Open Letter to Minoru 2018 - Eliminating the Internet Problem

[Indiana]

September 30, 2018

Hello Minoru,

I am interested to know if you received my email last week, appealing to you for fellowship. It is much better to have fellowship, full and thorough, than to go onto the internet. Do you like the way of fellowship, Minoru? Will you take this way? Please kindly let me know.

Hopefully before 6 pm today. (That was Sunday, yesterday, Sept 30) copied 3 blending brothers.......there has been no response from brother Minoru Chen.

Sincerely,
Your brother in Christ,

Steve I.

************************************************** ***

sent the 1st email 6 days ago

steve isitt <stephen.isitt@gmail.com>
Date: Tue, Sep 25, 2018, 3:28 PM
Subject: Re: Greetings Minoru - Internet Problem Elimination
To: Minoru...

Dear Minoru, (intro to Minoru letter link at end)

I listened to a few messages of yours recently and was surprised in certain ways by you. Your burden is immense. Your esteem for Witness Lee remains intense and probably has increased since his ministry ceased in 1997. I understand your appreciation but many do not.

Neither do many people understand mine for Brother Lee, after being put out of the mainstream fellowship for addressing both the costs and the benefits of the new way. This was not appreciated by Dan Towle who I asked for fellowship over my deep and heartfelt concerns expressed in In the Wake of the New Way. But there has been a huge benefit to remaining positive and also in my being brought out of the mainstream.

You are in the mainstream I am not, but I am in the joy of the Lord and many in the mainstream are not. You have made clear to everyone who will listen, that you want to recover the Joy in the church life, and restore the impact “the recovery” once had.

Although I am not in the mainstream, I am in the fellowship of the Son regarding you and others in the mainstream, and, in a rich sense of life and peace I have prepared a letter for you. I hope you will receive it in a spirit of fellowship and love in the Body of Christ.

I would like to have ongoing meaningful dialogue with you in the light unto building up. One big problem ahead for you is the internet forum, which anyone contacted in this push for the gospel (thousands) might and will become subjected to. I would like to help you eliminate or greatly diminish its negative impact. When I contacted DCP in 2012 a few miles from their office, they declined the invitation to meet.

Of a truth, Minoru, you or I would contract a problem if we were new ones contacting the forum for information about Witness Lee, the local churches, Watchman Nee, LSM….We didn’t have that type of introduction to the church. Far from it. People would appreciate “the true church” creating for them a clean slate on an unfettered ground to meet upon and invite their friends and everyone else to -- like I did. Henry Hon did. You did.

Two sisters from Austin, former full timers who became married, found the writings of two brothers to be compelling, but the forum in general to be mixed with vitriol. Don Rutledge and Steve Isitt were the names mentioned and they went to their husbands and to an elder. He did what elders do, and without contact with me, dismissed the matter. That is the easiest thing to do. But compelling writings still exist, and by others also, but so does the vitriol exist. Are you right to criticize the forum as being “unkind to us” and not take time to field their major concerns intelligently?

Actually Minoru, it would be a big benefit to you to break the tradition of avoiding contact with dissenting ones and instead make honorable attempts at understanding what should be collectively considered by you and others to be serious and legitimate concerns, even ones of the highest order. Such concerns are real and new ones will be legitimately alarmed and stumbled, by the hundreds – this is not a roadblock to have waiting for them. Even messages that are compelling and non-vitriolic can be factors of stumbling to your new ones. There are scores of messages and messengers like this. All of this must be dealt with honorably before God and man. God is not mocked.

If people on the forum would get a solid, strong message from you and LSM that validates specifically their hottest concerns, this would go a long way toward diminishing the interest to “vent” on negative issues. Even if general acknowledgements and concessions are appropriately made on specific matters of grievous concern, I am sure we could make healthy progress in this way, by doing what is right and honorable in the sight of all men and of God. You have this opportunity to clear the way for Revival.

"Righteousness and justice are the foundation of Your throne;". Psalms 89:14

In Watchman Nee’s Further Talks on the Church Life (1948-1951), he shares at the end of his ministry, and according to experience and observation, “We must realize that where there is not the Holy Spirit, there is not the church. The church is absolutely not Witness Lee, Chang Yu-zhi, nor Yu Cheng-hwa; the church must only be the Holy Spirit. In other words, the church from beginning to end can only have one authority, one power, and one life, which is the Holy Spirit.” (p. 11, soft cover)

“Regardless of what kind of position a brother may have, whether he be an overseer, an apostle or a deacon, whenever he establishes or manifests his own authority, he loses and ruins the whole ground of the church. The whole ground of the church is established upon the authority of the Holy Spirit. Whenever His authority is offended, the authority of the church is gone.” P. 14, soft cover)

“Whenever the Holy Spirit cannot move, whenever the individuals stand out, it means there is some problem and the church is damaged so that it can no longer be called a church. “Today there is so much of man’s opinion, man’s decision, man’s methods, man’s organization, man’s name, and man’s tradition in the groups that call upon the name of the Lord. I do not wish to say more about this. From the beginning to the end since we were called out by the Lord, there is a fundamental ground – that is we must obey and establish the authority of the Holy Spirit in the church and destroy our own authority. (P. 16-17)

www.lordsrecovery.us/LettertoMinoru2018.pdf

[Indiana]

It's a very interesting conference that Minoru gave in Chicago as well as Southern CA. Here is the link to the Chicago conference. Yes he talks about the internet problem and his extreme push for the gospel and a year of Jubilee for 2019.
CHICAGO CONFERENCE mtg 2http://www.thechurchinchicago.org/wp-content/audio-video/ConferenceAudio/2018/2018%20Labor%20Day%20Conference/Mtg2.mp3
Excerpts from letter to Minoru based on Chicago mtg 2

"It is not like it was in the LA days with people coming into meetings, new ones added every day - one meeting is all it took to capture people." ....p. 3

“I know there are still things floating around on the internet, saying things
that are unkind to us.... p. 3

“We need to have our courage recovered regardless of what people say. We are
coming out of our bunker mentality! We're going to walk around, show our
face, with no shame. What are we shameful about? What are we afraid
for?.... p. 4
the LETTER TO MINORU
www.lordsrecovery.us/LettertoMinoru2018.pdf

[Truthseeker]

So,how does he respond?

[Indiana]

So,how does he respond?


He did not respond but I think he and others still get the message. Now, they have to deal with Jo Casteel who has earnestly brought to their attention a litany of legitimate concerns.

Nobody is asking too much of them. Just to do whatever it takes to make straight the way of the Lord. Exactly what we should all be doing.

www.MakingStraighttheWayoftheLord.com

[aron]

I went on Facebook and found a group called "Living by Faith". It has 9,000 members, many of whom have the LSM circle logo on their photo. The group consists of Bible verses and bits of Nee and Lee quotes, followed by a dozen or so "amen" posts.

It reminded me of the late '90s when LSM contacted all the local churches and had them put up websites with links to LSM sites and to give testimonies of how good the ministry was or how glorious the local church life was.

If you look on the internet, some of them are still up. I noticed that many of the local churches never bothered filling out all the template. Some of the sections were empty.

Kind of an anti-testimony.

http://churchinomaha.org/

Many LCs have updated and re-done their websites. But they have a dilemma that the FB group shares: content. All they can do is repeat ministry messages, many of which have not held up well. A lot of the vague "divine and mystical" stuff just looks vague. It has not aged well.

You just need more Christ worked into your being - even if so, how does reading that snippet actually do anything? It looks like a shell game - swirling cups, lot of motion, hoping there's a pea in there somewhere.

Or, more life... how does that phrase actually deliver anything? Jesus did not deliver empty words. The scripture should deliver content. If it doesn't then we are reading the wrong book. Likewise, ministry should open scripture. I recall feeling dazzled, once. But the bloom is long since off that rose. In retrospect, it was probably the repetitive shouting. Not sure that transfers well to FB.

[aron]

Many LCs have updated and re-done their websites. But they have a dilemma that the FB group shares: content. All they can do is repeat ministry messages, many of which have not held up well. A lot of the vague "divine and mystical" stuff just looks vague. It has not aged well.

You just need more Christ worked into your being - even if so, how does reading that snippet actually do anything? It looks like a shell game - swirling cups, lot of motion, hoping there's a pea in there somewhere.

Or, more life... how does that phrase actually deliver anything? Jesus did not deliver empty words. The scripture should deliver content. If it doesn't then we are reading the wrong book. Likewise, ministry should open scripture.A few notes on God's economy.

Paul had told Timothy (1:3,4) to stay in Ephesus, to charge certain ones not to teach anything other than God's economy, which is in faith. In the book of Acts, one can see exactly what this economy is, and what this faith is.

Acts 4:31 And when they had so besought, the place in which they were gathered was shaken, and they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak the word of God with boldness.
4:32 And the heart and soul of the multitude of those who had believed was one; and not even one said that any of his possessions was his own, but all things were common to them.
4:33 And with great power the apostles gave testimony of the resurrection of the Lord Jesus, and great grace was upon them all.
4:34 For neither was anyone among them in need; for as many as were owners of lands or of houses sold them and brought the proceeds of the things which were sold
4:35 And placed them at the feet of the apostles; and it was distributed to each, as anyone had need.
4:36 And Joseph, who was surnamed Barnabas by the apostles (which is translated, Son of encouragement), a Levite, a Cyprian by birth,
4:37 Who possessed a field, sold it and brought the sum of money and placed it at the feet of the apostles.

When Joseph/Barnabas sold his land and gave the proceeds to the apostles for distribution to the poor, this was God's economy which is in faith. Joseph knew Jesus' words, that when you give a feast, invite those who cannot repay you in this age, and your reward will be great in heaven. Joseph/Barnabas had faith, and allowed himself to be despoiled in this age, for the sake of the kingdom of God.

Acts 11:29 And the disciples, according to how one was prospered, determined, each one of them, to send things for dispensing to the brothers dwelling in Judea,
11:30 Which also they did, sending it to the elders through the hand of Barnabas and Saul.
Acts 12:24 But the word of God grew and multiplied.
12:25 And Barnabas and Saul returned from Jerusalem, having completed the dispensing; and they took along with them John, who was surnamed Mark.

Look at Acts 11:29 and 12:25... now Barnabas and Saul are "dispensing" (cf Acts 6:1). And Paul writes the Corinthians (16:1) to do the same as in the Galatian churches, to set aside some money for him to bring to Jerusalem (cf 2 Cor 8 &9; Rom 15:25-31). More dispensing.

Paul said that the Greeks "owed" the Jews because the gospel originated there. Then we can add the 3 Gentile kings bringing gifts to "him who has been born king of the Jews" (Matt 2:2), and so forth. I could go on.

But my point is on content, and Minoru Chen's internet problem. The LSM can have 55 web sites and recruit 10,000 people to semi-bot Facebook with ministry snippets, but the problem remains. They have no real, evolving, dynamic narrative content. Their fake history has unraveled and now they are left with the Museum of Witness Lee. Not a very attractive place.

I put out another reading of "God's economy" deliberately, here, because the problem LSM has is that the world is moving on. If I can do what I've briefly outlined above, then anyone can see or do anything. Content. My "content" may not be right, or true, or useful, but it is nonetheless content. What does LSM offer?

The reason they came up with One Publication edict was that they were afraid of anyone else having content. It would expose their own paucity.

(ps - the above Bible verses were RecV - their own words in Acts 6, 11, and 12 are "dispensing")

[ZNPaaneah]

He did not respond but I think he and others still get the message. Now, they have to deal with Jo Casteel who has earnestly brought to their attention a litany of legitimate concerns.

Nobody is asking too much of them. Just to do whatever it takes to make straight the way of the Lord. Exactly what we should all be doing.

www.MakingStraighttheWayoftheLord.com

On the contrary, the concerns are no different than the ones Titus brought to them and the ones the Anaheim elders raised in the 80s. The only way they can possibly "deal" with this is to confess they are the ones responsible for not dealing with this over the last 30+ years and that they attacked and excommunicated those that did try to deal with this. If they don't admit culpability on their part then they have not dealt with it, just more deception. To be fair this dates all the way back to the Sister's rebellion. Ray and Benson would have to confess and repent. Anything less than a full confession and full repentance which to my understanding of the cross of Christ includes them stepping down from any leadership position is not sufficient. That in turn would impact others like the elders that were appointed to replace the Anaheim elders. It is a giant house of cards.

[aron]

Anything less than a full confession and full repentance which to my understanding of the cross of Christ includes them stepping down from any leadership position is not sufficient. That in turn would impact others like the elders that were appointed to replace the Anaheim elders. It is a giant house of cards.

Suppose, for the sake of discussion, they did some kind of "housecleaning" at the top. Repentance, confession, a few carefully chosen resignations.

That still leaves the "internet problem" as I outlined it in posts 5 and 6... what if some "small potato" brother or sister says, "Hey, maybe 'God's economy' is not "God became Spirit to mingle with man's spirit and make man into God" but rather "When you give a feast, invite those who cannot repay you in this age"?

Or any other of innumerable questions and modifications of the ministerial output of Mr Lee...? What happens when people turn to other sources of content, which seem to look more accurately at what is recorded in scripture? What then? Can the LR survive if WL is only one source of inspiration and interpretation, out of a multitude?

I suspect* they will continue to dig in, and circle the wagons. But the wagons will keep disappearing, and the circle will get smaller and smaller. But they perhaps only have 2 choices - either ever smaller concentric circles, or the giant house of cards comes down. So the only real question is: how many wagons are going to leave, and when.... how much smaller the circle will get, and how quickly.

*I'll be glad to be proven wrong, however.

[Ohio]

I suspect* they will continue to dig in, and circle the wagons. But the wagons will keep disappearing, and the circle will get smaller and smaller. But they perhaps only have 2 choices - either ever smaller concentric circles, or the giant house of cards comes down. So the only real question is: how many wagons are going to leave, and when.... how much smaller the circle will get, and how quickly.

*I'll be glad to be proven wrong, however.
Didn't Lee himself say all he needed was 10 brothers absolute for his ministry?
And all the faithful attendants became flushed with a sense of sympathy for this aging minister. :rollingeyesfrown: