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Facebook for Churches

Posted on April 23rd, 2008 by catalyst into the City Boobie Church category

Because what Evangelicals do best is copy from that evil secular world out there, I give you:

My Church

See who can find City Bible's page.  

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27 Comments To This Post

  1. Anonymous said:    
    April 23rd, 2008 at 8:25 am

    http://www.mychurch.org/churches/OR/Portland/176118/City-Bible-Church
    Done.

    Also you can click something to see a picture of a black man according to one of the comments there.

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  2. DC said:    
    April 23rd, 2008 at 1:32 pm

    maybe this has been discussed on the blog already, but have you all heard of ZoeCity yet? It was developed by a former City Church staff member, and it’s another myspace wannabe for Christians. There are a lot of GCers on that one.

    I had one briefly when I was contemplating doing the Interns program (dodged a bullet there), and I wrote that I liked documentaries, and the site blocked out part of the word to make it “do—entaries”

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  3. sola fide said:    
    April 24th, 2008 at 6:06 am

    Shouldn’t they be on mycult.com? Check this out:

    American Family Foundation 14 Cult Characteristics

    1. The group is focused on a living leader to whom members seem to display excessively zealous, unquestioning commitment.

    2. The group is preoccupied with bringing in new members.

    3. The group is preoccupied with making money.

    4. Questioning, doubt, and dissent are discouraged or even punished.

    5. Mind-numbing techniques (such as meditation, chanting, speaking in tongues, denunciation sessions, debilitating work routines) are used to suppress doubts about the group and its leader(s).

    6. The leadership dictates sometimes in great detail how members should think, act, and feel (for example: members must get permission from leaders to date, change jobs, get married; leaders may prescribe what types of clothes to wear, where to live, how to discipline children, and so forth).

    7. The group is elitist, claiming a special, exalted status for itself, its leader(s), and members (for example: the leader is considered the Messiah or an avatar; the group and/or the leader has a special mission to save humanity).

    8. The group has a polarized us-versus-them mentality, which causes conflict with the wider society.

    9. The group’s leader is not accountable to any authorities (as are, for example, military commanders and ministers, priests, monks, and rabbis of mainstream denominations).

    10. The group teaches or implies that its supposedly exalted ends justify means that members would have considered unethical before joining the group (for example: collecting money for bogus charities).

    11. The leadership induces guilt feelings in members in order to control them.

    12. Members’ subservience to the group causes them to cut ties with family and friends, and to give up personal goals and activities that were of interest before joining the group.

    13. Members are expected to devote inordinate amounts of time to the group.

    14. Members are encouraged or required to live and/or socialize only with other group members.

    Isn’t that crazy. It’s like the perfect CBC description. I was reading through these and thinking “no wonder I didn’t fit in there.” I hope some the CBC staff is reading this because they need to lift the deception off of their eyes and realize that they are involved in an organization that has “cult” pretty much written all over it.

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  4. ex-City Bible Slave said:    
    April 24th, 2008 at 4:43 pm

    I hope some the CBC staff is reading this because they need to lift the deception off of their eyes and realize that they are involved in an organization that has “cult” pretty much written all over it.

    I been saying this for years!

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  5. James said:    
    April 25th, 2008 at 7:38 am

    Its like reading all about my childhood :]

    Control is an addiction for many people. I was raised by 2 of the most controlling, condescending, judgmental, hypocritical, money hungry (and somehow still loving) people on the face of this planet.

    I have noticed that this kind of behavior stretches out far beyond the American church. I believe this is what is causing the downfall and general rot of society. The true church talked about in acts and shown through example by Jesus our Lord is really the only source of refuge here on this earth.

    If you can take away our refuge you can really mess us up. I’m sure satan knows this.

    Sometimes I sit in church parking lots on weekdays. Empty buildings just taking up space. I feel like crying about it but since it won’t change anything I usually just get taco bell or somethin.

    A church should be an in and out orphanage, YMCA, and community center where people go to learn about the true JESUS CHRIST and what He was trying to get across to us during his time here on earth.

    But we all know how church is.

    People can’t seem to get it through their thick, old fashioned skulls that they are living under the old covenant with their rules, regulations, and get rid of all sin and sinners mentality.

    It’s like something crawls into peoples brains and tells them that since they stopped doing drugs, drinking alcohol, looking up bad things on the internet, or whatever — that they are now in the clear to judge every single person on any fault they have.

    People fail to realize that sin takes MANY different forms and is HARDLY limited to what we as judgmental Americans refer to as USDA desires of the flesh.

    I have seen time and time again people get lost in this pursuit to entire sanctification or holiness. I am one of those people.

    It’s like people trade in their normal attitude for the most annoying, obnoxious, my sh*t doesn’t smell attitude ever.

    That is the biggest stumbling block I can think of in life! When someone acts like they really have it all together while AT THE SAME TIME reminding you in a subtle or non-subtle way that you really don’t it is insanely frustrating and very wrong.

    If Jesus was concerned with such things why did he heal, and treat sinners with the most gentle, kind, and loving hands. Why did he spend all of his time going around from group to group instead of just sticking with the people who were most holy. ITS BECAUSE NOBODY WAS AND NOBODY IS. He was trying to show the holy people how dumb they were for missing the angle COMPLETELY. They were concerned with building their own fabulous party kingdom and knew the best way to manipulate people to do their bidding was to add the name of GOD to everything.

    How reminiscent of some circumstances today.

    The fear of God is an amazing thing and legalism has its place in our OWN INDIVIDUAL HEARTS but to make this the foundation of your faith would not only be contradictory but very selfish and daft.

    Why would we chose to go the route of spewing out more RULES, RULES, RULES when Jesus came to show us LOVE, LOVE, LOVE.

    I can’t think of ONE time where a rule that I made and enforced was followed through with a delightful attitude.

    I can think of millions of times where I showed love to someone and everything that I wanted to happen just fell in to place. It was….erm…like a miracle.

    It’s Jesus.

    He came to show us a better way. Let’s all start talking about his life and his example instead of Dr. Phil’s advice corner (didn’t his wife leave him or something recently?)

    rules for fools random cents.

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  6. James said:    
    April 25th, 2008 at 7:41 am

    that was more of a vent but meh :P

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  7. My Little Pony said:    
    April 25th, 2008 at 7:58 am

    sola fide, ex-slave, & Janes,
    I completely agree with you!!!

    I have also said for years that CBC is a cult! Any list of cult characteristics makes that very clear. It’s pretty obvious once you’re out, but often before you leave the truth starts to dawn. I was so sucked into it, and so thick-skulled, that it took something pretty drastic to help me see the truth. My guess is that may be the case for many other who blog here. Praise God he did what he had to do to set me free!!!

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  8. Reformed Pope said:    
    April 25th, 2008 at 9:45 am

    CBC is not a cult and I would appreciate it if everyone stopped using that word.

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  9. FICM said:    
    April 25th, 2008 at 10:05 am

    Reformed Pope on April 25, 2008 at 9:45 am said:

    CBC is not a cult and I would appreciate it if everyone stopped using that word.

    Yes, let’s not get the boys sued by throwing around accusations. If you want to exercise your free speech about the “c” word, do so on your own blog.

    Back on topic, most social networking sites are just a waste of bandwidth. They are the ghetto of the internet with no purpose but to suck up valuable time. Time I could be spending making fun of CBC.

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  10. Nina said:    
    April 25th, 2008 at 11:12 am

    I’m not going to comment on somethings. I’m going to say this and may piss some people off here. Freedom of speech goes both ways. I feel some comments sound juvenile. Please lets be careful of accusing and namecalling either way. Yes, there’s freedom of speech and in the real world you have the freedom to do or say many things, but does that mean you have to resort to it?

    I can understand why anyone would not want myspace because its trashy in my opinion. I used to have myspace as a teen because my friends had it but i deleted my profile long time ago. I use facebook occasionally to keep in touch with old college, HS friends especially those who live far away. Thats all I keep it for.

    Facebook for christians is silly. Ever heard of HolyPal - christian version of myspace. Great, another reason for non-believers to laugh at us. Then there’s Christian dating sites and there’s also Christian Speed Dating.

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  11. Samaritan said:    
    April 25th, 2008 at 12:16 pm

    … and there’s also Christian Speed Dating.

    How the heck is that done?

    I mean, in a ‘Christian speed date’ do the persons skip all the usual “are you re-trib, mid-trib, post-trib”, etc., type questions and get right to the meaty-subjects like “tithing” or what?!?

    Sam

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  12. My Little Pony said:    
    April 25th, 2008 at 1:56 pm

    Reformed Pope,
    Really? You really believe that CBC is not a cult?

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  13. Reformed Pope said:    
    April 25th, 2008 at 1:59 pm

    Really.

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  14. ex-City Bible Slave said:    
    April 25th, 2008 at 2:42 pm

    So speaking of CBC hype, anyone see the little blurp in Charisma this month.

    http://www.charismamag.com/display.php?id=17044

    Boy are they going to ride this one for a long time!

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  15. James said:    
    April 26th, 2008 at 11:02 am

    I have been pretty involved in CBC and wouldn’t consider it a cult at all. There are MANY good hearted people there. I think there are probably like 10 or less guys up top that make this “church” function more like a business.

    Kind of like the workplace — everything is going great and things are getting done until the big boss shows up (not always though)

    I believe that the vast majority of the congregation are there for the real, genuine thing. I know beyond a shadow of a doubt that tons of CBCers love the Lord Jesus with their whole heart.

    I bet if 5-10 TOP people in that church found new jobs that huge dome could really be a wonderful place to worship Jesus.

    I just can’t bring myself to worship the idol of personal gain - even though I am blessed with finances, its still just passionate gibberish to me.

    I would rather give everything to the poor and reap rewards for eternity in heaven because thats where we are all going. (hopefully everyone here has accepted Jesus as Lord)

    Matthew 13:46

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  16. sola fide said:    
    April 27th, 2008 at 5:53 am

    I know, it’s not a cult. But it has so many of the characteristics. Maybe half? It’s the whole control thing. They want to control who you marry, who you date, where you work. Not necessarily by any cognate decisions, but rather out of a controlling spirit. They don’t realize they do it on such a broad level I think. “Everyone lift your hands…everyone pray in the spirit for 60 seconds…everyone dance!”. They command you around in the services and then it extends out into your personal life via “district pastors” and “cell leaders”. Anyway, whatever you think about the c word, CBC is an extremely controlling and manipulative organization and seems to think the whole world must submit to it. And of those 14 descriptions above, I’d say they hit at least 10 and at most 12 of them pretty much on the nose.

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  17. Reformed Pope said:    
    April 27th, 2008 at 8:29 am

    Sola,

    I agree.

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  18. My Little Pony said:    
    April 27th, 2008 at 12:57 pm

    I agree, too, Sola (and Pope). It doesn’t matter to me whether we call it a cult or not. Its characteristics cause it to resemble one in terms of its functionality, impact on its members, and view of “ousiders.” I’m not a cult expert, but I would wager that the post-CBC experience is similar to that of people who have left bona fide cults.

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  19. Jeremy said:    
    April 27th, 2008 at 8:26 pm

    For sure, Pony, I’m still going through a lot of decompressing. I resent the fact that I still have to read good commentary on scripture like Buechner or L’Engle or others to understand what it’s really saying, since I still have all the incorrect interpretations drilled into my brain. Which reminds me, I’m reading “The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse” (Johnson & VanVonderen) right now and it pretty much describes my whole experience at CBC. I highly recommend it to anybody, but especially us ex-almost-cult folk.

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  20. sola fide said:    
    April 28th, 2008 at 6:31 am

    Thank you Pope and Pony. The degree to which I’ve found supporters here feels incredible, because when I was attending CBC I kept bringing this up to all my friends and everyone kept looking at me like I was an idiot. Of course, the staff told me I was the problem and needed to affect change where I thought it should be made within the church. I was like…”Riiiigght.” Anyhow, Thank You.

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  21. My Little Pony said:    
    April 28th, 2008 at 12:33 pm

    Sola Fide,
    I’m in the midst of listening to this CD series by Jeff VanVonderen, called “Wounded by Shame, Healed by Grace” and just today–while driving four hours to & from a meeting–listened to several of the sessions. He talks quite a bit about shame-based systems, which I find very interesting given that my family of origin and two primary church families are shame-based systems. One thing that really struck me today is that one of the dynamics typical in most shame-based, dysfunctional systems is the unspoken rule that if you talk about the problem then YOU are the problem; the fact that you draw attention to the REAL problem makes you the problem, because that’s easier for the people in the dysfunctional system to believe than the existence of an actual problem…people cannot acknowledge the real problem because that would question the meaning they derive from it and probably would mean they have to change, either the problem or themselves, or both.

    So, those who are somehow benefitting from the way things are naturally will not be happy when anyone questions the way things are. They cannot embrace the truth about themselves or the system. The thing is, just because they want to call you “the problem” doesn’t mean you have to agree with them. You are not “the problem.” This blog is not “the problem.” I think that most of us here are well aware of the real problems–theology and church systems based on things other than the true Gospel–which damage all involved (even those who perpetuate the problems).

    Anyway, I highly recommend this CD series, and any books written by Jeff VanVonderen. He’s a Christian, well-educated, and very practical; perfect combination in my book.

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  22. James said:    
    April 28th, 2008 at 12:41 pm

    thank you my little pony.

    My experience is shockingly similar with immediate family AND in the church.

    I couldn’t agree more.

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  23. ex-City Bible Slave said:    
    April 28th, 2008 at 1:09 pm

    people cannot acknowledge the real problem because that would question the meaning they derive from it and probably would mean they have to change, either the problem or themselves, or both.

    I remember getting blasted one time by a prominent CBC leader (who is no longer there) because I told him I thought that Christ’s grace puts all humans on the same level. He told me that was blasphemous because there was no way someone like him who had dedicated his whole life to serving God and doing things “the right way” was on the same level as some “sinner” who genuinely gives his life to Christ while on death row. We have never spoken again.

    You see, people in this system believe that they earn a better position in Christ with their fervent dedication to the church, reading the bible, prayer, etc. When you question their system they attack you because it raises doubts in their minds about their whole existence. Imagine if you dedicated 25 years of your life to something only to find out it was flawed. You would have a complete melt down (as many who have walked away from the church have). So rather then reflect on the genuineness of their Christianity, these people flee from anything that is contrary to what they have been told to believe. That way they never have to live with that grief of knowing that the way they are living is basically a lie.

    Lets just pray that God will rescue these people before they go off the deep end.

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  24. My Little Pony said:    
    April 29th, 2008 at 3:01 pm

    Ex-slave, you are spot-on. People who have devoted their lives, their blood, sweat & tears so that sort of “Christianity” can rarely face the grief over accepting that it’s one big fallacy. I’ve seen people (myself included!) go to ridiculous lengths to keep themselves from having to face the truth. Also, I’ve seen far too much of the hierarchical, elitist thinking that you referenced, as well.

    I just learned today that this author I’ve been reading & listening to, Jeff VanVonderen, also has co-authored a book called “The Subtle Power of Spiritual Abuse.” Here is a nice summary of what he calls the seven characteristics of spiritually abusive systems, which I found on another blog:
    http://tobeafool.wordpress.com/2008/03/29/

    What do y’all think? How many of these seven do we see in CBC (and MFI churches generally)?

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  25. ex-City Bible Slave said:    
    April 29th, 2008 at 3:53 pm

    What do y’all think? How many of these seven do we see in CBC (and MFI churches generally)?

    This is GREAT Pony. My comments are below:

    1. Leaders in spiritually abusive systems spend a great deal of time power-posturing by focusing on their “authority” and reminding others of it.
    When I was at CBC I was constantly told not to question my leaders in authority over me. I was told God had appointed them there and so I must submit to their direction, even on life changing decisions like what college to attend, who to date/marry, who to have as friends, etc.

    2. In abusive religious systems there is a preoccupation with performance.
    This goes without saying. Attend one Sunday morning service at CBC and you will feel worthless about your “standing” before God because you haven’t performed the way you should.

    3. In spiritually abusive systems people’s lives are controlled from the outside by rules, spoken and unspoken.
    Again, every message I ever heard from the pulpit at CBC whether it be on a Sunday or Wednesday, involved rules and regulations about how I should be living my life according to their system. And when someone went outside these “rules” boy did they get the silent heat from other members.

    4. In spiritually abusive religious systems the mundane becomes the essential, the vital becomes trivial, and the real needs of real people are neglected for the sake of “agendas.”
    This is worded so well. Pretty self explanatory here. CBC is all about promoting things that don’t matter and tearing down things that do…such as “Generation Unleashed is the greatest conference in America” but “Racism in the church doesn’t exist.”

    5. In an abusive religious system those in charge believe that “others will not understand what we’re all about, so let’s not let them know, or else we will be falsely ridiculed or attacked.”
    Duh….has anyone tried to get a meeting with Pastor Frank Damazio about their theological prosperity beliefs? It’s like trying to get one on one face time with the Pope.

    6. In a spiritually abusive religious system there is a demand that loyalty be to the organization and not necessarily the Kingdom of God.
    CBC would rather stockpile leaders and members for their own gain by opening multiple locations with one figure head, rather than raise up quality people and send them out to plant churchs and spread the Gospel all over the city. Their all about the growth of MFI, not the spread of Jesus.

    7. In abusive religious systems secrecy is prevalent and openness and transparency are rarely seen.
    Again, try and get a meeting with Pastor Frank and the eldership. The steel door to outsiders is locked so tight not even the Hulk can break through that one.

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  26. De-Tox Church Group said:    
    May 4th, 2008 at 6:22 pm

    oh gag. spare me. yet another indulgent Christian Culture cheesefest. It’s as bad as Tommy Tenny writing a book on Esther and then the movie that made you want to crawl under a rock. It was SO Embarrassingly BAD on SO MANY levels.

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  27. Samaritan said:    
    May 5th, 2008 at 6:38 am

    Christian Culture cheesefest

    I love alliteration.

    Gee, imagine if a Christian Culture Cheesefest were held in Portland, Oregon.

    We could call it: C3PO.

    ;)

    Sam

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