[OBW]

Don,

This is not a critique on the book, but an observation of a symptom of LC problems.

Fairly late in Chapter 2, you come to the “Life Ebbs at Elden” section. In there, you say: ”By early 1973 I began to hear of the staleness and flatness of the Elden hall church meetings. I visited there and frankly most of the new churches were much more on fire and lively in Christ than Elden was. Elden still had the ministry, but it was clear the blessing was not there. I heard Witness Lee state on many occasions that he needed to leave Elden, and that the Lord needed a new start with his ministry.”

I wonder how much of the emphasis on things of the “church life” was on maintaining the sense of “highs” rather than acknowledge that the spiritual life and journey is not only mountain tops, but is more often life on the plains and in the valleys. When we rank the spiritual condition of a person or group on his outward fire and zeal, the question must be asked: Is it live or is it Memorex?

I would suggest that a group will eventually reach an extreme in lows if it has been trying to maintain an artificial high for too long. If we presume that we must walk through the valley of the shadow of death, then the time we spend putting it off, even though we make it look like mountain top, is really a hollow show. The result will be a shortage of what it takes to make it through the valley, thereby causing the valley experience to be even more exaggerated.

Might that be the cause of Elden’s apparent fall from favor? Is it possible that they needed desperately to go through the valley, but had been kept from it by a need to maintain some “high” in support of “the ministry.”

I also notice that due to this lack of burning, Lee essentially abandoned them. I guess Paul should have abandoned the Corinthians and Galatians as being lost causes.

Was there really no blessing there? Is blessing only evident when on the mountain top? Or do blessings continue as we walk through the valley. Ad David said, "I fear no evil for You are with me." That is a blessing.

On a different topic, I enjoyed reading through these two chapters again.