You had so many posts this week about spiritual abuse of church employees, it's making me aware that people come into church and church employment with this very fuzzy idea of "family". That word gets used as something aspirational. But my family of origin was so wacky that's not a word I find appealing. A place I consciously find appealing. Being drawn into churches that spiritually abuse suggests we unconsciously seek something we didn't get from our blood family. What I've ended up thinking about by wandering through your posts, Kat's, Brian Lee, Rebecca and Lori's is what specifically is that desired place like? I saw yesterday that Max Lacado is going to Gateway as interim pastor. Is Max Lacado's church close to the Church of Tov you want? Lacado listed his heros as Charles Stanley, Chuck Swindoll, David Jeremiah. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kUDdKX9V9pY
I believe Peter Scazzero mental health education is mandatory for church pastors and leaders. You posted this quote from the SBC about public figures . . anybody standing up before a group is a public figure. Especially in a church. Especially these days with social media.
"Tolerance of serious wrong by leaders sears the conscience of the culture, spawns unrestrained immorality and lawlessness in the society and surely results in God’s judgment.”
Thank you Scott I do appreciate your Saturday meanderings. Glad you both have a nice time in the UP , my family would vacation there as well and watching the ships in the locks , I loved it.
Northern Michigan is where I dwell. 88 lakes in a three county area..... Sigh. Glad you were able to take it in. What a long wait Lori Adams-Brown has experienced. Hats off to her for providing her story as a way to advocate and validate the experience of whistleblowers. Just last week I spoke to someone who is experiencing the pain of which she wrote. Scot, you said, "whistleblowers will be treated with indignity and false narratives". That is the pain I witnessed, as well as being told she isn't being Christ-like when she shines the light on a predator. Thanks for including that in your meanderings.
Thanks, Scot, for including the article that Rebecca interviewed me for, and for your (and Kris's) support for me early on and throughout the past few years. Being a whistleblower in an environment with a workplace bully who has sent many into diagnoses of Complex PTSD and years of therapy is not something I had on my 2020-2021 Bingo card. I was repeatedly belittled 1:1 by this insecure megachurch pastor bully who is worshipped as a hero. However, he continues to hide his abuse in secret and discredits whistleblowers like me behind the curtain with his bro club. It’s his insecure and weird way of keeping his persona of “good guy” going. The many of us whom he has abused know the truth, and I am not afraid of him nor his pathetic private attacks of me and my friends. I’m just appalled that Saddleback church is allowing him to do this to the targets he has handpicked there with new NDAs, and that Echo church has still not released my friends from their NDAs. I hope one day someone finally stops him.
re: waiting game of the whistleblower
You had so many posts this week about spiritual abuse of church employees, it's making me aware that people come into church and church employment with this very fuzzy idea of "family". That word gets used as something aspirational. But my family of origin was so wacky that's not a word I find appealing. A place I consciously find appealing. Being drawn into churches that spiritually abuse suggests we unconsciously seek something we didn't get from our blood family. What I've ended up thinking about by wandering through your posts, Kat's, Brian Lee, Rebecca and Lori's is what specifically is that desired place like? I saw yesterday that Max Lacado is going to Gateway as interim pastor. Is Max Lacado's church close to the Church of Tov you want? Lacado listed his heros as Charles Stanley, Chuck Swindoll, David Jeremiah. https://www.youtube.com/shorts/kUDdKX9V9pY
I believe Peter Scazzero mental health education is mandatory for church pastors and leaders. You posted this quote from the SBC about public figures . . anybody standing up before a group is a public figure. Especially in a church. Especially these days with social media.
"Tolerance of serious wrong by leaders sears the conscience of the culture, spawns unrestrained immorality and lawlessness in the society and surely results in God’s judgment.”
Thank you Scott I do appreciate your Saturday meanderings. Glad you both have a nice time in the UP , my family would vacation there as well and watching the ships in the locks , I loved it.
Northern Michigan is where I dwell. 88 lakes in a three county area..... Sigh. Glad you were able to take it in. What a long wait Lori Adams-Brown has experienced. Hats off to her for providing her story as a way to advocate and validate the experience of whistleblowers. Just last week I spoke to someone who is experiencing the pain of which she wrote. Scot, you said, "whistleblowers will be treated with indignity and false narratives". That is the pain I witnessed, as well as being told she isn't being Christ-like when she shines the light on a predator. Thanks for including that in your meanderings.
Thanks, Scot, for including the article that Rebecca interviewed me for, and for your (and Kris's) support for me early on and throughout the past few years. Being a whistleblower in an environment with a workplace bully who has sent many into diagnoses of Complex PTSD and years of therapy is not something I had on my 2020-2021 Bingo card. I was repeatedly belittled 1:1 by this insecure megachurch pastor bully who is worshipped as a hero. However, he continues to hide his abuse in secret and discredits whistleblowers like me behind the curtain with his bro club. It’s his insecure and weird way of keeping his persona of “good guy” going. The many of us whom he has abused know the truth, and I am not afraid of him nor his pathetic private attacks of me and my friends. I’m just appalled that Saddleback church is allowing him to do this to the targets he has handpicked there with new NDAs, and that Echo church has still not released my friends from their NDAs. I hope one day someone finally stops him.