In a nutshell...

Welcome to De-Commissioned, a place for former members of the Great Commission movement (aka GCM, GCC, GCAC, GCI, the Blitz) to discuss problems they've experienced in the association's practices and theology.

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[Linus]

Having weathered my own experience with GCX, and lurked here for quite some time, I keep wondering how others would sum up their view of GCX and what the 'real' problem is with the organization.  

Here's my attempt:

1. Leaders who need to accomplish great things use people who need validation to do it.

2. People deeply in need of validation become leaders and continue the cycle, targeting needy people to accomplish their goals.

3. Because growth is such a high priority, things that don't result in immediate or significant eventual growth are low priorities (this can include Seminary Education, Meaningful Pastoral Accountability, Staff being managed responsibly etc.)

Having said this, I want to say also that I was/am one of the needy people I'm describing and I feel that my need was exploited.  I know that part of the pain I've experienced from GCX is greatly due to the pain I brought in with me.

I'm enjoying the discussion!  

Linus

[boboso]

From my experience, I'll add this too:

1. Self-promotion above others in the church to "leadership". I still don't get how this happens besides being appointed for an upgrade in status.

2. (My guesses) Promotion of those in the church were based on how "teachable" (read: sold out to GC authoritarian garbage) you were and how loyal (read: no questioning of other leaders allowed no matter what) you were and how likeable you were.

3. Freedom is a lot harder than allowing someone to tell you what to do and then blame them if something goes wrong. Very common in corporate America and as I've said before, the GCx church I came out of was run like a business.

4. Assumption that "leadership" was more spirtually mature than others in the church period. Even if you have someone much older and proven in the faith, somehow these "leaders" had the exclusive insights to God's vision for that church.

I've a lot more, but this is a good start. I agree that some folks that need extra validation (we all need some) are much more susceptible to the authoritarian style of church structure.

[Linda]

We were attracted to our GCx church because we appreciated the emphasis on evangelism and knew some really nice people who went there.

After 10 years of being pretty heavily involved and ignoring a lot of questions in the back of our heads, we learned how the system worked.

This may sound strange, but while we were taught that leaders were "raised up" from within the system, we had no idea how the system worked.

I thought that if you wanted to be a leader, you went to someone in leadership and said, "I'd like to be a leader." Then, I assumed they would give you some sort of task (help with Sunday School, teach a class, help with the Men's Group, whatever). Since my husband was not interested in being a pastor, we never asked about the system.

Believe it or not, it was two weeks before we left that we found out that the system was an intricate system of doing something to demonstrate your spiritual depth, getting noticed, receiving a tap from an elder that you are one of the special ones, attending private sessions with your GCLI guru for months or even years, and finally making the cut.

Had we known about this from the start, I'm sure we would not have  joined.

So, what do I think the real problem is?

I might sum it up as "inwardness" and "works".

From what I remember about the Leadership book by Jim McC, he thought that this "movement" that he started was finally the church for the first time since Acts, getting back to being the real church. This group was really something special. And, over the years they still think, at least if you listen to the talks by leaders, that they are a unique and powerful movement.

So, to keep that up, they apparently have "secret teaching", I have never heard of a seminary where only a select few can view the textbooks. The 2 year GCLI course is not available for anyone to read to either learn from or offer correction.

In a nutshell, they think they are a special and powerful movement of God and to perpetuate this they have a system of promoting men on the basis of appearance. These men move on to hear the special teaching that others aren't quite ready for spiritually, and the cycle continues.

One other mistake I've heard GCx guys say to write off bad teaching is, "I know their heart."

As he is dedicating the temple, Solomon says in I Kings 8:39:

Forgive and act; deal with each man according to all he does, since you know his heart (for you alone know the hearts of all men)

Only God can make a tree and only God can judge a heart.

[namaste]

So, to keep that up, they apparently have "secret teaching", I have never heard of a seminary where only a select few can view the textbooks. The 2 year GCLI course is not available for anyone to read to either learn from or offer correction.

Well, I don't know of a seminary that does this, but it's a very "witchy" thing to do.  :lol:

I just thought I'd point that out, because I figure paganism (and/or gnosticism) is probably dead last on the list of things GCx wants to be associated with.  :twisted: