Europe, Russia and Surrounding area -

[Oregon]

My story is very simple Igzy. I came into the church life when I was 17 and have spent the majority of my life in the local churches. When I was young and in the earlier years the situation was quite different. There was no Recovery Version…although I am not opposed to it. There was no Holy Word for Morning Revival Booklets and I am not opposed to them either.
Witness Lee clearly taught back then that if you move to a new city and there are some meeting there but their practices are quite different then just drop everything and be one with them.

The commonly held belief that Witness Lee is the apostle of the age and that his ministry was the ministry of the age certainly was not taught in those days. We all had books written by other genuinely spiritual authors and we even sold them at the book table in the meeting hall.

Witness Lee publicly praised the book “The Spirit of Christ” written by Andrew Murray and many of us had and read that book regularly…..and it is a tremendous book as well as the other writings of Andrew Murray. Madame Guyon’s writings were read and cherished by many. William Law was another writer held in high regard.

When Bother Lee gave messages on “The Generality of the church” we all picked that up and were very impressed with that. That basically stated that we should only fight for the basic elements of the Christian faith and be general about everything else or we would cause division. Well……I think that is clearly a thing of the past. The local churches may still utter this but in practice it is not so.

I did function as an elder in one of the local churches for a number of years but that means nothing to me and I only mention it because you asked to hear my story.

The departure of many precious ones over the years has been a great loss and it has had a deep affect upon me. When John Ingles and Bill Mallon left that was a real landmark to me. I’ve known John personally for many years and still hold him in high regard. I didn’t know Bill Mallon as well but he did stay in our house when I was younger when he spoke at a conference in our locality. I knew Max Rappport(spelling?) fairly well and am very familiar with what went on with that whole situation. When John So left that was also very significant to me. John So left a deep impression on me in those early years.

I went through all the “door knocking” evangelization of the late 80’s and eventually became a….not so consecrated half hearted attendee. I have fellowshipped outside of the local churches for a number of years.
I’m not full of bitterness or active condemnation of the LSM churches. I just believe they have moved away from the genuine practice of “keeping the oneness of the body” to the following of a ministry. I’m not a Witness Lee hater…….but have always preferred the writings of Watchman Nee over Witness Lee and I believe there are significant differences in their writings. They “Do Not” always speak the same thing.

Anyhow….there you have my story in a nutshell. I still believe all believers in a locality should function as the church in their city and you and I have debated over this. I’m not going to carry on and endless debate on the issue.

That’s my basic story. There’s no way I’m going to believe that only those under Witness Lee’s ministry, who are in tight nit fellowship with the local churches under the oversight of the Blended Brothers, is the only genuine fellowship of the body of Christ as this letter seems to state.

The Spirit bears witness with our spirit as Paul said in Romans. I have touched life in many saints not in the “only genuine fellowship” . The statement in this letter definitely shows the “exclusiveness” that has developed over these years.