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| Hephzibah ntcc church in Augusta, Georgia |
Rodney and Lisa Ballard took over the Servicemen's Home and church in Augusta Georgia toward the end of my tenure with the ntcc. I quickly became friends with them and we went through some of the wildest and greatest adventures that I ever would experience in the ntcc. I'm not going to rehash the past or get into specifics about the good or the bad; but I want to say this:
Rodney and Lisa Ballard would do anything to help a person out; and they would never do anything to harm a soul.
While they did not fit into the mold of an ntcc pastor and wife in a perfect way according to the ntcc leadership, they did more to help me at a time in my life when I really needed help, then they will ever know.
They broke one of the cardinal rules of the ntcc and that was that they became a friend to me.
Much was said about over-familiarity; and members were very seldom allowed to become a friend or an equal with the Pastor of a church. Much of this stemmed from a separation that was said to be necessary between a pastor of a church and the members of that church but the real purpose of this separation was so that the preacher would be revered and would be able to have much influence over a person's life. This separation was necessary and conducive to manipulating a congregation into financial and spiritual submission according to ntcc standard operations. You supposedly can not correct a person if you are friends with them.
Jesus called His disciples friends.
I can say that the Ballards broke this rule and allowed me to be a part of their world; and we became good friends and had more fun and touched many lives in a good way. We were living under a very strict set of guidelines that made life difficult and presented many financial challenges. An ntcc preacher is placed at a great disadvantage in that so many of the rules that exist keep them from being human and doing things that normal people do and one of those things is sharing emotion and establishing friendships. For the first time in my life in the ntcc we put a lot of the rules and policies aside and were real.
The Gospel was preached through love and the Ballards never exalted themselves to a lofty place of reverence and unobtainable perfection that many others presented. They were far from perfect; and we all did things that were not honorable in the eyes of the Borg; but we survived the best we could under a system that makes many people slaves and limits them to life of under-achievement.
After becoming great friends with the Ballards I came down on orders for Ft. Eustis Va. This would be my last assignment in the Army and my last stint with the ntcc. My next pastor was a company man and I don't mean this in a negative way because he too, was under the same system of structure and routine that zapped me of all my desire to be a part of the ntcc any more. All of the ntcc pastors I've had, deal with this pressure in different ways. I had seen every side of the ntcc that you could see; and my mind, my heart and my desire to have normal relationships made me realize that I had to escape ntcc. I stayed in contact with the Ballards which was another sin which you are not supposed to commit in the ntcc.
They confided in me and only me, to my knowledge, that they were going to leave the ntcc. At first I was horrified at the thought; but the more I thought about it, the more
my inner most being desired freedom:
- mental freedom
- physical freedom
- normalcy
- and a chance to think for myself!
I have to thank the Ballards for this; because they helped me escape from something that controlled me beyond the limits that Jesus would ever impose upon someone.
- It took years for my mind to heal; and now I have experienced salvation through grace and mercy that has brought unspeakable happiness and joy to my life!
- I have a wife who I love and want to spend all the days of my life with.
- I have a great job and have peace in my heart.
- I wake up and pray to the God I love and enjoy reading His word.
- My situation is better than it ever has been and my relationship with God is at its best when I'm able to fulfill my service to Him out of the freedom of my own heart and desire as opposed to the robotic motions that were dictated to us by those who had no interest in our spiritual well being.
We did things in those days that I'm not proud of and things that nobody would ever understand; but through it all, the kindness and friendship of a former ntcc preacher and his wife has stood the test of time; and because of this I am forever grateful!
9 comments:
Great post.
Getting close to church members is forbidden to the NTCC Pastor ...therefore I didn't, and always maintained the separation. Pity, since I like to get close to people. All else takes a back seat to being a company man when you get involved with NTCC.
If you want to contradict any of this, and say you got close to your church members (or that you otherwise do your own thing), all you are really saying is you are disobedient to the program; something also forbidden. I prefer obedience, always have, always will; even when obedience turn out to eventually be wrong.
We also Pastored in Hephzibah.
Thanks for sharing.
Gregory
Ange and I have both spent time at Ft. Gordon as our military occupational specialty was Avionics and our training took place here. I was first reached in AIT in 1983 at the age of 18, and prayed for salvation in this church. At the time the Cyruses were pastoring this church with their infant son David. Pop Gaylord had recently started this church and had the building built and had owned a house in the area. We had a long AIT (about 22 weeks) plus 3 weeks for W-6 which was a skill identifier for aircraft counter measures systems.
I would come back to Ft. Gordon for W-5 training (OH-58D), X-1 training (AH-64 Apache Avionics) and ANVIS night vision goggle repair which they attached to our MOS since pilots used them a lot. I came down on orders for Ft. Gordon as an Instructor for Avionics AIT. When I arrived at Ft. Gordon, Rev. and Sister Reed were Pastoring the Hephzibah church and Rev. Kocks was the helper. The Reeds were pretty easy going and fun to be around also. I was transitioning from being a company man to becoming less rigid in my life for God and both the Reeds and the Ballards played a part in this.
During this transition we were allowed to let our hair down and enjoy Christianity as much as possible under the constraints that we were abiding by. At one point I bought a boat, with a 65 HP Mercury motor and trailer, parked it right next to the church and Bro. Ballard rebuilt the carburetors and we used to take it to the lake and have a really good time.
L.D. Jones who was overseer at that time came through and Bro. Ballard was the only one that wasn't concerned about the boat. Sister Ballard and myself were worried about the boat sitting next to the church and I even tried to justify it by saying I got a really good deal on it. I could tell that Jones wasn't buying it.
After about two years at Ft. Gordon, the Army decided make Avionics an Aviation MOS instead of a Signal MOS and they moved our school to Ft. Eustis, VA where I became the first military instructor for the AH-64 Apache Avionics course. This course was previously taught at Ft. Gordon by a civilian Female who had no experience in the field on actual aircraft but would have an E-6 as an assistant instructor to help her out.
At Fort Eustis I taught the course for about 2 years and my last class was pilots from the Dutch Royal Air Force. During my short time at Ft. Eustis, I stayed in contact with the Ballards and also seen them at times during monthly Fellowship meetings and conferences. We would talk on the phone which was forbidden and he shared with me his intentions to leave the ntcc.
At this time in my life I really felt confined and trapped. If you cross this line, you will die and go to hell. If you walk out that door you will have to answer to God. If you climb that fence and try to escape, you will burn. God was reduced to a God of judgement only when a person considered leaving the ntcc, and there it was never a good thing. Not one time did I ever hear an ntcc pastor tell a brother: "We respect your decision, we love you and we will be praying for you, let us know if we can be of any help in the future". It was always doom and gloom. But in my innermost being, the Ballards showed me a glimpse of freedom and that was all it took. My desire to escape the ntcc became a desire for freedom and the rest is history.
DnA
Rodney and Lisa are great folks. I remember when they left, RW made sure to kick them to the curb and spread the news that they engaged in fiscal impropriety. Well, if that's true (and I have serious doubts about anything the "apostle" says about people who escape), they were driven to it by the financial desperation visited on them by NTCC parasitism. Like the rest of us, they're far better off now.
I used to keep the books. I will say this, they didn't get rich or benefit from their position as full time Pastor in Hephzibah. They were always strapped for cash and didn't have much of anything. They definitely didn't have brand new Cadillacs or Recreational vehicles. All the bills got paid and people were welcome whether they paid their tithe or not. Rodney was the kind of guy that would give you the shirt off his back. Lisa loved us all and worked hard to keep the Home together.
If everyone in the ntcc was like the Ballards, there would not be such a separation in classes of people. He helped me replace the engine in my car which involved a whole weekend of sacrificed time and would do the same for anyone in the church. He was a servant of all.
Gregory said:
"I prefer obedience, always have, always will; even when obedience turn out to eventually be wrong."
DnA said:
This seems to be the reason that so many are under tight control. We were all subject to the same doctrine and rules. We followed blindly after a promise and we obeyed without question. It is better to obey than to sacrifice; you did both. Obedience was stressed and in my opinion obedience to the wrong man keeps many from reaching their potential in God. We were all in subjection to a man. Nobody was free in the ntcc and nobody will ever be free in that group. Every single person in the ntcc is suject to Rwd and the rules he created. Obedience to his system was mandatory. People blindly obeyed. All of us did. To please Rwd we had to ignore the bible and God.
For example: the facial hair rule. One of the most stupid rules in the ntcc. Jesus had a beard, yet if anyone in the ministry or even a member of the church had one their Christianity was called in question. All pastors in the ntcc obeyed this rule and passed it along to their congregations. People were excluded and ultimately not welcome in the ntcc unless they adhered to this rule. God was limited by man made rules. People were left out. The Spirit of God was quenched. This is just one of many rules that the ntcc made. Unfortunately we all followed these rules and obeyed them. How well these rules were obeyed determined how far you could get in the ntcc.
In my opinion, it doesn't really matter if ministers in the ntcc have a good heart, if they pray and study and love their members. That's all good and God requires it. But as long as they stay in subjection to a man that is not right with God, and are obedient to the system that he created, Christians will never be allowed to prosper and the work they do will be limited by the parameters that Rwd and Mck have put in place to control them. Meanwhile the bible says otherwise. Meanwhile the life of Jesus was lived before us as an example of how we should live. We had to ignore much of that to fulfill the ntcc requirements placed upon us.
Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is Liberty. There is very little liberty in the ntcc. I'm not talking about freedom to live in sin or freedom to do whatever you want. Freedom to follow God according to the bible without being limited by a bunch of man made rules is what people really need. God is left out, the ministry is limited and powerless, people are excluded and shunned, souls are measured and found wanting by the wrong standards and they are discarded. We obeyed the rules and in doing so we did things contrary to God's rules. We obeyed but we didn't love. We couldn't love, we couldn't give, we couldn't be ourselves, we couldn't help, we didn't help because instead of asking , What would Jesus do? we asked What would Davis do? We all missed the boat and those that are in the ntcc are missing it too.
DnA
Gregory said:
"We also Pastored in Hephzibah."
What year did you Pastor in Hephzibah? Did they still have the double wide trailer for a Servicemen's home? We had a possum die underneath the trailer and it was caught in the chicken wire that held the insulation in place under the Trailer. The home smelled horrible and I couldn't sleep in there any more. Bro. Ballard found the possum and had to pick it's trapped rotting carcass out from underneath the trailer. Now that is true love. In spite of this there were good memories also.
DnA
Vic said:
"Like the rest of us, they're far better off now."
DnA said:
Ain't that the truth. Leaving the ntcc increases your chances of having a purpose in life and accomplishing positive things in this world. It seems like the ntcc is a great place if you want to spin your wheels for a couple of decades. You just never really get anywhere in the ntcc. You work and labor and sweat and eek out a meager existence for your family while others profit and when it's all said and done, you look back on the years gone by and see how unproductive and unfruitful your efforts have become. The ntcc is like a hole in the space time continuum. We were caught up in a temporal flux and when we broke free, we found we had aged 13 years and had gray hair. I try to figure out what purpose and good came out of those years of my life and there is very little lasting productivity if any. Those we reached stayed in and their lives have become like ours were. The ntcc is a struggling and dying organization. The numbers are down and people are waking up. We hope that what we are doing helps people find the same freedom so they can be better off like the rest of us.
DnA
I look at the NTCC years as some very expensive tuition in the school of life. The question is whether we allow ourselves to move on and profit from the lessons, or become trapped in the continuum, as you put it. Those of us who graduated can now put what we learned toward progressing in our lives. The rest are still paying their dues in sweat and tears (and lots of their time and cold, hard cash).
Like any other school, some finish sooner than others.
Vic said:
"The question is whether we allow ourselves to move on and profit from the lessons, or become trapped in the continuum, as you put it."
DnA said:
I hear you Vic. Moving on can mean different things to different people. At times, I'd like to just forget about the ntcc and completely disengage from thinking about them. I don't know it that's possible.
We have chosen to take up the cause of warning people and educating them to what we know as X'ers. I know when I was in the ntcc, I had no idea what was going on in Graham. I saw my share of corruption but I thought that the leadership of the organization was pure. This is what the majority of ntcc'rs think. Our efforts seem ineffective at times in convincing people they are in a cult, but I believe that the ones who read do so because they know something is wrong. If we can contribute in anyway to helping people escape, we think we have done a great service to them and God. It seems like the only way out for a lot of people is for them to get used up and exhausted. Wiped out physically, mentally and spiritually. Even in this condition, I think people have a better chance on the outside than they do trapped in the ntcc.
Even if people choose to forsake God, which is the route that I took, they will experience freedom and they will begin to think for themselves. Eventually when they find their way back to God, they will realize that they can have all God's promises without the hypocrisy and double standards. I'm not advocating that people forsake God, but many in the ntcc are just playing church. They have been seduced into following a bunch of rules that they think make them righteous in the eyes of God. The Davis and Kekel doctrine promote and reward loyalty to the ntcc leadership, and punish those who see through their lies.
The sad thing is that people in the ntcc stay in subjection to many of the rules even though they no don't benefit from the promises. Even sadder than this is that after people leave they still are under much of the same delusion they were under while members of the ntcc. They believe many of the same lies and they allow many of the man made ntcc rules to govern their thoughts and actions years after departing from the ntcc. If people would wake up and realize that the whole thing was a big hoax and publicly share their stories, maybe they could move on and others would benefit.
Realizing that there is a problem, a huge problem, is the first step. We hear from a lot of people who have left the ntcc, some leave with their salvation in tact, others leave God and the ntcc and eventually find their way back to God. I imagine that there are many that left God years before they left the ntcc or they never really had true salvation. Others have been through so much that they haven't got to the point of wanting anything to do with God. This is what makes the ntcc so harmful. Should leaving a church cause so many problems? Should there be this much spiritual havoc in a persons life just for leaving a church?
Very good comment Vic. Thanks for posting.
DnA
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