Quote:
Originally Posted by Evangelical
Your understanding of my conclusion is incorrect. There have been denominations or movements which attempt to create a one city per church model.
But Nee did not have this intention, in his book Normal church life, he says he did not want this to be used as a "manual for service"0
In the preface
"One of the prayers I have offered in connection with this book is that the Lord should keep it from those who oppose and would use it as a chart for attack and also from those who agree and would use it as a manual for service. I dread the latter far more than the former."
I am not arguing for an organized city church. I am arguing for no organization, and locality and Christ is its only identification and name. I am arguing, against division and denominationalism as being the only alternative.
In the LC there is no organization. Please see: http://www.ministrybooks.org/books.c...=IGAJA34GX9UY9
So I would say that the LC is an attempt to do church without any organization at all, recognizing that the identity is per city.
A house church is an organized church, a global or regional church is an organized church, but if every believer practiced "no organization", then we would be "the local church", "the church in ... " .
I would agree that a teaching that says "you must join my city church" would be a disaster. What would not be a disaster, however, is if everyone left their denominations willingly, and met together on the basis of Christ and locality alone, that would be a return to a "normal church life" and New Testament Christianity. |
Well you are in error in several places here.
First, your flat statement that the LC is not an organization but an organism is naive wishful thinking. Frankly it's just blatant blather. You might wish it were not an organization, and you might think it shouldn't be, but the fact is all practical churches are in some sense organizations. LCM churches have set elders, service leaders, schedules and budgets. They are organizations to some extent. The "Recovery" itself is a big organization, there is not much spontaneous about it anymore.
Second, the Bible never says the church is in no sense an organization. In fact, once you move from the more abstract church to the more practical church you unavoidably add some organization. It's silly to pretend otherwise and there's really nothing wrong with it being organized. I appreciate that the church is in some sense an organism, but a practical church is also in some sense an organization. Once a church becomes practical it becomes organized. There's no way around it. Are we just going to expect the Spirit to lead someone to balance the books or take care of the landscaping every week? Get real.
Third, the LCM very definitely expects all Christians in a city to join the LCM branch church there. The LCM has never recognized any other local church but their own franchises. If an LCM exists in a city and another group starts meeting as the church in the city there, the LCM will find some excuse to discredit them. Every time.
Fourth, what's going to happen when everyone "leaves their denomination willingly." Leaves and goes.... where? To meet in the park? Where are they going to go? Is everyone going to just magically go to some place and be the church in the city? What place? I guarantee the place they go to is going to be some group that has been lobbying that they are the RIGHT place. It is going to have to be organized in some way. It's going to have to have leaders. Who decides who gets to be the leaders?
The only way the leaders over a city are going to be decided on is: (1) All the members and other potential leaders agree who they are. Not likely to happen. (2) Some overarching organization, like Witness Lee's LSM decides for them. Someone has to decide. Likely some minority will decide. Does that mean everyone else must go along? What if some people feel that in all good conscience they cannot follow whomever is claiming to be a leader of the city church? Do they have to move? The LCM model can't answer any of these and other questions.
So the fact is your dream of some totally organic move of the Spirit with everyone cooperating and with no organization to it is a pipe dream. Like I said, it's ivory tower stuff. And since it's never going to happen, you can appeal to it all you want, claiming everyone is short of the ideal, because your ideal will never be tested. Rest assured you are safe and superior in your hermetically-sealed dream. In the meantime, the churches you scoff at are doing the real work of God's business.
Actually in the city I live in, Austin, the reality of the church in the city is recognized by many church leaders here. There is a lot of intra-church prayer and coordination going on. This is the only way the city church will ever be actually realized. Predictably the LCM scoffs at this kind of thing. They scoff at everything they can't own, control and take credit for.
Here are three messages from a few years back where this was covered across Austin. God is working, and your judgmentalism of churches other than Nee/Lee churches is misguided. If God's gives Christians a vision of citywide oneness, this is how it's going to transpire--not by people like yourself throwing rocks at them from an ivory tower.
Watch the first few minutes of all of them and any of the rest as desired.
http://acfcommunity.org/media/messag...-for-the-city/