Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

Hello! I have been raised in the CoC and have recently felt the pull to attending a different type of Church. I can't put into words but I think others would consider it a calling. There have been new people brought into my path the last few months and the feeling of their faith and the feeling I get when I'm in their presence has really landed on my heart. After months of praying I was even further moved after a discussion with 2 of the members of this Church but know it will cause some hard feelings and perhaps even some ended relationships. I haven't spoken or shared my feelings with anyone in our congregation any advice on the best way to go about this?

Hi Krystal - welcome to the ex-board.
There are several issues involved with leaving a congregation, so it is hard to predict someone else's experience. What is the outcome you would like to have happen, though? Perhaps if you think about worst case/best case, you might feel better about it, or decide between possible options.

Welcome!

I would love for them to respect my choice to further examine my beliefs and my journey to search of answers. I know that is probably not going to be the case with the entire congregation but I am hopeful since there have been others who have taken the same path that it will be easier.

Welcome, but there is no magic wand that I know of to make people who think they are in a one true "whatever" group come to accept or respect those who are outsiders...and those that leave are least respected generally. Respecting or accepting those who do not agree would undermine their entire premise of existence. So I guess it depends how strongly the group you are in maintains that they are the one true faithful 1st century church that is found and founded on Pentecost.

One approach is to move far away and be very vague about everything church when you return on the occasional visit.

It really all depends on things like the nature of your current church (i.e. how fundamentalist it is), your age and family situation (i.e. if you're 17 and living at home, that's different from being 60 and fully independent), the quality of the relationships you're concerned about, the part of the country in which you live, the type of church you end up landing in (i.e. another Christian denomination, a Catholic church, a Muslim mosque, a Jewish synagogue), etc.

In the end, you cannot control how other people respond. You can only control one person (and that imperfectly) - yourself.

Krystalr4 wrote: and have recently felt the pull to attending a different type of Church. I can't put into words but I think others would consider it a calling.

Sometimes I'm not always sure if something is a 'calling' or just a whim, but other times I've been confident enough to follow the promptings -- even if just in the small ways -- and things have worked out well. Follow your heart.

Thank you everyone for your kind words. I am praying on it and am going to follow the path that I feel is the best for me.

Best wishes.

I felt sort of the same when I left, although there were other factors that fed into my discomfort and departure. I just got the overwhelming sense that the CoC was not where I belonged, and I felt like I was wasting my time attending there.

PM me if you like.