Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
...there was something about "the church" that was presumed to be especially important to "getting it right" [to] those meeting in those little groups in odd places...
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True. It was a shortcut of sorts. You could be behaving the same as someone not "in the church": going to Sunday morning meeting, saying your daily prayers, etc but your position in the supposedly proper church on the proper ground, under the proper leaderships, would propel you like rocket fuel to the heavens. Because you were doing this in the church it was effective, while Christianity was largely going through the motions.
I remember an LC christian telling me about going to mainland China and being approached on the street. "Jesus?" the man asked him. My friend nodded affirmatively. "Witness Lee?" the man then asked. My friend related this story approvingly to me to demonstrate the zeal of the Lee-ites, but in retrospect it seems that "Jesus" was just a vehicle to get people to the "rich ministry of Witness Lee". Lee wasn't pointing us to Christ, but rather Christ to Lee. Same thing with "the church", with "God's economy", with "the Body", and even "the processed and consummated Triune God." All these were stand-ins for "the ministry". Eventually it all hinged on, "Where are you in relation to the ministry?" That one thing gave meaning to everything else, including Christ. It was a convenient selling point, and for us the consumer it was a convenient buying point.
Ah well. Experience is a hard teacher.