Long time Lurker, first time Poster

[gr8ful]

Hi, PikaMario - thank you for sharing your story! Your experience of the lack of care for a disabled child matches my experience, especially in the larger churches in Southern CA near the LSM center. Cold, distant. Our child was disruptive (due to ODD, and later diagnosed with ASD). The serving ones told us to not bring him to the meeting — which ironically softened my *must attend* mentality and allowed for a gradual transition away from the churches.

Your story is different than mine, too, in that I finally left due to my own struggles with destructive behavior and finding no relief within the Recovery. I detail my experience in my first post to this forum (see my profile).

At the core, I see a common realization: the claims of special standing as a ministry and as a group apart from all other Christian ministries and Christian groups just fell short.And it was these claims that justified strict adherence to One Monistry, One Publication… but if it’s just another group of people believing in Christ, why all the warning of other groups? Why the insistence on isolationism?

This doesn’t mean we drop everything we enjoyed or felt led to honor, but it does mean we gain a bit of our agency back to follow the leading from the Head, or from our heart, directly.