Ham

But.. makes me think now- how many times did you hear anything that could even be considered "foretelling" in the ministry? I can't think of a single occurence, other than "you'll be a greasespot.." or some such generic nonsense. "Well, foretelling is only incidental"- perhaps just another excuse for not having the "real deal"? Just a thought..

So typical of what I encountered.. just analyze it to death- cripe- maybe it WAS word of knowledge stuff- who knows. In a lot of ways, I think the exhortation/comfort parameters that we tried to box up these manifestations into only served to make them just so watered down, and so generic. I observed the same thing: the same words, the same stuff over and over in any "twig" I was involved in.

Really- I remember a couple of times that I tried to give ABS to one of the nuckleheads outside of "twig" only to have it REFUSED. "Bring it and give when you're SUPPOSED to!!!"

I remember some of the good old days... if you sent your own ABS in to headquarters on your own terms, you were REALLY under scrutiny. Cripe- those guys must have been nuts. What were they afraid of? Or do they get some kind of "cut" out of ABS generated in their area? But you "couldn't" give cash. had to be check or money order. And you couldn't give it when you wanted- had to be when the "holy basket" was given its due rounds.. good grief. "We have to make sure OUR people are even QUALIFIED to give". Thankfully, I put up with that kind of crap for only about a month before leaving..

I dunno. I think ole rose will reach a point that, just for the life of her, she won't be able to remember where she stashed away all those numbers..

Well, this one kind of skipped the idea of learning from Jewish and Christian based spirituality- went straight for earth based spirituality. I saw nothing that could be labelled as Christian or Jewish. Other than maybe the basic idea of doing unto others the right thing.. I don't know if such a thing is possible, but it looked like purely secular based religion to me..

Congratulations, likewise.

And He sure wasn't gonna tell that bunch of morons anything either, was He?

I'm thinking of writing something like that up, but leave a clause in it for my kids to save some money, "just prop me up in the woods somewhere, I'll be alright..."

Sounds like a wedding made in the "other" place, heh heh.

Yep.. I'd like to see that fly in a court of law. "Lets see, you claim you have no responsibility to ANYBODY?" Just "god" and their conscience I guess..

I remember when you couldn't participate in ANYTHING unless you were abundantly sharing. Of course you were not forbidden, just they somehow "forgot" to put you name on one of the invitations.

Yep.. on a practical level, I really have nothing bad to say about them. They seem to be reluctant, in my opinion, to fight or debate about anything religious- they seem to dislike the efforts of anybody that would want to dictate their beliefs, or lack therof..

Sounds like just my kind of group, heh heh. Have to be serious about something, I suppose.

Oh yes, money. There was a SMALL note in the program saying, "yes, we do need some to do the stuff we do, but refrain from passing the basket during the service, if you wish to give, stuff a little in the box in the back"- that was a little different.

Right before I got out of der vey, the last communion service I was at they had some kind of "personal prophecy" over certain people. I thought it was kind of creepy.. maybe some of Loy's "new light".

Heh heh heh heh heh.. well, it would be one service that you couldn't call "boring".. the congregation would probably never forget, or forgive you for that matter, heh heh.

Exie, not me, in a million years..

Yep- Galen, I have heard messages in prophecy that really seemed to hit the mark, others, about sharp as butter or lard. I never felt completely comfortable, in the manner we were instructed to operate it in the ministry- or even in offshoots today- but I think it may have been the best according to the word that anybody knew, or knows. I know doc got a lot of the information from some guy in florida- I would be interested in seeing the source of his material someday. But I don't think that the way we did it was necessarily sin. Corinthians does put it practically on the top of the list of one of the things to aspire to do, correctly. Love of course being the greatest. Just seems of all the manifestations, or "gifts" if you will, prophecy has the majority of danger signs hung on it. If you don't have the real thing, I don't think it means the guy is necessarily "puzzessed" or anything, but speaking presumptuously for the Almighty can't have too positive of an outcome.

Interesting though.. now I finally remember- the same denomination here, it may have been even the same church, about ten years ago maybe- they had a highly advertised seminar about "Shaminism in North America" and the fundamentalist groups got SO upset. They acted SO suprised, outraged, and even flabbergasted- that their "brethren" were even capable of doing this. From what I had read previously about the group, I could hardly see how anybody could be "suprised" heh heh. The sign in front of the church says it is a LIBERAL church- yes, in large capital letters. Not to say it in a mean way, but liberal is, liberal does- I honestly don't see how the local ministers would be so "caught off guard" or something.. This group seems to be pagan friendly likewise. I don't have any real plans of joining or anything, but- if they let me run nekkid in the spring solstice or something, I might consider, heh heh.

They seemed to be pretty smart though..

Yep.. I kind of got the impression that they left the concept of worship up to the individual. In a strange way I was impressed that they didn't offer the moon in a twelve part series the moment I walked in the door. One old guy there said, "so this is the first time you've been to a univeral universalist church.... most people don't like it" !!! Funny, but brutally honest..

Galen, good stuff- but in a way, that gives me a few more questions than I had before. Maybe that's a good thing.. but, what is the context of this grouping of "prophets"? Is this just a little "twig" meeting somewhere out in the middle of nowhere at some disciples house? Or is it a much larger gathering? Obviously there are more than five prophets present- three speak, "others" judge. Not impossible I suppose, but to me it would be out of the ordinary to have five prophets running amok in a little local fellowship somewhere.. Plus- I've been thinking about some of the instructions we got about prophecy. Here its not "if any man should speak" like with tongues and interpretation- here they are specifically named, "prophets". I remember ole doc's instructions, that this is "the best guidance" we have for operation of "the regular" manifestation of prophecy- I kind of question this now though. Just some thoughts- any answers?

And to say the least, it was "educational". The first thing I will say is, they seemed to be very nice, loving people. In no way am I making fun of them or anything. They seemed dedicated to- well, I just couldn't quite figure that out. I was on my way to "twig" this morning, and lo and behold, it apparently was hijacked and relocated to a completely different city. I was always curious what the unitarians do with their spare time on Sunday AM, so I thought I would check it out. The experience agreed with all reports I have heard plus some... My first impresstion, they are not sure of what they REALLY believe. They believe that God is, or God isn't. Or they believe God is actually nature. Or the earth, the sky, etc.. No miracles, truth not necessarily found in the bible, and that it was a myth no better or worse than the stories about Hercules. My next impression was that they would almost die for you to believe and voice whatever you wish- provided you are a nice guy about it. There seemed to be no middle of the road here- It seems that to them, anything goes, any belief OK- that the only standard for faith and practice is their own conscience, ONLY. They claim to hold the value of an individual over or besides the fact that they believe, or don't, or what. The person doing the sermon almost boasted that they had perfected the process of blasphemy into a real artform.. But they are actively involved in the community, do good stuff, doing unto others like they would have others do unto them. I think they were trying to practice the gospel without any kind of doctrine- I think I left more confused than when I came, heh heh.

You "somewhat cultured" rednecks just aren't giving yourselves enough credit..