Quote:
Originally Posted by Terry
I found personal testimonies more helpful than that of "cheerleading the ministry". Ministry cheerleaders were spiritually "clanging cymbals". While personal testimonies were products of a sister's or brother's daily experience of Christ during the week.
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I met before the HWMR dominated the meeting. In my local church we met "on the local ground", but other than that anything goes. You could bring a tuba to a meeting if you wanted. Sometimes we'd have visitors drop in, and we'd let them take over. If they wanted to talk, hey, go for it. Christians, agnostics, confused philosophers, whatever; go for it. We felt the Spirit was in charge. Some of the meetings were absolutely amazing.
And yes, many of the saints had "slow speech and halting tongue", as Moses complained before God. But we all felt what Paul wrote in 1 Cor 12:22-24, that
"...the members of the body which seem to be weaker are necessary; and those members of the body which we deem less honorable, on these we bestow more abundant honor, and our less presentable members become much more presentable, whereas our more presentable members have no need of it. But God has so composed the body, giving more abundant honor to that member which lacked,…"
The "members that lacked" would get up and stammer out something and we could sense the "more abundant honor". Of course sometimes it seemed tedious to hear someone prattle on, but it really was an encouragement to all. Because you would hear the most pathetic speaker and go, "Gee, even
I can do that". It really was an encouragement.
Just standing up and reciting a bullet point, or what you "got" from this week's HWMR, became a different meeting entirely. It became a "ministry meeting", not a local church meeting.