My Experience in the Local Churches

[Indiana]

http://www.lordsrecovery.us/MyExperi...alChurches.pdf


"O home in the church, where we ended our search,
with the brothers rejoicing all day,
where Christ is our life and we're though with all strife,
now we're home, hallelujah, to stay!

Till strife came, and would not abate.

"God's home is the church....."


Steve Isitt
2015

[Indiana]

Dear saints,

I thought relationship problems with a brother could certainly be resolved in the church life by directly communicating with the offending person, as was talked about recently on another thread.

In the following letter I explain to a co-worker in Anaheim what happened to me when I did that; my life and my church life got turned upside down, and my concepts certainly were to change. This development eventually catapulted me onto a path of addressing leading ones further, and then coming to a forum to begin to share in earnest my experiences, observations, and also my serious concerns .

Chris Wilde worked closely with Dan Towle and Francis Ball at the time of this writing.


Dear Chris, (Aug 11, 2003)

I want to let you know in this letter what I have in mind to do. In my own experience I once went to a brother, an elder, according to Matthew 18 to settle a problem I had with him. I thought it would be a simple matter of explaining to him his offenses and there would be repentance by him and all would be well. The brother, though, ignored the first letter, and a second, and a third. I was quite surprised and very puzzled, as well as very unhappy with him. I would have even settled for his coming together with me and honestly denying that he had wronged me. We could have then prayed for our going on in oneness with each other and in the Body. I would have considered that somewhat honorable.

But when he ignored me over a several month period and when other brothers didn’t respond to my letters to them for their assistance, I was really perplexed and quite concerned. My only desire was for a proper resolving of offenses that had occurred, and for our relationship to be right in the Body of Christ. I was very bothered.

The brothers I asked to assist me either ignored me too or said I was “being negative”, that I was “attacking”, that I should just “bear the cross”, that I should be as Watchman Nee when he was “misunderstood”. I thought, “what is this?” No one wants to be accountable or bring someone to accountability.

Then a brother went to the elders six times on my behalf, becoming thoroughly frustrated with them for not responding to my letters and for not being accountable. The elder who had committed the alleged offenses told this brother that he, the elder did not have to “respond to Steve ever”, that Steve is “sending letters out to everyone”, and that “we shouldn’t have problems with persons, matters, or things”, quoting Ron Kangas and a Corinthians footnote. I was completely amazed and became distraught over what I was experiencing.

If a brother offends you, you should be able to go to him and in a spirit of love have the relationship with him restored. He wouldn’t do this and I was forced to just forgive him without a proper dealing between us. This was the beginning of what you may now hear to be “Steve’s divisiveness”.

I would have been glad to just let this ordeal go with the wondering, though, of just what the problem was in communicating with me and responding according to the word of God. But word went out that “Steve has a problem with the brothers”. And, “Steve has to get through with the brothers”. I thought, “what in the world are they talking about”? I had gone to the elder according to Matthew 18; he didn’t respond; I decided to write another letter and perhaps I said something wrong or had the wrong tone, but there was still no response. My attempts to have others assist me were taken as an “attack on the elder”. I just had no way to get through with this brother. He had protectors in front of him and all around him, and I was kept away from him and from restoring a relationship.

The brothers not only broke Scripture in their complete bias toward the elder, they exhibited a cruel spirit. One of them later repented, saying, “it was cruel of me not to respond to your letter and to your situation, I was just not sensitive to you”. He attempted then to bring up my situation with other elders, which fell on deaf ears. (He had only made such an apology to me after he, his wife, and their daughter had severe encounters with the same elder over a situation, the daughter leaving the sister's house and the church.)



This experience with these people served, just naturally, to distance me from them and led to a disillusioned state. It affected my home life and church life. This word that “Steve has to get right with the brothers bothered me greatly”. The main reason it bothered me is that others heard this and thought that I was not right with the brothers, rather than the other way around. Such speaking about me caused me to have an ongoing problem with the brothers, for I couldn’t be with others without them possibly having this misunderstanding that I was "not right with the elders", especially one.

This is the background to where I am today. From January 1996 to August 2000, I was greatly hampered by this non-relationship with the elders and their attitude toward me, and by what the saints were believing about me. On the 4th of that August I sat down and began to write, not only according to the experience I described but according to other experiences of mine, and others, in the church life. By this time, I was forced also to consider what happened to those who left the recovery by the scores in the late eighties. And, I found out; therefore, the writing I began to engage in was full of feeling for the saints and their experiences of disillusionment in the church life. I sought to explain the facts and the factors that drove many of them away and that had disheartened many of them that remained. A “book” was the result of my writing, which I presented to Dan Towle “for fellowship”. It was called In the Wake of the New Way.

That “book” was honest and from my heart and with a deep burden for the oneness that was broken in the new way, and I was for building a bridge of communication to those brothers and sisters who were lost in the wake of the new way in the recovery. I was completely shocked when that “book”, written in all sincerity and presented first to an elder and leader in the recovery, Dan Towle who encouraged the elders in my locality to set me aside in the church life and be disciplined. Then, with other superficial and bogus “information” coming to the fore about me being a "divisive one", the disciplining hand from the brothers became even stronger against me.

During this time of discipline, beginning in February 2001, I sovereignly received quite an education as to what the other side of the story was in the division that occurred among us in the late 1980s. It is a strong, very compelling, and spiritually and morally convicting side of the story. A story which I am poised to tell.

Any attempts I’ve made for fellowship, restoration, and participation over the last three years have been blocked, the concept being that I am negative, divisive, etc. This is a complete falsehood when looking at the facts of my history and experience.

The brothers have indeed made a mountain out of a mole hill.

…I have given you this brief amount of information to let you know that I myself have been misrepresented. Not only have I been mishandled and negatively treated, former leading ones have been outrageously treated and even lied about among us. And, it is time these unrighteous matters of miscommunications, false representations, and ill-advised evil speakings stop. Righteousness among us should prevail.

Toward that end I have a website ready that will certainly tell the story of our own case of defamation and libel. We have been defaming others for years, and we should turn our time, energy, and interest to this matter and indeed find a way to drop the other.

I am stirred, I admit, over abuses in the church that have gone unchecked for many years, causing much suffering among the saints and much damage to the Lord’s testimony and to the oneness of the Body of Christ. Men should become accountable for the abuses, so before the Lord, and with much exercise over the last three years, I want to give us that opportunity. If my need and situation cannot be addressed soon, I will begin to speak about the local church in quite another way, according to the truth of its history…The abuse and misunderstandings are enough now. It is time to speak the truth!


Your brother in Christ,

Steve I.

[Ohio]

Brother Steve,

You have cited Matthew 18 repeatedly in your attempts to reconcile with other brothers in the LC's. Unfortunately these instructions from the Lord himself in scripture can only operate when the Head of every man is Christ. (I Cor 11.3)

Once brothers in Christ (especially church leaders) take other fallen men as their "head," then these scriptures concerning reconciliation become altogether meaningless. This is exactly what has happened to many leaders in the Recovery. They no longer allow their conscience, indwelt by the Spirit of God, to be ruled by the peace of Christ. Instead they have allowed themselves to be brought under subjection by those at LSM, much the same way as the Galatian believers were brought under subjection by the Judaizers.

[Indiana]

This letter was written in response to issues in "the local churches" that I addressed.

Dear Brother Steve,

Thank you for your letters. I especially appreciated reading the letter you
wrote to Joel. I want to commend you for your forthrightness, honesty,
boldness, uprightness, maintaining a right spirit. I felt that the way you
addressed all the issues with Joel hit the mark. Their consciences should be touched; if not, there is something seriously wrong. We have been praying for you and also for the brothers you are confronting. We have prayed the Lord would have mercy on them. I want to encourage you, brother, to pursue the burden the Lord has placed upon you.

There is no way at the present time for brothers like Bill Mallon and myself
to do anything directly to reach out to these brothers. Perhaps the Lord
will use you to open the door or create a breach in the wall. May His will
be done. There is a fortified stronghold built up that is not easy to
penetrate. I agree with your perception that it is in one sense not human.
That does not mean, of course, that it is divine.

To have fellowship with brothers in Christ in the Spirit and in brotherly
love is a priceless heritage of ours. It is a pity that this could be
obstructed and rendered not only inoperative but impossible to activate.

We pray that the Lord will lead you.

In His grace, John.

[Freedom]

The brothers have indeed made a mountain out of a mole hill.

1 John 4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

It is sad how some LC leaders have chosen to interact with and treat their fellow brothers and sisters. As leaders, they have the responsibility to set an example. What kind of example are they setting? To completely ignore requests for fellowship, and at the same time spreading word that a person is "divisive" or "negative" is unbecoming of Christian leaders.

A mountain out of a mole hill sums up very well what happened. It's amazing how elders can think that ignoring and even slandering a brother instead of hearing him out is a reasonable way to deal with a difficult situation. Do they not realize that such an approach will backfire? Of course for them, there are reputations on the line, so they believe that the best approach is to simply ignore concerns.

I've seen these same tactics used on others who have brought up concerns, and were subsequently ignored. I've been in situations where I knew that there would be no way to address what I was concerned about. Most will just let things slide, even time and time again.

There comes a point in time where situations need to be addressed whether or not LC leaders like it. Since LC leaders can't lead by example, there is the example the Apostle Paul set:
2 Cor 4:2 But we have renounced the hidden things of shame, not walking in craftiness nor handling the word of God deceitfully, but by manifestation of the truth commending ourselves to every man’s conscience in the sight of God.

[TLFisher]

Originally Posted by Freedom

1 John 4:20 If someone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen?

It is sad how some LC leaders have chosen to interact with and treat their fellow brothers and sisters. As leaders, they have the responsibility to set an example. What kind of example are they setting? To completely ignore requests for fellowship, and at the same time spreading word that a person is "divisive" or "negative" is unbecoming of Christian leaders.

I have had two such leaders in my living room express love for Steve, but has that love ever been manifested in anything more like a phone call or an email?

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Freedom

Similar to what Lee was quoted as saying, the attitude with Chris is the same – certain matters were resolve years ago, end of story. Why do such brothers think they get the final word? The only reason that LC members might think these matters are “resolved” is because Lee controlled the flow of information. How many have actually read John Ingall’s book? How many know both sides of the story? Unless everyone in the LC can provide an affirmative answer to both those questions, then I would label such matters as among the biggest unresolved matters within the LC.

Funny thing is that these old matters were basically “resolved” by Lee in the early 90's, but then got exhumed and resuscitated with the quarantines in the GLA and Brazil. I doubt that the Blendeds ever expected John Ingall’s book would come back and haunt them with the advent of the internet.

[HERn]

Originally Posted by Indiana

Dear saints,

I thought relationship problems with a brother could certainly be resolved in the church life by directly communicating with the offending person, as was talked about recently on another thread.

In the following letter I explain to a co-worker in Anaheim what happened to me when I did that; my life and my church life got turned upside down, and my concepts certainly were to change. This development eventually catapulted me onto a path of addressing leading ones further, and then coming to a forum to begin to share in earnest my experiences, observations, and also my serious concerns .

Chris Wilde worked closely with Dan Towle and Francis Ball at the time of this writing.


Dear Chris, (Aug 11, 2003)

I want to let you know in this letter what I have in mind to do. In my own experience I once went to a brother, an elder, according to Matthew 18 to settle a problem I had with him. I thought it would be a simple matter of explaining to him his offenses and there would be repentance by him and all would be well. The brother, though, ignored the first letter, and a second, and a third. I was quite surprised and very puzzled, as well as very unhappy with him. I would have even settled for his coming together with me and honestly denying that he had wronged me. We could have then prayed for our going on in oneness with each other and in the Body. I would have considered that somewhat honorable.

But when he ignored me over a several month period and when other brothers didn’t respond to my letters to them for their assistance, I was really perplexed and quite concerned. My only desire was for a proper resolving of offenses that had occurred, and for our relationship to be right in the Body of Christ. I was very bothered.

The brothers I asked to assist me either ignored me too or said I was “being negative”, that I was “attacking”, that I should just “bear the cross”, that I should be as Watchman Nee when he was “misunderstood”. I thought, “what is this?” No one wants to be accountable or bring someone to accountability.

Then a brother went to the elders six times on my behalf, becoming thoroughly frustrated with them for not responding to my letters and for not being accountable. The elder who had committed the alleged offenses told this brother that he, the elder did not have to “respond to Steve ever”, that Steve is “sending letters out to everyone”, and that “we shouldn’t have problems with persons, matters, or things”, quoting Ron Kangas and a Corinthians footnote. I was completely amazed and became distraught over what I was experiencing.

If a brother offends you, you should be able to go to him and in a spirit of love have the relationship with him restored. He wouldn’t do this and I was forced to just forgive him without a proper dealing between us. This was the beginning of what you may now hear to be “Steve’s divisiveness”.

I would have been glad to just let this ordeal go with the wondering, though, of just what the problem was in communicating with me and responding according to the word of God. But word went out that “Steve has a problem with the brothers”. And, “Steve has to get through with the brothers”. I thought, “what in the world are they talking about”? I had gone to the elder according to Matthew 18; he didn’t respond; I decided to write another letter and perhaps I said something wrong or had the wrong tone, but there was still no response. My attempts to have others assist me were taken as an “attack on the elder”. I just had no way to get through with this brother. He had protectors in front of him and all around him, and I was kept away from him and from restoring a relationship.

The brothers not only broke Scripture in their complete bias toward the elder, they exhibited a cruel spirit. One of them later repented, saying, “it was cruel of me not to respond to your letter and to your situation, I was just not sensitive to you”. He attempted then to bring up my situation with other elders, which fell on deaf ears. (He had only made such an apology to me after he, his wife, and their daughter had severe encounters with the same elder over a situation, the daughter leaving the sister's house and the church.)



This experience with these people served, just naturally, to distance me from them and led to a disillusioned state. It affected my home life and church life. This word that “Steve has to get right with the brothers bothered me greatly”. The main reason it bothered me is that others heard this and thought that I was not right with the brothers, rather than the other way around. Such speaking about me caused me to have an ongoing problem with the brothers, for I couldn’t be with others without them possibly having this misunderstanding that I was "not right with the elders", especially one.

This is the background to where I am today. From January 1996 to August 2000, I was greatly hampered by this non-relationship with the elders and their attitude toward me, and by what the saints were believing about me. On the 4th of that August I sat down and began to write, not only according to the experience I described but according to other experiences of mine, and others, in the church life. By this time, I was forced also to consider what happened to those who left the recovery by the scores in the late eighties. And, I found out; therefore, the writing I began to engage in was full of feeling for the saints and their experiences of disillusionment in the church life. I sought to explain the facts and the factors that drove many of them away and that had disheartened many of them that remained. A “book” was the result of my writing, which I presented to Dan Towle “for fellowship”. It was called In the Wake of the New Way.

That “book” was honest and from my heart and with a deep burden for the oneness that was broken in the new way, and I was for building a bridge of communication to those brothers and sisters who were lost in the wake of the new way in the recovery. I was completely shocked when that “book”, written in all sincerity and presented first to an elder and leader in the recovery, Dan Towle who encouraged the elders in my locality to set me aside in the church life and be disciplined. Then, with other superficial and bogus “information” coming to the fore about me being a "divisive one", the disciplining hand from the brothers became even stronger against me.

During this time of discipline, beginning in February 2001, I sovereignly received quite an education as to what the other side of the story was in the division that occurred among us in the late 1980s. It is a strong, very compelling, and spiritually and morally convicting side of the story. A story which I am poised to tell.

Any attempts I’ve made for fellowship, restoration, and participation over the last three years have been blocked, the concept being that I am negative, divisive, etc. This is a complete falsehood when looking at the facts of my history and experience.

The brothers have indeed made a mountain out of a mole hill.

…I have given you this brief amount of information to let you know that I myself have been misrepresented. Not only have I been mishandled and negatively treated, former leading ones have been outrageously treated and even lied about among us. And, it is time these unrighteous matters of miscommunications, false representations, and ill-advised evil speakings stop. Righteousness among us should prevail.

Toward that end I have a website ready that will certainly tell the story of our own case of defamation and libel. We have been defaming others for years, and we should turn our time, energy, and interest to this matter and indeed find a way to drop the other.

I am stirred, I admit, over abuses in the church that have gone unchecked for many years, causing much suffering among the saints and much damage to the Lord’s testimony and to the oneness of the Body of Christ. Men should become accountable for the abuses, so before the Lord, and with much exercise over the last three years, I want to give us that opportunity. If my need and situation cannot be addressed soon, I will begin to speak about the local church in quite another way, according to the truth of its history…The abuse and misunderstandings are enough now. It is time to speak the truth!


Your brother in Christ,

Steve I.

Dear bro Steve, I want to say that I honor and respect you for the faith and trust you have in obeying God's word. It is obvious to me that every elder you have approached and been refused by has placed the words of our Christ way below the teachings of Witness Lee. Why else would they disobey the teaching of scripture and then with a burned-out conscience follow the teachings of a man. They care more for the praise of the blinded-blended-brothers than for the sweet peace and speaking of the Spirit. Even if they would accept you back, why in the world would you want to be associated with them? I'm afraid that what you call the recovery is nothing more than a wart on the body of Christ...yes it may be part of His body, but it is hellaciously ugly, rude, and self-centered, exclusive, divisive, and Christ dishonoring by obeying the teachings of a man over our Lord's commands. Run from it brother and get yourself free!