by Michelle Wum

Created on: October 27, 2009

Gerald Flurry is the pastor general of the Philadelphia Church of God. He is editor in chief of the Philadelphia Trumpet news magazine, which has over 1 million readers, and is the presenter of the Key of David television program, which is broadcast weekly on over 210 stations around the world. He is the chairman of the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation, known internationally for its cultural and humanitarian activities, and founder and chancellor of Herbert W. Armstrong College.

Gerald Ray Flurry was born April 12, 1935, in Oklahoma City, to Clarence and Jicie Flurry.

He began listening to Herbert W. Armstrong's radio broadcasts along with his mother, Jicie, in the late 1950s and began attending services in 1960.

He married Barbara Brewer, September 5, 1964, and they had a daughter, Laura, in 1967 and a son, Stephen, in 1970.

In 1964 Mr. Flurry was ordained a deacon in Worldwide Church of God and in 1970 received his Bachelor of Arts degree from Ambassador College in Pasadena, California.

From 1971-1973 he served as a ministerial trainee in the Norwalk, California congregation of the WCG.

In 1973 he was ordained to the ministry in Worldwide Church of God. He served as Pastor of the Tri-cities, Washington and Eastern Oregon congregations from 1975-1985.

In 1985 he was transferred to Oklahoma, where he served as Pastor of the Oklahoma City & Enid congregations until 1989.

After Herbert W. Armstrong died in 1986, Worldwide Church of God leaders began rejecting everything he had established. Within a few years, massive doctrinal changes swept the Church, culminating in the leaders denouncing Mr. Armstrong as a heretic. More than 70 percent of his followers were driven out or excommunicated from the Church he founded.

The results were staggering. Over the next 10 years:

The famed performing arts series was canceled, all humanitarian projects closed, and the Ambassador Auditorium sold. Ambassador College shut its doors and the campuses were sold. The World Tomorrow program was discontinued. Plain Truth circulation plummeted from its peak of 8 million to just over 95,000 subscriptions today.

In December 1989, when these changes were in their early stages and after serving as an ordained minister for 16 years, Gerald Flurry was excommunicated from the Worldwide Church of God for resisting the changes.

In order to preserve the teachings and legacy of Herbert W. Armstrong, a new work had to be raised up. Mr. Flurry immediately established the Philadelphia

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