Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
You have created a dichotomy that you presume to be true. But there is no evidence that it is anything but a false dichotomy.
And a sweet meeting was not necessarily "Spirit led." And some of those "sticks and straw" structured meetings may have been fully "Spirit led."
Don't confuse the form, or lack of form, as indicating the presence/leading of the Spirit. It is a learned preference. There are many good Christians that would flee from a LRC-type meeting for their liturgy because they find God in it. Anyone who says differently is simply selling their way as "the way." Once again, the only "way" is Jesus. Everything else is a form. And there are different forms. None are definitionally "more Jesus" than another or "more Spirit" than another.
I find it funny that we are so often determined that to resurrect the form that allowed the problems that we now complain about so strongly. It almost seems like the person who continually gets into bad relationships like the one they just got out of. Seems that way down inside there is something in them that thinks the kind of person that ultimately is wrong for them is actually right for them. I'm not saying that LRC-style meetings are simply wrong or bad. But we get burned by what happens over time with one of them but are so enamored with how it started up that we are willing to risk it again to get that feeling back. Like that first hit of cocaine or heroin. "If we could just return to Eldon Hall in the 60s." Or "Plainview in 65." (Don't ask. Plainview is a blip on the map between Lubbock and Amarillo with a Baptist college.)
We all want the "good ole days" but don't recall that at the time they were referred to as "these tryin' times."
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It has nothing to do with the form. When you go to a meeting and some testimony meets your need you are very thankful that that person was able to speak, and you may realize that in other church services you would never have even had a chance to hear that testimony.
2nd, you get to know people by their testimonies. When I met with the LRC I would feel like I knew many more saints than where I meet today. The reality is I don't hear many personal testimonies where I am today, even if we get together for dinner or a barbecue, it still seems you don't hear many testimonies.
However, if the testimonies are dominated by "amateur actors" as mentioned in one post and by 3 yr old Christians running the meeting (as alluded to in another post) the entire experiment can be a disaster. The only way a testimony meeting can succeed is if you have strong leadership, and not from a single brother, but preferably from a core of 20-50 saints. If these saints are committed to it, then it can act as an opportunity for new saints to exercise their gifts, for every member to minister to every other member, and for the Body to be knit together. On the other hand there can easily be the temptation to settle for the appearance of a testimony meeting (which is the way I understand the whole Mel Porter discussion).