Local Church Strategies for Evangelism

Controversy on College Campuses

Campus outreach activities conducted by the Local Church, however, have not always gone without a hitch.  Controversy has followed the Local Church onto college campuses around the U.S.  In 1978 the Long Beach Independent Press-Telegram reported that members of The Christians harassed a wheelchair-bound student in the campus cafeteria of Long Beach City College.

A campus religious group at Long Beach City College has been placed on "informal probation" because members harassed at least one student who refused to join, a campus official said.  Members of the group - "The Christians" - confronted a wheelchair-bound student, Charles Jennings, in the campus cafeteria last month and, according to witnesses, cursed him and physically prevented him from attending class until he talked to them....

Jennings said the cafeteria confrontation April 24 followed his decision not to join the church, which he made after attending several meetings.  Jennings said the meetings consisted of worship and testimonies by members condemning "anyone and everyone not in the church," a philosophy he found difficult to accept.  "They believe any opposition to the church is (the work of) the devil," Jennings said.  "They warn you ahead of time that if you tell your parents about the church they won't understand."

Three witnesses to the cafeteria incident said Christians' Vice President Doug Polson directed a pointed and threatening obscenity at Jennings when the young man refused to join the church.

Polson refused to comment on the incident or the subsequent probation of the group.

The campus sponsor, culinary arts instructor Jim Higashi, said that he knew nothing about the probation; that he had never attended a meeting of The Christians and that they seemed like a "nice bunch of boys and girls."

Higashi's brother, Howard, is one of three church elders in Long Beach, where there are nearly 300 Local Church members - including the student members of The Christians....  At LBCC, as on campuses across Southern California, The Christians recruit new members through fellowship meetings and by placing ads in campus newspapers.

Recruits are invited to dinner at a members's home, where a church meeting is also being held.  Jennings and others at LBCC say that from that point on, prospective members are constantly pressed to attend more meetings and to move into corporate homes.14

The above-mentioned incident sparked an investigation by the campus administration and the campus newspaper, Viking.  Then-Associate editor Judee Kelly published a series of articles concerning Local Church activity on the campus.  Other students came forward to offer accounts of their experiences with the Local Church.  They came forward because they believed that Local Church students on campus were young misguided people who were encouraged by elders and Witness Lee to use unfair recruitment tactics.15

Controversy on the campus of the University of Texas at Austin suggests that some individual Local Church fellowships may deliberately conceal their relationship with their campus outreach ministries.  Generally, most college administrations require that campus religious organizations are to be operated by students.  A 1990 article in the Austin campus newspaper labeled the Local Church a cult and linked it with the Christians on Campus organization on its campus.

Former members of a national religious group represented on campus are charging the organization with deceptively recruiting and retaining members at the University....  Kenneth Diller, professor of mechanical engineering and faculty adviser for Christians on Campus, said the group is not part of the "local church."

"We are an autonomous Christian group on campus and we are Christians," said Diller, who said he is a "local church" member.  "Some of the members meet with the [local] church in Austin.  A lot of campus Christian groups tend to operate in one way or another in conjunction with a church."

But Dudley Evans, a local engineer and "local church" ex-member, said Christians on Campus is "an arm of the `local church.' As far as the elders run it, they have the final say-so, but most of the day-to-day decisions are made by other brothers in the church," he said.16 Controversy on campus continued.  The following year a lengthy article was published in the campus magazine, Utmost.  Excerpts from that article alleged similar deceptive conduct on the part of The Church in Austin.

Christians on Campus has been a UT student organization since Evans (Gary Evans), an elder at the Church in Austin, founded it in 1974, which suggests the church and the campus group are intimately related.  Yet leaders of both maintain the campus group is autonomous - not a recruiting arm for the Church.....  Ard (Cary Ard, Local Church member and Christians on Campus officer) says, "To be in accordance with the University rules, our meetings have to be open to everyone, and we're happy to do this."

Ex-members do not disagree.  They concede the student organization would gladly welcome any Christian - in order to draw the student into the Local Church.  "The whole purpose of [Christians on Campus] being there is to recruit college kids [into the Church]," says Linda, who was a "full-timer" on the UT campus for four years.  They won't admit it to a reporter, but it's always been that way, I know."

Jeff agrees.  "I could detect the Bible study was just outreach for another ministry.  They made it seem they were just a campus group, but it had a parent group.  Christians on Campus is an extension of the Local Church," he says.

Jan Bennett, who left the Local Church after almost 17 years, says, "Christians on Campus" is the recruiting arm of the Local Church.  You will not meet a single member of Christians on Campus who is not a member of the Local Church."...

The UT Campus Activities Office lists 58 religious organizations, many of which, says Ard, have "an inner-relationship" with one particular Church.  "We're not some special, set-apart kind of group in that type of way," he says.

The difference, say ex-members, is that Christians on Campus is deceptive.  "When I was first in [the campus group] they didn't invite me to Sunday night meetings, only when it seemed like I was for them," recalls Jeff.  "People who join the Local Church aren't going to get the full story.  They're going to gradually bring you into the ministry of the Local Church and Witness Lee.  They'll sound impressive.  They'll paint you a picture of how you think the church should be."

Linda, who worked with the UT Christians on Campus as well as on two other campuses, says, "We told them we were a group of students meeting on campus.  Don Looper and Gary Evans would tell us `Don't tell somebody right away that we're involved with Witness Lee,' because when I was involved there was a couple of books that had come out that caused flack about the Local Church that was very much affecting their outreach."17

What should be of more concern to Christians is Local Church evangelistic activity directed toward Christian schools.  One major campus, the Moody Bible Institute in Chicago, had been the object of considerable Local Church activity in past years.  The Church in Chicago had sought to establish a student chapter on the campus for many years.  Although their attempts have been rebuffed, a number of students had been drawn away and firmly rooted into the Local Church as the result of vigorous evangelistic activity.  During the early seventies, Local Church members in Chicago and from other localities had marched in, around, and through the Moody campus.  States Ann Rodgers:

The LC appears primarily on secular campuses, usually by the name "Christians on Campus" or "Christians at...University." They have also tried to start groups at Christian schools, such as Moody Bible Institute.  According to Moody's (then) dean of students, the Rev.  Bob Shackelford, they came on campus shouting "Babylon is falling" and "Moody is crumbling." Shackelford said, "At one point we wondered whether they meant physically destroying the place because they would stand in the courtyard and shout `Moody's going to burn!'"18

The publication, News of the Churches, records evangelistic activity directed at Christian schools.  The Moody Bible Institute and several other Chicago-area Christian schools had been targeted.

The Lord has given us contact with at least 12 students from Moody Bible Institute, some of whom are already captured for the church life.19

One local Bible school here is now regretting the day that the flow of God's recovery ever came to Chicago.  The head dean of this school informed one of the brothers by letter that several students who touched the local church have terminated their schooling.  Therefore, opposition to the church has grown more intense.  The school administration now forbids brothers and sisters to come on campus even by invitation from students.  On at least two occasions, visitors from the church have been personally escorted from the premises by school security personnel.  In spite of this, we feel led to go on contacting students who appear to be seeking the Lord and are interested in the local church.  Several of the "red books" (Christ vs.  Religion) are in circulation on campus.  These should be of service to those who seek the door into the pasture.  To date, seven students from this Bible Institute have come into the church life-one very recently.  We have prayed for 60 to come out.  So the exodus is just beginning.  Our Jesus was for us the door into the fold-then He brought us out through Himself.  These dear Christian students have been "kept" long enough.  Now they must be led out into fertile pasture before the thief comes.20

The young people have gone out to Jesus rallies, Old Town, and other places where people gather.  We are burdened for the increase from places such as Moody, Trinity, Emmaus, U.  of I.  Circle Campus, Mayfair Junior College, neighborhood high schools, and neighborhood street gangs.  Lord, bless and multiply us.21

The Bible Institute here has yielded about 10 but there are 1000 Christian young people there every semester! We are troubling the Lord to give many more of these a spirit of wisdom and revelation.  At a recent meeting held there in honor of their founder, we passed out a letter entitled, "A Word From The Founder." Brother D.  L.  Moody was burdened also for the sadly divided state of today's Christians.  We have found the way of practical unity!22

Evangelistic efforts conducted by members of The Church in Chicago during the early seventies prompted these comments by then Chairman of the Department of Theology, Moody Bible Institute, in the student newspaper.

There are certain forces that would like to see you leave Moody before you have completed your purpose in coming.  One of these is "The Church in Chicago." Every student who has continued relations with "The Church" has turned against the purpose and program Moody stands for.  Soon some friendly contact from the group may invite you "to fellowship with the brothers and sisters" and to have dinner with them.  They will seek to influence you subtly away from your commitment to study the Word at Moody, for they stand officially opposed to Bible Institutes and seminaries ....They deny the necessity of an intelligent, meaningful study of the Bible and substituted a mystical "inner light" that interacts with God when they "pray read" the Bible's words back to God....In unethical fashion and against repeated friendly and firm requests not to enter our private campus, they have invaded, invited, and insulted God's people at Moody.  They have made students at Moody their target and your scalp a desired trophy.  Don't feed their egos.  If God led you here, don't be led astray by those who oppose our existence and purpose, calling us "ecclesiastical Babylon."23