Newspaper Article - 2010

Attention: For all former 2x2s and other parties in the Salem area who may be interested in helping VOT to gather current Workers sermons, there are PUBLICLY ADVERTISED “gospel meetings” being held at the following places and times. If anyone could attend and record one or more of these meetings, we would greatly appreciate receiving audio copy and/or transcripts. Thank you kindly to any who could do this for us.

Gospel meetings will be held at 3 p.m. Sundays, Jan. 31, Feb. 14 and 21, at the Hazel Brown Leicht Memorial Library in West Salem; and at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Feb. 3, 10, 17 and 24, at Holmen High School’s large-group instruction room, 1001 McHugh Road.

---

Here are 4 other gospel meetings that are being held across the country:

Nondenominational Bible Talks, 3 p.m. tomorrow, Steele Carriage House, 130 North Main St., Adrian, Mich. "Upholding Jesus Christ and His Teachings." No collections. Additional talks, Jan. 24, 31, Feb. 7, 14, 21 and 28. Information, 517-265-7430 or 978-621-9780.

---

NONDEMONINATIONAL BIBLE TALKS TO CONTINUE Nondenominational Bible talks will continue Sunday and Feb. 14, 21 and 28 at 4 p.m. in Room 204 of the Minot Municipal Auditorium.

---

Non-Denominational Bible Talks - ALL WELCOME
Wednesday, Feb 10 7:30p at Non-Denominational Bible Talks, Red Bluff, CA
Phone: (530) 521-5671

---

Non-Denominational Bible Talks
12620 Highway 99E, Red Bluff, CA, 96080
Find directions, reviews and upcoming events for Non-Denominational Bible Talks in Red Bluff, CA.
Call for additional info and mention you found this on Zvents.

gray

Group forgoes name in mission to follow Jesus

By STACEY KALAS I skalas@tacrosetribune.com | Posted: Saturday, January 30, 2010 12:15 am

TO LEARN MORE

Gospel meetings will be held at 3 p.m. Sundays, Jan. 31, Feb. 14 and 21, at the Hazel Brown Leicht Memorial Library in West Salem; and at 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays, Feb. 3, 10, 17 and 24, at Holmen High School’s large-group instruction room, 1001 McHugh Road. For more information, call Leila Byers.

They don’t have a name and they don’t have a building, but they do have a mission: to spread God’s message.

It’s 3 p.m. Sunday. The Hazel Brown Leicht Memorial Library in West Salem is closed, but in its community room, about 40 people — a dozen of whom are young children — are singing from a burgundy book titled “Hymns Old and New.”

“I must have the Savior with me,

for I dare not walk alone; I

must feel His presence near me,

And His arm around me thrown.”

At the front of the room stands Leila Byers, 35. Seated next to her is Christina Topinka, 34. They are workers, or what some faith traditions might call ministers, in a church that has no name.

They are leading what has been billed as a free, one-hour nondenominational Gospel meeting “to teach the Bible in its simplicity and how it applies to today’s living.” Earlier in the day they met privately in one of the families’ homes for worship. They planned another public meeting Wednesday evening at Holmen High School.

“We want to be mouthpieces, just a mouthpiece, even though we are weak, for God to speak through,” Topinka said.

Both women have been workers for their faith since they were 18, sharing Jesus’ teachings, verses from the King James Bible and “the messages God has laid on their hearts” with those who come to listen.

“The Lord wanted me to do this. I had other plans, but God didn’t give me peace until I said I will do this,” Byers said.

Because the workers go out in pairs, some people call the group “two-by-twos,” a name they do not embrace. They use no name, Byers said, because “Jesus never gave his followers a name ... we feel safest doing exactly what he did.”

Following Jesus’ “perfect example” is also the reason they don’t maintain a church building: Jesus established the worship service in a man’s home, Byers said, referring to where the Last Supper took place.

The workers draw no income, instead relying on fellow believers for support, much like the early apostles did.

“We don’t have a home of our own. We stay with the people of our faith ... It’s like a family kind of thing,” she said.

The family includes John Andrews, 38, and Tonya Andrews, 37, who have come to Sunday’s meeting from Black River Falls with their five children, who attend public school. Both were “raised in the truth,” like Byers and Topinka.

Randy Stein and his wife, Brenda, of Ettrick, came with five of their six children. Their oldest, 20-year-old Jason, is a worker also, in the Milwaukee area. Randy was raised as a

Lutheran but started attending meetings while in high school at the invitation of a friend and liked what he heard.

“What we believe is what Jesus said,” said Brenda, who grew up going to these meetings. “It’s just like a family controlled by love,” she said of the group.

Byers and Topinka will stay in the immediate area through most of February, leading more meetings and then moving on within the “field” they’ve been assigned, which includes La Crosse County, Black River Falls, Stevens Point, Wisconsin Dells and Wisconsin Rapids. Their work is guided by an overseer, and in October they will be assigned new co-workers and a new field.

Byers said these types of meetings have been going on in the La Crosse area since at least the 1920s. She acknowledges the group is conservative and operates outside of the mainstream.

“We prefer to remember Jesus’ birth, death and resurrection every day,” she said in answer to why they don’t celebrate Christmas and Easter. And she’s aware of the information on the Internet linking the “two-by-twos” to cults.

“It is not a cult,” she said. “People are afraid because they’ve never heard of it before.” A cult, as she understands it, is easy to get into and hard to get out of. “People are free to leave.”