My Views and Stance on The Recovery

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Larry

Wow.

Ohio, could you say more about this? Was the suicide related to the battles within the LC's?

I can't blame it directly on the LC. I frankly don't know what snapped in my friend. He was a great guy, married with children, great sense of humor, extremely generous with his time and money. Nobody saw this coming. He was active in the church for 20 years. After he passed, I heard whispers, "brother Ohio there were things you didn't know."

Months before his demise, his family was assigned to a small group with our new "leader." Vern's new agenda was supposed to bring "intimacy" to the church life. Instead of gathering together to worship the Lord and remember Him, we were busted up into fragments to break bread in an "intimate way," so said our new leader. Never mind that all the saints I talked with wanted to gather together on the Lord's day. But, what did they know? Our new leader knew better. He thought the church needed to be "shocked."

What we really needed was elders who placed the local church above Titus Chu and Cleveland. Was that too much to ask? I didn't think so, but when I spoke up on behalf of the church, Vern Yoder said thrice that this was a "strong accusation!" Why? Because I pointed out that it was a serious conflict of interest to have 3 elders who were all employees of Titus? And the original elder of the church, who had recently moved back to town, was not permitted to serve any more because he quit the work with Titus after years of intense public abuse. But Vern insisted that I apologize for my "accusations," which I did and then decided to part ways amicably.

During this time, the three church elders / employees of Titus were constantly going to Cleveland to "fight the good fight of the faith" against LSM's Blendeds. They needed constant "prayer and fellowship to stand with our brother." Home meetings and church meetings constantly were occupied with quarantine talk. Who has time for "intimate" fellowship and shepherding one another when we are fighting a war. I stated on a few occasions that we as a church should be neutral and not take sides. That went over like a lead balloon. "We have to take a stand for the truth!" Yeah right! Isn't that what LSM is doing too?

Tragically my friend's widow died from cancer just a couple years later. We surely need the Lord's mercy.