Quote:
Originally Posted by Igzy
I would add also than another factor in believing in the LC one-church-city-administation (OCCA?) model is the deeply-felt need to know one is practicing church correctly and meeting with the correct church. Having that gives one a great sense of assurance.
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This was prominent during the Jesus people movement of the 60's and early 70's, when so many young people, who grew up in stagnant denominations, were joyfully saved and set on fire for Jesus. They yearned to return to the "beginning," as things were in the book of Acts, thinking that would solve all problems related to church. E.g. communes were prevalent, and were seemingly attractive, that is until the old man reared his ugly head, and having "all things common" simply meant that some got a free ride.
Needless to say, WN's one-city/one-church paradigm seemed to be the
long-lost-missing-link in the church equation. Was the root of all our spiritual problems the lack of oneness? Could the solution to all our Christian woes come out of communist China? His books
TNCL and
TNCCL did appear to be very appealing to serious seekers. To be honest, those books did provide a far more balanced approach than what WL ministered, especially as time went on.
Perhaps out of that environment came the seed for the insatiable desire to "
get church right." If we got "
church right," then everybody else got it wrong, and they all need to come to us for that long-lost solution to all their woes.
Made sense to me! I bought into the program hook, line, and sinker.
Funny thing happened when I left the program. All the other Christians I have met care little for the need to "
get church right." Apparently we got stuck in some "time warp" that we never could get out of. The Christian public, for the most part, had long since given up the notion of the "
perfect" church. They have since decided that "
Jesus was the way" to God, and there is basically "no perfect church."
Duh!