HomeARC ML 0331B
"HOW TO"--MO MARCH 2, 1975 NO.331B--LTO
--The New Do-It-Yourself Revolution!
Copyright March 1975 by The Children of God
P.O. Box 31, London WC2E 7LX, England or BP 752, 75123 Paris, Cedex 03, France
1. I'M NOT ALWAYS CLEAR. I'm sometimes like the old lady said about the preacher, "He ain't deep, he just ain't clear!" Sometimes my Letters are long and sometimes they're complicated. I'm sorry, but that's just the way I am. I just sit and roll what comes out and that's the way it comes.
2. I WANT YOU TO GET A CLEAR PICTURE OF THE "NEW REVOLUTION" LETTERS:
DESCRIPTION OF "NEW REVOLUTION" SERIES:
3. NUMBER ONE: "THE LIT REVOLUTION!"--IT'S REALLY JUST A HISTORY of what's already been done and how we have pretty much accomplished what we set out to do and as was said in "The Birthday Warning" two years ago. Thank God we have obeyed the Lord!
4. WE ARE NOW PUTTING THE LIT OUT BY THE MILLIONS in 28 languages in 50 some countries and as a result a miracle happened that we didn't expect!--You know what that is? We had His promise and we didn't even really know what the Lord was going to do, but He said if we obeyed, He'd do what?--He'd supply our needs! What's been the result of our obeying the Lord and getting out the Words?--
5. HE HAS TURNED AROUND AND MADE THE WORDS SUPPORT US! Isn't that a miracle? In fact, it was rather radical even to think about selling MO Letters on the street! Steve, Becky and Maria were the ones that really encouraged us to try it. We thought, "Well, what have we got to lose? Let's try it!" We didn't even know if it was going to work or not, but now it's supporting the whole worldwide work! The Lord knew though, because it was His idea!
6. ALSO, IN THIS PAST COUPLE OF YEARS WE HAVE REALLY DEVELOPED THE LEADERSHIP. We've had it for the past year or two, but I think one of the main things we were doing was pushing out, expanding into all these locations, sort of setting up our sales organisation so to speak. We had the sales force but we had to get them into position in enough countries and in enough languages to fit every situation.
7. WE HAVE PRETTY MUCH TAKEN CARE OF GETTING THE BEGINNING MANPOWER OUT THERE IN THE FIELD. But the Lord has shown us recently that the reason we're not getting any further is because we're just sitting.
8. WE'RE GETTING ENOUGH AMMUNITION TO SUPPLY OUR NEEDS BUT WE'RE NOT ATTACKING. We've got a beautiful machine this beautiful racing car, but it's not moving. We've got to get in and turn on the key, slide it in gear and step on the gas and get going, and that's what I'm going, to do!
9. THE NEXT LETTER IN THE SERIES IS "THE DISCIPLE REVOLUTION". This was a kind of a history again of our past discipleship policies and methods and what we now expect to do again. In the early days we used to really rake 'em in!
10. DISCIPLESHIP AND STARTING NEW COLONIES WAS THE MAIN THING. We were getting so many new babes we had to develop the leadership, so we put the pressure on the development of new leadership and now we've got it.
11. WE SAW THAT THE LEADERS WERE NEVER GOING TO BE DEVELOPED FAST ENOUGH AND THAT THE LITERATURE WAS GOING TO HAVE TO BECOME THE LEADERS and help to do the job. So we put the pressure on the literature and now we've got the literature God did it all! The lord did it all!
12. THE NEXT LETTER, "THE SHAKE UP!" IS THE REAL REVOLUTION AND THE OVERHAUL of the whole machine designed to push little leaders out in the open where they can do something we're going to have so many leaders that about every other guy's going to be a leader, well, every third guy at least! we've got it so split up and boiled down and so simplified that all you've got to lead is two sheep! You can be a Colony of two. You can be a member at less than that!--The first day you're born or born again, and we get member both ways! "The Shake-Up" is the beginning of the leadership revolution.
13. "THE BLOODLESS COUP" AMOUNTS TO THE DEATH OF THE OLD DICTATORSHIP and the sweeping out of the old guard. We're going to spread the leadership out so thin that it's not going to rest in the hands of so few so dictatorially exercised.
14. EVERYBODY'S GOING TO HAVE SOMETHING TO SAY, not only the guy leading the two people, but the two people are going to have something to be able to tell him. I thought it was a good parallel the Lord gave us about someone having a baby: --They're training him to be a leader and at the same time he's training them how to be parents! So really this is a new birth of leadership we're going to have. The time has come to the full and these babies are being born all over the place!
15. EVERY TWO UNITS IS GOING TO BECOME THE PARENTS OF A NEW BABY LEADER just over them--training him to be the leader of tomorrow. And meanwhile he's going to be training them to be the leaders in the old job he used to have.
16. VIRTUALLY EVERYBODY IN THE REVOLUTION IS GOING TO GET PROMOTED. We're going to have enough jobs to practically give everybody a promotion!--Ha!--Hallelujah! We're a zany outfit! How 'bout that! We're going to create so many jobs, so many offices, so many titles that I'm telling you, you can just take your choice! Number five is what?--
17. "THE COLONY REVOLUTION": EVERYTHING THAT HAD TO DO WITH THE LOCAL COLONY REORGANISATION and shake-up and discipleship and so on we put in one Letter called "The Colony Revolution."
18. "THE NEW LEADERSHIP REVOLUTION" CONTAINS THE OTHER PARTS ON THE RESTRUCTURING of the whole organisation, the new Archbishops, Ministers and all this sort of thing we put into it as the grande finale!
19. I'M GOING TO SHOW YOU HOW WE NEED TO GET THE BALL ROLLING and I want you to put this organisation into action, into practice, and get everything split up! We have to lead in a way from the top to get them moving to put it into action from the bottom.
20. YOU HAVE TO SHOW THE SHEEP WHAT TO DO. As my mother used to say who was a very good leader, "You don't exactly ask the sheep what to do, you've got to show them what to do in a way, and then you ask them in a way how to do it, or how you can help or what can you do or what do they think about it."
21. A SHEPHERD LEADS HIS FLOCK but sometimes in a way the sheep lead him. They can bleat their needs if they're hungry or they're thirsty or they need the binding up of their wounds and so on. The sheep need to voice their needs to let you know so that you can minister to them and supply those needs.
22. THIS NEW STRUCTURING IS GOING TO GIVE THE SHEEP A CHANGE TO SPEAK, to bleat, to let us know what they need, what they want, what they'd like to do. But we as the leaders and the shepherds have to help them to carry it out.
23. WE AS THE LEADERS AND THE SHEPHERDS HAVE TO GET THE WORD OF THE LORD FIRST from the top, from above, to give us the vision, the picture of what God knows is wrong and what we need to change and what we need to do about it, and I believe that this is What the Lord has given us.
24. THE POOR LITTLE STARVING, HUNGRY, THIRSTY, COLD, WOUNDED, BEDRAGGLED LITTLE SHEEP have been just trotting along blindly no matter what happened and never even bleating, never even going "Baaaaa!" to let us know what's wrong.
25. THE WHOLE IDEA IS TO PUT EVERYBODY TO WORK DOING SOMETHING AND EXERCISING EVERY BIT OF THEIR LEADERSHIP ABILITY that we can possibly pump out of them. If we put every person in the Revolution in charge of at least two people they ought to be able to do something.
26. WE'RE NOT TAOISTS, WE'RE GOING TO BECOME TRIOISTS! Taoism is a religion that says everything comes in twos, well everything's going to come in threes now, one leader, two followers--two sheep to every shepherd. The shepherd who can't lead at least two sheep, well, I guess he really hasn't got it.
27. SO THAT IS PRETTY MUCH THE SERIES WE'RE CALLING "THE NEW REVOLUTION"--THE REVOLUTION WITHIN THE REVOLUTION! A total overhaul of the whole structure and machine from the grassroots to the top: From the root privy to the topmost branches, leaves, twigs, buds, fruits, seeds and whatnot.--And I believe it's going to work!--What do you think? I know it sure inspires me when I see the tremendous possibilities and potential if we really spread this out this way and give everybody a chance to do something and really go!
SPLITTING THE COLONIES: THEY GOTTA SPLIT! GUARANTEED GROWTH, PRINCIPLE OF CELL GROWTH.
28. ANOTHER THING IS SPLITTING UP THE COLONIES. If they're 12 or more it's time to split them up. When they reach 12--boom--It's mandatory! They're either going to split or they're not going to get their Letters.
29. I'VE DONE MY SPLITTING, NOW IT'S THEIR TURN! They gotta split! So that's going to be one of the first ways we're going to crack the whip, use the rod, my gear stick, to split these big Colonies into smaller units.
30. THEN BY PUTTING THE PRESSURE ON TO GET DISCIPLES, THIS INSURES THE FACT THAT THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE TO SPLIT AGAIN! It's like guaranteed growth. Well now, this is a principle God gave us all throughout nature, the principle of the amoeba--from the tiniest little amoeba splitting into two and then those parts split again in two, etc.
31. IT'S THE PRINCIPLE OF CELL GROWTH--cellular structure--this is a principle that God uses all the way through. You can possibly think of a whole host of illustrations from God's Creation and from Nature. It is the paramedical principal of molecular structure.
32. SO NOW WE'RE GOING TO TAKE THIS NATURAL PRINCIPLE AND APPLY IT TO THE SPIRITUAL and the organic body of His Church and we're going to grow by division, and every split's going to grow until it has to split and I'm going to use the only weapon I have to force them to do it!
THE LEVER OF A PROPHET: THE WORDS!
33. I CAN'T FORCE ANYBODY TO DO ANYTHING. I can't force you to carry this out, but there's one thing God's given me that I do have control over, or at least some control over: "The spirit of the prophet is subject to the prophet"; and I have a right, if you don't obey God, to withhold the Words of God from you!
34. SHEEP THAT RUN OFF AND HAVE THEIR OWN WAY AND DO THEIR OWN THING AND DON'T FOLLOW THE SHEPHERD DON'T GET FED! Those that run off and get lost in the mountains and choked with thorns and rent by wolves, that's their own fault. If they'd stayed with the shepherd they'd have enjoyed his protection and provision and his guidance.
THE NEW STRUCTURE: 3 LEVELS OF AUTHORITY AND APPROVAL; A CHECK-AND-BALANCE SYSTEM, ELECTION OR APPOINTMENT OF OFFICERS.
35. I THINK THAT THIS NEW STRUCTURE IS THE BASIC THING THAT THE LORD HAS SHOWN US! There probably are other forms of government like this one, but I don't know of any right now, where you have to get the approval of three levels of authority. We have a combination of various forms of government in our structure.
36. THE BEST THAT WE HAVE FOUND OF THIS AND THE BEST OF THAT PUT TOGETHER.--IT HAS TO COME FROM THE TOP AND THE BOTTOM BOTH. I know of a lot of Governments which are dictatorships from the top, where the dictator sits up there and the people have to agree. I know others who are supposed to be democracies where the people sit down there and they elect the officers and the top has nothing to say about it. But we're trying to have a check-and-balance system where it has gotta be all three levels!
37. NOBODY CAN HOLD AN OFFICE WITHOUT THE AGREEMENT OF THE NEXT LINK DOWN THE CHAIN-OF-COOPERATION AND THE NEXT LINK UP. This forces everybody to work in cooperation and unity. Officers can either be elected from the bottom or appointed from the top.
38. ELECTED THEY SHOULD BE, APPOINTED SOMETIMES THEY COULD BE or have to be because of emergency situations, but in either case their fellow shepherds to whose level they are appointed have to agree and the supervisor above them has to agree also. Or if the supervisor appoints him, then not only his fellow shepherds have to accept him but also the step below has to accept him.
THE NEW REVOLUTION IS DEVELOPING A CONSTITUTION USING TWO-THIRDS MAJORITY AND WHY.
39. WE ARE DEVELOPING, BELIEVE IT OR NOT, WHAT AMOUNTS TO YOUR CONSTITUTION!--How your organisation is to be constituted and of what it's to be composed. Now of course the constitution doesn't become effective until it's ratified by all those concerned. In the case of the U.S. Constitution it had to be ratified by two-thirds of the legislatures of the States before it became official for all the States.
40. WE HAVE DEVELOPED THE TWO THIRD MAJORITY IN OUR CONSTITUTION also, particularly this "Leadership Revolution" because I feel you cannot make it unanimous consent because then any little Tom, Dick and Harry can hold up the whole works like they're now holding up the U.N.--one veto and nobody can do anything. It throws a monkey wrench into the machinery and everything comes to a halt because one guy doesn't like it! Neither do I like a simple majority because then you've got your split 50/50 and too much opposition, too much disagreement.
41. I LIKE A TWO-THIRDS OR THREE-FOURTHS MAJORITY SO AT LEAST THE VAST MAJORITY ARE IN AGREEMENT. I could have said three-fourths but that's little high, especially since we're built on this triumvirate principal where the ideal unit is composed of three. If you've got three, one Shepherd and his two followers, two of them can vote him out if they don't like him! There's two-thirds right there! Of course whatever decision they make is also going to have to be approved by the next level down and the next up, so you've really got a lot more people involved.
NEW TEAMS: HOW TO ORGANISE FIRST, DIVIDE LIKE AN AMOEBA, PUSH UP LEADERSHIP, THEN SPLIT!
42. WE USED TO ORGANISE TEAMS BEFORE WE EVER SENT THEM OUT. We organized their personnel, we chose the leader. What I used to do was to choose a leader and then I'd say to him, "Alright, now you go choose your team, the guys you want. They don't have to go, but you go sell them, you go give them a sales talk: 'You want to work with me? I'm going someplace! How would you like to come along, be my cook, my wife, my secretary or whatever?' And then they split off from the main body just like little molecules or little amoebas.
43. YOU CAN'T JUST THROW THEM OUT AND SAY, "WE'VE GOT TWELVE IN OUR COLONY NOW, SO SIX OF YOU GUYS HAVE TO GET OUT!" When an amoeba is splitting it divides into two full complete cells before it actually divides. It divides while it's still one, right? So the Mother Colony helps the younger Colony that wants to go to get organised and then sends them forth with all the help she can.
44. NOW SOMETIMES THEY MAY NOT KNOW WHO TO CHOOSE OR WHAT TO DO, they may be a Pioneer Colony or something new and maybe the leader may have to choose from the top, but it must be with the consent of the people in that case. Whichever way the power goes, whichever way the choice works, it must be with the consent of the higher or lower level!
45. WHEN EACH GROUP HAS CHOSEN THEIR LEADER you get together with the District Shepherd who was once the Colony Shepherd of one Colony, and have a nice time and lay hands on them like the apostles did in those good old days when they sent out missionaries and pioneer Colonies.
46. COMMIT THEM TO THE LORD, PRAY FOR THEM, ASK GOD TO BLESS THEM. Ordain the new Shepherd of the ones that stay and the new Shepherd of the ones that go and send the one team out. Of course at this meeting the proper Overshepherd, whoever he is whether it's the District or Regional should be the presiding officer, and with his consent and leading of the meeting.
47. SO EVERY TIME A COLONY SPLITS YOU HAVE THE FORMATION OF TWO COMPLETE NEW COLONIES WHO SHOULD SELECT THEIR OWN SHEPHERDS from their own number We're going to have instant leaders. The simplest way for this to work is of course for the one who was their complete leader to instantly become the new District Shepherd. This will solve a lot of problems in getting this whole thing started. Eventually when this whole machine gets fabricated and all organised then it may not always be the guy that's up there that gets it because it'll be pushing up from the bottom. But this way we can have instant changes, we can have instant new leadership.
48. IN OTHER WORDS WE KEEP PUSHING THIS LEADERSHIP UPWARD FROM THE BOTTOM, NOT PUSHING LEADERSHIP DOWNWARD FROM THE TOP. No wonder we're so short of leaders, we were always looking around the top someplace to find the leadership to push it down. What we need to do is find this leadership at the bottom and start pushing it up! It's already there!
49. I'LL BET YOU AT ANY TWELVE-MAN COLONY RIGHT NOW THERE MUST BE AT LEAST TWO LEADERS DIRECTLY UNDER THE COLONY SHEPHERD who could be put in charge of at least that many people, a little tiny team of half a dozen, half of that Colony. There must be at least two other people in the Colony who have got enough guts and enough faith. If they haven't got enough faith to go out and pioneer at least one of them can stay home, but the guy that really wants to get up and go let him go! Maybe the new District Shepherd of these two sudden instant Colonies may have to really help because now he's training new leaders.
DISTRICT SHEPHERD'S ROLE OF COUNSEL AND SUGGESTION.
50. THE DISTRICT SHEPHERD TAKES THE LEAD AND STARTS THE BALL ROLLING but they must decide on who's to stay & who's to go & he counsels with them and makes suggestions and so on, but they, the Colony council, have got to make the decision.
51. AND THEN YOU SAY: "WE'VE GOT TWO NEW COLONIES HERE NOW, SELECT YOUR NEW COLONY COUNCILS, each of you. And then each of you Colony Councils decides on who you want for your shepherd." This is pumping people power. Getting them to take the initiative.
IMMEDIATE LOCAL EXPLOSION THROUGH OBEDIENCE.
52. WE WOULD EXPLODE IF WE PUT THIS PLAN INTO EFFECT LIKE WE OUGHT TO! We should expand and explode--boom--right into neighbouring states, provinces, countries immediately, without people having to go clear around the world to be sent as missionaries from America to someplace else.
53. WE ARE ALREADY SPREAD OUT INTO THE 50 MAJOR COUNTRIES OF THE WORLD.--NOW WHAT WE NEED TO DO IS EXPLODE LOCALLY to expand out and cover the country we're in and to push out into the countries surrounding, and if we do that we'll soon find each other bumping into each other coming from the other direction!--l believe it!
CONSIDERATIONS FOR DIVISION: LANGUAGE, AREA, SIZE, DISTANCE, COUNTRY BOUNDARIES.
54. CONSIDERATIONS FOR MAKING THE DIVISION: I WOULD SAY THE NUMBER ONE IS LANGUAGE. It should be a major consideration in choosing the leader too, because whether he's a Bishop or an Archbishop of that whole area, it would certainly be wise if he could speak that language.
55. THE SIZE OF THE AREA IS IMPORTANT from the standpoint of transportation, travel, visitation, and the practicality of the overseer being able to get around and visit his underlings wherever they are, regardless of level.
56. WE SUGGESTED THAT THE DISTRICT SHEPHERD'S TWO COLONIES SHOULD BE CLOSE ENOUGH SO THAT HE COULD VISIT BOTH OF THEM AT LEAST ONCE A WEEK. He'll probably be living in one of them. But although he might live-in, he's not the local Colony Shepherd. Nobody can have two jobs any more! He's not a local Colony Shepherd and he's got no business honing into the affairs of that local Colony any more than just his overseeing of the two Colonies.
57. LANGUAGE IS IMPORTANT, TRANSPORTATION IS IMPORTANT, SO DISTANCE IS IMPORTANT AND THE BOUNDARIES OF COUNTRIES ARE VERY IMPORTANT. A fellow shouldn't have to cross too many boundaries if he can help it, going back and forth into different countries and have visas and passport and stuff.
ORDINATIONS: AS A COMMANDMENT, DENOMINATIONAL, GOD ORDAINS, MAN RECOGNISES.
58. ORDINATIONS: FIRST OF ALL WE NEED TO KNOW WHAT AN ORDINATION IS. According to John it says, "l have called thee and ordained thee to go and bring forth fruit."
59. SO TO BE ORDAINED MEANS NOT ONLY TO BE CALLED BUT COMMANDED TO DO SOMETHING. God isn't talking there about a ceremony in which He has ordained you to be a minister. He has commended you to be a minister. Your commission of commandment to be a minister of whatever you are. So, in each case where a new man is put into a new office in a sense he is ordained as that new officer. He is ordained by God--this is the way I look at ordination, even back in the old Church System. A man is ordained of God.
60. IN THE OLD DENOMINATION THEY USED TO SAY "WE HAVE ORDAINED YOU." When I went before my board in my denomination, some of these big shots sitting around, it was really funny! I was really amused to think that all these big shots had to take their time out to look me over and I was nothing but a little shot. I hadn't even shot yet, for that matter!
61. SO THEY SAID, "WE UNDERSTAND THAT YOU WOULD LIKE TO BE ORDAINED." I said, "No, I've already been ordained by the Lord: He told me to go into all the world and preach the Gospel to every creature. But I heard from your men that I had to come up here for you to look me over and that this is the way you do it, so I'm here!" Well, they were practically open-mouthed and aghast that I should say I was already ordained when they hadn't ordained me!
62. WELL, GOD'S CHILDREN ARE ORDAINED BY THE LORD! But I would look on an ordination ceremony, service, ritual, whatever you want to call it, as man's recognition of God's ordination. So I think it's wise, and it was practised thus in the New Testament to start off with, where they laid hands on them and through this official recognition they were commissioned or recognised to be commissioned to do the job, simply recognised by man.
63. SO IT WOULDN'T BE A BAD IDEA WHEN YOU'RE INSTALLING THESE NEW OFFICERS, for example, to impress upon the people the importance and seriousness and the soberness of the occasion and the heaviness of it, and to impress upon the candidate the weight of his responsibilities, and to really realise that this is something important, very serious and that it's not to be taken lightly. Like a betrothal or a marriage service, he's getting married to his job.
BETROTHALS: APPROVAL AT 3 LEVELS; TESTIMONY OF DAVID AND MARIA.
64. BETROTHALS: WHO SHOULD CONSENT TO A BETROTHAL? The couple themselves first of all, God help 'em, and next their Colony Shepherd of course. I believe in letting those things be decided at the local level if possible.
65. THE IDEAL SITUATION IS WHERE IT IS SORT OF INBRED WITHIN A COLONY, those that are living together, who know each other well and have been working together for some time in the same Colony. It may not always be within the Colony, intra-Colony, sometimes it might be inter-Colony, maybe they know somebody in another Colony that they love or something.
66. IF IT'S WITHIN ONE COLONY, THEN IT'S TOTALLY WITHIN THE JURISDICTION OF THAT COLONY LEADER. I don't think it should have any interference except for perhaps the approval of another leader from the next step up. It might be well that the betrothal not only have the sanction of the local Colony leader but a double check with another leader who knows the people and the situation.
67. THE TWO PEOPLE THEMSELVES HAVE TO MAKE THE DECISION FIRST THOUGH. I don't like this business of a set-up betrothal. We've had more messes by these matchmakers, God help us and deliver us!
68. SO I'D SAY THAT THE SAME PRINCIPLE HOLDS TRUE ON BETROTHALS AS ON ANY OTHER DECISION, AND THAT IS WITH THE CONSENT OF THE ADJOINING LEVELS CONCERNED. Of course if the couple is determined, I don't know how you would talk them out of it. Some people sometimes just have to learn by their mistakes, sad to say, and maybe you don't know all the factors, maybe God knows best.
69. WHO IN THE WORLD WOULD HAVE HEARD OF PUTTING ME AND MARIA TOGETHER? If you don't believe in top leadership marrying babes, that's what she was, she was a two-month babe! She came in January; March we were already together and by April we were married--three months! Pretty fast work huh? Well, it took some pretty hard work, I'll tell you!--Ha!
70. I'M A PRETTY PERSUASIVE FELLOW WHEN I'M DETERMINED AND I WOULDN'T TAKE NO FOR AN ANSWER.--And you can see what it has resulted in, thank God! So, we didn't have nobody's permission but the Lord, so I guess we're sort of an exception.
71. BUT I'D SAY THE BASIC RULE TO FOLLOW IS THAT YOU MUST HAVE THE CONSENT OF THE PEOPLE INVOLVED AND THE ADJOINING LEVELS OF LEADERSHIP. Now there can always be exceptions to every rule.
REPORTS: EXPLANATION, IMPORTANCE OF, NUMBER OF COPIES TO WHOM.
72. REPORTS: WE'RE GOING TO HAVE TO FIGURE OUT A NEW REPORTING SYSTEM and figure out who's going to report to who. Certainly no little Colony at the bottom is going to want to make duplicate reports, one for himself, one for his District Shepherd, one for his Regional Shepherd, one for his Bishop, one for his Archbishop, one for his Minister, one for his Prime Minister and one for International Headquarters, one for the statistics department and one for such and such a file! He's going to have about ten copies and that would cost him a fortune in postage every two weeks just to send out his reports. He's not going to want to do it. So I don't think they should have to!
73. MY IDEA OF IT WAS THAT EACH LITTLE COLONY ONLY REPORT TO HIS DISTRICT SHEPHERD AND A COPY OF HIS STATISTICS AND HIS NEWS DIRECT TO WORLD SERVICES in order to keep his statistics up to date without having to wait for it to go through the whole chain. They need to get his statistics right away! I would say the best of all, just in case, is to go to the two-step double-check plan.
74. JUST IN CASE THE DISTRICT SHEPHERD FALLS DOWN ON THE JOB MAYBE THE LOCAL COLONY OUGHT TO SEND A COPY TO THE DISTRICT SHEPHERD AND TO THE REGIONAL SHEPHERD, and maybe we ought to have that plan all the way up the line. That way they'll be getting the statistics far enough up the line that the guys that are close enough will be able to get the reports that they're most concerned with. They'll not be reporting to anybody more than a couple of steps away besides the statistical reports that go to World Services, and upper officers will not be hearing from any more than two steps down the line.
75. THEY ONLY HAVE TO READ THE REPORTS OF THE TWO MEN UNDER THEM unless they want to spot check the other reports. For example, if the Bishop wanted to read all the reports, not the Colonies', but he could read his two Regional reports and to make sure the District Shepherds are doing their job, he reads their four reports too. He wouldn't have more than six reports to read. He wouldn't always have to read the second step reports, but every now and then he might want to make a spot check just to make sure. We're going to learn a lot as we put it into effect and practice. We're going to find out how it works.
76. A REPORTING SYSTEM IS VERY IMPORTANT, AND THAT IS ONE OF THE MAIN REASONS WE HAVE KEPT TOGETHER as an integrated force while others have crumbled and gone to pieces and you never heard of them again. But the Children of God are still marching on because we stick together, sticking together in doctrine and fellowship and communication, which is extremely important.
77. WITHOUT COMMUNICATION WE'VE GOT NO DOCTRINE, WE'VE GOT NO FELLOWSHIP. We have insisted on these reports and insisted on them getting them in, and that's the first place we ever put on the lever of the Letters and boy, I tell you, they get those reports in now or they'll be taken off the mailing list! Some of them are still pretty delinquent, but they're doing better than they used to before we did that. So the reporting system is important.
78. THE LOCAL COLONY SHEPHERD SHOULD REPORT ONLY TO THE TWO STEPS ABOVE HIM and every step should only be receiving the reports from two steps below them, and this is a double safely check system. Not more than two steps in either direction, which is the way the whole thing is built--three links that are fastened together, the two links that join them.
79. THE ONLY COPIES THEY'RE GOING TO HAVE TO MAKE IS FIVE ALTOGETHER. We suggest that the best copy be sent to the guy who has to read the most, I suppose that's World Services, the original and the first copy. The next guy who is really most important to read it is the District Shepherd so he ought to get the second carbon copy. The Regional Shepherd should get the last carbon because he's not likely to have to read it, but if he has to then he has it. Well, that's reporting and that's very important!
LITNESSING AND WITNESSING: NO EXCEPTIONS, DAVID'S SAMPLE.
80. LITNESSING AND WITNESSING: EVERYBODY'S GOT SOME KIND OF A JOB BESIDES LITNESSING, including the Colony Shepherd and Shepherdess. But I have been unable to figure out why they don't get out! I have drummed it into my own Department and I have gotten mad and I have raised Cain!
81. I SAID EVERYBODY NEEDS TO GET OUT just for the exercise and fresh air and the sunshine two hours a day for God's sake! Let it double as your recreation time or something--you've gotta get out! Now why the hell can't you get out--l don't care who you are! Why can't you get out there on the sidewalk and litness?
82. MARIA AND I USED TO SPEND THREE OR FOUR HOURS EVERY NIGHT OUT dancing, and let me tell you, we weren't dancing all the time! We spent at least fifty-percent of the time and sometimes more than that with somebody socking away witnessing. We couldn't talk Children of God, we couldn't give them literature, but we sure could talk about God and Jesus and the Bible and everything else.
83. WE SPENT THAT TIME LITERALLY OUT WITNESSING. And if we can do it, I don't see why the hell everybody can't do it! You all need it. You need to keep your hand in witnessing and litnessing, every single member, everybody from the top to the bottom. It's a great leveller!
84. THERE'S NO REASON WHY EVERYBODY CAN'T GET OUT AT LEAST TWO HOURS A DAY and hit the streets. If you don't think you ought to litness, it's below your dignity to litness, then for God's sake sit on a bench and witness and get a disciple, if that's your talent and your calling!
85. IF YOU'RE TOO MUCH OF A BIG SHOT TO LITNESS, like some of them seem to think they are and have written me letters of complaint that it destroys their image, as a show business star to have to litness and they would rather witness and win disciples, well for God's sake then let them witness! I mean after all that's what it's all about!
86. IF THEY'D RATHER WITNESS THAN LITNESS, THAT'S WHY I SAY THEY OUGHT TO BE GIVEN CREDIT FOR EVERY NEW DISCIPLE, the same as one day's litnessing. And if that knocks down your stats, well then raise the quota on the rest of them so you get enough lit out. If he's a good witness and he's raising your Colony stats on the disciples, you've got to have that or you're not going to be getting the Letters very long!
87. THE REST OF YOU OUGHT TO BE WILLING TO GET OUT AND SELL LETTERS so that these good witnessers and disciple-getters, disciplers, can bring in new disciples. I don't see why not. We spend six to eight hours a day sitting on our fannies working away editing, typing, dictating and then get out and take a walk every day. Or--
88. WE GO DANCING, AND IT'S A GREAT PLACE TO WITNESS AND TO MINISTER! We did it. It was great and we enjoyed it, so why not? So the poor Colony Leader, he's got to do statistics and he's got to administrate and do this and do that. Well, the poor Cook, she's got to cook a bunch of meals too and the poor Childcare Worker has got to take care of a bunch of kids all the time, and the poor Driver-Mechanic has got to be out there fixing a bunch of vehicles--everybody's got their jobs!
89. IF YOU'RE GOING TO EXCUSE SOMEBODY BECAUSE OF THEIR JOB THEN YOU'LL HAVE TO EXCUSE EVERYBODY--AND THAT'S THE WAY IT GOT TO BE IN THE LONDON OFFICE. "Oh, we can't go litnessing because we've got a job to do," and so pretty soon there was nobody litnessing because everybody's work is too important. I just got furious!
90. I WROTE THEM AND I SAID, "LISTEN HERE, YOU GET THOSE GUYS OUT OF THAT BUILDING and don't let them back in again until they can furnish you with a report that they've been out witnessing at least their required time and got their quota, and don't let them back in until they do!" I tell you, that was a bomb! I got so mad and I told them off and they listened, thank God!
91. THEY HAD THEM STANDING IN LINE OUTSIDE THE BUILDING HALF THE NIGHT waiting to get in. I cracked the whip! Those guys were sitting out there by the back fence trying to figure out their reports by the light of the streetlight. I mean, telling me they didn't have time to make out witnessing reports, that's ridiculous!
92. I SAID, "YOU TELL THEM IF THEY DON'T HAVE TIME TO MAKE OUT A REPORT, WE DON'T HAVE TIME TO FEED THEM OR HOUSE THEM!" Let me tell you, anybody who hasn't got time to write a report hasn't got time to live, 'cause reports is what it's all about! If you don't report, we don't know what you're doing, we don't know if you're doing anything, so why should we feed and house you?
93. I NEVER WORKED FOR A BOSS YET THAT I DIDN'T HAVE TO REPORT TO, for God's sake! I learned to report faithfully, I reported once a week even if I didn't have anything to report!
"PROPHECIES OF GREAT QUEEN"--FULFILLED AND COMING, ON WOMAN LEADERSHIP, MARIA AS SAMPLE.
94. "PROPHECIES OF THE GREAT QUEEN": Recently I thought about the prophecies given Rachel. I thought, "Well, now Lord, why should that be important?"
95. WE KNOW IT'S GOING TO BE IMPORTANT IN THE FUTURE AND A LOT OF IT'S ALREADY BEEN FULFILLED. He's already given her kings and palaces and lands and greatly exalted her and made a queen of her. It's nearly already all fulfilled, except some of it certainly sounds like the future, probably when I'm gone. The promises are to those who need to know them.
96. SOME PEOPLE NEED TO KNOW WHAT WOMEN CAN DO and what kind of confidence God puts in women leadership. We have some outstanding women leaders.
97. MARIA HAS THE ARCHIVES and all the Letters. We've got Letters stacked around! You've no idea how many Letters we've got and I'll never get them all done before I die!
98. THE LORD KEEPS GIVING ME NEW STUFF and I don't even have time to work on the old stuff! So we're piling it up in the warehouse, in the storehouse, and God willing, with a little help from the Spirit world, maybe from me when I'm gone, I can inspire Maria to get it out.
99. SHE SAYS SHE CAN'T EVEN WRITE and she can't edit and she doesn't know what to do. The Lord said once that she's just a little robot who does the recording, but God's going to have to help her with her helpers to refine the gold and to get it out.
100. AND ALTHOUGH SHE'S A SHY RETIRING BACKWARD LITTLE GIRL WHO THINKS SHE CAN'T DO ANYTHING, YOU CAN SEE WHAT SHE HAS DONE just by being obedient and my righthand and a faithful custodian of the Oracles of God, or there wouldn't have been any Revolution! So there will be plenty to keep you going for quite awhile.
101. THE LORD IN THAT PROPHECY CALLED HER A PROPHETESS, which is a gift that she hasn't exercised very much as long as I'm around. She's had it for a long time and she used to get little messages from the Lord, partly in tongues but she didn't have the gift of interpretation or the faith for it.
102. WELL, I'M THRILLED WITH THE PROSPECTS OF THIS "NEW REVOLUTION" and I believe it's going to result in a leadership explosion, a Colony explosion, a discipleship explosion and a worldwide expansion explosion. I believe it's going to do it.--If we obey and do it I believe God is going to help us!--Amen? GBY! ILY!--Dad.
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family}
