Church of the Great God
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Led by John Ritenbaugh, the Church of the Great God (CGG) is one of the churches to form in the wake of the Worldwide Church of God's major doctrinal revisions of the 1980s and 1990s. The CGG, headquartered in Fort Mill, South Carolina, decided upon a quiet course of dissent in relation to the changes in the parent church's doctrine, and followed the example of Herbert W. Armstrong when he left the Church of God, Seventh Day by not attacking the WCG or its leaders or proselyting the members of the WCG or its other splinter groups.
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[edit] Formation
The Church of the Great God was organized with 20 members on January 11, 1992, with the primary leadership core consisting of John Ritenbaugh, John Reid, Martin Collins, and Richard Ritenbaugh.
[edit] Membership
CGG is small in membership, with about 400 persons attending services each week in about 50 small groups in the United States, Canada, and Port of Spain, Trinidad. Other smaller groups are located in France, the Netherlands, the Philippines, Australia, South Africa, and Zambia. Membership growth is slow, primarily due to the emphasis upon "feeding the flock" with little effort to proselytize new members, except through their websites. The church indicates it has "over 1,500 people" on their active postal mailing list, and over 30,000 subscribers to their daily email newsletter (The Berean: Daily Verse and Comment). An indeterminable number attend virtual Sabbath services at home each week by listening to the Fort Mill, South Carolina, congregation's services via live Windows Media and RealAudio stream.
