My Experience

I was involved in GCM from 1999 to 2004. I thought it was great the 1st 2 years I was involved, because of the social events for singles. Things however significantly changed in the Summer/Fall 2001. 1st of all I was displaced and abandoned with the life group situation. They had this ridiculous policy where you had to be invited to go to a life group. I ended up going to a life group for over a year that did not make logistical sense, when I got invited. I should have seen things for what they were. I however did not think about checking out at other churches at the time, for a variety of reasons.. Even though things were crazy in a lot of ways, God did allow me to go on a service trip, which I am grateful God allowed me to do. Even though I put up with too much crap at the church, I am glad I had that experience. However I am a lot more leery about churches because of this experience I had in over 10 yrs ago in this church. The more weird and controlling aspects became more apparent between 2001 and 2003.

Before I started attending this church in 1999, I heard about it through an Interdenominational Parachurch Ministry back around 1994 and 1995. Some of the students involved with the ministry I was involved with attended this church before the 1996 school year. In 1996, the church moved off the main university campus and the Crusade Students did not attend New Life as much as they did when it was on Campus. It has been a long time, but I wondered why on that one. Perhaps New Life was meant to stay a campus church. In all fairness from what I know about H20, it seems to be a healthy church for students. For about the past yr, I have been attending a denominational church. At this church there is a person with a relative on staff at H20. I am under the impression, this individual is doing a lot of typical campus ministry which I am thankful that universities have.