Lord's Recovery in the UK - Amana Trust

[AJH882]

Good evening/afternoon all, and a very happy Fourth of July to my American friends!

I am new here, so I thought I'd say "hi" and tell you a little of how I came to be interested in the Lord's Recovery Movement.

I used to live in a town just outside London, called Romford. From the town centre you could look up to a hill on the mid-horizon, on top of which was quite an attractive 18th century house. I was always curious as to what the place was. Here's a Wiki link which contains a photo of the place: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bower_House

Anyway, curiosity sparked, I found out it was owned by Amana Trust, a charity here in the UK devoted to spreading the works of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. Here's a link to their website: https://amanatrust.org.uk/

As a Christian, I was struck by this charity offering Bible Studies and lessons about the teachings of two men who, frankly, I had never heard of.

I decided to go and visit, and spent a short afternoon being taken - painstakingly - through some scripture (I forget what, now) by a very intense Anglo-Chinese guy. He was friendly enough, but his knowledge of scripture was way beyond me. I left feeling intrigued, but also like I'd just stumbled into a pretty intense group of guys - it just had an odd "vibe" that I find difficult to describe, among the other people in the room with me.

Anyway, I wasn't terribly put off - in fact I wanted to learn more. I found out the Amana Trust have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds building a Woodland Camp (link - https://amanatrust.org.uk/page/woodland-camp ) for super-indepth, weekend-long study sessions. I can imagine those would be pretty full-on.

Seeing how much money these guys were able to splash (they have an income of a couple of million per year, which for a small UK charity is not nothing) - I did more reading, and came to understand that Witness Lee is actually a pretty controversial guy - particularly with regard to the Lord's Recovery Movement.

It seems clear to me that Amana Trust is a 'front' of some kind for the LRM, even though they *never* mention it. Seriously, check out their website - they never, ever talk about it. And yet everything is geared towards Watchman Nee and Witness Lee, and they mention Living Stream Ministry very often indeed. So there's no doubt in my mind they're connected.

So, my experience with these guys is limited to personal interest - and one strange encounter with them that gave me an 'odd' feeling.

Has anyone else come across Amana Trust, or the activities of the LRM in the UK?

[Ohio]

Amana Trust is the publishing and regional centre of Living Stream Ministry in the UK. LSM is headquartered in Anaheim, CA, USA. They are all about Witness Lee and Watchman Nee.

[Nell]

Welcome to the forum!

How recently did you visit Bower House?

Though I have never heard of Amana Trust, I knew Joe Davis and his wife from Houston. I understand that at one time they lived in the UK in Bower house. Do you know them? Were they part of Amana? This is the only knowledge I have of the Local Church in the UK.

There are goings on in the US which are similar to what you described. The LC has college campus ministries, "Christians on Campus". These "ministries" are on campuses all over the US which sound like what you describe in that none of these "Christians on Campus" websites mention that they are "fronts" for the Local Churches.

The LC also has a website called Shepherding Words (https://shepherdingwords.com/) which looks amazingly similar to the Amana Trust website. It states "This site addresses rumors that have arisen over the years regarding the local churches and the ministry of God’s word through Brothers Watchman Nee and Witness Lee." The probable unintended consequences of Shepherding Words is that they have listed the "rumors" for all to see then try to explain them away. Of course they don't give both sides of the stories...we do that here on this forum.

Again, welcome to the forum and thanks for your 4th of July well wishes :)

Nell

[Raptor]

Different organizations set up by the LR have many of the same leaders behind them. So a leader in Amana Trust might be an elder in a church in UK and also a "blended brother" and also a "co-worker." Another may be a top "message giver", trainer in the FTT, way up in LSM and also a "blended." Another is a blended and leader in Bibles for America and elder in some church in California and a co-worker of north America. The same with Defense and Confirmation Project.

So in a sense, there is no "checks and balances." Same brothers, they just change hats.

[Zezima]

Anyway, curiosity sparked, I found out it was owned by Amana Trust, a charity here in the UK devoted to spreading the works of Watchman Nee and Witness Lee. Here's a link to their website: https://amanatrust.org.uk/
Amana Trust is the Europe arm of LSM. Europe is very near and dear to LSM as they believe it’s the last frontier for the church to be built, and once built the antichrist will come out of Europe and the end times will come.

They have a strong “burden” for the “Lords Move” in Europe. They use bower house as a staging ground to send out “missionaries” to other countries, mainly Germany.

In America is often encouraged for members to consider migrating to Europe or to give to the Lords move there via giving to Amana trust.

Bower house also hosts what is called the full time training. LSM has a few training centers across the world where post college grads attend for 2 years to learn the teachings of lee and Nee who are considered the ministers of the age by the group.

https://www.lordsmove.org/index.html