Also, as a pastor, I would encourage you to talk about this with your new pastor when you find a new church. A lot of times these feelings can fester inside of us. That’s not good.

God’s blessings!

in Christ,
jW

And also some Pastors are obsessed with anything sexual as its scandolous and they want nothing to do with a problems to tear down a church and if you said anything in that area then your out the door in a big big hurry. Its easy just to usher out problem people to correct a problem very quick. You cant tell some Pastors about your sexual things no way dont do that; the whole church may know about it in 6 months.

There’s losers in the church as well the world. Were all sinners and I know many non believers with just as much character as they just handle things in a cool way. If your a christian your all uptight and if you went to a christian school all your life your wayyyyyy uptight. I know i can spot them. They just dont relate well to people. If anybody disagrees with me then to bad oh well go sit and church and have fun with your drama filled lives. No more church for me no way.

in Christ,
jW

I think i have just become wise to how church works thats why i speak the way i do. you may call it bitter, bad attitude as usually anyone who has checked out of church is usually accused of being a bad guy, church hopper or unteachable, loving the world, so i assume thats the path your on to describe me. I dont care for most christians. i like the free spirited world. call it antichrist or the love of the father is not in me - well whatever- i love worldly people not so much the worldly ways. respect my new life is all i can say.

Oh, i think you might mean not all churches have uptight people. But the problem is that i had a bad experience with people in the church so its really a recovery process to get over with it or some check for the rest of their lives. Lots of people dont buy the abuse story but well were all different and tolerance levels to stupid church stuff peaked in me after 9 years. I see church for what it is and it is happening everywhere. To many uptight people under one roof that cant get along over dumbest things. power issues as well rule big time probably was an issue to my last comment that i forgot to mention on the guy kicked out for unrequited love.

Nah. I don’t think you’re uptight. I don’t know you well enough to say that about you.

What I was wondering about is if the drama that you mention was the reason that you left the church in the first place 9 years ago or so. It appears that it is.

I attended a Christian undergraduate institution. I certainly can understand what you’re talking about with the general “feel” of most Christian colleges. I was in danger of being an early “letters from leavers” guy myself because of one. I had actually gone into undergrad preparing myself for the seminary. Then I met some of the people that were (unfortunately) on the same track as I was.

My thought after about a year, and my complaining prayer to God was “dear God, if this is what it takes to be a pastor in formation…I ain’t it.” I goofed around with several other majors and life decisions etc until I finally had to take a year off of my undergrad degree. I was flailing and didn’t know what I really wanted to do. I always had faith that God had a plan for me - but I was utterly confused if that was teaching, fundraising, carpentry, and/or small business.

I had a little help from the Holy Spirit and one day just sort of got a little quasi-supernatural tap on the shoulder. Since then, I’ve become a pastor and I haven’t looked back.

You’re right. It looks like an unfortunate state for the church some days…if not most days. The church is filled with sinners…and some might even look worse that what we think of ourselves.

But I take that as a challenge rather than accepting defeat. I’m in a denomination that needs some work. I promised God that I’d let Him use me to do some of that work if He saw fit.

So I hope you’ll try church again, with a spirit of adventure. You never know what you might find.

in Christ,
jW

With that said I’d like to say something to you Rebelheart. Most of us on this forum can testify to being hurt in some fasion by a church. As far as abandoning God because of it seems a bit extreme. Let me encourage you to seek a more personal experiencve with Christ, rather than equating God with the church. People are flawd and not always a good model of Christ. Jesus is always faithful and cares deeply for you and your situation. If you are at fault in some way as to what happened, God will help you realize that and graciously help you come to a place of facing that. If you are a victim, he will help you heal in time. It may take a long time, but he is waiting for you to listen and watch as he works in your life.

I know this from experience. My wife of 25 years divorced me and moved in with another man 3 days before Christmas. I have known she was having an affair for the last year and 5 months. I was willing to reconcile, she wasn’t. I found much support and love from mey Christian and non-Christian friends through it all, but it was Jesus who kept me from committing murder as well as suicide. He got personal with me. I couldn’t rely on his people to be him. I had to trust that no circumstance, no matter how painful it was, could change the character and nature of God. He loves me. He loves you too.

Don’t give up.

Ed.