths as legitimate. Church members can now join the military as well as divorce and remarry (with marriage defined as a union between a man and a woman). Women can become ordained ministers (a policy that began in 2007), and members are not required to contribute large portions of their incomes to the church. All monetary donations are considered free-will contributions.

Organization

Following the death of Joseph Tkach Sr. in 1995, his son, Joseph "Joe" Tkach Jr., became the president of the WCG. The younger Tkach led the church through the difficult period that resulted in the WCG being reorganized as GCI. In 2018, Tkach stepped down as president and was replaced by Greg Williams. Governing alongside the president is an advisory council of church elders and a board of directors. A senior pastor leads each congregation, and a congregational advisory council and other congregation leaders assist the pastor in their duties.

Bibliography

"About Us." Grace Communion International, www.gci.org/about-us. Accessed 21 Jan. 2025.

"GCI: The GCI Statement of Beliefs." Grace Communion International, www.gci.org/articles/the-gci-statement-of-beliefs. Accessed 21 Jan. 2025.

"GCI: Transformed by Christ: A Brief History of Grace Communion International." Grace Communion International, gci.org/articles/a-short-history-of-grace-communion-international. Accessed 25 Jan. 2025.

"GCI: We’re Often Asked." Grace Communion International, www.gci.org/articles/were-often-asked. Accessed 21 Jan. 2025.

Olson, Roger E. “Denomination of the Week: Grace Communion International.” Patheos, 10 Dec. 2015, www.patheos.com/blogs/rogereolson/2015/12/denomination-of-the-week-grace-communion-international. Accessed 21 Jan. 2025.

Tucker, Ruth. "From the Fringe to the Fold: How the Worldwide Church of God Discovered the Plain Truth of the Gospel." Christianity Today, 15 July 1996, www.christianitytoday.com/ct/1996/july15/6t826a.html. Accessed 21 Jan. 2025.