HomeARC ML 0253
"CONFERENCES, COLONIES, BANDS AND BUSES!"--MO July 15, 1973 NO.253--DO
Copyrighted July, 1973 by The Children of God
P.O. Box 31, London WC2E 7LX, England or GPO Box 3141, San Juan, Puerto Rico 00936
1. I AM AGAINST CONFERENCES! WHEN I SEE THE COSTS AND RESULTS, I'M AGAINST THEM! When I see how much of your time and strength they take, I am against them. I think it would be far cheaper to send one man around the world to visit all these places. This conference that you want to have I never got by revelation, I never approved it. When it actually comes up to facing the horrified realities of what's happening, I have to step in and stop it. If you want to have a little European conference about circulation, alright. But it looks to me like it would be unnecessary.
2. IT LOOKS LIKE YOU THINK YOU CAN DO A BETTER JOB THAN I CAN! YOU SEEM TO THINK THAT THE KIDS WON'T TAKE MY WORD FOR IT, AND you have to sell them on the idea. Now let's send them the message and the proof of what I've told you before we have a damned conference, a time-consuming, energy-consuming meeting! A little note that you wrote me and outlined the things you wanted to know accomplished more than the hours and hours of time you have consumed of my strength and energy in conferences!
3. TELL'EM FOR GOD'S SAKE ON PAPER, WHICH IS A HELLUVA LOT CHEAPER! Let's see what the mail and the Letters can do first. I'm not in favour of doing anything in person we can do by mail, or anything by word of mouth that we can do on paper! You are not convinced of the efficacy and effectiveness of publications instead of personal blah, blah, blah, if you insist on having these personal conferences before you've given the Letters a chance to work. You're not convinced that the Letters can do it. You think you've got to do it.
4. EVERYWHERE YOU GO YOU THINK YOU'VE GOT TO BRING IN EVERYBODY FOR A BIG MEETING! Maybe there's a time and place for that when everything else has failed, and they've forgotten how to read, and the mail has failed. But for God's sake, let's stop this agony of having to house and feed and pay expenses for hours and hours of time and energy and so much yak, yak, yak that isn't even necessary! I'm sorry, but that's the way I feel about it.
5. WHEN YOU'RE FACE-TO-FACE YOU WASTE MUCH MORE TIME. IT'S JUST LIKE THE TELEPHONE business:--When we boiled that thing down to where it had to be put on paper, we stuck to the essentials and we're saving time and money.--It is the same thing on your face-to-face meetings, just like talking live on the phone: You go on and on, just visiting and having fun, and that's what a lot of this conference business is.
6. MEETINGS ARE THE CHURCHES' MEAT! THEY SPEND ALL THEIR TIME IN MEETINGS AND IT'S JUST SO MUCH HOT AIR! If the God-damned churches had spent as much time printing their message and getting it out as they have spent in these God-damned conventions, conferences and meetings which they're always having, they would have won the world centuries ago! But the churches love this face-to-face confrontation, this talk that's "cheap". But let me tell you, it's not cheap! It costs a helluva lot of strength and time and souls!
7. WHY DON'T WE GET OVER THIS BUSINESS OF THINKING WE HAVE TO TALK TO PEOPLE FACE-TO-FACE WHEN WE CAN SAY IT MORE BRIEFLY, SIMPLER, AND MORE LASTING ON PAPER! Why do you think I've gone into virtual retirement?--Because God showed me a long time ago I can reach the world more effectively this way. Sometimes I think people have these meetings because they're too lazy to write a letter, and that's absolute idiocy!--Because they turn out in the long run penny-wise and pound-foolish, and spend more time and energy having the meeting, when they could have sat down for an hour with their secretary writing a letter!
8. BUT INSTEAD OF WANTING TO SPEND 5P TO MAIL A LETTER THEY WANT TO SPEND 50 POUNDS FOR THE PERSON TO COME TO A CONFERENCE!--And most of the time it goes in one ear and out the other, and he still has to have it down on paper for him before he'll remember it! The only excuse I can see for personal confrontation is when you've tried everything else and this is a last resort.
9. I'D SAY THAT PERSONAL MEETINGS AND PHONE CALLS SHOULD ONLY BE USED WHEN ALL ELSE FAILS and nothing else works, and by that time the person must be in pretty bad shape if he's gotten all these letters and heard all these testimonials and still won't do what you suggest!--I doubt if a personal visit would change his mind! If word from the Lord through me and/or you doesn't do the job, how can a personal visit ever do it? Maybe it can do something, but I doubt it. If a written invitation from both you and me doesn't do the trick, then I doubt if anything else can do the job! When I have asked them to come and they have refused, should anybody else ask them to come?
10. THOSE POOR BAND GROUPS HAVE BEEN IN PRETTY BAD SHAPE FOR A LONG TIME EVER SINCE THEY GOT THIS BIG-BAND SPIRIT when the System took them over! But they disobeyed and didn't do what we told them to do. Even the Letter, "The Music that Made the Revolution", didn't phase them! I think some of these band people have gotten what they wanted: They wanted a band and they wanted to record.--But they failed to be a success or hit because they didn't do it God's way. They think they wanted to put God first and believe me and please me, but if they had, they would have done what I suggested to them. But some of them simply ignored my suggestions and the appeals of others either about their music or disbanding.
11. MAYBE WE SHOULD MAKE SUCH FOLKS AN ASSOCIATE COLONY, IF THEY'RE NOT INTERESTED IN FOLLOWING OUR AUTHORITY AND OBEYING US AND ONLY JUST WANT TO RECEIVE OUR LITERATURE. If you can't follow our leadership, you can only be an Associate. Those poor bands really got led astray on a pride trip, and now have fallen apart. I hope we can salvage them.
12. I AM CONVINCED OF THE EFFECTIVENESS OF THE WRITTEN WORD. I wouldn't have had this session today except to temporarily please and tickle you ears! In the length of time it took to do it orally for only you, we could have put it on paper for everyone! If I had stayed in here and locked the door, everyone would have been better off today!--You'd pay less attention to the person and more to the message. But you guys don't believe "I Gotta Split."
13. I BELIEVE THE PERSONAL PRESENCE OF THE MAN DISTRACTS FROM THE MESSAGE. That's why God sent me away and why Jesus had to go away. But you guys don't believe it.--You do it in reverse: "Yes, Dad has proved that to go away and write it down is most effective. But when it comes to out own organisation and our own business and carrying out some of these plans, it is far better to get together face-to-face and fill the room with hot air instead of carrying it out on paper."
14. HOW MANY TIMES HAVE I TOLD YOU TO PUT YOUR MESSAGE ON PAPER AND LEAVE IT WITH ME?--In the quiet of my room I can study it and ask God, "Is it right or is it wrong?" or "Would this be good for them or bad for them?"--and I can get my answers from the Lord! When I have to sit here for hours in conference and we're anxious to get about our business, and personalities distract, how much good does it do? About the only good I can think that comes from it--the only lasting effect that's doing any good--is what's going down on paper right now in Maria's notebook! And the time of this ignorance, of having to tell it to you face-to-face God winks at, so she can get it down on paper!
15. I'M MAD AT THE GOD-DAMNED SYSTEM THAT YOU HAVE GOT IN YOUR SYSTEM THAT MAKES YOU THINK YOU HAVE TO HAVE IT FACE-TO-FACE! You all sat up talking till 4 or 5 every morning at Bromley, and all you guys are going to have to face those words some day and give an account, and I think God's going to weigh up 99% of it as hot air and idle words and pure personal enjoyment!--You should have been in your private offices seeking God with your closet door shut, asking God for answers for people that really need it and making memos to deliver to the people next door, to save you time and theirs too!
16. I BELIEVE YOU ARE GOING TO GET MORE DONE IF YOU WILL SPEND MORE TIME IN THAT ROOM ALONE WITH GOD, away from the maddening mob and with your paper work, and that it will do the Revolution more good than your sitting there on top of that Colony volcano and running around getting involved in everything. They can't help it: You're just there, and they'll want you to take care of things. But if you're not there, they'll take care of it! That's been my recommendation to the top leaders of the Revolution for at least three years.
17. MY LORD, IF JESUS HIMSELF HAD TO DO IT, HOW MUCH MORE WE NEED TO DO IT! Jesus couldn't even stand to be with His 12 disciples all the time, and you're trying to live with 100! He had to get up at the break of day before they got up in the morning, and walk out across the hills or up the mountain to get alone with God and get His orders from His Father instead of from every little Tom, Dick and Harry who knocks on the door!--But neither did He neglect them completely! For God's sake, find a balance!
18. I GET MORE THINGS FROM GOD WHEN I'M ALONE IN THE BATHROOM and God has my full attention and He speaks to me. Some of the biggest revelations I ever got were when I was standing in the bathroom going to the toilet! The reason I have to blow my top and bawl you guys out face-to-face is because I have written these things on paper and still you guys haven't listened!--This is a last resort! But since the other times haven't done much good this one probably won't either!
19. "THEY HAVE MOSES AND THE PROPHETS (THE WRITTEN SCRIPTURES): IT THEY WILL NOT HEAR THEM, THOUGH ONE SHOULD COME BACK FROM THE DEAD, YET THEY WILL NOT BELIEVE" If the God-damned hypocritical scribes and Pharisees didn't listen to Moses' and the prophets' writings, it wouldn't have mattered if they would have come back and faced them down from the dead, they still wouldn't have listened! If any big business in this world, if any important executives would run their business the way we run ours, they would have gone crazy and landed in the booby-hatch long ago, and gone broke too, and the whole thing would have gone to pieces!
20. TOP EXECUTIVES ARE THE HARDEST PEOPLE IN THE WORLD TO GET TO SEE AND THEY SHOULD BE! Only the most outstanding major emergencies that nobody else can possibly solve should ever get past all those secretaries and offices and guards and whatnot. The big business executive spends most of his time alone conferring only with top leaders he has to talk to, and nobody else! Why do you think Makarios hasn't given us a personal interview? He is running a whole country, and unless he learns it is vital to his whole country to see us, he can't waste his time!--It will an absolute miracle of God if we get to see him!
21. YOU'RE ONE OF THE PRESIDENTS OF A WHOLE COUNTRY, AND A TOP LEADER CAN'T BE BOTHERED WITH EVERY LITTLE TRIFLE! A leader needs to see his people once in a while, perhaps. But most kings I ever heard of accomplished more not while they were appearing before the people on some balcony, but when they dressed like one of the people and put on a cloak with a hood on their head, or dressed like a beggar, and went down amongst the people and spied out the land to see what they were doing--That accomplished more! Not when they were sitting on the throne with everybody banging on the door!
22. YOUR PEOPLE NEED TO LEARN HOW TO GET ALONG WITHOUT YOU: You have more important business to do than just running one Colony! That is a test-tube Colony, however, so it will no doubt take some personal confrontations to get it across. But in spite of all you could do, and all you did do to get out the publications and raise the circulation, until they got a Letter from me, whom they have never seen, it didn't do the trick!
23. BUT WE DID DO A LITTLE PERSONAL INCOGNITO RECONNOITERING! I didn't have to have one personal word or visit from them: All I had to do was spy on them, to see what they were doing when they didn't know I was looking!--You don't find out all those things when they're sitting in front of you in your big office. I was out running around always checking up on everything at TSC in person, finding out what was going on behind the scenes! If you must have personal confrontations and check on your people personally, you'll find out a hell of a lot more by dropping in unexpectedly in their offices or rooms than calling them into your office.
24. IT WOULD BE A LOT MORE ENCOURAGING TO THEM FOR YOU TO DROP INTO THEIR OFFICE OR ROOM AND ASK HOW THEY WERE AND SAY GOD BLESS YOU, THAN WAITING TILL THINGS BECOME SO BAD THAT THEY HAVE TO COME TO YOUR OFFICE!--An ounce prevention is worth a pound of cure! It's far better for you to drop in and say, "How are you? How's the baby? How are you doing?"--and find out now, instead of waiting for everybody to come to the King on his throne with all their troubles!
25. I'D RATHER HAVE YOU IN THERE KEEPING AN EYE ON REPORTS AND READING it in black and white before they become big problems that wouldn't have happened if you had kept track of the mail and spent more time alone with the Lord and writing more letters to nip things in the bud before it got so bad! Talk to your dictaphone. When I work, I work. When I play, I play like mad, and I don't try to mix the two! Get in there with the mail and your dictaphone or tape recorder and take care of business and hear from the Lord!
26. WRITE DOWN THE QUESTIONS YOU HAVE: THAT'S THE WAY I DO BUSINESS with my secretaries. I don't have to take time seeing them, as much as I'd like to! I think they'll do better without you than with you, because then they'll have to seek the Lord! I've been preaching this since the first tape from Europe: "Follow God!". I dare say you'll get more of your work done in that room alone with God, like I do, than in the middle of all your people with a mountain of petty personal problems on your hands! God will give you the spiritual solutions while alone that will just make the mountains melt away!
27. THE FORTY DAYS AND NIGHTS THAT MOSES SPENT ON THE MOUNTAINS SOLVED MORE PROBLEMS THAN ALL THE MONTHS SPENT SITTING PERSONALLY ON HIS THRONE trying to judge all of their affairs himself! That must have been what finally drove him up the mountain!--He just saw it was a hopeless mess and he could never solve all the problems! When he finally went alone on the mountains, he virtually solved all the nation's problems for centuries by getting two tablets of stone and writing it down!
28. THOSE WRITTEN LAWS DID MORE GOOD THAN ALL THE YAKKING AT THEM HAD DONE FOR YEARS! God finally had to give him the point on the pinnacle and take His finger and write it down, or maybe Moses wouldn't have even remembered them from the time he got them to the time he got down the mountain!
29. THANK GOD FOR PAPER! God said in the revelation we got yesterday morning: He as good as said I would accomplish more with my pen than with my penis! But you're trying to accomplish more with your penis than with your pen! You're there trying to do in the flesh what you ought to be getting away and doing in the spirit!
30. BUT NO, YOU'RE TOO BUSY TALKING TO YOUR PEOPLE ALL WEEK RATHER THAN TO GET AWAY AND HEAR FROM THE LORD! You're too busy hearing from your people instead of the Lord, and they tell you 10,000 things to do! But you can't do it, not if you're going to survive! The strain is too much. Virtue hath gone out of you. They drain you dry. Why, Grandmother couldn't even take it! She was willing to deal with them during the service and afterwards with them at the altar, but then she went home and said, "I don't want to hear from anybody, I don't want to see anybody, I don't want to talk to anybody! The rest of my time belongs to God, and I'll get the message from God and come down and preach it to them and solve all the problems!"--And if she'd written it down, we'd have it yet!
31. BUT YOU WON'T GET THERE TRYING TO SOLVE ALL THEIR PROBLEMS IN YOUR OWN FLESHLY STRENGTH AND WISDOM: YOU SACRIFICE THE WHOLE REVOLUTION FOR THE GOOD OF THE FEW! You're not learning how to be a good executive that way, and certainly not learning how to be the prophet of God! You have to spend time with the Lord if you're going to give what God gives and get what God wants you to give.
32. DELIVER US LORD FROM THIS SPIRIT OF "BUSYNESS"--TOO BUSY FOR YOU, AND TOO BUSY FOR YOUR PROPHET! Help, Lord in Jesus' Name!--When you first wake up, before you call anybody or talk to anybody, to God, for God's sake! Get your orders from Him for the day, which is what I did today, which is why I can give you what the Lord gave me for you.
33. PAPER POWER!--NEVER UNDERESTIMATE THE POWER OF PAPER! The great men of the world have come and gone, and the great conquerors of the world have come and gone, and the only thing that still lives on is paper power!--Words and ideas permanently recorded on paper for posterity! You may reach part of your own generation in person, but you'll reach the world and all generations on paper!
34. MAO RUNS A NATION OF 800 MILLION people, but I doubt if he's ever seen even one million of them!--How in the hell does he do it?--Running around from village to village talking to every little chief? Does he do it by having them all come in to see him?--No, brother, he started writing it down on paper a long time ago, so not only his own people but the rest of the world's millions are getting personal words from him on paper on how to do it! He's saving them time and him time, and reaching a lot more people that way!
35. KARL MARX SAT UP IN A LITTLE ATTIC GARRET IN LONDON for years on end with just his own little family, spending his time running back and forth between library and flat, and putting on paper the thoughts he had--not calling in all the Socialist leaders of the world and having big conferences! He sat there and wrote it down, and it reached more millions than he could have ever hoped to have reached with big lectures, and world tours and meetings and running around! He kept on writing words that reached the world, until they finally buried him in the cemetery close to his home!
36. IF YOU KEEP RUNNING AROUND TRYING TO SEE EVERYBODY AND DO EVERYTHING, YOU'RE IN TROUBLE! They're going to bury you before you ever have a chance to be heard from! At least when they buried Marx, he'd accomplished his task, and his writings have been reaching the world ever since, and are the foundations of Communism!
37. I HAVE THE SATISFACTION OF KNOWING THAT WHATEVER HAPPENS TO ME, I HAVE GOTTEN IT DOWN ON PAPER! As a result, I've accomplished more in the past four years than I ever accomplished in the first 50! When I finally got away alone with the Lord and began to write it all down on paper, it did more than all 50 years of preaching and teaching in person!
38. WHEN WE WERE FIRST AT TSC I HAD A HANDFUL OF DISCIPLES LIKE JESUS, my 120, and what good did it do?--Well, we got the first few, and then we like Jesus: All He needed was the nucleus to start with, then He took off and directed the work from Heaven where He could be alone with God! And brother!--They carried on and won the world without Him personally--by His Spirit and by His Words!
39. I KNOW YOU LEADERS JUST LOVE TO FEEL INDISPENSABLE, LIKE YOU'VE GOT TO BE IN THE THICK OF IT ALL THE TIME! But I felt I was dispensable in the body, but indispensable, in the spirit!--And if I didn't get dispensable in the body, I would never get to be indispensable in the spirit! I suppose I'll have to blame myself for the mistakes made in L.A., because I was so busy lecturing to a few in TSC, instead of writing it down for everyone!
40. WE NOW NEED MORE STUDY TIME AND LESS CLASS TIME! We now have nearly everything you need to know in print and you only need time to study it! Why have all these classes with boring teachers droning on for hours, when you can read and study it for yourself at your own speed on your own time? I've said enough already--why say more?--Just let'em read it! Give'em time to study it--Then just test'em on it!
41. WE NEED TO TURN THESE BORING TIME-WASTING CLASSES INTO A MO-LETTER READING COURSE, instead of an hour-after-hour harangue by some guy with the preacher's itch! You'd get more done and you'd all learn more if you'd just learn MO!--And what the Lord has already said! My definition of a bore is a Colony Shepherd who wants to talk when I want to talk!--And God's already said plenty in His Letters!--Amen?
42. SO FOR GOD'S SAKE, SHUT UP AND LET'EM STUDY!--Now they have the Letters, you don't need any more classes!--At least, not many! A short devotional in the morning to start the day off right--maybe a silent reading of a MO Letter or Bible passage--then off to the streets with the message!--Or off to your work printing it, or making it possible for others to go into the field by cooking, typing, provisioning or taking care of necessary business, kids, etc.
43. THEN BACK FROM THE FIELD AT NIGHT WITH A ROUSING, INSPIRING TESTIMONY MEETING sharing the glorious victories and witnessing experiences of the day!--Followed by another quiet MO-Letter study time just before bed!--How's that!--You'd get a lot more done, studied and learned that way, than in all these long boring classes, meetings and conferences! Amen?--Hallelujah! Let's start reading MO Letters and spend Mo' time in the field reaching Mo' people! Amen?
44. BUT WE LOVE THESE BIG MEETINGS AND GETTING EVERYBODY TOGETHER, AND A BIG POW-WOW AND HARANGUE HOUR AFTER HOUR, when we could accomplish more with a letter in a few words. I know, because I used to do it, and you can recall the many hours and hours of teaching I used to spend in classes with a few of you. It did some good, and we got started that way, since we didn't know any other way.
45. BUT HOW MANY OF THOSE CLASSES COULD YOU REALLY SIT DOWN AND WRITE OUT AND REMEMBER WHAT WAS SAID? About all you can remember was the general impression, and maybe a little of what I looked like, and the spirit you got from the teaching. At least you knew you liked it and that it was from the Lord. But once you learned to have confidence in me and that God spoke through me and it was the voice of the Lord and God's message, you no longer needed that personal contact.
46. IN FACT, THE WRITTEN WORD HAS PROVED TIME AND TIME AGAIN TO BE UNQUESTIONABLY THE MORE EFFECTIVE METHOD. There are not many more than a hundred of you who have ever seen or heard me personally, and yet the rest of you obey just as well and sometimes a lot better than those who were there in person! And why?--Because you read and study the Letters, and it's all there for the record!
47. I AM SOLD ON THE MAIL OR THE POST, and I am convinced that not only is one picture worth a thousand words but ONE LETTER IS WORTH MORE THAN TENS OF THOUSANDS OF WORDS SPOKEN IN THESE CONFERENCES! The attitude of Peter, James and John was the same as the attitude of some of you: "Wow! We went down and had a conference at the Mount of Transfiguration, and guess who we saw!--And we had the most wonderful time!" And Peter said, "I wanted to pitch some tents and stay there, but for some reason the Lord thought we had to go."--And that's all he could remember about that conference! He never even got the point, and we have no record at all of what was said by Moses and Elijah and the Lord at that important meeting!
48. "I WANT TO HEAR PERSONALLY FROM MO!" SOMEBODY SAYS. Well, I've already told you that if your problem gets to such a passe it requires a personal letter from me, it may be your last! And the same thing should apply for personal emergency visits from top leaders. About the only kind of emergency I would consider warranted a special face-to-face visit should be a matter of spiritual life or death! The Lord's only going to return to earth when things get so bad it requires His own powerful personal presence to handle it! In the meantime, He's handing the situation entirely by letter and by "telephone" and special messengers! When He finally does have to come, the situation will have gotten the worst the world has ever seen, and He'll have to use force and violence to straighten it out!
49. INSTEAD OF MAKING A NICE MOLTEN CALF MEETING SO THEY ALL COULD DANCE AROUND IT AND HAVE A GOOD, TIME, MOSES CAME DOWN AND SHOVED THE LAW INTO THEIR HANDS AND THAT SETTLED IT! I can remember the time when I was a small boy looking at those missionaries lecturing in church meetings and wondering why, if their field was so damned important and the people needed them so bad, why in the hell did they come back home? Fred Jordan used to say to missionaries, "Good bye! I hope I never see you again until the Lord comes! Don't talk about furloughs, vacations and sick leaves: You're going to the field forever! You feel called, you want to go, and that's your burden.--Well, so go! If that's where you're supposed to be, why do you ever have to come back again?"
50. OF COURSE, I HOPE YOU UNDERSTAND THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CALLING EVERYBODY IN TO CONFER AND OUR REGULAR SUPERVISORY TRIPS that are supposed to be made by our overseers to prevent serious problems from occurring. These are two entirely different things. It's foolish to call in only the leaders of Colonies that are having problems--to call in nobody but the leader. You need to find out the score from the people and see the situation for yourself in person to get all sides of the story and to size up the whole problem and make your decision on a fair basis. He that answereth a matter before he hearth it (all sides, everybody's version), it is shame to him! You need to get out there and talk to his helpers and his people and see the Colony and talk to their friends and their kings and queens!
51. I AM ALL FOR SUPERVISION: I AM ALL FOR BISHOPS, OVERSHEPHERDS, OVERSEEING--not "overlooking", but overseeing: going around and seeing the state of the flocks, and not just calling in the shepherd only and taking his word alone for it! It is sacrificial and it is hard to live on the road and supervise but God knows it is needed! But so few are willing to make this sacrifice. A Regional Supervisor must keep the whole Region at heart, and not get embroiled in one local situation so long that he neglects or forgets about the rest of his Colonies. A Bishop needs to continually check out his whole Area to make sure all is well and no one is being neglected. A good Shepherd layeth down his life for his sheep!
52. I WISH WE COULD PERSUADE SOME OF YOU BISHOPS AND REGIONAL SHEPHERDS TO SPEND MORE TIME ON THE ROAD SUPERVISING AND VISITING YOUR COLONIES in person constantly!--Then we could nip some of these situations in the bud before they become major emergencies and require catastrophic assistance!--And then you wouldn't need so many conferences of leaders only! Shepherds need to attend to their flocks, not just fellowship with other Shepherds!
53. I'VE TRIED AGAIN AND AGAIN TO GET BISHOPS AND SUPERVISORS ON THE ROAD, but they always want to come home to roost!--I guess they miss their wives and kids and home sweet home!--But you'll never have a Revolution if old rockin' chair's got you!--It took me 15 years, and most of it away from home, to get one Gospel show on the road, but by the time I was through we were on 300 TV stations and 1100 radio stations!
54. IT'S TAKEN ME 50 YEARS, AND MOST OF IT ON THE ROAD LIVING IN TENTS AND CAMPERS, TO GET THE REVOLUTION ON THE ROAD!--But some of you guys can't spend 15 days away from home and mama overseeing your flocks!--If you've gotta fuck her every night, for God's sake get a tent or wagon and take her along!--I even took the kids!--Or get a substitute!--But whatever you do, get out there and get with it, and we wouldn't need so many damn Conferences! It's a hell of a lot cheaper and more effective for you to go to them, than for all of them to come see you while flocks fall apart or are torn by wolves! Let's have more shepherding and less conferences!
55. THE DAY I HEARD THAT BUS HAD BURNED TO THE GROUND I SAID, "THANK GOD!"--That may shock you, but this bus business is another case of the same.--Some of you don't believe the Letters can do the job, and you don't want to get out and sell them! You want to have some place where you can lie around with some other hippies, a gathering place, and it's another church on wheels, where you can have another face-to-face confrontation!
56. HOW IN THE HELL ON EARTH DID JESUS MANAGE TO GET ALONG WITHOUT DOUBLE-DECKER BUSES? He as good as said, "For God's sake, don't take any double-decker buses, `cause then you'll have to foot the bill! But find somebody in that town who is worthy, and stay with them, and then they'll have to pay expenses! Get out there and hoof it, and you'll reach more people on the way." When Fred Jordan decided to put his theories into practice, he didn't get a bus and start gathering up the hitchhikers while he paid for oil and gas and hamburgers in order to preach to them. He made folks pick him up in their car, and while they did all the driving and paid for all his expenses and had all the responsibility, he made them foot his bill while he preached them the Gospel!
57. I'LL TELL YOU, THAT BUS BUSINESS HAS BEEN A BAD INFLUENCE, BECAUSE IF YOU HAVE ONE, EVERY OTHER COLONY THINKS THEY NEED ONE TO DO THE JOB TOO! I think that, unless you really need it for a trip or transportation, a bus is a pride trip just like the church buildings! "Behold our buildings! Behold our bus! Look at what we have! This is ours! This is ours! Come to our church!"--It's same kind of spirit: --"Where, lo and behold, we can meet together! How pleasant it is for brethren to meet together in this building!"
58. THE COLONIES ARE GETTING TO BE THE SAME WAY, JUST LIKE WHAT'S HAPPENED TO THE CHURCHES! The church didn't start out that way, with buildings, inviting the sinners in to have a meeting. They started out with 12 motley-looking beggars hoofing it on the dusty roads with their dirty feet out amongst the sinners where they were taking them the word in person, and they had no place to take them to but Jesus! How did Jesus do it without some place to take them?
59. I CAN SEE THE ADVANTAGE OF COLONIES: GOD GAVE US THE PLAN TO USE AS WITNESSING BASES and living quarters and to free our trainees from the System. But if we're going to wind up just like the churches, God help us!--And the bus is just a mobile Colony. If they haven't got a Colony or any place to stay, if nobody cares enough about youth to take in two poor little stragglers who are, like the apostles, hoofing it, that town does not deserve them anyway! So they should just shake the dust off their feet and go somewhere that will receive them!
60. THE BUS IS A PRIDE TRIP! THEY WANT TO BE INDEPENDENT and not have to minister to somebody personally every day and night face-to-face to get their help. They don't want to stay in their home and be responsible for helping them, eat their food, etc. They don't want to have to live in their home and eat their meals. They want all the bills and expenses and danger in order to have all the privacy and independence and something to brag about!
61. IN GOD WAS IN FAVOUR OF DOUBLE-DECKER BUSES, WHY DID HE LET THAT BUS BURN TO THE GROUND? I heaved a sigh of relied when that bus burned, and I praised God for it! But you do not believe me and you do not follow my advice. We're even stretching it a point to have a Colony in downtown London. But one thing we do have to do is to process the mail, communicate with the Colonies and disciples and produce and distribute literature in the largest of all cities in Europe as well the third largest in the world!
62. THE NEXT ARGUMENT IS: WE'VE GOT TO HAVE THAT BUS FOR TRANSPORTATION. I believe if they'd start walking or hitchhiking, God would either provide transportation or people along the way to talk to! We need to reach a few more local people. If God doesn't provide transportation without us having all the expenses, then maybe the Lord doesn't want them to go to town. But if he gives them a ride, then they can spend the whole time witnessing on the way. I will feel a helluva lot safer if we don't have these huge juggernauts rolling down the highways with me, thee, thou and no other, our little Colony on wheels!
63. THAT PARIS COLONY NEVER GOT OFF THE GROUND UNTIL WE GOT THAT DAMNED BUS OUT OF THE WAY! As long as they could live in their own quarters and pay their own bills, they went broke and never got anything done! But when they got out and started ministering to and depending on others, then God began to use them. When a bus or Colony becomes a substitute for God's plan, then it becomes more of a bottleneck and hindrance than a help! How in the world are we going to preach to people that the world doesn't need all these vehicles, and some day we won't even have them, if we ourselves have a whole fleet of buses and have to pay for our own gas and oil and so on!
64. WHAT DO THEY WANT THEM FOR?--WELL, YOU SAY, COLD WEATHER, SHELTER, RAIN. Well, what do all the other hippies do when it rains?--Are we going to start furnishing them housing and buses? You don't show them that way that you're suffering with them! Jesus came down and suffered with us. Why can't we stand in a doorway with them, or slip in someplace where they are?--We'd be money ahead if we'd buy them a cup of coffee in a restaurant and talk to them there! In fact, probably they'd take you out to eat! But if they're broke, we'll pay for theirs.--And if we're broke, they'll probably pay for ours!
65. WE SHOULD SIT IN A BUILDING SOME BODY ELSE PAYS FOR, and at chairs and tables somebody else owns, and use the lights and heat that somebody else has provided, while we both enjoy the pleasures of the System that serves us, instead of salving away trying to pay for gas and oil and insurance and tires and repairs and all the rest of that God-damned bus bit! I'm fed up with it!
66. EXCEPT FOR OUR PROVISIONERS WHO NEED TRUCKS TO PICK UP LOADS OF GOODS, you can't tell me that we wouldn't be money ahead in the long run if we'd ditch every car we have, and every one of you would get on the city buses and ride them! But I say this, and it still doesn't do any good: It goes in one ear and out the other!
67. I DON'T THINK YOU'RE EVER GOING TO REMEMBER IT, OR FEEL RESPONSIBLE TO REMEMBER IT, UNTIL IT COMES OUT IN THIS LETTER AND ALL THE KIDS READ IT! Then you'll be ashamed to have a bus, and you'll be ashamed to be driving around in your own cars instead of paying your little city bus fare!
68. JUST THINK OF ALL THE GOOD AND WITNESSING YOU CAN DO WHILE RIDING THE CITY'S BUS! But you guys don't want to take the trouble to learn where the bus routes are, and how cheap you can go, and when and where. You'd rather drive yourself, with all its agony, dodging other vehicles and risking and running for your life, than you would to "Ride the bus and leave the driving to us!"--as the motto says, while you chat your business with your partner or you witness to others. If you have to walk 2 blocks to the bus, so what? My God, you need the exercise and the sunshine and the fresh air, and the relief and relaxation from driving, driving, driving--go, go, go, dodge, dodge, dodge!
69. VEHICLES WERE A CREATION OF THE DEVIL, NOT GOD! I am convinced of it, and I don't believe there is going to be an automobile around in the Millennium, not one God-damned stinking one of them!--So why the hell can't we get used to going without them now? We shouldn't have a Colony or bus or automobile except where we're forced to have one by need or unavoidable circumstances. If we dumped every damned car in the Revolution and started walking, hitchhiking or riding the city bus, I believe we'd be miles ahead!
70. FRED JORDAN HIMSELF, ONE OF THE BIGGEST PROPONENTS OF THIS METHOD OR REACHING THE WORLD--THAT'S THE WAY HE STARTED: THUMBING, HITCHHIKING, AND LET THEM PAY the bill! After he'd witnessed to them for a while, they soon learned he was a missionary living by faith. So after they'd treated him to a meal, then they felt responsible to pay for his hotel for the night, if only to get him off their backs so they could go on! Our two greatest expenses, Colonies and Vehicles, are costing us so much we can't print the Word! God help us!
71. IF OUR PRINT SHOP AND PRINT STAFF ARE SUCH A BIG EXPENSE, THEN LET'S DUMP THAT OUTFIT TOO AND LET THE SYSTEM DO THE JOB, while we do what they can't do: Get out and sell full time, and let the System take care of the hard work of the mechanical labours! They're not going to get out and sell them, but they are in the printing business, and they can do a helluva lot better at it than we can do it!
72. JESUS DIDN'T HAVE A HOUSE OR A CAR OR A COLONY OR A BAND, AND I'M SURE AS SHOOTING' HE DIDN'T HAVE A DOUBLE-DECKER BUS! But He had His twelve little hoofers and they stayed in other people's houses and ate other people's food!--And when it wasn't available, they slept out on the grass, or in a boat, or on a mountain! If they got hungry enough and couldn't get any food anywhere else, Jesus just multiplied it by a miracle out of five loaves and two fishes!
73. WE'RE GETTING INTO THE SAME SPIRIT AS THE CHURCHES: WE'VE GOT TO HAVE A PLACE and an entertainment! Then by the time we have the place and the vehicles, they're costing us so much money we can't afford to do anything else--just like the churches! We've got print shops that are costing us so much money we can't afford to pay for the printing! We are so busy printing and trying to run a Colony and take care of this, that and the other, we don't have time to get out and do the selling!
74. THERE'S ONE JOB THE SYSTEM'S NOT GOING TO DO FOR US, AND WHICH WE ALONE CAN DO: PUT THE WORDS INTO THE HANDS OF THE WORLD!--And I'm so sure we couldn't even hire other hippies to help us to sell them too!--Other papers do!--But the one job which we alone can do is to get them from God and write them, and pass them on to you to do the rest. I believe with all my heart and soul that if we'd spend as much time out selling as we do printing, running Colonies, dealing with personnel problems and driving and repairing vehicles, then we could afford to pay somebody else to print it for us! I'm getting the word from the Lord and on paper and giving it to you: That's the job only we can do. You guys are now hitting the streets with it in the passion and power of the Holy Spirit with your happy smiling faces! You're selling, and the System can't do that for us!
75. BUT THERE IS ONE STEP IN BETWEEN THE SYSTEM CAN DO: ONCE WE'VE GOT IT ON PAPER, THEY'VE GOT MORE PRINTING KNOW-HOW AND EQUIPMENT AND CAN DO IT FASTER--they can print if for us. I believe you're going to find out that, except for rush jobs or private jobs, where we can do out own printing on our own little presses, that by letting the world print the big jobs for us we'll be much further along in the long run. I think you're making a step in the right direction by letting the System start doing the big jobs for us.
76. THEY CAN DO THE MECHANICAL AND MANUAL LABOUR, THE JOB OF ACTUALLY PRINTING IT, and I really believe with all my heart they can do it better, and in the long run cheaper. Because if we would spend the time selling that otherwise we would have to spend printing it, I believe we'd be money ahead even on the expenses as well as the time, numbers, circulation and the rest.
77. I'M CONVINCED THAT JESUS HAD THE RIGHT IDEA: JESUS SHOWED YOU COULD DO IT WITH NEXT TO NOTHING BUT PEOPLE, AND THAT ANYBODY COULD DO IT! You didn't have to have buildings, or Colonies, or buses, or cars, or houses, or anything except your own two feet and your mouth! But we've got one advantage Jesus didn't have: literature! So for God's sake, let's use the advantages, but not the liabilities! I think vehicles are a hindrance and a liability and an unnecessary expenses!
78. BUT THERE IS ONE THING WE HAVE THAT HE DIDN'T, AND THAT IS THE PRINTED WORD! He said: "Greater things than these shall ye do", and He must have had printing in mind as one of them! Because we can multiply the Word by the millions on paper, and get out the words by the millions for the billions in a lasting form, a visual form, and a form which we can scatter and spread wider and further on paper than any of us could ever go!
79. SO FOR GOD'S SAKE, LET'S USE THIS ADVANTAGE AND FORGET THESE GOD-DAMNED BUSES, VEHICLES AND ANY OVER-GROWN USELESS COLONIES AND CONFERENCES AND BANDS that aren't needed! Let the churches have'em! You've got something they haven't got: MO and MO Letters!--Let's get'em out to the waiting world! We need a few Colony bases, I admit, but precious few. I don't know whether we need more than one in each country or major region or language area, from which you can go out and hit the road and hitchhike and live with other people and reach that country on the road, and then come back and report and reload with literature!
80. THE REGIONAL COLONY COULD SERVE THE TRIPLE PURPOSE OF BEING A MOTHER-AND-BABY COLONY, A BABES' TRAINING COLONY AND A PRINT SHOP or literature publishing centre. However, Jesus just seemed to pick His families and disciples up and take them with Him!--And if we can get the System to do it for us, we don't even need the print shop!--And these people that win converts and want to dump them on a Babes' Colony are like mothers who want to have babies but don't like to take care of them! If they get a convert as they hitchhike along the road who wants to come and live with them, why not just take him along like Jesus did, living by faith, and show him the way we live?
81. THAT'S WHAT JESUS DID!--HE DIDN'T HAVE A DOUBLE-DECKER BUS OR A BAG FANCY COLONY TO BRAG ABOUT! He just said, "Come! Follow Me, and I will make you fishers of men!"--Not builders of Colonies, drivers of buses and printers of lit! They didn't even get to ride on a wagon very much, less a double-decker bus! About the only thing they rode that I can recall was a boat, and the only other thing Jesus rode was a donkey!
82. WHY CAN'T OUT TWO-BY-TWO TEAMS PICK UP THEIR OWN CONVERTS AND TAKE THEM WITH THEM AND TRAIN THEM? If he's coming along only for free loaves and fishes and a free roof over his head, he's a hell of a convert! What kind of a convert is he if he doesn't really want to forsake all and hoof the roads and hitchhike with you just because he loves you and doesn't want to leave you, just like Jesus' disciples that loved Him, and didn't care where or how they lived if they could only be with Him! They wanted to witness and live by faith like He did!
83. JESUS AND HIS DISCIPLES DIDN'T NEED ANY DOUBLE-DECKER BUS OR EVEN A COLONY, and they didn't even need a print shop! Now, don't misunderstand me, I believe in print shops for certain purposes if you can't get the System to do it, or if you can't afford them do it, or maybe for little private jobs. We don't need a big quantity of printing for just little small operations where they can handle their own printing. I'm all for it in big operations where we have to reach thousands and millions: There the System is better equipped to do it. For the mass products, we need the mass producers for the great masses! But for little jobs we can have the little jobbers. But for the big ones we need the big stuff.
84. SO WE'D BETTER RE-THINK OUR WHOLE OPERATION, METHODS AND OUTREACH, WHETHER IT BE CONFERENCES, COLONIES, BUSES, BANDS OR PRINT SHOPS!--Let's keep what we really need and dump the rest! If the Devil can't persuade you not to serve God, then the tries to get you so weighed down with things, problems and time, energy and money wasters that you can't even move!
85. LET'S LAY ASIDE EVERY WEIGHT AND THE SINS THAT DO SO EASILY BESET US, AND LET'S RUN! Not on gas and oil and rent and hot air and machinery, but on the power of His Spirit!--Not by our own might and power, but by His Spirit!--Amen?
86. LET'S RUN EVEN ON OUR OWN TWO FEET WITH OUR OWN MOUTH AND OUR OWN LIT--AND LET THE SYSTEM FURNISH THE HOUSING, TRANSPORTATION, FOOD AND PRINTING!--Our biggest expenses and greatest hindrances and worst time, energy and money wasters!--Let's get on with it and get out and sell it and give the words that work to the world--and make them pay for it! Amen?
87. THE LABOURER IS WORTHY OF HIS HIRE! THEY THAT PREACH THE GOSPEL SHALL LIVE OF THE GOSPEL!--Amen?--Let's quit getting bogged down with buses, Conferences, Colonies, printing or anything else that we don't really need to do the job! Amen?--God bless you and help you to do the thing we need to do must of all: Give the words that work to a waiting world!--Amen? God bless all you cooks, secretaries, artists, editors, workers, leaders, messengers, salesman, etc., who are!--We do need you!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family}
