Local Church Discussions - View Single Post - The Local Church Lexicon

james73 · 05-14-2013, 10:46 PM

Local churches and recovery already covered in this thread but I would like to share on "The Recovery" and "The Lord's Move".

I had an issue at a meeting on Sunday when a visiting guy from India stood up and said, basically the situation of the church was very dire in India (subdued amen), it was very dry (subdued Amen) but the Lord was gaining the country (AMEN!) there were 100 or so churches and counting (AMEN!!).

I stood up at this point because it drove me mad. "Actually there are thousands of churches in India," I said, "Did you make a mistake when you said hundred?"

He wasn't quite sure of my meaning, and reiterated that there were now "4,000 saints in India", to which I responded, he must surely mean just Living Stream Ministry "saints", because to my knowledge there were millions of Christians in India, and how on earth could he call India "dry" when there are so many other Christian activities there?

At this point an elder guy (not sure if an "elder" or just older) stood up and said, "James obviously he means India is very dry, as in, it is a very dry country, they even have to build wells to get water, now let's sing a hymn, hymn XXXX" and started singing! A very effective way to silence me. I just dropped it cos life is too short. And actually I was more amused than offended: India is a dry country, CLASSIC!

So here we see the beauty of the lexicon. They are talking about the Local Church/LSM/LRC but they calls it "the Lord's Move" as in something wider, something of ALL Christianity - when I tackled him afterwards, as of course I did, he and the elders (olders) said "of COURSE he is just talking about the work they are doing, not all Christianity, we are not claiming to be the only Christians in India" [or something along those lines, I got confused with it frankly]. But in the meeting, as went into the ear of the young ones who loudly AMEN, the message is that there are no Christians in India but for the great work of Witness Lee's ministry. It's this doublespeak which drives me nuts.

And for the record, I checked when I got home, there are 24 million Christians in India, and some parts of it are amongst the wettest in the world.......

05-14-2013, 10:46 PM	#122
james73 Member Join Date: Apr 2013 Posts: 71	Re: The Local Church Lexicon — Common Phrases Local churches and recovery already covered in this thread but I would like to share on "The Recovery" and "The Lord's Move". I had an issue at a meeting on Sunday when a visiting guy from India stood up and said, basically the situation of the church was very dire in India (subdued amen), it was very dry (subdued Amen) but the Lord was gaining the country (AMEN!) there were 100 or so churches and counting (AMEN!!). I stood up at this point because it drove me mad. "Actually there are thousands of churches in India," I said, "Did you make a mistake when you said hundred?" He wasn't quite sure of my meaning, and reiterated that there were now "4,000 saints in India", to which I responded, he must surely mean just Living Stream Ministry "saints", because to my knowledge there were millions of Christians in India, and how on earth could he call India "dry" when there are so many other Christian activities there? At this point an elder guy (not sure if an "elder" or just older) stood up and said, "James obviously he means India is very dry, as in, it is a very dry country, they even have to build wells to get water, now let's sing a hymn, hymn XXXX" and started singing! A very effective way to silence me. I just dropped it cos life is too short. And actually I was more amused than offended: India is a dry country, CLASSIC! So here we see the beauty of the lexicon. They are talking about the Local Church/LSM/LRC but they calls it "the Lord's Move" as in something wider, something of ALL Christianity - when I tackled him afterwards, as of course I did, he and the elders (olders) said "of COURSE he is just talking about the work they are doing, not all Christianity, we are not claiming to be the only Christians in India" [or something along those lines, I got confused with it frankly]. But in the meeting, as went into the ear of the young ones who loudly AMEN, the message is that there are no Christians in India but for the great work of Witness Lee's ministry. It's this doublespeak which drives me nuts. And for the record, I checked when I got home, there are 24 million Christians in India, and some parts of it are amongst the wettest in the world.......