No organization is the center of the universe

August 2002
By a former member of JPUSA

I lived at JPUSA for over 15 years, have a good idea of what the place is about and what drives it.

There are those who say, "Once JPUSA was in the Spirit, nowadays it is coming apart." I disagree, JPUSA as a corporate entity, has seldom ever been in the "Spirit." There have been countless spiritual individuals coming and going through the place, but the overall mood, attitude and spirit has always been "works," and allowing other people to be your conduit to God and/or the organization of JPUSA itself.

The pastors never went to bible school and at times scarcely seemed to understand the Gospel. It appears that they think a relentless harsh emphasis on being committed can fill the void. This type of spiritual boot camp mentality only will work for a while, then people either leave, become hypocrites hiding behind unspoken community political correctness, or sometimes go crazy.

Once someone has trained their conscience to see himself or herself as some mindless "submitter," you may rebel against all common sense. This has driven some in JPUSA to terrible extremes. The so-called elders at JPUSA have seen countless examples of people reacting poorly to JPUSA indoctrination in the long run.

They have an endless stupid mantra, "Submit, break, die to yourself." But they never seem to understand that they're often talking to people who have submitted, broken and died to themselves hundreds of times. Obviously such people don't really need more Phariseeism, but the Gospel.

But as long as these leaders are at JPUSA only bits, pieces, snippets of the Gospel may get through. I think that the elders fear the Gospel. They don't seem to accept that in God's eyes an individual is infinitely more important than any organization and that people can hear the voice of God on their own. No organization is the center of the universe.

If JPUSA seems to be coming apart right now it's because there is less true Christian fellowship, less meaningful worship and less submission. Simply put, the most spiritual members of JPUSA are now gone. And with all the media attention, the elders are afraid to keep up their old regime. Now they seem desperate to bring in new blood by any means.

Ironically, maybe all that striving to be right before God really never really interested the people in power after all. Maybe all they really want is just to keep JPUSA going and themselves in power no matter what.

God has always worked in and through JPUSA, but NOT because of "the elder's sterling leadership". As I myself have seen, the leadership endlessly recounts deeds done, only for the sake of trying to impress outsiders.