I would say - without exaggeration - that participating in Mr. Wierwille's sales campaign (uh, going W.O.W.) was the MOST detrimental of programs that I ever participated in. I think, more than anything else I experienced in WayWorld, that it was the point where my life became seriously derailed.
Here we were trying to force ourselves into some sort of spiritual epiphany, all the while we were simply being USED as a slave-labor force to promote the Vicster's business. NO, worse than slave labor. We were PAYING for the privilege of being used.
And there were no epiphanies. I see many struggle to put some sort of positive spin on the experience, but when you actually hear what they went through, it's difficult to see where they got any benefit from it all. For the most part it seems that - at best - we lived through a self-inflicted year of poverty and deprivation, squabbling and compromising, self-denial and sacrifice - and all FOR WHAT?
Gawd, you should have to have a license to be that stupid...
got me thinking... how successful was the WOW program after all is said and done?
at my pinning ceremony, C@rmen got on stage and listed all our successes, but she outright lied about the victories by making coercion to take the class sound like people stuck around afterward, which they didn't. she made it sound like a marriage had been saved by the class, which it wasn't.
I learned how to cook for picky eaters and how to share cleaning responsibilities instead of having to do it all by myself, which was nice. I learned how to "love bomb" and hang around with people I had nothing in common with.
I myself was witnessed to by a WOW, and I chafed under her intense undershepherding. I just wanted to learn how to study the bible for myself, so I got myself to twig. she went with cgeer's group in the split. one of my twig brothers went to jail for rape. the other WOW's, no idea.
at one time the WOW program really inflated the PFAL grad numbers. but not one of those people stuck around after our year was up, and I suspect we weren't the only ones. but our main objective was getting classes put together, not running a fellowship and talking about the bible. we were salesmen.
How successful was the wow program?
It depends upon how one defines "success."
Go back to the "founder." What he wanted, from the beginning, in his own words, was "everyone would listen to me."
He wanted the 10% of people's incomes- people's tithes. ("CSBP" was mandatory.)
He wanted women to have sex with- willingly or not.
He wanted the blind obedience of insiders.
He wanted money, sex, and power, creature comforts.
He wanted to satisfy the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life.
=======================
So, the programs were organized around vpw's sins.
The participants in the programs were equipped according to what vpw could get ahold of,
with a view towards what vpw wanted, and what would cost vpw little or nothing.
NOW look at the wow program.
What was the cost-in dollars- of the program?
NOTHING. The wow program TURNED A PROFIT.
The wows were required to SPEND MONEY to join.
What were the expenses of the wow program?
1) Expenses of the program itself: NONE.
wow "families" were set up so that participants would drive themselves to their assignments
in the cars they already had.
2) Expenses of the pfal classes they ran:
classes required a machine to play back classes (Beta or audio)
and the tapes of the classes.
Since classes required the registration income of 7 people MINIMUM,
this, as always, was a considerable PROFIT.
What were the manpower "expenses" of the wow program?
Did the wow program "cost" them people?
No-people who went "wow" were MORE loyal after their year, generally.
(Some people went more than once.)
===========
So, for a "family" of four wows, twi made a profit when they were sent out,
and did NOT pay anything back to keep them out for the year.
(If there were initial problems with housing, local twi-ers helped them
out-of-pocket, and- rarest of all- local leaders did so. Generally, this was
about housing, since wows were expected to get jobs IMMEDIATELY.
Local leaders were known to help them canvas entire cities until they got
jobs. This was not necessarily a bad thing, but should be mentioned.)
At some point, they ran at least 1 pfal class, at a net financial profit to twi.
They probably ran at least a few.
For each class, it was expected at least one person per class (1 for at least 7)
would remain in twi, to tithe, buy twi materials, run pfal classes,
and otherwise remain longtime profit-generators for twi.
The strength of the wow program is that vpw had virtually NO TRAINING involved
in the wow program. The wows were sent out, told to succeed, and expected
to succeed based on their own abilities, skills, and trusting God.
Nothing's wrong with trusting God, of course, but neither that nor their own abilities
had anything to do with the program!
Was the wow program successful?
With no investments into the wows, the wows generated income, and added (many or few)
people to twi, who became regular sources of income.
Some of THOSE people became more wows (as we saw), and a few joined the Corps.
Of those that joined the Corps, they were secretly part of the pool of candidates vpw drew
his victims to rape, molest, coerce, and groom into having sex with him.
================
The wow program was not particularly a success FOR THE PARTICIPANTS.
(There's MANY programs that would have trained them better, and those aren't twi programs.)
The wow program was not particularly a success FOR GOD.
(Putting them through Leonard's class, and following up the way Leonard did, would have been better.)
The wow program was a success FOR VPW, and thus, for TWI.
Okay.............I brought my "marbles" over here to play in your sandbox.
Yes, potato......I had the same thought when the WOW program's success was mentioned.
I went WOW twice in the mid-70s. Although I experienced some personal learning both years, there really wasn't anything of significance that I couldn't have learned had I remained in college.
On the contrary, I found myself in a position of 1) four strangers learning/squabbling to live together, 2) the awkwardness of two males/ two females adjusting to a plethora of differences, 3) daily discussions and weekly meetings to hammer out bathroom schedules, food shopping, meal preparation, cleaning responsibilities, etc. etc. 4) finances ---- rent money, food money, family fund money ---- ALWAYS MONEY, and 5) witnessing, accountability, followup, classes, etc.
IMO......the overwhelming result to most WOWs' experiences would fall under the aspices of basic, low-level living. There was very, VERY, little WOW Department support and encouragement.....in fact, it really didn't seem like I was involved in any program except for the obvious rules and regs.
To be fair, I did witness 4 or 5 instantaneous healings and saw the power of God move on a personal level. But, overall..... the "program" was not successful....imo. Through the years, I've talked with many WOW vets who've shared their disgust and disappointments of their WOW year(s).
And, my two WOW "sisters" from my first WOW year.....found their husbands on the WOW field.........both marriages ended in divorce, years later. Other stuff, too.......but I don't care to elaborate.
In hindsight, I think housing young males and females together was completely irresponsible. And further, some of those WOWs were sent to po-dunk towns in 1980-84 where ill-prepared WOWs dealt with townies who didn't want the way cult trying to indoctrinate their kids. Several groups had a hell-year.....or had to move.
Heck, some WOW families lost one or two people.....and spent the rest of the year scrambling to pay rent.
The WOW program was a slip-shod operation..........exploiting the youth.
Looking at it as a business venture, the WOW program was a wholesale failure
While it's true that many WOW's experienced great personal growth and may have put many people through 'the class", the program, as a whole, failed to achieve it's main objective, which was to bring people into the fold where they would commit to financially supporting the organization on a long term basis. (ABS and endless classes)
The class was like a carrot on a stick, like the CD clubs that offer you 10 CDs for a penny each to get you to commit to a lengthy and costly membership..
That's why the cost of it was all over the charts, $45 this time, $85 the next time, $65, $200, back to $100, etc.
Sure, there was profit in the class itself, but it was short term profit.
Wierwille was looking at the big picture, a cadre of followers who would continue to give and give and give some more.
PFAL was the vehicle to facilitate that. WOW's were the sales force. It wasn't the WOW's themselves who failed, it was the program. Many people took the class and then disappeared. It must have frustrated upper management greatly. The means longer justified the ends.
To those of you who gave of yourselves on the "WOW Field", I salute you.
You should be proud of the effort and dedication you invested in a cause you held dear.
Around 1995 ,I do not remember the exact year, it was before the last Rock of Ages. LCM thought about “World Over the World Redefined”, and in it he said that the vision that God gave VPW about what he should do to moves God´s Word around the World was completed. That the Rightly divided Word of God is available to anyone hungry and thirsty for righteous.
The WOW open many countries to God´s Word for example here in México a Family of 4 WOW came over and started to teach and run classes, in México exists hundreds of PFAL grads maybe thousands. The problem is that some part is followings the directions of Geare and the other part are now The Way Class grads.
So in the case of México, Venezuela, Argentina they were very successful.
I know folks who speak of "going wow" as THE highlight of their life.
maybe because of "the effort and dedication" they felt at the time .
Yet thirty or more years later to recall an event of your teen or young adult years while involved a ministry you got thrown out of or left for good reason and you no longer participate in...
um
seems to be it stopped the growth of many, spiritualy and personaly and professionly.
some left their families never to return home again because of being stuck and etc.. some quit educating their brain or seeking goals altogether besides what twi sold .
I think the wow field worked for some as a good thing but damaged many more for many years .
Actually my WOW year got me out from under my family's thumb so that was a good thing!
I lived with the branch coordinator, an interim WC person who quickly made me aware of the bottomless divide between herself, an illustrious member of the most elite group on earth, and me, a humble peon not even an Advanced Class grad. There were so many times when she just would tell me I could not possibly understand something because I wasn't WC. Of course, I was the one who did all of the cooking and cleaning, managed the finances, and was given the privilege of paying out of pocket for any extras. I just thought she was an aberration. She did get in trouble later on, because someone at a meeting of WOW vets at a summer camp ratted her out that everyone was required to call her "Miss Lastname". At least we WOWs who served her were. She got a personal call from VPW telling her in no uncertain terms to knock it off. (Mr. Garden was at the summer camp meeting and said VPW about blew a gasket on that one, yelling at HA and BW about it).
I should have known better, but in retrospect, I'm glad I stayed in so I could meet Mr. Garden and marry him two years later.
We did run a lot of classes that year. I hope we did some good. I remember personally a couple of incidents where I was able to pray for someone, i.e., minister to them, with positive results. (Of course I got REPROVED for that because I hadn't had the Advanced Class and prayed for someone's healing. The fact that the individual's headache left her immediately was apparently irrelevant.)
I think for me personally it was a success because I hung right in there in spite of living with Miss Hoity-Toity, kept my personal commitment to God NOT TWI, and was somewhat better able to handle life itself than before.
I think that it success should be measured in number of classes, number of new disciples and number of places were the Word get established. New twigs, limbs, branches. Countries open to TWI.
WOWs were very nice people and were comited. So they were successfull in its personal life and in the job.
I think that it success should be measured in number of classes, number of new disciples and number of places were the Word get established. New twigs, limbs, branches. quote by themex
I ran 3 classes in one year, thats the year the wow program was axed.
Had great vision going out way disciple and ran in to a lady in here 3rd year
of training and ran no classes. Every person that came she ran off. After
one fellowship she expected way corp standards out of them.
In my case they were the smart ones they ran.
It was all a scam from the 1st class to corp.
Its the ever chasing dream.
1st take the class then another.
2nd go wow or wd
3rd go corp.
They keep you chasing a dream of enlightenment but beat you down
the entire way.
They always want your time and money but give nothing in return..
I would measure sucess in a man or womans walk and life by their
fruit. Not to a cult but to God and their family then others.
My WOW year taught me that ketchup soup isn't half bad when you're really hungry, and I spent an entire year being really hungry while living and working in a highly advanced and wealthy country.
And don't get me started again about believer coffee.
I sometimes wear my old WOW name tag to Halloween parties.
To this day I cannot abide people who grin all the time.
So all in all, not a success.
But I did find it fascinating reading somewhere here in GSC that one day, all by his widdle self, Disco Craig put down his happy stick long enough to announce that the Word had indeed been spread all over the world. Problem is, I was led to believe that when the Word was over the world, the gathering together could finally happen. Yet I'm still here!
I was a wow in Bossier City, LA. That was the worst year of my life on many different levels.
The rules were stupid!!! What idiot came up with only working part time? :blink:
At best, I learned to tolerate my "wow brother" <_< We did not even try to keep in touch after the year ended.
The last time I received a letter from one of my "wow family" is when I was stationed in Germany and she ("family coordinator") wanted money because she was in the wc. :blink:
Who decided who would be stuck with whom for a year
To be fair, I did learn a few things such as:
1. How not to treat people. in short, do the opposit of how I and others were treated.
2. It sucks not have any money, a car and living with people you would rather not be with.
I could go on but I don't want to bore you guys...
I tried to do it faithfully, three folks that I contacted that year took "the class" for whatever thats worth. They never "stood" or hung around.
I was footloose traveling around the country not doing much of anything before that so it gave me some structure and forced me to put up with people I wouldnt normally have anything to do with-
In a lot of ways it was miserable, in some ways at the time it seemed OK. I didnt buy into alot of it, some of it I did, which I have since left.
The only real positive for me that I can think of is thats its probably the first thing in my adult life that I stuck with and saw to the end, even though I wanted to leave just about every day...thats helped me out in the long run.
Its hard to say--
Im not going to jump on the it was completely horrible bandwagon... of the two inseparable friends I had before going Wow, one was shot dead and one is doing life in jail.
Looking back now, I know WOW was in most ways a huge waste of time but as a young person at a crossroads it was stupid but it wasnt the worst thing that I could have chosen
I will make my two cents short: It was misery punctuated by a few good moments that occurred during the weekly meeting of all the WOW's (branch meeting), poverty, more poverty, confusion, the ever present concern about "devil spirits", and the blind "leading" the blind.
Throughout my twi tenure and post-twi tenure, I've pondered and, at times, struggled with the aspect of defining my beginning steps and long journey in twi. Clearly, I was hungering for more truth.....and a "research ministry" sounded so appealing when I signed the green card.
Had I simply taken pfal and resumed my life, I tend to believe that vpw's class would have provided a "base camp" from which I could have kept ascending to the summit. After all, my beginning steps of commitment were to......only take this class, pfal. But......strategically, and cunningly, wierwille had devised a system of programs that would keep neophites, like me, on a treadmill and "paying for the use of their workout program."
Yes, it was a programming. It was subtle and divisive......isolating youth and implanting new terminology, new idealisms, new programs. Like DontWorry.........I agree that the more involvement, the more programs one signed on for, the tares of vic's corruption took root choking individuality and true spiritual identity.
This quotation: from DontWorry on the "ordination" thread
....the more involved believers became with vic's programs (wow, way corps, "college" division, word in business, culture, etc., etc., etc.) and classes, the more the "tares" of his corruption took root and choked the innocence and purity of holy spirit and its fruit out of the lives and fellowships of the "good seed"............and, for those of us fortunate enough to have "tasted" and experienced genuine christian revival, and who earnestly desired to see it continue and spread throughout "the world", unfettered by "man-made religion",..........the "vehicle" we thought god provided in twi, was hijacked by the "vehicle" vic provided in its stead, also called twi, but not "fueled" by god, but rather by the growing control and dominance of vic's personal perversions and corruption, eventually yielding its own "fruit" in the monster of hypocrisy, deceit, and abject immorality which the entire organization of twi grew into and remains to this day........a monument to the legacy of the "ministry" of "the teacher"........not the legacy of the ministry of jesus christ to the world..........fortunately, the two are NOT the same!
The organization calling itself "The Way International"
(also known as "the Way Ministry")
claims its founding was in 1942.
"The Way" was incorporated OFFICIALLY in 1957.
The classes didn't begin until 1953, when vpw
sat through BG Leonard's class twice,
then began teaching BG Leonard's class and
calling it "HIS" class-PFAL.
The ministry didn't really experience growth
until 1969, when vpw "hijacked the hippies"-
tricking legitimate Christian youths into
becoming his sales force for pfal,
producing explosive growth in New York
and California.
Well, if we sees the WOW program as a sales program a marketing program, it was very successful because from nothing they reached a peak of more than 100,000 people and have work in more tan 30 international countries. For the purpose o marketing is not important if it is a big office or just a small one. You have a sales point and the product run every were. From a corporation point of view they grow a lot, later LCM dooms everything. Because of the bad use of 2 Timothy 3:16.
In 1942 nothing, by 1982 100,000 believers and work in many international countries.
Well, if we sees the WOW program as a sales program a marketing program, it was very successful because from nothing they reached a peak of more than 100,000 people and have work in more tan 30 international countries. For the purpose o marketing is not important if it is a big office or just a small one. You have a sales point and the product run every were. From a corporation point of view they grow a lot, later LCM dooms everything. Because of the bad use of 2 Timothy 3:16.
In 1942 nothing, by 1982 100,000 believers and work in many international countries.
From LCM un to today 100,000 to very few.
is there any verification that there were 100,000 "believers" (which I take to mean people actively tithing, since that's the bottom-line criteria for "believing") or did we just crank 100,000 people through the foundational class?
Well, if we sees the WOW program as a sales program a marketing program, it was very successful because from nothing they reached a peak of more than 100,000 people and have work in more tan 30 international countries. For the purpose o marketing is not important if it is a big office or just a small one. You have a sales point and the product run every were. From a corporation point of view they grow a lot, later LCM dooms everything. Because of the bad use of 2 Timothy 3:16.
In 1942 nothing, by 1982 100,000 believers and work in many international countries.
From LCM un to today 100,000 to very few.
"The Way Tree Is Splintering"
by John P. Juedes.
(from the Christian Research Journal, Fall 1988)
For followers of The Way International and its late founder Victor Paul Wierwille, the past two years have been life shaking. This is a key time for Christians to understand the issues which Wayers and ex-Wayers face and to learn ways to share biblical truth with them. Furthermore, this volatile time gives observers of new religions an unusual modern-day glimpse into how such movements spawn daughter groups.
Many statistics show that The Way International is splintering:
*Enrollment at _The Way College_ of Emporia, Kansas, fell from 350 students to 90. This reflects an enrollment decline in The Way Corps leader training program.
*Attendance at the Rock of Ages festival was down by 3,000 in 1987 (about 12,000 below its peak of 22,000 several years ago). This annual gathering includes teaching, entertainment, tours of facilities, recognition of the past year's W.O.W. ("Way Over the World") Ambassadors (one-year volunteer missionaries), and the commissioning of new Ambassadors.
*The 1987 "Corps week" drew only 2,000 of the 3,500 graduates. All grads of The Way Corps are required to attend this meeting which precedes the Rock of Ages each year, so attendance is normally near one hundred percent.
*Income fell to $10 million (1986-1987), far below the $27.1 million for 1983-84 and the one-time peak fiscal year of $32 million. Reports say The Way's facility in Tinnie, New Mexico, is for sale.
*Ex-followers have held meetings of Wayers in many cities to expose corruption and false doctrine in The Way, resulting in several alternative groups.
Well, if we sees the WOW program as a sales program a marketing program, it was very successful because from nothing they reached a peak of more than 100,000 people and have work in more tan 30 international countries. For the purpose o marketing is not important if it is a big office or just a small one. You have a sales point and the product run every were. From a corporation point of view they grow a lot, later LCM dooms everything. Because of the bad use of 2 Timothy 3:16.
In 1942 nothing, by 1982 100,000 believers and work in many international countries.
From LCM un to today 100,000 to very few.
The "100,000" number was never TRUE.
There were NEVER "100,000" people in twi.
twi INVENTED that number.
(They lied and exaggerated about everything ELSE, so this should be NO SURPRISE.)
Here's how the 100,000 number supposedly was derived,
AND why it's a lie.
Supposedly, 100,000 people EVER signed up for pfal.
That's where that number comes from.
And I don't know if that was invented entirely.
Supposing that's an accurate #, why is the 100,000 figure an exaggeration?
Very simple.
Not everyone who signed up for pfal EVER SHOWED UP FOR SESSION 1.
(When I took it, I think there were 8 people signed up- 7 showed up for Session 1.)
Not everyone who showed up for session one SHOWED UP FOR SESSION 12.
(When I took it, out of the 8 signed up and 7 attending, THREE graduated.)
Not everyone who finished Session 12 stuck around after that-
some people left very shortly thereafter, some stayed a month or more.
The actual membership numbers were much smaller.
Someone said the best measure of attendance in twi at any time was that the
ROA attendance was 50% of innies. So, double the attendance figure of the ROA
(until lcm cancelled the ROA and membership was already low) in any year,
and you have the approximate number of twi members total.
The biggest membership period for twi, IIRC, was 1979 to 1982.
Membership#s never reached 50,000 in any of those years.
Even IF there had been 100,000 over 50 years, that STILL is a PUNY statistic for a
group that supposedly was WORLD-WIDE.
Here's a few numbers for comparison.
At any ONE TIME (not "over 50 years"), here's UNITED STATES (only the USA) statistics for:
Assemblies of God (year 2002 numbers) 2,687,366
National Baptist Convention of America (1987 numbers), 3,500,000
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (2003 numbers) 4,984,925.
If you mean for TWI: as has been mentioned above - it was all profit, no expenses.
If for the individuals: that has to depend on what the individuals' goals were at the outset and how well they went about what they did. It also depended on the Wow Family Coordinator, and some of you have referred to bossy FCs who made their lives a misery.
I mostly enjoyed my WoW year and it was a good fun time, mostly. It was my practicum year assignment so obviously I was coordinating, but all of us were enthusiastic and we had some fun. We also ran several classes, two of our twig went WoW the following year, and other twiggies became deeply committed to God.
We had a lot of good times because we all (not just me, but everyone, including the 7 year old) had a voice in planning our day, our week, our goals, our expectations. Right at the beginning of the year, We decided what we wanted to achieve and set what seemed realistic goals. We all decided what we wanted in the house we would find to live in; the work we wanted to do; other things we wanted to do.
When I am enthusiastic or passionate for something I really throw myself into it, and I think I made it hard for some in my family to keep up with me. My energy level and expectations were higher than theirs and sometimes I didn't take them into account as much as I should have done. For that, I am deeply sorry.
And we did see God move quite spectacularly in some things.
We simply taught people to love God and although we were in the program, it never became TWI-worship. I know for several individuals, whether or not they stuck around, we were able to give some considerable heart-healing.
I think my experience may well have been much better than others because I was in another country, and it was the pilot program so not too much interference.
However, this took place in the early to mid 90s when legalism was significantly increasing.
One of the next-year WoWs won by my Family couldn't stand the legalism of the people he was with the following year and ran away in the middle of the night. He had been such a great guy, too; he'd come such a long way with us - you could see his life really opening up and light shining in his heart.
For those of you who went out WoW 3 or even more times - hey, it can't have been all that bad. It really can't have been.
I went because I wanted to take a year and dedicate it to GOD..Not TWI and I would venture to say with complete confidence that every one of the Nine of us that completed our year together felt the same.
We went to spend a year serving GOD... We viewed running a class as just a happening .. Our focus always was to grow within ourselves.
Did I have a perfect year no but I did have a lot of fun. And i grew in my walk with God. And that year profoundly affected my continued walk with God until today, and I suspect it will continue to do so for the rest of my life.
I did not ever expect the ministry to pay for any part of what I was doing. I chose it I went into the program knowing that what I was doing was something very special...(I am not talking about the class now I am talking about focusing on GOD)
I believe that GOD has honored those who went out and stood on the WOW field. OR went to HQ and worked toward serving in that capacity
I believe that God looks at your heart and knows that those who were there for the most part were there because of their love for God and their desire to do good.
I believe God honors the good that we do. Was everything that VPW taught true No but neither was it all false. IT was stolen.
People chose to go out WOW or Fellow Laborers or Corps or family corps or chose to run twigs or worked at HQ because they really Loved God. Most people were there for the right reasons.
Yes people got hurt Yes VPW was doing much of what he did for his own profit.
But that is true of pretty much any thing you would endeavor to do.. because Man is a sinner and Man is not perfect.
Could you have had it done better if you had gone through another organization.
Maybe yes
but maybe no.
Did it interrupt the path you were on. Perhaps for some, perhaps not.
But please stop judging peoples service to God by your perception of VPW and the board and that band of people
because no matter where you go you will find those things
I hate VPW now, and I am angry at what he did.
But My life as A WOW was because of my commitment to follow God. I will forever view that time as a special time in my life and it will forever be successful for me.
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I would say - without exaggeration - that participating in Mr. Wierwille's sales campaign (uh, going W.O.W.) was the MOST detrimental of programs that I ever participated in. I think, more than anything else I experienced in WayWorld, that it was the point where my life became seriously derailed.
Here we were trying to force ourselves into some sort of spiritual epiphany, all the while we were simply being USED as a slave-labor force to promote the Vicster's business. NO, worse than slave labor. We were PAYING for the privilege of being used.
And there were no epiphanies. I see many struggle to put some sort of positive spin on the experience, but when you actually hear what they went through, it's difficult to see where they got any benefit from it all. For the most part it seems that - at best - we lived through a self-inflicted year of poverty and deprivation, squabbling and compromising, self-denial and sacrifice - and all FOR WHAT?
Gawd, you should have to have a license to be that stupid...
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WordWolf
How successful was the wow program?
It depends upon how one defines "success."
Go back to the "founder." What he wanted, from the beginning, in his own words, was "everyone would listen to me."
He wanted the 10% of people's incomes- people's tithes. ("CSBP" was mandatory.)
He wanted women to have sex with- willingly or not.
He wanted the blind obedience of insiders.
He wanted money, sex, and power, creature comforts.
He wanted to satisfy the lusts of the flesh, the lusts of the eyes, and the pride of life.
=======================
So, the programs were organized around vpw's sins.
The participants in the programs were equipped according to what vpw could get ahold of,
with a view towards what vpw wanted, and what would cost vpw little or nothing.
NOW look at the wow program.
What was the cost-in dollars- of the program?
NOTHING. The wow program TURNED A PROFIT.
The wows were required to SPEND MONEY to join.
What were the expenses of the wow program?
1) Expenses of the program itself: NONE.
wow "families" were set up so that participants would drive themselves to their assignments
in the cars they already had.
2) Expenses of the pfal classes they ran:
classes required a machine to play back classes (Beta or audio)
and the tapes of the classes.
Since classes required the registration income of 7 people MINIMUM,
this, as always, was a considerable PROFIT.
What were the manpower "expenses" of the wow program?
Did the wow program "cost" them people?
No-people who went "wow" were MORE loyal after their year, generally.
(Some people went more than once.)
===========
So, for a "family" of four wows, twi made a profit when they were sent out,
and did NOT pay anything back to keep them out for the year.
(If there were initial problems with housing, local twi-ers helped them
out-of-pocket, and- rarest of all- local leaders did so. Generally, this was
about housing, since wows were expected to get jobs IMMEDIATELY.
Local leaders were known to help them canvas entire cities until they got
jobs. This was not necessarily a bad thing, but should be mentioned.)
At some point, they ran at least 1 pfal class, at a net financial profit to twi.
They probably ran at least a few.
For each class, it was expected at least one person per class (1 for at least 7)
would remain in twi, to tithe, buy twi materials, run pfal classes,
and otherwise remain longtime profit-generators for twi.
The strength of the wow program is that vpw had virtually NO TRAINING involved
in the wow program. The wows were sent out, told to succeed, and expected
to succeed based on their own abilities, skills, and trusting God.
Nothing's wrong with trusting God, of course, but neither that nor their own abilities
had anything to do with the program!
Was the wow program successful?
With no investments into the wows, the wows generated income, and added (many or few)
people to twi, who became regular sources of income.
Some of THOSE people became more wows (as we saw), and a few joined the Corps.
Of those that joined the Corps, they were secretly part of the pool of candidates vpw drew
his victims to rape, molest, coerce, and groom into having sex with him.
================
The wow program was not particularly a success FOR THE PARTICIPANTS.
(There's MANY programs that would have trained them better, and those aren't twi programs.)
The wow program was not particularly a success FOR GOD.
(Putting them through Leonard's class, and following up the way Leonard did, would have been better.)
The wow program was a success FOR VPW, and thus, for TWI.
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cheranne
I should have just sold Tupperware for Christ sakes! It would have been more "spiritual in tune"
and has a lifetime guarentee!!!
But too do it 3 times(what an idiot!)No one should take that class more than once unless they can
afford becoming spiritually NUMB
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skyrider
Okay.............I brought my "marbles" over here to play in your sandbox.
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waysider
Looking at it as a business venture, the WOW program was a wholesale failure
While it's true that many WOW's experienced great personal growth and may have put many people through 'the class", the program, as a whole, failed to achieve it's main objective, which was to bring people into the fold where they would commit to financially supporting the organization on a long term basis. (ABS and endless classes)
The class was like a carrot on a stick, like the CD clubs that offer you 10 CDs for a penny each to get you to commit to a lengthy and costly membership..
That's why the cost of it was all over the charts, $45 this time, $85 the next time, $65, $200, back to $100, etc.
Sure, there was profit in the class itself, but it was short term profit.
Wierwille was looking at the big picture, a cadre of followers who would continue to give and give and give some more.
PFAL was the vehicle to facilitate that. WOW's were the sales force. It wasn't the WOW's themselves who failed, it was the program. Many people took the class and then disappeared. It must have frustrated upper management greatly. The means longer justified the ends.
To those of you who gave of yourselves on the "WOW Field", I salute you.
You should be proud of the effort and dedication you invested in a cause you held dear.
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themex
Around 1995 ,I do not remember the exact year, it was before the last Rock of Ages. LCM thought about “World Over the World Redefined”, and in it he said that the vision that God gave VPW about what he should do to moves God´s Word around the World was completed. That the Rightly divided Word of God is available to anyone hungry and thirsty for righteous.
The WOW open many countries to God´s Word for example here in México a Family of 4 WOW came over and started to teach and run classes, in México exists hundreds of PFAL grads maybe thousands. The problem is that some part is followings the directions of Geare and the other part are now The Way Class grads.
So in the case of México, Venezuela, Argentina they were very successful.
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Oakspear
When I got involved in TWI there was a constant pressure to "go WOW". Mind you, nobody was literally forced to go, but peer pressure is real.
There was several days of "WOW training" during the ROA, but 28 years later I can remember little about what the training entailed.
We were led by a 20 year old interim Corps guy who was woefully unprepared to lead himself, let alone anyone else.
The last few months we were short-timers, looking for it all to end.
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pond
Ok Im certain the mileage may vary.
Yet
I know folks who speak of "going wow" as THE highlight of their life.
maybe because of "the effort and dedication" they felt at the time .
Yet thirty or more years later to recall an event of your teen or young adult years while involved a ministry you got thrown out of or left for good reason and you no longer participate in...
um
seems to be it stopped the growth of many, spiritualy and personaly and professionly.
some left their families never to return home again because of being stuck and etc.. some quit educating their brain or seeking goals altogether besides what twi sold .
I think the wow field worked for some as a good thing but damaged many more for many years .
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Watered Garden
Actually my WOW year got me out from under my family's thumb so that was a good thing!
I lived with the branch coordinator, an interim WC person who quickly made me aware of the bottomless divide between herself, an illustrious member of the most elite group on earth, and me, a humble peon not even an Advanced Class grad. There were so many times when she just would tell me I could not possibly understand something because I wasn't WC. Of course, I was the one who did all of the cooking and cleaning, managed the finances, and was given the privilege of paying out of pocket for any extras. I just thought she was an aberration. She did get in trouble later on, because someone at a meeting of WOW vets at a summer camp ratted her out that everyone was required to call her "Miss Lastname". At least we WOWs who served her were. She got a personal call from VPW telling her in no uncertain terms to knock it off. (Mr. Garden was at the summer camp meeting and said VPW about blew a gasket on that one, yelling at HA and BW about it).
I should have known better, but in retrospect, I'm glad I stayed in so I could meet Mr. Garden and marry him two years later.
We did run a lot of classes that year. I hope we did some good. I remember personally a couple of incidents where I was able to pray for someone, i.e., minister to them, with positive results. (Of course I got REPROVED for that because I hadn't had the Advanced Class and prayed for someone's healing. The fact that the individual's headache left her immediately was apparently irrelevant.)
I think for me personally it was a success because I hung right in there in spite of living with Miss Hoity-Toity, kept my personal commitment to God NOT TWI, and was somewhat better able to handle life itself than before.
WG
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themex
I think that it success should be measured in number of classes, number of new disciples and number of places were the Word get established. New twigs, limbs, branches. Countries open to TWI.
WOWs were very nice people and were comited. So they were successfull in its personal life and in the job.
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copenhagen
I think that it success should be measured in number of classes, number of new disciples and number of places were the Word get established. New twigs, limbs, branches. quote by themex
I ran 3 classes in one year, thats the year the wow program was axed.
Had great vision going out way disciple and ran in to a lady in here 3rd year
of training and ran no classes. Every person that came she ran off. After
one fellowship she expected way corp standards out of them.
In my case they were the smart ones they ran.
It was all a scam from the 1st class to corp.
Its the ever chasing dream.
1st take the class then another.
2nd go wow or wd
3rd go corp.
They keep you chasing a dream of enlightenment but beat you down
the entire way.
They always want your time and money but give nothing in return..
I would measure sucess in a man or womans walk and life by their
fruit. Not to a cult but to God and their family then others.
copenhagen
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Bolshevik
success is measured in WOW burgers.
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OperaBuff
My WOW year taught me that ketchup soup isn't half bad when you're really hungry, and I spent an entire year being really hungry while living and working in a highly advanced and wealthy country.
And don't get me started again about believer coffee.
I sometimes wear my old WOW name tag to Halloween parties.
To this day I cannot abide people who grin all the time.
So all in all, not a success.
But I did find it fascinating reading somewhere here in GSC that one day, all by his widdle self, Disco Craig put down his happy stick long enough to announce that the Word had indeed been spread all over the world. Problem is, I was led to believe that when the Word was over the world, the gathering together could finally happen. Yet I'm still here!
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Zshot
I was a wow in Bossier City, LA. That was the worst year of my life on many different levels.
The rules were stupid!!! What idiot came up with only working part time? :blink:
At best, I learned to tolerate my "wow brother" <_< We did not even try to keep in touch after the year ended.
The last time I received a letter from one of my "wow family" is when I was stationed in Germany and she ("family coordinator") wanted money because she was in the wc. :blink:
Who decided who would be stuck with whom for a year
To be fair, I did learn a few things such as:
1. How not to treat people. in short, do the opposit of how I and others were treated.
2. It sucks not have any money, a car and living with people you would rather not be with.
I could go on but I don't want to bore you guys...
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mstar1
How do you measure success?
I tried to do it faithfully, three folks that I contacted that year took "the class" for whatever thats worth. They never "stood" or hung around.
I was footloose traveling around the country not doing much of anything before that so it gave me some structure and forced me to put up with people I wouldnt normally have anything to do with-
In a lot of ways it was miserable, in some ways at the time it seemed OK. I didnt buy into alot of it, some of it I did, which I have since left.
The only real positive for me that I can think of is thats its probably the first thing in my adult life that I stuck with and saw to the end, even though I wanted to leave just about every day...thats helped me out in the long run.
Its hard to say--
Im not going to jump on the it was completely horrible bandwagon... of the two inseparable friends I had before going Wow, one was shot dead and one is doing life in jail.
Looking back now, I know WOW was in most ways a huge waste of time but as a young person at a crossroads it was stupid but it wasnt the worst thing that I could have chosen
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mchud11
I will make my two cents short: It was misery punctuated by a few good moments that occurred during the weekly meeting of all the WOW's (branch meeting), poverty, more poverty, confusion, the ever present concern about "devil spirits", and the blind "leading" the blind.
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skyrider
Throughout my twi tenure and post-twi tenure, I've pondered and, at times, struggled with the aspect of defining my beginning steps and long journey in twi. Clearly, I was hungering for more truth.....and a "research ministry" sounded so appealing when I signed the green card.
Had I simply taken pfal and resumed my life, I tend to believe that vpw's class would have provided a "base camp" from which I could have kept ascending to the summit. After all, my beginning steps of commitment were to......only take this class, pfal. But......strategically, and cunningly, wierwille had devised a system of programs that would keep neophites, like me, on a treadmill and "paying for the use of their workout program."
Yes, it was a programming. It was subtle and divisive......isolating youth and implanting new terminology, new idealisms, new programs. Like DontWorry.........I agree that the more involvement, the more programs one signed on for, the tares of vic's corruption took root choking individuality and true spiritual identity.
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themex
In 1942 nothing, by 1982 100,000 believers and work in many international countries.
From LCM un to today 100,000 to very few.
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potato
is there any verification that there were 100,000 "believers" (which I take to mean people actively tithing, since that's the bottom-line criteria for "believing") or did we just crank 100,000 people through the foundational class?
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themex
"The Way Tree Is Splintering"
by John P. Juedes.
(from the Christian Research Journal, Fall 1988)
For followers of The Way International and its late founder Victor Paul Wierwille, the past two years have been life shaking. This is a key time for Christians to understand the issues which Wayers and ex-Wayers face and to learn ways to share biblical truth with them. Furthermore, this volatile time gives observers of new religions an unusual modern-day glimpse into how such movements spawn daughter groups.
Many statistics show that The Way International is splintering:
*Enrollment at _The Way College_ of Emporia, Kansas, fell from 350 students to 90. This reflects an enrollment decline in The Way Corps leader training program.
*Attendance at the Rock of Ages festival was down by 3,000 in 1987 (about 12,000 below its peak of 22,000 several years ago). This annual gathering includes teaching, entertainment, tours of facilities, recognition of the past year's W.O.W. ("Way Over the World") Ambassadors (one-year volunteer missionaries), and the commissioning of new Ambassadors.
*The 1987 "Corps week" drew only 2,000 of the 3,500 graduates. All grads of The Way Corps are required to attend this meeting which precedes the Rock of Ages each year, so attendance is normally near one hundred percent.
*Income fell to $10 million (1986-1987), far below the $27.1 million for 1983-84 and the one-time peak fiscal year of $32 million. Reports say The Way's facility in Tinnie, New Mexico, is for sale.
*Ex-followers have held meetings of Wayers in many cities to expose corruption and false doctrine in The Way, resulting in several alternative groups.
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WordWolf
The "100,000" number was never TRUE.
There were NEVER "100,000" people in twi.
twi INVENTED that number.
(They lied and exaggerated about everything ELSE, so this should be NO SURPRISE.)
Here's how the 100,000 number supposedly was derived,
AND why it's a lie.
Supposedly, 100,000 people EVER signed up for pfal.
That's where that number comes from.
And I don't know if that was invented entirely.
Supposing that's an accurate #, why is the 100,000 figure an exaggeration?
Very simple.
Not everyone who signed up for pfal EVER SHOWED UP FOR SESSION 1.
(When I took it, I think there were 8 people signed up- 7 showed up for Session 1.)
Not everyone who showed up for session one SHOWED UP FOR SESSION 12.
(When I took it, out of the 8 signed up and 7 attending, THREE graduated.)
Not everyone who finished Session 12 stuck around after that-
some people left very shortly thereafter, some stayed a month or more.
The actual membership numbers were much smaller.
Someone said the best measure of attendance in twi at any time was that the
ROA attendance was 50% of innies. So, double the attendance figure of the ROA
(until lcm cancelled the ROA and membership was already low) in any year,
and you have the approximate number of twi members total.
The biggest membership period for twi, IIRC, was 1979 to 1982.
Membership#s never reached 50,000 in any of those years.
Even IF there had been 100,000 over 50 years, that STILL is a PUNY statistic for a
group that supposedly was WORLD-WIDE.
Here's a few numbers for comparison.
At any ONE TIME (not "over 50 years"), here's UNITED STATES (only the USA) statistics for:
Assemblies of God (year 2002 numbers) 2,687,366
National Baptist Convention of America (1987 numbers), 3,500,000
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (2003 numbers) 4,984,925.
Mormon/LDS church (2004 numbers) 5,588,177
United Methodist Church (2002 numbers) 8,251,042.
Southern Baptist Convention (2003 numbers) , 16,400,000
Roman Catholic Church (2002 numbers) 66,407,105
http://www.adherents.com/rel_USA.html
If you want to look at international numbers, twi is a drop in a bucket.
less than 50,000 at any time, less than 100,000 over 50 years,
and lots of groups have over 1 million (1,000,000) members AT ONCE.
http://www.adherents.com/adh_rb.html
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Twinky
Success? For whom?
If you mean for TWI: as has been mentioned above - it was all profit, no expenses.
If for the individuals: that has to depend on what the individuals' goals were at the outset and how well they went about what they did. It also depended on the Wow Family Coordinator, and some of you have referred to bossy FCs who made their lives a misery.
I mostly enjoyed my WoW year and it was a good fun time, mostly. It was my practicum year assignment so obviously I was coordinating, but all of us were enthusiastic and we had some fun. We also ran several classes, two of our twig went WoW the following year, and other twiggies became deeply committed to God.
We had a lot of good times because we all (not just me, but everyone, including the 7 year old) had a voice in planning our day, our week, our goals, our expectations. Right at the beginning of the year, We decided what we wanted to achieve and set what seemed realistic goals. We all decided what we wanted in the house we would find to live in; the work we wanted to do; other things we wanted to do.
When I am enthusiastic or passionate for something I really throw myself into it, and I think I made it hard for some in my family to keep up with me. My energy level and expectations were higher than theirs and sometimes I didn't take them into account as much as I should have done. For that, I am deeply sorry.
And we did see God move quite spectacularly in some things.
We simply taught people to love God and although we were in the program, it never became TWI-worship. I know for several individuals, whether or not they stuck around, we were able to give some considerable heart-healing.
I think my experience may well have been much better than others because I was in another country, and it was the pilot program so not too much interference.
However, this took place in the early to mid 90s when legalism was significantly increasing.
One of the next-year WoWs won by my Family couldn't stand the legalism of the people he was with the following year and ran away in the middle of the night. He had been such a great guy, too; he'd come such a long way with us - you could see his life really opening up and light shining in his heart.
For those of you who went out WoW 3 or even more times - hey, it can't have been all that bad. It really can't have been.
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leafytwiglet
I agree with Twinky.
I feel my W.O.W. year was successful for me.
Maybe I was lucky and got a good FC and BC and LC
but when I went WOW I went not to run classes
I went because I wanted to take a year and dedicate it to GOD..Not TWI and I would venture to say with complete confidence that every one of the Nine of us that completed our year together felt the same.
We went to spend a year serving GOD... We viewed running a class as just a happening .. Our focus always was to grow within ourselves.
Did I have a perfect year no but I did have a lot of fun. And i grew in my walk with God. And that year profoundly affected my continued walk with God until today, and I suspect it will continue to do so for the rest of my life.
I did not ever expect the ministry to pay for any part of what I was doing. I chose it I went into the program knowing that what I was doing was something very special...(I am not talking about the class now I am talking about focusing on GOD)
I believe that GOD has honored those who went out and stood on the WOW field. OR went to HQ and worked toward serving in that capacity
I believe that God looks at your heart and knows that those who were there for the most part were there because of their love for God and their desire to do good.
I believe God honors the good that we do. Was everything that VPW taught true No but neither was it all false. IT was stolen.
People chose to go out WOW or Fellow Laborers or Corps or family corps or chose to run twigs or worked at HQ because they really Loved God. Most people were there for the right reasons.
Yes people got hurt Yes VPW was doing much of what he did for his own profit.
But that is true of pretty much any thing you would endeavor to do.. because Man is a sinner and Man is not perfect.
Could you have had it done better if you had gone through another organization.
Maybe yes
but maybe no.
Did it interrupt the path you were on. Perhaps for some, perhaps not.
But please stop judging peoples service to God by your perception of VPW and the board and that band of people
because no matter where you go you will find those things
I hate VPW now, and I am angry at what he did.
But My life as A WOW was because of my commitment to follow God. I will forever view that time as a special time in my life and it will forever be successful for me.
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potato
some simple math might help, too.
faithful followers tithe 10%, minimum. 32m divided by 100k followers means each tithe comes from an annual income of $3,200 (if I did my math right).
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