[OBW]

Some interesting questions.

Lee and Nee seem to say that the "apostle" that establishes a church is the one who appoints the elders there. I don't know about mainland China or Taiwan, but in the US, now many churches did Lee establish? Even if you say that churches were established by the discovery of Lee's teachings by some locals, did Lee actually do anything to establish any of them?

And if not, then how is he claiming authority to name elders?

If 30 people (or more or less) leave the church in Dallas (or a collection of churches in Texas) to establish a church in OKC, or Alexandria, LA, or to join with those who are already followers in Shreveport, how is Lee involved other than possibly being asked for an opinion on the venture (often referred to as "fellowship")? On what basis does he claim authority to appoint the elders for any of those places?

And it would seem that in those places where Paul made mention of appointing elders, it seems that it is always the appointment of locals after some observation. He seems to have left Timothy for that purpose in at least one case, and instructed Titus to do it in another. He did not send Titus to be the lead elder, nor Timothy.

There is no example in scripture of a whole collection of Christians moving from one city to another and simply declaring themselves to be the church, naming those among them as the elders, and expecting to then begin to add to their transplanted numbers from the locals (who are not considered for eldership).

Where did Lee (and Nee) get this stuff?