Leaderboard

Remember this? "The greatest leader is the greatest servant." VPW and LCM used to say they were "serving" us by teaching us - all those hours they spent "researching" so as to come up with a teaching on Sunday and for Corps meetings. Therefore, we should "serve" them by tending to those things that they didn't have time to do. In "normal" life, how many church ministers need to have heaps of unpaid people cleaning their homes, tending their gardens, painting their property, cooking their food, etc? None that I know of! And if they did have someone to do these things, they'd be sure to pay them. Likewise, in "normal" life, how many academics - uni professors, heads of depts, and the like - need to have heaps of unpaid people (= the very students they are teaching) cleaning their homes, tending their gardens, painting their property, cooking their food, etc? Again, none that I know of! Oh wait. I know one retired professor did have one student who occasionally looked after his garden, when his studies didn't get in the way - and the prof paid the student very well for doing so, too.

[quote']"...if Mother Teresa had graduated from the Corps program, for example, do you think that either VPW, or Craig, would "Ordain" her as a Reverend or a Pastor in the Ministry? Or, do you think these guys would refuse to Ordain her because she couldn't successfully lead and manage a Fellowship?...."[/quote] ======================================== ======================================== ======================================== They might do any of a number of things. Then again, as people qualified to judge who should be ordained, both fell FAR short of the mark, and I would sooner trust a roll of the dice to determine suitability than either of them. vpw might have ordained her- if he thought she was hot and thought he could get into her pants that way. Knowing what we know of her, I suspect he would not ordain her, because he would think of her as neither "someone he could have sex with" nor "someone who could sell the classes and twi experience." I know lcm got all his "training" from vpw, so I'd suspect many of the same answers from him, but I'd be less certain of what he'd do, especially since he became erratic during the 1990s. Why should we care if either of them would think someone was suitable for ordination or not?

After reading the passage outlined in 1 Corinthians 12:12-27 (drawing an analogy between parts of the body to roles of importance in a church organization), if Mother Teresa had graduated from the Corps program, for example, do you think that either VPW, or Craig, would "Ordain" her as a Reverend or a Pastor in the Ministry? Or, do you think these guys would refuse to Ordain her because she couldn't successfully lead and manage a Fellowship? Personally, I would Ordain Mother T 'in a New York minute' because I know for a fact how important it is to have a fair amount of Servants (especially people who enjoy it and are good at it), as well as good quality Leaders serving as Pastor or Board of Trustees/Elders/Deacons to help manage and push the church in the right direction. I know of a Baptist church near me, which completely dissolved recently because its Pastor, who had the ability to deliver a Prayer or a Sermon like William F. Buckley Jr., couldn't really delegate responsibility or do anything else. As with VPW and Craig, this guy loved to "hit on" the lady-folk in the congregation, but since this church was literally floundering with about a dozen members for its nearly two decade existence, there never was a whole heck of a lot of "hot chicks" to pick from. Come to think of it, maybe it's a blessing in disguise that this church I'm referring to went, "belly up". But as was mentioned earlier on this thread, Humility might be the greatest characteristic of all when you're talking about someone you really want Leading a Church -- even over Knowledge of the Bible or the savvy to delegate others on a given task. Humility made a Church Leader like the late Billy Graham truly one of a kind. I'm sure if, for example, there was ever any hint of infidelity in Graham's marriage, the mainstream media would've exposed that a heck of a lot quicker than it did with either Jim Bakker or Jimmy Swaggart. Graham had too much respect and reverence not only to God, but for the woman he was married to, to allow himself to engage in something like that. Humility is also a characteristic you can't really teach or study at a Ministry college, or even Corps training -- you either got it or you don't. Getting back to Mother Teresa, can you imagine either: VPW, or Craig, or Chris G33R, or even JAL comforting, embracing or giving some semblance of hope to someone suffering from Leprosy or AIDS? In all fairness to our great Ministry leaders of the past, I too would probably have reservations -- unless it was a close relative of mine -- to physically embrace and comfort someone with a terminal illness like that. The more I think about, it seems like our salvation for Eternal Life is more contingent on what's in our Hearts, as opposed to what's in our Heads. I don't know. Bottom Line: If an individual lacks Humility, they really ought to consider another endeavor in life other than trying to lead a Church. That's my rant of the day, at least till tomorrow.

As a representative of an offshoot, JAL epitomizes the logical output of TWI – a “ministry” which wierwille himself derived – like some parasitic insect…by plagiarizing, hijacking, and using basic-megalomaniac-bossy-pants-feats-of abuse, shoved an insidious idea down the throats of anyone who would listen; this idea was the key element in any sales pitch promoting TWI…the idea being that wierwille/TWI had cornered the market on correctly interpreting the Bible. This insidious idea continued with JAL – as evident in an early letter from him suggesting his group - leaving the drudgery of servitude to TWI was like the Hebrews of old escaping the bondage of Egypt with all their gold. In my opinion, JAL is more along the lines of a motivational speaker…a salesman. What is he selling? Having been through way corps training I remember much of it was geared to developing myself as first a good salesman and then learning to manage those who I have motivated to get or stay involved with TWI.

Well, that right there tells us a lot about the experience we had in TWI.