Here is what you can expect, in sequence, after a family member or you, joins Grace Church. I have experienced it first hand.
1. Family member or you, are ‘love bombed’, warmly welcomed to the group, and given time and attention.
2. You will be asked to be asked to recruit other friends or CMU students. Only people willing to contribute financially or willing to work for free at the 1217 Roaster Coffee shop.
3. You will lose all your friends from home. They are not part of “The Body”, they are unbelievers and should not be associated with.
4. You will lose your family members. Especially if they show ANY negative reaction to the church, or Barry.
5. The last to be targeted for removal from your life, will be your parents. Especially if they see what is happening to you, and encourage you to leave. You will be reminded of every negative thing they have done to you in your life or in the process of trying to get you to leave Grace Church. This stage is critical. Once your parents are removed from your life, Barry and the team are your new pseudo-parents. They will now influence your life, and “guide” you in critical decisions. They are now your go-to with ANY life issue.
6. Knowing you are a student, they will encourage you to spend thousands of dollars on church trips and “Wilderness Experiences”. Often this money is accepted from the student’s college loan money. These high dollar donations are necessary as neither Barry or Suzanne work. You will support them and their projects. “It is God’s will”.
7. You will/may be planted with a thought seed: “Maybe you are not meant to go to college”. You will find multiple posts where students drop out and now work the church coffee bar or retail.
8. You may be “matched” or encouraged to date another church member as a love interest.
9. Barry will ask you questions of a sexual nature under the guise of confession. Warning-this can later be used against you. This escalates to a confession before a group of church leaders, as you are encouraged to search for your sexual thoughts and sins.
7. You begin to question Grace Church and their leadership–all groomed and compliant to Barry.
8. You are either asked to leave the church or leave on your own. This could take months or years to arrive at this step.
9. You will find yourself isolated from current “friends” who are still GC members. They will not talk to you and instruct their children to do the same.
10. You will either move to get out of your community or get therapy to deal with the psychological stress you are under.
11. You will likely do nothing as a result of what you have been through out of fear of rekindling negative feelings or desire not to be associate with anything related to GC.
12. You decide to take action and make others aware of the manipulation you have been through, the family disintegration you have experienced, the loss of thousands of dollars to this group, and how you were treated.
You just defined cult theology. Look it up and see how eerie the similarities are.
I sure hope you continue to speak out. This is so disturbing and BF is a sick and disturbed person – He needs to be gone and outted to prevent anyone else being victimized by his depravity.
Thank you for your well written explanation. This really is a cult. Barry’s World. The Gospel of BF. Delusions of grandeur – classic case.