Re: The Living Word Fellowship, The Walk, John Robert Stevens
Date: March 10, 2019 08:22AM
Hope I'm not typing too much, but I wanted to share feelings on "designated relationships." A little worried on revealing the person's name since he was related to my wife and still deeply involved in LA church. When we moved to Palmer Lake I was "assigned" a designated relationship which seemed OK at first. Then I wanted to share my heart on some concerns and things went sour. I tried to go to him after a service to make things right, because he was ignoring me (refused to answer me on purpose). He told me he ignored me on purpose to mature me. We started yelling at each other (loud conversation), and the effort by me to work things out blew up. John Sayer (the apostolic pastor at the time) sent a person over to me to tell me I was being assigned a new designated relationship. He didn't even have the guts to talk to me directly. Anyway I was told to meet this person at a restaurant and talk to him. He was a nice, kind person, but always had a notebook and took notes when I met and talked with him. The worst part was it was not natural, organic, or genuine, but instead an order from headquarters. I was raised Anglican, but it was never real to me. Then in college (1971), I really started seeking to have a relationship with the Lord. I would go over to a house on campus run by the Catholic Church for the college and argue doctrine with the priest, a Father Lester in Billings, Montana. We would get in heated arguments, and not agree on many things (like having to pray to Mary, the mother of God, so she could take it to Jesus to answer a prayer). But even though we never agreed on many things, I never felt shamed until I encountered TLWF authority. After debating with Father Lester on a variety of doctrines, we never came to agreement on many things, but I never felt put down after words, and we still genuinely liked each other. We didn't even know why, but love seemed to prevail. I never thought about "excommunication" or shaming or had those kind of thoughts or dreams until encountering TLWFC counseling sessions. That is when my self esteem went south. I'm actually now starting to love myself again since the church quit meeting in October. We are trying out some different churches where all their sermons are online and archived on U tube FOR FREE. I AM SO GLAD I DON'T HAVE TO PAY FOR TAPES/CD's ANYMORE. These main line churches actually get their word out to the whole world through U Tube, especially soldiers in war zones. Why didn't TLWFC do that?