Moving to a more peaceful place

[Hope]

Dear brothers and sisters,

I had been posting on the Berean forum but over the last month I have become clear that perhaps my time there is over. I noticed that my account of the Lord's move in the Local Churches is listed here. I am seriously considering posting the next chapter here rather than on the Berean forum. If that would be a problem would one of the administrators let me know.

I look forward to profitable fellowship and not the wrangling of words that was happening on the other forum.

Thank you all in Christ,

Hope, Don Rutledge

[UntoHim]

Originally Posted by Hope

I look forward to profitable fellowship and not the wrangling of words that was happening on the other forum.

So do we, brother Don, so do we.

Many are aware of the problems created when people who were never followers of Witness Lee, or know very little about the Local Church movement, get tangled up with current and former members. This includes well meaning Christian apologists. Also it gets confusing when you have posters who have never been in the Local Church movement posing as LC members, then couple this with former LC members who are posing as unattached third party "observers", and it becomes a volatile mix indeed!

Anyway, the administrators of this forum are determined to foster an atmosphere of genuine and profitable discussions between current and former Local Churchers. This does not mean that third parties with no direct LC experience will be discouraged (much less forbidden) to participate, it's just that they will not be allowed to "muck up the proceedings" as it were.

Finally, the moderation on this forum is going to be PLURAL. Those with special interests and burdens towards certain boards (and the capacity to lead the discussion) will be asked to moderate. There will be the formation of a forum Council which will include all administrators, moderators and advisers. Eventually, all major decisions and the handling of problems and problem posters will be handled by this council.

[aron]

Originally Posted by Hope

I look forward to profitable fellowship and not the wrangling of words that was happening on the other forum.

I was considering the word "moderate" when the Moderator was recently removed on the other forum. A Moderator should moderate between the two extremes. If the Moderators are themselves extremists, the opportunity for profitable fellowship is greatly diminished.

A moderate person is able to look beyond themselves for further aspects of reality. An extremist, on the other hand, claims to have already laid hold of the truth, complete and entire, and any modification is by definition impossible.

As a christian, I have chosen Christ and any other option for me is closed. To the world, I may thus seem closed-minded and extreme. But I defend my position in the same way I have chosen a wife. I will not consider any other woman, not because mine is better, but because I have chosen. And likewise, by the same token, one day I chose Christ. I limited my options to Jesus the Nazarene.

But as a christian, my journey into the reality of what first beckoned me the day I 'saw' Jesus there ministering to the needy and oppressed world, that journey continues, hopefully. And for that journey I need the fellowship of others who have experienced things I still lack, and others who are interested in my experiences of Christ.

The world is already full of profitless, adversarial exchanges among people who are convinced they are right. When we admit that we 'have not yet laid hold', I think we can have fellowship. I certainly prefer the latter to the former.

[TLFisher]

Originally Posted by aron

The world is already full of profitless, adversarial exchanges among people who are convinced they are right. When we admit that we 'have not yet laid hold', I think we can have fellowship. I certainly prefer the latter to the former.

I consider this example I used in a conversation I had with a brother yesterday.
My son just finished third grade. Whenever he has a test to always double0check his work. There is always the possibility something was overlooked or a problem was incorrectly answered. Double-checking the work affords my son the opportunity to correct his mistakes.
Likewise we as brothers and sisters in the Lord are not perfect. We are prone to error. When we realize the potential of being wrong, having fellowship with others may help expose what needs correcting and adjusting through the Lord.

Terry

[OBW]

Welcome Don. I may not be very involved here for a while either, but I think this place is where my desire has been relative to the insanity that seems to have taken hold of the BARM forum. I would welcome most, if not all of the people from that place, but we all need some "moderation" in our online lives. I was wondering if the chaos there would eventually drive you away. Looks like I was right.

[Testing123]

Brother Don,

If I am free to add my two cents, I would certainly welcome the posting of the third chapter of your book here as opposed to at TheBereans Forum. In the last few weeks, the latter has become a circus led by moderators who seem either too ignorant or too antagonistic to contribute anything useful to discussion. I think that if you published here, it would increase awareness of the forum and help facilitate a move away from TheBereans.

[aron]

Originally Posted by Terry

... We as brothers and sisters in the Lord are not perfect. We are prone to error. When we realize the potential of being wrong, having fellowship with others may help expose what needs correcting and adjusting through the Lord.

Amen. I think we have seen a system where the Top Dog was answerable only to God, and the Top Dog's Trusted Lieutenants were adjusted only by him, and the Lieutenants in turn carried the message to the Sergeants and
Corporals, who oversaw the Small Potatoes.

It is a pyramid scheme, it is a hierarchy, a very successful model used often in worldly affairs. But God doesn't want that. God wants mutuality. We should be free to correct and adjust all, and to be corrected and adjusted by all. We should welcome this. Judgment begins in the house of God. It is good to be examined by all.

Now, it nearly goes without saying but since we are saying, I'll add that a brother like Hope who was caring for the believers while I was still playing with my Tonka trucks is probably going to be able to adjust me with a far greater frequency than he is to modify his walk due to my ministry. But at least the possibility exists that if I get some light he might profit as well. In the Old System we saw none of that. The flow was strictly one way. "I adjust you; you can't adjust me." Such statements led to two sets of rules, one for the adjustee and one for the adjuster. It became a sham and a farce.

Enough for now. This was my windy and wordy way of saying "amen" to your post, Terry. Peace to you & to all who name Christ.

[aron]

I have been thinking of the title of this thread for a couple of days and wanted to try & comment. I was very impressed one day to find out that "Salem" means peace. "Jerusalem" means "Foundation of peace", right?

The foundation of God's throne, God's ruling, is righteousness. And once we accepted Jesus Christ as God's righteous sacrifice, we took Him as our righteousness, and we knew real peace. The foundational experience of our christian walk is to know peace. That is the basic 'square one' experience we get when we believe. We have real peace. A peace that can't be taken away.

To me, that is the "more peaceful place" Hope was referring to. There is a place within where peace always dwells. Sometimes we get distracted, but it is always there if we turn back to it. God has given us an unshakeable kingdom, and anchor within the veil that can hold in any storm.

The Lord in His earthly walk never lost that connection. Even when the storms were raging without, He had peace within. That was why He could say to the wind and the waves, "Be still". The external chaos never imposed its way within Him. He always was the Son of Peace, the Prince of Peace.

And now we follow Him. The wrangling that can occasionally be seen in internet forums, as elsewhere, is a demonstration of the fact that Satan can beguile the human race and cause us to lose our way. So, we acknowledge our lack, we acknowledge His abundance, we turn with both repentance and thanksgiving, and we go on. As Hope said, we are "moving to a more peaceful place".

Thanks for letting me share.