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Originally Posted by djohnson
Ohio you and others have referred to the good old days in the LCS and then "things" changed and extras were brought in and became the focus. But did things really change or did you change i.e. you grew out of it? I ask because it seems to me the history of the LCS under Lee in the USA is just a repeat of history of the problems he caused in the Far East prior to his arrival on our fair shores.
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Hello dear brothers,
Having listened to and read a lot of messages by TAS lately, along with reading a lot about the history of TAS and WL in the late 1950's and early 1960's, I have drawn my own conclusion on this matter. WL did cause a lot of problems and did experience a lot of failures in the Far East before he came to the U.S., but I believe that these many problems and failures served to humble him for a good while. Sadly, the "good while" eventually ran out and similar problems began to become increasingly manifest in the U.S. as well.
Probably the biggest of these early failures was the terrible church-split that took place in Manila in 1961. The church-split in Manila was a real shock to the "Little Flock" churches all over Asia, as the churches raised up by the ministry of Watchman Nee had never known such a split before. It is hard not to place a good bit of the blame at the feet of WL since, by their own admission, the church in Manila had "handed over" their entire church to WL. To this failure in Manila can be added the rebellion in Taiwan, further church-splits in other localities, and WL’s failed business ventures where many brothers and sisters in Taiwan lost a lot of money (Along with the time he was caught smuggling gold out of the Philippines?! I don’t know much about that incident.). During this time period, a lot of problems could be laid at the feet of WL.
I believe these problems humbled WL before the Lord and when he did begin to minister in the U.S., he did a lot less insisting and he kept the focus on Christ. One truly beautiful saying from this time period was "Don't insist and don't resist." On top of that, the Spirit of God really was moving in the young people all over the U.S.. Other spiritual men were ministering in the U.S. as well and a lot of informal, sweet, spontaneous moves of the Spirit were taking place. Those truly were wonderful days.
Sad to say, eventually the insisting came back and the focus subtly shifted to "the ministry". It is a real shame that WL was not open to being balanced by a godly man like TAS. TAS’s large heart, gentle spirit, and hard-won wisdom could have prevented a lot of the earlier problems from being repeated.
May God have mercy on us all.