Self governing twigs...that's exactly what my twig was...WE decided...When everything began to publicly unravel (in the late 80's), I shot from the hip...I told my twig exactly what I knew and what I believed, I sheltered them from nothing....Our decisions were independant of the waytree.
I knew in my heart that lcm was really screwed up and that in NO way could I follow that man...
I think that the best way to "protect" people is to tell them the brutal truth and let them make informed decisions...
I totally agree with that idea!!!!!!!!!!!! And I think for some folks it was the other way around – some twig coordinators "protected" the image of TWI. To cover up…whitewash blatant sin…to ignore addressing critical issues – is to condone what they did…it enabled TWI to continue on its evil way…To anyone in a leadership capacity who knowingly went along with TWI's line of crap I say "shame on you!" That's no different than the hypocrites Jesus talked about:
Matthew 23:23-28 NIV
23"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
Self governing twigs...that's exactly what my twig was...WE decided...When everything began to publicly unravel (in the late 80's), I shot from the hip...I told my twig exactly what I knew and what I believed, I sheltered them from nothing....Our decisions were independant of the waytree.
I knew in my heart that lcm was really screwed up and that in NO way could I follow that man...
I think that the best way to "protect" people is to tell them the brutal truth and let them make informed decisions...
Let me define "shield" or "protect." at least in my case.
That meant not implementing the policies and procedures which we felt harmful in my area. It did not mean we didn't tell them what we knew was going on. We not only told our twigs and area what we felt about it, we also told our overseers what we felt.
I think that's how we got on the $h!t list in Ohio.....
I would wager to say that those who "protected" folks underneath them, for the most part, probably didn't know all the gory details of what was going on behind closed doors, but like us, thought, for example, they were simply fighting politics among old farts who should be retired.
I think that sums up my experience as well. Some people believed it that they were to be self-governing. I remember thinking that some of the "guidelines" that came out of Ohio were meant as just that, guidelines that you could choose to do if you thought they would help, chuck 'em if they didn't.
It was also a matter of degree. When there weren't a lot of bosses, it was easy to ignore the few that were being bossy. They couldn't stay on top of everyone. Later, I suppose there were so many Corps needing something to do, micromanagement became inevitable.
I would wager to say that those who "protected" folks underneath them, for the most part, probably didn't know all the gory details of what was going on behind closed doors, but like us, thought, for example, they were simply fighting politics among old farts who should be retired.
I think that sums up my experience as well. Some people believed it that they were to be self-governing. I remember thinking that some of the "guidelines" that came out of Ohio were meant as just that, guidelines that you could choose to do if you thought they would help, chuck 'em if they didn't.
It was also a matter of degree. When there weren't a lot of bosses, it was easy to ignore the few that were being bossy. They couldn't stay on top of everyone. Later, I suppose there were so many Corps needing something to do, micromanagement became inevitable.
Worth noting, amongst the many notable notes! If I looked at the different forces at play in the Way's growth through the 70's and 80's I think that hits on a lot of what was going on.
Youth + lack of experience + fast growth = ?
"At the top" the VPster is building the Way Inc. to be a bustling, self sustaining enterprise, bible-teaching-in-a-box - repeatable, scalable, profitable.
Leave aside for a moment an evaluation of the product from a doctrinal standpoint and look at PFAL and the Way Tree as a means of accomplishing two things - 1.) to teach people "God's Word" to help them and 2.) provide a means for those interested in participating to get the teaching and form a fellowship, a church of sorts, around it. Together, anywhere.
Plug in people who are interested and give them the means to faciliate those two things through some training, some assistance, some face-to-face involvement with others of like mind and interest.
What's wrong with that picture? Not much, on face value.
Now plug in an 18 year old who takes PFAL, attends their local fellowship, and within 3 years at the tender age of 21 or 22, is "running" a large Way operation in a state. A "limb" coordinator, or managing a program.
That person probably has a lot of enthusiasm, energy, and desire. What qualifies them to take on such a responsibility?
Well, "Jesus was barely 30 - look at what He did"...."Mary was a teenager - look at her!"
Very true, but they didn't start businesses, sell products, pay taxes, sign contracts, or attempt to build bueaucracies.
They lived out their own life's purposes, so to speak. Did some things, didn't do others. When asked to settle a squabble over a family's division of an inheritance, Jesus was said to have told the man who came to Him "Who made me a judge over you?" By any other words, He might have said "Go talk to them, or someone who deals in such things. I'm not your accountant or therapist. It's none of my business."
So, what was the business of the Way? If it was to do 1 and 2 of the above, the concept of self-governing, financing and propogating left the door wide open for personal development and growth. In theory, there should have never been, could never have been, most of the things we saw happen over the years, finally culminating with a President and Founder so sick and self-absorbed he felt none of the people he'd taught and worked with over the years could even be trusted or understand.
If people involved over the years were primarily trying to do "good" (within a reasonable range and allowing for variances) it's easy to see how extreme avarice, greed, personal agendas, and the like wouldn't be looked for and even overlooked in those who were "leading". If you're assuming everyone's bumbling along and doing the best they can you may not interpret a lot of the weirdness correctly.
It really only took about what - 15 years? - for the whole thing to become a MLM mess. By that time the 18 year old is 33, and most if not all of their personal and professional experience has been in the Way, if they've gone in the Way Corps and become a full-time participant. They may still be poking along doing what they do with good intent for better or worse, and meanwhile the Way's grown up around them to be a hard-core sales machine, with a half-azzed training program churning out more confused but well meaning particpants, thrown into the grinder to sink or swim. In that kind of environment, anything could happen.
"At the top" the VPster is building the Way Inc. to be a bustling, self sustaining enterprise, bible-teaching-in-a-box - repeatable, scalable, profitable.
This soooo reminds me of a plan for a franchise.
McTwigs - hold the logic, and just let us have it our way.."
"Salvation to go."
"I'll have one holy spirit please, hold the capitals..."
For a while some were even able to "have it their way..."
I think that sums up my experience as well. Some people believed it that they were to be self-governing. I remember thinking that some of the "guidelines" that came out of Ohio were meant as just that, guidelines that you could choose to do if you thought they would help, chuck 'em if they didn't.
It was also a matter of degree. When there weren't a lot of bosses, it was easy to ignore the few that were being bossy. They couldn't stay on top of everyone. Later, I suppose there were so many Corps needing something to do, micromanagement became inevitable.
Since we were out on the periphery, and because of the twig coordinator, we missed out on the Wierwilledale Chainsaw Massacre.
While others were hanging by their wrists on a cold, damp dungeon wall, nervously eyeing the brazier of hot coals and seeing the ends of the iron pokers turning red, then yellow, then white, we were having some delightful meetings and really sweet fellowship.
We had some twiggers who were skilled gardeners. Sometimes we'd get together in the garden and bring in a bunch of stuff and cook it up. I learned a lot more about growing and preparing organic food at twig, and to this day have a descendant of a purslane plant someone gave me. Well, descendants. I let it go and use it for ground cover in my garden.
Growing in my compost-rich garden, that purslane, when mature, takes on a nutty taste, kinda like a pecan.....
And while the Plaster Casters were in the van, along with a selection of sex slaves imported from Belgium there to train the local talent, gittin drugged up, and all, back at twig we were sometimes getting together and singing songs for 45 minutes or so. Yeah, every now and then we'd have a niice song twig.
Good times.
And while others were being subjected to sleep deprivation (and not by a newborn baby), being thrown in the "Cooler," modeled after the one on Hogans Heroes,, or being waterboarded, Corps style, we were having picnic twig down by the river, doin' a little swimming, a lil' sunbathing or maybe a turn with the rowboat.
Sublime times.
Yep yep yepyepyep, we had some good times.
Most folks were glad for us that we were having a jolly good time, not knowing that HQ was installing a President Bush-style torture policy 20 years beforehand.
Sadly, happiness on the part of others seems to set some sourpusses off.
Y'knowwwwwwww, when I was growing up, there just wasn't much divorce. It was a rare thing, and considered scandalous and disgraceful. Until I was 18, among the people I associated with across a rather wide social spectrum, there was only 2 or 3 families I knew personally where the parents divorced. Then things changed and I was around a lot more people who had come from broken homes. I would shake my head ruefully at the stories of daddy or mommy not being there for Christmas or other tales of woe including stories where one parent would try to use the kids against the other parent.
UGH!
I had one friend whose mother had been married 4 times and all those kids were messes.
So I'd get to thinking about how those poor kids hardly had a fair shot starting life. The more I thought about it the sadder I'd get for them. I could get to where I was feeling kind of guilty because I had a stable home with two parents who loved each other and us kids as much as any parents cld be expected to do.
Yeah, guilty.
And I get the same feeling for some on the board who are still in a rut that goes back to the days when hair bands stalked the earth. Their anguished cries and bitter tears, the wardrobe o'sackcloth and no cosmetics but for a 35 gallon drum of ashes.
I mean, if they could just be free of the constant agony just for a day!--------- just being carefree like others of us, running towards each other on the beach in slow motion as clouds formed in the shape of charging unicorns above.....
But no, there they wallow.
Maybe one day, one day, one of them will look at the others and say, "Why sit we here until we die?"
Nice, real nice Deciderator, just about exactly as much compassion and understanding that I would expect from an idolater :(
You don`t understand, and you don`t care to. You just want to point your finger of condemnation at everybody and expect people to return to the vomit of twi doctrine.
Your obsession blinds, and prevents understanding. I am sorry for you.
My late Twig coordinator Bob ( this was the early 80's ) had a love for God's people. When the new Corp came in with an attitude of "You're here to serve me " Bob let him have it with both barrels. At the Twig level for many it was about walking on the Word and in love. That's what it was about , not serving the organization. For those who never got higher up the corporate ladder, that's why it's easy to have fond memories of the time in TWI. At least until it all fell apart.
Fond memories I get, I have them too. I love the people whom stood up for their people, I love them for the courage that it took to stand up against the status quo.
I understand why it was done...I just think that completely unbeknownst to ourselves, we ended up facilitating the evil. They couldn`t have operated or survived without us.
Fond memories I get, I have them too. I love the people whom stood up for their people, I love them for the courage that it took to stand up against the status quo.
I understand why it was done...I just think that completely unbeknownst to ourselves, we ended up facilitating the evil. They couldn`t have operated or survived without us.
Rascal, you ever have purslane?
Look it up, it's jam-packed with vitamins and lots of people treat it like a weed!
It has a nice growth habit, getting, oh, 6 or 8 inches high. It resembles a jade plant.
I think it's pretty.
I'll throw it on a sandwich or in a salad....
Sadly, it's already dying back.
That's the way it is, it come in in May, just when you're wondering if it will return, and then dies out at the end of July.
I got me some really sweet orange bell peppers about to ripen.
Sometimes I'll pick one and just pause and eat it right there without even rinsing it off.....
My late Twig coordinator Bob ( this was the early 80's ) had a love for God's people. When the new Corp came in with an attitude of "You're here to serve me " Bob let him have it with both barrels. At the Twig level for many it was about walking on the Word and in love. That's what it was about , not serving the organization. For those who never got higher up the corporate ladder, that's why it's easy to have fond memories of the time in TWI. At least until it all fell apart.
It seems like there were a lot of fine people like that around.
My late Twig coordinator Bob ( this was the early 80's ) had a love for God's people. When the new Corp came in with an attitude of "You're here to serve me " Bob let him have it with both barrels. At the Twig level for many it was about walking on the Word and in love. That's what it was about , not serving the organization. For those who never got higher up the corporate ladder, that's why it's easy to have fond memories of the time in TWI. At least until it all fell apart.
My first year on hq staff was 1979-1980.
THAT year, wierwille was driving the ministry toward the corporate scene with a vengence.
1) The outer shell of the OSC made way for loads of office space on its south side.
2) Emogene was one of the first to move "her department" - the bookstore - into the OSC.
3) The simple meals in the basement of the BRC were no more. The OSC Dining Room opened.
4) The Sunday Night Serviices moved out of the BRC into the make-shift OSC Dining Room.
5) The Trustees made sure that their offices were across the hall from the Finance Department.
6) Wierwille was busy pushing lofty "visions" of Camp Gunnison, the Corps Chalet, the LEAD program, etc.
7) Way Productions and music contests were swarming with activity.
8) The Corps Program was busting tail to train leaders on FIVE different campuses.
9) Move over "fond memories"...........enter swiftly, and smugly, corporate twi.
And, two years after all of this, the ceremonious fan-fare for the president-elect and soon-president LCM was reaching its zenith........precisely at the time of twi's 40th anniversary.
Rare beyond rare....was one to find a simple, God-first, Christ-in-you, He-walks-with-me-and-He-talks-with-me, loving and caring twig into the 80's. Wierwille and Martindale were phasing out the twig coordinators of yester-year and replacing them with corps-trained-quality-approved corps twig coordinators. Say all you want about "the good ole days"........BUT KNOW THIS, wierwille and martindale drove these new leaders (corps) to be aggressive and confrontational and impersonal wanting to oust the free-floating and unrestricted twig coordinators who held little allegiance to wierwille or twi.
Since we were out on the periphery, and because of the twig coordinator, we missed out on the Wierwilledale Chainsaw Massacre.
While others were hanging by their wrists on a cold, damp dungeon wall, nervously eyeing the brazier of hot coals and seeing the ends of the iron pokers turning red, then yellow, then white, we were having some delightful meetings and really sweet fellowship.
We had some twiggers who were skilled gardeners. Sometimes we'd get together in the garden and bring in a bunch of stuff and cook it up. I learned a lot more about growing and preparing organic food at twig, and to this day have a descendant of a purslane plant someone gave me. Well, descendants. I let it go and use it for ground cover in my garden.
Growing in my compost-rich garden, that purslane, when mature, takes on a nutty taste, kinda like a pecan.....
And while the Plaster Casters were in the van, along with a selection of sex slaves imported from Belgium there to train the local talent, gittin drugged up, and all, back at twig we were sometimes getting together and singing songs for 45 minutes or so. Yeah, every now and then we'd have a niice song twig.
Good times.
And while others were being subjected to sleep deprivation (and not by a newborn baby), being thrown in the "Cooler," modeled after the one on Hogans Heroes,, or being waterboarded, Corps style, we were having picnic twig down by the river, doin' a little swimming, a lil' sunbathing or maybe a turn with the rowboat.
Sublime times.
Yep yep yepyepyep, we had some good times.
Most folks were glad for us that we were having a jolly good time, not knowing that HQ was installing a President Bush-style torture policy 20 years beforehand.
Sadly, happiness on the part of others seems to set some sourpusses off.
Tut tut.
Um, Deciderator--
In the above post, you pulled out a quote from Shazdancer and attributed it to me.
Not that I've got a problem with Shaz :)
I just don't like someone elses words put in my mouth. Careful on the quotes.
I don't know if anyone ever "protected" me. I was "in" from 1978-1983 and 1990-2001.
In the first stint our twigs were for the most part self governing, self propagating and self supporting/sufficient. I believe that part of this was that the Way Corps were spread thin enough that top-down control was difficult. We had a Limb Coordinator who was also the Region Coordinator. This was New York, so he had lots of ground to cover. Under him was an Area (later Territory) Coordinator who oversaw 9 or 10 branches, each with at least 7 twigs. Not one branch leader was a Way Corps grad. Many twig coordinators weren't Advanced Class grads. People just rose up when needed. They were more facilitators than leaders. They didn't think they could tell people what to do. This was from March 1978 through August 1980.
Toward the end of my stay in TWI in the late 90's the ratio of Way Corps to rank & file believers was much closer. Two Way Corps couples for 4 or 5 twigs in the entire state. By that time leaders toed the party line or were out. Sheilding anyone from anything was tantamount to calling in devil spirits. It was a time of suspicion.
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T-Bone
I totally agree with that idea!!!!!!!!!!!! And I think for some folks it was the other way around – some twig coordinators "protected" the image of TWI. To cover up…whitewash blatant sin…to ignore addressing critical issues – is to condone what they did…it enabled TWI to continue on its evil way…To anyone in a leadership capacity who knowingly went along with TWI's line of crap I say "shame on you!" That's no different than the hypocrites Jesus talked about:
Matthew 23:23-28 NIV
23"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You give a tenth of your spices—mint, dill and cummin. But you have neglected the more important matters of the law—justice, mercy and faithfulness. You should have practiced the latter, without neglecting the former. 24You blind guides! You strain out a gnat but swallow a camel.
25"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You clean the outside of the cup and dish, but inside they are full of greed and self-indulgence. 26Blind Pharisee! First clean the inside of the cup and dish, and then the outside also will be clean.
27"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You are like whitewashed tombs, which look beautiful on the outside but on the inside are full of dead men's bones and everything unclean. 28In the same way, on the outside you appear to people as righteous but on the inside you are full of hypocrisy and wickedness.
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Catcup
Let me define "shield" or "protect." at least in my case.
That meant not implementing the policies and procedures which we felt harmful in my area. It did not mean we didn't tell them what we knew was going on. We not only told our twigs and area what we felt about it, we also told our overseers what we felt.
I think that's how we got on the $h!t list in Ohio.....
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Catcup
Come to think of it, that's also how we got on the Sh!t list in Chicago after we got back from HQ in '83...........
And on the Sh!t list at HQ in '82.............
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shazdancer
From Catcup:
I think that sums up my experience as well. Some people believed it that they were to be self-governing. I remember thinking that some of the "guidelines" that came out of Ohio were meant as just that, guidelines that you could choose to do if you thought they would help, chuck 'em if they didn't.
It was also a matter of degree. When there weren't a lot of bosses, it was easy to ignore the few that were being bossy. They couldn't stay on top of everyone. Later, I suppose there were so many Corps needing something to do, micromanagement became inevitable.
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socks
Worth noting, amongst the many notable notes! If I looked at the different forces at play in the Way's growth through the 70's and 80's I think that hits on a lot of what was going on.
Youth + lack of experience + fast growth = ?
"At the top" the VPster is building the Way Inc. to be a bustling, self sustaining enterprise, bible-teaching-in-a-box - repeatable, scalable, profitable.
Leave aside for a moment an evaluation of the product from a doctrinal standpoint and look at PFAL and the Way Tree as a means of accomplishing two things - 1.) to teach people "God's Word" to help them and 2.) provide a means for those interested in participating to get the teaching and form a fellowship, a church of sorts, around it. Together, anywhere.
Plug in people who are interested and give them the means to faciliate those two things through some training, some assistance, some face-to-face involvement with others of like mind and interest.
What's wrong with that picture? Not much, on face value.
Now plug in an 18 year old who takes PFAL, attends their local fellowship, and within 3 years at the tender age of 21 or 22, is "running" a large Way operation in a state. A "limb" coordinator, or managing a program.
That person probably has a lot of enthusiasm, energy, and desire. What qualifies them to take on such a responsibility?
Well, "Jesus was barely 30 - look at what He did"...."Mary was a teenager - look at her!"
Very true, but they didn't start businesses, sell products, pay taxes, sign contracts, or attempt to build bueaucracies.
They lived out their own life's purposes, so to speak. Did some things, didn't do others. When asked to settle a squabble over a family's division of an inheritance, Jesus was said to have told the man who came to Him "Who made me a judge over you?" By any other words, He might have said "Go talk to them, or someone who deals in such things. I'm not your accountant or therapist. It's none of my business."
So, what was the business of the Way? If it was to do 1 and 2 of the above, the concept of self-governing, financing and propogating left the door wide open for personal development and growth. In theory, there should have never been, could never have been, most of the things we saw happen over the years, finally culminating with a President and Founder so sick and self-absorbed he felt none of the people he'd taught and worked with over the years could even be trusted or understand.
If people involved over the years were primarily trying to do "good" (within a reasonable range and allowing for variances) it's easy to see how extreme avarice, greed, personal agendas, and the like wouldn't be looked for and even overlooked in those who were "leading". If you're assuming everyone's bumbling along and doing the best they can you may not interpret a lot of the weirdness correctly.
It really only took about what - 15 years? - for the whole thing to become a MLM mess. By that time the 18 year old is 33, and most if not all of their personal and professional experience has been in the Way, if they've gone in the Way Corps and become a full-time participant. They may still be poking along doing what they do with good intent for better or worse, and meanwhile the Way's grown up around them to be a hard-core sales machine, with a half-azzed training program churning out more confused but well meaning particpants, thrown into the grinder to sink or swim. In that kind of environment, anything could happen.
That's difficult to shield from.
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doojable
This soooo reminds me of a plan for a franchise.
McTwigs - hold the logic, and just let us have it our way.."
"Salvation to go."
"I'll have one holy spirit please, hold the capitals..."
For a while some were even able to "have it their way..."
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T-Bone
Kids love the Happy Meal…comes with a Board of Trustee non-action figure.
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waysider
I'm lovin' it!
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Ham
and the vicster decreed, "upside down arches shall litter the landscape, from sea to shining sea.."
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doojable
Church of the Fallen Arches...
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Deciderator
Since we were out on the periphery, and because of the twig coordinator, we missed out on the Wierwilledale Chainsaw Massacre.
While others were hanging by their wrists on a cold, damp dungeon wall, nervously eyeing the brazier of hot coals and seeing the ends of the iron pokers turning red, then yellow, then white, we were having some delightful meetings and really sweet fellowship.
We had some twiggers who were skilled gardeners. Sometimes we'd get together in the garden and bring in a bunch of stuff and cook it up. I learned a lot more about growing and preparing organic food at twig, and to this day have a descendant of a purslane plant someone gave me. Well, descendants. I let it go and use it for ground cover in my garden.
Growing in my compost-rich garden, that purslane, when mature, takes on a nutty taste, kinda like a pecan.....
And while the Plaster Casters were in the van, along with a selection of sex slaves imported from Belgium there to train the local talent, gittin drugged up, and all, back at twig we were sometimes getting together and singing songs for 45 minutes or so. Yeah, every now and then we'd have a niice song twig.
Good times.
And while others were being subjected to sleep deprivation (and not by a newborn baby), being thrown in the "Cooler," modeled after the one on Hogans Heroes,, or being waterboarded, Corps style, we were having picnic twig down by the river, doin' a little swimming, a lil' sunbathing or maybe a turn with the rowboat.
Sublime times.
Yep yep yepyepyep, we had some good times.
Most folks were glad for us that we were having a jolly good time, not knowing that HQ was installing a President Bush-style torture policy 20 years beforehand.
Sadly, happiness on the part of others seems to set some sourpusses off.
Tut tut.
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Deciderator
Y'knowwwwwwww, when I was growing up, there just wasn't much divorce. It was a rare thing, and considered scandalous and disgraceful. Until I was 18, among the people I associated with across a rather wide social spectrum, there was only 2 or 3 families I knew personally where the parents divorced. Then things changed and I was around a lot more people who had come from broken homes. I would shake my head ruefully at the stories of daddy or mommy not being there for Christmas or other tales of woe including stories where one parent would try to use the kids against the other parent.
UGH!
I had one friend whose mother had been married 4 times and all those kids were messes.
So I'd get to thinking about how those poor kids hardly had a fair shot starting life. The more I thought about it the sadder I'd get for them. I could get to where I was feeling kind of guilty because I had a stable home with two parents who loved each other and us kids as much as any parents cld be expected to do.
Yeah, guilty.
And I get the same feeling for some on the board who are still in a rut that goes back to the days when hair bands stalked the earth. Their anguished cries and bitter tears, the wardrobe o'sackcloth and no cosmetics but for a 35 gallon drum of ashes.
I mean, if they could just be free of the constant agony just for a day!--------- just being carefree like others of us, running towards each other on the beach in slow motion as clouds formed in the shape of charging unicorns above.....
But no, there they wallow.
Maybe one day, one day, one of them will look at the others and say, "Why sit we here until we die?"
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rascal
Nice, real nice Deciderator, just about exactly as much compassion and understanding that I would expect from an idolater :(
You don`t understand, and you don`t care to. You just want to point your finger of condemnation at everybody and expect people to return to the vomit of twi doctrine.
Your obsession blinds, and prevents understanding. I am sorry for you.
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Ham
closely followed by the Church of orthopedic support shoes..
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TOMMYZ
My late Twig coordinator Bob ( this was the early 80's ) had a love for God's people. When the new Corp came in with an attitude of "You're here to serve me " Bob let him have it with both barrels. At the Twig level for many it was about walking on the Word and in love. That's what it was about , not serving the organization. For those who never got higher up the corporate ladder, that's why it's easy to have fond memories of the time in TWI. At least until it all fell apart.
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rascal
Fond memories I get, I have them too. I love the people whom stood up for their people, I love them for the courage that it took to stand up against the status quo.
I understand why it was done...I just think that completely unbeknownst to ourselves, we ended up facilitating the evil. They couldn`t have operated or survived without us.
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Deciderator
Rascal, you ever have purslane?
Look it up, it's jam-packed with vitamins and lots of people treat it like a weed!
It has a nice growth habit, getting, oh, 6 or 8 inches high. It resembles a jade plant.
I think it's pretty.
I'll throw it on a sandwich or in a salad....
Sadly, it's already dying back.
That's the way it is, it come in in May, just when you're wondering if it will return, and then dies out at the end of July.
I got me some really sweet orange bell peppers about to ripen.
Sometimes I'll pick one and just pause and eat it right there without even rinsing it off.....
You like orange bell peppers?
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waysider
Through the door crashes Clara Pe!!er.
Storming determinedly toward the counter she demands to know-----------
"Where's the Greek?"
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Deciderator
It seems like there were a lot of fine people like that around.
I say they don't get enough credit.............
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skyrider
My first year on hq staff was 1979-1980.
THAT year, wierwille was driving the ministry toward the corporate scene with a vengence.
1) The outer shell of the OSC made way for loads of office space on its south side.
2) Emogene was one of the first to move "her department" - the bookstore - into the OSC.
3) The simple meals in the basement of the BRC were no more. The OSC Dining Room opened.
4) The Sunday Night Serviices moved out of the BRC into the make-shift OSC Dining Room.
5) The Trustees made sure that their offices were across the hall from the Finance Department.
6) Wierwille was busy pushing lofty "visions" of Camp Gunnison, the Corps Chalet, the LEAD program, etc.
7) Way Productions and music contests were swarming with activity.
8) The Corps Program was busting tail to train leaders on FIVE different campuses.
9) Move over "fond memories"...........enter swiftly, and smugly, corporate twi.
And, two years after all of this, the ceremonious fan-fare for the president-elect and soon-president LCM was reaching its zenith........precisely at the time of twi's 40th anniversary.
Rare beyond rare....was one to find a simple, God-first, Christ-in-you, He-walks-with-me-and-He-talks-with-me, loving and caring twig into the 80's. Wierwille and Martindale were phasing out the twig coordinators of yester-year and replacing them with corps-trained-quality-approved corps twig coordinators. Say all you want about "the good ole days"........BUT KNOW THIS, wierwille and martindale drove these new leaders (corps) to be aggressive and confrontational and impersonal wanting to oust the free-floating and unrestricted twig coordinators who held little allegiance to wierwille or twi.
Bye, bye.........sweet twigs.
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Catcup
Um, Deciderator--
In the above post, you pulled out a quote from Shazdancer and attributed it to me.
Not that I've got a problem with Shaz :)
I just don't like someone elses words put in my mouth. Careful on the quotes.
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Catcup
Look it up. It's yesterday's post you made at 8:53 p.m.
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Oakspear
I don't know if anyone ever "protected" me. I was "in" from 1978-1983 and 1990-2001.
In the first stint our twigs were for the most part self governing, self propagating and self supporting/sufficient. I believe that part of this was that the Way Corps were spread thin enough that top-down control was difficult. We had a Limb Coordinator who was also the Region Coordinator. This was New York, so he had lots of ground to cover. Under him was an Area (later Territory) Coordinator who oversaw 9 or 10 branches, each with at least 7 twigs. Not one branch leader was a Way Corps grad. Many twig coordinators weren't Advanced Class grads. People just rose up when needed. They were more facilitators than leaders. They didn't think they could tell people what to do. This was from March 1978 through August 1980.
Toward the end of my stay in TWI in the late 90's the ratio of Way Corps to rank & file believers was much closer. Two Way Corps couples for 4 or 5 twigs in the entire state. By that time leaders toed the party line or were out. Sheilding anyone from anything was tantamount to calling in devil spirits. It was a time of suspicion.
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Deciderator
Yep, I certainly botched the quote feature there.
I apologize.
Even thought you didn't take offence, it coulda happened.
I'm probably the least-skilled person on the board with computers.
To give you an idea, I just learned to cut and paste a few months ago.
Go ahead and laugh, I don't mind.
Catcup I hope you understand I did not intend to put words in your mouth and I hope that counts for something.
Of course it doesn't mean I wasn't wrong and I hope you accept my apology.
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