alright! a round of stretched coffee for everyone - Waysider is buying!
Cool! I have an entire stack of styrofoam cups I salvaged from the trash! One has a lipstick smudge that won't come off so be sure to give that to one of the ladies so she thinks the smudge is hers. Yee haaa ... Your abs at work?!!!
Cool! I have an entire stack of styrofoam cups I salvaged from the trash! One has a lipstick smudge that won't come off so be sure to give that to one of the ladies so she thinks the smudge is hers. Yee haaa ... Your abs at work?!!!
Wow wee wow – see how fast we can get a class together when our heads are in the wrong kind of spazzed out. Which reminds me – after studentsregurgitategraduate and we run the follow-up session on the unforgiveable sin/wrong seed – let’s do it as an all-nighter and include the Omen quintet (not the jazz band but the horror film franchise)
let’s do it as an all-nighter and include the Omen quintet (not the jazz band but the horror film franchise
(Love that movie)
Dude...that's not way productions...we can ONLY watch Dancing with the...oops I mean Athletes of the Spirit...nothing secular...u might need to go through your corps training again...
On another note I would literally feed my right arm to wild dogs or at the very least sharks with lasers strapped on their backs before going inresi..anything ever again..left handed anyway...
On another note I would literally feed my right arm to wild dogs or at the very least sharks with lasers strapped on their backs before going inresi..anything ever again..left handed anyway...
= == = = = =
I’ll tell you what – if I had a dollar for every time I fell asleep reading Christians Should Be Prosperous, I would buy you a bionic arm replacement so you could play death metal while you’re in-residence again
Edited by T-Bone the 6 million dollar editor marked down to a buck three eighty
I’ll tell you what – if I had a dollar for every time I fell asleep reading Christians Should Be Prosperous, I would buy you a bionic arm replacement so you could play death metal while you’re in-residence again
DEAL!! I would do anything to be able to strum like that. I bet Lee Majors had to really practice to get that right...
Expenses for running a class had to be handled by the local believers running the class, including any refreshments served at break. Most of us were young, financially challenged individuals. VPW's brother, "Uncle" Harry, suggested money could be saved by combining a bit of fresh coffee with the previous day's grounds and sprinkling the mixture with a touch of salt. It was called "stretching". Another money saving tip often used was to wash the disposable Styrofoam cups and reuse them. Teeth marks and lipstick stains often made this a challenging task.
VPW's brother, "Uncle" Harry, suggested money could be saved by combining a bit of fresh coffee with the previous day's grounds and sprinkling the mixture with a touch of salt.
Good grief, thats just gross...wtf was the salt for? I had no idea that was an official thing...
The salt is supposed to cut some of the bitterness. Back then, we used those funky old aluminum perculators that give coffee a burnt taste.
Wasnt Kernel Sanders a millionaire? Cheap b@$turd couldnt kick in? Id rather have that southern version of austerity from when they cut coffee with Chickory cause it was hard to come by during the civil war. Community Coffee is a staple in Louisiana.
Expenses for running a class had to be handled by the local believers running the class, including any refreshments served at break. Most of us were young, financially challenged individuals. VPW's brother, "Uncle" Harry, suggested money could be saved by combining a bit of fresh coffee with the previous day's grounds and sprinkling the mixture with a touch of salt. It was called "stretching". Another money saving tip often used was to wash the disposable Styrofoam cups and reuse them. Teeth marks and lipstick stains often made this a challenging task.
What a way to demonstrate our "prosperity".
Thanks, Waysider.
Uncle Harry must not have been very fluent in SIT, because his plan was obviously not spiritually inspired. Who was his teacher? Oh, wait...
What a way to manifest the promise of abundance.
Coffee prices have remained rather stable with minor fluctuations over the past 50 years. All that abundant sharing and not a tiny fraction of it could be spent on coffee? Expenses couldn't be deducted from ABS? Pennies. PENNIES! What happened to being and having the best? Not better. BEST.
Cult coffee. Stretched coffee is the four crucified of hospitality.
They had all kinds of tricks for manifesting "prosperity" that were really nothing more than vestiges of depression-era frugality. (Darning socks, saving cloth scraps and so on.
Wasnt Kernel Sanders a millionaire? Cheap b@$turd couldnt kick in? Id rather have that southern version of austerity from when they cut coffee with Chickory cause it was hard to come by during the civil war. Community Coffee is a staple in Louisiana.
I still drink Community Coffee, but not the blend with chicory - I like caffeine too much.
Oh, that was strictly forbidden. You also weren't allowed to list it as part of your individual ABS. Even the stamps used to send in the weekly ABS and forms had to come out of personal pocket money, along with the expense of buying a money order.
Oh, that was strictly forbidden. You also weren't allowed to list it as part of your individual ABS. Even the stamps used to send in the weekly ABS and forms had to come out of personal pocket money, along with the expense of buying a money order.
Holy shonta! ROTFLMAO! Strictly forbidden? By whom? Oh, wait, let me guess: leadership.
Oh, that was strictly forbidden. You also weren't allowed to list it as part of your individual ABS. Even the stamps used to send in the weekly ABS and forms had to come out of personal pocket money, along with the expense of buying a money order.
It just occurred to me you couldn't even deduct the expenses or the ABS on your taxes, because TWI didn't get the religious tax exempt status until c. 1980.
It just occurred to me you couldn't even deduct the expenses or the ABS on your taxes, because TWI didn't get the religious tax exempt status until c. 1980.
Right? I'm probably off on the date.
You don't really think any of us made enough money to file long form, do you?
Holy shonta! ROTFLMAO! Strictly forbidden? By whom? Oh, wait, let me guess: leadership.
What a cult.
Oh...yeah...ABS was to be sent to HQ unmolested...lol. it was supposed to be distributed back to the field as there was need but it's a one way flow to HQ.
Oh...yeah...ABS was to be sent to HQ unmolested...lol. it was supposed to be distributed back to the field as there was need but it's a one way flow to HQ.
Unmolested. How ironic.
Distributed back to the field? The battlefield? Right. The spiritual battlefield of the pseudo-Christian jihad.
Sorry, I can barley see through the tears of laughter, but I know this abusive indoctrination is real. It's serious, and I'm grateful you've seen through the veil.
From all the stories I've read here, it appears HQ NEVER did this. In fact, it's EXTREMELY costly to go WOW, even today - a very expensive endeavor for any fresh fish "ambassador."
What a scam. What a cult. What a bag of bullshonta.
I was involved with the Way International for 12 years – that includes participation in the WOW missionary program and the way corps leadership training program. Now when I reflect on the operational ethics of TWI, I realize there was more of a concern over getting as much money as we could out of people’s wallets rather than how we obtained it.
As leaders we were to promote this idea of spiritual reciprocity- the law of giving and receiving…the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit.
We encourage people to give to the ministry so there is a free-flowing interchange of financial / physical blessings and spiritual blessings. We stipulated there was a minimum required donation to take PFAL – “donation” as if it were an act of charity. One of the collaterals with the materials of the PFAL was Christians Should Be Prosperous. In it wierwille pushes the idea we should give above the 10% tithe.
The tithing system described in the Bible was designed specifically to meet the needs of the religious, economic and political system of ancient Israel.
wierwille’s argument was that as Christians, no longer under the law of the Old Testament, we should go above the tithe and thereby reap even greater blessings than Old Testament believers – his text to support that claim was Malachi 3:10 “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it”. ..
If wierwille's claims were true – then followers of TWI giving more than 10% should have been the healthiest and wealthiest people around bar none...but alas such was not the case…and to be honest – – if people are motivated to be recompensed for giving – then it’s not really giving…it’s trading…it’s giving to get something in return.
In the years leading up to going in the way corps, as I got more and more involved with the ministry, I often found myself envious of other Way-believers who were not as committed as I was. They seemed to have it all – families that actually took fun vacations, nice cars, nice homes, and good jobs.
I was oblivious to certain values like dedication to family, being financially wise and responsible, reaping the fruits of one’s own labor and finding a sense of fulfilment in a career. I did not realize how detrimental it was to have everything about my life in orbit around The Way Ministry.
I didn't think of myself as a materialistic person – but it's hard not to get caught up in it when you work for a money-grubbing ministry that is big on the prosperity doctrine. ...and we were all considered asoft-sell sales force anyway, peddling classes on the Bible in a warm market – friends, relatives, neighbors, work associates, etc.
I was a reluctant salesman – partly because I wasn't completely sold on it myself. It's difficult to be enthused about promoting the more than abundant life as defined by TWI when all too often my wife and I were just barely getting by ourselves - working our secular jobs, faithfully giving more than 10 percent of our income – sometimes that even meant skimping on cost-of-living expenses.
And besides that, we were also sponsoring people in the way corps program, running fellowships, classes, advances, coffee houses, and getting around town by driving clunkers (vehicles in bad condition because we were usually too financially strapped to do something about it) ...you name it – we did it – and without the financial support of TWI.
TWI charged for their classes – but these were not live teachings – all classes were on audio or video cassette (the PFAL class for instance was recorded in 1967).
TWIspread their skewed doctrine on the cheap. There's the folks who got people signed up for classes (sometimes even providing rides to new students to ensure their attendance), there's usually a crew to handle setup, classes are usually run in someone's home or apartment, some folks provided refreshments and coffee for breaks (long classes like PFAL were over 36 hours) were typically run at nights and/or weekends, and someone loaned their own audio or video equipment to play the class cassettes – none of that was ever covered by TWI.
Number 114 of why PFAL sucks – it’s an “introductory offer” to be a part of an elaborate mooching system.
Distributed back to the field? The battlefield? Right. The spiritual battlefield of the pseudo-Christian jihad.
Sorry, I can barley see through the tears of laughter, but I know this abusive indoctrination is real. It's serious, and I'm grateful you've seen through the veil.
From all the stories I've read here, it appears HQ NEVER did this. In fact, it's EXTREMELY costly to go WOW, even today - a very expensive endeavor for any fresh fish "ambassador."
What a scam. What a cult. What a bag of bullshonta.
Man...you have no idea (or maybe you do...lol) how bad the rip off goes for field way corp. They work a secular job then running a branch or small limb is a time consuming endeavor. They have to pony up their own gas money usually for driving all over the place...then there's all the little small change items that come out their pocket from meetings, classes, etc. Most field way corps won't even bother asking for petty cash because they seldom get it. The conversation might go like this ..I'm quoting an actual conversation here too from an old friend who was giving me an ear full about this crap. Branch guy to limb guy "I wanted to see if I can get $$ for gas from petty cash...it would really help." Limb guy to branch guy "oh yeah..well I can't do that but I understand. I just consider my travel expenses abundant sharing". That's the mindset.
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penworks
VPW's statement that the Bible interprets itself is nonsense. The act of interpretation of any text is done by the reader of the text. People interpret what they read. They are the ones who give it me
waysider
And in doing so, he was violating his own "To Whom it is Written" rule.
Charity
What I see in what you wrote Chockfull is that we were meant to have a relationship with the class - you know the one that replaced our relationship with Christ. It was our lord in that it had power,
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So_crates
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T-Bone
Thanks So_crates!
I've never heard that tune. I love her deep voice...don't have anything of hers...I'm going to have to get an album of hers
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OldSkool
Cool! I have an entire stack of styrofoam cups I salvaged from the trash! One has a lipstick smudge that won't come off so be sure to give that to one of the ladies so she thinks the smudge is hers. Yee haaa ... Your abs at work?!!!
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T-Bone
Wow wee wow – see how fast we can get a class together when our heads are in the wrong kind of spazzed out. Which reminds me – after students
)
regurgitategraduate and we run the follow-up session on the unforgiveable sin/wrong seed – let’s do it as an all-nighter and include the Omen quintet (not the jazz band but the horror film franchiseLink to comment
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OldSkool
(Love that movie)
Dude...that's not way productions...we can ONLY watch Dancing with the...oops I mean Athletes of the Spirit...nothing secular...u might need to go through your corps training again...
On another note I would literally feed my right arm to wild dogs or at the very least sharks with lasers strapped on their backs before going inresi..anything ever again..left handed anyway...
Edited by OldSkoolLink to comment
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T-Bone
= == = = = =
I’ll tell you what – if I had a dollar for every time I fell asleep reading Christians Should Be Prosperous, I would buy you a bionic arm replacement so you could play death metal while you’re in-residence again
Edited by T-Bonethe 6 million dollar editor marked down to a buck three eighty
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Nathan_Jr
I’ve been meaning to ask this for quite a while:
WITAF is stretched coffee?
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OldSkool
DEAL!! I would do anything to be able to strum like that. I bet Lee Majors had to really practice to get that right...
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waysider
Expenses for running a class had to be handled by the local believers running the class, including any refreshments served at break. Most of us were young, financially challenged individuals. VPW's brother, "Uncle" Harry, suggested money could be saved by combining a bit of fresh coffee with the previous day's grounds and sprinkling the mixture with a touch of salt. It was called "stretching". Another money saving tip often used was to wash the disposable Styrofoam cups and reuse them. Teeth marks and lipstick stains often made this a challenging task.
What a way to demonstrate our "prosperity".
Edited by waysiderword
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OldSkool
Good grief, thats just gross...wtf was the salt for? I had no idea that was an official thing...
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waysider
The salt is supposed to cut some of the bitterness. Back then, we used those funky old aluminum perculators that give coffee a burnt taste.
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OldSkool
Wasnt Kernel Sanders a millionaire? Cheap b@$turd couldnt kick in? Id rather have that southern version of austerity from when they cut coffee with Chickory cause it was hard to come by during the civil war. Community Coffee is a staple in Louisiana.
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Nathan_Jr
Thanks, Waysider.
Uncle Harry must not have been very fluent in SIT, because his plan was obviously not spiritually inspired. Who was his teacher? Oh, wait...
What a way to manifest the promise of abundance.
Coffee prices have remained rather stable with minor fluctuations over the past 50 years. All that abundant sharing and not a tiny fraction of it could be spent on coffee? Expenses couldn't be deducted from ABS? Pennies. PENNIES! What happened to being and having the best? Not better. BEST.
Cult coffee. Stretched coffee is the four crucified of hospitality.
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waysider
They had all kinds of tricks for manifesting "prosperity" that were really nothing more than vestiges of depression-era frugality. (Darning socks, saving cloth scraps and so on.
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Nathan_Jr
I still drink Community Coffee, but not the blend with chicory - I like caffeine too much.
Apparently, the salt is legit.
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waysider
Oh, that was strictly forbidden. You also weren't allowed to list it as part of your individual ABS. Even the stamps used to send in the weekly ABS and forms had to come out of personal pocket money, along with the expense of buying a money order.
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Nathan_Jr
Holy shonta! ROTFLMAO! Strictly forbidden? By whom? Oh, wait, let me guess: leadership.
What a cult.
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Nathan_Jr
It just occurred to me you couldn't even deduct the expenses or the ABS on your taxes, because TWI didn't get the religious tax exempt status until c. 1980.
Right? I'm probably off on the date.
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waysider
You don't really think any of us made enough money to file long form, do you?
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Nathan_Jr
Right. Sorry. I realized this as soon as I hit submit.
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OldSkool
Oh...yeah...ABS was to be sent to HQ unmolested...lol. it was supposed to be distributed back to the field as there was need but it's a one way flow to HQ.
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Nathan_Jr
Unmolested. How ironic.
Distributed back to the field? The battlefield? Right. The spiritual battlefield of the pseudo-Christian jihad.
Sorry, I can barley see through the tears of laughter, but I know this abusive indoctrination is real. It's serious, and I'm grateful you've seen through the veil.
From all the stories I've read here, it appears HQ NEVER did this. In fact, it's EXTREMELY costly to go WOW, even today - a very expensive endeavor for any fresh fish "ambassador."
What a scam. What a cult. What a bag of bullshonta.
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T-Bone
114. PFAL is part of an elaborate mooching system
I was involved with the Way International for 12 years – that includes participation in the WOW missionary program and the way corps leadership training program. Now when I reflect on the operational ethics of TWI, I realize there was more of a concern over getting as much money as we could out of people’s wallets rather than how we obtained it.
As leaders we were to promote this idea of spiritual reciprocity - the law of giving and receiving…the practice of exchanging things with others for mutual benefit.
We encourage people to give to the ministry so there is a free-flowing interchange of financial / physical blessings and spiritual blessings. We stipulated there was a minimum required donation to take PFAL – “donation” as if it were an act of charity. One of the collaterals with the materials of the PFAL was Christians Should Be Prosperous. In it wierwille pushes the idea we should give above the 10% tithe.
The tithing system described in the Bible was designed specifically to meet the needs of the religious, economic and political system of ancient Israel.
wierwille’s argument was that as Christians, no longer under the law of the Old Testament, we should go above the tithe and thereby reap even greater blessings than Old Testament believers – his text to support that claim was Malachi 3:10 “Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the Lord of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it”. ..
If wierwille's claims were true – then followers of TWI giving more than 10% should have been the healthiest and wealthiest people around bar none...but alas such was not the case…and to be honest – – if people are motivated to be recompensed for giving – then it’s not really giving…it’s trading…it’s giving to get something in return.
In the years leading up to going in the way corps, as I got more and more involved with the ministry, I often found myself envious of other Way-believers who were not as committed as I was. They seemed to have it all – families that actually took fun vacations, nice cars, nice homes, and good jobs.
I was oblivious to certain values like dedication to family, being financially wise and responsible, reaping the fruits of one’s own labor and finding a sense of fulfilment in a career. I did not realize how detrimental it was to have everything about my life in orbit around The Way Ministry.
I didn't think of myself as a materialistic person – but it's hard not to get caught up in it when you work for a money-grubbing ministry that is big on the prosperity doctrine. ...and we were all considered a soft-sell sales force anyway, peddling classes on the Bible in a warm market – friends, relatives, neighbors, work associates, etc.
I was a reluctant salesman – partly because I wasn't completely sold on it myself. It's difficult to be enthused about promoting the more than abundant life as defined by TWI when all too often my wife and I were just barely getting by ourselves - working our secular jobs, faithfully giving more than 10 percent of our income – sometimes that even meant skimping on cost-of-living expenses.
And besides that, we were also sponsoring people in the way corps program, running fellowships, classes, advances, coffee houses, and getting around town by driving clunkers (vehicles in bad condition because we were usually too financially strapped to do something about it) ...you name it – we did it – and without the financial support of TWI.
TWI charged for their classes – but these were not live teachings – all classes were on audio or video cassette (the PFAL class for instance was recorded in 1967).
TWI spread their skewed doctrine on the cheap. There's the folks who got people signed up for classes (sometimes even providing rides to new students to ensure their attendance), there's usually a crew to handle setup, classes are usually run in someone's home or apartment, some folks provided refreshments and coffee for breaks (long classes like PFAL were over 36 hours) were typically run at nights and/or weekends, and someone loaned their own audio or video equipment to play the class cassettes – none of that was ever covered by TWI.
Number 114 of why PFAL sucks – it’s an “introductory offer” to be a part of an elaborate mooching system.
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OldSkool
Man...you have no idea (or maybe you do...lol) how bad the rip off goes for field way corp. They work a secular job then running a branch or small limb is a time consuming endeavor. They have to pony up their own gas money usually for driving all over the place...then there's all the little small change items that come out their pocket from meetings, classes, etc. Most field way corps won't even bother asking for petty cash because they seldom get it. The conversation might go like this ..I'm quoting an actual conversation here too from an old friend who was giving me an ear full about this crap. Branch guy to limb guy "I wanted to see if I can get $$ for gas from petty cash...it would really help." Limb guy to branch guy "oh yeah..well I can't do that but I understand. I just consider my travel expenses abundant sharing". That's the mindset.
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