Quote:
Originally Posted by UntoHim
How could you possibly know this? Maybe you’re more travelled than I thought. As one taking hospitality in the Anaheim area for many years, including many brothers and sisters from all over America, including those from older, established churches, I never noticed a major difference in them. If anything, they were usually more zealous for “the ministry” than those of us there at the feet of Witness Lee on a weekly basis.
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The saints that went to Anaheim trainings from NYC were in no way representative of the Body of saints in NYC. BC would be the elder (the one BB in NYC) two or three full timers who were supported by the church would go, a couple of cheerleaders, and the rest would be new saints. They would send about 10 a year, from a church that had over 400 members.
In order to go to the Training, and this included every church I met with, you had to have the elders approval. The elders only wanted saints that "would not embarrass" the church. They especially wanted to show off new saints to demonstrate that the church was "thriving and growing". As a result new saints would be recruited and their transportation costs would be subsidized. After that only saints whose loyalty to the brand was unquestioned would be allowed. While in NY I was amazed that they would announce sign ups for the training and no one, I mean no one, would care. These announcements were totally ignored. You already knew the five regulars who would go, and you knew that the elders would discuss among themselves who else to recruit and then recruit them. Since NY did not have a very effective gospel work these new ones were almost always children of the saints who were in high school. As a result the church had two full time brothers who I came to realize were merely glorified nannies.