Protect, Expose, Heal - "Take no part in the unfruitful works of darkness, but instead expose them."
Trigger warning, so please read on with caution.
I was raped at a party just days after my 16th birthday. My friends and I decided to celebrate the end of our sophomore year by going to a frat party. In good teenage fashion, I drank too much and blacked out. When I came out of it, I was underneath a man I didn’t recognize that had about 100 lbs on me. Continue reading
Dear readers,
I am so proud of the people who have spoken out about the YC. It’s been 18 years since I was “kicked out” of the church (or politely shown the door). I had many conversations with BF as a student at CMU. I also hung out with members of the band and leadership team. I remember once talking to the band members and leadership team about “the church that God intended.” I disagreed and questioned what the leadership team had said. The basis for my argument was that I had never read anything about what they were saying in the actual bible… I thought they were kind of making things up.
I’ll keep my story/experience short and sweet as it’s not as in depth and painful as some of the other stories shared here. I began attending Grace Church during my freshman year at CMU. I was extremely vulnerable coming from a dysfunctional upbringing and had limited exposure to Christianity, hence having limited knowledge regarding red flags to look for within a church community. Continue reading
It has been roughly 15 years since I attended YC/GC. Renaming YC to GC is fitting considering what I endured there when I was a student at CMU. At the time, I was a young mother of two that was heavily devoted to prayer, serving others, and a dedicated Christian. Months into joining YC my daughters became very involved in children’s ministry events and I started testing out the various ministries I felt lead to participate in. It was at that time that my children and I faced homelessness. Continue reading
Thank you for providing a way and a place to say what I’ve felt for a long time. For years (I attended the Young Church in 2006), I have felt that what I experienced was wrong, ungodly, and destructive. While it is an encouraging feeling to acknowledge that I’m not alone, internally I’m grieving for the broken relationships and spiritual scaring that may have resulted from attending this church. Continue reading
In 2003 my daughter was a CMU Sophomore. She ended up on the front row by ‘BF’s wife, SF.’ The BEST thing that ever happened….she heard my daughter worship Jesus, and her prayers were used against her. She was called in & grilled by a group of ‘imbeciles’ — men lording over a 19 year old with a ‘Holier Than Thou’ attitude, questioning her salvation & motives for ‘prayers’ like that in ‘their church. She had poured her heart out to Jesus, during worship. It was the beginning of ‘Her Shunning’….. Continue reading
My story with Grace Church (then The Young Church) started over 17 years ago. While most of the damage done to my heart occurred in the earlier years I was involved, I’ve continued to have red-flag experiences when talking to friends still heavily involved at GC. Though I’m on the outside now, my most recent negative experience with GC was yesterday. Continue reading
A Father’s Day Thought.
As I had been reflecting back on how close my daughter and I were throughout the early part of her life, I found myself feeling that our relationship had changed substantially over the past few years without any good reason as to why. I also found it difficult to understand how our relationship went from being one of unconditional love to one where even an occasional visit, if even granted at all, began lacking any resemblance of the previous loving relationship, and evolved to being filled with conditions. Continue reading
When I think about my time at TYC/GC, I have so many mixed feelings, but one thing always comes to mind; It is the place where I made the 3 best, most important, defining, God-directed decisions of my life…
I have been thinking of how and if I should share my story for the last week now. I don’t have a bunch of specific memories or quotes from my time at Grace Church but I think sharing some general impressions and situations that I do remember as well as the things I have been unlearning since leaving may be helpful to some. Continue reading