GCM is GREAT

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.

You may read and post, but some features are restricted to registered members. Please consider registering to gain full access! Registration is free and only takes a few moments to complete.

[Free.to.love.Jesus]

[...] I am going to try to post often [...]

jat posted twice on 10/15/08 and has been silent since. Why would that be?  He said he would post often.

Imagine the scene where jat went to his GCx fellowship the next Sunday, and told his leaders he had found a web site where people were <gasp> critical of the GCx, and that he was going to answer their objections and defend the church. What do you think happened next?

I laughed so hard, my friend.
Please tell me what you think happened next.
I think all these years later they are still working on how to excommunicate all of us. It's just that the GCx leaders aren't God (even though they think they are) so they're unable to get all our names and addresses to send us excommunication letters. They want a world where everyone bows down to them instead of to Jesus.
The Bill Taylor excommunication and 50 year fiasco with that is absurd. I say 50 year cause it's still not resolved. Hopler never even properly apologized and neither did the other clowns.

[Free.to.love.Jesus]

I attended GCM back in the 80's, I knew Jim McCotter, Tom Schroeder, Rob Lamp and other prominent leaders of GCM.  Interestingly enough I became involved through a girl that I dated inviting me to a Sunday service at our student union.  I was enthralled with the Love of Jesus Christ and the really awesome music that was Christian rock.  Those were very inspiring days for me.  I made some really awesome friends, & we always had something to do, basketball, volleyball, camping beyond services, and or bible studies.

I know I was pressured to not date my girlfriend, and she certainly was as well.  It seemed that there was a conscious effort and subtle pressures to keep us apart.  Looking back there was a point where I was told she was being groomed, and I really wasn't.  I still liked to party with my friends on campus, and wasn't willing to quit school or relocate to start a new church in Maryland.  There literally was a point where the members of my house told me they were relocating out of state, and they did.

I was "shunned from the group", and lost connections with all those friends.  I did have a very supportive family, and they admitted being extremely concerned with some of the changes that they had seen in me.  They had been concerned when I tried to witness to family friends, and became extremely concerned when I had told the daughter of one of my Dad's friends that being Catholic did not ensure that she would go to Heaven.  She needed to be saved like I had been.

Years later I came in contact with one of my elders and brothers in that house.  He and his wife had left the church too, and had found a new church and returned to Columbus Ohio.  He apologized for being a part of meetings where my Christian fate had been discussed.  And apologized for having been part of a decision to "shun" me and encourage me to leave GCM.  I honestly didn't remember it as well as he did, and he seemed very relieved to get my forgiveness and acceptance.  This brother was one year older than me (in people years).

I have also come in contact with others from that block of time, and though we have never spoken about specifics, each of them seemed to have some issue that had occurred.  Does anyone leave this body, this church on good terms?  God bless you all, and to those of you breaking away, please know there are many places to find God's love where you are not constantly being judged by other college age kids, & or your Christian elders.

Wow. I'm so sorry that happened to you.
I was with GCx/Solid Rock at that time. I remember when Rob Lamp and others were moving to Maryland. I'd love to know if Rob and Sue stayed with GCx. I think I heard Tom and Bev Schroeder left the church..
I'm so glad you had the apology from the other person. How are you?

[Free.to.love.Jesus]

Hey Everyone,

 I am sorry i've not been online for awhile, and ,no, it is not because "one of the elders took me out for an ice cream in a dark alley" as someone wrote in. No, my life has just been extremely busy and hectic lately.
 I noticed that many of you asked what misunderstanding you had. I did not mean to seem like i was assuming that your problems were all misunderstandings, and that you were not really hurt. That is not what i meant at all. I simply meant that if you all have any questions that you are not sure of i will try my best to answer.
  I have also noticed that a lot of the problems with the church has to do with abuse of leadership. I know that there has been some, but there has also been abuse of leadership in all types of churches. Someone wrote that you would not see a site like this for any other type of churches so to speak. However, you do see where people are hurt by there individual churches. I have been at my GCC for 16 years and i have not witnessed any abuse of leadership. I believe that most of these problems stem from individual churches and not GCM as a whole.
   I would also like to address that ,yes, GCM has had its problems. However, they have apologized again and again for them. They have actually sent out letters apologizing for specific sins(as someone mentioned).
    Someone mentioned that saying the church is not perfect is having the wrong understanding of the church. I do agree that we are the perfect body of Christ. However, while we are on this earth we indwell carneth bodies. Therefore, We will sin. That is not to say that we should make God's grace an excuse for our sin. By leaning on the holy spirit we should flee from sin. However the Bible says that if we do sin we have Christ to intercede for us. My point is that while on this earth the church cannot be perfect. It is only in heaven that we will come into full perfection.
   It did greave me to see some of the comments about the elders in the church. I know many of them personally, and they are some of the biggest hearted people I have ever met.  Many of them have devoted their whole lives to seeing people reached for the Lord.
  I want you all to know that i am not intending to down play your hurt in anyway. I do believe ,though, that a whole movement is wrong bc/they have made mistakes in the past as long as they adknowlege them and do not continue in sin.
  I have made priceless friends through GCM, and I have seen Christ reach many people through them. I have not seen as strong of fellowship and love for other believs than i have in GCM.
  Please continue to write!!! I will do my best to respond(though I do not know how often). Thank you for not taking me down ,and for being willing to talk to me.

I laughed so hard !

[Free.to.love.Jesus]

Jat5453 -

Thank you for sharing.

It has been determined here that there are healthy churches as well as unhealthy churches within the gc* framework.

Sounds like you found a basically healthy one - good for you.  Many of us have been burned by "unhealthy" ones and react accordingly.

I am hoping beyond hope that your statement below was a typo -

"... I do believe ,though, that a whole movement is wrong bc/they have made mistakes in the past as long as they adknowlege them and do not continue in sin."

Please calm my fears that a gc* member doesn't believe a movement is wrong by not continuing in sin.

Angry

I'm sorry but I'll give you a vacation in Europe if you find a healthy GCx church.
All current GCx members will speak as jat and say how wonderful GCx is, otherwise they'd be scared stiff to face their leaders. They'd get the Bill Taylor treatment. And there wouldn't be a proper restoration for 50+ years (if ever)

[Therese]

I can tell you that Riv has not heavily promoted its GCx roots in all the time I've been there. It's always been a loose affiliation.

Hi, Coffee -- thanks so much for posting. If you've read this thread, I'm sure you've seen that there is a range of opinion on this topic.  I still feel that I have a fundamental difference of opinion with Linda.  I strongly believe that people and churches associated with the "historic" GC movement can change.  Not all of them have chosen to do so, but some have.  I was heavily involved with a church that has done so (Valley Brook in Maryland).  The three pastors that led the change (and eventual leaving from GCAC) were closely involved with McCotter while he and they were in Maryland. Yet, they saw the problems and made a hugely positive change, in themselves and in our church.  (OK, yeah, I know -- it was God that made the change.  But change they did.)

I see it like a dysfunctional family. The deck may be stacked toward the continuing of the dysfunctions, but if the kids recognize it, they can work to make their own families better, and their kids can do the same, and so on.

I'm really happy that you hadn't heard of the "old GC" past, and that your radar didn't light up at Riv. 

Who are the pastors in Maryland please?

[Janet Easson Martin]

Therese, the Maryland GCx Church that I attended from 1980 to 1990 split into two churches, Oak Ridge Community Church and Valleybrook Community Church. There are more details on here, but apparently Oak Ridge was given to Dennis Clark to lead along with some other GCx leaders in the familiar GCx fashion, but since has younger GCx “trained” staff leading. I have included their website below. There were basically a number of leaders and members who left the original GCx Maryand Church and the GCx organization back in the 90’s to meet together as the second church in the split. There have been genuinely positive things reported in that church which is Valleybrook in Columbia, Md. This split happened after I left.

Most of the recruits into the Maryland GCx Church came from the University of Maryland students.


Oak Ridge Community Church in Clarksville, MD
http://www.oakridgecc.org/pastors-staff


GCx Maryland Church Split Details
http://forum.gcmwarning.com/jim-mccotter-gc-history/the-maryland-church-split-details-wanted/msg13084/#msg13084


GCx Churches Name Changes - See Reply #2
http://forum.gcmwarning.com/jim-mccotter-gc-history/gcx-churches-escape-bad-reports-through-frequent-name-changes/