Ministry Churches

[aron]

Originally Posted by Ohio

... about 10-12 years ago, "it" all hit the fan. I was badly beaten up by my leader in a fit of rage. LSM was breathing out threatenings toward TC and the GLA. A close friend was brutally shamed by TC, leaving the full-time work completely. Then I read Thread of Gold and Speaking the Truth in Love. My eyes opened to the abuse I'd witnessed for 30 years...

I wanted to bring Ohio's comment over here, and try to re-visit a statement I'd made recently, about how to communicate with people sucked fully into this mind-set. (It may deserve its own thread but I've started enough already).

My question was, How to show love to people in a system that doesn't know love? Love is patient, love is kind, love doesn't boast, doesn't show favoritism, it doesn't seek its own things but seeks the things of others. We were in a system in which you got 'love' according to your place in the program. The leech cried, "give, give", and people themselves were expendable. This is a system that only seeks its own things, and doesn't care about the things of others. So, how to respond in love?

Now, back to this thread: the point was made earlier that in the LC, Jesus Christ really only has utility to draw people to the church, and the church's usefulness is only to get people oriented to the ministry. These are indeed ministry churches. Any doubt about this was resolved with the "One Trumpet" edict. The LC is here for the one ministry, period. It was thereby formalized, what any discerning person would have known for the past 30 years by hard experience.

So, how to respond in love? Ohio had spoken of the prophet sent by God, speaking words of truth to the collective body of faith. I tried to hone in on that by saying we need to speak words of revelation - our God is a God of unfolding revelation. It pleases Him to reveal His Son in us and to us (Gal 1:16), and then through us. And I argue that this revelation occurs within the larger conversation occurring within the universal body of the Christian faith. And this revelation is unfolding.

WN and WL rejected that larger conversation, even though they claimed to "closely follow" it. They merely looked back, took what was useful for own their ministry, and discarded the rest. But they arguably discarded the most crucial thing: openness to God's present speaking in the flock. I was so conditioned reflexively to orient toward the ministry of WL, and so closed to anything else, that for years post-LC I couldn't hear anything in Christian meetings because my "ministry filter" was tuned up so high. All I could hear in my head was, "that's not God's economy, that's not God's economy, that's not God's economy" over and over again. It took a long time to begin to listen for God's speaking, when I was talking to people, or reading, or listening to messages. But eventually I got it and I knew it was God; it was the same Spirit that I confessed the name of Jesus Christ to, all those years ago. The unfolding revelation had returned!

So to conclude, I repeat my earlier comments, that we're not here to slag anyone, but to speak words of life to one another. It's happening in Christianity. Yes there's tons of detritus and junk, but believe it or not, people are being inspired, and they are listening to the ancient guides, and to what God is speaking. To me it might be a word from a psalm, to you it might be a word from an epistle, to another something from a prophet. God is speaking, and His revelation of Jesus Christ now unfolds among us. God's word is entirely dynamic. It's not at all static. It lives and operates, it moves and acts. And I believe that today it can be heard operating within the sound of "many waters" (Rev 14:2, 1:15, cf Ezek 43:2). A nearly countless multitude on earth is hearing and responding to the voice from the throne in heaven. This is truly the sound out of heaven.

The abuse that Ohio received and witnessed, and so many others have testified to, flows from a lack of basic and essential revelation. And by cutting themselves off from the life-flow of fellowship in the Body of Christ, the Lee-ites and LC'ers have resorted to ever-more marginal revelations to feed on.

To hear what God is speaking today, it is not easy to discern, but it's eminently worth pursuing. If we pursue God's revelation within the larger fellowship of which we're a part, we'll have something profitable to speak to the LC, as to all the rest. We'll truly be able to minister in season and out of season. Because God is speaking. The Spirit is indeed speaking to the churches, all of them, and blessed are those who have ears to hear.