Open - Interactive Letter to The Co-Workers in The Lord's Recovery

[Jay]

Originally Posted by TLFisher

I think it is hypocritical will take the road to sectarianism.
Hypocritical in the sense. Take for example the pseudo Blended MR from Bellevue. Paraphrasing an example he gave regarding the local ground is if you want to go a certain person's home, there is only one address. Not multiple. Meaning the Church in Bellevue is like a legal wife. Another other church than wants to call themselves a church is not like a legal wife. My mom had pretty much said the same thing, but in other words.
It's hypocritical because if you are a brother meeting with the Church in Seattle for example and you raised a concern to an elder the local churches are becoming like ministry churches, and then are requested to go meet somewhere else. By making such a statement does such an elder truly believe the Church in Seattle is the only legitimate church in Seattle. It's hypocritical.
Taking this way of one church one city is also sectarian. Having lived in Renton for nearly 25 years, Christians I've met from services, riding the bus, etc, there are many home meetings throughout Renton. Yet the attitude within the local churches is they will only go to LC home meetings. And vice versa when I was meeting with the Church in Renton, when it came to home meetings they had room if you met with the local churches.
One of my regrets. Returning from summer vacation August 2010, not sharing my experience meeting John Ingalls at the Renton home meeting.

There's a lot to unpack here. First of all the term church just means congregation. In the original Greek it means 'gathering of the called out ones.' So in a sense wherever believers meet there is the church. Ok.....but, we have Deuteronomy chapter 12 where the Lord clearly says we can't just meet at any old place we want to, but at the place of his choosing. So where is that then? That's a golden question in this equation

As far as who is welcome in the LC, I've never ever seen anyone who met at a denomination turned away. I've never felt that type of pressure or heard that type of concept being spoken. Rather the opposite, I've only heard that we accept all believers in our meetings. And from time to time some would come and they weren't treated weirdly or ostracized. So I'm not quite sure why you're alluding to that type of thing happening. Have you seen it happen?


Also I'm not sure why you view the concept of the local ground as like a legality. I don't think that's what it is per se. I think it's more of a doctrine, and as far as I can tell is completely correct. I think the brothers are right to stand strong on that doctrine because it safeguards against divisions, which is one of satan's biggest tactics against the building of the church. one thing I haven't heard anyone on this website say or mention is how satan is involved in the denominations and his plan to divide the body through them. I absolutely see that that's what he has done throughout the centuries starting with Catholicism. and he's brought in a lot of weird and damaging practices into these divided centers of gathering. so what I see from that is his goal is to disconnect and distort. to fight against that you need a proper vision (Proverbs 29:18)

As far as your experience with that elder in Seattle I don't really understand why he would request for you to meet somewhere else. that is confusing and seems odd and wrong for him to say given the context you presented, unless there's more to the story

And to touch again on your line "the church in Bellevue is like a legal wife." I think your thought here is really similar to women who say things like "my husband is so controlling because he won't let me talk to other men." think about that for a minute......However with that said I don't believe at all that anyone in the LC would tell another member that they COULDN'T go and meet somewhere else. I think they have advised and admonished against that type of thing in ways. Which I understand the warnings behind that. So again I can't really co-sign on your experience here as the LC "controlling" the members with "legalities" over meeting only at the LC. because I have never heard of that type of thing or experienced it. I'm not saying it hasn't happened, but certainly nothing I've ever heard about. As far as I know the door in and out of the church is always open