Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
I honestly think that the LRC had a real dichotomy going on because they honestly believed that "all could prophesy" whether through speaking or the calling of songs, or whatever. The reality is that there needs to be order in the church. And that does not mean simply no chaos.
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It depends a lot on who the elders are. In Houston the elders were strict, they would tell saints to sit down that had gotten off track, they would limit testimonies, the standing rule was no testimony over 5 minutes, but often they would say due to the time no testimony over 1 minute or no testimony over 30 seconds. Another tactic was to have an elder who hadn't shared the message stand up about 15 minutes into the testimonies, share for about 5+ minutes to sort of sum up the key points and then close the meeting.
When Paul says "all can prophesy" I don't see that as "all should prophesy" or "all will prophesy" or "all want to prophesy". Rather, I see that to mean that in a meeting you should have a format that does allow anyone in the congregation to speak. If you don't then what you have is a lecture. In the US all can play baseball. That doesn't mean that all will play baseball, or all even want to play baseball, it just means that if you have a 6 year old girl and she wants to play baseball, she can. This also doesn't mean that just because she can play baseball on a team, that there isn't a coach. If she says she wants to pitch the coach can still say no. Also, it doesn't mean that just because she wants to play that she is going to play that much. She might not be a starter. But even so, she will get to play some. That is a lot more than can be said for some churches. I have definitely been in "christian" meetings where it is certainly not true that "all can prophesy".
Now practicing this is difficult because it is messy. In NY the elders are quick to change songs that have been called, often after singing the first verse, they are not shy about it at all. I think that is a good thing. In other words, yes all can call a song, but you need to learn how to do it. What is the burden of the meeting? What is the context? Etc. If there is no correction, no rebuke, no discipline, then there is also no training. If you are so thin skinned that having your song "rejected" by the elders causes you to crawl up into your shell, then you need to examine your motives.
However, I have also seen this abused. In Irving they were brutal towards a lot of "new" brothers that were there to build the meeting hall. It may be that they wanted to discourage the brothers from coming to the meetings (yes, I was told directly that there was no need to go to the meetings) but I think it was certainly abusive. Ben M was probably the worst culprit (RG was always on the construction site and BP was often not there, so he was left to run the mtgs, and this right before his being expelled).
I have also seen the elders use inuendo to damage and smear saints in an attempt to establish their authority. So, like a pendulum this can swing both ways, some saints are childish and untrained in their participation, and some elders are abusive and speak with a forked tongue. In the end, everyone gets exposed in the light.