The LCS Factor

[Ohio]

Originally Posted by Roger

The next time one of the leading brothers saw me, he said, "I missed you in the meeting, brother." I told him we went grocery shopping, and he said, "Oh."

Well, during the very next meeting, I was sitting on the front row, when this brother brought up the possibility of "someone" going grocery shopping on a meeting night. I wanted to get under my chair. But...I never missed another meeting to go to the grocery store, and I'm sure almost nobody else at that meeting did either.

Roger, we all have stories like yours. I remember one brothers' meeting with TC. He asked where one young brother from Akron was. He had told his elder that he had a family reunion he didn't want to miss. TC was furious, blasted all family reunions, and made an example out of him publicly, for all to learn. How dare he miss that gathering.

Think about this. How convenient for leaders to make required meetings around their own schedules. The results are inevitable -- brothers are forced to become "secretive" and often tell "white lies" in order to escape judgment. The result often is just hypocrisy.

One time I was serving the children during the prayer meeting. The brother over me would never allow any of us to go to Cedar Point amusement park. But while I am caring for the children, his young daughter starts telling the other kids what a fun time they had at Cedar Point. My jaw dropped. What hypocrisy! Demand from others what you do in secret. Kids say the darndest things! It was amazing what "secrets" leaked out from the saints' kids.

You can fool some of the brothers all the time, and all the brothers some of the time, but you can't fool the kids!