Something happened at church yesterday (page 4)

Sunspot

I only WISH I had the sense God gave a goose and over-reacted when the WTS "Rulez & Regz" began to become apparent to ME when I first went to meetings! It would have saved me 30 years of crap and shredded family relationships due to these stupid dictates!

I think you had every RIGHT to be upset and feeling a "warning signs" that this is NOT the place you want or need to BE! I have been longing for a place to gather with others to worship and to feel that sense of community that I miss.....and it has taken me seven years to get the courage up to go to a church. The first time I feel uncomfortable or leery of any practice I am "expected" to do......it will be a "so long, folks" from me. I will not risk the sense of being coerced or talked into anything ever again.

Better luck on your next journey! Please don't make it your last "try" in locating a church.

hugs,

Annie

mouthy

and he says so they do not distrubt the service.

Guess he needed to read the scripture "suffer little children to come unto me"

parakeet

Lilly: "Mind you niether he nor we knew anyone at all in that church. And I am supposed to hand my child over to them and trust them"

It's good you trusted your instincts. Who knows what kind of supervision they have in the children's class? Just because it's a church doesn't mean everyone there is a good person. We've learned from the JWs that pedophiles and all manner of perverts can lurk behind a "holy" exterior.

XJW4EVR

Lil,

Oh, my! My first thought was, "That sounds like a Calvary Chapel." Then you confirmed it. CC's are not legalistic (I attended one where the Pastor taught on Sunday mornings wearing Hawiian shirts and Levi's), but they are a bit rigid. It's a funny thing considering that most of the Pastors are ex-counter-culture types (eg. surfers, bikers, etc.).

While on the surface they are a good church, I think that you would be better served finding a Church that teaches the Bible a bit more deeply. CC pastors are good stoneskippers, but they won't challenge you at all.

While there are no perfect churches, I am sure there must be some out there that will meet most of your needs. Just look around, and be open to the denominations. They're not as bad as people make them out to be.

XJW

lovelylil

XJW,

thanks for that good advice. Lilly

Carmel

I reccommend you find a "disorganized" religion. Then you will have the full support of those of us who can't remember what day of the week it is and our wives wrap our lunches in numbered brown bags.

carmel

truthsearcher

I'm so sorry that you had such a negative and upsetting experience as visitors to a church. As so many have said, please don't take this as an indication of the way all churches would respond. Over the years, we have attended different denominations and congregations, and they were all a little bit different in terms of children's ministry. We have always enjoyed having our children with us in the service, and I don't mind baby noise in the background either. There are churches that have absolutely no children's programs at all, and maybe this is something that you would like to pursue, but I think that in time your teens would enjoy fellowshipping with others their own age. It was suggested that perhaps a letter or a phone call might be in order to the pastor--I'm sure that he would be very sorry that this happened, and perhaps he needs to have a little talk with the ushers about being more sensitive to newcomers...even if you decide never to return, it might be something that would help others. Have you tried any Baptist churches? We have found them to be excellent Bible teachers and locally run, so there is no hierarchy to deal with.

defective light

I would grab the wife and kids and go to McDonalds and pray for those lost souls over a Big Mac....

truthsearcher

Oops, I meant to say that at our church and many others we know of, the children's workers are required to have a police-check before being allowed to have that position. We also have a yearly session called "plan to protect" which outlines the procedure for reporting abuse, and also we have a rule that there has to be at least 2 adults at all times with the kids, bathroom doors are left open, children are not allowed to leave the building except with their parents. These policies are in place to protect the children against any possible abuse (although the church has never dealt with a situation, they see the necessity of being proactive in this evil time).

Apostate Kate

Lilly that is crazy. I never heard of such a thing. I have years of experience with Calvary Chapels and that would have never happened at any of the ones I have worked with. I would LOVE to talk to the pastor there about this. Since they are not "organized" you can find varying differences within CC's, but never something like this.

Might I suggest you start with a local charity outreach as volunteers? There are Christian run charities in every town that welcome volunteers. They may have small Christian services and prayer before food preparation at a food bank, Christian based homeless ministries, senior ministries, Salvation Army, etc.

When children get involved with faith based volunteer work it really can change them and give them a vision of reality that they otherwise would never see.

Right now I am volunteering in several charities and facilitating a whole new one for seniors! It is really coming together and I am so excited about it. I have a gift of facilitating charities, training others to carry on, delegating responsibilities, and then move on to the next need. This is as close as it gets to religion for me although I do have a church home that I love and supports my ministry outreaches.

I pray your family finds that church home your husband is looking for. It becomes a true extended family, not a building full of fair weather friends and fakes.

Love~Kate

Something happened at church yesterday

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