WHAZZUP DC Forum!!!!!!

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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[GreenAndGold]

Hey everyone! This is Greenandgold reporting live from Colorado! I just got done eating M&Ms and pretzels, so if it sounds like I was on a sugar high when I wrote this well...

My story starts in 2002. I accepted Christ as my savior sometime late September or early October of 2002! Two sweet girls in Newsom Hall at Colorado State University invited me to The Rock my second week of school. These girls didn't mind that I couldn't see at night and needed their guidance to walk there. The music was super-loud, but I truly sensed the kids had this legit relationship with God and I wondered what I was missing. I went to the Bible study and the kids were really helpful in explaining the Bible to me as I had never read it on my own - I only heard it in church when Mom and I got around to going. The group accepted me with all my quirks and all. I have two disabilities: severe nearsightedness and mild Asperger Syndrome, so this was the first time I had a lot of people truly wanting to love me and be a good friend to me. It was amazing, and they were all super-SUPER happy that I accepted Christ

Undergrad was one big Small Group party. It seriously was! I don't know how I managed to study between the prank wars and the late night movie watching, hours-long meals at the dining hall, random costume parties, random walks to ice-cream shops, and random adventures such as sneaking into Horsetooth Reservoir to baptize a kid late at night after The Rock. Worship nights at The Rock were great and God used music to really help me connect to Him. I had a legit group of friends and that was really awesome. Like they were excited when I totally nerded out about a teaching and how it related to my field of study, and my friends were there for me when a teaching hit a nerve and exposed a wound from my developmental history. They held me when I cried about my past and they would remind me over and over again that God is the healer of my past and holds my future and will use all of it for His glory.

So... if my time in The Rock was so happy and worth it, why am I on this forum?

Well, I graduated in 2009 (yeah, super-senior and throw in grad school), and I've been working. I kept up with some of my friends who were in The Rock and one got kicked out of his team / small group and wrote about it on his blog. Suffice it to say, I was rocked to the core in a bad way. Like it was truly a blindsiding thing for me to read. My friend was truly defamed and I would be his character witness in a heartbeat to say that this young man is honestly following God and loves God and truly loves his brothers and sisters. This is the young man that was nice to this kid on his floor that was very verbally hostile to Christianity and is the one who has been there multiple times as a shoulder to cry on when people have had hard times.

So I'm here because of him. I'm here because his situation revealed the major flaws in the GC system. I say GC system because people I am friends with from The Rock / Summitview are legit are trying to follow God to the best of their ability, and because they are not the problem. The system is the problem, I think.

I am also here because I've felt the effects of the systemic problems that GC faces:

• When I was in grad school and not a leader even though I was older than many of the kids that were leaders, I constantly felt like I was doing something wrong.
• Due to this, I would hide my struggles and that led to me handling my struggles maladaptively (occasional binge drinking and self-injury)
• I was always uneasy when people praised certain leaders over and over and I asked about it saying was it 'leader worship.' They said it wasn't but I was still a little unsure.
• I had a struggle after I graduated about staying in Fort Collins or finding a job elsewhere, and I did truly believe that God had something for me in Fort Collins, but I had a burden of guilt if I left only to find a job. I felt like I would be forsaking my local church
• Oh yes, and speaking of career, I had was highly driven academically thanks to Mom having a college education and my grandfather having a master's and both of them drilling academic rigor into me. Therefore, when I was in grad school working as a teaching assistant, it was heartbreaking for me to see young undergrads not studying because they didn't think it was doing God's work. I told SO MANY KIDS especially in the sciences that they were studying the work of their Creator's hand, so therefore, studying was totally legit in God's eyes (that's just a logical argument)
• Also related to careers, I do believe that though it makes sense for a mother to stay home with her children from an attachment / developmental perspective, I realize in today's economy, many women can't. I also was saddened to see talented young ladies be told that they should not get careers and only focus on future marriage. I was always unsettled about giving my career up if I got married. It was hard when it seemed like my view was wrong even though it made logical sense
• Finally, I am currently learning to negotiate the social rules of interacting with guys in the real world and in a new non-GC church environment. This is something I wish I learned more when I was in college, but it was either you hardly spoke to a guy, or you were dating, there wasn't much in between

Well, that's my story! Thanks for reading!

[2xA Ron]

I think you made a good point.  I don't think the people in the GC, at least where I attended, are the problem.  In my mind, that's what makes the problems so difficult.  They don't seem to be traceable to any one person (maybe someone with knowledge of the whole movement may disagree, but I have knowledge of just one church).  The people are all extremely committed Christians and all very loving.  The community there was truly amazing and I think other churches could learn from that.  At the same time, they were all apparently confused about what being a loving Christian meant, which resulted in them doing incredibly hurtful things to each other and the cause of Christ.  For me, the worst of it is that the confusion didn't seem to come from anywhere or anyone, it was just there, and everyone was simultaneously its victim and its proponent, if that makes sense.

[araignee19]

As a third person from Summitview, I would agree. There are a few examples of people I can think of who I think did use the system to their advantage, but they were few and far between.

I've been doing a lot of research on this movement in the last few months. One thing that has surprised me is just how creepy the movement was in the beginning, and just what kind of scary person Jim McCotter was. In my opinion, it seems like this movement started as what I would call a true cult. McCotter seems manipulative, controlling, after money, etc... It seems like he manipulated Christ seeking people and Christianity in general to get what he wanted. I think of lot of the people he manipulated probably did want to truly follow Christ and thought they were doing it the best way possible. When McCotter left, I think a lot of aspects of the movement that made it a true cult also left. The people that were left continued to try and seek God and serve him. However, they used McCotter's cultish methods, in a misunderstanding of what Christianity should look like. This has led to a system today where thousands of people are trying to follow God in cult like ways, and it leads to a lot of hurt even though there are the best intentions. I don't quite consider GC a cult, but it is about as close as you can get without being one. I think this may be why...

This is just my outsider perspective. I didn't know McCotter, and wasn't around in the beginning of the movement. So maybe someone who has more knowledge of the history and was there can add their thoughts or correct me if I'm totally off base.

[Janet Easson Martin]

I believe the spiritual abuse or false teaching can be traced to atleast one person - the founder, Jim McCotter.  People in this group worshipped him even though they deny it (or didn't realize it).  I did.  I was a believer then, but deceived and didn't know it (that, of course, is part of the definition of deception).  I talked more about this man and his "name" and "the church" than God himself or HIS church.  He sought a superior reputation and God's glory for himself and the "christian movement" he started.  He was ALL ABOUT being special, different, unique, and always BETTER than others.  People sought his favor like a mighty king.  He was most INDEED worshipped, feared  and highly exulted by those "under" him or his "rule".  Because his SIN has never been exposed, confessed, and apologized for it has remained in the GCx movement ever since.  Any little of Jim McCotter's LEAVEN has ruined the whole batch.  And, because the idolatry of the GCx church to worship a man (or men) rather than God they must also confess and repent of THEIR SIN.

I am not saying everyone in the church is false, but if who they are learning from has been influenced by this corrupt leader -  one, two or three "generations" later without the clear acknowledgement of his specific ways being harmful to faith in Christ, they have been deceived.  GCx continues to be deceived, and deceive others.  Pride and idolatry have enabled their deception.  They are blind leading the others astray, perhaps because of what some like myself have experienced in the past, denial is more comfortable and less shaky than admittance.  Shaken back to God is a GOOD thing and usually is painful when resisted for too long.

Trusting Myself to His Care and Not GCx's,

Janet

[Anonymous]

Finally, I am currently learning to negotiate the social rules of interacting with guys in the real world and in a new non-GC church environment. This is something I wish I learned more when I was in college, but it was either you hardly spoke to a guy, or you were dating, there wasn't much in between

I find this to be true as well, except from the perspective of being a guy...