Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
...Ironically after all that's been said about marriages and dealing with marital conflict, verbally the brothers point to going to the meetings.
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Terry, on top of the natural fallen tendency in men [a man, I am one, so I know] to be clueless about the condition of his own marriage, there is that self centered male knee-jerk reaction to flee confrontation from the wife. What better environment for a clueless husband to find himself in than a church culture which places way more emphasis on corporate meeting performance/attendance than on the creation of truly radiant wives?
13A. Godly Men Have Radiant Wives Much easier to duck and cover, then run off to a church meeting in which to further God's Economy - than face the music and through consistent loving servant leadership, let God show us how to solve problems at the foundation level of the church - the home life.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
How about these same brothers? When their marriages are in conflict or even experienced divorce, will they heed the same mantra of going to the meetings and the meetings will take care of their marriage? They know just as you've pointed out, the ministry doesn't touch the marriage. Which is why brothers with troubled marriages may need to reach out to other publications or even consider professional marriage counseling.
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Actually Terry, the ministry of Witness Lee
did touch the importance of marriage life - here is but one example:
MARRIED LIFE, FAMILY LIFE, AND THE CHURCH LIFE
"First we need to build up the proper married life and family life, and then we shall be able to build up the church life. If a brother does not know how to build up a pleasant married life at home and an excellent family life with his children, it will be very difficult for him to share in building up the church. When he comes together with others for the church service, he may exercise politeness. However, he may not be polite to his wife or children. We may be polite to the brothers and sisters in the church, but be very impolite to our husband or wife or to our children."
"Our home life is where we are exposed the most. Do not think that simply because a certain brother is nice, kind, and polite with the saints in the church he is necessarily that way at home. If you want to know him, you need to see how he lives with his wife and children. Oh, how much we need forbearance in our married life and family life that we may build up the proper church life!"
Witness Lee - Life-study of Philippians, Chapter 59, Section 3, LSM
But Terry, sorry to say, few men had an ear to hear that, neither was it easy to find good examples of how to be married according to the teaching of the Bible - and especially so, as you pointed out, among the LC's leadership ranks.
To show by contrast how muddied the waters became under the Blended's Administration, here is Chuck Debelak's crystal clear teaching on proper family priorities in the church life - there are four audio links there:
The Truth about Parenting 02 03 04
P.S.