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Post by philiprosenthal on Apr 25, 2006 12:14:28 GMT
This thread is to discuss the issue of relationships between those who leave EveryNation and those who stay. These relationships often become very stressed, because those who leave feel those inside should be speaking up more for reform within the denomination or else joining a healthy one.
I would compare it to other parallel situations of: * The Bible believing vs liberal controversy in many mainline denominations. Some left to form exclusively bible beliving denominations, while other Bible believers stayed with the liberals. * The communist persecution in places like China, where some Christians go to unpersecuted state controlled churches and others to persecuted house churches. * The Nazi persecution in Germany, where some churches came under state control and compromised their voice on crucial issues to escape persecution.
Reality is that anyone who takes a hardline stance for morality within EveryNation at a leadership level is likely to get persecuted by those who compromise. But there are other good Christians caught in the messy middle - not fully knowing what is going on - wanting to do the right thing - not always making correct choices. They may see EveryNation critics as unreasonable and unloving. Those who leave may see those who stay without speaking up as compromising.
The question comes how we try to maintain relationships while not compromising truth.
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Post by helpfulcommentary on May 25, 2006 2:11:54 GMT
Within the movement, if you criticize, you must be "politically savvy" If you know when to speak the truth, and to whom, you may have some influence. However, ultimatley the issue seems to be a group of men at the top who are very committed to their way and that will not change except through prayer. They have been confronted many many times but for whatever reason choose to continue in the same way.
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Post by helpfulcommentary on May 25, 2006 2:13:16 GMT
By the way, there are no relationships once you leave. And that is partly because the relationships you had when you were in were not really with the other people, they were with the system. Once you unplug from the system, why continue?
Sure sometimes you may keep a friend, but there remains the tension that you have left....
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Post by dramersagalle on Jun 16, 2006 2:52:02 GMT
Sad to think that after years of working together, it ended up like this.
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Post by timspong on Aug 14, 2006 18:00:01 GMT
Sounds Like EN is a victim of their own success to a certain degree. The bigger an organization gets (any organization) the more worldly politics comes into play. It is human nature, pride and ego and EN unfortunately doesn't have a magic pill to cure it.
I would imagine that every large church organization in the world is going to have problems with political maneuvering.
There are even examples of it in the Bible. However, if your pride has been hurt, it is much easier to blame the church than deal with your own issues.
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Post by youngnmighty on Aug 15, 2006 16:09:44 GMT
I'll be honest, in order to salvage what last bits of my sanity were left when I left, I decided to avoid church people as much as i could. I was ok with the ones who were my friends, but I didn't want to hang around others. It would have been too superficial.
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Post by ddddyyyy on Jul 21, 2009 2:35:09 GMT
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