Some fun for the conspiracy theorists :)

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[DarthVader]

So here are 2 versions of the same announcement:  

Version 1 from our ECC location's website under "announcements" (which is exact copy of what is on ECC Bloomington's webpage as well):

Fast. Pray. Worship. Together
All-Location Worship and Prayer
Sunday, July 8, 5:00-9:00 PM, Evergreen-Bloomington, Auditorium. The first-century church sought God together through prayer and fasting as they faced difficult times and strived to embrace Jesus’ call to witness the Gospel to all people. Our church is also navigating a difficult time and we are on the eve of an all-location mission week to love our neighbors and share the hope of Christ. Please join us for an all-location gathering of worship, prayer, and fasting as we believe God to humble, equip, and embolden us. We will pray that God will break spiritual strongholds and advance His kingdom. If you cannot attend, please consider fasting all day on Sunday and joining us in spirit by praying.

..And now version 2 from the weekly update and sermon notes that get emailed Monday morning following the Sunday service to all on the email distribution list for our ECC location  - this was included in Monday's (6/25) email under the list of announcements following the sermon notes.

Fast. Pray. Worship. Together.
ALL LOCATION WORSHIP & PRAYER
Sunday, July 8, 5:00-9:00 PM, Evergreen-Bloomington. We are on the eve of an all-location mission week to love our neighbors and share the hope of Christ. Please join us for an all-location gathering of worship, prayer, and fasting as we believe God to humble, equip, and embolden us. We will pray that God will break spiritual strongholds and advance His kingdom. If you cannot attend, please consider fasting all day on Sunday and joining us in spirit by praying

How long will it take you to spot the differences  ?  And since version 1 is exactly what is on both my ECC location's webpage and ECC Bloomington's web page (and has been for several days), it must have taken someone some real thought and deliberation to create version 2 for email distribution this week by deleting some stuff..what are the chances that the choice of what was deleted was accidental? - you can't make this stuff up!!  How did that Sesame Street song go.?  something like "one of these locations is doin it's own thing, one of these locations is not like the others"  

[Badger]

I don't think it is much of a conspiracy theory, as much as it is what churches do to distance themselves from abuse committed within their walls.

When widespread horrific spiritual and financial abuse were discovered at my former church, this was the playbook they chose.  All public statements focussed on looking forward to how God will bless us and increase our size as we seek to save the Lost. Time and energy was put into focusing on serving the community outside the church and recruiting fresh college students while ignoring what went on inside the church.  Very little, if any, dialogue was focused on admitting what truly went on, repentance, restitution, and reconciliation.  Victims and their families were quickly forgotten while those who didn't see or experience the abuse and kept supporting the church were. 
Statements such as there are two sides to every story, that the truth will never be obtained, and the truth is somewhere in the middle were made.  

In short, the focus is put on continuing church as usual and casting hope for the future; very little effort, time, or money is spent helping those that were harmed.  Perhaps Evergreen will follow a different path, the way they decided to change their announcement above makes me skeptical they will.

[Rebel in a Good Way]

I'm curious which locations include that phrasing and which don't...I'm guessing The Rock does.

The truth is that it is very hard to be part of a church that you love and thought was honoring to God, and then find out (hopefully if the BOT is transparent) that there were dark things going on.  I do feel bad for folks if they have to go through that, and I think stopping to pray and focus on healing first--before thinking you are healthy enough to go influence the world--is a helpful thing. Not to say you can't minister or volunteer at all during that time, but the vision should be paused to heal. 

[DarthVader]

On the websites of all 5 locations, it's all the same because all 5 locations websites are on the same platform run by the Evergreen Bloomington web master. The locations just send in their site specific content (e.g., local events that wouldn't apply elsewhere). the all church "announcements" portion of each churches website is just linked to the underlying data Evergreen provides/controls as they are the global webmaster for all 5 locations.

Weekly update emails, on the other hand, are written and sent by each specific location to its email distribution list...and it was there my location apparently decided to get creative, delete a couple of key lines of the ECC event notice, thus distancing ourselves from the ECC problems before sending the weekly update email out to its distribution list.  When I got the email from our church, it confused the heck out of me because I had read the event notice on the website with the "going through a challenging time" language, so for a minute I thought this was a different event..then I went back and compared our weekly email to the website and saw the creative license someone at our location apparently took to distance our location from the mothership's issues. It would be funny if it wasn't sad..