Against the LC Practice of Prophesying

[Freedom]

Originally Posted by Ohio

I will ever be thankful for all the training and encouragement I have received in the LC's to speak for the Lord. On the other hand, I was also upset when I discovered that Lee's motive was not just to help the one-talented members like myself, but to neutralize all the other gifted members that might be a rival to him.

I would say that there were some positive things gained from this practice, if nothing else, learning to speak in front of people and learning to speak the Word.

In regards to all the "one-talented" members, I often wonder how necessary it really is to posses certain skills that should by no means be an expectation that someone. I will give an example of what I mean by this. Something I have seen is with many FTTA graduates, they will be put in situations where they have to speak more than an "opening word", such as maybe a short message or something like that. In some of the YP or college conferences, they will have random younger FTTA graduate type brothers give the messages. Not necessarily a problem, however, it's not as simple as asking them to speak and then letting them go do their thing. Quite the contrary, they are given an outline to speak from, and it is pretty obvious that someone is behind it all, "fellowship" with them on what to speak, how to speak, etc. I have listened to a number of messages given by inexperienced speakers, some can do a good job, others don't. I've never made is a point to try and judge anyone.

In my eyes the problem is that they put so many in a position where they are supposed to learn a skill, rather than exercise a gift. In the original excerpt I posted, I think Lee recognized that some don't have the gift to speak, and shouldn't, but that attitude is long gone. Instead many are put into shoes that they can't fill or even shouldn't fill. Some brothers can speak fine, but that doesn't mean their speaking is of any value.

Getting back to what Ohio posted, when all the "one talented" members can supposedly do the task that perhaps a gifted member should do, it essentially negates the function of someone who has a particular gift, such as the gift of ministering.