Galen

I had thought that since the verse says :11 And He Himself gave some to be apostles, some prophets, some evangelists, and some pastors and teachers, God gave, so this thing so it must be a gift.

Sounds a lot like US Naval academy graduates.

These gifts are given to the body of believers. They are not for helping the individual. So as an individual, having a gift gives you no benefit. Aligning chairs is more a deacon thing [tending to the details of the infrastructure of the group]. We own a rental realestate property that we are remodeling. One of our first tenants is a small street ministry church. A year ago we dropped out from attending a Way Ministry fellowship, and began going to this church instead. Every service their pews are pushed around and out-of-place. So I go in as the landlord on Saturdays and I re-align the pews. I do it because it bugs me otherwise. I certainly do not see this as any act of a gift ministry, but just a tiny part of what needs to happen to make the place inviting.

It was in my understanding that as an individual you would not see what your gift was. Rather focus instead on the journey and others around you would see your fruit and know what your gift was. Whenever someone is bragging about their gift, I hear that as ego and pride.

It is very much a 'Caste System'. I am an 'Advanced Class Grad', former 'Country Coodinator' and 30+ year follower. But I have never been a Corpse. In the Caste rankings the next higher chaste would be a Corpse spouse, and above that is a Corpse grad.

The Way is certainly NOT the end-all be-all. But it did teach me a few lessons. All religions built of man are faulty. If you were in The Way and thought it was perfect, surely at some point that image was torn from you. But all churches are like that. Is there a man-made church anywhere that has no scandals? I do think that God led me to The Way for a purpose.

At a time when I was in greatest need, I asked God to guide me, and immediately a person began knocking on my door. I feel that God led me to attend PFAL.

There are believers in our local fellowship, who have been 'faithful' for over 30 years, that have no idea of any of the things that happened during the court cases. They swallow what is told to them from leadership, and they willfully ignore all else. When I have let slip mentions of the court cases, they have been shocked and ultimately in denial. Just because someone was active during the trials does not equal them having any knowledge of the trials. The knowledge was spread via this forum, which was largely forbidden.

The example taught in the Advanced Class was if you knew a person was possessed, do not tell them. Just love them and minister to them in any context that they could handle at the time.

I honestly do not recall any teaching anywhere that 'allowed' anyone to lie. I do not believe in the trinity. There is a lot of details within the Biblical records that can support the idea of Monotheism, a single Deity, and not a trinity.

I bet that teenage Jesus was a serious bookworm. I wonder if some instances of angels ministering to Jesus were them being tutors to Him.

Welcome In my humble opinion; never cut ties with your children. It is good to be able to have open conversation with your child and reassure them that they are loved. If you chastise this, it may drive them away from you. Which would be a mistake. With how things are evolving in The Way, I suspect that your child will leave on their own in less than 10 years. You can only whitewash over corrupt leadership for so long until everyone is left openly admitting that it is all corrupt. At that stage, the fact that they can freely return to your open arms, will be a huge relief. Galen

Without an actual 'chapter and verse' passage on hand saying that cancer is caused by spirit, I would be sceptical. Part of what I liked about TWI, when we got into it, was the insistence of 'chapter and versing' topics. I tried to up-hold that standard, but for some people that idea was lost quickly.

Retirement can be good. I like it. My wife just got her pension 2 months ago.

It is good to see you as well. We are doing well. Sometimes life gives you a setback, but then usually a chance to get even-keeled again and maybe advance a bit before the next crisis comes along. We have been very active in community, we both serve on the board of Cooperative Extension Service. We spend a lot of time in helping new farmers to get established in farming. We have been attended a Way fellowship right up until this past Spring. But a number of things they began doing bugged us. They had been real good in rotating who gets to share teachings. While most were just canned stuff from the Way Mag or Sunday night service, they were excited to see actual original Word Studies being done and taught. So it was fun for us. But in the last year, that all changed. Leadership felt they needed to give more teaching opportunities to those who have the greatest problems. Then the guy with the most problems was going to become the new fellowship coordinator. We had a peaceful conversation and explained that we were no long blessed to be attending full time. No harsh words were spoken, we parted on good terms. Then a couple of the believers told us privately that we are to be shunned now. So we are done with it. We are both attending different multi-church Bible study groups, and that is working out well for us.

I like cappuccino

All opinions to the decorum and tone of discussions are valid.

Do you find this unusual ?

There is no shortage of opinions. :)

How has my identity changed? That is hard to say. Obviously I am much older now. Back then I was really searching for God. I still feel that God interacted in my life to show Himself to me, through people who were in The Way. Within 2 years of being active and taking various classes, God led me to my wife. [both of these are long drawn out stories, which I will save you the pain of having to digest at this moment]. Soon after finding my wife, was the first time that I met a Way Corpse 'leader' [steve Strezpec]. He had agreed to do marriage counseling for another couple [Harrol and Fran]. Which in turn it turned out to be he was trying to convince them to join the Way Corps, and avoid marriage. Supposedly God had told him, it was God's will for Harrol to desert from the US Navy and for them both to join the Way Corps. Harrol had just re-enlisted, he had orders in hand and needed a marriage license so Fran could go with him to their next duty station. I disrupted Steve's big plan by getting them married elsewhere. Steve's wrath fell on me, and in his rage he explained to all of us that he had lied to Harrol/Fran, and was only trying to recruit them into the Way Corps. He declared that I was born of adversary seed, and banned everyone in the branch from contact with me. Over the years, I have been in many Twigs in different areas. I served as 'Country Coordinator' for a few years. With my early experience with Steve Strezpec, I have never trusted any Way Corps. We have known a lot of believers who have been wonderful people, loving and trying to walk in God's Will in their lives. I have been 'thrown out' and not allowed to attend fellowships a few times. Each of the other times we were thrown out, it was over conflicts between the Bible and Way Ministry doctrine. I go to my next duty station, join that twig and all is good. We have known a lot of wonderful believers. A few people that I witnessed to, have later gone into the Way Corps. I know that over the course of the past 30 years, our knowledge of the Bible has grown a great deal. I learned early to be skeptical of appointed leadership, that has stuck with us, and it has served us well.

Which 'key' was it ?

I would hate to think of how much grief I would get if my teenage misadventures came to light. How many adult males are 'pure' of the sin of fondling a female not their wife? I am not pure of that sin. Let alone back when I was a kid.

I think I would feel it in the universe if you were gone forever.

You did not know that we cared? Okay then :)

She will be back.