Why I Left WCCC and WTC

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[GB]

It was a very difficult decision to finally write this down. I don't want to slander anyone, but yet I feel compelled to share my story.

I began attending WCCC for a few years as a college student. After graduation I began attending the Westtown Church (or Walnut Creek West as it is now known). WCCC is the only church I have ever attended and I was saved there as a college freshman. Things went really well for a while. I made lots of friends and started reading and learning about God for the first time in my life. But over the past couple of years there has been a disturbing trend. There were certain times over the years that I would get the feeling from a few members that I was nothing but a project whose value and worth was measured by how many activities I attended. I chalked this up to the extremism of a few singular members. I stayed because the majority of members seemed genuine.

There was a definite feeling of anti-intellecutualism. I am a female who was very motivated to do well in school, and certain members made me feel as though this was a waste of time. All free time was to be devoted to evangelism and serving the church, not to school. A lot of my female friends changed their majors to education because they planned on being stay at home moms after college. I saw many fellow members, both male and female, give up on their educations so that they could devote all of their energy to the church. When I went to graduate school a fellow member asked me if I was afraid that no man would ever want to marry me because of my advanced degree. Looking back, I'm glad that I followed my dreams and continued my education despite the subtle negative attitude I received from many members.

What most disturbed me about the church is the great emphasis on politics. I feel that in the past couple of years the church has become increasingly right-wing extremist. There is a strong, burning hatred for democrats and especially for President Obama that permeates from leadership down. The pastors will say that we are to pray for those in authority, and then in the next breath you will hear that Obama is a Muslim who is ruining America. I am not exaggerating when I say that I have heard numerous members say that they genuinely believe that President Obama is literally the devil incarnate. WCCC is becoming increasingly involved with Bob Vander Plaats. Pastors have been preaching from the pulpit that the Republican Party is the Christian party. In a message before election day Dan Rude told WTC in a message to vote no on retaining Justice Wiggins and to vote for Romney as President. I would have felt more comfortable confessing that I was a drug-using prostitute before confessing that I possess any moderate political views. Democrats are hated and vilified in the church. Terry Aaman has some of the most extreme political views of anyone. I have heard numerous pastors say that they know it is against the law for them to preach from the pulpit but that they don't care. I feel that right-wing extremism has become part of the foundation of the church at the expense of love and mercy.

I left the church a few months ago to take a job in another region. As many other posters have noted, this is considered a huge sin in WCCC. You are supposed to be committed to the church for life. I have lost many close friends who in my time at WCCC considered me their "sister in Christ." I can only imagine what is being said about me in the church. The saddest part is that I myself had shunned several former close friends who had left the church. There is a real feeling in the church that if you're not with us, you're against us. I only did what I thought was right at the time, but now I feel terrible regret and remorse over the way I behaved.

I left WCCC feeling extremely depressed and burned out. I wanted nothing to do with God for months. I felt like every church was going to be full of hypocrites who only wanted me to perform as they desired in order to be accepted. Lately God has been putting it on my heart to come back to Him. I have been researching local churches and today I am going to visit a new church for the first time. I am praying that God will allow me to find a real, genuine community that will help point me back to Him.

[EverAStudent]

Welcome to the forum!

As always, I am saddened to hear your story.  It is so very similar to my own and to others...so very little seems to have changed since I left, and I left the denomination some 30 years ago!!

Do try to find a church in which you feel comfortable, always recognizing that every church is populated by repenting sinners who are trying to change.

Blessings.

---
P.S.  You don't have to be in GC to dislike Obama's political agenda...  LOL

[Huldah]

Hi, GB, and welcome to the forum. I can identify with your frustration over the education issue. Being intellectually devalued because I was a woman was one of the most painful aspects of life in GC. (Perhaps they did this to men, too, but if so it wasn't as obvious to me.) I hope you find a fellowship where you'll be encouraged to be all you can be in and for Christ. God gave women brains for our good and His glory. No one should tell us otherwise.

[GB]

I appreciate the kind words and well wishes.

Of course you don't need to be in a GC church to disagree with Obama's policies, but there was a tangible hatred for Obama as a person that I found unbiblical. Pastors preached their own political beliefs as if they were the gospel truth and explicitly told the congregation who they should vote for. This is illegal for a tax-exempt organization like a church. In all other areas the pastors would tell us to be above reproach and to honor those in authority, but then they would tell us that they were going to preach politics regardless of the consequences.

[Summer0924]

Congrats on the job and for leaving! Leaving is not an easy thing to do, but I am glad you moved away. I too started attending WCCC as a freshman at Drake. When I graduated, I also went to Westtown. I changed my major to education, however for me that was the right decision. However, I enjoyed learning and also felt that the emphasize was to be on ministry and not on my education. Sometimes, I even felt guilty for reading the assigned reading for class because I could be "outreaching". Looking back, I wish I would have spent more time on working harder at my education. I too felt that WCCC took a strong stand on politics and moderate and liberal views were not tolerated in anyway.

[GB]

Thanks Summer!

I reread what I had initially posted and I did not want to make it seem like I was insulting education majors. Teaching is a very honorable and important profession and I don't want to make it sound like everyone who changed their major did so for bad reasons. I'm glad that education was the right choice for you. I just know many female friends who explicitly told me that the reason that they were changing their majors to education was because they felt like they had to be stay at home moms after they graduated and that nothing else mattered. Just wanted to clarify!

Anyway, thanks again. I hope that things are going well for you.

[Summer0924]

I did not think you were bashing education as a whole. I too knew several people who changed their major to education because of the expectations at WCCC. On another note, the people who you stopped talking to when they left, would probably love to hear from you now! If you have any desire to have a friendship with them now, let them know. After I left, I called a few people who left before me. They were happy to hear from me!

[DevastatedTC]

I'm starting to find out as well that people who left before me are happy to hear from me. I still feel awkward talking to people who are still in there, but that's how it goes. I'm just not that big a part of their world.
I heard that the West church at WCCC is no longer there. Did they disband, relocate, get absorbed somewhere else???
Also, just out of curiosity, has anyone felt like they had to move away - like to a different town? Does it help with the overall process of getting on with your own life?

[GB]

Oh, wow, I had no idea that happened. I just googled it and found out that Westtown got absorbed into the Downtown Church. Here's the announcement on the website:

"Walnut Creek West is excited to announce a big transition. We have been meeting at our 3320 West Town Parkway location south of Valley West Mall for over a year. The building has been a big blessing and God has used it to significantly grow our church. However, for a number of reasons, including the size and visibility of our building, we have been trying to find a new location. Through a process of prayer and counsel we felt that the best route for us would be to merge with our Downtown church campus and launch a new 5pm service!

That service will officially begin September 7th with a message series about the book of Revelation. If you have visited Walnut Creek West in the past or have been wanting to, please consider checking out our new location at 323 E. Locust St. We would be thrilled to have you come.

God bless,
Walnut Creek Staff"

Anyway, thank you sincerely for the replies. I think that I am going to try to get in contact with some of the people who left before me.

[GB]

And to answer your question, Devestated, I felt that I had to move away. I'm not originally from Des Moines and I only stayed there after graduation because of my commitment to the church. I did so at the expense of family relationships. I was personally at a point in my life where I needed to make a clean break and start completely over. I struggled with my feelings with the church for a few months before I left, but I felt trapped. It didn't really feel feasible for me to stay in Des Moines spiritually or emotionally. I now live closer to my family and that has been very helpful. That was just my experience. There was nothing to hold me to Des Moines besides the church, so when that relationship ended I felt like I should move on.

[DevastatedTC]

There was a girl who came around for a while from Drake. She made a profession of faith and then at semester moved to Chicago. I found out later that she went through counseling to get deprogrammed. Looking back, I can point to some people who left suddenly and switched schools. Don't know if that still happens or not. I wonder at times if there was more to it than just finding a different major at a different school.

Best wishes to you GB.

[Summer0924]

I left the church and stayed in Des Moines for a little over a year. It was good in ways because several other people who had left were still around and I found support in them. However, I too stayed in Des Moines after graduation because of my commitment to the church, so I decided to move closer to my family. Moving away has been really helpful! I don't have to drive by the church every day on the interstate (which always gave me a little anxiety). Also, I do not run into WCCC people around town. I have been able to move on with my life more since I left.

I know others who moved to change majors or to move to be closer to family, but they really left to leave the church. Its hard to stay in DSM and leave the church. For me, many places around town had memories of WCCC attached to them: coffee shops, malls, the church, certain eating places. A fresh start is nice!

[Huldah]

Also, just out of curiosity, has anyone felt like they had to move away - like to a different town? Does it help with the overall process of getting on with your own life?

Okay, my answer is probably one of the more extreme that you'll read. Here goes.

When I left GC, I still hadn't figured out that something was fundamentally wrong with the church. I thought the problems were all my fault (an attitude which various church members were happy to encourage). I didn't know enough doctrine to understand how wrong those commit-for-life teachings and frivolous excommunications were. One thing I did know, if I stayed in that town and that college, I was likely to get pulled back in to GC. So I made the decision to get far away. Very far. I joined the army.

Among other things, I was afraid that if I left GC, I might change my mind and go back and get entrapped all over again--a prospect that terrified me. Joining the army not only physically removed me from GC's influence, but it made it impossible for me to go back to them, because I had to go wherever the army sent me. Being in the army wasn't easy, and I often wished I could have found a less drastic solution. But at least in the army, I had way more intellectual freedom than I was granted at GC. And I was valued/hired/trained for my brains; no one there treated me like my intelligence was a hindrance. No one encouraged me to be less than I was capable of being.

So, yes, getting that far away helped.

[araignee19]

Also, just out of curiosity, has anyone felt like they had to move away - like to a different town? Does it help with the overall process of getting on with your own life?

Yes. I felt stagnant in the town I went to church at. Everything there was linked to GCx in my mind, and I couldn't get away from it while staying there. Plus most of my old friends had either moved away or were still committed to GCx. I wanted a fresh start somewhere new. I don't regret leaving one bit. But that path is certainly not for everyone.

[MarthaH]

So the straw poll is a year and a half away. A WC pastor (Amann) was mentioned in an article recently. Anyone know if he ended up wooing Huckabee?

http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2013/12/06/iowa-pastors-huckabee-meeting/3888849/

McCotter was very political and I heard many political talks during my days there. Politics is in their DNA. Keep in mind that they became a movement at the beginning of Roe vs. Wade and developed simultaneously with the Christian Coalition.

Anyone on this forum know about the march on Washington that they did in '86 (I believe)?

[GB]

I did see pictures on facebook of Amann and a lobbyist who attends WTC on their trip to Little Rock. I don't know if Huckabee was wooed, but they at least got a photo with him. I know that Huckabee has always been the preferred candidate for WCCC. They endorsed him heavily in the 2008 election. In the 2012 election the church was told to go to Ames to vote for Pawlenty in the straw poll. Pawlenty finished poorly and dropped out of the race, and the pastors put their support behind Santorum, and then eventually Romney.

[MarthaH]

I'm curious as to how people were told to vote for Pawlenty. Did they do the disclaimer which really isn't a disclaimer? Like a pastor in the pulpit saying, "as a private citizen I am supporting Pawlenty"? I've heard that WC doesn't record messages at their main locale so that they can speak their mind on political messages and against the gay agenda.

I've noticed that Amann is giving a seminar on politics at Faithwalkers midwest. I guess they have to record that one. Looks like it is in Des Moines this year. I wonder how many baristas will get witnessed to in Des Moines this winter. Hope they don't get any fake million dollar bill tracts in their tip jars (do they still do that?).

If any parents are out there, don't send your kids to Faithwalkers (don't know if anyone has said it yet this year).

[GB]

In the 2008 election Tim Rude did the disclaimer thing that you mentioned ("As a private citizen, I'm supporting Mike Huckabee"). I remember hearing that one night at an Epicenter teaching. In 2012 it was much more blatant. Terry Amann or Tim Rude (I can't remember who, but honestly I've probably heard it from both) came right out and said that he didn't care if the IRS knew that he was endorsing Pawlenty. WCCC used to give messages where they would say that we need to respect all laws and that going just one mile over the speed limit is a sin. Yet, they rationalized breaking the law in endorsing political candidates by claiming some sort of moral obligation to speak up for what is right.

In the last few years there has been a lot of political strife over gay marriage in Iowa. A few of the Iowa Supreme Court justices were recalled a few years ago in the wake of a decision that made gay marriage legal. WCCC was heavily involved in that cause. In the 2012 election, Justice Wiggins was up for recall. I went to WTC on the Saturday before the election and Dan Rude's message was all about who we should vote for. He tried to be clever by pointing to his head and saying, "This election day, just remember that I have NO WIG. NO WIG...gins." Then just to make it crystal clear, he finally just blatantly said, "Vote no on Wiggins." He also explained that we should vote for Mitt Romney. WCCC has always been terribly intolerant to all other religions and even other Christian churches, but that night he explained that it was better to vote for Romney despite him being a Mormon than it was to vote for Obama. He said that if Obama was reelected that all abortions would be legal and other scare tactics like that.

[clarinet20]

I admit, I do agree with you about the political aspect of GCC. The church I was at was very right wing and I sit a bit more on the left end of the scale. They rarely ever talked about politics with us, but there was the strong sense that they are very right wing and disapproved anything else. Every now and then I would hear some people make comments about liberals and how much they disapproved the president.. but for the most part they kept pretty quiet.. I had to really keep my mouth shut and I had to really watch what I said because I knew that if I said anything that people would rebuke me for it especially the pastors. I finally left because I never felt like I could be myself there at all and I constantly felt disrespected because I was different then all of them mostly in my beliefs.