Geronimo Liwanag

This paper analyzes MCGI’s lugaw feeding drives and MCGI Cares activities as a hyperreal recruitment funnel and legitimacy-production system. Following the loss of founder-centered charismatic authority, the organization’s public legitimacy increasingly shifts toward high-visibility logistics and repeatable “good works” as a substitute for doctrinal persuasion.

When a church’s legitimacy begins to hinge on performative outputs—feeding drives, medical missions, mass events—funding becomes non-negotiable because operations do not pause.

This paper explains The Great Collapse of Members Church of God International (MCGI) as a material and organizational process, not a theological one. Our research finds that founder-era charisma functioned as charismatic insulation: it made heavy labor demands, constant mobilization, and financial extraction feel spiritually natural, delaying ordinary cost–benefit thinking among members.