A brief aside regarding the Way calendar: Victor Wierwille had been a minister in the Evangelical & Reformed Church in 1941 and served as a pastor in that denomination until 1957, although from early on he had what we would now call "side gigs: starting in 1942 when he hosted a weekly radio program. Although he didn't start teaching his "Power for Abundant Living" class until 1953, or incorporate his activities outside his denomination until 1955 as The Way, Inc., or separate from his denomination until 1957, at some point he began retroactively claiming October 1942 as the genesis of The Way.
Craig Martindale, Wierwille's anointed heir, had been the director of The Way Corps, billed as The Way's leadership training program. Martindale had been an early participant in the program, enrolling in the Second Way Corps group. Virtually all of The Way's leaders at all levels were graduates of The Way Corps, so Martindale, as that program's overseer, had an influence upon a large percentage of Way leaders across the country. The early 1980s saw The Way at its peak numerically. Every U.S. state had a Way presence and several other countries rivalled the United States in the number of active PFAL grads.
The Way had always eschewed Biblical-type titles like bishop or religious designations such as priest, preferring corporate/academic terms such as Board of Trustees, President or Secretary-Treasurer for the top tier, and coordinator for lower levels, but the installation of Martindale was to be a full-fledged religious experience. Wierwille had long been referred to as "The Man of God", or "The Man of God for our time", with unofficial speculation about which of the "gift ministries" of apostle, prophet, evangelist, pastor or teacher (probably all five!) that he exercised. Wierwille hagiography made much of the supernatural promises supposedly made to Wierwille that inaugurated his "ministry". Audible speech from God, snow on the gas pumps in the summer and other miraculous events all carried the suggestion that Wierwille wasn't just some guy who worked hard at studying the Bible, but someone who had been chosen by God to bring long-hidden light to our generation. The fact that everything Wierwille said had been previously published by others, some of it in the previous century, didn't deter the myth-making. Now, the wink and nod pretense that Wierwille had been chosen and sent by God was not hidden behind the corporate curtain, but out in the open as he passed the mantle in a very literal sense.
When I say "literal" I mean that there was an actual, real, mantle that was passed from Wierwille to Martindale in a ceremony that rivalled any papal installation or monarchal coronation. The year leading up to the "passing of the mantle" was spent honoring Wierwille, presenting him with gifts, printing a collection of essays in his honor, building up Martindale, and outlining the highly symbolic ceremony that would take place anointing (also very literally) Martindale as the new Man of God. There was a mantle, there was anointing with oil, there was something called a covenant of salt, there was laying on of hands and prophecy. There were teachings ad nauseum about the Biblical symbolism of all of these things. While Wierwille had earned his adulation by presenting an alternative to mainstream Christianity that looked new and unique (and "accurate") to people who didn't know any better, Martindale was starting his new gig propped up by symbolism and spiritual mumbo jumbo.
As I ended my year as a WOW and began my new year as a WOWvet and apprentice Way Corps, the upcoming inauguration of the new president, with all the attendant "spiritual significance" was in the air and influenced everything that we did in Wayworld.
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