Quote:
Originally Posted by TLFisher
When I was meeting with Renton, the lead elder has since passed. He was the most capable in regard to being personable. The ones as found at https://secure.dor.wa.gov/gteunauth/_/#2 struck me as being loyal, but without capacity.
In Bellevue, I see times have not changed the past 25-30 years. It was the same way in the 90's. Gaps in prophesying. Same people prophesying. Brother Sherman would get tired of it always being the same and would ask for a new voice. Well, the brothers don't want to hear this and never have, but the Holy Word for Monring Revival produced a clergy/laity system. |
Yep basically. Bilheimer passed away and the elder brothers there who SHOULD have taken the lead actually deferred responsibilities to three young brothers in their early 40's, one of whom has recently moved to Virginia beach. But they absolutely are way too young to be in that position and they absolutely lack the humanity, the broadness of heart, and the experience of life and just life experience in general to be in that positions and it shows. They're very loyal like you said, and have much fealty for the recovery. But they just don't have the maturity to lead a congregation with much personal impact. They certainly do their jobs as far as like standing up and closing the meetings and giving announcements, but they sit in the front row like kings and it's very annoying. Spokane wasn't like that. The elders there were very laid back and they just let the congregation function. The spirit was so palpable and prevailing in Spokane that if there was a clergy there you just didn't notice it. At least it wasn't controlling like it is in Western Washington. Which I loved about that locality. In Renton you can see their control over the congregation, and it absolutely looks like clergy-laity. But I don't think really anyone notices or can really tell because they're ignorant. Even the young leading brothers are kind of in the dark about their control......or maybe they like it idk. It's very easy to revel in your position and accomplishments and for me it really just kills the atmosphere to a great degree. Maybe I need to take the cross idk, but I have never really liked the concept of authority over others and they seem to revel in it. One of them is like a real "Dudley do right" type and he comes across so phoney and fake, and he actually really is when I got into certain experiences with him recently. You know how when you're talking to someone and you can just tell that person thinks they're better than you. Yeah, his true colors showed forth. Very people pleaser type of disposition also, but it's all lip service. Very little ability to be real and reach people
But in general I just wish the clergy-laity crap would go away and the function of the body would come out. Renton was much closer to Spokane in that regard than Bellevue or Seattle, but you can still easily see the clergy there in Renton. Which to me.....idk, it's kind of a form of Laodicea. There's actually four older brothers in Renton that are in their late 60's and 70's who DO have the growth in life to lead and should, but they deferred the responsibilities to these younger brothers. Actually one of those four kind of unofficially acts like an elder and spends more time in that capacity, and even he acts a little weird, although I like him somewhat. I felt a little bit of his wife thinking she was in an honored position because he is one of the co-founders of that locality. I can always tell when an elder's wife revels in her husbands supposed authority. That's female nature for you, but anyway it exposes a lot sometimes and you can tell
But I will say that at least in Renton the general pursuit of the enjoyment of Christ is more genuine than in Bellevue. Bellevue was pretty bad as far as really enjoying the spirit and enjoying the Lord. It was a very stunted locality in that sense. But even Renton has a kind of veneer about it, that is akin to a stage performance. I've thought a lot about it over the years, and one conclusion I've come to is that the people east of the Cascades are liberals and liberals tend to be very phoney and pretentious people, and I think a lot of that seeps into the church culture. Another conclusion is that a congregation often reflects its leaders and as I said before there's a lot of kind of fake leadership there, and the administration is just far too young