Oakspear

700 weddings and counting, including my wife's weddings in 14 years

I got an internet ordination 15 years ago so I could officiate at weddings. I use "Reverend" on my website and business cards, but I like people to call me by my first name. Some people at weddings insist on calling me "pastor" or "reverend" though.

Throughout the 90's and into 2000 Martindale was replacing much of what had been built under Wierwille and replacing it was his own brain farts. PFAL was replaced with The Way of Abundance & Power (WayAP); various "advanced studies" classes, e.g. Dealing With the Adversary, Witnessing & Undershepherding, Christian Family & Sex and others were replaced with classes taught by Martindale or other loyalists; The WOW program was replaced by Way Disciples; The Rock of Ages was eliminated; Martindale's book 'The Rise & Expansion of the Christian Church in The First Century' was promoted. Minor things like wearing your old green advanced class nametag or WOW pin were banned as "old wineskins". I was kicked out in 2001, so I don't know if this was reversed, but it would make sense that Martindale's contribution would be erased. What would it be replaced with? I thought I've seen references to Wierwille being emphasized again, but I don't know

I wonder if anyone from TWI monitors this site any more. 20 years ago there were a large numbers of "innies" participating in GSC, and they were checking here to see whom to purge. I was shown the door after they figured out from my posts who I was

Not long, I'd guess. I was blocked from their Twitter feed for asking pointed questions

I was raised Catholic, so it was always Father Johnson or Father Bill. I've never been involved in any other churches, so I don't know for sure, although I have heard acquaintances refer to their ministers as Pastor Bob or Mary or what have you.

I have to share this Sudo story. Some of you may have participated in the old Southern Comfort Weenie Roasts. There were at least four of them, held down around the Tennessee-Kentucky border. I was at the second and third and roomed with Sudo both times. At Weenie Roast #2 we gathered in a state park. Despite the prohibition on bringing alcohol into the park, we brought alcohol into the park. A LOT of alcohol. We were also all very loud late into the evening. One of our campground neighbors called the law on us. There is some disagreement on whether it was a deputy sheriff or a park ranger, but we were in danger of spending the night in jail if the officer decided to press the matter. One of the Weenie Roasters, who lived locally, threw herself under the bus and took responsibility for bringing in the alcohol so that those of us from out of state could be spared being guests of the county. Meanwhile, brave Sudo was scrambling around hiding the various bottles of the good stuff in sleeping bags and pillow cases (and of course the "pear juice") while the rest of us dutifully poured out our cheap beer in front of the officer. If I remember correctly, he also "saved" some of booze by quickly drinking it. (There was also a pole dance with kazoo accompaniment) All kidding aside, Sudo was one of the voices of reason and was instrumental in spreading the truth about TWI

And many find healing without any involvement from any gods

But like Raf, I have no problem with that, believe as you like, only when you're trying to convince me do I require some kind of evidence

I've heard this before, not as religion "A" as opposed to "no God(s)", but as Religion "A"is true because "it makes so much more sense" than religions B, C, D...ad infinitum

When Martindale made that announcement that "The Word Was Over the World", even though I was a good, loyal Waybot, my immediate thought was: "How can this be? It isn't even over my home city of Lincoln, let alone nebraska, let alone THE WORLD". At the time the number of active Way people had shrunk in our area to a couple of anemic Twigs that they laughingly called a branch. If I remember correctly, part of the explanation that the Word was over the world was that there was a Way presence in every region of the world.

Is this another "new" advanced class? What have they been running as the advanced class lately? I got out in 2001 and if I remember correctly they were having various people parrot Martindale's WayA&P class since they couldn't run the Martindale version.

If I remember correctly virtually all occurrences of "love" in the NT are translations of agape and it is used in various contexts, not limited to "the love of God". I remember many teachings where the teacher would come across the word "love" and breathlessly announce "and it's the word agape" as if it were soehow unique

The "1942 Promise" wasn't something I thought a lot about back when I was involved. In fact, I signed up and paid for PFAL without knowing anything about Wierwille. I had attended a few twigs with my cousin, who had a crush on the Twig Leader and was impressed with how the people in the twig had (or at least seemed to have) answers based on the Bible. I had been told that a guy named Wierwille, who was from Ohio, would be the class teacher. I was also told that the class instructor was a guy named Jerry and it would be held in Flushing. So I thought that Jerry Wierwille from Ohio would be teaching this class in Flushing. (This was when they were calling the class facilitator or coordinator "the instructor - kind of confusing). It was at a class orientation a few days before Session One when I discovered that they were two separate people. Even after graduating from PFAL there was a mostly local focus. I had no idea that I was involved in a large group until I agreed to go to Ohio for the ROA. I don't recall ever given the "audible voice" or the snow or the "promise" much thought. I was more impressed with Wierwille's claim to have done all the research that he said he had done. I came from a church background, but one that was more concerned about hierarchy and ritual than anything resembling study of the Bible, so even the faux-research that went on in TWI was more than I had ever encountered

I can't imagine that there's too many.

I'd just be curious if there was still a Way presence here in Nebraska. When I left in 2001 there was one anemic twig composed mainly of two families. It was considered an "outlying fellowship" of the Kansas City Branch. I officiated at a wedding a few years ago and all the old timers from that twig were there (the groom was the son of a Wayfer) but I didn't want to talk to them

I got involved with The Way Corporation in 1978 in NY - at that time there weren't even any BRANCH leaders who were Corps grads and the Area Leader (over all the branches on Long Island - 8 or 9 branches) was interim Corps. Even though we were still selling Wierwille's plagiarized class and suspect theology, there just weren't enough Way Corps to effectively execute top-down control from HQ; the first big Corps graduating class (6th) had just graduated. So there was at least the illusion of autonomy.

In the late nineties it was changed to: Year 1: Candidate Year - same as what had been Apprentice Year Year 2: Apprentice Year - required to be out as a Way Disciple or on staff Years 3 & 4: In residence at the Colorado location

Pretty interesting stuff. Great context from the journalistic and medical folks. While I do not discount out of hand claims of miraculous events, I am a skeptic and my mind usually scans the horizon for mundane explanations. A believer will often scan for supernatural explanations. And the nature of that supernatural explanation will usually depend on the predetermined mindset. A Christian might interpret a certain event as God's intervention, a new-age type might credit Reiki, a guy I once knew would almost certainly point to aliens! That voice that you think you hear, or that feeling you have? Jesus, Allah, Krishna, HAL from 2001, too much of your favorite recreational drug?

Great example of Wierwille completely misconstruing, misunderstanding or possibly misrepresenting what Bullinger wrote in order to bolster a completely different position. Bullinger wrote that "idios" meant to "unloose" (or loosen) and the other occurrences of similar words confirms this (context, right?). Bullinger used the example of hounds being loosed upon the game, with the emphasis on loosed, where Wierwille emphasized the "upon the game" part, inventing the part about the dogs being somehow frenzied and wild. After a while both Bullinger and what the Bible actually said were ignored and Wierwille's dubious explanation elevated to the status of "the meaning of the word"

"Drive-By Posters"...ah, those were the days! Greasespot Cafe is one of the things that helped me to get a post-TWI life. From the early days, when I was still an innie, venting about various nonsensical Way things, to being an almost daily poster and moderator; commiserating with other posters who were getting divorced from hard-core Way cultists to eventually moving on to other things. I've had the privilege to meet 30 or 35 of you over the years at the Jack Daniels Weinie Roasts, a wedding, my Oakspear 2002 North American Tour and some of you stopping in Lincoln for a cup of coffee or a beer on your way to somewhere else. A few of you I stay in touch via Facebook or Twitter. Since I got out I've changed careers, started a small business as a wedding officiant, as well as developed a photography hobby into a (money-losing, alas, I get paid in CDs and band t-shirts!) side gig. I'm coming up on 15 years of marriage in a few months - best decision I've ever made! Life is good!

Just got involved in The Way Corporation in March 1978

I don't come here that often any more...is this 'Revival & Restoration' group another splinter group? New as of 2017? Just another bunch of 'enlightened' knuckleheads

I never lived at any of the so-called root locales, but out in "the world" we did everything that non-Way people did, we just called it "Household Holiday". They talked a good game about not being observers of days & seasons, but didn't have the balls to walk the walk

I took the PFAL class in Flushing in '76 and lived in Kew Gardens through '80 before moving to Nebraska