[Oregon]

First contact with John Ingles and Bill Freeman at small conference in Everett Washington in the spring of 1970. Was quite active in the local churches from the summer of 1970 up till 2007. I served as an elder in one locality for a number of years but no longer had a real heart for what the local churches were becoming after the "New Way" was set in by Witness Lee from 1986 on and the ever increasing exclusion of anything that was not from "the ministry".

I remember when the church book room not only sold books by Witness Lee and Watchman Nee but also displayed and sold books written by Andrew Murray, Jesse Penn-Lewis, William Law, Reese Howel, and others. We believed and practiced the "generality" of the church back then as taught to us by Witness Lee which was to "earnestly contend for the faith that was once delivered to the saints" ......and to be general about everything else and thus avoid creating more divisions. This belief and practice may still be in Witness Lee's writings but I don't believe it is the practice of the churches anymore.