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Originally Posted by Jay
At any rate we'll probably never know exactly the motivations for the bros in Moses Lake to dissent. But also it's some great points to consider with regards to the abuse of leadership, or the mishandling of leadership and alleged protective nepotism
I don't think it was regarding simply the church in Moses Lake wanting local autonomy. That's too basic in my view. I know that they did want this and I see no reason why Lee would seek to not allow them local autonomy, because as far as I know that's how the local churches function. They are or should be autonomous in a lot of their local dealings and functions. How exactly they interact with LSM is anyone's guess, or maybe people have certain experiences of control idk. But I seriously doubt this was the reason for the dissent in Moses Lake. For sure there was a disagreement between Lee and the leaders of the church of Moses Lake. The details of that I don't know. But I do know that Lee was saying they needed to fall under him and if they didn't they could go their own way, and they chose to go their own way and cut themselves off from the fellowship of all the other churches. I guess you could take from that that Lee DID in fact have autonomous control over all the churches. But again, I highly doubt that the only reason the dissent ensued was simply because Lee wouldn't recognize their autonomy. That doesn't sound right
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It had to do with words Witness Lee spoke in one of the 1986 elders training meetings. Something to the effect of "if you're not here for me and my ministry, then you might as well not be here". The two elders from Moses Lake walked out on that.
Speaking of autonomy, in my few visits to Spokane in the mid-90's the local church there seemed far more autonomous than my experiences in Bellevue, Seattle, Portland, and Bellingham to name a few.
My take from correspondence with Ken Sandburg, the Church in Moses Lake was open to fellowship with other local churches. Local churches in Washington state were not open to fellowship with Moses Lake.
In my time meeting in Bellevue, when I asked an elder about the Church in Moses Lake, I was told they're a rebel church. I knew more than a few that came from the Church in Moses Lake.