New Light from Old

[Hope]

Quote:
Originally Posted by Thankful Jane

I still remember being surprised to learn in the late 80s about the struggle between Benson and Titus over the Local Church in Cedar Rapids. Benson placed an elder there from OKC (an LC in his region containing a lot of Texans) and was maneuvering to bring that LC under the control of his region. There were some in Cedar Rapids who were being helped by Titus.

Originally Posted by OBW

I have never heard this particular story, although I’m not surprised at some level to find this sort of manipulation going on.

Hope may have some insight on this one. I have been pondering the creation of the church in Dallas back in the early 70s. The story I heard, which has been both confirmed and amplified by Hope, is that the first official meetings were somewhat hastened with a view to beating some of Lee’s rivals to the prize of claiming Dallas for the LC rather than another LC-like group. There’s even the famous meeting (locally) in which one of the others was there and was refused the right to speak. I never had a good sense about the reasons for silencing this man. Was it because he might speak something that was not from Lee? I don’t think the reason was ever given, only left to our imaginations.

Where is the sense of oneness in a city if there are two or more groups that would claim to meet strictly as Christians but they effectively fight over who gets to be the one. Why are they not meeting together? Who can actually claim that they have the high ground when all were moving rapidly to preempt the other(s)?

And don’t point fingers at the other guys. The history is of moving to a city where another group already meets, joining with them for a while with an undercurrent of “let’s follow Lee’s teachings” and when the existing group does not agree, leave them and start your own group. My Mom had a cousin in Clearwater, FL who was witness to that kind of thing when the LC moved to the Tampa Bay area. These were the people who introduced us to Nee and effectively paved the way for our entry into the LC a year or so later.

But now we learn that the same thing was happening within the LC? Not just between the LC and those who might be following Stephen Kuang or some other general followers of Nee? Wow! The sphere of influence is so diminished that there isn’t even an outsider with which to fight. And the result is the decimation of a small assembly.

Hello Mike,

It seems like a long time since we have had a little back and forth.

That scene on Sept. 1, 1971 in my living room in Dallas is still too vivid in my memory. Gene Edwards, Gary Hendley (sp?) and who knows who else had decided that Dallas needed a New Testament style church life a la WN. We were attempting to have a prayer meeting and Edwards and his group were sitting there glaring at us and saying nothing. Edwards could have said what ever he wanted and no one would have stopped him. But for some reason he asked George Whitington for permission before he spoke. We all were pretty much speechless. Finally George said, "no brother." Then Edwards asked him, "why brother, is it fornication?" George replied, "you need to clear up some things on the West Coast."

The problem all came down to "which co-worker do you like and want to be loyal to." At that time, I did not feel I was in Dallas to establish a WL local church but because the Lord had lead me there. I was very willing to meet with the others and actively pursued them. We were looking for others to join and labor with. I know for a fact they were pushing for a start in Dallas separate from us and before we got established. I do not know what happened in Tampa but in the Dallas case I do point the finger at the other guys.

This event is one of hundreds of the problem of elevating so called workers and the "so called Work." This creation by WN of a parallel entity to the church, the so called "Work" has been divestating to any real practice of preserving the oneness of the Spirit until we arrive at the oneness of the Faith.

In Christ Jesus there is hope for us all,

Hope, Don Rutledge