Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens
Date: December 15, 2017 02:00AM
Tknc wrote:
"As far as extended family goes, We essentially stopped all contact and broke all ties with them years ago after my grandparents passed away. We were all affected too much by being around them and taught to keep our walls up at all times. They were identified as having a religious spirit so I have no real relationship with any extended family"
I'm so sorry to hear that your grandparents have passed away Tknc. You might want to keep an open mind, though. There may be extended family members who would still care about you as a person, not through the lense of your parents and their issues.
As far as Impact goes, there are others who frequent this message board who know far more than I do. I will preface by saying that I do not hold any leader, owner or ministry guilty of taking advantage of people other than John Robert Stevens himself. As far as I am concerned, pastors, elders, business leaders, and all who served in any capacity whatsoever were just following orders from headquarters.
That being said, my understanding in a nutshell is that, after the mine debacle, JRS was looking for new ways to "fund the kingdom". According to Woodrow, he was still thinking of his 1979 kingdom vision. He had people preparing, somewhat as doomsday preppers of today are doing, for days of tribulation (zombie apocalypse, if you will).
He had the idea that if the Walk could be in control of the financial realm, then the end-time remnant could continue to operate and thrive and grow in the midst of chaos. He commissioned men to start businesses and fulfill his vision. I don't pretend to know what was going on in his head, but whatever his true motivation, John had a way to inspire people to pour out their life for him.
I can't help but wonder if JRS was facing other Goliaths of which the people were unaware by the mid- to late-seventies. Prayer and intercession took on a violent, desperate tone. People in kingdom businesses worked for less than minimum wage and lived in dilapidated communal homes. (And went without heaslth and dental care, and ran up their credit cards just to survive.) It was as if the flock were fighting for their leader's very life, and perhaps that is exactly what was happening.