10-The Big Brown House

The stench at the "sewer house" was unbearable and something had to be done so my father called a city inspector. Tests showed the property would not perk, the septic tank issue was not fixable and without connection to the city sewer system the home was to be condemned. These tract homes had been built without proper permits when Mountlake Terrace was newly forming and no one at the city had been paying attention. Quite a number of homes were affected so the city began work on a plan to rescue the entire neighborhood, rather than condemn it completely. But that fix would take years so, in the meantime, the home was uninhabitable. We had to move.

My father located a  huge four bedroom rental home in Mountlake Terrace, not far from the "sewer house". Because of its size and color it would become known as "the big brown house". This was the site of major changes for both our family and "the group".  It was at this house my brother graduated high school, left home then soon married. (The ABC believes in arranged marriages and this was an arranged marriage.) My father quit his job, started a successful business called "Medic Repair" and this gave him a more flexible schedule.  Many new people would be introduced to the group; some young, some old, and more of the previous members would leave. But the numbers continued to grow and reached the point that even the large living room could not handle the crowd. The meetings were split once again.

The previous attempt at breaking up "the group" into three smaller meetings caused much unrest. Those original squabbles once again rose to the surface, the central point being a huge disagreement over who should fellowship at who's house. One individual wanted "district lines" drawn and in his plan if you lived in such-and-such district you would fellowship at so and so's house. Most just wanted the freedom to fellowship wherever, and with whoever, they wished, whenever they wanted.  To end the squabbling, it was decided; by whom I do not know, that for a short period the "Foundation Meetings", on Thursdays, would continue in three separate homes but the "Communion Meetings", on Saturdays, intended only for those who had been baptized in the ABC, would be combined back into one meeting in our large living room at the "big brown house".  This worked fine, at first, and the return to a single Saturday "Communion Meeting" eased some of the tensions, but it was clear our living room, even though large, would never handle the ever-increasing crowd. A return to three separate Saturday meetings was inevitable but this time it would be at different homes than  before to avoid any more "trouble".

It was now 1971. This would be the year of the first "All-Church Gathering". This gathering was not officially called the "all-church" the first year, and was nothing more than a picnic in a large park in Snohomish County Washington. This single event would bring about the custom of having all of the home meetings everywhere gather once each year in a central rented facility. Originally open to all persons the first two years, it was decided "outsiders" would be prohibited from attending future "all-church gathering" so it could be classified as a "communion meeting". 

At the big brown house, my father, now self-employed and able to schedule his own work, began making regular trips to Grants Pass Oregon to hold small meetings with Gilbert Larson (the current apostle of the ABC) and his close friend Pat, who drove over from Klamath Falls. Gilbert Larson would marry a woman named CaraLee  in Grants Pass and most members of her family would begin to attend the meetings, some becoming elders in "the group".  They then brought to the meetings other acquaintances and, before long, Grants Pass had regularly scheduled weekly meetings on both Thursday and Saturday. Many years later, after disagreements over autonomy and money, every single person who lived in Grants Pass either left "the group", left town, or found themselves forced out through ex-communication. I will discuss that in detail in a later post. As a result, there are no longer any persons in Grants Pass directly associated with the ABC and those meetings ended decades ago.

This pattern of growth, then sudden annihilation, has played itself out many many times in the history of the ABC and directly results from  overbearing, legalistic, authoritarian leadership tactics that are devoid of mercy, compassion and love.  The doctrinal philosophies of the ABC inevitably lead to shunning and ex-communication of members over minor disagreements. Most times it results in not just one person but instead large swaths of people finding themselves accused of some "crime" against God (as I have been many times). A frenzy of furious spiritual and emotional backstabbing would  follow the browbeating and thumb squashing by the leaders. This tactic destroys a person completely and has left many broken people behind to wonder what happened to their life and their joy. These spiritual "stabbings" and "beatings" do not spare family members. The justification given for this practice  is the scripture that reads:

Think not that I am come to send peace on earth: I came not to send peace, but a sword. For I am come to set a man at variance against his father, and the daughter against her mother, and the daughter in law against her mother in law. And a man's foes shall be they of his own household. He that loveth father or mother more than me is not worthy of me: and he that loveth son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me. Matthew 10:34-37

But if we are to count the bible as a guidebook Jesus also said:

Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart: and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light. Matthew 11:28-30

Additionally, He warned us we should not be like those that lay heavy burdens on others,

[The scribes and the Pharisees]...bind heavy burdens and grievous to be borne, and lay them on men's shoulders; but they themselves will not move them with one of their fingers. But all their works they do for to be seen of men: they make broad their phylacteries, and enlarge the borders of their garments...Matthew 23:4-5

I have watched individuals and whole families destroyed by the leadership and doctrines of the ABC. The ABC praises the making of broad phylacteries filled with derivations of Greek and Hebrew words and tenses and also feel they have achieved a higher plane of perfection than all others. It is an egotistical view. It is this view that allows the justification to suddenly, and viciously without warning, turn on others as prey.  I am just as guilty over the years of having just gone along but I woke up and saw my error.

There are two lions mentioned in the scriptures. The Lion of Judah, for which it is safe for even the smallest lamb to lie in peace without fear of torment, and there is the devil, who the bible states walks around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour. I have seen souls crushed and devoured by the false "disciplines" of the ABC. There came a day when I asked myself the question. Which lion do we/they actually represent? The lion of Judah, or the lion who seeks to devour? For me, the evidence spoke for itself. It is unfortunate it took being nearly “devoured” by falsehoods before I saw the ABC for what it really is. A vicious cult that has deceived many.
 
In the next post, our family moves from the "big brown house" to Lake Forest Park. My father, in exchange for a truce over the tithe squabble, gives his Medic Repair business to Earl then begins full-time ministry as the recognized "apostle" of "the group".

 NEXT POST

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".

NEXT POST

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.