Quote:
Originally Posted by Sunrise
I came from the Ohio Titus Chu spin-off. Was there for a few years as a young person. I was looking for help because there are many testimonies on the main branch of LSM, but I know to some extent our group branched off
|
Welcome
Sunrise, I hope that you're doing alright. These groups can really affect one's thinking. I've slowly been unraveling things to my satisfaction, learning a bit here and there, along the way.
Of course there is a lot of information on the internet, if you have time and patience to sift through this forum you'll learn a lot about Titus Chu and his group, probably more than you want to know! (But I believe that with understanding comes freedom).
Titus Chu was recruited by Witness Lee in the 1950s while in High School in Taiwan. He had a forceful personality and quickly distinguished himself among his peer group, and upon emigrating to the U. S., he became a 'regional leader' in the Great Lakes area, centering in Cleveland, Ohio. (you probably know some of this). I was in a small group nearby, and when Titus came through it was like he was a big shining star. Everyone filled the small room, hung on his every word, laughed at his anecdotes, were impressed with his insights. The most striking thing about him was his strong personality. Very demonstrative, very assertive.
Then I left the Local Church group, and years later heard that he "rebelled" against the other followers of Witness Lee. Basically it comes down to this: he was willing to lose face to Witness Lee, but when WL died, TC didn't want to lose face to any others, and they kicked him and all his affiliated churches out of the Local Church aka Lord's Recovery.
Meanwhile, they did the same thing to another regional leader, Dong Yu Lan in Brasil. I'm not sure how those 2 deal with each other, if they have to kowtow to one another or not. All I know is there are Titus Chu spinoff churches in spread globally (Africa, Asia) in geographical areas where Living Stream Ministry churches also are, and both are supposedly "local" churches, but really they're full of Chinese expatriates who can't talk to one another. They're about as local as a McDonald's franchise in Paris.
They're high control groups, paranoid, fearful, with a strong persecution complex: if you disagree, you're seen as "attacking" them...they're also focused on themselves and not really into helping others, insular, introspective, judgmental, high demand, regimented, rigid and inflexible. If you want to be told what to do, it's a great place. Just don't plan on thinking too much, or if you do, keep your thoughts to yourself!