Letters From Leavers

10. Hypocrisy by those in power.  Can’t deal with those egos any longer. I have an issue and get quoted scripture to reveal my short comings.  Pastor has similar issue but he’s justified in his actions, because he’s the shepherd, after all.

9. Myth of Community. My church was great about talking the talk but sadly, not walking the walk. If you were in the clique,  (families with small kids) you were taken care of, everyone else was expected to babysit for them etc but got no help at all, when they needed something. I was very ill recently, out of church for nearly 2 months and only 2 out of about 60 every bothered to see if i was alive. Ironically, my non Christian friends were wonderfully supportive and acted more like Jesus, then anyone in my church did.

8. Desire to grow larger, not to serve God but to serve man.  We did not need a new meeting space as the old one was perfectly adequate. I would rather see that money go to the poor then for more new programs committees etc.  The Pastor admitted he wants to be famous and of course, being more visible as a church is way to accomplish this.

7 Tired of the same old formula. Sing some Christian lite songs, announcements, prayer requests, sermon, more songs, end. No space for the holy spirit to move, no spontaneity, safe, boring routine every week.

6.  Me and God like hanging out together outside. Maybe it’s my years of paganism but I just don’t feel close to God in some building. I’ve tried and tried but find myself looking out the windows on Sunday morning yearning to be out in nature worshipping Him in his creation.

5 Bashing other religions, particularly, Catholicism. My husband is a born again Catholic and one of the most Godly men I’ve ever met, but he was continually hurt by people making nasty and ignorant remarks about Catholics. Hey guys, we’re all playing for the same team!

4. Where in the bible does it say that God is a right wing conservative Republican or for that matter, a liberal Democrat? I tried very carefully to keep my political views out of church but was constantly challenged by my fellow Christians. To the pastors credit he tried to control this but hey, people are people. I was severely chastised for my political affiliations when i shared with someone I thought I could trust. And lets not forget the email forwards from random church folk, all pushing a right wing agenda or the  Obama is the antichrist and/ or/ a  Muslim ones, too.

3. Twisting the bible to justify ones position on anything. Seen it in both churches I’ve attended, find it disturbing.

2. Where’s the outreach? I live in a very poor area where people have very simple needs like housing food medical care that are not being met. My church seldom reached out to anyone in need outside the church community. I do volunteer work on my own, Everything from working at the catholic homeless shelter to handing out food for the secular, Food not Bombs program in the park. The few church sponsored outreaches always ended up being a pat ourselves on the back fest for helping those poor folk. Also find Foreign mission trips ridiculous, when there are desperate people right down the street.

1.  If anything good happens to you it’s God, anything bad happens it’s your own fault for not trusting Him enough. No credit for your own efforts, which i believe are led by God.