Quote:
Originally Posted by Hope
I know when I began to write the history many were interested to know how the eldership worked and how our relationship with WL and the LSM worked. The way the thread has gone has given an excellent opportunity to take a look at some of the service of the so called leading ones.
In Dallas, the elders were usually the last to leave the hall. Many nights my phone rang after mid-night...
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Hi Hope,
Thanks for the insight into the tireless work that shepherds do. All of us who were in the Local Church can remember shepherds who labored selflessly to bring us along, with no thought of themselves. Many of them left the Living Stream Church, and many remain there.
As you mentioned, a shepherd’s life should be that of a slave. This proves to be true with caring ones in every denomination, every evangelical group, and every free group. It also holds true for the leadership in many errant groups. So it almost goes without saying that the leadership in any Christian group, if they are adhering to the principles of the Bible, labor like a slave without regard for their own welfare, or benefit.
But I wonder if with the Local Church, as with many groups, that automatic given expectation of the leadership it totally exploited. In other words, they should be slaving, but we must ask the question, why are they slaving, and what is the result.
Maybe there was an atmosphere of fear fostered in the Local Churches, then, and the Living Stream Churches, now. It seems to me that those who were most faithful to absorb the actual message of Witness Lee, and the concepts contained therein were absolutely scared of making a move in their personal lives without “taking the fellowship.”
I can remember at least a couple of times, when I was young in the Local Church, that I went out and did something in my personal life on my own, and was strongly rebuked for not “taking the fellowship.” It could be said that this eldership was inviting me to call him at all hours of the night, as long as he knew I was being held in line with the program.
When I finally started making moves that would eventually lead to my departure, there was an abiding fear within me – “What will ‘the brothers’” think. It was a very real, palpable fear, and one that had been cultivated in me over almost three decades, over several localities, by scores of leading ones. I think it is inarguable that such a fear is indeed cultivated in the saints.
I believe this matter of “taking the fellowship” was used as an instrument of control. The consequences of not staying under this control can be seen with actions that were taken against certain leading ones who dared to move as they felt led of the Lord, instead of following “the fellowship” from Anaheim.
If this is the case, then don’t you think that maybe, in large part, the sleepless nights and ragged days of much of the eldership of the Local Churches had much to do with being under undue pressure – a burden imposed on them because of this teaching that descended all the way from Witness Lee.
I not only believe in the trickle down effect in economics, but I also believe in it as regards leadership in a group. Brother Witness Lee, for all his giftedness, was, in my opinion, a paranoid person when it came to control of the Local Church. In some of the Texas leadership, and other from around the globe, he found more than willing accomplices in the matter of controlling the saints by stressing the importance of “taking the fellowship.”
I am certainly in no way trying to mitigate the effects of your fellowship as outlined in your testimony of tragedies averted, for example. But I still think that much of the hours spent in shepherding the saints had more to do with trying to keep everybody on the plantation, than anything else.
IMHO
Roger