Christian Clubs Recruitments on College Campuses Beware

[AnonSan]

This is more of an awareness piece after stumbling upon Christians on Campus - Hiding Who They Are online, but Christian groups like my family of origin's have become more tactical and manipulative n luring potential college (freshmen) students to join their churches. 

 

My family's church of origin is very much aware of the controversies about the church's founder and his theology. So, to recruit potential new members from college campuses, they have established their official club on campus under the generic club names such as "Christians on Campus" or "Christian Students at____". Their campus clubs purposefully only touch upon the more wholesome Christian subjects-never mentioning the founder's name. The legalistic teachings from the church's founder and the jargon associated with it are only presented to members who grew up in the system or when new members have become fully integrated into the church system. Otherwise, they love-bomb the hell out of the new attendees once invited to game nights and free meals to attract homesick/vulnerable students to attend more often (they also always serve sandwiches/snacks every club meeting). The church's founder confirms their intended target and purpose in the following:

 

"On the one hand, the freshmen in college are eager to leave home; on the other hand, as they live in the dormitories at school, they are often lonely and homesick. This provides an excellent opportunity to invite them into our homes." [Note: some families serving between the club campus and church branch provide very affordable off-campus housing and hospitality... under certain terms and conditions of course!]

WITNESS LEE, THE SPIRIT AND THE BODY, CHAPTER 11, SECTION 5 (EMBOLDENED EMPHASIS MY OWN)

 

"We should not bring a [high school/junior high school] student to the Lord’s Day meeting [Sunday services] immediately after he is saved; rather, we should labor on [brainwash] him gradually until he becomes solid."

WITNESS LEE; CRUCIAL WORDS OF LEADING IN THE LORD’S RECOVERY, BOOK 5: CONCERNING VARIOUS ASPECTS OF CHURCH SERVICE; CHAPTER 2, SECTION 2

When I attended the club meetings (mainly for free lunch), They were never transparent about the church's history and really emphasized their new members how God has a wonderful purpose for them and how much Jesus cared about them. New attendees were excluded from the church's Friday night meetings, especially when the lessons covered at the time focused on the Book of Revelations. The admin members of the campus club held separate meetings on Tue/Thurs. evenings for themselves in discussing the overall logistics in running the club meetings, organizing fun events, and focus on a particular member(s) to shepherd depending how likely they are to join the actual church in the long term. Recently, I have been seeing more professional-looking marketing media advertising their club on social media. While I was never an active admin between the club campus group and the church, I did notice the stark difference in being exposed to the church's legalism. The lack of transparency and inconsistency between what unaware club members learned in the campus club vs. what I experienced growing up in the system bothered me. I felt something was off until I attended a nation-wide conference for college students. The retreat was disguised as a covert pyramid scheme not only to benefit the church's legal entity (The Living Stream Ministry), but also to gain new followers on information diets to discredit the spiritual and mental abuses experienced by former members who grew up in it.  

 

As you can see, I had enough of the deception, let alone of being lied to in the past 2 decades of my life I barely started. I am still surprised to this day that I had the patience in sitting through and tolerating the BS theology I have seen and heard. Then again, it's probably the free food, homemade meals, and hospitality from my closest peers kept me from leaving the church cult sooner. I just wish the church institution itself and their influence on college campuses never existed in the first place.  

 

 

[☆ moxieflux66 ☆]

2 hours ago, AnonSan said:

This is more of an awareness piece after stumbling upon Christians on Campus - Hiding Who They Are online, but Christian groups like my family of origin's have become more tactical and manipulative n luring potential college (freshmen) students to join their churches. 

 

My family's church of origin is very much aware of the controversies about the church's founder and his theology. So, to recruit potential new members from college campuses, they have established their official club on campus under the generic club names such as "Christians on Campus" or "Christian Students at____". Their campus clubs purposefully only touch upon the more wholesome Christian subjects-never mentioning the founder's name. The legalistic teachings from the church's founder and the jargon associated with it are only presented to members who grew up in the system or when new members have become fully integrated into the church system. Otherwise, they love-bomb the hell out of the new attendees once invited to game nights and free meals to attract homesick/vulnerable students to attend more often (they also always serve sandwiches/snacks every club meeting). The church's founder confirms their intended target and purpose in the following:

 

"On the one hand, the freshmen in college are eager to leave home; on the other hand, as they live in the dormitories at school, they are often lonely and homesick. This provides an excellent opportunity to invite them into our homes." [Note: some families serving between the club campus and church branch provide very affordable off-campus housing and hospitality... under certain terms and conditions of course!]

WITNESS LEE, THE SPIRIT AND THE BODY, CHAPTER 11, SECTION 5 (EMBOLDENED EMPHASIS MY OWN)

 

"We should not bring a [high school/junior high school] student to the Lord’s Day meeting [Sunday services] immediately after he is saved; rather, we should labor on [brainwash] him gradually until he becomes solid."

WITNESS LEE; CRUCIAL WORDS OF LEADING IN THE LORD’S RECOVERY, BOOK 5: CONCERNING VARIOUS ASPECTS OF CHURCH SERVICE; CHAPTER 2, SECTION 2

When I attended the club meetings (mainly for free lunch), They were never transparent about the church's history and really emphasized their new members how God has a wonderful purpose for them and how much Jesus cared about them. New attendees were excluded from the church's Friday night meetings, especially when the lessons covered at the time focused on the Book of Revelations. The admin members of the campus club held separate meetings on Tue/Thurs. evenings for themselves in discussing the overall logistics in running the club meetings, organizing fun events, and focus on a particular member(s) to shepherd depending how likely they are to join the actual church in the long term. Recently, I have been seeing more professional-looking marketing media advertising their club on social media. While I was never an active admin between the club campus group and the church, I did notice the stark difference in being exposed to the church's legalism. The lack of transparency and inconsistency between what unaware club members learned in the campus club vs. what I experienced growing up in the system bothered me. I felt something was off until I attended a nation-wide conference for college students. The retreat was disguised as a covert pyramid scheme not only to benefit the church's legal entity (The Living Stream Ministry), but also to gain new followers on information diets to discredit the spiritual and mental abuses experienced by former members who grew up in it.  

 

As you can see, I had enough of the deception, let alone of being lied to in the past 2 decades of my life I barely started. I am still surprised to this day that I had the patience in sitting through and tolerating the BS theology I have seen and heard. Then again, it's probably the free food, homemade meals, and hospitality from my closest peers kept me from leaving the church cult sooner. I just wish the church institution itself and their influence on college campuses never existed in the first place.  

 

 

Oh my god (sorry), what underhanded tactics! Some of this goes on in places like Air Force training bases. Some target the same thing essentially, playing on loneliness and homesickness to recruit followers. 

Do you think there are many ex followers of your church group? Do you think they would ever find their way here to this site? 

[older]

As a former college prof, I remember the campus groups with innocuous names who would put out posters advertising a free meal. Food was a guarantee of collecting students. Then there were the sessions advertised as "Ask Cliffe," at which Cliffe would pretend to entertain any question and then turn it into some sort of religious lesson. A search shows he's still out there. 

 

Then there were Brother Jed and Sister Cindy, who'd stand in the free speech area and scream at the students, some of whom would holler back and bait them. One woman sued Sister Cindy for slander after S.C. hollered quite a bit at the woman, who was just passing by, that she was a fornicator. BTW, Brother Jed was 15 years older than Sister Cindy and it was amusing to have them hollering about fornication when they were obviously traveling together but not yet married. But they did marry and had five daughters. Apparently Sister Cindy is still at it(speaking, that is, not having daughters) and for $59 you can have her make you a personalized video.

[AnonSan]

14 hours ago, moxieflux66 said:

Oh my god (sorry), what underhanded tactics! Some of this goes on in places like Air Force training bases. Some target the same thing essentially, playing on loneliness and homesickness to recruit followers. 

Do you think there are many ex followers of your church group? Do you think they would ever find their way here to this site? 

 

Many of my former peers from my church group have moved away and have not been in contact with them. There was one I have met up in person since I left my family's church (we knew each other since grade school). I really wanted to ask her of her departure and deconstruction history, but it was not appropriate at the time as our (church active) moms were there with us. If I get the chance to visit her in Canada, perhaps I will be able to get some answers if she is willing to share her perspective. 

 

I am not sure if they will find their way here. I don't know whether or not if they have become ex-Cs or remained Christian, but without being part of my family's church of origin anymore. As far as I am concerned, they just slowly fade away from attendance and not talk about it at all in order to move on with their lives. I am not surprised that being of Chinese culture, the social norms frown upon exposing private issues/personal affairs outside of the family unit in fear of bad karma.