@briand
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Welcome, from a Louisvillian!
Andrew, welcome!
Long story short: I’ve been through all kinds of crap throughout my life, dating back to the time I was a kid, and I came to the conclusion that either
God is a bastard
or
God isn’t there because he doesn’t exist.
My last church was a relatively new, hip, growing, Reformed Southern Baptist megachurch. Formerly affiliated with Acts29, still SBC, and tied in with Southern Seminary. Very friendly with Mars Hill in Seattle when I went there; some of the Mars Hill elders and pastors are currently involved.
Some of what I saw at this church concerned me greatly, but I was willing to stay because of the people.
What made me leave was the promise of community, and the reality of going to a different community group each year because the leaders moved “upward” into coaching or moved away; I heard of one longtime member who said he had been involved in 26 different groups.
How in hell can you have community when you keep jumping to a different group of people every 6 to 12 months?!?!?
And don’t get me started on community being limited to the group meetings, and having to
work for freeserve once a week each month, and being forced into “four man support groups” because the elders thought it was a great idea.Then there was the matter of me meeting with an elder, and for a while that kept me connected. I also volunteered, and that kept me connected.
But the church increasingly professionalized itself to the point where those who wanted to volunteer could only do specific things, and the elder was not only sick but put into a position where he was basically inaccessible – just like the other elders, high above the laity.
Jesus Christ, I’m so over that bullshit. I’d rather sleep in Sunday mornings – especially since I work past midnight Saturday nights – and wake up and watch a little NFL before going back into work.
Thank you, Ang!
I wanted to add that I decided to join the group after reading David’s church and loneliness cartoon the other day on his Patheos page. I saw the comments there, and decided that whatever I wanted to say wasn’t gonna get said there.
