lily rose wrote: “what was really uplifting was to read the thoughts of an ex-living word member who doesn't impugn all of Christianity or the Bible.”

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Some of my “best healing” occurred when I quit reading the Bible (I’m not lying). I have also enjoyed the healing on this forum where for the most part, the Bible itself is used to fight against Biblical Abuse. Keep it coming from wherever.

I wish you could have let my statement stand on its own without turning it into something about you. Apostle Dog's post gave me some hope that I could make the transition to attending a traditional church which has been a struggle for me.

I’m sorry lily rose, you are right on.

Proverbs 10:19 --- “When there are many words, transgression is unavoidable, but he who restrains his lips is wise.”

This forum should be about me and everything I went through in TLWF. Let's get back on track.
Thank you.

--Broken SoCal Lamp

There are federal guidelines, laws actually governing where the money goes when a non-profit (*I started to say non-PROPHET, but I didn't want to be mean) but when a church is sold, the money can not be used to enrich any church leader or anybody else, the money has to be distributed to other non-profits, such as missionaries, or other churches. Somebody that knows how should turn Gary and Marilyn in if they know they are getting rich from the sell of churches.

Personally, I can't think of anything that would be more revealing than the decision-making that went into the selling of the churches through the years.
The answers to the questions (below) should be common knowledge within the fellowship, IF there was a certain level of transparency in leadership:

Who decided if a specific church was to be sold?
Was there pressure exerted on the local leaders of that church to sell?
What profit was realized from the sale of each church?
Where did the proceeds go (accounts) for each sale, and who controls these accounts?
How was this money ultimately used from each sale?

It always bothered me that people were consistently told from the pulpit they had a stake in their local church, but were given only a token role in determining its fate. Well, at least it appeared that way to me.

BTW, I spent 20 years helping maintain a couple local churches that were ultimately sold, so this is a visceral topic to me.


Apostle Dog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> There are federal guidelines, laws actually
> governing where the money goes when a non-profit
> (*I started to say non-PROPHET, but I didn't want
> to be mean) but when a church is sold, the money
> can not be used to enrich any church leader or
> anybody else, the money has to be distributed to
> other non-profits, such as missionaries, or other
> churches. Somebody that knows how should turn
> Gary and Marilyn in if they know they are getting
> rich from the sell of churches.

I have heard a lot about arranged marriages in the Walk. I have not witnessed that sort of thing when I was in there, and in the area that I was in, but I have heard about it and I am curious. Who arranged the marriages? Did John Robert Stevens himself arrange any marriages that you know of? I would like to know if anyone posting here was in such a marriage and if so, who was it that arranged it, how was it done, was there pressure exerted or was it a "word" to get married, how did it happen?

My marriage was arranged, and somehow turned out fine...albeit with a helluva lot of effort on both our parts. Gary arranged it, John checked us out and said we were not ready (my "freelance" spirit being the main problem), and then Gary arranged for a other Apostles to check us out soon afterwards (since John was apparently too busy), and they gave us the O.K.
At the time I was brought in front of the local church and first told to get "serious" with my wife-to-be, we were just casual friends. We had never gone on a date, and the extent of our relationship was just working on church-related stuff and getting along amidst the madness. The fact that neither one questioned the directive demonstrates the potent conditioning we were under to view these "ministries" as the voice of God.
Incredible...still to this day



Apostle Dog Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have heard a lot about arranged marriages in the
> Walk. I have not witnessed that sort of thing when
> I was in there, and in the area that I was in, but
> I have heard about it and I am curious. Who
> arranged the marriages? Did John Robert Stevens
> himself arrange any marriages that you know of? I
> would like to know if anyone posting here was in
> such a marriage and if so, who was it that
> arranged it, how was it done, was there pressure
> exerted or was it a "word" to get married, how did
> it happen?

I have heard from many people that the money that came from the sell of the Valley Church went to Marilyn's retirement fund, I think that fund was called something else, but if that money went to Marilyn at all she can go to prison.

Thanks Changedagain, I was given the opposite 'word" from a guy in Knoxville Tennessee named Larry Hayes, he called me in the middle of the night and told me he had a "word" for me to divorce my wife and go to California so I could "serve" Marilyn. I told him I would pray about it, hung up the phone. My wife and I had a big laugh and I rolled over and went back to sleep.