Quote:
Originally Posted by YP0534
You're born again, you're in a place with other believers, you meet with other believers, you are in the assembly and can't get out of it because it's not of you or of any human being or organization. There is no necessity for a designated or official leadership or "local church" designation for this to exist. It is the spiritual reality of there being Christians meeting in a place and God being glorified therein.
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An additional comment on this point:
I now think Lee's error was his teaching that the "local church" being "practical" required that there was "a church that you could go to" and his outright dismissal of the notion that the Lord's presence wherever two or more were gathered indicated the practical assembly.
The condition may not be good and division may be an issue but the assembly in that place exists regardless and there is no requirement for a certified gathering having "taken the ground" for us to reference "the assembly" in a place.
Lee would denigrate the trans-denominational gatherings that happen in cities from time to time. Admittedly, the content tends to be somewhat worldly and religious but the participants in those things almost invariably refer to the activity as being a gathering of "the church" in that place, and rightly so. If the Local Church people would be joined in oneness with them in Christ in that context, the entire building of God could be benefitted.
Ministering Christ anywhere produces the same results as ministering Christ anywhere else: building up the Body. There is absolutely no prerequisite for proper doctrine.