WHAT LLOYD GOODWIN TOLD US ABOUT
THE "OLD BODY" AS HE CALLED IT.
Luke 4:18 The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed
me to preach the gospel to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the brokenhearted,
to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to
set at liberty them that are bruised, To preach the acceptable year of the
Lord.
By: Wanda
Mason and other former members (as we recall it)
We were asked to explain to
members of other Gospel Assembly Churches what our former pastor, Lloyd L.
Goodwin, told us about them. This is an attempt to do that to the best of our
ability from the memories of several of us. I am sure that we have tapes and
literature around that has his own words and if anyone is interested in that
information, we will be glad to provide what we have.
I personally,
would like to say that I spent a big part of my life in and around Gospel
Assembly Churches. My father was on the campground with William Sowders before
I was ever born and a minister of the gospel (Good News) for over 60 years
before he went to be with the Lord in 1988. I've heard several different
versions of the teaching of the church and was in two of them that I know to be
destructive cults. I would also like to say that I do not believe that every
Gospel Assembly Church is a destructive cult. I have been blessed in many of
them and known some wonderful ministers and precious children of God. The word
cult in itself is not a derogatory name. Jesus and His followers in the early
history of the church would have been labeled a cult. What we are dealing with
is the destructive nature of certain cult like - controlling - domineering
churches that use deceptive practices and mind control on their members.
Having said that, I will try
to put the rest of our memories into words.
I came to the church in April
of1974 and this happened before then so I go by what I and others have actually
heard from L. Goodwin. I don't know much about his first few years of ministry
here and others could tell you more than I about that so I won't try to go that
direction.
We were told many, many, many
times about this:
He told us that Tom Jolly
sent him to Des Moines to die because there had never been a successful church
in this city. He always compared himself to Tom Jolly using himself as the
representation of King David of the Bible and Jolly as the representation of
Saul. He talked of how Jolly wanted to kill him (but spiritually) like Saul had
wanted to kill David because he was jealous of him. He still lauded Tom Jolly
as a great man, called of God, who fell like Saul did.
Lloyd Goodwin was very adept
at using scripture to make you believe what he said.
From recollections, in1972 or
thereabouts, he went to a meeting in Kansas City, I believe. He said that the
ministers wouldn't receive his message for various reasons (probably because he
had a "new revelation") and when he left the meeting, he knew that he
would have to stand alone. He told us many times of his plane ride home and how
sad he was. He said that he didn't know what to do or who to talk to and while
he was sitting there praying, the Holy Ghost started singing the song over and
over: "I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, I cannot bear this burden
alone. I must tell Jesus, I must tell Jesus, Jesus will help me, Jesus
alone." So therefore he knew that Jesus would help him.
Sometime around that time, he
had a fellowship convention here in Des Moines, at 6th and Clinton.
I don't remember the names of the ministers who came even though he has
mentioned them so I won't go into that. He said they all sat on the platform
with their arms crossed and they refused to respond to the Spirit of God. He
wanted to say something but Carl Voorhees grabbed his arm and said: "Let
God fight your battles!" Therefore he didn't say anything. They were
supposed to take communion that night but all the ministers left between
services and they refused to break bread with him.
Through the years, he talked
a lot of the "healing of the body" and felt that God was going to use
him to spearhead that coming together of some of the old body and his
(L.Goodwin's) church. He made the statement that "the healing of the
beast, necessitates the healing of the body." He believed that God was
going to bring back a remnant of the old body into his fellowship and worked to
that end. Of course, he would be the Apostle and be right next to Christ in the
hierarchy.
I know that he built his
church in this city mostly by taking members from other fellowships around the
country. At least in the beginning. The largest membership I can recall in the
local assembly here in Des Moines was around 500 regular members. It never got
over that. We were usually packed when we had fellowship meetings. He was a
dynamic and charismatic preacher and knew how to work a crowd. I know that I
was absolutely convinced that he was "THE MAN OF GOD" or the
"APOSTLE" for our day. I personally do not believe now that he was
ever a man of God. He was a con man from the day he moved into this city. We
have proof positive of that. See where he had the church pay him back for his own furniture.
The first month that I was
here is when he seduced my sister, Sharon, and when she couldn't settle for a sordid adulterous
affair, he forced their family out of the church!
I can even say that we
learned some good things but in actuality, not much that he ever preached was
original as he claimed it was. He would always come up with some new revelation
when he needed to get our interest again. We weren't allowed to visit other
churches or listen to any preacher on the radio so we had nothing to compare it
to. I remember one time when my husband and I were out of town, we turned the
radio on and heard a minister saying exactly the same thing that we had just
heard L. Goodwin say the Lord had just "revealed" to him. I guess
that is why he didn't want us listening to radio preachers huh?
I guess to wrap this essay up
and I could go on and on, I would say that according to him if all of you
"Old Body" members didn't join up with Lloyd Goodwin
"UNDER" his leadership, then you were damned to the final
resurrection.
I hope this helps you to
understand his teachings along this line.
