Publication Work in The Lord's Recovery aka The One Publication

[Freedom]

Originally Posted by Terry

When it's located on the same bookshelf as an Encyclopedia or the Bible, it is an Encyclopedia or the Bible that will be read before a ministry book would. All the word-smithing utilized to try to make LSM publications unique and distinct only results in a fast tract to irrelevance.

LSM books are readily available to read online and purchase on places like amazon for anyone who wishes to do so, not to mention all the vast collections of books LC members already have. So if people aren't reading them, it's not a lack of availability or a lack of visibility of the books. The market is already saturated, and people are bored with the same old books. These promotions just highlight the reality of the situation.

Anyways, if the LSM is so intent on selling books, maybe they should learn from Dong Yu Lan and start opening BooKafes
https://christianbookshopsblog.org.u...pcafe-culture/

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Freedom

LSM books are readily available to read online and purchase on places like amazon for anyone who wishes to do so, not to mention all the vast collections of books LC members already have. So if people aren't reading them, it's not a lack of availability or a lack of visibility of the books. The market is already saturated, and people are bored with the same old books. These promotions just highlight the reality of the situation.

We should never forget that it is the Spirit who gives life. A book that once was anointed, may not always be anointed, in contrast to God's Word.

LSM's books are not meeting people's needs, and hence have become worse than boring. From spoken messages to Life Studies to Rainbow Booklets to Green Volumes to Crystalization Studies to Blended Rehashings, the same teachings have been reprinted, repackaged, and resold for profit to the same customers. Nothing new, nothing fresh, nothing anointed.

Their people are starving, yet they claim to be stuffed with riches.

[Nell]

Originally Posted by Ohio

We should never forget that it is the Spirit who gives life. A book that once was anointed, may not always be anointed, in contrast to God's Word.

LSM's books are not meeting people's needs, and hence have become worse than boring. From spoken messages to Life Studies to Rainbow Booklets to Green Volumes to Crystalization Studies to Blended Rehashings, the same teachings have been reprinted, repackaged, and resold for profit to the same customers. Nothing new, nothing fresh, nothing anointed.

Their people are starving, yet they claim to be stuffed with riches.

Ohio,

This doesn't say much for Lee being the "Minister of the Age", does it? Perhaps Lee's "age" is OVER? Lee's ministry ended with his death. All that's left is recycled and repackaged books...like eating Hamburger Helper every meal.

However, Martin Luther's contribution, justification by faith, is ageless and timeless. Lee's contribution is ... not.

Nell

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Nell

Ohio,

This doesn't say much for Lee being the "Minister of the Age", does it? Perhaps Lee's "age" is OVER? Lee's ministry ended with his death. All that's left is recycled and repackaged books...like eating Hamburger Helper every meal.

Nell

There was a time when I lived on Hamburger Helper....

Definitely tasted better than repackaged Lee.

Please retract your negative comments!

[Nell]

Originally Posted by Ohio

There was a time when I lived on Hamburger Helper....

Definitely tasted better than repackaged Lee.

Please retract your negative comments!

OK. You have a point. Hamburger Helper does taste better.
Oh right...I forgot. Don't say anything negative. Are you sure that applies to Hamburger Helper?

How long do i have to retract before I get banned?

[OBW]

Originally Posted by Ohio

We should never forget that it is the Spirit who gives life. A book that once was anointed, may not always be anointed, in contrast to God's Word.

LSM's books are not meeting people's needs, and hence have become worse than boring. From spoken messages to Life Studies to Rainbow Booklets to Green Volumes to Crystalization Studies to Blended Rehashings, the same teachings have been reprinted, repackaged, and resold for profit to the same customers. Nothing new, nothing fresh, nothing anointed.

Their people are starving, yet they claim to be stuffed with riches.

And I will be the fly in the ointment.

A book (other than the Bible) is never anointed. What it says may be (in part) and if it is then it should always be, even if not readily understood in other contexts, cultures, times, etc.

But when it comes to LSM books, my question is "what needs did LSM books ever meet?"

And I would suggest that it was the need to get deeper into a garlic room of misdirection and confusion. And I say that no matter how much many of us once held them in (at least somewhat) high esteem. I admit I was fooled once. But no more. At least not by that source.

[Drake]

OBW"A book (other than the Bible) is never anointed."

The wording of this sentence obfuscates the spiritual reality.

For instance, if Billy Graham speaks and 1000 people come forward to receive the Lord then there can be no doubt that his speaking was anointed. The anointing being the Spirit operating on a person as a result of the spoken word.

If that same message is transcribed into print, and people read it and the Spirit operates causing them to come to the Lord then that also confirms the same word is anointed.

Spoken or written the message is anointed, it is the Spirit's speaking.

Drake

[Freedom]

Personally, I wouldn't deny the possibility of a book being anointed, but I think there is a lot more ambiguity with books. Going back to the Billy Graham example, it is easy to characterize speaking as being anointed in a particular place and time. If a recording or transcription of that meeting is made, how do we know it will retain a lasting impact? The fact is that no one can guarantee or know if it will. Most importantly, it seems a presumptuous to look at the impact a message, then assume publishing a book based on that meeting would have the same impact.

Of course, there are plenty of books that do have a noticeable impact. When The Purpose Driven Life was published, there was definitely something special about the book that resulted in it becoming so popular. Whether someone wants to call it 'anointed' or not doesn't make any difference to me, but I would be comfortable saying that the full impact of that particular book has already been realized. In other words, most of the people who will might find help from that book have already received help from it.

WL might have given numerous messages that most people who were there would say characterize it as being ‘anointed’. However, for those who were not there, reading a book is not going to recreate the environment of actually being there. Whether or not that book is helpful depends mostly on the individual. Don’t forget that in their own words, LSM calls this current book drive a promotion. If LSM books are everything they are claimed to be, then why do they need to be promoted? Why do people need to be pressured to read them? Books that people actually want usually sell themselves. Go on Amazon and look at all the top selling Christian books and Bibles. People actually pay money to purchase those. The LCM struggles to give away the RcV for free.

[Drake]

-1 I was responding to the notion of "never anointed".

[Evangelical]

Books are not anointed, only people are.

One person may say a book is anointed, another may say it isn't. It depends on the person, not the book.

[TLFisher]

Originally Posted by Freedom

Don’t forget that in their own words, LSM calls this current book drive a promotion. If LSM books are everything they are claimed to be, then why do they need to be promoted? Why do people need to be pressured to read them? Books that people actually want usually sell themselves. Go on Amazon and look at all the top selling Christian books and Bibles. People actually pay money to purchase those. The LCM struggles to give away the RcV for free.

I don't know if they still do it now, but a one time a particular tactic to promote the publications would to say if you want to be an overcomer, you need to get into the ministry.
Perhaps after a number of years and an unseemly number of dollars spent on books coming out left and right, some people saw through the façade? Others might say, why am I pretending? Buying books never read only to collect dust in their garage, bookshelves, closets, etc.

[Trapped]

I have heard that one thing that is being pushed now is called something like "Bookroom Service Workshop" where saints in the bookroom (plus a mandatory elder) fly out to Anaheim to get instructed how to carry out a proper bookroom, i.e. pleasing book displays, how ordering from LSM works, making sure the saints know about the bookroom, the importance of the ministry, and other topics on HWMR, CWWL, etc, etc. Of course to show loyalty many localities will feel obligated to participate. The instant I heard about it I just thought "money", but also "uhmm, seriously?"

Sheesh.

[TLFisher]

Originally Posted by Freedom

LSM books are readily available to read online and purchase on places like amazon for anyone who wishes to do so, not to mention all the vast collections of books LC members already have. So if people aren't reading them, it's not a lack of availability or a lack of visibility of the books. The market is already saturated, and people are bored with the same old books. These promotions just highlight the reality of the situation.

I suspect many of the newer books have their content taken from earlier publications only to make it appear "this is new". As it is much of the online content is diluted from it's original form.

[Freedom]

Originally Posted by Terry

I suspect many of the newer books have their content taken from earlier publications only to make it appear "this is new". As it is much of the online content is diluted from it's original form.

When the LSM releases 'new' books, everyone can rest assured that it is nothing new.

I noticed that in the advertising for the CWWL they say that a significant portion of the material is previously unreleased. That may very well be true. But there is a big thing people forget about WL. He wasn't an author. He didn't write much of anything. He spoke messages. Lots of them.

Messages are delivered to audiences, and the content of a spoken message is not usually considered to have a long term applicability. It is spoken in the here and now. So what the LSM is actually releasing is a bunch of content that has a highly questionable applicability and relevance.

[Nell]

Originally Posted by Freedom

When the LSM releases 'new' books, everyone can rest assured that it is nothing new.

I noticed that in the advertising for the CWWL they say that a significant portion of the material is previously unreleased. That may very well be true. But there is a big thing people forget about WL. He wasn't an author. He didn't write much of anything. He spoke messages. Lots of them.

Messages are delivered to audiences, and the content of a spoken message is not usually considered to have a long term applicability. It is spoken in the here and now. So what the LSM is actually releasing is a bunch of content that has a highly questionable applicability and relevance.

Conversely, the spoken message tape transcripts are themselves are edited in content before released in print. Some spoken-to-written editing is necessary but content should be polished, not completely omitted.

I attended a Witness Lee meeting in Dallas in the '90's wherein he shared about "man becomes God". I was shocked by this, as it was a fairly new topic for Lee. I waited for months to obtain a copy of this Dallas conference message in print. When it was finally released, I was shocked again that "man becomes God" was nowhere to be found. I was there. I heard it with my own ears. It was in my notes.

This was only one example. Several times I thought I heard something ...controversial... looked it up in my notes and there it was. Yet it never made it to print. I cited a passage from "Elders Training #9" to an LC member. They came back "That's not in my ET#9". Sure enough, it wasn't. I had the original publication, my friend did not...so he did not believe WL said what I cited.

The spoken messages are transcribed, then often manipulated for a desired effect, applicability and an "updated relevance".

Nell

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Nell

Conversely, the spoken message tape transcripts are themselves are edited in content before released in print. Some spoken-to-written editing is necessary but content should be polished, not completely omitted.

I attended a Witness Lee meeting in Dallas in the '90's wherein he shared about "man becomes God". I was shocked by this, as it was a fairly new topic for Lee. I waited for months to obtain a copy of this Dallas conference message in print. When it was finally released, I was shocked again that "man becomes God" was nowhere to be found. I was there. I heard it with my own ears. It was in my notes.

This was only one example. Several times I thought I heard something ...controversial... looked it up in my notes and there it was. Yet it never made it to print. I cited a passage from "Elders Training #9" to an LC member. They came back "That's not in my ET#9". Sure enough, it wasn't. I had the original publication, my friend did not...so he did not believe WL said what I cited.

The spoken messages are transcribed, then often manipulated for a desired effect, applicability and an "updated relevance".

Nell

Nell, this explains so much, that even the current members do not understand.

For example, why the Blendeds felt compelled to cut off Titus Chu when nothing, even in their own books, would warrant it.

[ZNPaaneah]

Originally Posted by Nell

Conversely, the spoken message tape transcripts are themselves are edited in content before released in print. Some spoken-to-written editing is necessary but content should be polished, not completely omitted.

I attended a Witness Lee meeting in Dallas in the '90's wherein he shared about "man becomes God". I was shocked by this, as it was a fairly new topic for Lee. I waited for months to obtain a copy of this Dallas conference message in print. When it was finally released, I was shocked again that "man becomes God" was nowhere to be found. I was there. I heard it with my own ears. It was in my notes.

This was only one example. Several times I thought I heard something ...controversial... looked it up in my notes and there it was. Yet it never made it to print. I cited a passage from "Elders Training #9" to an LC member. They came back "That's not in my ET#9". Sure enough, it wasn't. I had the original publication, my friend did not...so he did not believe WL said what I cited.

The spoken messages are transcribed, then often manipulated for a desired effect, applicability and an "updated relevance".

Nell

When I was in Houston and Irving there were layers of editing. These messages generally went through 3 levels of editing, only one level involved polishing the English language. I think I and others did the first layer of obvious mistakes. James F and Pat F were two of those who did the basic english editing. When I was there Ben M was one of those responsible for editing out the aspects that would be picked up by the cult books.

Basic error of the cult books was to base their study off of the written word instead of getting the video tapes.

[TLFisher]

Originally Posted by Nell

Conversely, the spoken message tape transcripts are themselves are edited in content before released in print. Some spoken-to-written editing is necessary but content should be polished, not completely omitted.

I attended a Witness Lee meeting in Dallas in the '90's wherein he shared about "man becomes God". I was shocked by this, as it was a fairly new topic for Lee. I waited for months to obtain a copy of this Dallas conference message in print. When it was finally released, I was shocked again that "man becomes God" was nowhere to be found. I was there. I heard it with my own ears. It was in my notes.

This was only one example. Several times I thought I heard something ...controversial... looked it up in my notes and there it was. Yet it never made it to print. I cited a passage from "Elders Training #9" to an LC member. They came back "That's not in my ET#9". Sure enough, it wasn't. I had the original publication, my friend did not...so he did not believe WL said what I cited.

The spoken messages are transcribed, then often manipulated for a desired effect, applicability and an "updated relevance".

Such is true Nell. It may have been inferred if not spoken directly that the cult books that came out in the late 70's/early 80's had it's content based more off audio tapes than published material.
Even if one was to go by Witness Lee's final conference. What he spoke was edited to appear quite differently. Just by removing one word hear or there, it becomes quote easy to take out of context what was actually spoken.

[Freedom]

Originally Posted by Nell

Conversely, the spoken message tape transcripts are themselves are edited in content before released in print. Some spoken-to-written editing is necessary but content should be polished, not completely omitted.

My point wasn't so much about the editing itself, but of the fact that WL didn't sit down and write books with a broad audience in mind. It seems I read somewhere that WL claimed that he often went up to the podium not knowing what he was going to speak. If true, then the published content of such messages has a particularly questionable applicability.