FCSLC:
To quote you elegantly: “The true freedom of the gospel does not lend itself well to the enrichment of the few at the expense of the many.”
Back in the JRS era, when the ‘Paul/Timothy’ program took hold in the mid-70’s, it was intended to be a ‘mentoring’ relationship, whereby the ‘more mature’ one would mentor the ‘less mature’ one, hopefully into ‘maturity’. To JRS’ credit, when many would seek out a ‘word from God’ from him, he would often respond with ‘What has God shown/spoken to you?’
This ‘interdependency’ unfortunately morphed into the ‘designated relationship’ phase of the G&M era, where it was understood that we all needed someone to tell us ‘no’. This was a significant downgrade, whereby ‘designated relationships’ were established all over the fellowship to any and all who wished to ‘participate’. The abuses were myriad. Those who had no business ‘shepherding/mentoring/directing’ anyone were put in charge of lives they had no capacity to assist on any level.
This went on for decades in various iterations (myself being a willing participant from the late 80’s to well into the 2000’s). The biggest travesty of this ‘program’ was the culture of perpetual-dependency that it fostered, as well as the complete dissociation from the STILL SMALL VOICE that speaks to each of us. Instead of creating a culture to nurture the hearing of that VOICE, we were ‘redirected’ to follow the voice of our ‘designated relationship’, someone who probably couldn’t even hear the VOICE themselves, and certainly not for us.
The TRUE FREEDOM of the GOSPEL, not only does not foster religion-building on any level, but instead, sets a level ‘playing field’ for all to return to the RELATIONSHIP that CREATED us in the first place. LOVE begat LOVE, and thus we came into BEING.
To quote you elegantly: “The true freedom of the gospel does not lend itself well to the enrichment of the few at the expense of the many.”
Back in the JRS era, when the ‘Paul/Timothy’ program took hold in the mid-70’s, it was intended to be a ‘mentoring’ relationship, whereby the ‘more mature’ one would mentor the ‘less mature’ one, hopefully into ‘maturity’. To JRS’ credit, when many would seek out a ‘word from God’ from him, he would often respond with ‘What has God shown/spoken to you?’
This ‘interdependency’ unfortunately morphed into the ‘designated relationship’ phase of the G&M era, where it was understood that we all needed someone to tell us ‘no’. This was a significant downgrade, whereby ‘designated relationships’ were established all over the fellowship to any and all who wished to ‘participate’. The abuses were myriad. Those who had no business ‘shepherding/mentoring/directing’ anyone were put in charge of lives they had no capacity to assist on any level.
This went on for decades in various iterations (myself being a willing participant from the late 80’s to well into the 2000’s). The biggest travesty of this ‘program’ was the culture of perpetual-dependency that it fostered, as well as the complete dissociation from the STILL SMALL VOICE that speaks to each of us. Instead of creating a culture to nurture the hearing of that VOICE, we were ‘redirected’ to follow the voice of our ‘designated relationship’, someone who probably couldn’t even hear the VOICE themselves, and certainly not for us.
The TRUE FREEDOM of the GOSPEL, not only does not foster religion-building on any level, but instead, sets a level ‘playing field’ for all to return to the RELATIONSHIP that CREATED us in the first place. LOVE begat LOVE, and thus we came into BEING.