Thursday, February 10, 2011

Church Woes

I have been back and forth over whether or not I should even post this but this blog was started so I could work through my feelings.  Here goes.
I am still sitting here dumbfounded over what has happened to me recently.  Way back in the beginning of December I requested of a group I belonged to that the venue be changed for the Christmas party.  Apparently I stepped all over the toes of the woman in charge of the group by doing so.  A meeting was called by the pastor.  It turned into a lovely Sara-bashing session.  I got up to leave (to go cry) and the pastor stood up, walked over, and blocked me from leaving the room.  I have looked up the state law and this is class 5 felony kidnapping.  He did step aside to let me out after I said a few things to him.  My husband and I asked to have a meeting with the pastor later on that day to address the fact that a crime was committed and he needed to apologize for it.  As for all that happened next, my jaw is still on the floor.
You all know this because you read this blog but I would like to remind everyone before I continue that I lost my son in August and am currently pregnant again.  My husband called meeting after meeting after meeting trying to get the pastor to see that what he did was wrong.  At the last meeting they had the pastor stated he did nothing wrong and would do it again if the situation warranted it.  We decided to leave the church.  We sent an e-mail to all of the elders stating that we could no longer trust the integrity of the leadership and wished to have our membership removed.  Apparently a meeting was called (after we left the church) with the deacons to explain to them that I was going to be brought up on church discipline the following Sunday.  I had no knowledge that I would be brought up on church discipline, what I had supposedly done, or what needed to be done to fix things.  This is a total disregard for Matthew 18.  I found out later that I apparently have a "chronic negative attitude" and I was also in trouble for my blog posts and some things I said on facebook.  The pastor told us we could come back if I publicly apologized for these things.  Since I do not possess a "chronic negative attitude" nor have I written anything worthy of apologizing for this is not going to happen.  And, he seems to be forgetting that we left because he broke the law.
The pastor is supposed to shepherd his flock.  This involves protecting them.  I was not a threat to anyone other than him.  If he truly cared for me or my unborn child he would have waited to bring this up until I had had the baby.  Although, I maintain there was nothing to bring up in the first place.  The amount of stress this whole situation has put me through has been tremendous.  I have lost almost all of my friends from the church because they cannot believe the pastor would lie.  But, that's turned out to be okay since there are 15 other families/individuals who have left under similar circumstances.  I have friends in those families and I can tell you we all feel battered and bruised by the leadership at this church.  We are all still in shock that a supposed Christian leader could ever act like this.  And we know that no one still at the church would believe us if we tried to explain.  So we pray for the congregation's eyes to be opened to who they are really following and for the pastor to be brought to his knees in repentance.  In the meantime, I am trying to not focus on it too much.  I am worried about what all of this stress is doing to the baby.  I'm pretty sure not one person involved in this debacle has even stopped for 2 seconds to think about that.

2 comments:

  1. I am oh so very sorry for all of this stress you and your wee one are going through. I hope you can find some calm and peace soon. I don't think that people realize the harm they can do, all because they are in a position to do so, in this case the pulpit. I am thinking of you, Sara.

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  2. Oh gosh, Sara, I'm sorry. I can relate a bit - not long before I moved, I found out that someone had either broken a confidence, or simply spread a rumor, and that Pastor wanted to talk with me. I never found out who said it or what they said, although I have my suspicions. All I know for sure is that people were talking, behind my back, and couldn't be bothered to do the Christian thing and come talk to me about their concerns..

    So I have to say, the timing of my move was good, because I no longer feel that I can trust the "friends" I had at RGBC.

    There's at least one other person who has had a similar experience... ugh. The whole thing really sucks, and I'm sorry you got dragged into something so ridiculous.

    I'll be praying for your family, k?

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