Grace Church (formerly Young Church) Mt. Pleasant, MI

[quiversR4hunting]

I mentioned this church on Jill Rod's thread and didn't find anyone talking about it so I start a new thread. 

I was  reading About "Grace Church" (formally Young Church) in Mt. Pleasant, MI. 

Here is the exposed website about that church: https://www.gracechurchexposed.org/2018/06/16/responses/

The local paper had exposed them in the summer of 2018. It looks like the grace church exposed website was built in 2015ish. I read a couple of the stories, very manipulative practices going on. Love bombing, isolationist and preying on college and high school kids. 

Here is the church official website (which, sadly, no red flags jumped out at me but I didn't read everything on the site either) https://gracemp.org/  Those of you on FJ that are familiar with spiritual abuse, does anything in their statements on their website stand out as a warning to those that are looking to join this church? 

[Dreadcrumbs]

Some of the "ministries" raise an eyebrow. Some of them pertain to church maintenance and few seem to pertain to outreach. Strange.

No experience with spiritual abuse so I cannot speak to that.

[quiversR4hunting]

19 minutes ago, Dreadcrumbs said:

Some of the "ministries" raise an eyebrow. Some of them pertain to church maintenance and few seem to pertain to outreach. Strange.

No experience with spiritual abuse so I cannot speak to that.

interesting take on the ministries. I just looked up the ministries in my church to see what is listed in that area. I think my church is normal - ministries include: altar servers, art & environment (decorating the church for the different seasons), Eucharistic ministers, greeters, lectors, sacristans (get all the volunteers organized at each mass), ushers and wedding assistants. 

We have paid maintenance crew for the church and the grounds. We also have a paid IT person but volunteers help at the masses (5 masses every weekend). I will have to read this more later this week, tonight starts softball practice, no rest for this family in the spring between golf, softball and track - oh and of course school! 

[Dreadcrumbs]

37 minutes ago, quiversR4hunting said:

interesting take on the ministries. I just looked up the ministries in my church to see what is listed in that area. I think my church is normal - ministries include: altar servers, art & environment (decorating the church for the different seasons), Eucharistic ministers, greeters, lectors, sacristans (get all the volunteers organized at each mass), ushers and wedding assistants. 

We have paid maintenance crew for the church and the grounds. We also have a paid IT person but volunteers help at the masses (5 masses every weekend). I will have to read this more later this week, tonight starts softball practice, no rest for this family in the spring between golf, softball and track - oh and of course school! 

Your church sounds pretty normal, I imagine your church's ministries include stuff that I don't see much of on this church's site. 

[Cat Damon]

That church looks similar to one that has popped up in my hometown within the last ten years or so- I used to work with a girl that moved from California to Indianapolis in order to go to church here. She also quit her full-time job to go to their "academy" for a full year and now works on their parking team. I wonder if these two churches are related somehow? I don't want to hijack the thread or anything but I have noticed more of these kinds of churches popping up around central Indiana so maybe it's a Midwestern trend?

http://www.itownchurch.com/ 

 

ETA: to clarify, by "these kinds of churches" I meant evangelical ones that have random ministries like 'parking' and 'Go Team' that seem to cater to young adults. Looking at the iTown website and knowing someone who goes there, there's just something so off for me- I felt the same way when looking at the Grace Church website.

[Lisafer]

I had a look at the links provided. The church's website looks mostly "normal" fundie or fundie-lite, obviously patriarchal because women only hold positions in women's and children's ministry, lack of racial or ethnic diversity in leadership, and an emphasis on tithing. If I just read the website and nothing else, I'd assume it was just another fundie-ish church trying too hard to be hip and really chasing the money.

Sadly, from the other website, it looks like there's a lot of shit underneath the glossy veneer. Lots of top-down control. I didn't have time to read a lot of the stories, but I may have a chance to look again later. 

[refugee]

Wow. Sounds very much like the shepherding movement in the 70s and 80s. Botkin came up through that movement, if I’m remembering right. Iron control with a label saying “love”.

[hoipolloi]

1 hour ago, refugee said:

Wow. Sounds very much like the shepherding movement in the 70s and 80s. Botkin came up through that movement, if I’m remembering right. Iron control with a label saying “love”.

CJ Mahaney started out in the shepherding movement, too. Seems like it's all about authoritarian leadership + money. 

Re: Mt. Pleasant, MI. I have family there but don't think they're involved with Grace Church. I remember seeing the local newspaper's article on Grace Church.

ETA: The Detroit new station's videos are well-done and fairly in-depth, for TV reports.