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Originally Posted by countmeworthy
I was there from 1975 to 1978.John was a terrific elder, mentor, teacher loved by all of us. We were a young people's church. The majority of us were between 18 and 27. Willie Samoff was an elder at 26 yrs of age. He had a gift for preaching the gospel at the love feasts.
John had the gift of teaching. He had been a Baptist pastor before coming into the church. I don't remember how that came about but He saw the true church life practiced in Acts. I believe his pastoral experience emboldened him to stand up to Lee. As a pastor/teacher in the Baptist church, numbers and activities took priority over discipling. The direction the church was taking under Lee bothered him I am sure.
I know he really tried to tow the line before throwing in the towel. In 1978, John stopped preaching Christ..stopped teaching God's Word and preached Brother Lee. Lee was Paul I recall him telling us over and over. We started watching videos of Lee in our meetings. We were dying and many of the young brothers began drinking and smoking pot together. They were troubled...
As for the number of members, I think we averaged 175. Don't know if Lee or the San Diego elders pushed migration but people were constantly migrating.
God bless John. And for the record, my experience in San Diego was a positive one. I grew in the Lord. I loved the church life until Lee disrupted it in 1977/78.
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I started meeting just about the time you were moving on. The Lee disruption only got worse and more invasive as time went on. I remember both John Smiths, the one who was the shepherd, and the one who went full bore for the LSM. I also remember the John Smith who stood up and gave his final message before leaving. It was a very confusing statement to me, that you had to read between the lines weeks after you realized he had left. He spoke like someone who had just lost his life savings to Bernie Madoff.
Shortly after that the elders issued a printed statement that they and the church were one with WL and LSM (somewhere in my garage, I think I still have the letter; if I find it, I'll post it.). Basically, the meeting hall, that we all had been faithful to donate for and work on, and upkeep on Saturday mornings, was turned over to the LSM machine. It was stolen from the Saints; the church in San Diego ceased to exist. They kept the title, but the body was dead.