I'm not sure if the title of this thread is accurate. The connection between the mainland China shouters and the Living Stream Ministry local churches, where Gerald Chan meets, is uncertain to me. Does anyone have info there? The only thing I remember was when Lee was counting up his loyalists across the globe one day in a meeting he mentioned the Chinese Shouters. The number was high compared to elsewhere and he seemed pleased, the crowd gave an "amen". But that is all I remember.
But an interesting thing about the connection between these kinds of groups (Local Church, Shouters, Eastern Lightning) is the skewing of scripture and the unbalanced obsession on certain "key" passages. One example is "Paul, a chosen vessel" in Acts 9:15. Paul was a chosen vessel, set apart. With the LSM spin on this, I guess Peter and John and Nathaniel were not chosen? Somehow Paul being "chosen" by God was different, to this view. And, guess what, so was Watchman Nee, and Witness Lee.
This elevation of some believers, and the creation of a special lineage, isn't too far from the Shouters worshipping Witness Lee as God incarnate, and the Eastern Lightning saying that God chose a humble Chinese girl, who failed her university exams and was in an existentialist crisis, to be today's unique light to the gentiles. There are differences in extremes but the theme is the same. A special messenger has been raised up, with a special message and a special work.
Here is Ron Kangas:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7aKkfgPk_kU
I also noticed that when I googled "Paul a chosen vessel" that three of the first five sites were LDS sites. Again, this suggests to me that if we can convince people that the apostle Paul was specially anointed, above and beyond all the rest, then why not Mormon founder Joseph Smith as well? Or Watchman Nee or whomever your "man of the hour" happens to be. The pope or the current president of the LDS church or today's Blended Brothers or whomever is the "specially anointed" one(s).