Trying to find a good church in AUSTIN TX

Originally Posted by Trapped

Unregistered poster #3,

Can I suggest that you still are listening to one person for an hour? You are simply listening to everyone draw from Witness Lee repeatedly, over and over for the hour, weekend after weekend after weekend. Literally every meeting you go to in the local church has it's foundation in Witness Lee. All the teaching, all the phrases, all the viewpoints, all the reading - it's Witness Lee's, whether it's stated on the page or not. You may not like one man speaking in other churches, but the local church contains only the speaking of one man - Witness Lee - and no one else. There is a letter written to Witness Lee signed by many leading brothers in 1986, stating that Witness Lee's leading is "indispensable to our oneness". I don't know about you, but I don't recall reading anything about Witness Lee being indispensable to oneness in the Bible when Jesus prayed that we all would be one even as He and the Father are one.....

Your comparison to the level of building up that occurs on Sundays within other churches in which the congregations "listen to one person preach for an hour" presumes that that is the only time during the week that they have to be built up. I can attest there are numerous other times that members of non-LC churches have to speak, speak of, and speak forth their faith in Jesus Christ, all of which builds up the church. God is not so small or restricted that the only genuine building up would occur within the local church. In fact, as a church kid, I question how much genuine building up does occur within the local church.

I know there is a feeling of family and kinship and connectedness. I know there are countless shared experiences that make you feel like fast friends with all the saints. I know there are many saints who "waste themselves" on others. There can still be love and care within an unhealthy group. But there are too many teachings and practices in the local church that are known to be unhealthy and detrimental. You have to test the teachings and hold them up to Scripture.

Can I ask how you found your way to this website? It's rare that a current LC member posts, so please post more if you'd like. The discussions are always enjoyed.

Trapped

I am not saying that Sundays was the only time to be built up, but to me it's like a buffet, listening to some saints speak for up to 2 minutes or more in some cases. In my locality, we've had numerous new ones joining through the Church Website. Most of these new ones were contacted by church members in various ways. They joined some zoom meetings before we resumed in person meetings in early May, but we still provide the zoom option still available for those that prefer it. Also, there are some non-local church members, who go the home meetings, but go to other churches. Yet, we welcome them. In my Friday night home meeting, there is one brother, who goes to a Episcopalian church, but he comes to our meeting about once a month. Before the pandemic, he has hosted some home meetings.

I keep a healthy and balanced practical life. I work fulltime, exercise 4-5 times a week (swimming, running, and weight lifting). In fact, I have ran 8 half marathons (4 in College Station when I was a Texas A&M student, 2 in Houston, and 2 in Austin). Also, I go to about 4 meetings per week (including Wednesday night prayer and Sunday morning prophesying). Even with all of that, I still have some time left for watching some NFL, NBA, and MLB games, some TV shows, and movies.

[OBW]

The idea of having all the regular folks do virtually all the speaking has an appeal. But beware that the variety of ways that people speak is hiding the reality of a singular, extra-biblical source that is of questionable value at best, and serious error and possibly heresy at worst.

[UtahGiant]

Originally Posted by OBW

The idea of having all the regular folks do virtually all the speaking has an appeal.

Very true, but it doesn’t have to occur on Sunday. Lots of small groups have this style of speaking.

[OBW]

Originally Posted by UtahGiant

Very true, but it doesn’t have to occur on Sunday. Lots of small groups have this style of speaking.

But that would not be relevant to the way the meetings are handled. At this point in time, the use of small/home groups, especially for larger assemblies of all kinds, is the norm, not the exception. So when I hear anyone talking about seeking a place where all can speak, it would appear to be more about the nature of the main meetings than subgroups meeting in homes. And that somewhat means that they are seeking a somewhat smaller main group so that such a meeting would not be impractical.

To me, even outside of the LC, to regularly give everyone the possibility to speak in the meetings in the manner that the LC did is somewhat an abdication of spiritual responsibility by the leadership. By those whose calling is to teach, evangelize, shepherd, etc. I am not saying that the notion of a time of testimonies within a topic or range of topics is not acceptable, but that they should not be understood as the crux of the meeting, but as underscoring what has been taught. I realize that this can arguably be tied to the way the LC does it. And that is true. The problem is not simply that everyone can speak. It is the boundaries of what they are allowed to speak on. At present, it is the limited view of scripture as presented by Nee and Lee (primarily Lee) as repackaged in the HWMR. And that is a problem. It needs to have people engage in it and create a "buy-in" so that they are sold on it. And what better way than to get them to be part of the "sales" process.

As for the desire/need to have open meetings of this kind, it seems to me to be the outgrowth of a desire to be more than we are. All the way back to the beginning (in Jerusalem) the believers went to the Temple to hear the preaching of the Word. Fellowship was from house to house, along with the other activities listed. I know we like to think that we are qualified to join in the process of teaching since we all can read our printed Bible (or online Bible) and have been taught so much to sharpen our minds. But we are not our own source of teaching. And, as we can all remember, there were commonly instances where someone stood in the LC to speak their part (whether in the meetings of the 60s, 70s, or 80s. Or in those of the 00s and 10s) whose speaking was questionable at best. They probably still got a few (or many) "Amens." But was this the work of the Spirit moving a prophet to speak, or a system of encouraging everyone to think they have the gift of prophecy and that is how it should be? (Well, until someone stands up who is completely off the wall and the leading ones start into their groaning.)

My point is that too often ex-LCers look for meetings where they can participate in a similar way that they did in the LC because they liked it. But liking the way the meetings are organized is not the basis for Christian fellowship, teaching, etc. And since, in hindsight, it appears that the happy, open meetings were part of a ploy to hook us into something we would not accept if we were allowed to be a little more "Berean" about things. For me, that means not allowing emotions, excitement, or even preferences to drive my theological and even sociological leanings. I rely on a sound connection to the Word of God as expounded by someone who has more than excitement in his delivery.

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by OBW

The idea of having all the regular folks do virtually all the speaking has an appeal.

During my 30 years in that system, I literally attended thousands of meetings of all sorts. Looking back, many were just plain boring, a waste of time, and useless to the body of Christ whether given by great "apostles" or "small potatoes" alike. What made them useless was the lack of the anointing Spirit of the Lord and the healthy expounding of the truths in His word. LSM wasted so much time on the "how-to's" that they missed "The Way" Himself, Jesus our Lord and Savior.

And I'm just talking about the "good part" of the program. Other threads address the multitude of errors they have introduced over the decades while just trying to prove they are better, and the rest of the body of Christ has utterly "failed."