Quote:
Originally Posted by Drake
He was clear on the ground of locality. He was firm and his later ministry became even stronger on this point.
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This is the consistency issue that I mentioned, and it would suggest that "following Nee" was a bit of a wild goose chase to begin with. More on that later...
What encompasses
Further Talks on the Church Life was spoken by Nee not long before his imprisonment. That means he didn't get to see the result of what he emphasized at that time. As such I don't feel that it would be accurate to say that represented his 'final' view on the matter any more than to say his earlier ministry reflected his real view.
What we do know, however, is that Lee was the only one of his coworkers who took that particular emphasis to heart. The rest of Nee's coworkers knew that either 1) Lee's understanding was not what Nee meant or 2) Nee meant what he said, but they could foresee the issues it would cause.
In either case, when Nee spoke of one church per city, the context was completely different in rural China, where the LCM existed in sharp contrast to the denominations and mission churches. When the LCM was imported to the U.S., it was just one of among many groups that didn't have any particular affiliation. Lee took an untested notion that he felt was represented of Nee and attempted to put it into practice. His fellow coworkers warned him about it, but he didn't listen.