I don't think it was even Word over Ohio. Or Indiana. Or Emporia, KS. Think how many people despised VPW in New Knoxville and surrounding areas. He might say they'd had the offer of "the Word" and rejected it ... not true. They rejected him, VPW - not Christ, not God, not the church. In all those states, no doubt you'll find plenty of people who love and respect the Living Word, Jesus Christ.
I don't think it was even Word over Ohio. Or Indiana. Or Emporia, KS. Think how many people despised VPW in New Knoxville and surrounding areas. He might say they'd had the offer of "the Word" and rejected it ... not true. They rejected him, VPW - not Christ, not God, not the church. In all those states, no doubt you'll find plenty of people who love and respect the Living Word, Jesus Christ.
When I first became involved with TWI I viewed "Word Over the World" as merely a slogan, a process, more than a plan. Besides, it was not very clearly defined. I have a vague memory that it was supposed to be a TWI fellowship in every community in the world, but that might have been after-twig talk rather than anything promulgated centrally. Even within the U.S., even at its peak, TWI was a long way from being as ubiquitous as, say, the Catholic Church, which had a presence virtually everywhere (evenly the more heavily Protestant areas seemed to have a Catholic Church close by)
The most concentrated that I recall was the late seventies, early eighties. Long Island had two branches in each of the four counties (three at one time in Queens) plus a Spanish language branch. There was a fellowship within short driving distance for anyone on the island, but it was still far from being "over" Long Island, in the sense that every person who lived there knew about it. If you happened to live in a community where a twig was located, you might have gotten witnessed to...maybe. Nebraska, where I moved to as a WOW had branches in the two largest cities and twigs anchored by WOWs and Wowvets in some of the small to medium sized towns. But everything in between was pretty much TWI-free. And usually there was nothing established after the WOWs or WOWvets left
This is the best that TWI had done at that point in its home country. It was natural to see "Word Over the World" as something that would take generations to achieve, if at all.
Toward the end of Martindale's reign, he announced, seemingly out of the blue, one Sunday that "the Word was over the world". Despite the fact that 4/5 of membership and leadership had left several years earlier and, if anything, TWI was shrinking, rather than expanding (the ironically named "Rise and Expansion of the Christian Church" came out around this time). He explained away the inconvenient fact that many coutries, especially in Asia, lacked any TWI presence by saying that one little fellowship in Taiwan (or maybe it was Hoing Kong) indicated how "the Word" was available to all of Asia; a couple of fellowships in France & Blegium, populated entirely by African immigrants, was the Word Over Europe...etc.
Delusional, at minimum. Listening to the leadership try to back up this crazy statement at the local level was entertaining
When I first became involved with TWI I viewed "Word Over the World" as merely a slogan, a process, more than a plan. Besides, it was not very clearly defined. I have a vague memory that it was supposed to be a TWI fellowship in every community in the world, but that might have been after-twig talk rather than anything promulgated centrally. Even within the U.S., even at its peak, TWI was a long way from being as ubiquitous as, say, the Catholic Church, which had a presence virtually everywhere (evenly the more heavily Protestant areas seemed to have a Catholic Church close by)
The most concentrated that I recall was the late seventies, early eighties. Long Island had two branches in each of the four counties (three at one time in Queens) plus a Spanish language branch. There was a fellowship within short driving distance for anyone on the island, but it was still far from being "over" Long Island, in the sense that every person who lived there knew about it. If you happened to live in a community where a twig was located, you might have gotten witnessed to...maybe. Nebraska, where I moved to as a WOW had branches in the two largest cities and twigs anchored by WOWs and Wowvets in some of the small to medium sized towns. But everything in between was pretty much TWI-free. And usually there was nothing established after the WOWs or WOWvets left
This is the best that TWI had done at that point in its home country. It was natural to see "Word Over the World" as something that would take generations to achieve, if at all.
Toward the end of Martindale's reign, he announced, seemingly out of the blue, one Sunday that "the Word was over the world". Despite the fact that 4/5 of membership and leadership had left several years earlier and, if anything, TWI was shrinking, rather than expanding (the ironically named "Rise and Expansion of the Christian Church" came out around this time). He explained away the inconvenient fact that many coutries, especially in Asia, lacked any TWI presence by saying that one little fellowship in Taiwan (or maybe it was Hoing Kong) indicated how "the Word" was available to all of Asia; a couple of fellowships in France & Blegium, populated entirely by African immigrants, was the Word Over Europe...etc.
Delusional, at minimum. Listening to the leadership try to back up this crazy statement at the local level was entertaining
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Steve Lortz
That and marketing... it wasn't really Word Over the World, it was PFAL Over the World... :(
Love,
Steve
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Twinky
I don't think it was even Word over Ohio. Or Indiana. Or Emporia, KS. Think how many people despised VPW in New Knoxville and surrounding areas. He might say they'd had the offer of "the Word" and rejected it ... not true. They rejected him, VPW - not Christ, not God, not the church. In all those states, no doubt you'll find plenty of people who love and respect the Living Word, Jesus Christ.
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Allan
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Rocky
That would be the white + sign in the green circle in the lower right corner of the comment.
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Oakspear
When I first became involved with TWI I viewed "Word Over the World" as merely a slogan, a process, more than a plan. Besides, it was not very clearly defined. I have a vague memory that it was supposed to be a TWI fellowship in every community in the world, but that might have been after-twig talk rather than anything promulgated centrally. Even within the U.S., even at its peak, TWI was a long way from being as ubiquitous as, say, the Catholic Church, which had a presence virtually everywhere (evenly the more heavily Protestant areas seemed to have a Catholic Church close by)
The most concentrated that I recall was the late seventies, early eighties. Long Island had two branches in each of the four counties (three at one time in Queens) plus a Spanish language branch. There was a fellowship within short driving distance for anyone on the island, but it was still far from being "over" Long Island, in the sense that every person who lived there knew about it. If you happened to live in a community where a twig was located, you might have gotten witnessed to...maybe. Nebraska, where I moved to as a WOW had branches in the two largest cities and twigs anchored by WOWs and Wowvets in some of the small to medium sized towns. But everything in between was pretty much TWI-free. And usually there was nothing established after the WOWs or WOWvets left
This is the best that TWI had done at that point in its home country. It was natural to see "Word Over the World" as something that would take generations to achieve, if at all.
Toward the end of Martindale's reign, he announced, seemingly out of the blue, one Sunday that "the Word was over the world". Despite the fact that 4/5 of membership and leadership had left several years earlier and, if anything, TWI was shrinking, rather than expanding (the ironically named "Rise and Expansion of the Christian Church" came out around this time). He explained away the inconvenient fact that many coutries, especially in Asia, lacked any TWI presence by saying that one little fellowship in Taiwan (or maybe it was Hoing Kong) indicated how "the Word" was available to all of Asia; a couple of fellowships in France & Blegium, populated entirely by African immigrants, was the Word Over Europe...etc.
Delusional, at minimum. Listening to the leadership try to back up this crazy statement at the local level was entertaining
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Rocky
And quite narcissistic.
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