United Church of God - Foundation

Foundation

After Armstrong's death in 1986, the subsequent WCG leadership introduced a series of major doctrinal changes starting in 1994, which substantially altered the fundamental beliefs and goals of the original WCG in the direction of historic Christian orthodoxy. A large segment of the membership wished to retain what they allege to be fundamental or first-century Christian teachings (known by non-adherents as Armstrongism) and consequently left WCG to start their own organizations. UCG was established in May 1995 and is the largest of these offshoot organizations.

UCG was founded at a conference organized in Indianapolis, Indiana in the spring of 1995 and attended by WCG and former WCG ministers concerned by the doctrinal changes introduced in the church. UCG's first president was David Hulme, who left UCG after being removed from office for refusing to move the church's home office to Ohio in 1998, among other reasons. He subsequently formed a new group called Church of God, an International Community. Following Hulme, elders selected to serve as president have been Les McCullough in 1998, Roy Holladay in 2002, Clyde Kilough in 2005 and Dennis Luker in 2010.