Into the Fray... Part 2

Figuring out what was "Branch Leader" thing or what was this "North West Branch of The Way of Ohio" was a developmental process. Such things were not defined by Way Tree... we didn't have one yet. I hadn't heard of Way Tree until I came to Ohio to be a Branch Leader. Somehow, it was a secret in New York under the leadership of Heafner and Geer. After setting up my office, that first Monday morning, I was a was the end of my understanding of what I was supposed to do.

I opened my Bible and read for most of an hour. Then I sat and stared out my little office window at the front yard and street. Everyone out there seemed to have a place to go and things to do... I didn't. So I posed my dilemma to God, "I'm going to sit here and do nothing until you tell me what this Branch Leader is supposed to do." The next thought was to pick up the phone and call every Twig Coordinator. Dumb, they are all at work I supposed.

Well, a few phone calls later, I knew who was home and for the others I left messages. (A few people then had ansering machines... somthing else I should get.) By the end of the day I knew a lot about the Twig Coordinators, their families and fellowships. In the evening I got out my concordance and Bible and began to work the Word on the problems I had heard about during the day. I didn't know if I was preparing teachings or just myself to give them the Word on various subjects but I was hard at it. I did have a teaching to prepare for the branch meeting next Sunday but that was not uppermost on my mind, meeting needs with the Word came first.

For the first few weeks, my life was mostly work the Word. I did schedule a Twig Coordinator's meeting and scheduled myself to visit the Twigs. Within a month I had met all the believers in their fellowships. They were mostly youth, many in college or tech schools. The older adults numbered only about 25% of the whole. It was the early 70's and that was the makeup of most of the other branches too. We were only a couple of years after Dr. Wierwille had witnessed to the hippies in Hait Ashberry in California. The ministry had been embraced by the youth; it provided the answers they were seeking in this post-Vietnam chaotic era. It provided stability for their time.

Life began to settle. I was instructed by Dr. Wierwille to provide Branch meetings every Sunday... without fail, instruction I took so litterly that I got myself in trouble over it. We had to rent meeting halls. I rented a rec. room at a local YMNCA for $30.00 per week. We converted it to a meeting room and back again every week. It was a routine with its assigned crews for each phase. We rotated the crews monthly.

Paying the room rent was easy, I had a checking account bearing the name "The Way Int, Inc., Northwest Branch." I deposited the abundant sharing checks and cash every Monday from the Sunday Branch meetings and collected aboundant sharing from the Twig Coordinators twice a month at the coordinator meetings. Most of the abundant sharing came in the Sunday meetings as nearly every one attended those. A typical Branch Sunday meeting was fourty to sixty persons. Abundant sharing for each week was about enough to pay the room rent each week and my home expenses as well, the intended plan for ministry organization at the time.

As Dr. Wierwille explained it, the early church handled their money and resources the same way. Only small amounts of funds were sent to Jersulum or Antioch routinely. More would be sent in the event of a need or crisis as determinded by the leadership. That scheme of things did not last long for us however. As The Way became bigger, the IRS took notice of us and informed our accountants that we had to do a better job of tracking finances. Eventually we closed our local checking accounts and forwarded all funds to H.Q. who issued salary checks bi-monthly but that is another story, for my first year, I controlled the funds locally.

The highlites of those two years were the Sunday Branch meetings and the Twig Coordinators meetings. I prepared diligently for both, but it was less formal than it was just a life style. Branch meeting teachings were actually determinded on Friday or Saturday each week. Until then, I worked the Word daily in my little alcove office and spoke in tongues for the Twig Coordinators every morning. I depended on God to show me the necessary Word to share for each meeting. It normally worked well with responses being "That really met my need!" or "We just had that come up this week in Twig, how did you know?"

At least twice, it didn't work out in advance as I was accustomed. I'll never forget one Sunday Branch meeting where I had prepared my teaching on Saturday and everything seemed Ok. But when I took the my place up front to teach, Father told me to "STOP!" He told me to abandon my teaching, things had changed in the last couple of days. I was nearly in a panic, standing in front of over fifty believers expecting my opening sentance. All I could do was ask Father "What is the first verse?". He told me and I announced it without knowing even what it was about. My opening statment was given after I read the verse. I taught what I knew about that section and stopped while I asked Father where to go next. He told me and I announced it. This went on for fourty minutes. As Father and I progressed through the teaching, I began to see a pattern to the teaching and my confidance increased. I only made it though that session, because I had worked the Word without reference to teachings (or ministry themes) for months. My confidence in myself was shaken but my confidence in my Father sored!

The end result of that evening was a lot of ministering healing after the main meeting and great deliverence for the believers. That meeting was a turning point in my leadership. From then on, the believers trusted me and expected deliverence at the Sunday Branch meetings. I only told the Twig Coordinators in our next meetings what had happended to bring such deliverence. They all fell silent. I think some, for the first time, saw that this is not religion, this is real folks!

There was another such event, near the end of my tenure as Branch Leader. Eventually, I came to learn that my wife, of that time, did not believe in the things of God as I did. She was into herself and was living a lie which I had believed up until her "revelations" of her true life style. It came to a head when the young men began to tell me of her advances toward them and I had to confront my own wife about her committments and life style. The "revealing" of her true life devestated me. I became so depressed that I got drunk for the first time in my life. But I had scheduled a Twig Coordinators meeting 40 miles away that night and had to go no matter what.

I was in no shape to handle the meeting, especially seeing several young men that my wife had told me she tried to bed. They rejected her but that didn't help my mental state somehow. I drove to the meeting place, a private home, and arrived with nothing left emotionally. I couldn't even focus my eyes. All I knew to do was plead for Father to bail me out and meet the needs of the Twig coordinators in spite of this useless servant that I was.

I asked Father what to do first. He said "Sing together like you have never sung before." We sang like a choir for nearly three quarters of an hour. (It helps to have several music majors in the group too.) Then we took a break and I loaded up on coffee and cookies while the group socialized. After fifteen minutes we reconviened and went around the room describing needs in our fellowships and sharing solutions that others had used for these needs. I shared a little Bible but it wasn't much. I finally asked Father what I could do for them and He said "Minister to them." yeah, like I had anything left to give, I was too wiped out to object, so I did. I ministered healing to every one that wanted it. Father was gracious and good. The revelation was there and people got deliverence and answers that night. Several told me that it was the best night of the Word and delievernce that they had ever had in this ministry. I cried all the way home. God is faithful and good to deliver his people even if the servant is weak but just willing.

I resigned soon after that, assuming that I was not at all qualified to lead God's people. By then the first Way Corps graduates were on the field. The Limb leader tried to keep me in the position but I still resigned as the only honorable thing I thought one should do in such a situation lest my weaknesses and emotional distress harm the household.