[OBW]

It is unfortunate that we all bought into fairy tales while in the LRC. They may have morphed over time, and been added onto, but they were always there. And one of the fairy tales that I keep hearing is how certain things were so different back in the 60s and early 70s. I can only comment on the 60s from external knowledge of the sketchy history that is now available, along with some of the doctrinal garbage that was published during that period.

I cannot declare that there was no enjoyment and fellowship among the believers. There clearly was a lot. But the overlay of "blessing" is almost clearly a presumption based on the enjoyment and fellowship. But people tend to be in a state of enjoyment when they find something new and different. While not "related," it is notable that people often enjoy their first hit of cocaine. Eventually, life is a drudgery without more hits just to feel a little better.

And some of those "it didn't happen until the end of the 70s" things, like people calling Lee an apostle is simply a rewrite of history. I heard it in the first months of 73. It was probably soft-sell then, coupled with statements about us all being "sent ones." But there was, at minimum, a kind of beating-around-the-bush to make Nee and Lee into much more of an apostle than what everyone might be. They were clearly the "capital A" Apostles that gave anything to anyone else to be a "small a" apostle.

Yes, there were some more enjoyable times in the 60s and 70s. But they were less because of Lee and the LRC and more because of something new. There was surely blessing on many. But it was not about the "church." It was not special to the LRC. It never was.

That the LRC was something special and it went away is a fairy tale. It was never something special. It was a transplanted upstart group whose initial goal was to create an indigenous church that did not owe anything to foreign mission boards or denominations, now transplanted to America. Now there's an interesting take on it. A group created to be indigenously Chinese transplanting itself to Westerners.

That the people had a better time of enjoyment in those days is true. But it was not about the LRC, but the people.