A typical week of "Life Together"

December 2000
Written by a former member of over 17 years

A typical week of "Life Together"

Monday morning in a brothers' house begins with morning devotions, usually around 6:30 AM. We sing from the assembly hymnbook, "Hymns and Spiritual Songs", read a passage of scripture and then pray for the day. Depending on the house members, this may be quite automatic and routine, or very intense and sincere. Next there is a flurry of activity in the kitchen as breakfast is prepared and lunches are made for everyone in the house. Breakfast is not always a mandatory attendance meal, but is often eaten together. Everyone rushes off to school or work and the wife of the house begins her stewardships. Many activities, such as meeting with people, discipleship meetings, and planning meetings take place at various times throughout the day. Around 5 or 5:30 dinner will be served, which is mandatory for everyone in the house. Someone is responsible for preparing the meal, setting the table, cleaning up the dishes and shopping. These, along with all the other household chores are what George calls stewardships. It is extremely important to be faithful with your stewardships in the Geftakys group. Lateness, not meeting the standard or forgetfulness will result in consequences.

These are tasks that are added on top of the other stewardships. They are a form of corrective punishment for failing to meet the standard of the home in some way. Consequences are usually helpful to someone or something, but are rarely natural consequences to the infraction. Typical consequences may be doing another's stewardship, washing the leader's car, or digging in the backyard. Washing windows was another favorite. Sometimes, consequences are quite creative and fun, making them a not altogether bad idea. Even so, this practice makes for a very rigid and forced lifestyle.

During the meal, someone is always careful to steer the conversation back to "The Lord." Guests are invited to almost every meal, and care is taken to make sure that they are made a topic of conversation. In one brother's house, people were instructed to prepare a 3 by 5 card before the meal with the topic of conversation listed on the card. If the conversation became too free flowing, a nervous brother would glance down at a yellow card and then awkwardly try to wrench the conversation back to the topic listed on the card. The atmosphere is quite contrived and forced, with many guests going away with the distinct impression of "something strange going on here." All this is done under the guise of training. Brothers' and Sisters' houses are often referred to as training homes.

If there is no meeting after dinner, some of the house members will baby-sit for married couples, others will study, meet with someone for discipleship, or possibly watch a sports event at a local bar or restaurant. If they go to a sports bar they will not drink alcohol. TV's are not allowed in brothers' houses, and are frowned upon in all members' houses. Interestingly, many members have TV's, but keep them in the closet, bringing them out only for special occasions, like an illness. Televisions are the most often borrowed item in the Geftakys ministry.

Tuesday is identical to the above except there is a prayer meeting from 7 to 9:30 PM.

Wednesday is the Bible study, from 7 to 9:00 PM. Attendance at most meetings across the country is less than 30 people. Several groups are less than 10, including children. There are 2 larger assemblies in the US, which have 100 or more members. No meeting has ever been larger than around 300 people, even after 30 years of intense outreach.

Thursday is usually some sort of outreach, from 7:30 to around 9 PM, weather permitting.

Friday is free about 2 out of five weekends. The other Friday evenings are taken with extended prayer meetings till midnight or 2 AM couples meetings, special campus fellowships, special outreaches, special seminars and other such things.

Saturdays begin with tape ministry, from 8 to 10 AM. This is when the whole assembly gathers to listen to George Geftakys' preaching from years ago. Every message that George preaches is recorded and is listened to as long as 30 years later. No one else is ever heard in the tape meeting, with the exception of reports from Africa once per year. It is taught that the tape is "where we get our vision." A large part of the rest of the day Saturday is spent doing stewardships and house projects, usually yard work or some sort of home improvement. Many of the members rent houses. These rental properties are usually very well cared for, with hundreds of hours of work put in towards improvement, often free of charge. Geftakys members are ideal renters. Saturday evening is for house meetings and preparing for Sunday. Members are encouraged to spend several hours studying the Bible and preparing a short message to share in the meeting.

Sundays--Early to bed and early to rise is the rule, because Sundays are very busy. In addition to the above, there are numerous other outreaches and meetings that are not for everyone, but only for students, or for those who wish to go. The meetings listed above are "Assembly" meetings, for which attendance is expected. A typical member will attend 5 meetings each week, the shortest being 2 hours in length.

In the Geftakys group, the members believe in "All day for the Lord." This means that all of Sunday, until bedtime, will be spent in some sort of assembly activity. Sunday morning begins at around 7 AM with breakfast. Then everyone rushes off to the meeting hall to set up chairs and get everything ready for the meeting. Doorkeepers, a cross between greeters and bouncers, meet at 8 AM to discuss 2 things: Who is not partaking that morning, and who will serve the bread and wine at the Lord's supper. They are asked if they are ready to preach, with about 3 out of five saying they are. Those not ready are reminded again and again to be ready in the future. The other saints, which is how members refer to one another, wait inside while the doorkeepers go through their routine. Around 8:15 the leading brothers and their families show up and place their belongings on the seats reserved for them by the doorkeepers. The leading brothers, who would be called elders in most churches, meet and discuss topics like who is having trouble, who is doing well, how their conversations with struggling saints went, how the doorkeepers' meeting went, who has a burden to preach, who will do announcements etc.

Everyone meets to pray at 8:45. This lasts until 8:55 and always ends with the phrase "Greet the visitor!" and frequently, "And all the lively ones said....", to which everyone answers "Praise the Lord!" George's trademark, which is often borrowed, is to say, "Rejoice in the Lord! And again I say Rejoice!" Everyone joins in by adding "Always!" when he says this.

Worship begins promptly at 9:28 to 9:30 and ends promptly at 10:26 to 10:30 AM. Following worship is communion. Following communion is a time of open ministry in the Plymouth Brethren tradition, with 2 or 3 men speaking. Much is made of the meetings being led by the Holy Spirit. Mainline churches, it is said, are weak because they use programs, scheduling ahead of time how the meeting will go, but Geftakys' meetings have no programs. Well, for not having programs, they all start and end at exactly the same time across the country, week after week, regardless of what the Spirit may direct. There may not be a printed bulletin, but there are announcements which, when written down, become every bit a bulletin, although hand written instead of printed. In practice the meetings are every bit as programmed as other churches, but in theory they are Spirit led. Petty differences and elitist attitudes like these mark these meetings, which without perception produce a spiritual pride that is endemic to the ministry. Almost every member who has been involved for more than 6 months will hold the following opinions:

• Mainstream Christianity has compromised in several key areas(touched on in this paper). Of course, the assembly has held faithfully to The Bible in these areas where others have failed. The Geftakys ministry is, therefore, chief among the few biblically sound churches in the modern world. "What this means is God is looking, not for man-made churches, but overcomer churches, those that are born of the Spirit of God." page 91, Testimony to Jesus, Geftakys. "..the pattern is important, and if God cannot get His pattern expressed in us, He will bypass us until He finds those through whom He can get what He wants." page 119, Testimony to Jesus, Geftakys. Those poor Christians who meet in man-made, denominational churches are most likely "bypassed", according to George Geftakys.

   

• The preaching that most Christians hear on Sundays is shallow.There is not much vision being communicated because the preachers are afraid of losing their jobs, so they water down the message so they won't get fired. "Thank God that we have such rich ministry here," Geftakys members say. "Paid clergymen", which is how members refer to pastors of other churches, are "hirelings." However, George and the other full time workers who are paid somehow are not considered paid clergy. They take the title of shepherds, instead of hirelings.

   

• Other believers don't know how to worship God properly. "He revealed to me what it meant to worship in spirit and in truth. I am convinced that most professing Christians today do not know how to worship...Why? Because they lack reality." from "Simplicity to Worship" page 5 and 6, George Geftakys.

   

The meeting ends 15 minutes either side of noon. A quick lunch is eaten and outreach begins promptly at 1:00 PM and goes to around 2. The most common form of outreach is door to door. Convalescent homes are also visited, which is how the children can contribute. The assembly has actually been "kicked out" of a convalescent home because one of the brothers preached a "Gospel" using the idea that, "you could die any minute. Please ask Christ to be your savior." Although this is quite true, the staff and families that heard this message were not a little put out by it. Leaders never go on outreach, but take this time to study or meet with people. Others are strongly encouraged to go on outreach, especially families with children. However, the attendance on afternoon outreach is always sparse and hints are dropped constantly that saints, especially families, need to be faithful to go on outreach. To not do so demonstrates a lack of commitment. Pre-prayer is at 2:30 sharp and the afternoon meeting begins at 3:00 sharp and goes till 4:30 or 5:00.

Following the afternoon meeting is usually some sort of fellowship, frequently sports of some kind. Doorkeepers count the money in the box and pay for the room rental, while leading brothers gather to discuss things for 2 to 3 hours. These times are frequently long sessions on how to deal with problems. Often, people are called in and "talked to" about something they did wrong or some behavior they need to change. Strategy on how to micromanage the saints' lives is discussed, and the calendar of upcoming events is planned. Of course the day's ministry is also reviewed and commented on. Everyone is tired Sunday evening. Most of the saints have to work Monday morning, but the full time workers take Mondays off.

The cycle repeats itself week after week. The times for the meetings, style of meeting, literature displayed, dress code, and home life is absolutely identical across the country. Each assembly is literally a clone of the others. Visitors are somewhat common, but usually few in number, with repeat visitors even more rare.