Gary Busey

I was a freshman in my first semester at Emmaus Bible College, and was hanging out with my new friend T. We were still in the small-talk stage. Looking back now, I realize what I did not then: freshman at Emmaus can be dorks, and I was no exception. In fact, I think my dorkness factor may have been a little higher than average. Anyways, I had never really known too many other people who came from a PB background, and all the sudden I was surrounded by them, and perhaps feeling a bit giddy about the proliferation of people who were familiar with The Assembly Way. So, in an effort to make conversation and build camaraderie, I said: "So...what assembly are you from?" He looked back at me with kind of a blank stare, and said something like "Assembly? What's an assembly?" Here he was--at Emmaus of all places--and he didn't know what the heck I was talking about. I found out he come from something called a "bible church". When it came to The Assembly Way, he was a mere Padywan, a tender brain just waiting to be enlightened in the ways of The Black Book, Remembrance, and Doilies.

T and I hung out a lot, and he quickly became one of my best friends. We both enjoyed basketball, theology, and the board game Risk. We developed an unbeatable method to study for Marinello tests. One time we were watching some old movie and I was convinced that the main actor was Nick Nolte. He assured me that it was NOT Nick Nolte, but was in fact Gary Busey. We made some little bet about who was right and when the movie was over and the credits rolled, we found out, in fact, that it was Gary Busey. From that point forward, anytime I turned out to be wrong about something and he was right, he would just shake his head and say "Gary Busey".

As my friend continued to attend Emmaus (and go to church at ACC) he became familiar with some of the peculiarities therein, and became fond of telling me how The Assemblies are a denomination. After all, he pointed out, we have our own college, magazine, and speakers of renown. I would counter that we were not a denomination. We weren't like the Methodists, Lutherans, and Baptists, who had non-local government and councils who met to decide how to address the issues of the day. We had independent thought and true non-denominationalism. Every church made decisions for themselves, and no one was looking over their shoulder to see what the "powers that be" thought.

Like I said earlier, freshmen at Emmaus can be dorks. I've been back a few times for DEW and other alumni events, and I see the 18-year-olds running around and wonder "was I like that?" OK, that probably just means that I'm getting old. I love the school and my time there was invaluable in so many ways. But it is painfully obvious now to look back and think about how easily knowledge puffs up. It was good knowledge, but I'm glad I've had some time to let it season in the stew of life experience for a few years now. And I have found out over time that T was right about PBs being a denomination. Gary Busey rears his ugly head again.

People are too focused on "who's in" and "who's out" with regard to The Assembly Way. I suppose there comes a point in every movement where there is a temptation to setup new boundaries of orthodoxy and build walls of religion, and Plymouth Brethren have been no different in this regard from many others who have come before them. But what did Jesus come to do? He came to take us out of the "fold" of religion and bring us into the freedom of the "flock" (John 10). The sheep in the fold are focused on the walls, because that's what keeps them safe from thieves and wolves. The sheep who are running free on the range belong to a flock, and they don't have any walls. How do they stay safe? By focusing on the shepherd and staying as close as possible to Him.