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I love your thought process...you are really examining things. I always look forward to reading your posts. Theoretically, one who recognizes the Lordship of Jesus Christ, is forgiven, but will become obedient to Him out of love...become a servant of right...and is in an accountable relationship with Him. Didn't really happen in TWI. But, if one's attitude is, I will do what I want now and confess on my deathbed...maybe they are not really being brought to a place of true repentance, real Godly sorrow, a genuine understanding of the need for a savior and actual conversion. Sounds more like an embracing of sin and counting on an easy out safety net. I don't think it works that way. The thief on the cross....he saw Jesus and then himself ....he genuinely repented. Being in TWI we had a front row seat to an easy believism.....but, not so much to true faith and real conversion. That is why we saw little transformation to good. We made the word according to VP et al. Lord. It was idolatry and the word according to VP promoted some icky things. I "believe" there is a difference between a verbal confession and saving faith. :)

I didn't have regrets until about 4 or 5 years after graduation. I was gung-ho in-residence and felt good about surviving all the attrition. It was hard and I thought about quitting but I always attributed that to my own weakness and not the program itself. I felt I was some sort of Marine having made it through the training. It was later on that I felt self confident enough to be critical of the ministry. Craig Martindale helped me with this by removing himself from the pedestal I had him on. After 5 more years I had a whole list of deficiencies in the program and I felt compelled to fix it. I tried that for a couple more years until I realized it was impossible. The Way Corps training is not at all about preparing people for ministry. If it was they would teach way more about the duties of a minister. I didn't learn until after the training how to comfort the bereaved, conduct a funeral, visit the sick, offer counsel and so on. The Way Corps are for the most part bi-vocational, and as such support themselves with secular work and volunteer their service to the ministry. The never taught the time management this requires, how to balance work, ministry, and family; how to serve and not burn out. They just heap it on and keep you going by goading you with guilt and obligation. The Way Corps has one purpose and one purpose only - to produce men and women absolutely loyal to the Way International. Self motivation, critical thinking, ingenuity, creativity, compassion - things that will never be rewarded in the Way Corps. They want people willing to "change anything and everything about themselves for the privilege to serve." People who always choose the will of the ministry over their own will, even to their detriment. This is the Way Corps and this is one reason why the best people make the worst Way Corps and will eventually find their way out.

I don't understand why anyone (like the examples you gave johniam) would follow the same series format as PFAL or would have something like an "advanced class". Advanced - compared to what? At what? I'm not being facetious. Jesus is often given as the example, teaching in parables and using metaphors with some but speaking more directly to those who had followed Him longer. Yet, His followers - not a one - actually understood His death or expected his resurrection. A lot of effort is given to trying to prove that Jesus taught His closest followers some higher levels of "truth" - and yes, it's obvious He worked directly with those closest to Him and had a cadre of literal followers and 'believers' that He spoke freely with. Yet - and this is significant - not a single human being that we know of thought He was anything but very dead after His crucifixion and they all mourned His death, feeling the terrible loss. So whatever we think they knew it didn't "connect" until after His resurrection, which was completely outside of the realm of human effort or expectation. God and Jesus Christ - you got that and nothing else. They'd supposedly seen and heard it all, firsthand. Then - nothing. The story goes that they came to life on the day of Pentecost - it appears that there was a very real event that caused The Light to turn on in their brains and souls. But the rest of the time they were milling around, getting organized, finding a replacement for Judas and working on - whatever. Given more time they might have started running classes for god's sake. Again - the Holy Spirit unfolds reality to them and they see with new eyes "finally" one might say - that they were it. This was it. And that's all they were going to get - not that it wasn't grand or enough but some things appear to have connected on that day for them. Again - a lot's made of them "being ready" and all of one accord and all of that - but doesn't it seem clear that yet again the "power" of the event had next to nothing to do with them or their paltry preparations? Of their own "accord" nothing was happening? They were doing good to remember to be present and accounted for. Serious yes, no doubt. But very much human beings. Then - there's a "movement", the effort to spread the message of Jesus Christ comes alive. "AC" has nothing do with it. People like you and lots of others sat through all of these classes twiddling their ears and hearing lots of bible. I was good at that too. But no, I don't think that specific kind of effort has anything to do with "outreach" that won't happen when a person is truly, deeply and individually changed and "connected" with God through Jesus Christ. As with all of the other records we read the moments of truth circle around an infinitely endless moment of reality that has all the subtlety of a train ripping down your door with nowhere to go but in. That's all I know and can speak for. Quiet seas, raging waves, whichever - the water's of life have to engulf you one way or the other, where ever you're sitting or it's just another recitation of "the truth".