Quote:
Originally Posted by Hope
The view of the Universal Church by brothers Nee and Lee created a direction and momentum that eventually consumed their positive ministry. They saw the universal church as something that had an administration. Brother Nee came up with the notion of "the work", and that proved to be the administrative arm of the universal church.
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How true,
Hope.
Since "day one" in the LC's, we have heard the non-stop condemnations of the clergy-laity system and the "heresy" of bishop / overseers as taught firstly (?) by Ignatius. Today we have developed exactly what we preached against. This was just one of the more blatant contradictions I tried to reconcile for years.
At the root of the matter is the appointment of elders. As long as we maintain the present system, then controls, abuses, power struggles, hierarchies, etc. are inevitable. There is no such thing as a "local" church, when elders are directed by a remote headquarters. There is no such thing as a "local" church, when all major decisions must go thru headquarters. There is no such thing as a "local" church, when headquarters can assign and re-assign elders who maintain proper "loyalties." All this is accomplished because the churches are "under" the direction of "workers" rather than "local" elders. I do believe that every worker / pastor must be under the direction of the local eldership.
Uh oh, that's the way of poor, poor Christianity.
How refreshing it is to meet elders who are real shepherds, loyal only to the Great Shepherd and their own flock!
Btw, I really like G H Lang's fellowship
"Unanimity." The Brethren faced these same issues, and this was his conclusion regarding leadership and direction in a local church.