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Not sure where to begin with my story but I am glad I get to share it. I and my young daughters were a part of a church for 10 years. I was evan ...

 Since I was born my parents were in the full-time ministry and lead a church that we were apart of  since I was a baby. When your a preachers k ...

Dear Baptist Christianity,You told me that you were the only way, that the Baptist Christian religion was the way to God, and heaven. All ot ...

I had a Damascus Road type conversion experience when I was 18. I began attending the high school Christian Club, was baptized in a Baptist chur ...

Why did I leave the institutional church?  How much time do you have?Some factors: a bone-deep sense of weariness.  Frustration.  A ye ...

Joy, fun, discovery, openNew, interesting, curious,he found me, used meHurt, close to save oneselfHE found meJoy, fun, disco ...

I have never known a time I didn't love Jesus.When I was a toddler I would sit on my mom's lap with her while she had her devotions and talk ...

I was "worship leader" at an AOG for years and Calvary Chapels prior to that. For me, I had to leave. I haven't found a fellowship since that I ...

My story is long but i will shorten it - i was brought up in a earnest anglican missionary family where my father was an anglican minister for 3 ...

I was a religious man for over 30 years. I served in "the church", I tithed, I taught sunday school , I picked up kids in the bus ministery. I w ...

Thank you to those who replied to my inquiry of how many people look at this site.  To date there are nine of you.  I'm a little busy at the mom ...

I came across this site today and I am wondering how many people look at it. I have a story to tell, yet I wonder if it will be read by anyo ...

Christmas to me is the celebration of the incarnate Jesus. It is the self-revelation of God to the world in human form for the reconciliation of ...

Dear Church,I attended the children's christmas program yesterday with my son. He had no desire to be in it, but wanted to come as an observ ...

Dear Institutional Church,With great reluctance I have come to leaving you. Of course I left mentally some time ago, but with a sense of dut ...

Dear "Church,"I really don't know who or what "Church" I'm referring to. You see my entire life, I've been pulled from one church and pushed ...

Hi and God Bless everyone. I left the Church because the truth is not being preached. I read and study my bible all the time and when sitting in ...

dear pastorIt has been a almost three years since I left your "fellowship" in California. I know how you would respond if you were to get th ...

Why is it that when bad things happen, Christians are quick to warn you not to "blame God" and to "trust God" for the outcome? And when things f ...

Usher: Can we put this all in a letter Deak?Deacon: I don't think so, it would be volumes!Usher: So should we invite them to our site? ...

Dear my former churchI dearly wish you had been everything you said you were. I wih you had been a community.  I wish you had been a place g ...

We spent the last three years searching for a church that would simply stand on the bible. We found none! We prayed and God has showed us clearl ...

Dear Church:First off, I need to say this: I have an absolutely amazing home church. I've been attending for nearly 3 years, and I have neve ...

To my old home church:I wanted to leave you while I was still in high school, but because of my parents I continued to attend, although I lo ...

Imagine a person much like yourself who grows up in a normal family somewhere in America.   He goes to church all his life.   Perhaps he takes h ...

About a year ago I was reading Church After Christendom by Stuart Murray for a class at Fuller called Theology and Culture. Part of Murray’s b ...

For 24 years my wife Linda and I were church insiders doing almost everything you can do in a church without turning "pro". As an Assistant Pa ...

I didn't leave but was forced to go. I shared my feelings with a girl who was in a leadership position (taking Bible studies) and she didn't ret ...

Dear former Pastor-I hope things work out well for you. I know what it is like to be in your position. Especially being AofG. I was a part o ...

We have moved from California to Georgia. California proved way too expensive for us to live which played a roll in our decision to move. We mov ...

THE GREAT OMISSIONI too have been blinded by my own sin of omission, I focused my time outside the door to fill the Great Commission....

Looking back, I now see that the Father was leading me away from the religion of church years ago, but I wrestled with these suspicions beca ...

All my life I was told to respect the church and believe and I did. When the clergy abuse scandals started coming to light I was horrified. I ...

We were members of the "largest Pentecostal denomination in the world" for over ten years now. My husband served on the board and led major even ...

I read with a strong desire just to say dont you know you are forgiven.  We all need to know we are  forgiven first. Unconditional.  Forever.  I ...

Geez, I thought my past life was bad which was one of the reasons i became saved. After experiencing the church, the world is not so bad after a ...

:First of all I would like to thank you for this forum, It is indeed a pleasure and a priviledge to share my experience and the liberty I h ...

Looking back throughout my childhood and teen years, I realize it was always called "The Church," as I suppose most churches are called which pr ...

Former (or current) Church Goers of (Unmentioned) Church:As some of you may know I grew up in the church.  I loved it and my fellow members ...

Answering the question, “Why did you leave the church?” is a frustrating experience for me because most of the time, people don't listen to what ...

Thankyou for opportunity to post. I found this through a link about church abuse. First let me say that if you are reading this you are proably ...

I left my church in December 2006. In February of 2007, I wrote a letter and forwarded it to the Pastor, the board of directors, and to my churc ...

I joined this group because I wanted to change the world. I was religious to some extent, but here was a group of people that were going everywh ...

I seem to have come a different way than most. I first encountered God in the wilderness. He led me back in. Then, He led me out again. Why ...

Hi-My husband and I left the church about 5 years ago at the prompting of the Holy Spirit. Several things had happened which made our departing ...

Right, so what is WORCC? It is my personal definition of what everyone calls church today. “Western Organized Religious Country Club” (I know th ...

UPDATE: Please read my title, and understand that it is absolute truth before commenting. I struggled with my faith for a long time. Slowly ...

I'm not really sure when I was saved. I've always thought it was a process more than a moment, for me, at least. I grew up going to church, bu ...

I'll try to keep this short.I have been saved and serving in the church for 16 years. Left my home town to persue ministry, got a degree in ...

This is my experience. This I know to be true:Deep in our hearts, buried in the core of our internal being, we have a space for the Divine ...

Well, thank you for caring enough to get this input from those that have left a church. We were at the same church for 35 years and thought of ...

I'm a minister to junior high, high school and college students. I'm pursuing other jobs at this point in an effort to get out of my current chu ...

I left my church--not all at once--but in a gradual drifting away that took place over the course of a year. I was 18 and planning to attend a C ...

I was first touch by God when I was 12 years old, then a few years later I encountered the Holy Spirit and my walk with God took to a new dimens ...

The old is a shadow of the new.  The new is always better than the old.  The Old Testament Temple was built out of living stones.  It was not ...

I have left the church in my heart and mind but not physically, yet. I am in the closet with my un-belief. Along with my spouse, I raised my chi ...

I hope the following is helpful to those still involved in the institutional church.  I was deeply involved for the better part of my 41 years.  ...

Hey you leavers! ;)I found you digging in the ooze.com! Another of my favorites!kudos to the founders of this site.  Leaving organized r ...

When the Spirit blows, take the wind in your sails and move on. Don't stagnate in faith. Be open to receive the truth of God and to let go of al ...

"Like many before me, I had to quit my traditional church experience altogether before I could stumble into a more simple and meaningful means ...

Leaving the institution we today refer to as "church" was a process for me. It began seven months after I invited Christ into my heart. That w ...

My reason for leaving my original Church was due to two main reasons:1) I began attending my current church due to my location in Orange Cou ...

You would think that something Jesus began, and thousands followed, would not be the thing that we are all now rejecting. When we read about the ...

It was over 40 years ago when I was treasurer of a Church of England Parish Church, that I asked the question in a Men’s Discussion Group, “What ...

That's what Christianity does, makes you hate yourself. To be a Christian, one must believe that their self, their essential self is bad. Chri ...

My faith is bigger than the church ... that is why i choose to move on to another church and not out of Christianity.It is difficult to chan ...

Oh yes, I'm the great pretender Pretending that I'm doing well ... I'm lonely but no one can tell ... I play the game but to my real sham ...

It almost sounds as if I have lived many life times, but I have only lived one that I know of on this planet earth.  I'll begin by saying that n ...

When I was in high school (just over 20 years ago), I was pretty religious.  I was a member of a Presbyterian PC(USA) church in Northern NJ.  Wh ...

It's Sunday morning-very bright  sun streaming through the high windows of a very strict, fundmentalist cult-like demonination's Sunday School-- ...

I was raised Catholic, and attended Catholic schools through grade 12. My mother was Catholic, my father was Lutheran, and to get the priest to ...

I have been pondering for days what to say in this letter. It would be so easy to be angry, bitter, selfish or preachy. Believe me, I have wri ...

I was raised in a Christian family, went to Christian school, and a Christian college. I didn't have any bad experiences with the church, or wi ...

Twenty-five years ago the Schochs began working as paid ministers. Six years ago they quit. Today their daughter Lydia finds out what life outsi ...

Dear Church,It's nice that you want to know why I left you.  I mean, I meet so many of your members who assume they know why I left.  They l ...

I was born in Zimbabwe and raised in a non-religious household. I went to an Anglican boarding school, and we attended chapel twice a day, every ...

Lets see...I was raised Roman Catholic. Went to a school with nuns and rulers...was an altar boy.I found out people could be good witho ...

I used to be a Christian. I'm now an agnostic atheist.The story of how I got from there to here is a long one. It has a large cast of charac ...

          My mom married my dad who had been divorced. The catholic church at that time did not recognise divorce so they felt that my mom was g ...

I left all religions over 25 years ago, esp. christianity since that is the religion in which I was raised. As a senior in a Catholic high schoo ...

I will try to follow the rules but disappointed that I should not curse-lol. I'm gay and that symbol, the cross, was a milstone tied around my n ...

I left the church for one basic reason:  There is no evidence for God.I wasn't always so demanding.  As a teen and in college I was not only ...

Well..my story isn't quite as dramatic as some, I suppose, but it was wrenching for me. My parents were not religious in any sense of the wo ...

Well Its been a year since I have left the church and Christianity as a whole.  I suppose I can use this as a recap of what has happened.  ...

Dear Church,I grew up with you.  I attended the building every week, sometimes more than one week.  But I also realize that a church is more ...

Hello;I am going to try to do this, bare with me as I try to remember, I'm not a writer my punctuation and spelling are not the best and thi ...

I was raised in a Baptist church from birth. My family changed churches every few years due to different reason, preacher left, got offended, di ...

These days, people are used to long commutes. But a commute of 20+ miles to church doesn't facilitate lots of church involvement, so we chose t ...

I have been a part of a Church where the pastor suffered from a midlife crisis, wanted a different life but was afraid to say so. The church sh ...

We began attending regularly because we liked the preaching and the music and the feel of the service. Most importantly to my wife and I, on the ...

For the last 33 years or so, I’ve been a Christian.Church life started for me in Junior High, when I started going to a Presbyterian church ...

I was raised a Christian.  I attended a Methodist church until I was in seventh grade.  That is when my parents decided that there was nothing f ...

I use to go to a church which was very large, about 10,000 people attended their every week when the church was at its peak. It was the larges ...

the main reason I left my church was because of lack of leadership. I went directly to another church. I believe that a pastor should set the to ...

Hi everyone,This is a copy of what is posted on my own blog. I wrote it originally for a local newspaper, at the invitation of one of their ...