Strong opinions surround Lee’s Local Church

The Orange County Register, Oct. 13, 2002
http://www2.ocregister.com/
By JOHN GITTELSOHN

ANAHEIM – “It’s all theological, and theology is the realm of opinion.”

Witness Lee continued to travel, raise money and preach well into his 90s.

“We need a corporate model, a body, a people who will all live this way,” Lee said in a 1994 videotape, looking fit in an elegant gray suit, speaking English with only a trace of an accent. “Live what way? Tell me, live what way? Live a life of the God-man.”

COMPLETELY HANDS OFF

Upon his death in 1997, Lee left a corporate legacy as well as a religious one. Living Stream reported assets of $75 million and revenue of $6 million in fiscal 2000 tax filings, the latest available.

In 1998, the ministry paid $33 million for a 28-acre corporate complex at 2431 W. La Palma Road in Anaheim. The leafy campus is home to broadcast studios, classrooms, a bookshop and offices of interpreters who translate Living Stream publications into 40 languages.

This year, Living Stream expects to publish 2.3 million Bibles and other books. Lee’s 238 titles make up more than half the ministry’s catalog. Watchman Nee wrote most of the rest.

Living Stream does not set policy or dictate how to worship at Local Churches, said Yu, 54, who has worked for the ministry since 1982.

“We are completely hands-off,” he said. “We run training sessions here (in Anaheim), which isn’t a church activity. It’s like Microsoft running a course for users of its software at different companies. Microsoft doesn’t control those companies.”

The ministry is trying to blunt accusations of heresy by working on its image.

“We have not changed our theological stand,” Yu said. “We just want people to understand us.”

In June, Living Stream executives met religious officials in China, laying a foundation to get their publi cations off the cult list. Validation closer to home came in July, when the Evangelical Christian Publishers Association, an industry association, admitted Living Stream as a member after a debate over Witness Lee.

“We define a cult as a group with an all-powerful leader with the final word,” said Doug Ross, president of the publishing trade group. “Living Stream doesn’t have a single person. At one time, that may have been true, but we don’t think it is today.”

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