Quote:
The relationship is this - the churches should always help the work and cooperate with the work to promote God's work, and the work should try the best to always strengthen the churches, edify the churches, establish the churches, and build up the churches for the building up of the Body of Christ. Thus, the churches and the work should be very much in cooperation and coordination with each other. This is why we say that the churches should be one with the ministry...
I brought the recovery to the United States, and you received it. You are the result of my work. Should I not expect that you all would be one with me, cooperating with me to promote the Lord's recovery? What is wrong with this?
Witness Lee, The Eldership and the God-Ordained Way, Volume 1, pg. 86
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The above quote is a vindictive word that WL gave about the relationship of the churches with his ministry. I notice that he begins by saying that "the work" should be there to help the churches. He also says that the churches and work should be in cooperation with each other. As WL describes it initially, there is nothing immediately concerning about this kind of relationship, that is the idea of churches and work cooperating for a common interest.
The degree of "cooperation" is where things get sticky. WL makes no hesitation in implying that there should be a significant amount of cooperation between the churches and the ministry ("one with the ministry"). The reality of the situation is that the churches should have no obligation to be "one with the ministry", especially if they weren't finding his ministry to be helpful. Even if there were churches who found his ministry to be particular helpful, the cooperation didn't need to be the degree of "one with the ministry". Supporting the ministry or working together is completely sufficient.
At the end of this quote, WL instills a sense of guilt, saying that his ministry is what started "the recovery" so everyone needs to remain "one" with him. He even asks the question: "what is wrong with this?"
There are a few things wrong with this. Firstly, in the accounts of LC history that I have read, the brothers in Los Angeles planned to start meeting irrespective of what WL was doing. As I understand it, WL decided to stay in the U.S. after the decision had been made. So WL cannot take complete credit for bringing "the recovery to the United States". While it's true that much of what happened afterwards can be attributed to his work, WL seemed to operate on the assumption that because people appreciated his ministry, they needed to remain "one" with him.