A Chilling Discovery?

[Sons to Glory!]

Originally Posted by Barnabas

My experience in studying God’s word is the same Brother! When I come to the Lord in his word I feel as though I know nothing at times. Yes God is faithful to open our understanding (Luke 24:27,32) and reveal himself to us.

I certainly would like to know more about the ones you gather with. That is one concern I have about leaving the LC. I do love the saints and I have many good relations with Believers outside the LC.

For some reason I just saw this post . . . where you are asking about the ones I gather with. So I'm in Scottsdale with a group that was originally in the Pacific NW and part of the LC. A gifted brother by the name of Bill Freeman was with them, and he produced various writings, along with a few other saints. In the mid-80s LSM came down on Bill (and the other writers with him) for having "another ministry." They were told to cease & desist in their writings and various outreaches, as it was deemed not to be in line with LSM. These saints broke with LSM some time afterwards.

Around 1990 many of these ones in the Pacific NW felt moved of the Lord to move to Scottsdale AZ, which they did. I believe perhaps over a hundred families pulled up roots and came down to Arizona. Then in 1998 there was big controversy surrounding Bill Freeman's wife Patsy, and both he and Patsy left this fellowship, along with many of Patsy's followers. I also came to this fellowship in that same year.

The group is much smaller now and calls itself simply "Scottsdale Church" (though "Church in Scottsdale" is on filings with the state). We meet freely with any other Christians and groups we feel to, and there is a lot of what I call "cross pollination" with other believers in the area. The larger gatherings are formatted in a similar open concept as the LC practiced - anyone can call a song, read a verse or share an experience of the Lord they feel led to share. There are three, very dear, leading brothers and six bros (including the 3 elders) currently rotate the ministry messages given on Sundays with the Lord's Table. Typically the sharing is directly from a book of the New Testament we are going through, and the normal exposition is basically verse by verse. I find this quite rich and the supporting testimonies after the message are perhaps even richer.

We are totally free (incredibly so in fact) and encouraged to read any Christian author we feel lead to (who is hopefully Christ centered) and there winds-up being a wide range of different sources floating around between saints in this respect! For instance, somebody recently decided we should have a lending library to which anyone could donate Christian books. A considerable amount of books have been donated, categorized and put on the shelves - and I don't think I know half of the authors! (yes, there are some Watchman Nee and perhaps even a couple Witness Lee books)

Any way, I don't want to get too long, because I'm not sure I'm even answering your question the way you'd hoped. Let me just finish by saying that the Lord has been most loving and rich to me in this place these past 20+ years, and He reminds me frequently (along with tears of joy) that this place is an answer to prayer and that it's where He has put me.

What else may I tell you?