[Nell]

Originally Posted by ACuriousFellow

Yes, the Lord's Day meetings are very important to them. I recall this concept they had called "porch meetings." It was much like how they taught the college students within their church not to talk about Witness Lee with new people, but applied to the entire congregation.

At the start of each college semester, they would expect many new, young freshmen to join as well as a few older college students who were nonetheless new to The Lord's Recovery. As such, they would transition to having "porch meetings" for a while in which they instructed the saints not to talk about Witness Lee, tone down the "calling" and "pray-reading" and loud "amens" if possible, and focus on just making the new ones feel comfortable and loved. The reason for this was to not scare the new ones away. Since many people have criticized Lee in the past, they said, it would be good to not yet mention him or his teachings so much and make people suspicious or uncomfortable.

The sermon they would give was structured much more like a traditional sermon with less time for "prophesying," and the topic was something more generic like how "Christ died for our sins" sprinkled with "enjoying the Lord" and "building the church." There was not as much talk about "eating Christ" or "getting out of your mind into the spirit" or "1000 years of summer school." As the semester went on, they would transition back to their normal meetings when they saw that the newer ones were more open to the ministry and their relatively unique practices like the repetitive "calling" and "pray-reading". Those who were not open simply stopped coming and were not as much of a concern.

If at all possible throughout the year, they would prefer to bring students first to the home meetings and try to introduce them to the "Ministry" and see if they enjoyed that before then inviting them to the big Lord's Day/Table meetings. Their denomination along with these "high truths" they teach have been historically controversial in the United States, so they thought it best to hold to them in relative secrecy (i.e. don't ask, don't tell) and only present them to those who were open. It is these "open ones" who, according to the "Ministry," would make for the best "overcomers" who were "good material" for building up the church. They were often referred to as "remaining fruit" which they said would give us the greatest rewards in heaven.

Sounds like deceitful hypocrisy…openly admitting they’re hiding something.

Nell