Meeting with a Coworker

Hi I've recently joined and left a local church
I am meeting with a brother tomorrow who wishes me to return
Any advice?

[aron]

Originally Posted by anna

Hi I've recently joined and left a local church
I am meeting with a brother tomorrow who wishes me to return
Any advice?

Ask him why Nee & Lee taught that the church should not found universities & hopitals but Lee used the church members' savings to initiate his son Timothy and his motor coach company, the Daystar Corporation?

When the company went belly-up they told them to consider their investment as a donation. Those who insisted evidently got reimbursed, but many lost a decent amount.

How come the Baptists & Methodists got criticised for their universities & hospitals, but the LSM/lc could start a for-profit motor home company?

[aron]

Also, ask him why Dora Yu could school Watchman Nee in the inner life practices, but no woman can school any LSM/lc member in anything today? What has changed in the last 90 years?

[countmeworthy]

Originally Posted by aron

Ask him why Nee & Lee taught that the church should not found universities & hopitals but Lee used the church members' savings to initiate his son Timothy and his motor coach company, the Daystar Corporation?

When the company went belly-up they told them to consider their investment as a donation. Those who insisted evidently got reimbursed, but many lost a decent amount.

How come the Baptists & Methodists got criticised for their universities & hospitals, but the LSM/lc could start a for-profit motor home company?

Don't forget the FTTA which is their version of a seminary or bible college.

[HERn]

If he asks for the names of people you have been talking to or who have been critical of LSM/LC/HWFMR be careful. He's trying to identify and the isolate the source of your "infection" or "poisoning". It is my feeling that a Coworker/elder will defend LSM/WL to the point of encouraging spouses to separate, parents to restrict access to grand kids, and saints from meeting together. I was in a locality where the elders asked some stay at home moms to stop their lunch meetings for talk and fellowship. I'm sure they had a good reason because spiritual sisters can be dangerous.

[leastofthese]

Originally Posted by anna

Hi I've recently joined and left a local church
I am meeting with a brother tomorrow who wishes me to return
Any advice?

I guess it depends on your situation, and the coworker. It may be nice to share the Gospel with them and talk about who Jesus is in your life - no script, no memorized religious babble.

It would be interesting to understand how they can have a church that is centered on the works of Witness Lee and the publishing arm of LSM. What happens when a local church no longer follows the LSM directive (see threads on the quarantines in various areas), what happens when a member no longer wants to follow the LSM directive (see multiple personal experiences on threads here). What is one thing that Witness Lee taught that this particular "coworker" doesn't agree with? If it is a local church, why must everything point back to Witness Lee and the LSM? Is it possible that Witness Lee isn't who he said he was? If so, what are the implications of that?

Honestly, your time would be better spent praying for the brothers/sisters that you met during your time there.

It probably depends on which locality you are in...that seems to dictate the level to which the coworker has dug his head into the sand.

[countmeworthy]

Originally Posted by anna

Hi I've recently joined and left a local church
I am meeting with a brother tomorrow who wishes me to return
Any advice?

Don't forget to ask the Holy Spirit to counsel you and guide you in your discussion. Ask Jesus to cover and protect you with His Precious Blood. Remember your alliance is to GOD. He is the One Who saved you. Trust HIM. He wants you to depend on HIM.

Focus on Jesus.

[aron]

And why don't they translate 'ekklesia' as 'church' in Acts 17:41? Why change meanings of words for theological convenience?

[aron]

Originally Posted by aron

And why don't they translate 'ekklesia' as 'church' in Acts 17:41? Why change meanings of words for theological convenience?

If you ask them such questions, they'll usually say, "All Bibles do this." In other words, if the KJV translated 'ekklesia' in Psalm 22:22 as 'congregation', and the same phrase quoted in the NT in Heb 2:12 the word is translated 'church', so can we. Why pick on us?

I pick on them because the church that seemingly does everything by the book suddenly does something by human convenience and convention, hoping you wouldn't notice.

Once I asked an LSM/lc brother - Why should we register with the government as a 501(c)3 non-profit? He said, "We have to". Really? What Bible verse says you have to register with the government? I must have missed that one. Was that from a lost epistle?

Or, "Well, everybody does it." Suddenly convention is the watchword. The ministry that condemns everyone else for "traditions" suddenly follows tradition, even cites tradition as a seeming bona fide.

The only reason they translate 'ekklesia' as 'church' in some places, and as 'congregation' and 'assembly' in others, is to prop up their one-church-per-city dogma. They've invented a theology, a 'truth', then must read it back on the text, and where the text can't match the dogma they'll modify (or re-translate) the text. Because, "Everybody does it."

[Drake]

Originally Posted by anna

Hi I've recently joined and left a local church
I am meeting with a brother tomorrow who wishes me to return
Any advice?

Anna,

Have a frank conversation and follow the Lord according to what He has shown you.

Drake

[HERn]

How did the meeting go?

The meeting.
We discussed the bible and my preference for the kjv as opposed to the recovery version
The co worker agreed the kjv was better
He wanted me to return so I could make a stand in the meetings on more bilical teaching
He said I was a prophetess
I asked him who was in charge
He said the Holy Spirit
I pressed him on this and admitted a couple were in charge who recieved a salary
I challenged him on shepherding.
I challenged him on biblical responsibility regarding sin within the church
He did not want me to share what we had discussed
He said he had challenged leaders and got no answes
I asked him why hymns had been changed
He said print out hymn and we will sing it
He wont leave the local church because he will miss the fellowship
He said he was an apostle
The meeting finished after 2.5 hours
He keeps sending texts asking to meet up and pray
I feel very sad for him and others

[leastofthese]

Originally Posted by anna

The meeting.
We discussed the bible and my preference for the kjv as opposed to the recovery version
The co worker agreed the kjv was better
He wanted me to return so I could make a stand in the meetings on more bilical teaching
He said I was a prophetess
I asked him who was in charge
He said the Holy Spirit
I pressed him on this and admitted a couple were in charge who recieved a salary
I challenged him on shepherding.
I challenged him on biblical responsibility regarding sin within the church
He did not want me to share what we had discussed
He said he had challenged leaders and got no answes
I asked him why hymns had been changed
He said print out hymn and we will sing it
He wont leave the local church because he will miss the fellowship
He said he was an apostle
The meeting finished after 2.5 hours
He keeps sending texts asking to meet up and pray
I feel very sad for him and others

It may not be appropriate to share, if so, please disregard... but who would be considered “a couple” who were in charge?

Why didn’t he want your discussion shared?

[Drake]

Originally Posted by leastofthese

It may not be appropriate to share, if so, please disregard... but who would be considered “a couple” who were in charge?

Why didn’t he want your discussion shared?

LofT,

I agree. The circumstances and the responses are unusual and odd. I am wondering whether this local church is even part of the Lord's Recovery.

Drake

[Drake]

-2

Sister anna,

I would not meet one on one... but always with another present or a couple. Where are the elders?

Something is not right about this..... that is my sense.

Drake

[least]

Originally Posted by Drake

-2

Sister anna,

I would not meet one on one... but always with another present or a couple. Where are the elders?

Something is not right about this..... that is my sense.

Drake

Good advice.
"I would not meet one on one... but always with another present or a couple. Where are the elders? " - two or three witnesses.

Sounds to me he is not a lsm/lc blended person. Strange that he is a 'co-worker'.

[TLFisher]

Originally Posted by Drake

-2

Sister anna,

I would not meet one on one... but always with another present or a couple. Where are the elders?

Something is not right about this..... that is my sense.

Drake

Drake, I would agree with you. In my experience when an elder came to visit me in my home, he brought another brother (a non-elder at the time) as a witness.

[aron]

Originally Posted by Drake

Have a frank conversation and follow the Lord according to what He has shown you.

The ability to have conversations in the LSM/lc is somewhat circumscribed - in order to have a conversation, both parties have to be able to learn something from it, not just one of them. Witness Lee told us that he hadn't learned anything from anyone in over 40 years. Likewise, LSM/lc folk typically will learn from you only if you tell them what you've "enjoyed" from the ministry, and demonstrate abject servility and fealty. Other than that, they don't have a heart, as they say; no interest or appetite for "other" ministries or revelations, except from God's so-called oracle.

Be that as it may, in my frank conversation I'd ask this: why does the "interpreted word" get passed off as revelatory of Christ, when the actual scripture is being termed "fallen", "low", "natural concepts" and so forth? How do we know that the scripture isn't being composed according to the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, and revealing Christ, and the interpreted word isn't actually "fallen human concepts"?

Similarly, how do we know that when the Maximum Brother chides the flock for being "natural" and "soulish" that the MB isn't also being the same? What assurance do we have, except from the MB himself, that his ministry isn't tainted with the same fallen tendencies that he presumes to view in everyone else, including the writers of scripture?

One would think someone might want to ask such a question, if they weren't intimidated into silence. Or completely brain-dead, or befuddled, or bewitched.

[TLFisher]

Originally Posted by anna

Hi I've recently joined and left a local church
I am meeting with a brother tomorrow who wishes me to return
Any advice?

That happened to me once (2009/2010). Friendly talk concluding with a conditional word/request.
I have only one question regarding advice; what caused you to leave that you would want to go back to?
Often it seems people leave because the ministry is found to be lacking and brothers/sisters want something more in substance. Has anything changed?