At what point do you decide to visit a new church?

[Lamb]

At what point do you decide to visit a new church?

 

[tango]

If you're talking about visiting a new church in the context of looking for a new church home, i.e. leaving my existing church, it would take quite a lot to get me to do that.

If the nature of the church has changed to the point I don't believe that I or my family are being fed I'd look to move to another church that would meet that need. If the church has changed to the point that I don't see any way I can continue to maintain fellowship then I'd look to move.

Leaving over issues of preference would most likely see me exploring other churches while still attending my regular church. Leaving over theological issues would almost certainly see me just leaving completely, and looking for another church from a place of considering myself to not have a home church any more.

 

[NewCreation435]

I joined a church around the time of the pandemic (the lock down started the very next week after I joined). I have not been there in about a year and a half. I feel like the music is not that good and the pastor has a tendency to repeat himself often and it feels like a waste of time to go. I have looked around some at other churches, but haven't found another church I want to join. It seems most of the churches in the area are pretty weak

 

[Lamb]

I joined a church around the time of the pandemic (the lock down started the very next week after I joined). I have not been there in about a year and a half. I feel like the music is not that good and the pastor has a tendency to repeat himself often and it feels like a waste of time to go. I have looked around some at other churches, but haven't found another church I want to join. It seems most of the churches in the area are pretty weak

Have you thought about streaming churches that are farther out?

 

[tango]

Have you thought about streaming churches that are farther out?

Streaming is all well and good but the person sitting at home streaming is never really part of the church community.

It's a way to sample what a church offers before visiting but beyond that feels like a poor substitute to actually attending church.

 

[NewCreation435]

Have you thought about streaming churches that are farther out?

I have sometimes watched some of them. I also sometimes take classes on bible project or biblicaltraining.com

 

[Lamb]

Streaming is all well and good but the person sitting at home streaming is never really part of the church community.

It's a way to sample what a church offers before visiting but beyond that feels like a poor substitute to actually attending church.

It gives people a chance to feel better connected to something since they no longer visit the local ones.

 

[tango]

It gives people a chance to feel better connected to something since they no longer visit the local ones.

It can, but if it's someone's only "church" then they aren't really gathering with other believers or engaging in fellowship. It has a lot of potential to turn a commitment to a community into little more than another consumer product.

 

[Joy]

I left the organized church world years and years ago. I've tried a few here and there since then and it's disgusting how shallow most of them are ...stages with light shows and spotlights ...pastor gets behind the pulpit and tells a few jokes, reads a paragraph out of the newest watered down version of the Bible....take up offerings, make announcements about the 50's singles dance next Saturday ......yay. (NOT!!)

No one wants deep relationship with God or their brothers and sisters in Christ. They don't care about getting in the trenches with the hurting, the suffering, the persecuted ...just soothe their consciences and don't burst any bubbles. Pat their backs and tell them they're okay, and skip out to lunch with their clique of shallow friends, talk about fashion and hair styles ...or the fancy car they bought.

Should they encounter anyone like myself, who actually deals with harassments, punishments (persecution) for going against the cult system I was born into ...they judge, shun, give shallow and irrelevant advice ....and reject. I know .... that's been my experience in EVERY SINGLE CHURCH I have tried over the last 20+ years. It's not worth it to me.

I fellowship outside a church building with other survivors of SRA and MK ...and about 3 others who aren't survivors but aren't shallow and judgmental.

 

[Joy]

That being said, I do like to listen to Charles Lawson online.

 

[Lamb]

I left the organized church world years and years ago. I've tried a few here and there since then and it's disgusting how shallow most of them are ...stages with light shows and spotlights ...pastor gets behind the pulpit and tells a few jokes, reads a paragraph out of the newest watered down version of the Bible....take up offerings, make announcements about the 50's singles dance next Saturday ......yay. (NOT!!)

No one wants deep relationship with God or their brothers and sisters in Christ. They don't care about getting in the trenches with the hurting, the suffering, the persecuted ...just soothe their consciences and don't burst any bubbles. Pat their backs and tell them they're okay, and skip out to lunch with their clique of shallow friends, talk about fashion and hair styles ...or the fancy car they bought.

Should they encounter anyone like myself, who actually deals with harassments, punishments (persecution) for going against the cult system I was born into ...they judge, shun, give shallow and irrelevant advice ....and reject. I know .... that's been my experience in EVERY SINGLE CHURCH I have tried over the last 20+ years. It's not worth it to me.

I fellowship outside a church building with other survivors of SRA and MK ...and about 3 others who aren't survivors but aren't shallow and judgmental.

So none of the churches you visited preached Christ crucified for the forgiveness of your sins?

 

[Joy]

So none of the churches you visited preached Christ crucified for the forgiveness of your sins?

Two or three may have mentioned it on occasion, but not as a central message. Most of them were more of a popularity clique with watered down feel good (Osteen flavored) messages.

The ones who seemed to have some truth still were full of mixture, and as soon as they learned of my history (a survivor of SRA/MK), I was shunned, even was walked out of an Assembly of God church and told that I didn't belong there. (My children and I were abducted, drugged, and s.xually assaulted/tortured inside our own barn, on Mother's Day ...to punish me for speaking about the cult. I went to my sisters in the church to ask for prayer support. That's why I was escorted out of the church.)

I knew God sent me there, because the pastor himself was a multigenerational victim/survivor of SRA/MK as were several church members. It was about 5 years after I was escorted out of the church that a member apologized to me and said that my testimony was valuable, needed, and that they didn't know then what they know now.

God has sent me into several churches to share bits about my testimony ...because so many churches are cult run or cult infiltrated, or have SRA/MK victims in them that are misunderstood. Sometimes, I stayed for a few years, sometimes a few months or weeks. But I have not been led back to a church in a couple of years. I'll do so when and if God leads me. Believers can assemble anywhere .... it doesn't have to be in a 501C3 building.

 

[Joy]

So none of the churches you visited preached Christ crucified for the forgiveness of your sins?

Do you understand how SRA, MK, and DID work? Do you have an understanding of how CIA trauma based mind control was and is still used to shatter and program minds of their victims beginning in the womb? The mind splits and splits in order to survive, and as a way to protect them from going insane, those parts of the mind that hold knowledge of the trauma and cult activity were split off, and walled off behind amnesic barriers. That is how someone can go into ministry, stand behind a pulpit and preach ....and then another part that is against God can move forward at other times and abuse, and commit rital murder. I've seen it.

It's not until that person chooses to allow God into the dark places (missing time, for instance) and shine His light, that these will begin to gain freedom. But often, they choose not to ....out of fear, or pride, religious elitism (position), or even that they are aware and choose to stay cult active and keep their Christian facade because they have never truly surrendered to Christ and have embraced the cult's luciferian philosophy.

Many of these actually do preach Jesus Christ and Him crucified. But they also subtly twist certain scriptures in order to create an inordinate fear of the pastor and church leaders, in order to keep their subjects under submission and accessible. Again, I have experienced this. I left one we were in for 13 years ...and then went on to look for a safe church only to experience what I shared in my previous posts.

 

[Lamb]

Two or three may have mentioned it on occasion, but not as a central message. Most of them were more of a popularity clique with watered down feel good (Osteen flavored) messages.

The ones who seemed to have some truth still were full of mixture, and as soon as they learned of my history (a survivor of SRA/MK), I was shunned, even was walked out of an Assembly of God church and told that I didn't belong there. (My children and I were abducted, drugged, and s.xually assaulted/tortured inside our own barn, on Mother's Day ...to punish me for speaking about the cult. I went to my sisters in the church to ask for prayer support. That's why I was escorted out of the church.)

I knew God sent me there, because the pastor himself was a multigenerational victim/survivor of SRA/MK as were several church members. It was about 5 years after I was escorted out of the church that a member apologized to me and said that my testimony was valuable, needed, and that they didn't know then what they know now.

God has sent me into several churches to share bits about my testimony ...because so many churches are cult run or cult infiltrated, or have SRA/MK victims in them that are misunderstood. Sometimes, I stayed for a few years, sometimes a few months or weeks. But I have not been led back to a church in a couple of years. I'll do so when and if God leads me. Believers can assemble anywhere .... it doesn't have to be in a 501C3 building.

From what I gather, you choose not to attend any other churches because you had trauma. Did you even try mainstream churches such as Lutheran?

 

[Joy]

From what I gather, you choose not to attend any other churches because you had trauma. Did you even try mainstream churches such as Lutheran?

I don't attend church at this time because #1, it's always just a matter of time until they oust me because of what I live with. I am deprogrammed, have had so much healing ...but I still live under threat. That's something most people in churches have no understanding about, and are afraid ....or else they say it's my fault.

I'll attend a church here and there, but I won't stay as a regular member unless God leads ...and the people are willing to allow God to teach them how not to judge someone who didn't choose to be born into SRA/MK.

And #2, a church teaching the truth and who truly seeks God and allows the Holy Spirit to move in their midst ....is hard to find. And I don't mean the hyper-spiritual stuff. That's not Holy Spirit.

I've been in churches (years ago) that just preached the Word, no glossing, no hype ...just solid truth. I miss that!

I don't venture into Lutheran and similar churches of that denomination because they don't hold the same doctrines that I believe are scriptural. I prefer to find a church that believes the whole Word and doesn't add, eliminate certain scriptures, or try to explain things away. Usually, that leads me to a non-denominational church that leans toward Pentecostal, but not legalistic (with man's rules). I usually end up at an Assembly of God church that has broken from the organization ....same doctrines, but no denominational affiliation.

I hope that helps.