- Topic
Just curious about a couple of things.
Just before I left WMS in 2013, my 'zion' in Perth, Australia was introducing 2 new rules.
One was a rule for all members to follow a scheduled set of specific prayer times for each and every day.
The other was a scheme to change the way we adressed each other. It was a new rule that would make us start speaking to each other in Korean. So instead of saying 'brother' and 'sister' in English to each other, we had to try and learn to use Korean. Also, the deacon and deaconess were no longer 'brother' and 'sister' to us. We had to call them by their titles AND learn to say it in Korean.
Did this happen to anyone else or was it just in my 'zion'?
Afraid of trendy? Ha. These korean members sure love their division. You ascended the women's stairs? They have their own stair case? Whoa. They really really love their division. Have you notice even Korea is divided with a demiliterized zone. How far does the division go?
I would definitely say Zions would be different comparing the regions. For example a brother from a different region of the U.S. came over to our region and he’s like “wow – we never learned that study!…we used different verses in this study…we called our preaching practice this xxxxx instead of Zion University…wow brother this is sooooooo amazing!!” Oookay – maybe there were some similarities between zion (I reference the last part – sooooooo amazing!!!!). I do recall the “big brother is watching everything” mentality or the “see something say something culture”. In particular there was one member asking for my opinion on a potential job (I was in the job). I gave them my honest opinion – I told them that there were a lot of good benefits and you learn a lot and you get a lot of good experience the average person wI’ll never get to do. But I also told them member the should think about it because that type of job requires a lot of sacrifice and you do miss sabbaths every now and then and even feasts sometimes – I told them it’s not worth risking their salvation.
Well anyways – some annoying prude overheard and told the leader I was trying to persuade the member to pursue this job and leave Zion. Complete half truth is what they told – but I bank rolled the church pretty much so all the leader said the next Sabbath was “…and look at brother xxxxx. His job is so difficult! His job requires him to keep worship on his own! Your job isn’t easy, is it brother xxxx?” ….”no deacon it’s not easy – I have to keep worship in my own every now and then. Thank Father and Mother I can at least keep service though!”
In retrospect the way I have been used and taken advantage of by this church – I should have recommended to the member to pursue their dreams and become a productive member of society rather than some annoying leach that comes up to you randomly in some aisle in Walmart talking to you about God the Mother.
/end of my rant for today. God bless you all!
@John We had a brother come who was previously at the larger Zion one state over. He thought we allowed to much of a casual atmosphere and down time in comparison. He told abother member, “Something isnt right here”. Without knowing it, he was right. We also saw challenges, because at first the Sunday all day bible study was called “Elohim Academy” and it was free. It was then changed to “Zion University”, and then members were charged 200$ or so. I forget the excuse, but members didnt question it. I thought it was crazy. Our “zion” allowed the Teen boys group, to play football, wiffle ball or something between the service times, as well as the small kids. Other churches didnt allow that as we were told, and when we got out Korean Overseer, it stopped.
When I was a member in a Denver zion branch in 2012 we had this program where we had to become disciples and it was absolutly essential from mother that ALL the children become disciples… we had someone come from I cannot remember if it was Oregon or Washington but in either case she had never heard of this "essential to salvation" program we had to do…. it did not sit well with me but it wasn't what got me out
@Othniel Welcome. I remember when I picked up on the inconsistencies in branches. Im interested to read what pushed you over th le edge, and opened your eyes?
Inconsistent feast dating
Gotcha…straight to the point. That was a smaller reason for me. God is alive, leading a church that ALWAYS has things wrong going on?
I have never been one to hold leaders responsible for actions of their subordinates Or parents for their children That’s why that argument never worked for me although yes i did see that
I hear you Othniel…but for me it became a concern. “Mudder does not show her power…we are all accointable for our sins”.
Now, when we received our Korean Overseer…he started making racial and ethnic jokes. Im not talking about some general non-offensive jokes we all might make. This guy would say some pretty BAD stuff, and pass it off. He and our first Overseer also did the “Get out” trick (Where if a member made a mistake, they would scream at them to leave the churcb, and if that member never returned they would say “See, that had to be done to find out who really wasn’t here for mudder en fodder”). Now, how does one justify that? Asking a member to leave, as a trick? God would allow that? Just my thoughts
Its good that we have the examining site. We can bring these things to light. Make these people accountable for their actions, educate others, warn the rest of the country.
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.