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.It was the expectation of Grace that members of the congregation served in any capacity that they could. Having grown up always around children, I jumped into serving in the children’s ministry. Little did I know that this volunteer children’s ministry position would resemble a full-time job. The time and energy expected of a full-time college student for a church volunteer position seemed outrageous. When I vocalized the stress that I was under, I was told that I needed to rethink my priorities as my service to God should be at the top of the list. I decided not to return to children’s ministry upon my return to CMU after some time off. This decision warranted a meeting with a leader within the children’s ministry program in which she said that she felt called to tell me that “I have demonic forces inside of me that cause me to rebel.” After this comment was made, I did not return to Grace and have had very limited contact with anyone that still attended.
Thank you, Courtney, for sharing your story. What you described is very typical of what so many of us experienced. It wasn’t right and I’m sorry it happened to you. I’m glad you got out when you could.
Thank you sharing and I’m sorry you had to endure this regrettable experience.
Thank you for sharing, Courtney. There is little that can be done legally with these types of groups, who exert undue religious influence on young adults. But one thing that works very well is exposure. Keep telling our stories, keep sharing, and keep talking! Publicity is one thing these groups dislike. This problem is not isolated to one campus in Michigan or this one Grace church. There are many high-pressure religious groups on hundreds of campuses in the US. They usually masquerade as “Bible believing Christian churches”, when in fact they are high-demand cults (sorry, but I can’t use the… Read more »