The End of an Era
Never the wrong time to do the right thing!
By 1977, the Children of God had established communities in 71 countries. But on February 18, 1978, David did the unthinkable! -- He summarily dismissed 300 leaders of the group around the world!
Reports of serious misconduct, financial mismanagement, and abuse of their positions by a number of the established leaders had come to David's attention and after months of discussion, debate and prayer, he took drastic action! The Children of God had ceased to exist as an organizational entity.
David had entrusted and delegated the organizational leadership of the Children of God to others, and many of them had misused their authority. Determined to keep the core of the movement pure he did not hesitate to change things.
This radical shift was known as the "Reorganization Nationalization Revolution" (RNR). A third of the total membership chose to leave the movement, and those who desired to serve the Lord together with Father David became part of the reorganized movement, dubbed "the Family of Love," and later, simply "the Family."
David later expressed what he felt were the prime requisites for those occupying a positions of responsibility:
We need people first of all with love! If they haven't got love to begin with, they're nothing and they can do nothing! Anybody that's cold and hard and dictatorial and hasn't got real compassion and real love and isn't really concerned for those people in the field certainly doesn't belong in leadership!
If you don't have love, all your talents are no good at all! You have to be loving in the first place, you have to be sympathetic and understanding of people's problems.
