[Ohio]

Originally Posted by awareness

I remember Lee putting the kibosh on drums and tambourines back in the early 70's, when they broke out in Cleveland ... I was really enjoying the Spirit. Great meetings. The kind you can't wait to get to. And the drums and tambourines added to it. It wasn't the drums per se, it was the release in the Spirit that mattered. Then Lee's shoe dropped. Next meeting we were told that Lee said "NO! NO! I was eager for another meeting in the spirit, and what I got was authority ... a definite Spirit killer. I thought : If the Spirit isn't in control, and Lee is, what do we have?

So TC is the leading minister. That just extends his reach, and extends the Spirit killing Command Center. If it's a choice between the Spirit and TC, which would you chose? ... But let me guess. TC's reach didn't kill everyone. Some don't like drums. They're happy, and saying "No Drums!" They don't know that by so doing they let something else slipped in. They didn't want drums, and were happy, but what they got also was, "Command Center."

In this regard, what TC has told us for years is really true, "Everything I know ... I learned from WL." For typical LC folks, whether pro-LSM or pro-GLA, there is no such thing as the question, "If it's a choice between the Spirit and TC, which would you chose?" What do you mean "choose?" Didn't TC "raise us up?" Didn't TC "establish the GLA churches?" Isn't he is one with the Spirit. Doesn't the Spirit speak thru him?

Exclusive systems always have one man at the top! The RCC has its succession of popes. The exclusive Brethren had Darby and his lineage. The Recovery had WN, WL, and now TC. Before the recent quarantine many in the Far East were saying, "Nee, Lee, Chu, Nee, Lee, Chu" I'm not joking, I was told that by a brother who heard it directly from TC.

My point is simple: The LC/exclusive system must have a leader figure who gets all the glory and has all the authority. He is today's "Paul." There is no plurality, as in "elders" or "ministers." WL's appointment of "Blendeds," the so-called brother "We," only ensured that WL himself would still be "The Man" posthumously, and so far it has worked.

One reason I left the "local church" is because the continued aggravation of not being "local" finally got to me. The "local" church is a huge farce. My LC operated on remote control. So many decisions were made locally, via the prayer and fellowship of all the responsible brothers, only to be dissolved by one little comment from headquarters. That was so frustrating. Why should we pray and fellowship in the first place, just "tell us what to do! ... you're going to change it anyways." Often I think back to how many times we gathered to "pray and fellowship" how to carry out the latest "move of the Lord" originating, not with the Spirit, but at headquarters.

Yesterday in Ohio ... drums were just fine. Today in Ohio ... drums are real bad.

Directives from the "Command Center" have "replaced the Spirit." As awareness so aptly testified about Cleveland, it is the directives from "The Man" which have "replaced the Spirit."