Quote:
Originally Posted by Drake
We often focus on the mechanics of the teaching and practice of the ground of the church in a city ... but we have to consider whether our teaching and practice issues from the authority of the Holy Spirit as well. Local churches are the reprint of the Spirit therefore there is a fellowship among the churches in the larger reality... the One Body of Christ.
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Regarding the fellowship you describe, I think the issue in this case would not be whether the church in Scottsdale would participate in fellowship with the nearby local churches, but whether the nearby local churches would participate in the fellowship if the church in Scottsdale was involved.
I am not aware of any LSM/WL related local church that deigns to fellowship with another legitimate but non-LSM local church that does not base its fellowship on WL's material or speaking. I have heard plenty of times descriptions from co-workers about this concept of the "standing" of proximate local churches....they dance around it with fancy phrases ("in the central lane of the recovery" is one exact phrase I've heard, for example) but come on......what that really means is "with the Witness Lee program"!!!
I have also lived in places where there are local churches in close proximity to each other, or local churches that sprang up in nearby cities from the natural growth of a local church.....and in over 5 years there has not been one single blending meeting together of those local churches in neighboring cities. If that is a requirement you place on the legitimacy of the local churches then many of the local churches do not meet that requirement!