Hi everyone! I feel like I know you all but have never come out and introduced myself. I have been reading Decommissioned almost from the beginning. It was really helpful in clarifying the reasons I had felt uncomfortable at church after about 13 years of faithful attendance and serving. My husband and I were never in the 'in' crowd, didn't homeschool, and didn't seek to be a pastor so we were almost invixible. We chose to serve behind the scenes and on mission trips. My husband noticed how unapproachable the pastors had become and how clique-y it was long before I did. I was comfortable and had my group of friends, and up until a couple of years before we left, felt like I was growing there. We accepted Christ through a relative and started going to church in 1990 in the midst of a very troubled marriage and lots of baggage. The church did help ALOT, I would say saved our marriage and for that I am grateful. As new believers, we were like sponges, soaking everything up. Now I realize we were soaking up GCM, not neccessarily biblical faith.
We left in 2004 for reasons unrelated to the problems in GCM. My husband was experiencing severe depression and had turned away from his faith. I was feeling like no-one really cared there and was searching for more growth. I had grown tired of the same seeker messages, same seminars offered and wanted deeper teaching. I was in BSF and knew the joy of learning what the bible teaches--as opposed to the pastors interpretaions. My kids were bored in the kids programs as well so I began a search for a new church. It took me almost 3 years but I have finally found a good church with a pastor who actually went to school to be a pastor!
The problem is, as soon as I started going to this church, my husband went back to the old one, at a different location! We are from one of the most troubled churches with the most radical pastors. I have read him alot of stuff from the blog but he knows people there and feels 'comfortable'. I went with him once and had flashbacks! Did not feel comfortable at all and spent the time picking out the parts of the message that didn't seem quite right. Everyone was friendly though.
Anyway, so much for the short introduction! Its nice to finally share with everyone and please know that you've all been a tremendous help to me--especially sorting out truth from GCM. I will post more often now that I am out of the lurker shadows. I just don't want any of this to come back at my husband while I'm praying for him to break free!
