Quote:
Originally Posted by OBW
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.”
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Regardless of how this comment is viewed, that fact that it occurred was apparently a closely guarded secret. I had always heard that Elden et. al. moved to Anaheim due to deteriorating neighborhood conditions in South LA. Having been to neither place, and being a young devotee, I accepted whatever I was told of our history. I was also told that wherever the church was "open" to the ministry of WL, then revival and spiritual vibrancy abounded upon all attendants.
Obviously the history I became familiar with was biased. No one in my neck of the woods was willing or able to provide anything better. James Reetzke Sr. of Chicago wrote some, but his point of view was always overly positive, just rehearsing the blessing, but never addressing the source of failures, which often times is more valuable for succeeding generations. I have never heard a minister at LSM own up to any failure. Ours was a history of the "blame game," i.e. storms from without and rebellions from within.