A Look at Our Work
A Look at Our Work
The Philadelphia Trumpet prides itself on publishing “tomorrow’s news today.” Basing our analyses on the sure word of biblical prophecy, we can highlight the often unseen significance of world events and regularly announce news in advance. In the now 35 years since the inaugural Trumpet issue, our record of accurate forecasts has grown quite substantial, a fact our longtime readers appreciate.
The Trumpet began almost immediately after its publisher, the Philadelphia Church of God, was founded on Dec. 7, 1989. The pcg also publishes Royal Vision, Let the Stones Speak and True Education magazines; the Herbert W. Armstrong College Bible Correspondence Course; and more than 100 books and booklets, as well as other publications. It also produces the Key of David television program and the Trumpet Daily, Trumpet World, Let the Stones Speak and other podcasts. It sponsors the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology, the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation, Herbert W. Armstrong College, Imperial Academy, Summer Educational Program and the Celtic Throne dance show. Its headquarters campus is located in Edmond, Oklahoma, along with a nearby auxiliary ranch, and it has a second campus in Edstone, England, and offices in Australia, Canada, Israel and the Philippines.
A generation has passed since the pcg began, born in trauma after the death of Herbert W. Armstrong. Over the course of his 50-year ministry, dozens of original, long-lost biblical doctrines had been restored to the true Church of God. Through faith, obedience, experience, sacrifice and hardship, one prophecy after another and one doctrine after another were revealed and restored, ultimately summarized in his final book, Mystery of the Ages.
Led by Mr. Armstrong, the Worldwide Church of God (wcg) had grown to more than 100,000 members, broadcast The World Tomorrow on more than 400 television and radio stations, gave away books like The United States and Britain in Prophecy to millions of readers, and sent the Plain Truth magazine to more than 8 million subscribers (more than Time and Newsweek combined)—all completely free. Mr. Armstrong had also established a cultural foundation, college, grade school and youth program. He had personally met more than 500 kings, presidents, prime ministers and other world leaders. After he died on Jan. 16, 1986, United States President Ronald Reagan’s condolences to the Church recognized that “Mr. Armstrong contributed to sharing the Word of the Lord with his community and with people throughout the nation. You can take pride in his legacy.”
Then came betrayal—not of a man’s legacy but of life-changing, precious, inspiring Bible truths that were restored through him. Mr. Armstrong’s successors promised to “follow in his footsteps,” yet they quietly and treacherously transformed the church’s teachings, deceiving, intimidating, silencing and excommunicating those who held on to foundational principles—much as radical leftists fundamentally transformed the United States from within—from the top.
Gerald Flurry, a wcg minister, held on to the biblical doctrines Mr. Armstrong had taught. wcg leadership summoned him to headquarters for it and fired him on Dec. 8, 1989. Walking away from the church’s grand headquarters campus that night, Mr. Flurry left behind a large church with worldwide operations and took with him only the doctrines and prophecies of the Bible—and faith in the God who inspired them.
A generation later, Mr. Flurry and the pcg still hold to those same teachings. And were this work larger or smaller than it is at this stage, the focus would remain the same as on Dec. 7, 1989: Prove the meaning of the Bible, love it, and hold fast.
Since 1989, one church has poisoned itself, and one has experienced exponential, nearly inexplicable growth, as briefly summarized on the following pages: publishing, broadcasting, mailing, answering, teaching, counseling, dressing and keeping, feeding, singing, dancing and celebrating. This is the effect. What remains is for you to determine, in good faith, the cause. —Philip Nice
Broadcasting
Every aspect and department of the pcg started extremely small. The Church’s broadcasting department began with Gerald Flurry’s first God’s Future World program in 1991 on a small radio station in St. Louis, Missouri. In January 1993, The Key of David began airing on eight local television stations. It would go on to record episodes in the pcg studio in Edmond and on location in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East, North America and Oceania. Mr. Flurry currently records at Armstrong Auditorium (above), with about 10 staff members helping produce about 36 new episodes per year. The pcg established its own call center in 2000. In 2011, Stephen Flurry began broadcasting a program as well: More recently, the Trumpet Daily podcast has hosted Gen. Michael Flynn, Dinesh D’Souza, Kari Lake, Lara Logan and Lee Smith. KPCG 101.3 FM began broadcasting in 2015. The station now airs more than 21 hours of pcg-hosted talk radio per day, equating to about 470 total episodes across 11 programs over the past 12 months.
- Presenter Gerald Flurry has taped more than 1,000 Key of David programs.
- Key of David episodes have been recorded in Edmond and on location in 20 countries.
- During peak ring-ins, the program’s literature request line is staffed by 144 pcg staff members and volunteers.
- The Key of David broadcasts on about 700 over-the-air and digital stations in 46 states, Washington, D.C., the U.S. Virgin Islands, Australia, the Bahamas, Canada, Fiji, New Zealand and the Philippines. See pages 36-37 for station listings.
Publishing
Distributing Malachi’s Message was the work of the Church in 1989 and early 1990, with the 12 initial members of the pcg mailing spiral-bound manuscripts to ministers and members of the Worldwide Church of God. The book identified the wcg leaders’ deceitful repudiation of Herbert W. Armstrong and the Bible doctrines in Mystery of the Ages, and their willful destruction of the Church. More than 35 years later, Mr. Flurry has written 66 books and booklets explaining a range of prophecies, including America Under Attack, which identifies the deceitful leader behind the radical, mysterious, treacherous destruction of the United States. In late 1996, the pcg began publishing and freely distributing Mystery of the Ages. wcg leaders launched a six-year copyright lawsuit, losing at the district level, then winning on appeal—yet ultimately agreeing, on the 17th anniversary of Mr. Armstrong’s death, to sell copyrights to 19 of Mr. Armstrong’s works. The department publishes these and 96 other titles, as well as four periodicals; hosts theTrumpet.com, pcg.church and other websites; and e-mails the Trumpet Brief, PCG Signposts and other newsletters. It also helps produce various video content. About half a dozen staff members and dozens of volunteers have translated, published and recorded material into 10 languages; and audio recording staff and volunteers produce audio versions of the publications.
Visit theTrumpet.com/library
Campaigns
Since 1994, Gerald Flurry has conducted 30 Personal Appearance Campaigns for Philadelphia Trumpet subscribers in a number of U.S. cities and a couple of international cities. Evangelist Stephen Flurry has presented campaigns in America and Europe. The pastor general also travels about 10,000 miles per year, visiting Church members and delivering messages. Since 2017, long-distance travel to holy day observances, as well as to deliver Personal Appearance Campaign lectures to Trumpet subscribers, has been on board the pcg’s 2007 Gulfstream G450 corporate jet.
Foundation
The pcg cultural foundation is patterned after the model established by Herbert W. Armstrong. Its first venture in 1996 was a charitable project that wcg cultural foundation leaders had abandoned in Jordan. Its first concert series performance, modeled after the wcg concert series at Ambassador Auditorium, took place in 1998. Since then, the foundation has hosted thousands of concertgoers for more than 150 performances, over 100 of which have been held in Armstrong Auditorium (above). Performers have included Renée Fleming, Branford Marsalis, Chanticleer, The Academy of St. Martin in the Fields, the Romeros Guitar Quartet, Joshua Bell, Kelli O’Hara, Brian Stokes Mitchell, the Canadian Brass, the Chieftains, The Vienna Boys’ Choir, The King’s Singers, Moscow Festival Ballet, The Eroica Trio and Russian National Ballet Theatre.
Doing the Work
The pcg currently employs about 120 headquarters staff members in about 20 departments, along with approximately 60 part-time Herbert W. Armstrong College students, and about 45 regional office staff.
- Agriculture staff members farm, garden and ranch on the headquarters campus and nearby acreage to provide nutritious meat and vegetables.
- Buildings and Grounds builds and maintains campus buildings, infrastructure and landscaping.
- Business Office processes thousands of invoices, expenses and contributions, and manages legal requirements.
- Custodial crews clean more than 160,000 square feet of buildings.
- Festival Office plans the annual Feast of Tabernacles for thousands of pcg members.
- Food Services serves three meals per day to students, provides staff lunches, and caters for the concert series and hundreds of attendees at formal events and other activities.
- Information Technology maintains hundreds of devices on campus.
- Information Services develops and maintains dozen of websites and online tools.
- Mail Processing fulfills thousands of literature requests per week and manages a small print shop.
- Online Marketing promotes The Key of David and other initiatives.
- Personal Correspondence answers letters from readers and others interested in the work of the pcg.
- Reception includes half a dozen specially trained staff members.
- Security provides campus protection for staff, volunteers and equipment.
- Translations converts English-language content into 10 languages.
The Church’s primary commission is to deliver the warning and hope of Bible prophecy to the world. Its second commission is to care for members God calls into His Church. About 50 inisters serve and care for members, traveling long distances many weeks to deliver sermons, counsel members and new contacts, oversee events, and serve the work of the Church in other ways. A highlight at headquarters is the pcg ministerial conference held every two years.
Celtic Throne
Irish dance began as an extracurricular activity for a few Church youth in the early 2000s and has grown into something much bigger. In 2020, Celtic Throne premiered at Armstrong Auditorium, portraying the dance form’s origin with King David in Jerusalem, and its migration, along with the Israelite people, to Ireland, Scotland, England and the United States. The show uplifts and delights audiences with a taste of godly, millennial culture and a hope-filled message. Over the course of five tours and 67 performances, the troupe has performed for a combined audience of some 35,000 concertgoers in 22 cities. In January 2025, its sequel, Celtic Throne II: Psalter of Ireland, debuted at Armstrong Auditorium, and is planned to go on tour later in the year. The Armstrong Dance troupe consists of more than 30 dancers ranging from age 5 to 25, some of whom have placed or won at Worlds, All Irelands, British and North American Nationals and other top Irish dance competitions.
Visit CelticThrone.com
College
Herbert W. Armstrong College was established in 2001 with fewer than a dozen students. Its second week of classes coincided with the September 11 terrorist attacks, a sobering experience that also emphasized the importance of Bible prophecy. The college graduated its first four-year students in 2006. Armstrong students learn agriculture, art, business, communications, economics, education, English, geography, history, home economics, international relations, music, nutrition, physical education, science, software, speech and theology, and have a busy extracurricular experience designed to teach an outgoing attitude of service. To graduate without debt, students work part time in pcg departments: Agriculture, Buildings and Grounds, Call Center, Cultural Foundation, Custodial, Editorial, Food Services, Information Technology, Imperial Academy, Online Marketing and others.
Academy
Established in 2008, Imperial Academy K-12 school graduated only one senior its first academic year. The following year it became an early adopter of online schooling, and today a total of 62 are enrolled in Edmond, with another 95 enrolled online. During the school day, classrooms are filled with children reading books, solving problems, memorizing multiplication tables, singing songs, reciting presidents, hatching chicks, experimenting with conductivity, learning the Bible, and more.
UK-Europe-Africa
Work at the pcg regional office in the United Kingdom began in 1992 with the arrival of a minister and his wife from Australia, carrying little more than a list of names to mail Malachi’s Message to. It would later expand to a professional office and sometimes contract back down to a minister’s home or a converted office space with two desks and “standing room only.” That changed dramatically in 2014 when the 24,000-square-foot Edstone Hall and its grounds were purchased. The building houses offices and other workspace for several staff members and a small number of Herbert W. Armstrong College students, and the grounds are being developed with an agricultural program.
Canada
Staff and ministers at the Canada regional office promote The Key of David and the Philadelphia Trumpet and care for members scattered across thousands of square miles. The office fulfills mail and other literature requests and assists headquarters with translations, online marketing and other tasks.
Latin America
The Latin America region is operated from headquarters, with the regional director traveling to visit scattered members across South America and leading the Church’s translations department. Translators at headquarters produce a large quantity of Spanish-language content, and the regional director coordinates with staff in Edstone and Canada and numerous volunteers to produce translations in nine additional languages.
Jerusalem
An attractive building in a beautiful Jerusalem neighborhood houses the Armstrong Institute of Biblical Archaeology. Staff members on site help produce Let the Stones Speak biblical archaeology magazine and podcast, lead tours of the City of David and the Ophel, and coordinate archaeological exhibits at Armstrong Auditorium in Edmond, Oklahoma. The pcg and institute helped the late Dr. Eilat Mazar with six excavations (2006–2018) and helped publish excavation reports written by her and by her grandfather, the late Prof. Benjamin Mazar. After Dr. Mazar’s death in 2021, the pcg purchased her library of archaeological and historical volumes and continues to participate in biblical excavations led by Prof. Uzi Leibner.
Asia & Oceania
The Philadelphia Church of God office responsible for most of the eastern hemisphere is located in Australia. Five staff members seek airtime for The Key of David and ways to promote the Trumpet and other literature; fulfill literature requests; plan services for the Sabbath, the Feast of Tabernacles and other holy days; and host the Summer Educational Program–Australia. Care for members in this part of the world often requires ministers to drive, fly or boat to their destinations.
The Philippines
The large number of Filipino pcg members enables the Church to operate a Philippines national office, which helps the regional office in Australia coordinate promotion of The Key of David and the Trumpet, plan services and staff Summer Educational Program–Philippines.
