Amen, Joe.

We are not calling for MORE blood to be shed, figuratively speaking.  We are openly exposing those who have ALREADY shed blood under the cover of darkness.  That way we can help prevent MORE blood from being shed in the future.

Jack

Also, with regard to "bob"  (remember him?  Medum height, medium build, brown hair, brown eyes, quiet, carried a bible to meetings,  wore a tie on Sunday, went on outreach...remember "bob?")

Rick Warren is a good author, in "Purpose Driven Life," he also wrote this:

The Purpose Driven Life, by Rick Warren  http://geftakysassembly.com/rickwarren.htm

 

Day 19 Cultivating Community
Italics added by editor

“Cultivating community takes honesty.  You will have to care enough to lovingly speak the truth, even when you would rather gloss over a problem or ignore an issue.  While it is much easier to remain silent when others around us are harming themselves or others with a sinful pattern, it is not the loving thing to do.  Most people have no one in their lives who loves them enough to tell them the truth  (even when it’s painful), so they continue in self-destructive ways.  Often we know what needs to be said to someone, but our fears prevent us from saying anything.  Many fellowships have been sabotaged by fear: No one had the courage to speak up in the group while a member’s life fell apart.

The Bible tells us to “speak the truth in love” (Eph 4:15) because we can’t have community without candor.  Solomon said, “An honest answer is a sign of true friendship.” (Prov 24:26)  Sometimes this means caring enough to lovingly confront one who is sinning or is being tempted to sin.  Paul says, “Brothers and sisters, if someone in your group does something wrong, you who are spiritual should go to that person and gently help make him right again.” (Gal 6:1-2)

Many church fellowships and small groups remain superficial because they are afraid of conflict.  Whenever an issue pops up that might cause tension or discomfort, it is immediately glossed over in order to preserve a false sense of peace.  Mr. “Don’t Rock the Boat” jumps in and tries to smooth everyone’s ruffled feathers, the issue is never resolved, and everyone lives with an underlying frustration.  Everyone knows about the problem, but no one talks about it openly.  This creates a sick environment of secrets where gossip thrives.  Paul’s solution was straightforward: “No more lies, no more pretense.  Tell your neighbor the truth.  In Christ’s body we’re all connected to each other, after all.  When you lie to others, you end up lying to yourself.” (Eph 4:25)

Real fellowship, whether in a marriage, a friendship, or your church, depends on frankness.  In fact, the tunnel of conflict is the passageway to intimacy in any relationship.  Until you care enough to confront and resolve the underlying barriers, you will never grow close to each other.  When conflict is handled correctly, we grow closer to each other by facing and resolving our differences.  The Bible says, “In the end, people appreciate frankness more than flattery.”(Prov 28:23) …

Sadly, thousands of fellowships have been destroyed by a lack of honestly.  Paul had to rebuke the Corinthian church for their passive code of silence in allowing immorality in their fellowship.  Since no one had the courage to confront it, he said, “You must not simply look the other way and hope it goes away on its own.  Bring it out in the open and deal with it…Better devastation and embarrassment than damnation…You pass it off as a small thing, but its anything but that…you shouldn’t act as if everything is just fine when one of your Christian companions is promiscuous or crooked, is flip with God or rude to friends, gets drunk or becomes greedy and predatory.  You can’t just go along with this, treating it as acceptable behavior.  I’m not responsible for what the outsiders do, but don’t we have some responsibility for those within our community of believers?” (1Cor 5:3-12)

Cultivating community takes humility.  Self-importance, smugness, and stubborn pride destroy fellowship faster than anything else.  Pride builds walls between people; humility builds bridges.  Humility is the oil that smoothes and soothes relationships.  That’s why the Bible says, “clothe yourselves with humility toward one another.” (1Pet 5:5b)  The proper dress for fellowship is a humble attitude.

The rest of that verse says, “…because, God opposes the proud but gives grace to the humble.” (1Pet 5:5c)  This is the other reason we need to be humble: Pride blocks Gods grace in our lives, which we must have in order to grow, change, heal, and help others.

Editor’s note:  This quote is both beautiful and true.  Had this been done 29 years ago, much of the pain and sorrow that defines the Assembly today would not exist. However, fear and darkness have been reigning for the last 3 decades, and the problems and denials have deep, well-fed roots. The prayer for this website is that God would give us the courage to honestly, truthfully, tell the church. Many may cry, "but you should go to the person first!"  Yes, this is true, however, this has been done many times by many people, and the Assembly leadership refuses to be entreated. They put out of the church those few who have the courage to say something.  They simply won't allow the truth to be told. Yet still, repentance is possible, and God still extends His Grace to those who will hear.  I believe that the door to repentance was wide open 2 years ago, more than halfway shut in the summer of 2001, and that it is now shut, with a sliver of light coming in under the door.  I entreat my brethren, “Behold, I stand at the door and knock…”

I don't think he is an LB.  LB's are courageous folk,  bold in the faith.  If they were here, they would use their real names.   Bob is from Canada, I do know that.  However, past that I don't know who he is, but he can't be an LB.  LB's wouldn't post anonymously, they are bold as lions.

Bob, please tell us who you are.  I mean, shoot!  I have my phone number on my signature line.  Can't you at least give us a name?

John doe

Dear John,

And all this time, I thought that he might be the Bob Smith from Atascadero.

Niaga Daerter Doe

i want to add my voice of agreement to what is being expressed on this thread. i think a critical mass of outside criticism is causing us to ponder who we are as a community. granted, a bb is a very loose community, but it is a community. yes, there is some anger here, but if there was no bb to post it on, would there still be anger? YES! its a very predictable response to having ones trust and faith violated, along with the trust and faith of so many others that we care about. its the only healthy response, in my opinion. for those of us with any compassion left, it would be impossible to sit by idly and let george and those who still believe in him set up others for the same betrayal! and then there are those who do not yet realize how deeply they have been betrayed, and want to hang onto parts of what george and the assembly taught them, and teach those things to others. all the sincerity in the world is not going to make what they believe in any more healthy.   but having a place where they can read these things being openly discussed (if they are not ready to participate) can help, on occasion.

its also true that for some people, its much harder to handle the hurt and betrayal of others than their own. for instance, verne can be very harsh in what he posts sometimes, but that harshness is triggered when he sees people being unjustly accused, or when he gets a rumor of more innocents being led astray. you know why? BECAUSE HE CARES! a lot! and that is really obvious to anyone who wants to be reasonable on the subject. and although we may not all express it the same way, the vast majority of us are here for the same reason. because we know that what we went through was serious enough that it matters whether it happens to others all over again or not!

but there is more to this community than just that. i think we also recognize something in the people here that we would have a hard time finding at the local church, and that is others who know what its like to have been under the kind of system we have been under. while moving on is very important, its also impossible without figuring out what one is moving on from. comparing notes is invaluable in the aftermath of situations like this, as many of us have found.

sharing stressful experiences creates a bond, to state another obvious and well-proven fact. and one adjective i think we can all agree would describe life in the assembly is: STRESSFUL! to an extreme degree, quite often. cults exploit that bond by severing meaningful contact with those who do not conform, shunning them, and this is a harsh and very effective punishment. but i have observed that when we can interact with those we once shared that bond with who have also left, it can counteract the effects of shunning, especially when a lot of people leave at the same time. this is a very helpful thing.

those who take a few of the more extreme posts on here and try to use them to characterize this board clearly have their own reasons for trying to be misleading (if not downright deceptive). some of them may be sincerely deceived themselves. the ultimate goal of those lobbing criticisms is to disrupt the dynamic of this community, which includes all of the things i've been talking about in this post, and others have been talking about on this thread. but one thing we are doing more and more, and i love to see it, is responding by clearly stating who we are and why we are here, rather than trying to box all the shadowy accusations. boxing shadows is a pointless and highly frustrating exercise, and noone ever wins (including the shadows). what is especially disturbing about some of the most recent attacks on this board and those posting on it, is the willingness of those on the eagle site to concentrate their heaviest public attacks on the most sensitive wounds in some people's lives. and there are plenty of wounds for them to choose from among those who have been subjected to the assembly's loving caresses. i think an effective way to counteract this is to support each other, through posts, email, phone calls. we have been doing this all along, but perhaps we could make an extra emphasis out of checking in with those who the loving eagles start mocking and pecking on to make sure they are holding up ok. that way, without rewarding their despicable attempts to get people's attention by hammering on old wounds, we can turn it into something positive. i'm only putting this out there because i am becoming convinced that they are not going to just go away as long as there is someone they can pick a fight with, so i'm trying to think of ways to minimize their ability to actually hurt people without taking up shadowboxing.

brian

Dear Mrs. Mathews,

Personally, I do not think that the knowledge of that info about Bob would give his opinions more credibility. However I do agree that it would help me to know where his sympathies lie, and whether or not he really is an honest inquirer OR whether he has another agenda.

Last night I carefully re-read all of his previous posts on this BB. I concluded that he is definitely anti-Brent/Verne. I also re-affirmed my opinion that he asks 'leading' questions in order to box in the discussion. And he removed snippits from the Rick Ross site which gave the snippits a whole different meaning when taken out of the context of the entire article (BTW I noticed this at the time he did it, and at that time I went to the Rick Ross site and read the snippits in their context). So I "think" he is not sympathetic. He makes concluding statements that appear to summarize what this BB stands for, but upon closer examination are sometimes unbiblical and reflect his own point of view. He has great potential to be a LB if he isn't already one. Since Bob has not revealed his identity, all I can do is speculate at this point. He has avoided queries that I have presented to him on this BB, so it isn't like I didn't make the effort.

DISCLAIMER: Bob Smith has made some accurate statements on this BB. Maybe he is a wannabee 'honest inquirer' but the assembly influence is still too strong. So I am and was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt.

Lord bless,
Marcia

P.S. my email address is on my signature line.

 



Au Contraire mon ami...the harder they come...the harder they fall! Boy I really like that Brian guy...! He the man!!
Verne