Gerald Flurry is the pastor general of the Philadelphia Church of God. He is editor in chief of the Philadelphia Trumpet newsmagazine, 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 and 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 ten 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 sixteen 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 Church of God in Edmond, Oklahoma, on December 7, 1989, and set about raising the ruins of Mr. Armstrong’s fallen work.
- In 1990, he began publishing the “Philadelphia Trumpet” magazine, in the tradition of Herbert W. Armstrong’s PLAIN TRUTH magazine.
- In 1993, he began the weekly "Key of David" television program in the tradition of Mr. Armstrong’s WORLD TOMORROW program.
- In 1992, he founded Philadelphia Youth Camp, pattered after the Summer Educational Program established by Mr. Armstrong.
- In 1996, Gerald Flurry founded the Armstrong International Cultural Foundation, establishing a concert series in Edmond and supporting humanitarian projects abandoned by the WCG in Jordan and Israel.
- In 2001, he founded Herbert W. Armstrong College, a four-year liberal arts college in the tradition of Ambassador College.
- In January 2008, Mr. Flurry broke ground on Armstrong Auditorium, an 800-seat, $18 million performing arts center located on the Armstrong College campus. The center, pattered after Mr. Armstrong’s famed Ambassador Auditorium, is scheduled to open in February 2010.
- In August 2008, he founded Imperial Academy, a primary and secondary school pattered after Herbert W. Armstrong’s Imperial Schools. In 2009, Imperial expanded its educational reach to the Internet and began its second year with students from seven nations on its roster.
Today, after nearly twenty years, Gerald Flurry and the Philadelphia Church of God have raised the ruins of the fallen work of Herbert W. Armstrong. Though smaller in scale, every major institution, publication and program has been rebuilt in Edmond, Oklahoma.
