9/22/2023 0 Comments Brave church youth pastorYou knew of my conflict and were encouraging to me. I will never forget the time you gave me one of the communion plates to help pass around during a Maundy Thursday service. You were so kind and steady and obviously loved the church. Not only did I love the service and the people at your church, I grew to love you as well. ”Are you going to join that church you like so much? Please don’t leave.” So we hung on for awhile. Rarely a week would pass without a question from someone in the Sunday school class. So your church became my guilty pleasure. My husband agreed with me and we waited for the right time to make the switch. But it was my intent to eventually become a member of your church. As you remember, I was a member of a Baptist church and was leading a sizeable Sunday school class (along with my husband and another man) and felt I needed to stay a bit longer with the class. I desperately wanted to make a switch to your church and spoke with you about it. Lo and behold, it did and you were the new pastor. I was totally blown away by the service and came back home determined to see if such a church existed in my area. When my daughter was at Wheaton College in 2007, she invited me to attend a new sort of Anglican Church. This situation merely serves as an example of your profound blindness to the root of the real problems at your church and it is time for serious self-assessment. This elder actually had a really serious problem and has left his leadership role at a major SBC institution, quit the church and is now divorcing his wife. That perceptive young man told us that “something was not quite right” with this “highly respected” elder after he was “interrogated” by him. He also alluded to the untruthfulness of the family of one of the boys who was deeply hurt. One of the four individuals, another elder, who “investigated” our concerns on behalf of the church leadership called me bitter, amongst other things. But, what happened next shows his profound inability to understand just whose marriage is in trouble. Sure, he apologized to my husband but not to me or the other couple. He, by this action, has disqualified himself from being an elder yet he is once again serving in the capacity. He is a former counselor, as well as an elder, and therefore has no excuse. Suffice to say, the main perpetrator is still serving a lengthy prison term.īefore I start, I would also like to address my former pastors and elders who are reading this.Īs you know, one of the main elders, who was involved in judging the group of us, has admitted to spreading untrue and negative rumors about the state of my, as well as another couple’s, marriage. So, today, as I tell part of my story in the form of a personal letter, I will still be somewhat vague about the incidents that caused me to “divorce” my church. I have never confirmed or denied any guesses. However, astute readers not only have figured out what happened but also where it happened. They were fearful because they knew I was starting a blog with Wanda (whose handle here is Deb) and were concerned for my safety. At the time, I made a promise to my family that I would not divulge the specifics of the incident. Several years ago, my husband and I, along with quite a few others, left a church under less than desirable circumstances. The Angel of Courage-my most precious gift Far better is it to dare mighty things, to win glorious triumphs, even though checkered by failure…than to rank with those poor spirits who neither enjoy much nor suffer much, because they live in a gray twilight that knows not victory nor defeat.
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