Quote:
Originally Posted by ToGodAlone
WL was essentially the head pastor and all the FTT graduates are the elders/pastors in today's LRC. What do they do? They guide everyone so that they conform to the ministry.
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I agree that there are many benefits to having the opportunity for all to share. WL and the Blendeds have sold their brand of meeting for decades. If it was just an alternative style of Christian meeting, then it wouldn't be so obnoxious, but prophecying supposedly is
the only proper way to meet, and the weekly speaking of some pastor is supposedly proof that all Christianity is pitiful and degraded. So I was taught for many years.
The down side of the prophecying meeting is the tasteless, doctrinal and uninspirational monotone that often accompanies it. There are lots of people who should not be given the microphone on a weekly basis. They are just not gifted to share with a larger audience than the dining room table. Many cannot hold a coherent thought, and many others get sidetracked by meany things. But more importantly, how can Anaheim know the spiritual needs of any church. If systematic, one-size-fits-all teaching was never used by the Apostles, then why should it work for us today.
With every upside is an accompanying downside. There is just no perfect, God-ordained way, contrary to the LC belief system. Jesus is our unique way, and the Spirit of the Lord can use an endless number of diverse ways to meet the needs of God's children. I don't believe that any way can ever be THE way, and I do believe that any way can be abused by those who are hungry for power.
The bigger question, in my mind, is -- what is the reason for promoting this method of meeting.
Is it protection or is it control? We were told for years that prophecying will protect us from all the inherent dangers of the clergy-laity system. I bought into that reasoning, as did all of my colleagues. But who protects us from the inherent dangers of having only one man --WL -- teach? The Bible never promoted the ministry of just one man. Who protects us from the errors that WL introduced?
I have concluded that the real reasoning for WL/LSM's method of prophecying is
control. What they are doing, in essence, is little different than the missals of Rome which I grew up on. Any Sunday of the year, I could go to any Catholic church in the English world, and basically get the same church service. By eliminating the speaking of local leader/teachers, and demanding that all the LC's use the same materials, the same format, and the same hymnal, Anaheim has effectively usurped control of all their member churches. That, my dear friends, is
the very definition of a denomination.
Another important matter to weigh in on is the fate of all those gifted men of God who have come and gone over the years. Some were forced out via quarantines, some were shamed into obscurity, some refused to be bullied into submission, and others just left. Their voices are no longer heard in the LC's. How convenient! Nearly all of them left because they were silenced by headquarters. Ask them. It was WL's way or the highway! Our God, however, delights in diversity, and that is one ingredient sorely lacking in the Recovery. Our God also desires to raise up shepherds to tend to the local flocks, but so many dear saints have departed because the program structured by LSM did not help them at all.
The one common denominator of all those who remain is this -- they all are sold out for the ministry of a man. His own unique ministry is what holds them together, and builds the wall around them.