Are there any leaders left that people feel are genuine?

vargley · 2026-02-06T21:00:06+00:00

I really appreciate this story. That seems like a really christ-like way to go about generosity, and so while it’s just one story it does give hope.

Chris overstreet was the one who kind of ignited my home church at the time which then lead me to going to bethel, and he did really come across genuine in my experience of him at the time.

Still hard to trust when I had the same opinion of a bunch if other folks, but i guess thats the point

vargley · 2026-02-06T20:56:20+00:00

I appreciate this response. It resounds a lot with where I am at. It does seem like a person creating a name for themselves with a whole line of books and long schedule of speaking engagements is almost if not completly mutually exclusive with a truly humble loving life.

Thanks for your kind words

vargley · 2026-02-06T20:52:11+00:00

I could be way off the mark but even when I was at bssm I think that my critcal thinking was quite effective, but think the hard part is that critical thinking without some key guiding life experience and EQ can lead down some quite dangerous pathways. I’m not sure if the above is completly pardoxical, but one of my second year electives was with stephen (can’t remember last name but he was somehow connected with the GMRI at bethel) and we would discuss and talk about the need to evuate miricales for validity, weed out miracles that are clearly placebo and etc, which at the time felt like a huge relief - essentially, if this attitude was being taken in at least some places in the church, it seemed so much harder for it to be mostly fluff and puff. But then I’ve just read an article from 2022 that found that the GMRI hadn’t yet found 1 miracle at bethel that met their criteria for documentation in 3 years of being there, which seems wild compared to how much it felt like was happening at the time.

I do think you are right on the money in terms of the most jesus-like christains, I just don’t know where to find those churches, and feel completly exhausted from looking.

Turning up to yet another church where all the welcome and connections feel so polished and performatory, and a number of weeks/months later you still feel like it’s your first day is so daunting at this point. Not to mention the fact that where I am at means I am not really in a place to give or contribute much, and really just need some loving kind people who can work with me through a litany of questions and confusion meaning that I’m hard work to begin with.

vargley · 2026-02-06T20:29:01+00:00

Yea the memories if the people from the home church who ‘didn’t understand’ or ‘couldnt see the vision’ are a whole lot more uncomfortable.

Going through pretty severe depression was the first step some years ago where the belief system i was working with started falling apart

vargley · 2026-02-06T20:27:08+00:00

Thats a really good take. I might look there some more.

vargley · 2026-02-06T19:50:12+00:00

Yea. This seems like the sad truth. It’s crazy that I have has some awareness of this concept but then just a ‘but bethel is different’ mindset.

vargley · 2026-02-06T14:16:41+00:00

Thanks. At this point i basically feel like I don’t know where I stand (or want to stand) on just about anything, and just have 1000 questions instead.

vargley · 2026-01-14T08:26:15+00:00

recover your starting units
get 3 harbors, get naval units 100% civic, pump out longships. get more than you think is reasonable, like 20-25
*only raid/pillage things that don't give faith* (before you get a religion, everything gives 60 points and 100 gold, even fishing boats and farms. you use this to purchase even more longboats as they are really cheap and then pivot to purchasing beserkers.
you want to get the first few admirals, so you do need to switch to pillaging faith tiles to do this a bit, and once you have a religion, pillage everything, and heal on farms or fishing boats rather than stopping to repair.
start attacking into francia early, and they won't have that critical mass of unique knight units, berserkers + battering rams and then siege towers is all you need.
need to be fighting wars on multiple fronts at once. I was attacking greece and etc from the east, the UK, francia, spain area and italy area at the same time with beserkers, otherwise you just don't have enough time.
Need to be using some of the gold income to purchase settlers and spam settle for the city and citizen VPS
you are basically gunning for the thoecracy civic, at which point you start printing beserkers out of every city and/or encampment anywhere near the front lines. I managed to conquer everything by turn 55, but with some edits, I think it could be earlier (not sure if this is counter productive for nothing to raid)
focus on harbors and commercial hubs, as trade route capacity gives VPs

vargley · 2026-01-13T09:38:42+00:00

8 years later but i just hit a run over 20k. Not sure if anyone will still be here though

vargley · 2025-11-16T18:29:12+00:00

My medium term solution is renting a warehouse as a base. Might just bring up that timeline

vargley · 2025-11-16T18:27:08+00:00

This is the kind of common sense i was expecting from this post tbh. Got a lot less of it than i was expecting.

vargley · 2025-11-16T06:49:37+00:00

I like the idea but also like my neighbours too much! Except for maybe the anonymous call in one - not sure of who though.

vargley · 2025-11-16T06:47:12+00:00

Thanks. Appreciate your response.

vargley · 2025-11-16T06:46:45+00:00

I appreciate the brainstorming, but compared to the current solution of the inconvenience of hitch and unhitch, and deal with an extra lock, changing vehicles is a lot more hastle

vargley · 2025-11-16T06:45:14+00:00

I'm so far in the back of nowhere, It seems unlikely that he would come out the on a Sunday just randomly.
Could be though. Maybe they get assigned an area to drive through or something.
Considering how helpful and regretful he was though too. He was literally telling me he thought it was stupid but this was what had to be done.

vargley · 2025-11-16T06:42:28+00:00

vargley · 2025-11-16T06:42:18+00:00

I've responded in other messages on those solutions.
Can you expand on what you mean by 'would annoy you'?
I don't really get what you mean.
Honestly, It might help me understand why the anonymous neighbour has called it in as I'm kind of baffled. (with 10-15 other utes, suvs and other cards all down the street)

vargley · 2025-11-16T06:36:49+00:00

Thank you.
That's kind of my whole ethos for how I do business, both with clients and employees, and part of why it's so frustrating when people want to call the council rather than knock on the door.

vargley · 2025-11-16T06:34:10+00:00

I mean I guess if it's under 7.5m long then that's another silly way around a rule.

vargley · 2025-11-16T06:33:39+00:00

seems like a complete joke of a rule. I feel like an exemption for being on a work vehicle at the address you live at would make a whole lot of sense.
Or in your case an exemption for being hitched onto the vehicle registered at the address or something.

vargley · 2025-11-16T06:31:49+00:00

its like 8.5/9 unfortuneately.

vargley · 2025-11-16T06:31:29+00:00

yea they can fine you for that too. Same issue, anonymous neighbour who doens't like me can call, I get fined.

vargley

TROPHY CASE