[ZNPaaneah]

Originally Posted by kisstheson

Hello dear brother ZNPaaneah,

Just some random comments on your post:

1) I like Ray Graver's book "Lord . . . Thou Saidst". It may well be the best thing that LSM has ever published. As dear brother Ohio has pointed out, none of the examples from Scripture or from Church History support Witness Lee's style of "pray-reading". In Ray Graver's book, we see some very touching examples of dear brothers and sisters who incorporated the Scriptures into their prayers and who incorporated prayer into their reading of the Scriptures. NOWHERE is this book do we find anything like the "Shout-Reading" promoted by WL and LSM in their booklet entitled "Pray Reading the Word". WL's method is NOT supported by Scripture or by Church History.

2) If you think dear brother OBW was mocking in the example that he gave, please check out this word-for-word quotation from LSM's booklet entitled "Pray Reading the Word" (emphasis mine):



From this quote, we can see that OBW was not far from the mark. If OBW was mocking, then LSM is mocking themselves in their own booklet on pray-reading.

3) I have practiced "Shout-Reading" (WL's and LSM's version of "pray-reading") with brothers and sisters all over North and South America in dozens of localities. I have encountered a few localities where LSM-style pray-reading is not promoted that much, but in the vast majority of localities the leading brothers want to be in lock-step with Anaheim and LSM-style pray-reading is very much promoted.

4) In my experience, it is the leading brothers and the old-timers who are most zealous for LSM-style pray-reading. Some new converts seem to like it, but most do not like it. If it was mostly new converts it would have died away by now. From what I have experienced in multiple localities, it is definitely the leading brothers and the old-timers from Eldon Hall who most zealously promote this practice.

5) I do not know about the FTTT, but LSM-style pray-reading was heavily promoted right from the start in the FTTA. About ten years ago I listened to all the audio tapes in the series "The Exercise and Practice of the God-Ordained Way" given by WL in the late 1980's to one of the original set of FTTA trainees in the United States. Before many of the messages, WL had the trainees pray-read the verses for that message. Interestingly, the trainees never seem to have gotten it right, and WL was constantly scolding their attempts at pray-reading. Even today, FTTA trainees practicee LSM-style pray-reading A LOT, multiple times a day. From what I have seen in localities that have received a "Full-Timer Team" to work on the local campus(es), the "Full-Timers" (former FTT trainees) do several things: they gradually dominate the "prophecying" meetings and, regardless of current practices in that locality, they strongly promote the practices of LSM-style pray-reading and calling on the Lord.

Just some random thoughts.

Thank you, it seems that there may be a significant change from 1987 to the present in the practice. I find that interesting, but have no way to verify since it is almost 15 years since I was last there.