Leaderboard

Hi, one or two of you have mentioned me in other posts so thought I'd stop in and say hello. Not here to start a fight, not at all, we all have eternal life and when Jesus Christ returns, we will all be together and we will all get to know each other and we all enjoy each others company. I'm looking forward to it very much. I have no issues with anyone. I have no issues with Victor. I have no issues with Craig. I have no issues with Chris. I have no issues with Robert. I have no issues with Rosalie. I have no issues with Vince, or John, or Ricardo, I have no issues with anyone. It was on a boat sailing up the Gulf of Aqaba in the Red Sea in 1977 when I first asked God for help and asked him to show me the way. He saved my life, and the next day when we tied up alongside in the port of Aqaba, I got a letter from my sister telling me my cousin Ross Munro was in some weird American cult called The Way. Well, how's that for an answer to prayer? When we got back to Southampton, I resigned from the Merchant Navy, and when I got home, I packed my bags and headed over to Stornoway to find my cousin Ross. Took PFAL in April 1978 and went WOW in London the same year. After that I went to Aberdeen and ran a home church there. It was while I was in Aberdeen Victor died. No need to go into details on the nightmare that was the next few years, but I kept studying everything that was available. I took Chris' classes, including his Advanced Class. I took Craig's classes, including the so-called leadership tapes. I took a few of Rosalie's new classes, though I can't remember now who the teachers were. In 2006 I completely washed my hands of the whole mess and settled in the Highlands and had nothing to do with anyone. Now, this is where my story really begins. What Victor did was pull together a mountain of jigsaw pieces from hundreds of sources and spent his life trying to piece it all together. Chris had a few pieces. Craig, believe it or not, had a few pieces. Rosalie, believe it or not even had a few pieces. I've spent 40 years putting the pieces together and now I can clearly see the big picture that God does not dwell in temples made with hands. Victor didn't see it. If he had, he would have realised The Way International was fast becoming a temple made with hands. He should have dismantled the entire Way Ministry before his death and committed the word to the worldwide home church leaders and given them the responsibility to take the word forward. The first century church thrived because there was no 'ministry', no headquarters, no structured organisation staffed by 'leadership'. There was no structure of leadership running the first century church. Every home church was self supporting, self governing and self propagating and the gift ministries travelled around and energised their ministries where they were needed. Each home church was the headquarters of the move of the Word in that area. All the tithes and abundant sharing stayed within each home church. The home church leaders were the ones who made the decisions on what was done with that tithe money. There was no centralised 'ministry' headquarters where everyone sent all the tithe money off to. When Paul needed financial support, it was the home church leaders who sent him that support from the tithe monies they were responsible to steward. Folks, we need to get back to running home churches that are self governing, self supporting and self propagating. We need to walk away from any man made structures, organisations, ministries or religions, because God will have nothing to do with anything man constructs to put his religion into. We don't need no broken cisterns, to paraphrase Pink Floyd. This is a family, we are family, we need home churches where folks can enjoy a family environment to thrive and grow in. A home church leader is the highest position available in the body of Christ. Ever heard that before? No one needs a ministry to tell them what to do. We walk by the spirit with Christ as our head. All those pieces of the puzzle that Victor and others amassed, I spent 40 years gathering and piecing together. The big picture is now published online and in the public domain. I gave the rights to my work to God, asked him what he wanted me to do with it, and he said publish it to the public domain and that's what I did. I make no money at all from this, not a penny. It's all at my website. www.walkingbythespirit.com You can read the three classes for free on your phones, iPads, kindles, laptops, computers, whatever, for free. You can download the classes in pdf and word format for free. Yes, you can buy a hard copy at Amazon but I make no profit on sales of the books and have no interest in making any money from sales of the books. All I have ever cared about was seeing the word live. Now, can we please quit all the bickering and fire up some home churches and get the body of Christ energised again.

I only come here for the refreshments. Feel free to help yourself to a fresh cup of coffee. (Not the "stretched" kind you might expect at a TWI function)

In case you missed the announcements, this is probably a good time to point out that the GSC doesn't have any requirements of beliefs or statements of beliefs. As survivors of twi, some of us are still Christian (waves hand), some of us have embraced any of a variety of other religions like Judaism or Wicca, some of us have rejected all conventional types of religion, some of us are atheists. It shouldn't be a shock, post-twi, to find out that some people were burned so badly in twi that they outright hate Christianity, and they may also be around as well. Most of the twi survivors have moved on to other things, and, as always, I consider them GSC success stories because they were able to move on with their lives. Don't be surprised if you also find, here or elsewhere, ex-twi who all but worship vpw and insist-against all logic and internal consistency- that God Almighty really DID speak to him and said he's God's Greatest Spokesman for the last 2000 years. There's a handful of them around here and other places. Also around, and more common, are Christians who left twi but are still Christians. Some have changed beliefs since then (having rejected what they saw as errors of twi), some haven't changed their beliefs much. As for "around here", I found that the Covid crisis changed what was "around here" for a lot of people. If a group has a Skype or a Zoom meeting, in place of or in addition to, their live meeting, it doesn't matter if the attendees live down the block or on another continent. So long as you can get online, you can attend the meeting, so bad weather, ill health, quarantines, etc. don't change that.

Great to hear from you Cheri. What TWI was able to take from me, and which I have not been able to regain, is building relationships. I was convinced ANYONE not associated with TWI was unhealthy and to be avoided. This belief made me cut off all relationships with friends and family. At one point I even considered naming a couple in the way legal guardians of our daughter if we should die. Thankfully, I never carried it to that extent. Being associated with TWI was not my first go around at trying to make sense of God in my life. All failed miderably. Finally, I came to the conclusion there is no God, but He is only a creation by man like Santa Clause and the Easter Bunny.

Welcome, Cheri. Please excuse T-Bone for being so rude and not offering you cake and coffee. Do you like cheesecake? Share a piece with me! Waiter! on my tab, please! You sound as though you escaped with your thinking ability still intact, Cheri. Good, keep it that way. You will find likeminded folks here - and some who are not so likeminded, so it makes for interesting discussions at times. And why not? If you can find yourself a decent church (choose a smaller one where you can get to know people, not a mega church), you may well find more like-minded folks than you expect. There will be differences in belief, but do overlook those: no-one is wholly right on anything, and we as exWayfers surely know that! Instead of thinking that people in a church are "wrong," look instead to what you have in common: a love for God, acceptance of what Jesus did for us all in choosing to pay for our wrongdoings of all kinds, and the great grace shown to us. See how the congregation manifests love to each other, to you, and to the community around them. While it's worth exploring why they may believe something differently (and thus testing the integrity of your own beliefs), do look more to what you have in common with these brothers and sisters in Christ. You'll spend eternity with them. Why not start getting to know them now?

Keep learning... and keep expanding your imagination. God is bigger than the Bible.