Greeting,
I come before you all to tell a story of a Bishop, Leader, Man of God, I’m a young (24y) single woman came on the scene not having much experience with being in church. Ready for a change, seeking to change my life, desiring to have Christ in my life. I was introduced to this COGIC church in B’ham, AL. At first everyone was so sweet and friendly. I found myself reaching a level in Christ I was proud of, learning the word, being filled with the Holy Spirit. The world couldn’t get me back. Everything in my life was coming together. It wasn’t long I started working for this Bishop, building a close Christian relationship with him and the first lady, respecting him & her like my father and mother. He treated me like a daughter took me in his home, really made me felt love. Well, I soon found out he preyed on me. He begins sharing how the first lady was not pleasing him (very intimate details) and he was soo lonely. He would state that God don’t intend for him to be lonely like this, suddenly he would start weeping….So I thought! He made sure I was well taken care of, I thought it was because the great job I was doing with his business. He then started sharing with me about things other members shared with him in private (breach of confidentiality).He soon started telling me what a great woman I was and I would make a man very pleased, that I needed someone like him in my life. I feel in love with this man and all his promises. All he tried to accomplish he did!!! After that the closet open and OMG!! A baby boy, from another young lady in the church. He adopted the little boy to cover himself. Our affairs continue and so did he and the other young lady. Meanwhile, first lady took very ill but I thank the Lord she is stronger and doing well. Wake up call, I contacted a STD from him, and when I confronted him he made me feel like trash. Later he would call/text and apologize, wanted things to go back the way they were. That was enough for me….Since then I have moved and humbled myself before God for forgiveness. I have no desire to attend church, that was my first church experience (afraid of this happening again/lost respect for leadership in man). Did I also mention now he and his wife are getting a divorce after 40 years. He now is engage to a 30 year old.
He called me and asked me to come back to church and seat in my usual spot (front row), I refused!! Learning he stood before his church doing service to tell the church about the divorce and blamed it on his wife (saying: no sex in 12yrs.) a woman who suffered a stroke a couple of years ago. I’m told to pray and have a forgiving heart. But in the meantime the damage is done. Some people think you’re just suppose to put it in the past and move on, but it doesn’t happen like that. Your life becomes forever changed and a victim can never look at the church ever the same. Then to add insult to injury some “church folks” want to blame the victim saying they seduce the Bishop or the pastor, in my case I was seduced and preyed on by the Bishop. I’ve been praying & building a personal relationship with God; Learning to know him for myself. Now I understand a leader can’t teach what he don’t LIVE!!!We require our leaders to lead and take a stand against sin on every front, especially when the very ones that are in charge of the flock allow the devil to deceive them to violate others in such a shameful way. I know we must all give an account for what we do. Once again my situation was swept under the rug to avoid embarrassment…..To everyone who reads this continue to pray my strength in the Lord. I truly Love Jesus, I love the Joy he gives me! I’m stronger and wiser, but still afraid to seat on any front row right now. May the Lord not only help me, but help Bishop Peter Wren Sr., East Birmingham COGIC in Birmingham, Alabama.

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I respectfully disagree. I love at home all the time. I love my wife. I love our two kids. When I go to the store, I take love with me. When I go to work it follows me. Love is how you treat people at ALL times, not simply what you do at church unless you never leave church.

And when it comes to a church family, how do you know COGIC is the right answer? Is it because that's what you have studied and researched and led to believe, where you raised that way? Or were you convinced, persuaded, and then taught the bible from a COGIC perspective? I was raised in the Seventh Day Adventist church. Naturally, I believed what they told me and whenever they wanted to make a point they had several biblical texts to back it up. Every church does the same thing. So.... the difference often becomes who you come into contact with and how able they are to persuade you into following THEIR view of the bible. I think this is a mistake that most people make. What a person should do is read the bible for themselves, learn as much as they can on their own, and then eventually find a congregation that best reflects what THEY think the bible is telling them.

When most people want to find G-d where do they go? To church. AC went to church to find G-d and found man instead. That is not an accident to me. That is a lesson. We think we can find G-d in a church because that's what tradition programs us to think. We're programmed to think that we NEED a church. I'm not saying its not good to have one but Abraham didn't have one. What we NEED is a personal relationship with G-d. I wish I could communicate to do you all the ways in which people are programmed. You only gain perspective on the matrix once you get out and see it from the outside. Everyone I know who has shaken their programming has also spent time outside a church and became stronger for it spiritually. You would think the opposite but a lot of times the church is a spiritual crutch. You don't have to try hard to feel like you're doing the right thing. You don't have to do anything personally to feel like you have a spiritual connection. When you go to church you get this sort of confidence like everything is good. And only when things go bad there does it go away and most people just go looking for it again at another church. Most people. I've experienced church two ways. Believing it was everything you probably believe it is also. And then knowing that it wasn't. That knowing should at least give an intelligent person enough pause to think that they should do a little more investigation next time before throwing themselves into a new church.

Find out if its the right one. What's wrong with knowing what a church SHOULD be teaching prior to expecting them to teach it to you? It bothers me that almost none of us have read through the bible before picking a church. Instead we join a church and they tell us what little snippets of the bible say and mean (in their interpretation). And I would argue that being a bible student and learning the truth will help you pick a truer "church". If nothing else, what would be the harm?



Shalom
Zealot, I think you are not grasping what I am saying, Yes, I was raised in COGIC and it was that church when I truly found God that came up under scrutiny for me, I was blessed that the Word of God and the teachings from my Church lined up.

I understand that is not always the case with everyone, of course we should read our bibles, I don't know what the man was teaching the author of this blog, she does not point a finger at his teaching just his and HER actions.

It's easy to stay at home and love those that love you, and it's easy to take love to the store with you, because if you get upset with someone, you can always go home.

a church family is a relationship, the word of God teaches us that we are to love even our enemies, so what, that you are loving those that love you,that' s easy.
No.... its not necessarily easy. A lot of people have more problems within their family than without. That's not me but I know people whose biggest enemies have their last names. But that's not my point. My point is that the "church" as you know it is somewhat of an invention. There was a time when church simply meant "congregation" which was a term that was applied to the ENTIRE NATION of Yisra'el. If you do a search on the etymology of "church" and study the word and its usage in the bible you will discover that what I am saying is correct.

Acts 13:43 is the only time the English word"congregation" is used in the NT. It is used 336 times in the OT (KJV).

EX:
Exodus 12:3 - Speak ye unto all the congregation of Israel, saying, In the tenth day of this month they shall take to them every man a lamb, according to the house of their fathers, a lamb for an house:

Exodus 12:47 - All the congregation of Israel shall keep it.

The congregation was not some subdivision of the nation. It was not a sect. It was the whole nation. Here's what Paul said about divisions.

Romans 16:17 - Now I beseech you, brethren, mark them which cause divisions and offences contrary to the doctrine which ye have learned; and avoid them.

1 Corinthians 1:10 - Now I beseech you, brethren, by the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that ye all speak the same thing, and that there be no divisions among you; but that ye be perfectly joined together in the same mind and in the same judgment.

1 Corinthians 3:3 - For ye are yet carnal: for whereas there is among you envying, and strife, and divisions, are ye not carnal, and walk as men?

1 Corinthians 11:18 - For first of all, when ye come together in the church, I hear that there be divisions among you; and I partly believe it.

How can someone who was totally opposed to divisions give the advice to someone to join COGIC? Isn't COGIC simply a "division" of Christianity? You believe that Yeshua built a church. I believe he built a nation. The assembly that followed him wasn't a gathering of a church but a nation that would follow him as they would follow a king. A church doesn't have a king. A nation does. So no, I am not somehow doing something wrong by not joining a small division of some religion. I am showing and spreading love across an entire NATION because that is the congregation the bible speaks of, proven time and time again.

And I could also say that it is easier to love those who share your same beliefs and practices but of course.... we can see that here with how people often treat each other on BPN as Christians against Israelites or Muslims or Jews or whatever. I like to think that I treat everyone here equally, fairly, all as neighbors, friends, and family. Divisions don't matter to me which is why I would not advocate someone jumping into a division without really having a life and connection that goes beyond that division.

Shalom
ZealotX,

You seem to imply that churches aren't too significant, and if so, then why did the Apostle Paul establish them throughout his journeys?
In no way do I mean to imply that they are insignificant, they were establish to be a place of strength for the believer, a place of worship, a place of instruction, and mostly a place of interaction with different brother and sisters at different levels in their spiritual growth.

If we can't get along with our sisters and brothers how are we going to get along with and minister the gospel to those that are not believers?
Evang. Fugett:

My comment/reply regarding the church and its significance was directed towards Zealot.
Ok, I see where I misread, sorry
please read my above response to Altha.
ZealotX,

I am fully aware of "the church" being a Nation or as sometimes referred to, "the body of Christ."

My question to you wasn't about any specific denomination. When the Apostle Paul was establishing the churches throughout his journeys, he was establishing local congreations of "the body of believers;" this is what I was addressing when I asked the question regarding the significance or insignificance of a local community church.
It's not insignificant. What I was addressing was the issue of love. The nation at large (and ANYONE who is your neighbor) is a much broader scope than 1 local congregation. The nation is full of people who may not believe everything you do but you still have to love them as yourself. My wife and I don't even agree on everything. She has tons of knowledge and strong in her beliefs. But we still come together in love and are unified as a family. A group of unified families then becomes a tribe and unified tribes become a nation.

What I was addressing was the issue of division with my advice being "look before you leap". I don't think there is anything wrong with taking one's time and not going to church until you find one you want to go to that you can agree with. You don't have to work your way OUT of a church to find the right one. Churches have a way of making you FEEL good like everyone you try is the right one until something bad happens. If the pastor at Anchored Soul's congregation wasn't interested in her she may never have known what he was like. The only reason she knew is because she had that inside knowledge of being involved. Most people are not and judge the church by the pastor's outward presentation of his spirituality. People generally don't see these things that go on in church. They spin on the rumor mill and that's about it. And I don't know any church without rumors.

Generally speaking, looking from the outside in gets you better perspective than looking from the inside out. You can't possibly see everything from inside the box. So my advice to her would be to get her foundation in YHWH and study the scriptures on her own so that she has a stronger foundation when it comes to finding a religion, denomination or congregation. Who knows... she may even choose D) none of the above.

Shalom
"...Yes... the wife was a victim... but the only one?..."

Its not like the man did not know what he was doing - so he is not a victim.
Its not like the woman they took into their home did not know what she was doing and it dont look like rape.
The wife is the victim.

But then you think that it Ok for a guy to have more than one woman and be sanctioned by the Lord - so are you even understanding that there was sin in her spreading her legs to this MARRIED man?
Is this really true? If so, dear sister, you need to repent and seek God's face. 1Cor. 6:18-20. 1Cor. 3:16-17, you are God's temple and so is your body the temple of the Holy Spirit. The 'bishop' needs to turn from his evil was and seek the Lord while He may still be found. Sister beware of such wolves in sheep clothing their portion is in the lake of fire. Seek forgiveness from the first lady. You cannot be in bed with the pastor for that period unless you were in agreement, but His grace is sufficient for you. The church is not a denomination, a ministry or a hall, but the true church are all those who are born again, Holy Spirit filled, water baptised, clensed by His blood, being tranformed to be more like Him every second and whose eyes are fixed on Him. Forget about the bishop because at the end it is all about you and Jesus. He is at the door of your heart right now Rev 3:20 for one thing only, to carry your burden Matt. 11:28. Seek Him and shun fornication and adultery. Be blessed

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