9-The Sewer House

 

Our move to the "sewer house" brought large changes to "the group". "The group" would eventually become known as "The Assembly of the Body of Christ" (ABC) but for now "the group" was the only reference we had. That simplicity was a draw for many who left organized religion. Some of the more unusual practices which began at the Wilcrest Apartments; such as chopping up, or burning  "demon possessed furniture"; began to drop away. In their place other weird doctrines began to surface instead. As an example, one teaching stated persons of color were not human but were instead beasts of the field and thus could not be "saved". This, and other doctrines, would make brief appearances in the ABC, would then disappear for a while, then resurface later.

The sewer house had the advantage of having a large garage which was converted into a "church building" of sorts, complete with rows of folding chairs, a pulpit-like podium, and a huge whiteboard on the wall. The informal living room meetings were gone and the change to a dedicated structure, with rows of chairs, did not sit well with the original attendees from the Wilcrest apartment days. They had come to "the group" because they were looking for something less conventional than straight pews in church. Now they felt "the group" was drifting back toward becoming just like a regular church. A few drifted away at this point. Among those remaining there were many discussions about the subject, some very heated. Someone decided the meetings were  too large now to be informal so it would be best if "the group" split into two or three smaller "groups". By splitting the meeting between two or more houses, the meetings could return to the informal  living room format everyone loved. This was expected to end the grumbling but that would prove not to be.

To make this split required more leaders so elders were appointed based on what was the perceived to be the pattern of the early church. These men, it was determined, must be married, have some Bible knowledge and be respected among the people.  The meetings were split into three separate houses headed up by the new "elders", and my dad would then be the "apostle" over them.

One of the  meetings would stay at the "sewer house" but move out of the garage and back into the living room. Another would be at a man named Gary's house, and the third was to be at a man named Earl's house. Each new group would be an autonomous unit united, in theory, "by the Spirit". Each would be responsible for the collection of its own tithe, and each group was free to use the money collected as they saw fit. They could then take control of the meetings as completely their own.

This tithe arrangement worked fine for just a short while. My dad; claiming the title of Apostle (he claimed this title because he had now spawned three new churches) was not happy with the amount the new "churches" sent him each month. He was still working but wanted badly to end it and "minister" full time. This became a point of continuous contention between my dad, Gary, Earl and a few others. There were multiple heated "men's" meetings on this subject. This created even more emotionally charged issues. Eventually one of the groups, dismayed by the insistence that a large percentage of the tithe collected be sent to my dad as Apostle, just stopped sending the money altogether. This started a division in the "unity" and a bitter feud began to unfold beneath the surface. Something "had to be done". All appeared well on the outside to newcomers; as if love reigned;  but under the surface, a serious fire was raging.

As with many feuds the true issue, the division of the tithe, got lost completely in the chatter. Instead, other smaller issues were argued in its place. Here the small issue, the sticking point, would be the question: "Does a person receive the Holy Spirit as they are going into the water at baptism, or as they are coming out of the water at baptism?" I honestly don't remember who was in which camp; the argument seemed pointless to me; and still a teen, I did not get involved. How could one ever prove this point anyhow? My dad selected one principle nemesis in the feud, Gary, since he was a man who had had political aspirations and was well versed in questioning things in a Socratic manner. Questioning will always get you labeled as a rebel in the ABC. The war began and it would last many years.

My dad perceived Gary’s questionings as "rebellion". This accusation of "rebellion" is a common thread in the ABC since questioning is forbidden. There was a meeting; years later; where this individual, Gary, sought a way to end the feud. My dad, still angry about the money, began to accuse this man of trying to be an "apostle" and adamantly refused to end the feud. I was quite embarrassed about the feuding, and just wanted a way out of it all. I was still living at home and did not have the courage, or ability, to just leave.

These meetings over "the issues" would, sometime later, lead to the first ex-communication in the ABC. At least two vicious letters, deriding Gary as a "rebel", were sent to everyone in "the group", along with an audiotape intended to prove he was evil. These letters and tape were some of the things I kept in that box in my garage that was taken many years later. We were all instructed to have nothing more to do with Gary, his family, or anyone that defended him. We were instructed if we spoke to Gary again we too would be ex-communicated. Immediately after this letter two other families, perceived to be in Gary's camp, were also ex-communicated and  put out of "the group".  All three families  were eventually "turned over to Satan" as well.

I ran into one of these three men many many years later and he was still a broken man from the experience. He reported to me these events had caused him major depression and a lapse into alcoholism. When I ran across him he had just returned from a rehab center trying to get clean. Even decades later he related he still  had deep emotional scars from these experiences at the ABC. This man had been one of the first "elders" in the church but, like many others to come, his life had been ripped apart at the seams. Losing those you once considered family can bring great strain. It is only possible to understand this if you have experienced it for yourself. No one in the ABC is exempt.  If you question anything too much, you will be put away.

The money, not the baptism issue, had always been the true issue in the ongoing feud. There were many meetings about the money issues and they involved lots of of petty arguing, accusations and people wrangling. They caused quite an emotional split for everyone and did, in fact, divide the church into two camps. This split gave “good cause” for the money to be brought once again into a central tithe with Yvonne managing it. Divide and conquer as they say.  I was a punk high school kid back then, had no real voice, and there was little I could have done, or said, to change all that happened. I admit to a vast amount of gullibility for a lot of years. These were confusing times and would be for many decades to come. When you have experienced the ripping apart of your own family, your nature is to try to keep the peace at all cost. This is what I did to my shame and detriment but I give myself a measure of grace in the matter. I only did what I knew and had little benefit of outside influences.

In the next post, I elaborate further on the people grumbling about the three-way split and tell about the plans to host an "all-church" picnic to rebuild the "unity". We also move from the "sewer house" into a larger home nearby so all three meetings could be brought back again under one roof. At least "until things settled down".

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Am I Trouble?

Over the years I witnessed many things within the ABC which deeply disturbed me. To this point I remained mostly silent, and  to some point even participated.  Someone once said to me "There are things that are bad, but they are not truly bad until they happen to you. Then they are completely bad."  It is such a true statement and I only truly understood that statement after I was ambushed by Bruce Leonard, Andy Atwell and the company of silent men they had with them.

Over the years, after I was ambushed, then ex-communicated, my silence has inwardly disturbed me. I had been trained well you "don't make waves" to "protect the unity of the body". Many people, over the years, expressed to me their dismay at the emotional, spiritual and, in the case of children, downright physical abuse occurring in the ABC, but were afraid to say anything. They felt, just like I had, they would be "speaking against God's anointed".  I had been trained in this manner since I was age fourteen so to even begin to speak out was  a struggle. The few times I actually did speak up I was severely "disciplined", even to the point of being ex-communicated by my father.  What we fail to realize is we are all God's anointed and the leadership has no special right to this designation.

On February 16, 2008 I prayed about my silence and the very next morning received the correspondence quoted below. It came to me from a gentleman who knows nothing about what I, and others like me, have gone through at the hands of the ABC so I considered it an answer to prayer. Despite any pain or anxiety it may bring me, I pledged to begin telling what I know of the ABC, and its abuses, so more will not be hurt. If I am successful...praise God. If I am not...I will have done my part and my hands are clean. Here is the correspondence I received:

When Ahab saw Elijah, Ahab said to him, "Is it you, you troubler of Israel?" And he answered, "I have not troubled Israel, but you have, and your father's house, because you have abandoned the commandments of the LORD and followed the Baals." (1 Kings 18:17,18; ESV)

The prophet Elijah lived during a very difficult time in the history of Israel. He was appointed by God to confront King Ahab. King Ahab was the most evil king of Israel to date (see 1 Kings 16:30). The intensity of his evil was partly due to his marrying Jezebel; a princess of the city of Sidon. It appears that she encouraged Ahab in the establishment in Israel of the worship of the false god Baal.

God sent Elijah to prophesy to Ahab of the coming three-year drought (see 1 Kings 17:1ff). After Elijah gave Ahab this message, Elijah went into hiding. For those of us from countries with ample water supply, it is difficult to fully appreciate what this means. At that time in history, the land of Israel was very dependent upon rainfall, even more than it is today. Drought inevitably led to famine, which meant national disaster. Lack of rain, therefore, would be understood as a sign of God's displeasure.

After the three-year period, we come to the interchange that includes what I quoted at the start. Ahab's first words to Elijah were, "Is it you, you troubler of Israel?" - an accusation which Elijah contradicted. He would not allow Ahab to transfer the blame for Israel's troubles from the true villain to himself.

But isn't Ahab's accusation typical? True trouble makers will shift the blame for the trouble they cause to the ones who expose their bad behavior. I don't think one has to be a psychologist to understand what is going on here. What it comes down to is that real trouble makers don't want their bad behavior confronted. They want to do what they want to do without having to face the consequences. They will protect themselves by any means, which almost always includes attacking anyone who gets in their way. In this case, Ahab used blame shifting. He did so, because it is often effective. Elijah brought the bad news of God's judgment on the nation. Ahab may not have been the only one who put the blame on Elijah, when the real cause of the disaster was Ahab and his evil ways.

People whom God uses to deal with evil today are often the last people who want to make trouble. In fact, they want to speak up out of a desire to avoid trouble, not make more trouble. They care deeply about people and are sensitive to the consequences of bad behavior. So they speak up. And what happens? They are the ones who are called trouble makers.

This is enough to shut some down. They may even believe these accusations. At one level life seemed more peaceful before they spoke up. They forget what it was that originally spurned them on. They forget the origin of the trouble. They take the blame, and the real trouble makers continue as before.

If you are someone God has called to speak out, then you mustn't be afraid to do what Elijah did. He contradicted Ahab to his face by saying, "I have not troubled Israel, but you have...". If God has called you to speak, then don't back down. Don't take the blame for trouble you have not caused. Keep close to the Lord, and let him guide you as to what you should and should not say and do. Don't let your critics confuse and intimidate you. When the true trouble makers call you, "trouble," it most likely means you are doing a good job.

8-The Wilcrest Apartments

 

I first met Ralph and Karen on my second day back in Seattle when there had been a tragic death in Karen’s family. The couple had come by the apartment for comfort and prayer and, as I recall, Karen's mom had died suddenly, the loss had devastated her and she was beside herself with grief. My father and Yvonne were meeting with them in the hallway to pray and I had come out of my room to see what was going on. This was my first introduction to the practice of head coverings. This had never been a practice at any church we had ever attended so this concept was very foreign to me.

This practice of head coverings for women has remained consistent, but regularly challenged, in the Assembly of the Body of Christ (ABC) ever since those first days. It is  based on Paul's admonishment to the Corinthians that women should have a covering on their head whenever they pray.  Of note, there is only one mention of this practice found in the entire Bible and Paul, at the end of his discourse on the subject, says if the practice is contended there really is no such practice in the church. It states it is best just to move on to more important matters. One must remember, the books labeled First and Second Corinthians were originally letters sent to the people in just one geographic area, not books printed for wide distribution around the entire globe. I am certain Paul did not understand his words would some day become concrete law for the masses, rather than just some friendly advice based on a local situation.  In the ABC this subject has always been a hotly debated one, just not usually out in the open. It is legalistic and is a subject filled with contention and quiet discord among both men and women. It is in conflict with Paul's later statement to the Galatians there is no male or female in Christ Jesus. This admonishment was just a solution to  a local issue in Corinth.

Men are told they are not to have a hat on when they pray and this has led to many debates on whether a person working, for example, in a hard hat, on a construction job, is prohibited from praying without removing the protection. For women there has been discussion on whether the roof of a car is a covering. Some have contended hair is a covering and the doily is unnecessary. There have been many other contentions around head coverings and if a woman chose not to adopt this practice she was soon labeled “rebellious”.  

I was unsure, until recently, how this practice started in the ABC. There is really no indication any other fellowship in the Bible had such a practice in the early church, other than those at Corinth. My recent research shows this modern carryover of Paul's words descended straight from the Sharon Orphanage and is still practiced in their assembly today. This is evidenced by this report from the Sharon Star; a publication of the Sharon Orphanage in Canada.

The first meeting I attended in Seattle; the following Saturday; was at Ralph and Karen's house and was a simple prayer meeting. The following Thursday was a teaching meeting at the Wilcrest apartments, coupled with a full potluck meal. Ralph and Karen were in attendance at this meeting, along with Greta; sister of Gilbert Larson, the current apostle of the ABC. There was also a man named Earl and a few others of whom I do not remember their names. Most of that night is a blur to me and Greta is the only one who really spoke to me much. We became good friends that night because Greta had a wonderful sense of humor that matched my own.

It was 1969 and the Jesus People movement was just beginning in Seattle under the leadership of a woman named Linda Meissner. Teens, and college students, confused over the massive political and racial tensions in society, were looking for answers and finding them in unusual places. You might say that, at least in Seattle, a Jesus revolution was about to take off.  Meissner formed several ragtag groups of teens and young adults into a congealed group called the "Jesus People Army". It was clear she was looking to make a big splash in Seattle so she could then carry the movement into other locations. It would not happen.

The ABC was a very informal group then with no name. For several years it would just be called "the group" and there was no intent to ever seek a name, or become formalized as an incorporated church. The tithe, it was taught, should not be listed on a tax return as a deduction because, to do so, would be a sin and tantamount to "robbing God".  Every member of this fledgling group, except for my father and Yvonne, were young. Most were college age and still had connections to other Christian organizations, or groups, and this allowed word of this new Bible study to spread quickly among college age kids yearning for more knowledge. This new movement of studying Greek words was appealing to one seeking an intellectual pursuit.  Attendance at the meetings began to rapidly fill the small apartment living room and frequently it became necessary to open the sliding glass doors allowing some to sit outside on the patio. My father preached up front from a portable podium on a card table and usually wore a bright yellow turtleneck.

When Linda Meissner learned of "the group" she paid us a visit. I remember her visit only vaguely but I do remember her as a very intense person. She wanted "the group" to join forces with her "Jesus People Army".  It was her style to infiltrate other groups, bring them into her fold, and by doing so grow her movement very quickly. My high school yearbook from 1971 has a large picture of the Jesus People Army meeting in the middle of campus singing songs. None within "the group" had any intent of joining her mission however so "the group" remained separate. Linda Meissner eventually joined her group to "The Children of God" then lost all control of the "Jesus People Army". The Jesus People, and the spur and affiliated groups were a large movement that exploded on the scene but then just a few years later mostly vanished into the shadows. Some, like "The Children of God" still exist in the shadows. 

Several years after this encounter, a separate faction broke off of "the group" and formed into a quasi-children of God communal movement, complete with the inherent sexual promiscuity and wife swapping that pervaded the "Children of God" movement. They patterned this faction after not just "The Children of God" but also the Discipleship / Shepherding movement emulated by the "Florida Five" . The Florida Five included Derek Prince among its members but he later renounced the movement completely after seeing the outcome. 

About this time, Bob Mumford paid a visit to Seattle and my father and a few others attended his meeting. This one meeting with Mumford is what created the heavy discipline environment to pervade the ABC, caused a massive loss of love for one another, and also created extreme intolerance. It would end up having a dramatic effect on my life many times in the years to come and I will cover this topic in a later post. It has a large influence on the doctrines of the ABC to this day.

The age range of "the group" expanded greatly when Greta introduced her mother, Agatha.  Agatha was baptized by my father, then made a trip to California to visit her son, Gilbert Larson. Gilbert is currently considered "the apostle" of the ABC but seems to have taken a lesser role since the passing of his spouse Caralee. 

When Agatha arrived at Gilbert's home in California, she commanded Gilbert to be baptized by my father. Gilbert, not sure if it was the right thing to do, made a trip to Seattle the very next day, spoke with my father, was baptized, and soon thereafter moved to Grants Pass, Oregon. Regular meetings began in Grants Pass soon after and I will cover that Grants Pass era in more detail later.

"The group" grew weekly and soon outgrew the apartment so plans were made to move our family to the suburbs so my father could find more space to grow his church. He found a home in Mountlake Terrace, which became affectionately known as "the sewer house" because of its faulty plumbing. On very hot days sewer gasses would back up into the pipes and the smell inside the house would became unbearable. Not to mention the potential for a methane explosion and the sewer swamp that enveloped the front yard. We lived in this house for just a short period before moving to a much larger home nearby.

In my next post I will cover those "sewer house" days since it explains how "the group" began meeting in many homes instead of just one. It is also where the five-fold ministry doctrine was solidified and fully established. I will explain why my father declared himself to be an "apostle" and detail the first big tumult that nearly divided "the group" permanently into two factions. This tumult ended with the first great leaving.

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