Quote:
Originally Posted by aron
To add to those comments, it's probably worth considering what you're going into, instead of just on what you're leaving. In my case, clueless as I was, I got right into a group that was even more religiously legalistic. I've told the story before, so won't elaborate, but suffice it to say that I left that one even more frustrated than when leaving the local church.
In retrospect, the reason was simple: I had no purpose nor meaning to my life beyond what someone supplied me externally. I was ripe for anyone to come along and put "their" purpose on me. Or, barring that, to drift into the sensuality and empty pleasure-seeking of the world. It took a while, but one day, by chance or luck or God's mercy, I figured out my purpose, of why I should get out of bed every morning and face the new day. As Robert Frost wrote, "that made all the difference."
Getting "tea leaves are meant to go into water" or "gloves are made in the shape of a hand" or someone's homespun religion or philosophy didn't work. I don't need Witness Lee's purpose for my life, but I needed to know my purpose, why was I here? What was I going to do with my life? Nobody else can answer those questions for me, and I can't answer them for others. But in the words of Jesus, if first you seek, then you'll find... i.e., no seeking, no finding.
Don't just "run away" from the local church, but allow yourself the necessary luxury of searching the realm of possible state spaces that are available. Find your own specific purpose and everything will follow. And when you know, you know. That's what's so cool about it. Nobody needs to say 'this is it' - you'll know. In my case it was a long frustrating road. But I daresay it was longer because I didn't make a conscious effort to use the tools given me, and the opportunities around me, to explore the realms of the possible. I just drifted in apathy, waiting for some charlatan like Lee to come in and foist his dreams on me. It was a rough road, I'll tell you! But one day, I figured out why I'm here, and everything changed. It was like, -- flash -- the world suddenly had meaning. Incredible.
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A gradual transition may be best, but it is probably inevitable to get pushback. You don't simply walk away from The Recovery, especially if you were born into it. The ones who can leave quietly without disturbance are the ones who were never really into it. They weren't "good material," so no one bats an eye at their departure. No, it's the ones who have invested and "tasted" and really tried to give themselves to it.
Or the children they bear.
I was part of the children's ministry. "What a shame," they would say, "that half of our church kids leave The Lord's Recovery. We need to do something. We need to cherish them more. We need to get them open to the ministry. The families are primarily responsible for this. The mothers and fathers."
I'm certain you can see why fathers and mothers in this denomination cannot simply let their children go, especially if they are full-timers or elders or some other leading ones. What a stain it would be on their reputation and on their locality. What a blot it is on the great "Ministry of the Age," and "The Lord's Recovery" which is supposed to be separate from and above the "deformed," "degraded," "devilish," and "satanic" denominations.
I feel blessed, then, when I left The Lord's Recovery. There was a church in the area with whom I became acquainted at around the same time I encountered The Recovery, and it never gave me anywhere near the multitude of red flags that The Local Churches did. Shortly before I left Lee's sect, I was already beginning to reconnect with some old friends there, and that made the transition all the easier for me. Still incredibly painful for sure, but that church was, and is, a haven for me and my family. The Lord has been extremely merciful and gracious with me.