[Indiana]

[QUOTE=Freedom;41242]When there are groups who claim to be "standing on the ground", a man and a ministry come into play. That ultimately has been the deciding factor by which the LCM recognizes if a group is legitimate or not. Terry has mentioned the church in Moses Lake several times. They are apparently practicing the local church according to Nee/Lee except that the don't practice allegiance to a ministry. That alone is enough to not be recognized as a local church even though the general practice is still the same./QUOTE]

"Things culminated at an urgent international elders’ conference in 1986 with a call from Witness Lee to church leaders to rise up and fight for his ministry. He drew on the parallel of him to Gideon and his carefully selected 300 men used for fighting the battle for Israel. In response, leaders handed him a letter before the last meeting, which he read and then gave this strong word of warning to them, based on the contents of their letter:

“Please be clear, any church meeting as a local church, standing on the ground and recognizing all the local churches around the globe, regardless of whether or not they take the new way, they are a genuine local church. We do not mean that any church that does not take the present new way becomes no more the church. No, we don’t practice that way. That is sectarian.

We practice the all-inclusive church life. I not only speak this to you all, I declare this to all the churches on this earth. Don’t be sectarian. We don’t practice sectarianism; we practice the all-inclusive church life."END QUOTE
from Church of Gideon and his 300 Men

The qualification to be considered a local church was also to recognize the churches around the globe. But they don't recognize ministry churches to be representative of legitimate church government so they are not "rebellious" in not lining up with them or "the man and ministry" fold.