Minoru Chen: "Growth in The Local Church in USA flat since 1985"

[UntoHim]

Working Saints Fellowship - Thanksgiving Day Conference 2018, Charlotte, NC

Minoru's speaking starts at 1:10.00 (one hour, 10 minutes 00 seconds)

At some point, Minoru opines that "The Recovery in North America should have 250,000 saints by today, and at least 1,500 churches"....then, after admitting that what little growth has taken place has been mostly Chinese/Taiwanese imported from Asia, Minoru gives his assessment of how and why growth in the Local Church has been so stagnant - The reasons: Rebellion from within, and opposition from without. Minoru "From 1975 to 1985 we had our first major rebellion and the rebellion stopped us dead in our tracks as far as our growth is concerned, and not only so, it took away a lot of the younger generation that came in during the late 60s-early 70s. They were actually blown out. Also in the mid 70s there came a torrent of opposition began from the direction of Christendom" Then Minoru went on to blame the book "The Mindbenders". Then he admits "from 1985 to today our growth rate has been anemic to say the best".

Eventually Minoru breaks out with "In the Recovery in the USA today, we have one major burden and that is called: Increase!" Not "God's Economy". Not "Eating and drinking Jesus". Not "Living a Godman life for the building up of the local church". Just numbers. Just the increase.

What Minoru didn't mention is that for the first 20 years, from 1975 to 1995, the Local Churches were under the full control and authority of Witness Lee. The stagnation occurred under Lee's leadership and "ministry". Furthermore, for this next period of time, from mid-late 90s to today, the Local Churches are still under the ministry of Witness Lee. And the stagnation has continued. Many have testified on this forum that the Local Church has basically lost their entire 2nd generation here in America. This is my observation as well. Most local churches which were established in the 70s and 80s are composed of the older generation. The majority of the younger ones are Chinese/Asian young people imported from the Far East.
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