Ex-Church of Christ Support Board

Moogy wrote:I often drive past billboards with ads for a local COC. (Where do they get the money for that sort of advertising?)

They steal it from childrens homes.

Their spin on Hebrews 10:25 is a glaring false teaching. They really ought to be ashamed of what they have done to that passage. They rely on their meaning of that verse as a way to keep their members in check. And sadly, for a lot of them, it works. I have seen people leave their family's sides, check themselves out of hospitals, and quit their jobs over being told that it is a sin to forsake the assembly. Hebrews 10:25 does NOT mean what the cOC would have people believe. It is manipulated for their own selfish purposes. To keep those all important numbers up. I have seen people get chewed out, offended, berated, belittled, and everything else just for being absent once in a awhile. My favorite was "well, I tell ya, so and so works 75 hours a week and he ain't never out for nuthin". Ah, yes, cue the obligatory reference to the ONE person who is never gone for any reason. I just have a hard time imagining that 1st century Christians treated each other this way.

That whole "forsaking the assembly" thing always irritated me so much. When I was visiting family this past Christmas my cousin was talking about how Wednesday nights are crazy hectic for them. Her and her husband both work late, their four kids have after school activities, and then they have to rush like crazy to make it to church on Wednesday night. I hate how these people feel like they have to put their entire lives on hold because some elders told them they have to meet for a bible study on Wednesday night, and if they're not there then they are "forsaking the assembly". And if you have a job that requires you to work Wednesday nights? Some have said you should leave that job and find a new one. And don't even THINK about ever missing a Sunday morning...

OneStrike_ur_out wrote:Their spin on Hebrews 10:25 is a glaring false teaching. They really ought to be ashamed of what they have done to that passage. They rely on their meaning of that verse as a way to keep their members in check. And sadly, for a lot of them, it works. I have seen people leave their family's sides, check themselves out of hospitals, and quit their jobs over being told that it is a sin to forsake the assembly. Hebrews 10:25 does NOT mean what the cOC would have people believe. It is manipulated for their own selfish purposes. To keep those all important numbers up. I have seen people get chewed out, offended, berated, belittled, and everything else just for being absent once in a awhile. My favorite was "well, I tell ya, so and so works 75 hours a week and he ain't never out for nuthin". Ah, yes, cue the obligatory reference to the ONE person who is never gone for any reason. I just have a hard time imagining that 1st century Christians treated each other this way.

It's ridiculous. This is a perfect example of Church of Christ scripture twisting.

I have seen people do some really crazy things in order to fulfill their perfect attendance "requirements". There was one family that literally was NEVER gone for ANY reason whatsoever. They would not even take an out of town trip UNLESS it they could arrange it to where it would fall between Thursday and Saturday. These people were SO worried about it, they would not even entertain the idea of attending another church service at another cOC while out of town. "We must be back by Saturday night, because after all THIS is our church, not some other place!". The sad part about it was, they seemed like nice, normal folks, otherwise. They were (and still are) SO indoctrinated into that line of thinking. I even asked them one time what the harm was in just simply attending church some place else when they were on vacation, and they shook their head and said "oh, no, that's not scriptural". I even pointed out how we had visitors who were from out of town, visiting family and whatnot, so it would be the same situation when they went on vacation. They just wouldn't be present at their "home" church on that particular day. No dice. They said that that may "work for some people, but not us". There was no convincing them. They acted like they were under some sort of blood oath.

Shoot, I used get wrist slapped for going to church with my mother (another conservative cOC, by the way) to help her whenever she kept the grandchildren. And naturally, I'd be wasting my breath whenever I would explain it. "You DO understand, I'm not talking about some denomination, this is another cOC, JUST LIKE THIS ONE!". The reply would be "yeah, we know exactly where you are talking about, it's nothing against that cOC, per se, but that is NOT your church, THIS ONE IS!!". "They have over 120 members, we ain't got 40, WE NEED YOU, THEY DON'T". I wouldn't even try and go into the next part where I would attempt to explain that going there on that particular night was to help my mother out since she had the grandchildren and they could be a handful for one person to handle. So, even going to another cOC counted as a strike against you. Crazy.

Years ago my wife and I were labeled as "floaters" because we visited around too much. It started after we became the target of the local praycher. We knew he was full of crap, he knew we knew, and so he started making "vague" references to us from the pulpit. (BTW, we had this again later at another place before we ended up turning in our key). Anyway, we tended to "visit" a lot in a metro area, mainly missing Sunday nights and some Sunday mornings. It was odd because the places we were visiting, even our close friends there, started to make comments about us being "floaters" and that we were not committed to any one congregation, could not be counted on. We were just trying to survive, to not get bashed at home. But also there was no way we were going to join a congregation 30min+ away and commit to 3xweek services. Basically people wanted us to join them (ok...wow, that was a long time ago).

Much to our surprise the praycher what had it in for us decided to up and leave for greener pastures. So we returned to our "home" church and stopped getting complaints from friends at places we were visiting.

klp wrote:Years ago my wife and I were labeled as "floaters" because we visited around too much.

By the way, it's been mentioned here before but is worth repeating: becoming a 'floater' is a great first step toward leaving the COC with less hassle than just leaving cold turkey. For anyone reading these message boards who is still a 3x/weeker but wants to leave, consider floating a bit first. You might find that another COC isn't as bad as the one you're at or you might disassociate yourself from the current COC to the extent that you're able to leave without as much grief as if you just left now.

Lev

klp wrote:Years ago my wife and I were labeled as "floaters" because we visited around too much.

Floaters are impossible to control, and just might come to realize their "home" church is not the PERFECT CHURCH as advertised.

Lev wrote:

klp wrote:Years ago my wife and I were labeled as "floaters" because we visited around too much.

By the way, it's been mentioned here before but is worth repeating: becoming a 'floater' is a great first step toward leaving the COC with less hassle than just leaving cold turkey. For anyone reading these message boards who is still a 3x/weeker but wants to leave, consider floating a bit first. You might find that another COC isn't as bad as the one you're at or you might disassociate yourself from the current COC to the extent that you're able to leave without as much grief as if you just left now.

Lev

Yup! That's exactly what I did. Floated among different COCs for a while, then started adding a Methodist and Presbyterian church to the repertoire for some variety. It wasn't long before all my floating was among the denominations, with no stops at the COC at all.

Free Spirit, that's what I did. It was a very effective strategy for my situation.