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 started attending GC in the fall of my freshman year at CMU with friends. I wanted to find a church to connect with for support and encouragement throughout my college years. I jumped in with both feet and began serving constantly during the Spring of my freshman year. I have always struggled with fear of man and this was magnified during my time at GC. I strived to do everything my leaders asked me to do, often at the expense of my sleep, my studies, family and friend relationships, and emotional well-being. I felt an enormous weight of burden and stress but couldn’t get out from under it. Read More…
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. Read More…
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.Read More…
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.Read More…
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. Read More…
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’….. Read More…
I’ve been encouraged to share more of my experience so here goes, but know these are just snippets of my story and experiences and I can only speak to my own experience:
I started attending what was then the Young Church in junior high. They hosted these events call The Event/The Next Event. These were lock-in style events with lots of games, food and fun while running around the Ward theatre. Read More…
I attended Young Church with my husband and 3 children from about 1998 to 2003. I served on the hospitality team. I enjoyed the kids and the friendliness of the church. Then the more I got involved, the more red flags I saw. At first, my kids had a lot of fun and I felt they were growing in their faith. But then things started to change. Read More…
I wasn’t involved long with GC, but I did see a lot of what other people are saying happen. For a year I lived in a house on campus with a few other guys from the church. 2 were what I would call devout members for lack of a better term, then there was a guy quite a bit older and me. I think we were the projects trying to get us more involved in the church. While living there, it came to light that the older guy was struggling with alcoholism and thoughts of suicide. He was taking our money for lights, and I noticed some of my stuff missing, and he was buying booze with it. This was all coming out about the time I left the church. Read More…
The purpose of this site is to provide a place where those who have been negatively affected by their experiences with Grace Church and its leadership can find support and information to help them work through what has happened or is currently happening to them.
This is the Grace Church that is located at 1217 S. Mission St. in Mt. Pleasant (Mount Pleasant) Michigan (48858) just a short distance from CMU (Central Michigan University). It was formerly known as The Young Church and is also the same church which houses Twelve17 Coffee Roasters. It also owns and frequently meets at The Ward Theatre on 218 S. Main Street.
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