changedagain Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> BTW, I was the designated relationship to a few
> people that once had 'important' ministries, but
> fell out of favor. Fortunately, for the most part,
> I sense how ridiculous it was for me to lord it
> over this person, and pretty much refrained from
> exercising a heavy-hand. After I eventually became
> weary of all the politics, and the requirement to
> kissing ass in order to move up in the TLWF
> authority chain, the extent of my ministry to the
> few under my charge was to encourage them to do
> pretty much whatever the hell they wanted, unless
> it caused harm to others. In one case, it meant a
> father being free to take his son on weekend
> outings to the desert, searching for lizards.
> That was fine by me.

__________________________________________________________

changedagain....I came out of the Walk with a warped view of ministries who got caught up in the politics of power so it has helped me to read your posts. I am sure there were others like yourself then and now who recognize ambition for ministry as a road to know where and who did not abuse their position and it's always good to hear those stories. A while back I listened to a message by David Cokas on his website and he mentioned once being in a movement (had to be the Walk) and I think if I remember correctly he described the movement for many as a lust for ministry. I think JRS planted those seeds of ambition to climb the LW hierarchy ladder and to be fair JRS seemed to believe it urgent as he thought he had a deadline to fulfill with raising up those 1000 prophets. But there wasn't an urgent deadline and that ambition left unchecked in the wrong hands was a colossal mistake and the outcome similar to a Shakespearean tragedy. FYI I once found a rare horny toad lizard in my back yard...it was a least 8 inches long and looked like a miniature iguana.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2016 05:19AM by lily rose.

Oops.......correction to above post: road to know where is incorrect.....should be road to no where.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2016 06:38AM by lily rose.

Thanks Lily,
In the cases I mentioned above, it was easy for me not to exploit them since I liked and respected them for who they were. If anything, I thought I had a lot to gain (spiritually...they were financially bereft at the time...as were many who gave themselves to the upward flow) by relating to them. Of course, inevitably the abusive tide from the very top swept them away. What a waste.
BTW, I had my times where what emanated from my nature wasn't laudable. I recall a requirement in our local church sometime in the 90's where we were to get out in public and see if we could do some evangelism...you know, because we had this great treasure within (from being exposed to the 'living word'), and we needed to not hide our light under a bushel (or something like that). My wife and I stood outside a Target greeting people. I think my opening line had 'bless you' in it. My wife said it sounded to her as if I could have been saying f*** you. It just a hostile tone, I guess. I think I wasn't enjoying what I was doing, and it was coming through to the gentiles. We went home shortly after with zero success.

HEADLINE NEWS: Condemnation Train Keeps On Rolling

"Change My Heart To Do Your Will"
May 8, 2016

[www.garyandmarilynhargrave.com]

"This Word exposes the deep unbelief and hardness of heart that we see in Christ's disciples and find in our own hearts."

After 65 years of a 'living word', with this being as far as they've gotten, it might be time to throw in the towel and simply begin to eat, drink and be merry. It seems to have worked for quite a few on this forum.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2016 11:25AM by kBOY.

changedagain said regarding evangelism at Target and his f**k you tone:

<I think I wasn't really enjoying what I was doing>

I would guess at that time in the 90's you really weren't "living the dream" and maybe at some subconscious level you knew it wasn't a good idea to bring new folks into the mouse trap and so you unconsciously sabotaged your Target greeting ........or maybe not.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 05/09/2016 11:54AM by lily rose.

lily rose Wrote:

> I would guess at that time in the 90's you really
> weren't "living the dream" and maybe at some
> subconscious level you knew it wasn't a good idea
> to bring new folks into the mouse trap and so you
> unconsciously sabotaged your Target greeting

Probably so

205,590 page views to date...not that I pay attention to this kind of stuff

kBOY Wrote:

> After 65 years of a 'living word', with this being
> as far as they've gotten, it might be time to
> throw in the towel and simply begin to eat, drink
> and be merry. It seems to have worked for quite a
> few on this forum.

Yes--people need to enjoy what time they have left. That is a Word!!

Maybe they will just close it on down, since they don't really think they have anything important to share with the rest of the world. I remember being in a Living Word church when somebody brought in some new people from their job and the church deliberately "blew them out" right off the bat, talking some of the craziest, spaciest things they could think of, they knew that stuff was spacey, and they were dam happy with themselves when those people obviously but politely rejected it. Maybe those few churches that are left will decide to break away from the concept that they need some "fathering" OR "mothering" ministries above them, HIGH above them. Personally I think we should have done what JRS said, when they "carried him out feet first," we should have just shut the doors and walked away then. In fact, that is what I did.



changedagain Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> kBOY Wrote:
>
> > After 65 years of a 'living word', with this
> being
> > as far as they've gotten, it might be time to
> > throw in the towel and simply begin to eat,
> drink
> > and be merry. It seems to have worked for quite
> a
> > few on this forum.
>
> Yes--people need to enjoy what time they have
> left. That is a Word!!

in fact, it is really silly to consider what became of the Living Word Fellowship under the Hargraves, an actual extension of the Living Word Fellowship. There was an awful lot of messed up elders in the one under JRS, not just the ones on the outskirts that were not commissioned by JRS himself, but also among those that JRS knew about and had something to do with commissioning. I admit that the Walk was messed up all along, but I think that where JRS was wrong, he was sincerely wrong. I think in a lot of ways he was right too. But after he died and the thing was taken over by the people that took over and all the divorces hit and all of that, the Walk lost it completely. I don't think they should have even been known as the Living Word Fellowship and I think it is ludicrous for them to have used the name, the logo, or in any way consider themselves the Living Word Fellowship. That is what I believe. I said all along, there was a Walk 1 and a Walk 2. But when you think about how different the message is, it is nothing like the origional.

Basically, at some point, after they became the head honchos of the Walk, they realized they had nothing at all to teach, they didn't know a thing. Hargrave went to school, which is perhaps a good thing, and they looked around and saw the shepherding thing that was started by, hell I can't think of their names, I heard one or two of them speak before, they were like four guys from Kansas City or somewhere, they repented for starting the thing later. At some point, the Hargraves copied them, either after those guys had admitted it was messed up, or before I DON'T KNOW. There is nothing origional about what the Hargraves came up with, they even built for themselves a huge pile of money and property off of good people's contributions. From what I discovered from my research into JRS he at least was not such a greedy man. He had his faults but he was not as bad as them.