THE SHAKE-UP!
DO 328C
2/75
SELF-GOVERNMENT VS. OLD-BOTTLE DICTATORS!
1. In spite of many declarations of independence to encourage you to be more indigenous, we still have a few old bottles around who try to exercise too much control from the top instead of inspiring more initiative from the bottom.
2. There was a time in our early history when you were nearly all babes that you needed strong parental control, support, protection, indoctrination & direction etc. But now you have grown into self-supporting, self-sufficient & strong pioneering parents & leaders yourselves with your own jobs to do in your own countries.
3. Now we have tried to let you go & send you forth on your own with our prayers, best wishes, encouragement & inspiration to do the job on your own without too much help from Mama & Papa at home except our continued general counsel, advice & information from the Lord on general directions, all to be found in the Lord's Letters.
4. We have only begged you to write home to us & let us know how you're doing & to ask any questions you have regarding problems you may need help on & to report faithfully the good news, scores & victories of your work so that we may share them with the whole Family worldwide for the encouragement of all & continued fellowship in the Spirit.
5. But some of our old bottle leadership are still trying to act like the parents of little children like so many selfish parents with which we're all too familiar & who have frequently caused us so much trouble! They're still treating you like the little babes you used to be instead of the grown-up adults, leaders & pioneers & founders of whole countries & new Heavenly Homes in far flung fields far from home & the mamas & papas you used to have, including us!
6. You are now well able to stand on your own two feet, pioneer your own fields, reap your own harvests, build your own homes, conduct your own business, support yourselves, produce your own products & raise your own children without much help or advice from us, & certainly little or no control!
7. You only need guidance to remain on the right track going in the right direction & continuing in your Apostles' Doctrine & Family fellowship so that we continue in the unity of the Spirit & all speak the same thing & head toward the same goal--World conquest through God's Love!
8. But we certainly do not approve of the dictatorial control that some of your former old-bottle mamas & papas are still trying to exercise over you when you are now grown up, married & have homes & children of your own & are well able to conduct your own work without any domineering orders from us!
9. As I said in one of the very first & original MO Letters, "For God's Sake, Follow God!" You know your field, your work, your people & your situation & problems far better than we do, are much closer to them than we are & much better able to handle them than we can possibly be, & most of you now have had years of training & experience in leadership & tried-&-proven ability to handle your own affairs without dictation from us!
10. I think sometimes, too, that after their children are grown & on their own that their former parents sometimes feel a little left out & out of a job & no longer necessary & are fearful of having nothing to do with your rearing & therefore begin to feel somewhat useless & not needed.
11. So they try to figure out ways in which they can force their help on you & make you more dependent on them so they won't lose control of you entirely & the privilege of telling you what to do, which they enjoyed unhindered for so many years, & their authority over you which they counted their right for so long while you were young & really were dependent on them.
12. The got so used to being dictators it's a little hard for them to get over it & it's also a little hard & embarrassing for some of them to admit to either themselves or others that you are now an improvement on the stock & are doing even better than they did because they are has-beens!
13. They should let you go your own way as long as you're behaving yourselves, taking good care of your homes & families & bearing good fruit in good children & supporting & caring for them well, as they once did for you.
14. The parents should no longer have to interfere except in the most extreme cases of real mistreatment or child neglect or unless their own children themselves have become unfit parents. We grandmothers & grandfathers of the faith have really no more right than to scold you for your mistakes & misdeeds & still cannot force you to do as we please except for calling in the law of the judgments of God upon you if you don't correct them!
15. Some of the blame for this continuing dictatorship of some of our top leaders is the fault of some of you children yourselves because you have encouraged it by either continuing to be babies & needing it or being afraid to speak up & refuse it when you don't need it!
16. You are permitting yourselves to be dictated to by some old-bottle leader of the past whose ministry you no longer need & whose dictation you can well do without & do much better on your own!
17. It's time for you to grow up & sometimes tell Mom & Dad off & tell'm to go home & mind their own business & that you're well able to manage your own affairs without any of their meddling interference!
18. If you need a little extra authority to do so, take it from my Letters! Why don't you have the guts to just stand up & speak up for your rights & simply say, "I'm sorry, but that's not the way MO or the Lord or the Bible told us do it!"
19. If you know God's Word & the MO Letters well enough as you should as real leaders, you should be able to quote some of these old-bottle dictators chapter & verse to authenticate your challenge to their authority!
20. As I myself have often said, we are a free society of God's free nation under His leadership, a spiritual fellowship & not a dictatorship, so that even I myself cannot force you local leaders to do as I say, but can only plead with you to try to follow the guidance that the Lord has given me in the Letters if you want to stay out of trouble & deliver the goods!
21. I even try not to interfere with the operations, business & housing of my own department of Publications or the International Office of which I am also head, but I turn this work over to local leaders who know the situation better than I & who should be much better able to conduct their own affairs--unless they fail!
22. In a case of serious failures or mistakes I sometimes have to step in & correct them & give a few orders where they themselves have failed to do so, but I usually let them run their own affairs as they see best with as little interference from me as possible.
23. However, when I have given them so much freedom & forgiven them for so much & then they turn around like unjust stewards & begin to beat you unmercifully & try to arbitrarily dictate & run your affairs contrary to my own Letters & instruction from the Lord, then I become absolutely furious!
THE VOLUNTARY CHAIN-OF-COOPERATION:
--HOW IT SHOULD BE WORKING!
24. It has been years now since we tried to help you get organised into a practical form of cooperative fellowship which we believe is Scriptural & inspired by the Lord for the better super vision & Operation of the local Homes as well as our international cooperation, fellowship & exchange of ideas, reporting, publication of news etc.
25. All this original plan had to be laid out from the top as I received it from the Lord. Its primary purpose was to then begin to shift the principal power base from top level authoritarianism to greater grass roots freedom & democracy, with the initiative in tending tables to be handled primarily at the local level, with only general directions from above through the Lord's Letters & not dictators at the top!
26. Upper officers were merely to supervise, advise, counsel, check, express their opinions & their feelings of approval or disapproval & work together with you in agreement & cooperation as much as possible in every new plan or project, move or question.
27. I suggested to the horror of some long ago that the local Homes should choose their own shepherds when they are old enough & experienced enough & sufficiently established in the Lord & the work to do so. It other words, when the children had grown up they should be fit & trusted to govern themselves.
28. So that by now the way our plan of organisation should be working is that more initiative should be originating at the roots & flowing with the Sap of God's inspiration of His Holy Spirit upward throughout all branches of our government with a plan of checks & balances which would act as safety checks on everyone's actions in every area so that all might work together in agreement & with common consent & mutual approval.
29. Now that this government has been established & you are old enough to take care of yourselves, the structure of the Lord's Kingdom should be working like this:
30. Each local Home should be choosing its own local Shepherd or spiritual Elder & agreeing together on the selection of its own local Deacons or those who handle its practical affairs. Its choice of a local Shepherd, for safety's sake & mutual cooperation & agreement, should then be submitted to their District Shepherd for the approval of the District Council composed of all the local Home Shepherds of that District. Normally there should be no objection since this was the local Home's choice, & the District Council's approval would be almost a formality.
31. However, if the District Council did have any strong objection to the local Home's choice of a Shepherd for any special or unusual reason, this would then be discussed by the District Council with the officials of the Home until agreement could be reached on a selection, or at least agreement together on an alternative Shepherd.
32. The District Shepherd & his District Council of the other local Shepherds of the District are in no wise to interfere in the internal affairs of a local Home unless called upon to do so by the Home itself in asking for help, or if the local Home is obviously seriously going astray or needs help.
33. In the case of the departure of a local Shepherd in which the local Home officials feel they themselves have no one capable of taking his place, they could request a suggestion of leadership from their District Shepherd & his District Council for a possible appointment of someone else whom they deem fit, subject to the Local Home's approval.
34. Whichever way the move comes, up or down, each move selection or appointment must be subject to those at the next level of the chain of cooperation.--I don't like to use the word "command" except where God is concerned, or His Own ordained leadership, & even God gives us a lot of choice!
35. Therefore, the local Home Shepherds should also choose their own District Shepherd from amongst themselves if possible, with the approval of the Regional Shepherd & his Regional Council of District Shepherds.
36. Or, the appointment of a District Shepherd from above should only come from no higher than the Regional Shepherd & be subject to the consent & approval & reception of the District Council itself who are to be his co-labourers & fellow servants of the Lord, etc.
37. If in lieu of a choice from below, in cases of emergency an appointment may be made from above, temporarily filling in a vacancy by the personal appointment of a Shepherd, this appointment cannot become permanently valid until approved & endorsed by his own Council of Regional Shepherds plus the consent of the District Shepherds below of that particular Region: Approved by both adjoining links or levels, above & below.
38. This is a safety-check & double-check plan to prevent the overriding of duly constituted authority from either above or below & to prevent arbitrary dictation from either direction, but to insure total cooperation & virtually unanimous agreement amongst all closely concerned in the selection of their own officers of both higher & lower ranks.
39. In this way we have an inter locking chain of cooperation & voluntary self-government where none can rule over the other without the due consent of those so governed & the agreement of those governing, so that all might work in harmony & cooperation & each initiative, move, selection or appointment seem good to all & receive the approval of all those immediately concerned.
40. Any attempt on the part of any link in this chain of cooperation to bypass its link to a higher link or to bypass the next link to a lower link shall be considered a violation of authority & a breaking of the chain of cooperation, except under the most extreme emergency circumstances in which any link has the right of appeal to a higher link if dissatisfied with the results. Even so, no higher link can overrule the decision of a lower link without the lower link's reconsideration of the matter & its subsequent consent.
41. What we are trying to avoid here is the arbitrary appointment of leaders without the agreement & consent of those governed by that leader, so that every selection or appointment must be approved by both those below & those above the level of that selection or appointment. In cases of possible disagreement all those concerned should get together & pray & ask the Lord to lead them into agreement so their decisions can be made with common consent.
SIMPLIFICATION OF REPORTING!
42. The structure also of our means of communication between the various links of our organisation should also be modeled after this plan, with the reports of local Colony Shepherds going directly to their District Shepherd for reading & supervision, although carbon copies may be sent also to higher levels for the sake of making them available on their files for reference in case of need when any superior officer wishes to safety-check by spot-checking these reports to make sure those below are doing their jobs.
43. Therefore, a District Shepherd should only have to read his own local reports, & he should be the only one who has to read them, not someone else 'way off & thereby bypassing the entire chain of cooperation & negating its whole usefulness, structure & simplicity!
44. Personally, I'm for the simplification of reporting & the cutting down of reports & the reading of them as much as possible, & I started harping on this as far back as TSC years ago when I myself found I could no longer read personally all the reports!
45. This is why we first established this chain of cooperation to simplify both our government & our communications & to particularly eliminate unnecessary reporting & the unnecessary reading of too many reports by too many people.
46. If we would stick to the chain of cooperation it would eliminate most of this duplication of effort & personnel & greatly simplify our whole procedures of both reporting & supervision of reports, so that our leadership would have more time for even more necessary activities & closer personal supervision of the activities of those.
WARNING TO LEADERSHIP!
47. If this Letter doesn't do the trick, the King himself may have to take a direct hand in phasing out some of your old-bottle leadership & replacing it with young new bottles who love the Lord's Letters & who have proved their faithfulness & borne good fruit through diligently following their guidelines!
48. Some, despite many admonitions to the contrary, are continuing as they were & thereby suffering the judgments of God Himself for their continued disobediences. Some of you have disobeyed me in so many ways so many times & in so many areas they're almost without number!
49. Some of you are continuing in marital or sexual unions or even escapades which are totally contrary to God's laws of love & many admonitions in His Letters. Some are continuing to lean on the arm of flesh or Saul's armour of the System, unequally yoked with ungodly unbelievers in business, leaning on lawyers instead of the Lord!--2Chr.32:8; 2Cor.6:14.
50 Some of you have insisted on doing things your own way instead of God's way regarding our bands & music, & some of you have turned totally to the physician instead of to the Lord in your afflictions & instead of obeying God, & are thereby suffering the consequences. You're leaning more on your carnal knowledge & wisdom & unspiritual co-workers instead of the Lord!
Copyright (c) 1998 by The Family