I was a Way Disciple in the fall of 2001 to the spring of 2002. But I got the boot just before the 6 mo. program finished. They really hated to boot me out because I was a Way Disciple at Headquarters. Ha Ha Ha Our group of 8, 4 men and 4 women, "witnessed", to over 1000 people. (had to keep track) Not one, yes not one wanted our fellowship. On top of that 4 out of the 8 were apprentice Corpoops. One got demoted to a regular Way Disciple, then it became 3. At Headguarters, where we worked 40 hrs a week, for 7.00hr, they continually during the 6mos. complimented us at Sunday Night Service, meal times, and any other PR thing at how successful we were. I was the exception. ha ha ha Anyway, to answer your questions. The Way Disciple Objectives I remember. Life Style & Strategy I remember. I know we were on a strick schedule. I remember I got food poisoning and enjoyed the time off. Except for being sicker than a dog the 1st morning. They couldn't wait to get me back on schedule. I remember the check list before going in. Everything from those things, Objectives, Lifestyle & Strategy's, and check list were carried out to the T. Absolutely every item and every instruction. Had to be carried out. It was the disciplined lifestyle of a Way Disciple. Always under the supervision of our Coordinator that lived with us! He was a good man. Twi leaders corrupted him. He was apprentice Corpoops. I remember the Monthly household worksheet. The two Coordinators,(two households, one for the guys and one for the girls. The two groups lived at separate locations. (shuckie darn) I don't remember the rest of the sheets. The Coordinators probably did those. Each person kept 3x5 cards on each individual we "witnessed" to. So we would divide up the "witnessed to people" on our cards. Planned follow up calls was one of the schedule things we did. Always did everything together. Except sleep, takes showers, and you know the other thing. Very tiring and a complete failure of holding forth the word. I was very happy to get out of there. We had weekly meetings to pick one topic from a list we had to bring up in our conversations when we went witnessing. Aw, lots of stories to tell. I'll be happy to answer any questions. On the lighter side. Us 4 guys had a blast door to door witnessing the 1st couple of weeks. It was just a month after 911 and we were out there pounding the pavement, walking the neighborhood, door to door witnessing. HAH, I LOVED IT. Then we had to Get on the schedule. We had to say it a certain way. All the "witnessing" was planned out a week in advance. Bet that came down from the top brass of Twi. Guess us guys were having to much fun.
Abe..welcome to greasespot!! I think you are the first way disciple that has posted of their experiences here.
Wow...that sounds pretty intense being so close to headquarters and having to witness to people who have known about twi probably since before you were born.
Were you treated badly? Some of the locals were pretty mean to us years ago at roa and stuff.
Sounds like they legislated all of the joy out of program.
A lot of what attracted people to us wows in the early days was how much fun these inspired young christians were having.
We would pick activitities to do together and just have a ball...our exhuberance and love for God and one another contagious....
I remember thinking about the wows who witnessed to me...*I dunno what they got ...but WHATEVER it is...I WANT it*
You poor guys were under pressure to sell a product that nobody wanted :(
Were you guys or your believing held responsible for the poor results?
Please excuse me while I put some spaces into this so I can read it comfortably...
I'm also going to tweak the punctuation.
Abe: (Sep 28 2006, 08:28 AM)
"I was a Way Disciple in the fall of 2001 to the spring of 2002, but I got the boot just before the 6-month program finished. They really hated to boot me out because I was a Way Disciple at Headquarters. (Ha Ha Ha.) Our group of 8 - 4 men and 4 women- "witnessed" to over 1000 people. (We had to keep track.)
Not one- yes, not one- wanted our fellowship.
On top of that, 4 out of the 8 were apprentice Corpoops. One got demoted to a regular Way Disciple, then it became 3. At Headguarters, where we worked 40 hrs a week, for 7.00hr, they continually during the 6months complimented us
at Sunday Night Service,
meal times,
and any other PR thing
at how successful we were.
I was the exception. (Ha ha ha.)
Anyway, to answer your questions.
The Way Disciple Objectives I remember.
Life Style & Strategy I remember.
I know we were on a strict schedule. I remember I got food poisoning and enjoyed the time off. Except for being sicker than a dog the 1st morning. They couldn't wait to get me back on schedule.
I remember the check list before going in. Everything from those things-
Objectives, Lifestyle & Strategies, and the check list-
were carried out to the T. Absolutely EVERY item and every instruction had to be carried out.
It was the disciplined lifestyle of a Way Disciple.
Always under the supervision of our Coordinator that lived with us! He was a good man. Twi leaders corrupted him. He was apprentice Corpoops. I remember the Monthly household worksheet. The two Coordinators,(two households, one for the guys and one for the girls. The two groups lived at separate locations, (shuckie darn) I don't remember the rest of the sheets. The Coordinators probably did those.
Each person kept 3x5 cards on each individual we "witnessed" to. So we would divide up the "witnessed to people" on our cards. Planned follow-up calls was one of the schedule things we did. We always did everything together. (Except sleep, takes showers, and you know the other thing.)
Very tiring and a complete failure of holding forth the word.
I was very happy to get out of there. We had weekly meetings to pick one topic from a list we had to bring up in our conversations when we went witnessing. Aw, lots of stories to tell. I'll be happy to answer any questions. On the lighter side. Us 4 guys had a blast door to door witnessing the 1st couple of weeks. It was just a month after 911 and we were out there pounding the pavement, walking the neighborhood, door to door witnessing. HAH, I LOVED IT.
Then we had to Get on the schedule. We had to say it a certain way. All the "witnessing" was planned out a week in advance. Bet that came down from the top brass of Twi. Guess us guys were having to much fun."
Cool to hear your recollections! I'm thinking I may know you or some of your fellow laborers. Trying to remember what years the folks I know were sentenced to HQ.....
Witnessing from 9pm-11pm??? Even family members know not to knock on my door or dial my number past 9pm at night! Belle is no lady past 9pm on week nights; she needs her beauty sleep!
Those schedules are ridiculous!! They only allow 30 minutes for fixing and eating dinner? WTF?? I'd like to see rosie cook at eat dinner for her and her wife in 30 minutes. :blink:
Obviously nobody with any "real world" experience had anything to do with those schedules.
And what's with the tattle tale report? The whole wording of those "reports" is such that it encourages looking for things to turn folks in for doing or not doing. How effen godly is that??
May I fix you a tall cool glass of lemonade and offer something sweet, Abe? Looking forward to reading more of you. :)
You may not know the answer to this: Were the weekly reports (as outlined on the link) due MONTHLY instead of weekly? I realize only the coordinators may have filled these out.
I don't know why I am so curious, just am. I wonder how much HQ relaxed the standard after LCM was booted.
After your 6 months as WD were you supposed to then work 4 to 6 more months at HQ? I know at least one year since 2002 the commitment for any WD's at HQ was a year (or maybe it was just 10 months) working at HQ and the first 6 of those serving as a WD.
You don't have to answer this if you don't want to: why did they boot you?
I always wanted to post this. It took me 4 yrs 2 do it. HAH I've had my nice PC for 2 1/2 years and just started using it. HAH Safari, I think Jesus Christ got demoted at headquarters. Grand-Daughter, If they had any money to invest they probably would. I'm pretty sure their r a few human examples still at HQ. Hiway29, both groups lived n St. Marys. That's where we did most of our witnessing. Did a little n New Breman. Did a apartment complex n Dayton. There was a apartment complex, I forget what city, but we always went to at night. Yep, ur right Hiway, everybody n those smaller towns new about The Way. They still don't want 2 have anything to do with them. I know what ur sayin Hiway. I was n the way 19 yrs. I saw that first hand. Twi will ill emanate all invitations to God to inspire. Aw, Rascal. Is Yoda male or female? Nope, not treated badly. A lot of good people n St. Marys. Guess there not mad at the way anymore. Yep, legislated all the joy out of the program. I saw that first hand. Its no secret what attracted me when I first got in was 2 or 3 good-look en-girls at my 1st Twig. It was in the early summer of 1982. No, Rascal, we were not held responsible for our poor results. It was totally the opposite. The whole 6 mos. TWI publicly praised us. The ultimate was to get all 8 of us WDs on the front page of The Way Magazine. Thank God it didn't make my head swell. I'll fax u the picture if u want. [/color] WordWolf, thank u. I'm all 4 2 help each individual to understand me. You made it easier reading for some and I thank you. I read what u wrote and every single point u got right of what I wrote. (Boy, I screwed that sentence up didn't I?) ha ha ha Thank u Likeaneagle. I'm always asking someone, "Did u under stand that?" I know WW can help me. Hes already proved that. Belle, I always enjoy looking at ur Belle picture. I started looking through the, "find old friends in the Forum section. Thanks 4 ur offer 2 help me find old friends. We stopped door 2 door after it got 2 dark 2 see very good. We got stopped by the Cops one time. When it was just us 4 guys going door 2 door. When the program 1st started. The Cops just wanted 2 know what we were doing. Four guys going door 2 door in the neighborhood. Least we didn't have 2 weir matching black suits, black ties and white shirts. I"ll b here Belle. Not as much when I get a full time job. Right now I have, (ooh, I bet WW liked that "have" word), a part time job. Free at last, Free at last, Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last.
I used to go to the Saint Marys and New Bremen libraries to do my internet surfing while I was on Staff. I started intenet dating at that time. I remeber a local guy from New Bremen contacting me. As soon as he found out I was in twi, he said he didn't feel comfortable. I don't blame him, but I was looking for a way out even back then. I may not have realized it to that extent at the time.
HQ didn't relax after lcm got the boot. He left in 2000. I left in 2001. There were still major pockets of relious fanatics at HQ when I left. I have contact with one Way Corps person. They only tell me things in bits and pieces. Lately they told me how someon was booted from the Corps. These people were 15th corps, so they were in a long time. But I always wondered why they were WC for so long.
The thing I get from this person is the drama of the couple being booted. It like it was when Craig was prez and how he would trash people's reputations on public forum. Doesn't sound like it changed. I'm sure they still talk .... about people at Corps night.
Abe-----------Welcome to our little corner of the world. I'm a fairly recent arrival myself. I encourage you to try some of the fun stuff like "name that movie" and "TV pictionary" and so on . Of course, the weightier matters can also be tossed back and forth in "Doctrinal". The program you were in seems to have gleaned elements of a program that I and others here were in back in the 1970's called Fellowlaborers, especially the part about working at HQ( in our case it was the state HQ) and the sparcity of personal time. You seem to have weathered the experience quite well. During your time there, was there still an obsession with stringing chairs in perfectly straight lines? Also, what sort of duties were you expected to perform during the course of an average day?(if there was such a thing)
I'll say this much LCM sure knew how to screw up a good thing. I'm sure he's sitting out there thinking, "Man if I only would have sat back and just let this thing run itself. I shouldn't have stopped the open market at the ROA, I should have left the afternoon stage, I should have never demanded alligence from the leaders. I should've left PFAL alone never ended the WOW program, stopped the ROA..." Is it me or did LCM put an end to more things then he started? Sounds like he really was a lazy bastard.
Another thought I had, if Jesus demanded that much paperwork from his disciples nothing would have happened, and we would have at least some documentation of how much they didn't get done. :) I could see it now, the History Channel would have a show about the Roman Paper Reduction Act, how the early christian church was buried under tons of paper work.
Sorry, guys I'll try to do better with my line spacing.
Figured it out all by my lonesome. I bet that makes everybody happy.
Especially WordWolf.
Belle, I think my ink is getting week. I'd better get some. So, I'll do your reply again.
I always enjoy looking at your picture when u do a post. I started looking through the "Find old friends area". ;) I'm off to a very good start. I've already found one and they responded back.
Continuing on. We stopped door 2 door when it got 2 dark 2 see. We got stopped by the cops in St. Marys one time. It was just us 4 guys going door 2 door in our immediate neighborhood. The Cops just wanted 2 know what we were doing. Least we didn't half 2 weir matching black suits, black ties, and white shirts.
I'll be here Belle. Not as much when I get my Full time job. I'm currently looking 4 one that has a decent pay. See ya Southern Belle.
Pretty sure the weekly report persists. There was something similar for WOW's back in the 90's. You wouldn't do less in the Prevailing Word would you? Seriously though, I'm almost positive they still do it.
What amazes me still--although why after all these years it should is beyond me--is how an organization that claims grace as its motivation was far more under the law than the Pharisees were. Except that it was man made law too boot.
When I read some of the criteria I noticed many similarities to LDS missionaries, groups of two, door to door, etc but no LDS missionary would tolerate a mission president who was as intrusive as this--and no mission president who was this legalistic would last long
So i keep wondering just how one organization can keep messing up in the same way over and over
haven't they learned that the same behaviors result in the same results????
Well, Mo..... the saying is that insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. In the case of TWI, I'm thinking the shoe fits. <_<
With all the detailed planning, where is God invited to inspire?
Suda
He's not...and therein lies the cruxt of the matter.
Twi taught that it was "Christ in you" and that each born again believer had direct access to God. They took a lot of money from people to teach them how to receive revelation from God...but yet, in day to day living they micromanage every detail of a person's life.
Did they not really believe their own teachings?...
Wow. I would have HATED and FEARED being a Way Disciple at HQ!
I grew up in Van Wert, right down the road from HQ, where everyone knew the Way. Since I was raised as a Wayfer (at least my parents were old school, they stopped doing much way before Craig was in charge), in Van Wert, I dealt with a lot of prejudice and harassment. I learned to keep my mouth shut about it pretty quickly.
We never had a single new person come to our fellowhship, other than my best friend who came a couple of times. We had a few "cop outs" come back a few times, but they never stuck around. There were a couple of believers from neighboring towns that were directed to our twig. All this was around the time when Craig was pimping his stupid Rise and Expansion book, and driving how there's no expansion without rise. We all felt like failures.
But door to door witnessing in Van Wert was always a waste of time. Always. Plus I was always afraid I'd run into someone from school. So I did my best to be sick on witnessing nights. But sometimes it was unavoidable. "I didn't have time to work on a teaching tonight, let's just go out witnessing." F that.
We had Wows come to Van Wert in 92-93 I believe. At the time I was really involved with Twig on my own, and really excited about the Word. But still afraid to witness. I was really excited when they came, because my fellowship was SMALL. Me and a man, wife, and their kid. So I thought, AWESOME, more believers. I dropped by their fellowship a few times, only to get in trouble from our branch coordinator for going to the WOW fellowship instead of ours. She gave me some "together with, but disctinctly independent of" crap that the Way is famous for.
Then the WOWs told every teenager they met (and they met a LOT, since they worked at Subway) that I was in the Way. Thanks guys. That sucked. I couldn't get upset or say anything, because I knew that was just me being "fearful" and I'd just get reproved. Needless to say, it made my junior year of high school very hard.
The WOWs were reassigned to a different city after 6 months, having not run a class or gotten more than two or three people to come.
Oh, the reason they sent WOWs to Van Wert. Apparently, Don Wierwille or someone was driving through Van Wert on their way home from Indiana, just before the rock. You have to go through the center of town pretty much. I think you even drive past V.P.s church. Anyway, they got all weepy, and thought "We'll give Van Wert one more chance." Since that's technically where the Way started. "If they don't respond, we're writing it off."
The next year, my senior year, my twig coordinators left Van Wert. I felt very lonely for a while. Then I started doing normal teenager stuff and having fun. I was accepted to the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Was all set to go. Then I finally got a car the summer after I graduated. I used it to drive to my friend's twig in nearby Lima. I started to feel bad that I hadn't gone to twig in so long. I felt like I had rejected the Word. I felt bad that my parents were going in to debt so I could go to art school. So, I ditched my art school plans, and decided to go WOW that year.
I was all signed up WOW, did my WOW training at the Rock. Had my $500 in traveler's checks. My bags were packed. It was nearing the end of the Rock, when we were to find out where we were going. Then craig dropped the homo bomb and cancelled the program.
Thanks.
I can't believe I stuck around for 10 more freaking years!
Anyway, sorry for the huge post that should probably go in the "My Story" section. Ha. There's more to this story of course, so maybe I should start a thread there.
Anyway Abe, I more than feel your pain. I was also a Way Disciple. Group 1. Don't get me started.
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likeaneagle
WOW...No pun intended..
what a business plan..nothing like moving the word by inspiration!
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Abe
I was a Way Disciple in the fall of 2001 to the spring of 2002. But I got the boot just before the 6 mo. program finished. They really hated to boot me out because I was a Way Disciple at Headquarters. Ha Ha Ha Our group of 8, 4 men and 4 women, "witnessed", to over 1000 people. (had to keep track) Not one, yes not one wanted our fellowship. On top of that 4 out of the 8 were apprentice Corpoops. One got demoted to a regular Way Disciple, then it became 3. At Headguarters, where we worked 40 hrs a week, for 7.00hr, they continually during the 6mos. complimented us at Sunday Night Service, meal times, and any other PR thing at how successful we were. I was the exception. ha ha ha Anyway, to answer your questions. The Way Disciple Objectives I remember. Life Style & Strategy I remember. I know we were on a strick schedule. I remember I got food poisoning and enjoyed the time off. Except for being sicker than a dog the 1st morning. They couldn't wait to get me back on schedule. I remember the check list before going in. Everything from those things, Objectives, Lifestyle & Strategy's, and check list were carried out to the T. Absolutely every item and every instruction. Had to be carried out. It was the disciplined lifestyle of a Way Disciple. Always under the supervision of our Coordinator that lived with us! He was a good man. Twi leaders corrupted him. He was apprentice Corpoops. I remember the Monthly household worksheet. The two Coordinators,(two households, one for the guys and one for the girls. The two groups lived at separate locations. (shuckie darn) I don't remember the rest of the sheets. The Coordinators probably did those. Each person kept 3x5 cards on each individual we "witnessed" to. So we would divide up the "witnessed to people" on our cards. Planned follow up calls was one of the schedule things we did. Always did everything together. Except sleep, takes showers, and you know the other thing. Very tiring and a complete failure of holding forth the word. I was very happy to get out of there. We had weekly meetings to pick one topic from a list we had to bring up in our conversations when we went witnessing. Aw, lots of stories to tell. I'll be happy to answer any questions. On the lighter side. Us 4 guys had a blast door to door witnessing the 1st couple of weeks. It was just a month after 911 and we were out there pounding the pavement, walking the neighborhood, door to door witnessing. HAH, I LOVED IT. Then we had to Get on the schedule. We had to say it a certain way. All the "witnessing" was planned out a week in advance. Bet that came down from the top brass of Twi. Guess us guys were having to much fun.
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SafariVista
Abe, your account of the WD Program has no resemblance of the Life Of Jesus Christ...?!?!?!
Is TWI teaching THIS is the way Jesus Christ lived his life on earth?
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grand-daughter
Does anyone know if TWI has stock in the robotics industry? LOL!
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hiway29
you went door to door witnessing in new Knoxville, St Marys, area ?
Who the heck around there doesn't know about the way, and long made up their mind about it ?
door to door-I shudder at the memory of it.
that form is insane-why would anyone turn their life over to others for such scrutiny ?
rhetorical question-after 12 years in the way, I remember how they crawled under your skin.
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Suda
With all the detailed planning, where is God invited to inspire?
Suda
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rascal
Abe..welcome to greasespot!! I think you are the first way disciple that has posted of their experiences here.
Wow...that sounds pretty intense being so close to headquarters and having to witness to people who have known about twi probably since before you were born.
Were you treated badly? Some of the locals were pretty mean to us years ago at roa and stuff.
Sounds like they legislated all of the joy out of program.
A lot of what attracted people to us wows in the early days was how much fun these inspired young christians were having.
We would pick activitities to do together and just have a ball...our exhuberance and love for God and one another contagious....
I remember thinking about the wows who witnessed to me...*I dunno what they got ...but WHATEVER it is...I WANT it*
You poor guys were under pressure to sell a product that nobody wanted :(
Were you guys or your believing held responsible for the poor results?
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WordWolf
Please excuse me while I put some spaces into this so I can read it comfortably...
I'm also going to tweak the punctuation.
Abe: (Sep 28 2006, 08:28 AM)
"I was a Way Disciple in the fall of 2001 to the spring of 2002, but I got the boot just before the 6-month program finished. They really hated to boot me out because I was a Way Disciple at Headquarters. (Ha Ha Ha.) Our group of 8 - 4 men and 4 women- "witnessed" to over 1000 people. (We had to keep track.)
Not one- yes, not one- wanted our fellowship.
On top of that, 4 out of the 8 were apprentice Corpoops. One got demoted to a regular Way Disciple, then it became 3. At Headguarters, where we worked 40 hrs a week, for 7.00hr, they continually during the 6months complimented us
at Sunday Night Service,
meal times,
and any other PR thing
at how successful we were.
I was the exception. (Ha ha ha.)
Anyway, to answer your questions.
The Way Disciple Objectives I remember.
Life Style & Strategy I remember.
I know we were on a strict schedule. I remember I got food poisoning and enjoyed the time off. Except for being sicker than a dog the 1st morning. They couldn't wait to get me back on schedule.
I remember the check list before going in. Everything from those things-
Objectives, Lifestyle & Strategies, and the check list-
were carried out to the T. Absolutely EVERY item and every instruction had to be carried out.
It was the disciplined lifestyle of a Way Disciple.
Always under the supervision of our Coordinator that lived with us! He was a good man. Twi leaders corrupted him. He was apprentice Corpoops. I remember the Monthly household worksheet. The two Coordinators,(two households, one for the guys and one for the girls. The two groups lived at separate locations, (shuckie darn) I don't remember the rest of the sheets. The Coordinators probably did those.
Each person kept 3x5 cards on each individual we "witnessed" to. So we would divide up the "witnessed to people" on our cards. Planned follow-up calls was one of the schedule things we did. We always did everything together. (Except sleep, takes showers, and you know the other thing.)
Very tiring and a complete failure of holding forth the word.
I was very happy to get out of there. We had weekly meetings to pick one topic from a list we had to bring up in our conversations when we went witnessing. Aw, lots of stories to tell. I'll be happy to answer any questions. On the lighter side. Us 4 guys had a blast door to door witnessing the 1st couple of weeks. It was just a month after 911 and we were out there pounding the pavement, walking the neighborhood, door to door witnessing. HAH, I LOVED IT.
Then we had to Get on the schedule. We had to say it a certain way. All the "witnessing" was planned out a week in advance. Bet that came down from the top brass of Twi. Guess us guys were having to much fun."
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likeaneagle
Geesh WW
I understand what that person wrote in a more excellent way!!
Is this what your contributing..aarrghh
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Belle
WELCOME, ABE!!!
Cool to hear your recollections! I'm thinking I may know you or some of your fellow laborers.
Trying to remember what years the folks I know were sentenced to HQ.....
Witnessing from 9pm-11pm??? Even family members know not to knock on my door or dial my number past 9pm at night!
Belle is no lady past 9pm on week nights; she needs her beauty sleep! 
Those schedules are ridiculous!! They only allow 30 minutes for fixing and eating dinner? WTF?? I'd like to see rosie cook at eat dinner for her and her wife in 30 minutes. :blink:
Obviously nobody with any "real world" experience had anything to do with those schedules.
And what's with the tattle tale report? The whole wording of those "reports" is such that it encourages looking for things to turn folks in for doing or not doing.
How effen godly is that??
May I fix you a tall cool glass of lemonade and offer something sweet, Abe? Looking forward to reading more of you. :)
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I Love Bagpipes
Thanks Abe for the info...and welcome to GSC.
You may not know the answer to this: Were the weekly reports (as outlined on the link) due MONTHLY instead of weekly? I realize only the coordinators may have filled these out.
I don't know why I am so curious, just am. I wonder how much HQ relaxed the standard after LCM was booted.
After your 6 months as WD were you supposed to then work 4 to 6 more months at HQ? I know at least one year since 2002 the commitment for any WD's at HQ was a year (or maybe it was just 10 months) working at HQ and the first 6 of those serving as a WD.
You don't have to answer this if you don't want to: why did they boot you?
Thanks again Abe. :)
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Abe
I always wanted to post this. It took me 4 yrs 2 do it. HAH I've had my nice PC for 2 1/2 years and just started using it. HAH
Safari, I think Jesus Christ got demoted at headquarters. Grand-Daughter, If they had any money to invest they probably would. I'm pretty sure their r a few human examples still at HQ. Hiway29, both groups lived n St. Marys. That's where we did most of our witnessing. Did a little n New Breman. Did a apartment complex n Dayton. There was a apartment complex, I forget what city, but we always went to at night. Yep, ur right Hiway, everybody n those smaller towns new about The Way. They still don't want 2 have anything to do with them. I know what ur sayin Hiway. I was n the way 19 yrs. I saw that first hand. Twi will ill emanate all invitations to God to inspire. Aw, Rascal. Is Yoda male or female? Nope, not treated badly. A lot of good people n St. Marys. Guess there not mad at the way anymore. Yep, legislated all the joy out of the program. I saw that first hand. Its no secret what attracted me when I first got in was 2 or 3 good-look en-girls at my 1st Twig. It was in the early summer of 1982. No, Rascal, we were not held responsible for our poor results. It was totally the opposite. The whole 6 mos. TWI publicly praised us. The ultimate was to get all 8 of us WDs on the front page of The Way Magazine. Thank God it didn't make my head swell. I'll fax u the picture if u want. [/color] WordWolf, thank u. I'm all 4 2 help each individual to understand me. You made it easier reading for some and I thank you. I read what u wrote and every single point u got right of what I wrote. (Boy, I screwed that sentence up didn't I?) ha ha ha Thank u Likeaneagle. I'm always asking someone, "Did u under stand that?" I know WW can help me. Hes already proved that. Belle, I always enjoy looking at ur Belle picture. I started looking through the, "find old friends in the Forum section. Thanks 4 ur offer 2 help me find old friends. We stopped door 2 door after it got 2 dark 2 see very good. We got stopped by the Cops one time. When it was just us 4 guys going door 2 door. When the program 1st started. The Cops just wanted 2 know what we were doing. Four guys going door 2 door in the neighborhood. Least we didn't have 2 weir matching black suits, black ties and white shirts. I"ll b here Belle. Not as much when I get a full time job. Right now I have, (ooh, I bet WW liked that "have" word), a part time job. Free at last, Free at last, Thank God Almighty, I'm free at last.
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Nottawayfer
I used to go to the Saint Marys and New Bremen libraries to do my internet surfing while I was on Staff. I started intenet dating at that time. I remeber a local guy from New Bremen contacting me. As soon as he found out I was in twi, he said he didn't feel comfortable. I don't blame him, but I was looking for a way out even back then. I may not have realized it to that extent at the time.
HQ didn't relax after lcm got the boot. He left in 2000. I left in 2001. There were still major pockets of relious fanatics at HQ when I left. I have contact with one Way Corps person. They only tell me things in bits and pieces. Lately they told me how someon was booted from the Corps. These people were 15th corps, so they were in a long time. But I always wondered why they were WC for so long.
The thing I get from this person is the drama of the couple being booted. It like it was when Craig was prez and how he would trash people's reputations on public forum. Doesn't sound like it changed. I'm sure they still talk .... about people at Corps night.
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waysider
Abe-----------Welcome to our little corner of the world. I'm a fairly recent arrival myself. I encourage you to try some of the fun stuff like "name that movie" and "TV pictionary" and so on . Of course, the weightier matters can also be tossed back and forth in "Doctrinal". The program you were in seems to have gleaned elements of a program that I and others here were in back in the 1970's called Fellowlaborers, especially the part about working at HQ( in our case it was the state HQ) and the sparcity of personal time. You seem to have weathered the experience quite well. During your time there, was there still an obsession with stringing chairs in perfectly straight lines? Also, what sort of duties were you expected to perform during the course of an average day?(if there was such a thing)
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Seth R.
Welcome Abe.
I'll say this much LCM sure knew how to screw up a good thing. I'm sure he's sitting out there thinking, "Man if I only would have sat back and just let this thing run itself. I shouldn't have stopped the open market at the ROA, I should have left the afternoon stage, I should have never demanded alligence from the leaders. I should've left PFAL alone never ended the WOW program, stopped the ROA..." Is it me or did LCM put an end to more things then he started? Sounds like he really was a lazy bastard.
Another thought I had, if Jesus demanded that much paperwork from his disciples nothing would have happened, and we would have at least some documentation of how much they didn't get done. :) I could see it now, the History Channel would have a show about the Roman Paper Reduction Act, how the early christian church was buried under tons of paper work.
OK back to the regularly scheduled program.
Seth
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Abe
Sorry, guys I'll try to do better with my line spacing.
Especially WordWolf.
Belle, I think my ink is getting week. I'd better get some. So, I'll do your reply again.
I always enjoy looking at your picture when u do a post. I started looking through the "Find old friends area". ;) I'm off to a very good start. I've already found one and they responded back.
Continuing on. We stopped door 2 door when it got 2 dark 2 see. We got stopped by the cops in St. Marys one time. It was just us 4 guys going door 2 door in our immediate neighborhood. The Cops just wanted 2 know what we were doing. Least we didn't half 2 weir matching black suits, black ties, and white shirts.
I'll be here Belle. Not as much when I get my Full time job. I'm currently looking 4 one that has a decent pay. See ya Southern Belle.
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Kit Sober
Too funny about it being a sin to have fun.
(I loved door to door because I really tried to give people the love of Christ, and that, to me, is always fun.)
Anyway, a most notable reaming I received was for laughing with my kids when we were praying.
The "coordinator" of us couldn't find chapter and verse, but she was "sure" that it was wrong to laugh and pray at the same time.
It put a damper on my good time with the Lord for a long time.
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shortfuse
Pretty sure the weekly report persists. There was something similar for WOW's back in the 90's. You wouldn't do less in the Prevailing Word would you? Seriously though, I'm almost positive they still do it.
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templelady
What amazes me still--although why after all these years it should is beyond me--is how an organization that claims grace as its motivation was far more under the law than the Pharisees were. Except that it was man made law too boot.
When I read some of the criteria I noticed many similarities to LDS missionaries, groups of two, door to door, etc but no LDS missionary would tolerate a mission president who was as intrusive as this--and no mission president who was this legalistic would last long
So i keep wondering just how one organization can keep messing up in the same way over and over
haven't they learned that the same behaviors result in the same results????
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Belle
Well, Mo..... the saying is that insanity is doing the same thing over and over while expecting different results. In the case of TWI, I'm thinking the shoe fits. <_<
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GrouchoMarxJr
He's not...and therein lies the cruxt of the matter.
Twi taught that it was "Christ in you" and that each born again believer had direct access to God. They took a lot of money from people to teach them how to receive revelation from God...but yet, in day to day living they micromanage every detail of a person's life.
Did they not really believe their own teachings?...
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excathedra
i couldn't read past "boldly confront the country"
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excathedra
oh, and, hi abe !
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Nato
Wow. I would have HATED and FEARED being a Way Disciple at HQ!
I grew up in Van Wert, right down the road from HQ, where everyone knew the Way. Since I was raised as a Wayfer (at least my parents were old school, they stopped doing much way before Craig was in charge), in Van Wert, I dealt with a lot of prejudice and harassment. I learned to keep my mouth shut about it pretty quickly.
We never had a single new person come to our fellowhship, other than my best friend who came a couple of times. We had a few "cop outs" come back a few times, but they never stuck around. There were a couple of believers from neighboring towns that were directed to our twig. All this was around the time when Craig was pimping his stupid Rise and Expansion book, and driving how there's no expansion without rise. We all felt like failures.
But door to door witnessing in Van Wert was always a waste of time. Always. Plus I was always afraid I'd run into someone from school. So I did my best to be sick on witnessing nights. But sometimes it was unavoidable. "I didn't have time to work on a teaching tonight, let's just go out witnessing." F that.
We had Wows come to Van Wert in 92-93 I believe. At the time I was really involved with Twig on my own, and really excited about the Word. But still afraid to witness. I was really excited when they came, because my fellowship was SMALL. Me and a man, wife, and their kid. So I thought, AWESOME, more believers. I dropped by their fellowship a few times, only to get in trouble from our branch coordinator for going to the WOW fellowship instead of ours. She gave me some "together with, but disctinctly independent of" crap that the Way is famous for.
Then the WOWs told every teenager they met (and they met a LOT, since they worked at Subway) that I was in the Way. Thanks guys. That sucked. I couldn't get upset or say anything, because I knew that was just me being "fearful" and I'd just get reproved. Needless to say, it made my junior year of high school very hard.
The WOWs were reassigned to a different city after 6 months, having not run a class or gotten more than two or three people to come.
Oh, the reason they sent WOWs to Van Wert. Apparently, Don Wierwille or someone was driving through Van Wert on their way home from Indiana, just before the rock. You have to go through the center of town pretty much. I think you even drive past V.P.s church. Anyway, they got all weepy, and thought "We'll give Van Wert one more chance." Since that's technically where the Way started. "If they don't respond, we're writing it off."
The next year, my senior year, my twig coordinators left Van Wert. I felt very lonely for a while. Then I started doing normal teenager stuff and having fun. I was accepted to the School of Visual Arts in NYC. Was all set to go. Then I finally got a car the summer after I graduated. I used it to drive to my friend's twig in nearby Lima. I started to feel bad that I hadn't gone to twig in so long. I felt like I had rejected the Word. I felt bad that my parents were going in to debt so I could go to art school. So, I ditched my art school plans, and decided to go WOW that year.
I was all signed up WOW, did my WOW training at the Rock. Had my $500 in traveler's checks. My bags were packed. It was nearing the end of the Rock, when we were to find out where we were going. Then craig dropped the homo bomb and cancelled the program.
Thanks.
I can't believe I stuck around for 10 more freaking years!
Anyway, sorry for the huge post that should probably go in the "My Story" section. Ha. There's more to this story of course, so maybe I should start a thread there.
Anyway Abe, I more than feel your pain. I was also a Way Disciple. Group 1. Don't get me started.
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