Moniker & a March off the Ground

[TLFisher]

Originally Posted by Indiana

"Perhaps I should add an appendix after the main account is finished regarding what the church life was like in pre LSM days."

When WL decided to put out his exposition of the Bible and use ten day trainings to provide an audience the blessings began to wane and eventually “the Ministry” completely replaced the vision of “Christ and the Church.”

Hope, an account of what pre-training church life was like would give a picture. Stories I've heard from various brothers is brothers and sisters would arrive an hour or more before the meeting started. As a high schooler in the mid-eighties, it was the norm for brothers and sisters to gather a good 30 minutes before the meeting started. During the 1990's, rushing to the meetings before the meeting was due to start was a thing of the past. Instead brothers and sisters would start showing up a good 5-10 minutes before the meeting was due to start. This is one way to show how the joy waned over the years.
Another aspect of pre-training versus post-training church life is to show the growth. In this era I view the churches suffering from attrition. Unable to attract new ones apart from those who have an appetite for the ministry and unable to keep the ones already meeting in the local churches. Partly due to the focus on the ministry and the college work which creates a struggle for those who are more for Christ than the ministry and those whose demographics are well past the college age saints.
Another point to bring up is were the pre-training era issue far more in "life" while the post-training era issued in "knowledge"? I say this becuase the switch to focus on the ministry make some meeting in the local churches more exclusive in behavior and superior in attitude as to say "look what this ministry has". The centering of a ministry may have caused many to lose their focus. To lose generality, receptiveness, and inclusiveness which we find in Jesus Christ.

Terry