JustThinking

Yes, they're still running it. Over and over and over . . . . . They do camps in the woods for the young ones and listen to the class every year. It's not even on video. I feel so bad for them.

Really?!!! How creepy is that? How does a teenager invite a friend to sit in the middle of the woods and listen to a dead guy tell corny jokes? Talk about social suicide. Sad, truly sad.

Disclaimer: I never met Chris Geer and do not owe him any money. Also, I am not a MOG (in TWI's view) nor do I play one on TV.

JT

Any idea what the cost is now? For that size, they could probably just rent out a holiday inn and get that awesome continental breakfast. :)

JT

That's ok, I don't know how to post a link but I can quote. HAHAHAHAHA

#1. I'm laughing

#2. I just found my posting partner

JT

Thank you for the link JustThinking. :)

Jeffsjo,

Thank you but Krys gave the link and I'm too clueless to do quoting correctly.

JT

<Bump>

Does anyone have info on the AC '98?

JT

Here you go.

Thanks Krys!

JT

Maybe you guys know I still live in Dayton, Oh. Occasionally things like work, & visiting my kids' side of family, etc. take me in the vicinity of HQ. This particular time "things" took me right down "Highway 29".

Just for grins/nostalgia/curiosity's sake I decided to do a drive by of TWI HQ grounds.

I was shocked. They speak of "kindler/gentler" & yes, my encounters with what were once some of my closest friends, "brothers & sisters" from my in-residence days have been "all of the above." However, they just don't seem to see how EVERY encounter with them is the same. Each follows similar bullet points and they never end the encounter without "the close." They "lovingly encourage" you/us to come back, things are better now, so much better.

What shocked me though was the deteriorated shape of the grounds themselves. The ROA field is overgrown with, dare I say it, WEEDS. The smooth, pristine blacktop where the largest tent in the world once proudly stood is filled with cracks. The murals are gone from the OSC. Painted over. The circle of exotic trees round the fountain near the Wierwille home - - gone.

The whole place wreaks of "bygone days." Per New Knoxville's standards, TWI HQ is a slum. Various units were in differing stages of disrepair.

Seems they don't have the manpower, or perhaps they lack the desire to take care of the place - - the international home of what they say is, "God's Ministry."

I felt bad for the grass. It deserves better.

Wow. Thanks for the update. That is sad. If nothing else, they always had good landscaping. Did you happen to see the auditorium?

JT

What's this about Advanced Class 98 cover up?

<Bump>

Does anyone have info on the AC '98?

JT

Well larks have very small brains...

These guys look happy too

Doesn't that guy in the middle look like Donald Trumps son? He was on The Apprentice at some point.

JT

Something that usually annoyed me about "ministry" themes was that everything had to be jammed into them. If the theme was "Living Sanctified" no matter what you were teaching about had to have the word "sanctified" in there somewhere.

You still heard the same insipid teachings every year, they just used different terminology:

Sanctified in Outreach

Living Abundantly in Outreach

God's Sufficiency in Outreach

Prevailing in Outreach

Outreach: The Way of Holiness

Ambassadors for Christ in Outreach

ad nauseum...

All the same teaching.

Then of course the important sounding "research" into Greek words that accompanied each new theme with Way Corps who could barely speak proper English lecturing us on Greek words.

Amen! Amen! Amen! Amen! Amen! Amen! Amen! Amen! Thank you. This is, of course, much easier than actually thinking.

JT

You know what really would be a new theme?

"The excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord" (Phil 3:8)

You have no future in TWI leadership. ;-)

I've read this book by Dr. Betty Price. I'll not really offer an opinion except that the story seems to be the same; a man of God often seems to believe he has more rights than others.

"Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Great men are almost always bad men."

Baron Acton

I imagine we could throw women in there as well.

JT

Thanks, just thinking, compliments like that make me want to stick around maybe.

:)

Oh, good.

JT

I've seen bullying here at GSC that seems very easy to deal with since "River Road Fellowship" messed up so much of my life. In most cases it has been easy to deal with here.

For me, I stopped posting for a long time or even coming here. It is very tiring when it happens. There is a lot of emotion, etc. here based on people's experiences and fairly so. Folks who come here to tell others what they should do, say or think cause me to just log out and do something else.

However, I come back because of folks like Belle, Lindy, Shellon and others who I really like. (Belle, you're awesome, IMHO!) Like anything else, I suppose, it's the good people that make things worthwhile.

JT

Some of you should really get a life. This is a pathetic topic. Does it really help you deal with your bad Way experience? 'Corpse". Pretty immature. Can't say 'Corps'? You just might do better with therapy. Still struggling to find a topic that has not been covered?

'Christians can't dance' = funny. "Rocky Horror of the Spirit" = hilarious. The forums - what is the point of some of these posts? Wow, I know bitterness can be like a sickness, but this is way over the top.

I just don't see how some of this stuff helps you 'get over it'.

As the author of the topic (and your hated "Home Depot" too! 2 for 2), I guess I can best answer the question. The point came up in a previous thread and it was a curiosity FOR ME. Sometimes it helps me (and others) to get some context to their TWI experience. As communication was tightly managed by TWI, many here spent years thinking the problem was them. It wasn't until after leaving that so many things came to light (at least for me) that I just didn't know. For those of us who spent a good portion of their life in TWI, there is a LOT to think about. My impression (after 6 years) is that I'm not alone. Talking through topics like this has actually helped me get my life back. (Getting a life, in your words I guess?) If it doens't work for you, no problem. And do some people look to complain? Uh, yeah. If you live around real people, they do that from time to time. But for many of us, we weren't allowed to complain, question, etc. during our time in TWI. Now is our chance to do that. Please allow us to do that without feeling like we've got another "overseer" who wants to dictate how our life should run. For myself, I don't need it.

JT

Does TWI still require attendance at lots of meetings in a week?

If they would just suggest people got involved in their communities, spent three hours a week inputting into the areas where they live, instead of three hours attending the third fellowship meeting that week or whatever, the people would have the opportunity to make an impact and thereby live their lives as a witness. Then there wouldn't be the need for the hard sell knocking on doors, waylaying people in the shopping mall, or whatever.

Imagine that! Three hours a week helping people! Time spent with young lads as Scouts or Cadets or whatever. Time volunteering at a local after-school group teaching football or some useful skill. Time volunteering at a local hospital. That could be a real witness: not the do-you-want-more-head-knowledge kind of witness.

Twinky, my dear, you have no future in the corps whatsoever. Are you saying it would be better to be known as the nice neighbors instead of those weirdos? Talk like normal people instead of saying your kids "prevail" in school? And you're suggesting we actually do something productive instead of sitting around pretending like anyone cares about what Rosie thinks? Oh missy, you better renew your mind if you hope to get anywhere in TWI leadership! Now go read the Blue Book until you're blue in the face. Oh, and send TWI some money. Make it a lot. In fact, skip the stupid book and just send us cash. We'll mail you a 10 (or 20 or 30) year certificate and special "super spiritual lady" pin of your very own.

No need to thank me... But I would like a mint cut in four pieces please and make it snappy! ;)

JT

If that j@ck0ff were president of Home Depot, it would be bankrupt in 5 years, despite it's world presence and brand. Their HR department would need a staff of lawyers to deal with issues not protected under freedom of religion.

He would need a whole security dept to protect him from ....ed off husbands, fathers, brothers of brainwashed women he took advantage of with his power. The corporate credit would be overdrawn, they'd make acquisitions they couldn't pay for, they'd need to double the size of HR trainers for sensitivity training, all the employees would have attitude problems, and probably the corporate mascot dog would be violated.

Just going on track record, that is.

But imagine the growth in his swiss bank account!!!! Oh, his wife would be CFO and fire him on day 2. Then she'd promote her "special assistant." Day 3, she would explain that the business hadn't shrunk, Home Depot had just become "more exclusive."

JT

Do I miss the ROCK? no way. I do miss being 20 something with hot women everywhere.

Now I remember why my friends and I went in the first place...

If they are an old grad and still there, do you think they do a lot of critical thinking? I mean, really? At this point, they've learned how to justify any BS thrown their way. They change beliefs like their underwear. And yet never say anything has changed. Oh, they may admit that they've gotten "deeper understanding" but will never admit they were wrong. This class will be more of the same. Completely obedient servants running off the next cliff. Nothing new under the sun.

If it's only a three hour class, do they need to do all of this work? I remember when our LC would just have the twig coordinators to his/her house and just spend an hour or three with a Bible open.

JT

Do I or my children like it? Certainly not, but it is where we agreed to have the man interred and I knew going into the agreement with them that it was not public. It's not like I can say now "hey!" Additionally, cremated remains are not as much my "property" as if there were a body buried.

Shellon,

Either way, I'm sorry you have to even think about the whole thing.

JT

The teacher's suite always had a shower, far as I know. The OSC has showers too I believe. I don't know, wouldn't most dressing rooms back stage need showers?

Makes sense. I'm sure more than a few people listened to someone on stage and felt icky afterwards. Showers would be nice before making that 250 mile drive home on a Sunday night. ;)

JT

I left before things got that depressing, I mean exclusive.

Someone has a future in Way Communications!!! "We're not dwindling, we're more exclusive."

Maybe you can work your magic on explaining LCM, the lawsuits, etc. It's not like they won't spend money on protecting themselves. ;)

JT

Corpse might have had to work their arses off at HQ or any of the campuses, but whenever they were out on the field, many of them expected to be waited on.

That must have gotten difficult when a limb was down to 20 or less people. Hard to wave to an adoring crowd of 5.

I wonder if there are more corpse now than corpse jobs or the other way around? Kind of like musical chairs for tyrants. Before I left, we made three twigs out of two just so a new corpse grad could have a field slot. It turned two iffy twigs into three weak ones but who cares, right?

JT

If LCM were president of Home Depot, he would probably declare half the employees as being homos and then close half the stores...

Half would be progress. TWI is down what? 80%? Probably more. I would PAY to see him at a news conference.

Hitting on the female reporters.

Screaming at employees.

Name tags for everyone!

Have to bring your own coffee. And it's not optional.

The usual TWI meeting stuff (stringing chairs, etc.)

Maybe he'd get locked up in a padded office?

JT

Let's face it.

What we're looking at here is a performance evaluation for a sales force.

Waysider,

I think you nailed it. It was probably also a good place to spot potential corpse. They had to be sales people too. I wish I had added another option: "They went out but only to supervise or watch us."

JT

IIRC, the tents were rented from "Leaf Tents" out of Florida. They had a crew of their own guys hanging around thoughout the Rock and Score Week to attend to any eventualities...

Imagine that assignment? What do they tell their friends when they come home? And what happens to that oh-so-important spiritual purity when a bunch of Godless Unbelieving Tent People are stomping around the big top? Would they know to make sure it faced the right way? Did they string the trucks before pulling the tent out?

JT

Where did Wierwille get big top circus tents? Was ther a deal with Ringling Brothers/Barnaum and Bailey?

TLB,

I remember asking this once at HQ during ROA. If my poor little mind is working well today, there was a company that specialized in large tents for public functions. I was told the main tent was the second largest in north america. When I asked why TWI wouldn't just buy one to save cost, I was told renting it was a better financial decision. The person telling me this was an old friend in the corps who was on staff and (I believe) had first-hand knowledge.

HOWEVER, this was over 15 years ago so it's a little fuzzy.

JT