What a Lack of Increase Really Means for the LC

[Freedom]

Originally Posted by Terry

I brought it up previously of my experience. Intending to invite a young family I knew to a home meeting and being told "there's no room". Yet for another young family already "in the ministry", there is suddenly room. Sends the wrong message.

In the LC, it always seemed like there was some kind of there was some kind of push, whether it be preaching the gospel, trying to get an increase, shepherding, recovering 'dominant' ones, etc, etc.

But then it seemed that when anyone tried to act on what was being spoken, all the sudden it got qualified in a much more specific way. Let's say someone brings a friend to the meeting and the person asks too many questions about LC practices. Then all the sudden it gets clarified that it's better to not bring people to meetings who might be a 'problem'.

Or lets say that after having been encouraged to do so, someone reaches out to people who haven't been meeting in a while. Then they get told that they should have brought the matter up for 'fellowship' first.

In so many of these cases, what they are exhorting members to do is not actually what they want, or at least is not something that the LC is capable of accommodating. Going back to Minoru's call for an increase, if such an increase were to take place in the LC on any measurable level, it would mean accommodating people from all walks of life, personalities, opinions, etc. It would mean being willing to go places where there isn't a college campus nearby. The LC just isn't willing to make these kinds of changes.