I've long thought that the centralizing of "leadership" responsibility in the Way Corps was the big mistake that killed the grass roots and organic growth in favor of controlled and regimented growth. But I can see where the WOW program would have the same effect. I think both the institution of the Way Corps and the start of the WOW program are both symptoms of Wierwille's need to control
I'm not sure what you mean by this. How did he misinterpret the efforts of people like Donnie F.?
I never knew Donnie so I could be wrong in my perception of him.
From all accounts I've ever heard from people who knew Donnie, his core motivations were pure. He was simply convinced in the message he was promoting and in his sales approach to "moving The Word". His efforts and motives were altruistic and philanthropic at their core. Meanwhile, Wierwille saw how effective this recruitment method was and latched onto it as a mass marketing tool. Wierwille though, had a much different agenda. He misinterpreted (or reinvented) this approach for very different reasons. Donnie's work (as well as others) was VPW's prototype for the WOW program. I think this was a mistake because, without the altruistic ingredient that Fug!t and others brought to it, the prototype was flawed. True, there were individual WOWs who shared this same mindset but they did not have the direct control of the program's direction that Wierwille had. Wierwille did not realize that the program was missing its main ingredient. It was a big miscalculation from a business standpoint---IMO
From all accounts I've ever heard from people who knew Donnie, his core motivations were pure. He was simply convinced in the message he was promoting and in his sales approach to "moving The Word". His efforts and motives were altruistic and philanthropic at their core.
While I don't know much about the beginnings of the WOW program, I had the privilege of meeting Donnie a few times and attending some twigs and classes that he taught live. The man was so genuine in his beliefs and enthusiasm... THAT is what made you want to believe whatever he said. I agree VPW would want to find a way to "bottle" that success (as he had with Doop's and Heefner's). And I agree you cannot bottle "heart". Your people either have it or they don't. The more corporate and institutionalized TWI got, the less heart it had.
The group that became known as The First Way Corps started their program at Way HQ in the late summer or early fall of 1970 and graduated 2 years later in 1972.
A group that was later derisively referred to as "The Zero Corps" started in 1969 but was dismissed by Wierwille in under a year. It is unclear whether this group was called "The Way Corps" at the time they were together.
The WOW program was announced at the end of summer school 1971 during a weekend festival/celebration later referred to as the first Rock of Ages Festival*. Wierwille announced that the program was starting, then brought them back for "training" some time later (perhaps in October, not 100% sure). This first group of WOWs ended their year at the second Rock of Ages in August 1972.
A group called the "pilot WOWs", which included Donnie Fugit as well as less than a dozen others were sent out previous to the so-called "first wave" of WOWs following the 1971 ROA. I believe that this took place in the spring & summer of 1971.
* In looking back through my old Way Mags a few years ago, I noticed that the first "Rock of Ages" was simply the music portion of a weeklong celebration of the end of summer school and was referred to throughout the Way Mag articles as a Summer Youth Advance featuring "The Return of the Rock of Ages"
This whole discussion makes me wonder if there wasn't a specific point at which the organization imploded.
Personally, it was with the announcement that Loy would be VP's successor. I knew I would no longer have my heart in TWI and my financial support would be very limited at best.
As someone else pointed out in an earlier thread, Loy signed the TWI financial death warrant by killing ROA and the WOW program and making Corps full-time.
I think I agree that it was the announcement that LCM would be leading the ministry.
.
That is when the feel (For lack of a better word) of the ministry seemed to change at least to me.
I realize there were incidents prior to this that were bad and that indicated the real intent of the ministry but from my perspective it was at the point when LCM began to exert his own ideas and began taking the reins that it slowly began to change.
When LCM began to take over TWI was still growing. While VP was in control he certainly had control of the purse strings but he still left the twigs to somewhat govern themselves.
For me there was a marked difference in the teachings that were out their once LCM began taking over.
We left shortly after that but it was definitely seeping out from HQ to the twigs by the time we left.
So if that was the spark.. then next stage would be the first exodus of a large portion of believers and Corps. I would put the super Nova at the point when all the abuse lawsuits began.
No matter how you slice it the business implosion is tied into the actual physical growth of the ministry.
IT was still growing when I left in 1983 and growing at a phenomenal rate.
I do not think WOW was the impetus of the implosion. If anything WOW was still helping to grow the ministry. At least at that point. There wasn't even a big cost to the ministry versus the income generated via WOW. WOW was a win win for the ministry even though it may have been detrimental to some of the WOW's
I think LCM's angry ministry is what sent it into a tail spin. and the behind the scenes stuff just was added fuel to the fire.
Remember he was spewing his anger already at the Corps long before he took full reins.
Twiglit, I think that may have been how it appeared. In my opinion, I have to wonder if it was pretty rotten all along. I think that the reason that it seemed to get worse after LCM took the reigns was that he did what everybody else had always been doing...he was just too stupid to keep it subtle like wierwille and his buddies did.
Wiereille had built loyalty, people who covered for him, people who hid his sins and invoked lock box.
LCM hadn`t built the network of secrecy and subtelty, he wasn`t as good at picking and grooming his victims....he bought into the whole schpeal. I think that he had been at hq for so long and under wierwilles influence, that he really had lost touch with the reality of life outside of his little area. He didn`t understand the need to have support, so he ran off any whom dared try to speak up and introduce a dose of reality.
I think that he was really crazy and believed this stuff to the point that he really didn`t think there were consequences. What people on the field began to *feel* in the 80s was the true nastiness of what twi had been all along, it`s just that one by one, the people insulating the rest of us from hq were being run off...as people saw what was really there, they began leaving too...they were replaced with yes men and bullies...there were no people left to stand in the gap against the evil that poured forth from hq.
Wierwille knew that his success rested on the shoulders of the people that believed that we were a wholesome Christian ministry and kept up the facade. He knew who had to be placated, whom needed to be run off....
LCM believed it was all about himself as the mog and the product that we marketed.
Though I think it was always rotten, I think that the defining moment came when wierwille picked lcm as his successor. There were several that were smarter, more subtle, and would have done a better job at leading.
Thank God I guess, because it took someone as insane as craiggers to just about single handedly dismantle the entire thing.
I think that he was really crazy and believed this stuff to the point that he really didn`t think there were consequences. What people on the field began to *feel* in the 80s was the true nastiness of what twi had been all along, it`s just that one by one, the people insulating the rest of us from hq were being run off...as people saw what was really there, they began leaving too...they were replaced with yes men and bullies...there were no people left to stand in the gap against the evil that poured forth from hq.
Wierwille knew that his success rested on the shoulders of the people that believed that we were a wholesome Christian ministry and kept up the facade. He knew who had to be placated, whom needed to be run off....
LCM believed it was all about himself as the mog and the product that we marketed.
And........as this INSULATING tier of good-hearted people were run off.....replaced by yes men and bullies.....the newly-graduated corps were trained in CONFRONTATIONAL MODE and advanced class grads started to see the ugly, nasty treatment that the corps served under.
Besides......craig was so anal, he thought advanced class grads would immediately jump thru the hoops as well.
The entirety of lcm's education was everything he learned through college
(mostly, football)
plus everything he learned in twi.
Remember- he went straight from college to twi, and may never have worked for a paycheck a day in his life
(he had that in common with vpw, who went from school to "ministry".)
vpw KNEW what he built, KNEW when to ease up on the "marks", and when to reel in the "pigeons."
lcm was "educated" in twi and thought it was all REAL. So, he didn't cover his tracks like vpw did.
Wierwille ran off many of the "brc faithful" through the 60s.......and would heap praise on the five or six couples who drove in every sunday (early 70s) for wierwille's preaching. Some of those old-timer faithful despised wierwille intensely.
Wierwille ran off the zero corps........and labeled them "zero corps" to imply worthless or dead-beats.
Wierwille had his top men run off many from 1976-82.......while wierwille stayed in the shadows directing the action.
Martindale did not have an extensive layer of top-level yes-men.......many of his peers were all-to-ready to watch him crash and burn. Besides, while martindale was busy in his dancing tights, some of his peers were busy plotting and calculating against him. Martindale, in his ignorance and ego, was blind-sided.
Most of us here were not around in 1962-67 when wierwille was 45-50 years old......and traveling with howard, and hunting, and whatever. Many of us here witnessed a much older and softer wierwille.......60 year old (pfal 77). But here on GreaseSpot, I've recounted THREE MAJOR BLISTERING CONFRONTATIONS BY WIERWILLE that exceeded anything I'd ever seen from martindale or geer or lynn....and wierwille was 62 or 63 years old when these occurred.
Martindale, Geer, Lynn, F1nnegan, etc..........were trained wholesale by wierwille and bought into this twisted "christian confrontation logic" by isolating a few scriptures of Jesus and the Pharisees or OT stands against prophets of Baal, etc.
Wierwille ran off many of the "brc faithful" through the 60s.......and would heap praise on the five or six couples who drove in every sunday (early 70s) for wierwille's preaching. Some of those old-timer faithful despised wierwille intensely.
Wierwille ran off the zero corps........and labeled them "zero corps" to imply worthless or dead-beats.
Wierwille had his top men run off many from 1976-82.......while wierwille stayed in the shadows directing the action.
Martindale did not have an extensive layer of top-level yes-men.......many of his peers were all-to-ready to watch him crash and burn. Besides, while martindale was busy in his dancing tights, some of his peers were busy plotting and calculating against him. Martindale, in his ignorance and ego, was blind-sided.
Most of us here were not around in 1962-67 when wierwille was 45-50 years old......and traveling with howard, and hunting, and whatever. Many of us here witnessed a much older and softer wierwille.......60 year old (pfal 77). But here on GreaseSpot, I've recounted THREE MAJOR BLISTERING CONFRONTATIONS BY WIERWILLE that exceeded anything I'd ever seen from martindale or geer or lynn....and wierwille was 62 or 63 years old when these occurred.
Martindale, Geer, Lynn, F1nnegan, etc..........were trained wholesale by wierwille and bought into this twisted "christian confrontation logic" by isolating a few scriptures of Jesus and the Pharisees or OT stands against prophets of Baal, etc.
Wierwille and Musicians thread..........reminded that wieriwlle ran off Joe F@ir.
This High Country Caravan stuff happened in the fall of '83............wierwille was 66 years old.
Wierwille ran off many of the "brc faithful" through the 60s.......and would heap praise on the five or six couples who drove in every sunday (early 70s) for wierwille's preaching. Some of those old-timer faithful despised wierwille intensely.
Wierwille ran off the zero corps........and labeled them "zero corps" to imply worthless or dead-beats.
Wierwille had his top men run off many from 1976-82.......while wierwille stayed in the shadows directing the action.
Sky,
I'm hoping you can elaborate on this a little. We were all aware that Walter had been a right hand man and had distanced himself from TWI, but other than that, there wasn't much discussion within the rank and file believers.
I'm hoping you can elaborate on this a little. We were all aware that Walter had been a right hand man and had distanced himself from TWI, but other than that, there wasn't much discussion within the rank and file believers.
Jim.........first of all, I am no authority on twi's history in the 60s, but will share a little bit of what stands out to me from those "pillar meetings at hq" during my corps training and my years on hq staff.
When our corps groups met with these "pillars" .....one couple per night........ge0rge & bern1ta j3ss, m@l & j@n ge0rge, erm@l & d0rothy ow3ns, edd1e and d0nna d0ers@m, d1ck & de3 fischb@ch, rueb3n & rh0da wierwille, and a couple of others detailed aspects from 1957 to when "those hippies started arriving at those hq summer camps."
One thing to remember........a sizeable following in twi centered around the troy/piqua area (Ohio) and wanted vpw to move the ministry's hdqtrs to troy. But, by late 1959/60.....when the decision was made to move from van wert to the wierwille farmstead, many in troy/piqua quit overnight.
In April 1960 wierwille instituted the Diamond Club.....looking for 75 poeople who would stand with him, support the ministry, and move the Word as a team [p. 254 Born Again to Serve. Six commitments were listed.......and #6 -- abundantly share the first fruits of your income with the ministry each week. Mrs. Wierwille gives no specifics in her book of the Diamond Club success........i.e. the silence seems to speak for itself.
Even though wierwille was teaching 8-12 classes per year..........the support was meager, at best. And, after the brc was built in 1962........twi promoted that old video showing a stream of cars pulling into the brc for sunday teachings by the renowned wierwille. Yet, when we met with those "pillars of the church"......some laughed at that bit of history, saying that there were like 10 cars altogether and people entered the brc, walked straight through, out the back door and the car drove around the brc to get in line again........a deceptive ploy.........even then!!!
But yes........wierwille's demand for support and commitment and work days and etc. etc......drove away many of those german farmers and supporters in the 60s. Even the farmer on wierwille road, south side near the brc, quit coming.....he and wierwille had a parting of ways. Wierwille's constant demands were just too much.........and only a small number of "pillars" are credited with standing with wierwille (before the hippies arrived).
Lots of stuff here.......and others know lots more than I do.
This may have no relevance at all, but I seem to remember a definitely different "feel" to the ministry around about 1982 or so. IIRC that was the year the Vicster made his schlep to Nashville trying to hawk his wares on a national sorta venue. To me that whole "Soundout '82" (or was it '84?) thingy just smacked of a real sellout. The whole ministry trying to take on some sort of "Ah shucks" country-fried personna and all that GAWDAWFUL cornfed country music, the whole thing made me ill. That was my first time of really questioning the legitimacy of the whole of TWIdom.
And then there was that big push to get "4000 for the 40th" - as in suckers to go "W.O.W.". THAT didn't happen either. Just another in a continuing litany of stuff that didn't really pass the smell test, when it came to being some sort of "blessed by GAWD" endeavor. Clearly, there were a number of things that Mr. Wierwille was pushing that were pretty much half-baked...
This may have no relevance at all, but I seem to remember a definitely different "feel" to the ministry around about 1982 or so. IIRC that was the year the Vicster made his schlep to Nashville trying to hawk his wares on a national sorta venue. To me that whole "Soundout '82" (or was it '84?) thingy just smacked of a real sellout. The whole ministry trying to take on some sort of "Ah shucks" country-fried personna and all that GAWDAWFUL cornfed country music, the whole thing made me ill. That was my first time of really questioning the legitimacy of the whole of TWIdom.
And then there was that big push to get "4000 for the 40th" - as in suckers to go "W.O.W.". THAT didn't happen either. Just another in a continuing litany of stuff that didn't really pass the smell test, when it came to being some sort of "blessed by GAWD" endeavor. Clearly, there were a number of things that Mr. Wierwille was pushing that were pretty much half-baked...
George it had to be after 82
I never heard of it while I was in. Maybe tied to the high country caravan.
The whole push toward country started right about when we left so after march of 83 I think.
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Oakspear
I've long thought that the centralizing of "leadership" responsibility in the Way Corps was the big mistake that killed the grass roots and organic growth in favor of controlled and regimented growth. But I can see where the WOW program would have the same effect. I think both the institution of the Way Corps and the start of the WOW program are both symptoms of Wierwille's need to control
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Tzaia
I think the moment came when he believed PFAL was a means to an end.
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potato
pfal was always a means to an end.
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WordWolf
To be specific,
when vpw first found out about BG Leonard's class, he intended to take that class with the intention of
subverting it, teaching it himself for money, and claiming it was his own work.
So, when vpw first attended Leonard's class, it was a means to an end.
3 months later, vpw retook Leonard's entire class (previously he INTERRUPTED a class IN PROGRESS.)
A few months after that, vpw taught Leonard's class as "vpw's 'Receiving the Holy Spirit Today" class,
then continued to do so, eventually renaming it "pfal" and adding material,
stretching it to 3 classes. However, the few people who took Leonard's class were AUTOMATICALLY
considered grads of the RtHST class because they were functionally identical.
That, IIRC, was 1953.
Since he'd been fishing for SOMETHING to plagiarize for years before that, I think the damage was
done when vpw decided on "minister" as his CAREER.
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Mark Clarke
I'm not sure what you mean by this. How did he misinterpret the efforts of people like Donnie F.?
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Bolshevik
Wouldn't it be putting lcm at the helm? vpw put the scamed in charge of the scam.
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waysider
I never knew Donnie so I could be wrong in my perception of him.
From all accounts I've ever heard from people who knew Donnie, his core motivations were pure. He was simply convinced in the message he was promoting and in his sales approach to "moving The Word". His efforts and motives were altruistic and philanthropic at their core. Meanwhile, Wierwille saw how effective this recruitment method was and latched onto it as a mass marketing tool. Wierwille though, had a much different agenda. He misinterpreted (or reinvented) this approach for very different reasons. Donnie's work (as well as others) was VPW's prototype for the WOW program. I think this was a mistake because, without the altruistic ingredient that Fug!t and others brought to it, the prototype was flawed. True, there were individual WOWs who shared this same mindset but they did not have the direct control of the program's direction that Wierwille had. Wierwille did not realize that the program was missing its main ingredient. It was a big miscalculation from a business standpoint---IMO
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TheHighWay
While I don't know much about the beginnings of the WOW program, I had the privilege of meeting Donnie a few times and attending some twigs and classes that he taught live. The man was so genuine in his beliefs and enthusiasm... THAT is what made you want to believe whatever he said. I agree VPW would want to find a way to "bottle" that success (as he had with Doop's and Heefner's). And I agree you cannot bottle "heart". Your people either have it or they don't. The more corporate and institutionalized TWI got, the less heart it had.
What year did Way Corps start?
What year did WOW start?
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Oakspear
The group that became known as The First Way Corps started their program at Way HQ in the late summer or early fall of 1970 and graduated 2 years later in 1972.
A group that was later derisively referred to as "The Zero Corps" started in 1969 but was dismissed by Wierwille in under a year. It is unclear whether this group was called "The Way Corps" at the time they were together.
The WOW program was announced at the end of summer school 1971 during a weekend festival/celebration later referred to as the first Rock of Ages Festival*. Wierwille announced that the program was starting, then brought them back for "training" some time later (perhaps in October, not 100% sure). This first group of WOWs ended their year at the second Rock of Ages in August 1972.
A group called the "pilot WOWs", which included Donnie Fugit as well as less than a dozen others were sent out previous to the so-called "first wave" of WOWs following the 1971 ROA. I believe that this took place in the spring & summer of 1971.
* In looking back through my old Way Mags a few years ago, I noticed that the first "Rock of Ages" was simply the music portion of a weeklong celebration of the end of summer school and was referred to throughout the Way Mag articles as a Summer Youth Advance featuring "The Return of the Rock of Ages"
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Jim
Personally, it was with the announcement that Loy would be VP's successor. I knew I would no longer have my heart in TWI and my financial support would be very limited at best.
As someone else pointed out in an earlier thread, Loy signed the TWI financial death warrant by killing ROA and the WOW program and making Corps full-time.
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leafytwiglet
I think I agree that it was the announcement that LCM would be leading the ministry.
.
That is when the feel (For lack of a better word) of the ministry seemed to change at least to me.
I realize there were incidents prior to this that were bad and that indicated the real intent of the ministry but from my perspective it was at the point when LCM began to exert his own ideas and began taking the reins that it slowly began to change.
When LCM began to take over TWI was still growing. While VP was in control he certainly had control of the purse strings but he still left the twigs to somewhat govern themselves.
For me there was a marked difference in the teachings that were out their once LCM began taking over.
We left shortly after that but it was definitely seeping out from HQ to the twigs by the time we left.
So if that was the spark.. then next stage would be the first exodus of a large portion of believers and Corps. I would put the super Nova at the point when all the abuse lawsuits began.
No matter how you slice it the business implosion is tied into the actual physical growth of the ministry.
IT was still growing when I left in 1983 and growing at a phenomenal rate.
I do not think WOW was the impetus of the implosion. If anything WOW was still helping to grow the ministry. At least at that point. There wasn't even a big cost to the ministry versus the income generated via WOW. WOW was a win win for the ministry even though it may have been detrimental to some of the WOW's
I think LCM's angry ministry is what sent it into a tail spin. and the behind the scenes stuff just was added fuel to the fire.
Remember he was spewing his anger already at the Corps long before he took full reins.
Anyway that is just my Opinion.
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rascal
Twiglit, I think that may have been how it appeared. In my opinion, I have to wonder if it was pretty rotten all along. I think that the reason that it seemed to get worse after LCM took the reigns was that he did what everybody else had always been doing...he was just too stupid to keep it subtle like wierwille and his buddies did.
Wiereille had built loyalty, people who covered for him, people who hid his sins and invoked lock box.
LCM hadn`t built the network of secrecy and subtelty, he wasn`t as good at picking and grooming his victims....he bought into the whole schpeal. I think that he had been at hq for so long and under wierwilles influence, that he really had lost touch with the reality of life outside of his little area. He didn`t understand the need to have support, so he ran off any whom dared try to speak up and introduce a dose of reality.
I think that he was really crazy and believed this stuff to the point that he really didn`t think there were consequences. What people on the field began to *feel* in the 80s was the true nastiness of what twi had been all along, it`s just that one by one, the people insulating the rest of us from hq were being run off...as people saw what was really there, they began leaving too...they were replaced with yes men and bullies...there were no people left to stand in the gap against the evil that poured forth from hq.
Wierwille knew that his success rested on the shoulders of the people that believed that we were a wholesome Christian ministry and kept up the facade. He knew who had to be placated, whom needed to be run off....
LCM believed it was all about himself as the mog and the product that we marketed.
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rascal
Though I think it was always rotten, I think that the defining moment came when wierwille picked lcm as his successor. There were several that were smarter, more subtle, and would have done a better job at leading.
Thank God I guess, because it took someone as insane as craiggers to just about single handedly dismantle the entire thing.
We`d all probably still be there :(
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Tzaia
"all" without exception, or "all" without distinction.
Sorry - feeling feistier than usual... :blink:
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rascal
:blink:
I couldn`t tell you the difference anymore :)
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skyrider
And........as this INSULATING tier of good-hearted people were run off.....replaced by yes men and bullies.....the newly-graduated corps were trained in CONFRONTATIONAL MODE and advanced class grads started to see the ugly, nasty treatment that the corps served under.
Besides......craig was so anal, he thought advanced class grads would immediately jump thru the hoops as well.
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WordWolf
The entirety of lcm's education was everything he learned through college
(mostly, football)
plus everything he learned in twi.
Remember- he went straight from college to twi, and may never have worked for a paycheck a day in his life
(he had that in common with vpw, who went from school to "ministry".)
vpw KNEW what he built, KNEW when to ease up on the "marks", and when to reel in the "pigeons."
lcm was "educated" in twi and thought it was all REAL. So, he didn't cover his tracks like vpw did.
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skyrider
Wierwille ran off many of the "brc faithful" through the 60s.......and would heap praise on the five or six couples who drove in every sunday (early 70s) for wierwille's preaching. Some of those old-timer faithful despised wierwille intensely.
Wierwille ran off the zero corps........and labeled them "zero corps" to imply worthless or dead-beats.
Wierwille had his top men run off many from 1976-82.......while wierwille stayed in the shadows directing the action.
Martindale did not have an extensive layer of top-level yes-men.......many of his peers were all-to-ready to watch him crash and burn. Besides, while martindale was busy in his dancing tights, some of his peers were busy plotting and calculating against him. Martindale, in his ignorance and ego, was blind-sided.
Most of us here were not around in 1962-67 when wierwille was 45-50 years old......and traveling with howard, and hunting, and whatever. Many of us here witnessed a much older and softer wierwille.......60 year old (pfal 77). But here on GreaseSpot, I've recounted THREE MAJOR BLISTERING CONFRONTATIONS BY WIERWILLE that exceeded anything I'd ever seen from martindale or geer or lynn....and wierwille was 62 or 63 years old when these occurred.
Martindale, Geer, Lynn, F1nnegan, etc..........were trained wholesale by wierwille and bought into this twisted "christian confrontation logic" by isolating a few scriptures of Jesus and the Pharisees or OT stands against prophets of Baal, etc.
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skyrider
Wierwille and Musicians thread..........reminded that wieriwlle ran off Joe F@ir.
This High Country Caravan stuff happened in the fall of '83............wierwille was 66 years old.
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Jim
Sky,
I'm hoping you can elaborate on this a little. We were all aware that Walter had been a right hand man and had distanced himself from TWI, but other than that, there wasn't much discussion within the rank and file believers.
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skyrider
Jim.........first of all, I am no authority on twi's history in the 60s, but will share a little bit of what stands out to me from those "pillar meetings at hq" during my corps training and my years on hq staff.
When our corps groups met with these "pillars" .....one couple per night........ge0rge & bern1ta j3ss, m@l & j@n ge0rge, erm@l & d0rothy ow3ns, edd1e and d0nna d0ers@m, d1ck & de3 fischb@ch, rueb3n & rh0da wierwille, and a couple of others detailed aspects from 1957 to when "those hippies started arriving at those hq summer camps."
One thing to remember........a sizeable following in twi centered around the troy/piqua area (Ohio) and wanted vpw to move the ministry's hdqtrs to troy. But, by late 1959/60.....when the decision was made to move from van wert to the wierwille farmstead, many in troy/piqua quit overnight.
In April 1960 wierwille instituted the Diamond Club.....looking for 75 poeople who would stand with him, support the ministry, and move the Word as a team [p. 254 Born Again to Serve. Six commitments were listed.......and #6 -- abundantly share the first fruits of your income with the ministry each week. Mrs. Wierwille gives no specifics in her book of the Diamond Club success........i.e. the silence seems to speak for itself.
Even though wierwille was teaching 8-12 classes per year..........the support was meager, at best. And, after the brc was built in 1962........twi promoted that old video showing a stream of cars pulling into the brc for sunday teachings by the renowned wierwille. Yet, when we met with those "pillars of the church"......some laughed at that bit of history, saying that there were like 10 cars altogether and people entered the brc, walked straight through, out the back door and the car drove around the brc to get in line again........a deceptive ploy.........even then!!!
But yes........wierwille's demand for support and commitment and work days and etc. etc......drove away many of those german farmers and supporters in the 60s. Even the farmer on wierwille road, south side near the brc, quit coming.....he and wierwille had a parting of ways. Wierwille's constant demands were just too much.........and only a small number of "pillars" are credited with standing with wierwille (before the hippies arrived).
Lots of stuff here.......and others know lots more than I do.
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George Aar
This may have no relevance at all, but I seem to remember a definitely different "feel" to the ministry around about 1982 or so. IIRC that was the year the Vicster made his schlep to Nashville trying to hawk his wares on a national sorta venue. To me that whole "Soundout '82" (or was it '84?) thingy just smacked of a real sellout. The whole ministry trying to take on some sort of "Ah shucks" country-fried personna and all that GAWDAWFUL cornfed country music, the whole thing made me ill. That was my first time of really questioning the legitimacy of the whole of TWIdom.
And then there was that big push to get "4000 for the 40th" - as in suckers to go "W.O.W.". THAT didn't happen either. Just another in a continuing litany of stuff that didn't really pass the smell test, when it came to being some sort of "blessed by GAWD" endeavor. Clearly, there were a number of things that Mr. Wierwille was pushing that were pretty much half-baked...
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leafytwiglet
George it had to be after 82
I never heard of it while I was in. Maybe tied to the high country caravan.
The whole push toward country started right about when we left so after march of 83 I think.
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rascal
It was sound out 84
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