Could John Lynn be the undisputed king of Offshoot ministries?

[socks 153]

Lotza things kids,

Having been around during that period of Lynn 's exit and having spoken with him twice the year he skated out, John Lynn's "quitting/getting fired" from the Way Ministry was kinda self serving. It benefitted him in several ways:

- He crafted his own exit message around his personal involvement and culpability in the things that were "wrong" with the Way Inc. 
      I mention that because when he and I spoke the first time about his leaving, he didn't want to talk at all about issues I brought up to him that        I felt he had some accountability for. 
- He was able to personally attack all of the Trustees and anyone he wished without any chance of their rebuttal or responding. 
- He created and managed the environment in which he WOULD deal with anything he chose
- He was able to start teaching what was to become a long string of half-assed-theories-of-the-week ideas unchallenged, while claiming he was walking in "Doctor's Footsteps" (which he told me over the phone). And when I told him he and I both knew ANY deviation from PFAL would have "The Doctor" shoving his foot up his ass he just chuckled and said "well, we'll all know someday" and continued to blab on. 

When I last spoke to him in - 1987? - I was still formally attached to the Way Inc. via my then-current Corps assignment but I was very aware that the Way Nash's leadership structure was in rack and ruin and I had no rose-colored expectations that it was going to get better. IMO however, Lynn did no great service to anyone in "revealing" the evils of the Way Trustees that he didn't get a lot in return for. It set the stage for all his future efforts and effectively made him an heir-apparent for all the ex-Wayfers who still needed a nipple to suck on and a warm crotch to lay their head on while being taught "the Bible" again and again and again and again. And again. 

Other than a phone call in the '90's when he was traveling around with a new book to sell and a coffee can to collect money in when he taught, I have had no contact from him at all. I wouldn't get involved in any of his enterprises, listen to him talk or buy anything he was selling. I'd love to engage in any number of normal real life activities, if the opportunity fell into my lap but other than that I do pray for his health and healing. Over the years I've heard and seen a few things here and there that he's done and - maybe it's just me - but he's turned into a terrible speaker and teacher, IMO. He's not really "funny", which everyone likes to say to get you to listen...."He's just as funny as he ever was".....and I'm not hard pressed to find yet another LOL jokester. I'm sure he's about as good as anyone would be who's been pounding the book for this many years but it's been years since I was dependent on the Teaching Teat of Ex Way Teat-chers. Seriously - there's a lot of sludge out there. As long as they mean well and do their best, I'm fine with it, just don't try to tell me it's next level stuff or particularly meaninful or anything like it. 

But my Gad-a-mitey, this is ancient history. Why do I persist, and to what ends? I guess it's a way to sort through the detritus and dust and pull out the odd dime or quarter lost in the cushions. God bless 'im but if the intent is to carry on with the message of Christ and salvation to the future generations it's time to give this bullshit a rest and focus on "GOD'S WORD" instead of whether or not one of us old and breaking down former wannabe-s can still punch our old weight. 

I would say this with no equivocation however and with all the state and stature it deserves - Lynn is the Undisputed King of The Church of JAL. 

All hail the King of JAL!!

Edited August 21 by socks
Let's play a game....

[oldiesman 7]

The teachings are remarkably the same as PFAL, with one difference in the "statement of un-beliefs":

9. We do not believe that “faith” is a force generated by the human mind that automatically brings either good or bad into one’s life.

 

[waysider 914]

Yes, renouncing the "law of believing" is certainly a massive departure from Way theology.

[socks 153]

9. We do not believe that “faith” is a force generated by the human mind that automatically brings either good or bad into one’s life.

To me, that's a very bizarre statement, and reads like it's designed to appeal to the ex-Wayfer crowd. I talk to lots and lots of Christians of all stripe and no one is
struggling with or promoting the idea that faith is a force generated by the human mind that yada yada....

Faith is trust, and confidence in, about, towards something. "Pistis/Pistueo" in the Bible, a firm conviction, belief, a trust - 

IN SOMETHING. The bang is in the buck. 

My exposure to the teachings of VPW in and around PFAL included what certainly sounded like him teaching "believing" as some kind of tangible "thing" that would produce a result when it was at a certain level. "Build up your believing", got used a lot in that context, and the very idea of Christians as "believers" was both their belief in doctrine as well as their "believing walks", what they did with those doctrines. If you "weren't believing" it had a sense of your tank being half full - like you were convinced but not REALLY convinced, even though you may have done the actual thing that needed to be done and didn't get the "results".....because you weren't "believing"....even though you were. It was kind of like a dog chasing it's tail though and every once in awhile it bites it and stops then starts again..........meanwhile all it really amounted to was trying to saturate your thinking and resulting actions with enough of what God instructs you to do so that your "faith" will then be towards Him. It used to seem sometimes like VPW actually repudiated God's grace when he's teach people to not rely on it - when people like me were thinking "fuk, I rely on it all the time, I NEED IT!!!!"..................and I guess what I think he really meant was don't be a lazy ass and avoid doing the work you're supposed to and expect someone else to do it for you. But they're not really the same things, that's not relying on "grace"> 

The trust and confidence of pistis/pistueo has significance in the Bible because it's GOD WERE' TRUSTING IN. Pneuma hagion is HIS GIFT, TO US. 

VPW was trying to build a generation of Uber Christians, The True Believers, who knew THE TRUTH and would WALK IT like it hasn't been walked since the first century. 

In fact, many of his early protege's tanked and were mostly just successful at being good employees and mimics of him in the family business. He died of cancer, alone but for a sidekick, pushing aways all others who might have actually given a crap about him as a person. 

I'd rather not exit this temporal crust that way. 

I can say without any doubt whatsoever and complete confidence that today, the greatest cargoes of life come in over seas of grace, in the vast ocean of God's eternal Will. Two words I caught in PFAL that I hold to today are "alignment and harmony".....rather than build an egocentric prideful bucket of pig shit over MY BELIEVING and all that I DO I have found it much better to try to live each day in a harmonious peaceful relationship with my heavenly Creator and Father and put my trust there. That's always worked, and even "back in the day" I was learning not to show up to my Mental Prayer Hut with a box of my believing and demanding God do this or that or whatever.

In fact though, God did answer my prayers quite literally one day by reminding me that there's a lot of things I can "do for myself".....like just...go on. There you go. Go do it. Yep, you're fine. Go ahead. I'm with you. Yes. No - YOU CAN'T GO OVER IT AGAIN WITH ME OKAY YOU CAN BUT REALLY.....why not just go on. Do it. See? Right - okay, now do it again...yep......

Anyway, I learned some of that from Lynn too, as when I was around him and worked some with him he could be on the one hand a very nice, hard working industrious person but on the other, as kindly as I can say, something of a flat earth kind of mentality, intellectually. Not that I'm Einstein, but yeah. No. 

Edited August 23 by socks
No reason for edit....No reason at all. Why? Did it look like there's a reason? I never said I had a reason?!! Why are you hounding me over this reason thing!??! Did someone say I had a reason?? Who - who said it, I need to know before I answer thi-----

[waysider 914]

I used the law of believing, once, to levitate a table. Well, it was actually more like a patio umbrella but, boy howdy, that son of a gun lifted straight up in the air. If I remember correctly, it was a really hot and sticky August afternoon. I don't know about you, but I have trouble focusing when I'm uncomfortable. Then, just like that, a big storm came in with lots of rain and gusty wind. I instantly felt relief from the heat. I guess that made it easier to focus in and get the results I wanted/needed.

 

[Rocky 1,069]

22 minutes ago, waysider said:

I used the law of believing, once, to levitate a table. Well, it was actually more like a patio umbrella but, boy howdy, that son of a gun lifted straight up in the air. If I remember correctly, it was a really hot and sticky August afternoon. I don't know about you, but I have trouble focusing when I'm uncomfortable. Then, just like that, a big storm came in with lots of rain and gusty wind. I instantly felt relief from the heat. I guess that made it easier to focus in and get the results I wanted/needed.