1 /5 Jess H: After friends of ours were told they were no longer welcome at the young adults ministry, I feared that we would be next. After over a year, I became comfortable and allowed myself to stop worrying about it… however, I should’ve continued to be concerned. Now I may preface that I have only met one member of the board, the pastor and the associate pastor. The only other leadership I have really ever spent any time with is the leader of the young adults ministry. I also do not attend at this church on Sundays because I do not agree with several of their teachings and I have found a different church I call home, my church just doesn’t happen to have a group that my husband and I are able to attend due to his work schedule.
After my friends had righted their wrong; they asked to rejoin the young adults group, and even got so far as joining for a few weeks. Only to have themselves publicly thrown out of the group by one of the board members.
This couple did not deserve to be thrown out, and I would daresay, in my opinion, that no one ought to be thrown out of a church because of a specific sin the church has a problem with. We are all sinners and all fall short of the Glory of God, but are saved and FORGIVEN by faith, through grace.
These board members seem to have forgotten or ignored the “forgiven” part.
The couple was removed, and after sitting through a series of meetings with church leadership, and despite jumping through all of the board’s hoops for reconciliation, they were informed that married couples would no longer be welcome in the young adult ministry.
Now this proves problematic for my husband and myself (25 & 23 years respectively, still well within the age group). Immediately upon hearing of this, my husband reached out to the leader of the YA ministry and he told my husband that we were not in fact going to be kicked out of the group… to receive word only a week later, begrudgingly informing my husband that he hadn’t been told that would be the case and that we were being kicked out. So, they’re throwing us out because they can’t justify their reasons for not allowing the other couple back, so in a preventative measure they banned all married couples, thereby banning us as well.
So why the one star? Not because I’m angry; because I’ve gotten past that point.
The one star is truly because we are called to love each other and forgive our brother’s sins, and this board of elders is not even attempting that. I would recommend nearly any church in Naples aside from this one, unless you’re perfect! (I jest, obviously no one meets that criteria except for Jesus himself)