Our Reading Continues
Chapter 5 Cont'd: Recruitment and Beyond
The God-Men, pages 114-117
"A group that has had experience attracting individuals in the recruitment syndrome often uses recruitment techniques very effectively to expand its membership....
LC evangelists project a warm, friendly manner, listen carefully, affirm others enthusiastically and seemingly possess infinite patience. Pre-converts may accept such personal attention as evidence of a true and simple spirituality that allows God to resolve personal tensions, gives purpose for living and produces special servants of God. Usually, pre-converts are invited to dinner at the homes of members, where conversation revolves around the Lord, the glories of being a Christian, and how God is working through a fellowship of believers who "pray-read", "call on the name of the Lord" and feel the presence of God. When an invitation to attend the fellowship meeting is extended, it is generally accepted, partly to repay the time and attention lavished on the pre-convert.
The unity of thought and harmony of relationship in a Local Church meeting may strike the onlooker as quite impressive. Boisterous pray-reading may recall memories of joyful gospel singing. The heightened emotional pitch and activity of lively fellowship are pleasantly startling. The people read together, pray together and share their mutual concern for reaching others for Christ, with no variance of opinion or expression of disagreement. Harmony, commitment and God's presence seem to prevail.
Christian sociologist Anthony (Tony) Campolo of Eastern College in Pennsylvania has observed, as has Harvey Cox (in Turning East), that God seems immediately accessible at such meetings. A new comer who "experiences God" and also experiences a lessening of tension may begin to invest more time in the fellowship. A critical point of embryonic commitment is soon reached. Some pre-converts make a total commitment after attending only a few meetings, feeling that "life is becoming a manageable enterprise again"...
Most Local Church congregations are quite adept at retaining new converts... One person who did defect from their ranks credits LC people for being the most committed people he has ever encountered. They are willing to pay the price of committment regardless of the cost.
The LC maintains loyalty and affection in newly converted members through a number of social mechanisms which seem to result in a sacrifice of individuality and personal worth, withdrawal from society and exaltation of the group and it's charismatic leader. Sociologists have observed that the pattern is strikingly similar in a wide variety of groups."
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