Thanks for the advice and support, everyone. This board is and has been an invaluable resource for me.
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Originally Posted by
countmeworthy 
I pray for everyone's healings and for the LORD to restore the Joy of their salvation. Keep us posted and tell us more Brad. How long have you been acquainted with the LSM?
few years
Quote:
Originally Posted by
countmeworthy
What drew you in
close knit fellowship
seeing how much enjoyment and experience was going on
some of the things i saw in the bible being practiced there that weren't other places. [prophesying in mtgs is all i can think of now].
less worldliness than in other places
going out and preaching the gospel/giving out rc v nt's
there are probably more, but i was pretty into knowing theology and applying it to my life and in retrospect i feel that that was replaced by stuff from WL.
Quote:
Originally Posted by
countmeworthy
what are the red flags you saw that are drawing you out?
what mainly threw me off was the discrepancy between the l s m version of everything and what actually goes on.
there were "the brothers," whom i'd heard about early on but was not aware of the level of influence they excercised over the LC's until much later.... they train the elders & young adults, speak at conferences, prepare the outlines for others to speak from at the conferences, produce most/all the printed material, prepare the books that the elders encourage us to get into, run the conferences, etc.
there is also the subtle denial of the legitimacy of churches elsewhere ("there are only X number of churches in X country").
perhaps the biggest issue is the allegiance to w.l. and using him to justify things rather than the bible. it seems like this led to bro's being quarantined (not sure if that's the best word for it) for reasons that seemed more related to wl's ministry than the bible.
The history of the movement we're usually told leaves out a lot of stuff discussed here and elsewhere on the web that i think if any of us knew originally we wouldn't have gotten involved.
... the list goes on