Localchurches.org, how many locations are legit?

I have been doing some some research work regarding this group known as Lords Recovery, for personal reasons and information. I went to their website Localchurches.org, and I see a lot of different locations. There are a few contacts in the area that I’m in or within 100 miles or so, but it looks like they no longer have meetings in this town. (I will just say that I am west of the Mississippi River)

I have found it to be interesting that they keep the info up on their website as if it’s legitimate group, but actually its a name only with no address or locations. It’s also looks like maybe a couple of people who have relocated from one town to another to make it look like it’s bigger than what it is. Am I off on these issues? Has there been anyone who actually looked into this, and knows how many of these locations on the map are just less that 10 people who moved from other places and therefore are now considered established churches? Is this more of a house church in a lot of these locations with less than 10-15 people?

[Ohio]

You are right. In some cases “the church” in that locality may be nothing more than a family receiving some monthly publication.

[HERn]

Originally Posted by Ohio

You are right. In some cases “the church” in that locality may be nothing more than a family receiving some monthly publication.

Also some churches reside in a city different than their name. The church in Tampa is actually in the city of Lutz. Maybe they started out in Tampa and moved to Lutz later? Technically the name of the church is a lie.

Originally Posted by TRG

I have been doing some some research work regarding this group known as Lords Recovery, for personal reasons and information. I went to their website Localchurches.org, and I see a lot of different locations. There are a few contacts in the area that I’m in or within 100 miles or so, but it looks like they no longer have meetings in this town. (I will just say that I am west of the Mississippi River)

I have found it to be interesting that they keep the info up on their website as if it’s legitimate group, but actually its a name only with no address or locations. It’s also looks like maybe a couple of people who have relocated from one town to another to make it look like it’s bigger than what it is. Am I off on these issues? Has there been anyone who actually looked into this, and knows how many of these locations on the map are just less that 10 people who moved from other places and therefore are now considered established churches? Is this more of a house church in a lot of these locations with less than 10-15 people?

I don't recall the localchurches.org website always being like this - it looks like they have a new layout with new information. If I know the local churches, and I think I do, my guess is that since the website looks like it has been "revamped" in somewhat recent years, they probably took the time to confirm that the information was up-to-date. I have not known them to be a group that fabricates this kind of information (ironically enough, given that they fabricate a lot of other kinds of information, namely false Bible teachings). If they say there is a church there, then there probably is at the bare minimum, at least a small number of saints who are meeting regularly enough to be considered "a church". If there is not something there, they would just admit it. The coworkers do not tend to mis-report hard numbers, at least in my experience. They are not averse to telling the hard truth about how dismal their growth is - they have to keep the saints beaten up about something.

It also looks like they keep record on the site of the last time a particular locality's information was updated. It's possible that in the real world the numbers in some localities have shrunk due to the pandemic, but online that locality's information just hasn't been updated.

I have family in this group, so it’s really hard to get any truthful information out of them. It always some weird ways that it’s presented, as if they are not stating the truth upfront. I figured I’ll try to find something that actually isn’t twisted enough to be spoken out loud.

I’m having hard time reading through any of their explanations and interpretations of things. Again, smells like something that’s not being said there upfront. The poster “two cents” said that: “If there is not something there, they would just admit it.” I’m having a hard time finding any records of such behavior, maybe someone could point me into the right direction. I don’t mean to be a pest, but I only find a lot of doubling down, how dare you to questions type responses. Their website Shepherdingword is full of it, so please forgive for just being honest. Maybe I should just get on the phone and check out these “churches” within 200 miles of me, and see how many are actually real.

[Trapped]

Originally Posted by TRG

I have family in this group, so it’s really hard to get any truthful information out of them. It always some weird ways that it’s presented, as if they are not stating the truth upfront. I figured I’ll try to find something that actually isn’t twisted enough to be spoken out loud.

I’m having hard time reading through any of their explanations and interpretations of things. Again, smells like something that’s not being said there upfront. The poster “two cents” said that: “If there is not something there, they would just admit it.” I’m having a hard time finding any records of such behavior, maybe someone could point me into the right direction. I don’t mean to be a pest, but I only find a lot of doubling down, how dare you to questions type responses. Their website Shepherdingword is full of it, so please forgive for just being honest. Maybe I should just get on the phone and check out these “churches” within 200 miles of me, and see how many are actually real.

Welcome to the forum, TRG!

I would agree with "two cents" (welcome to the forum, two cents!) that the local church doesn't generally claim there are members in a place if there really are no members, except in the situations where the data just hasn't been updated yet.

The local church would consider a small gathering of even 6-8 believers in a home to be enough to identify a place as being a meeting of the church. (I don't have a problem with that - there is no requirement that there be 20 or 50 or 100+ people for a gathering to be considered "a church"). So it may be that there are not large 300+ congregations in a particular owned or rented building, but just small groups of believers who they would say have "taken the ground". I cannot recall specific localities right now, but I know there are some GTCA cities (a GTCA city is one that the local church picked to have a "gospel push" there in order to start a new locality) that are no longer listed as a locality. If there is no one there, they don't usually lie about it.

They lie about all kinds of other things - like you rightly noticed on Shepherding Words, every single article there is packed with misdirects, obfuscations, lies, and Bible twistings.

Is there something in particular you are trying to figure out? Are you just trying to find out if they are reporting their church numbers correctly?

Trapped

Originally Posted by Trapped

Welcome to the forum, TRG!

I would agree with "two cents" (welcome to the forum, two cents!) that the local church doesn't generally claim there are members in a place if there really are no members, except in the situations where the data just hasn't been updated yet.

The local church would consider a small gathering of even 6-8 believers in a home to be enough to identify a place as being a meeting of the church. (I don't have a problem with that - there is no requirement that there be 20 or 50 or 100+ people for a gathering to be considered "a church"). So it may be that there are not large 300+ congregations in a particular owned or rented building, but just small groups of believers who they would say have "taken the ground". I cannot recall specific localities right now, but I know there are some GTCA cities (a GTCA city is one that the local church picked to have a "gospel push" there in order to start a new locality) that are no longer listed as a locality. If there is no one there, they don't usually lie about it.

They lie about all kinds of other things - like you rightly noticed on Shepherding Words, every single article there is packed with misdirects, obfuscations, lies, and Bible twistings.

Is there something in particular you are trying to figure out? Are you just trying to find out if they are reporting their church numbers correctly?

Trapped

Thats fine, Trapped. Obviously you guys know more here that I do, so I will leave it at that when it comes to the legitimacy of the localchurch.org.

My goal isn't to try to say its fake, but to try to understand the things that I have been told, which are:

-supposedly it's the Only God's move on earth, but unfortunately 99% of the earth didn't get the message, since 99% of people never even heard of this thing.
-they claim to be the church or the new recovery of the original church the way I understand, but even if it is so, why be so deceiving about the way you go about it????
-the reason I went to their website, (and I actually drove 30 miles by one of the meeting halls this weekend, at least that's what they call it), there is no sign, no identification, nothing. looks like a residential house. If you claim to have received the true revelation and you are the ONE TRUE CHURCH, why wouldn't you be very confident about it and shout from the roof tops, put a sign out so that people can see it from the street?? what are you all hiding?

Am I asking reasonable questions?

I drove by half of dozen normal churches who identify who they are, and promote Christ in some way or another, but these people seem very fishy and slimy, as if there is some sort of cover for who they are.

[Trapped]

Originally Posted by TRG

Thats fine, Trapped. Obviously you guys know more here that I do, so I will leave it at that when it comes to the legitimacy of the localchurch.org.

My goal isn't to try to say its fake, but to try to understand the things that I have been told, which are:

-supposedly it's the Only God's move on earth, but unfortunately 99% of the earth didn't get the message, since 99% of people never even heard of this thing.
-they claim to be the church or the new recovery of the original church the way I understand, but even if it is so, why be so deceiving about the way you go about it????
-the reason I went to their website, (and I actually drove 30 miles by one of the meeting halls this weekend, at least that's what they call it), there is no sign, no identification, nothing. looks like a residential house. If you claim to have received the true revelation and you are the ONE TRUE CHURCH, why wouldn't you be very confident about it and shout from the roof tops, put a sign out so that people can see it from the street?? what are you all hiding?

Am I asking reasonable questions?

I drove by half of dozen normal churches who identify who they are, and promote Christ in some way or another, but these people seem very fishy and slimy, as if there is some sort of cover for who they are.

Hi TRG,

Your questions are very reasonable. But the local church doesn't deal with reason, logic, sense, "if X then Y" type of thinking. If you ask those kinds of questions that make them examine their own statements at all, they either consider you to be "in the mind" or they get defensive or they give you disingenuous answers. They might say "it's so good that TRG is inquiring, we welcome all inquiry!" but their answers will never be satisfactory.

For example, they say things like "oh, we are not the only church, we are ONLY the church!" In other words, when they are pressed to defend their actual teachings that "the church" hasn't been in a city for hundreds of years until they showed up, even though many Christian churches have been there the whole time, or that only they are the genuine expression of the church (i.e. extremely elitist and arrogant), they turn it upside down and pretend what they are REALLY saying is "all we are is simply just the church" (i.e. humble and self-deprecating). But that's not what they are saying, and they know it. Because sit in their meetings and they are never humble about it - they finger point at everyone else and they uplift themselves. So when you call them out on their stuff, they turn the tables on you. This is slimy, as you figured out.

The answer to every single one of your questions is - because they are not what they say they are. They are not the center of God's move, they are not the only true church, they are not the recovery of the church, and the "revelations" they have received are made up. They are cagey and deceptive because they are liars. They lie to college students and other gospel contacts about what they are because what they really are is a cult, and if they tell the truth and show their cards, then everyone they contact will run in the other direction.

If there is a meeting hall, it is not unusual for a meeting hall to have a sign out front, but I have never seen a sign if they meet in a house. Typically the sign would say something like "a meeting place of the church in (city)". But the problem with being a real open church (like all the other churches that they think are not churches) is that people who come in off the street don't know the countless "unspoken rules" in the local church. Their meetings rely on all the members understanding "how things are done". It's much easier for them to just remain isolated and insular, feeling like they are on "the ark" and no one else is, rather than face the very simple questions that arise and problems that are called out when "outsiders" put fresh eyes on the weirdness in the group.

Trapped

I would like to answer your first question. Many members of the local church believes they are the only ones who have gotten hold of the Lord’s Move on earth is largely because that’s what they’ve been told and experienced.

If you’ve been told this is it AND you have not experience this ANYWHERE else, you are going to believe that this is it and there’s nowhere except in the Local Church where you can be apart of God’s Move.

This is completely false.

It’s very hard to change their thinking because that’s all they’ve known and all they’ve experienced. When you tell them other Christians outside of the Local Church also knows, they are astounded… how can that be?

Sometimes you will receive this response: that can’t be, because if they see, they would be called out of where they are, just like Abraham was called out of Chaldea and join us.

That is also completely false as far as joining the Local Church group. You maybe called to be planted among this group or another group or denomination or such and such. From my observation so far, it seems that God is placing his children in many different places. As ones who hear the word and understand it and one who sees, we should keep earnestly loving one another, whether through speaking or ministering with all patience, forbearing one another until He comes back again.

Want to say again, it is very hard to change people’s perspective once they are locked in. We as humans beings, we want some kind of control. To tell someone, they have been misled, is like yanking that control or stability out of their lives. However, God is sovereign, He will work it out. Be open to speak with love as the Lord leads.

Another response you may get: well, God would have told me so…

This response I’ve heard everywhere, it doesn’t matter where you meet or which group you belong to!