The Ground Of The Church

[YP0534]

Originally Posted by Toledo

I always find the derogatory comments on this site regarding the ground of oneness or the ground of locality to be strange. It is as though none of you ever met with a local church, or ever understood the meaning of the oneness there.
[snip]
I have found that the matter of locality has set me utterly free from denominational Christianity (including that of the LSM churches).

Toledo:

My observation is that among those you speak of there is less of a desire to move beyond the Local Church and more of a mere rebellion against it.

In saying so, I think you have implicitly hit the nail on the head of why that might be. So many have not really recognized the LSM denominationalism for what it is and still internally and habitually assent to the claim that the Local Church is the unique expression of the "genuine local church" in every place where it might be found.

Thus, the method of separation is more likely to be based upon exaggerated horrors of doctrine and practice rather than a somewhat disinterested or reluctant distancing on the painfully ironic fact of the Local Church's denominational stands on any number of items.

I received a burned-in vision of the oneness of the believers where I was but it seems pretty clear that the denominational practices in many other places left a large number without the benefit of ever having seen that.