Corporate Living

[aron]

I wanted to give this question it's own thread. Others may also have insights.

Originally Posted by Melo

I appreciated you mentioning your time in corporate living. I myself could have opted for corporate living, but thankfully my parents didn't push me to. I don't think I could have handled being around that kind of environment. It's always awkward since I see the saints a lot, many of them seem perplexed that I'm not in corporate living and don't intend to be anytime soon. What was your experience with corporate living, aside from the constant bombardment of meetings? Was this during university, or later?

Melo,

Thanks for the question. Looking back, I'd say that corporate living was a key tool in the socialization into this group. (what follows is from years later, and my observations, and may no longer be applicable).

I was a twenty-something college student who clearly needed structure. Today, looking back, that makes sense, and living there may have saved me from recklessness and dissipation. (But I could say the same thing had I gone into the Mormons or the JWs or Moonies.)

Thing was, it didn't just preserve one from "religious Babylon" and "the world", but more importantly it gave multiple venues for the LSM teachings to be inculcated. We'd get up, have "morning watch" where we prayed over Holy Word for Morning Revival booklets, then off to our school/job. Then we'd be in meetings most nights: home meetings, college meetings, prayer meetings, ministry meetings, Sunday morning - of course - Lord's Table meetings. Saturday/Sunday afternoons we'd go visit new ones, or help with moving people, loading and unloading furniture and boxes from vans and pickup trucks, or go on outings, where a family or two would bring several students to the lakeside park. Other times we'd tend the meeting hall and it's grounds, as well as cleaning the Brother's House + upkeep. We were viewed as free labour, which somewhat evened out our subsidized housing (usually we paid less-than-market value [but we were squeezed in bunk beds, 4 to a room!]).

People left corporate housing by getting married. What would typically happen is that a young single person would be there, year after year, "going on with the Lord" and "going on in the church" and "going on with the brothers", and at some point Elder 'A' in Locality 'X' would contact Elder 'B' in Locality 'Y' and they'd compare notes (usually they knew prospective ones first-hand because localities would have regional conferences); then Single Brother 'B' would get introduced and married to Single Sister 'S', and that was end of corporate housing! Actually, when you think of it, they just switch Brother's House and Sister's House for Married House; it's still corporate.

I was in this "pipeline", as GG once called it, for a number of years, during university and after. Eventually I left - the whole thing about despising the poor bothered me greatly, and I argued with the FTTA 'trainer' in front of our group. And the "we are it" thing bothered me. . people should presume nothing, absolutely nothing, before they get to the Bema - Jesus had made this only too clear. The LSM/LC superiority complex, usually veiled but occasionally obvious, always struck me as opposite of what Jesus had taught. (but I just didn't think about it. . pray-read another verse. . get "back to your spirit").

In my case, upon leaving I moved into a homeless shelter - I had no other place to go. My job was in a business owned by a LC member, so I lost that. My family had become totally alienated. I still believed all the theology (ground of oneness, God's economy etc) but had no idea what to do with it all. But my LC experience was neither aligned with nor following the Jesus so plainly and repeatedly testified of in the 4 gospels. So I left, eventually having what some might call a 'street ministry'. . whether I've pleased the Lord or not, the Lord knows. . the journey isn't yet over.

Again, others' experiences or observations may be quite different, and they can add or subtract to what's been written here.