What is a Glorious Church life?

[Ohio]

The Barber boys had some personal issues growing up in the LC's with such a notable father, a gifted teacher, and who was there in LA almost from the beginning. In this regard, some considered that the boys were not a glory to their, now deceased, father. The comments I mentioned partly reflected this fact.

But, in my mind, this begs a much bigger question -- why?

For so long, we all received numerous promises of the Lord's blessing upon our families and children, just by being "absolute for Christ and the church." Later this translated into "absolute oneness for the ministry." Not just in Barber's case, but in so many others, including my own, I kept asking "where is the promised blessing." Not only was there the lack of blessing, but, in many families, the appearance of curse.

James Barber was long regarded as one such prototype, absolute in his heart and living and teaching. As such, he should have been the most blessed. Instead, somewhat "the opposite" occurred. His family has "left the church." How could this be? In my mind this was unthinkable.

So many exclusive "claims" by the ministry were just "lies" to extract daily service from the saints. How many times did I hear, "you just give yourself to the church, and the Lord will take care of your family." That is why I was forced over the years to rethink so many LC claims.

The greatest lesson to learn from James Barber was that all his exclusive teachings should be rejected as failures. The same is true of all LSM teachings. Their continual judgments upon outsiders and their elitist claims should all be discarded. We have seen enough of that bad fruit. I do remember James' love for the Lord, His people, and His word, but like to forget the rest.

This, in my view, was part of the reason the "glorious church life" faded. Healthy patterns of Christian parenting were often discarded in favor of "the program." LSM visions of exclusive grandeur hoped to invent a "better mousetrap" and they failed.