Quote:
Originally Posted by TLFisher
I think it all goes back to the teaching and practice of deputy authority. Brothers whether elders or deacons actually believe they are God's representatives on earth. I heard those claims. That's my explanation why brothers get filled with pride instead of humility.
Last time I was in an LC meeting, my wife and I were visiting where my mother meets. Towards the end of the meeting, a sister stood up to speak, but the lead elder cuts her off telling her to sit down.
Afterwards my wife and I were astonished that happened and how embarrassed
the sister must have felt. If there was humility, the elder would have been patient for the sister to speak before the brother gives his closing word.
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I remember at a meeting in Renton around 2016 a brother stood up to speak and he was stammering and like pausing because he wasn't used to speaking and he couldn't find his thoughts on a certain subject. The leading elder at the time was sitting in the front row like a king sits on a thrown (doing his best Brother Lee impression probably) and he lifts up his arm like a king giving an edict, and goes "brother sit down." I was so pissed, my blood was boiling. That's not how you lead a church. That brother may never stand up to speak ever again as long as he lives. He may have left the church idk, I haven't seen him in years. He was just publicly embarassed, I felt so bad for him
At Bellevue a bunch of times the leading brother told people to sit down as well. He would also literally yell at the congregation in anger because there was too long of pauses between prophecies. If the pause was too long he'd stand up and chastise the congregation for taking too long and not standing up, like a father would yell at a child who broke something. Pretty reprehensible. That church was pretty dead spiritually and they were just going through the motions. You could tell there wasn't much enjoyment because of the strict atmosphere that that tyrant of an elder fostered. It was also like an abusive relationship. Like that brother had so much control over the church that everyone feared him and was trying not to get him mad or something
He was really arrogant when it came to his power over the church, but one time I called for the elders and asked them to pray over me due to an illness and all the elders were as timid as a deer in headlights when it came to actually helping me. They all three drove up to see me and kinda joked about laying hands on me and then just left without actually doing it. It was absolutely bizarre. They were really apt to exert negative control, but when it came to manifesting something positive spiritually they were basically rookies. And when it came to actually having a spirit of lowliness and loving a needy and suffering member they acted like teenagers. Just so shameful. Looking back it may have been that they didn't even believe I was sick. I remember my mom went and talked to one of the elders who came that day and he basically brushed her off and goes "all of that for just some anxiety." He thought my illness was all in my head. I can't understand how these type of brothers become elders, it just boggles my mind. It took me almost 15 years to figure out exactly what the problems were and why the churches in this region are so messed up. Which was horrible because I had a lot of personal problems and I needed shepherding and love badly. How can shepherding and love happen when a church is full of darkness from improper leadership? How can it happen when the church is basically Laodicea? It can't and it didn't and I suffered greatly for years because of it and even left that locality and never returned. I get the ick even thinking about it now and even then what I experienced from 2006-2010 probably isn't even half as bad as some other members have suffered elsewhere in different localities