The members of the community, in many cases, lived in common together in houses. There were houses for married couples and houses for single men or women. They also had dorm households at the University of Michigan and Eastern Michigan University. The different households began to be split up into different "districts". Members of the community attended Sunday morning church, a weekly district prayer meeting, and a monthly citywide prayer meeting. Many families home-schooled their children and the community also had its own school. Adult members of the community each had a spiritual leader who was another member of the community. A married woman's spiritual leader was her husband. A single woman's spiritual leader was typically a married woman. A single man's spiritual leader was typically a married man.
National and global expansion
An international association of charismatic communities called the Sword of the Spirit was created in 1983. Word of God operated as a Sword of the Spirit member community until 1990 when Word of God disaffiliated with Sword of the Spirit following the command of Archbishop Ottenweller .
Fellowships
In 1979, the Word of God created four denominational subgroupings or “fellowships” to help people live out the aspects of their faith that they could not live in a strictly interdenominational setting. The four fellowships were the Catholic Fellowship of the Word of God, Cross and Resurrection Lutheran, Covenant Presbyterian, and Emmaus Fellowship..
Servant Publications
A publishing house affiliated with the Community, Servant Publications, published works by contemporary Catholic and Evangelical authors, including community members Bert Ghezzi, Stephen Clark, and Ralph Martin. These books presented songs used in charismatic renewal prayer groups, many written by members of the Word of God Community. Servant Publications ceased operations in 2003.
Cult question
In the 1980s, allegations that The Word of God was practicing too much control over its members prompted leadership of both the Roman Catholic Church, and the Lutheran Church–Missouri Synod to send teams to investigate the community and determine if what they were teaching was orthodox. In 1989, a coalition of seven groups led a boycott of Domino's Pizza due to the connection between Tom Monaghan and the Word of God. In the 1990s, students at MIT protested that Domino's then-CEO used company funds to finance the church.
Split
In 1990, the community split over proposals to seek a status that would allow greater local autonomy from Sword of the Spirit. This split came after the investigation of the Word of God community by Archbishop Ottenweller, which resulted in Ottenweller ordering the Word of God community to disaffiliate with the Sword of the Spirit. In 1991 Ralph Martin acknowledged that the practices introduced by the Sword of the Spirit was an "an ill-advised venture that led to considerable confusion, turmoil, spiritual distress both in individuals and in the community as a body", "was especially harmful to women", and "fostered elitism". The Word of God community adopted the proposals, and a faction led by Stephen Clark organised itself as a separate "Washtenaw Covenant Community", retaining full affiliation with "Sword of the Spirit".
Mission Christ
In the late 1990s the Word of God began a youth outreach called Mission Christ in the Washtenaw County area. Mission Christ began as a weekly meeting, but soon spread to include meetings at many of the local high schools and universities, including: Huron High School, Pioneer High School, Ypsilanti High School, Father Gabriel Richard High School, Dexter High School, Eastern Michigan University, Concordia College, Washtenaw Community College, and the University of Michigan. These groups became a source of controversy between the years 2000 and 2004 under the leadership of John Luton. There were two lawsuits filed by individuals against their schools over issues of discrimination against Christians. The first was filed by Betsy Hansen against Pioneer High School after her group, Pioneers for Christ, was allegedly barred from discussion in a forum on homosexuality during the school's diversity fair. The second lawsuit was filed by John Luton against Washtenaw Community College after his group was denied official group status over issues of free speech. In both cases they were represented by attorneys at the Thomas More Law Center. The Hansen case was featured on The O'Reilly Factor and on Hannity and Colmes.
