I think this line has earned you a seat at the Nephilim table.
Have a great Monday!

kBOY Wrote:
> I know many may find this hard to accept, but the
> Bible did not float down out of the sky
> shrink-wrapped with a TLW bookcover already in
> place.

BON APPETIT!

larry bobo Wrote:
> Granted, there was much wrong in the leadership.
> However, the light for leadership errors needs to shine directly on
> G & M who were directing everything, not the middle
> management who were trained to be yes men.
> Unfortunately, G & M have been exceptionally good
> at evading responsibility and transferring it to
> “false shepherds” they were actually directing
> behind the scenes.

YES

C.A./L.B.

Not only was abusive behavior by local leadership excused, it was even supported and directed.

On our local level, efforts were made by some to go all the way to the ‘top’ when certain situations got out of hand. Their concerns were met with a ringing endorsement for those set in authority. That discussion was apparently punctuated with a symbolic ‘washing of the hands’ regarding the whole situation.

Leadership at its finest . . .

In our situation, I got stuck in the "authority" situation pretty much out of have to, but I tried like hell to stay in touch with com-central regularly to have someone to be responsible to, also com-west. Often I just didn't get an answer back, just leave a message and wait till you die.

I did have the option of two pastors that I regarded as having much more maturity than me that I did speak with often. My situation was very small potatoes compared to most people posting here, just ususually under ten adults, along with kids.

But even at that there were trips pulled regularaly. One guy in our little church actually convinced one of the members that he was the pastor of the church, years later my wife saw the brother in a store and he told her that. So there were trips pulled not just from people really set in but also people that just wanted to be set in. That whole scene was ripe for trickery and evil to sprout up at any level.

I don't know if people were just still reeling from the effects of LSD or what.

kBOY Wrote:
> I know many may find this hard to accept, but the
> Bible did not float down out of the sky
> shrink-wrapped with a TLW bookcover already in
> place.

kBOY, with talk like that you will NEVER get your cushy job back at the sawmill.

slandjt Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> With all due respect, I don't have the same warm
> fuzzy feelings for John Miller. He is no
> different from any of the other members of the
> "Apostolic" Company. It's easy to be amiable when
> you're popular and the sheep hang on your every
> word. He gave words and direction that hurt
> people's lives. (Ours included--I was married at
> the time.) Many shepherds (me included) and sheep
> gave forty years and weren't lauded for their
> service to TLW. Neither did they receive pensions
> (even modest ones). John set people out of the
> fellowship too. Maybe he's getting a taste of his
> own medicine. Was he really that naive? Ellen
> Miller put in 40 years too. Did she receive a
> modest pension? Too often the wives of TLW
> ministries and dare I say it, "Apostles," when
> deemed unequally yoked, faded into the background
> while their husbands went on to greater glory in
> TLW. The sheep are in a real transition and it
> wouldn't surprise me at all if John finds himself
> with his own flock. Sheep do tend to go back to
> what they know. All of that said, my brother
> still worships Marilyn and believes the lies being
> told that "nothing has changed." If not for all
> the harm Gary and Marilyn have inflicted on so
> many, I would say they are absolutely laughable.
> No one in the real world could ever take them
> seriously!

I apologize profusely, but I just read my post and realized that I made an very misleading error. Instead of "Many shepherds (me included) and sheep gave . . . ," I should have typed "Many shepherds and sheep (me included) gave . . .". My ex-husband was the shepherd, not me! He was also an alcoholic and womanizer. When we were deemed "unequally yoked," I faded into the background with all of the responsibility for the children and he went on to marry a woman whose family was considered "Walk royalty." They are still holding court to this day with both present and former Walk folk. My life has been a struggle, but I came out of that situation knowing who I am and what I stand for. I've done the hard work and moved on and John Miller and others like him will have to do the same. As was suggested, I have no need to speak to John Miller and to effectively help ease his way through his anguish. He will have to do that on his own. Peace to you all.

An alcoholic, womanizing shepherd. Why does that not surprise me? An all too common situation in the LW, even to this day.

Your story is gut-wrenching, slandjt. The term "unequal yoke" was used to justify leadership directed divorces in the vast majority of LW couples that split up. Much spiritual abuse has occurred in the name of the Unequal Yoke. It must have been awful for you. But on the brightside, imagine how awful it would have been if you stayed?

Unequal yoke--one partner worships Marilyn and Gary, the other does not. The one that does not loses God's favor, and is typically disposed of.

Good for you Slandjt in managing to navigate your life through this mess!

p.s. I stopped praying for the Alcoholic ministry many years ago. It's something I do not regret.

I think I can give some honest insight as to why the "shepherds" were so messed up in giving "words" that were wrong. I have already stressed how little qualifications I had to be in a ministry. I think that if anybody knows me that is reading here, they would agree. I was never a shepherd/pastor/elder/ whatever, it was all just the system that we were in. The little group that met in my house to listen to tapes should have been just that, a bunch of church people listening to tapes and hanging out.

One time a very close friend of mine and his wife just moved down from another Living Word church. We had all three been friends for years, his wife and him and me, all the way back from childhood. But the wife was wanting to have a legal separation but the man didn't, and they ask me for my counsel. I told them that they should not separate. I figured that because, and I even said, "because how can you learn to live together by living apart." WRONG, ,,WRONG counsel. They got divorced.

See, there were people, like me, that got into Living Word and had no education to become a pastor or elder, none. Some had ambitions to and some didn't. But in Living Word Fellowship, at the time, they required absolutely no training. The only requirement was to be one of the cool un-religious ones. Or, in some places it took lip service to John Robert Stevens, or kissing up to the established elders or pastors.

Sometimes some of us knew that we were not worth a dam at it, but there was simply no alternative. The only men in the church that could be put in charge other than themselves were arrogant, or space cadets or just too young to do it.

So, I for one am very sorry for my mistakes. I do repent of them. I know that I missed ministering to one woman that I might could have helped and she committed suicide. And I know that I misfired on the marriage counsel, and had I said the right thing maybe they would have stayed together. But I did not have the Word of Knowledge, and I did not have the Word of Wisdom, I did not have the education.

That in itself, that people were set in office much too casually and for the wrong reasons is a big reason the Living Word Fellowship was so far off track.