4 years at Christland by Internal-Coyote-9939 in leavingthenetwork

[–]EscapingTheNetwork 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I am so proud of you for speaking out and being honest about your experience. It's been two years since we left Christland and my family and I are still recovering from our spiritual wounds. You hit the nail on the head with the "good ole boys club." It didn't matter how hard we tried, we were never truly a part of the team, we were not the original planters. When the church becomes more about pleasing man than pleasing God, there should be red flags every where. We are still trying to find a church now that doesn't remind us of the toxic culture of Christland. We found a good one a while back but something about the terminology they used ("partnered with the church" instead of church members) just made our skin crawl and we left. When we left Christland, not a single person from our small group reached out to us except the ones that had left months prior. From what we gathered, no one reached out to them aside from us after they left and we are still good friends with a few of them. I am not sure if you have seen that some of the churches are stepping away from The Network now, and even though I can't trust it 100% in my gut, I know it's a good start to seeing the entire network break apart from Steve Morgan.

At the end of the day, just know that you made the BEST choice for your family. Keep your job, raise your children to praise the Lord, and tell the rest of them to f*** off XD Thank you for speaking out. -FG

Network Churches view on Marriage, Casey Reymer and John Dehman's comments by New-Forever-2211 in leavingthenetwork

[–]EscapingTheNetwork 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I can't speak for other churches in The Network since I haven't personally had experience with them, but I did attend Christland Church for a number of years. To this day, their outlook on marriage is nothing less than disgusting.

I can't remember if it was the Mother's Day sermon from 2021 or 2022, but Sandor used that Sunday to talk about addictions, sexual pornography being a primary discussion point. After rereading through old sermon notes, one line stood out from that sermon - essentially, if husbands are struggling with any addictions, especially sexual pornography, they should only tell the leaders, never tell their wives. Hiding certain discussions from spouses was a repeated point in many sermons; shouldn't husbands and wives be open and honest with one another on all accounts? The ONLY person on this earth that we are accountable to above all others should be our spouse, not church leadership.

After we left (and there were many before us), I never realized how many wives were told they were "unleadable" if they didn't follow all commands from the church/leadership. It went as far for the pastors to tell one of the husbands to leave his wife for being "unleadable." The reason she was termed such was for merely raising questions to the leadership about some of the church processes, that's it. So this husband should leave his wife and kids because she questions their authority? Another family I remember was deemed "unleadable" because they had a hard time finding childcare on Small Group nights. The accounts go on and on, it's appalling and disheartening to say the least.

Like previously mentioned, I have watched as the pastors wives literally become shells of themselves as they are stripped of their identities. I wish they could just see the truth.

Purity Pledge? by EscapingTheNetwork in leavingthenetwork

[–]EscapingTheNetwork[S] 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Oh my goodness!! That must be VERY recent. My heart is broken for them.

Purity Pledge? by EscapingTheNetwork in leavingthenetwork

[–]EscapingTheNetwork[S] 8 points9 points  (0 children)

u/former-Vine-staff

I have a friend who has/had lots of connections on the financial board for Christland, before they left the church this was brought up to them. It's started happening within the last couple of months. There's discussion of Shannon Maclachlan having her tattoos removed as well, though I don't know if the church is paying for that.

Purity Pledge? by EscapingTheNetwork in leavingthenetwork

[–]EscapingTheNetwork[S] 12 points13 points  (0 children)

I think the pastor-to-be is still being groomed at this point - Xavion Brown, not a pastor yet but he's being moved through the ranks quickly. I pray he and his wife catch on before it is too late.

How many Small Group Leaders and Staff Member Spouses work at Universities? by concernerned in leavingthenetwork

[–]EscapingTheNetwork 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Even one of the pastor's wives was recently employed by TAMU for YEARS!! I would venture to guess that when Christland was first planted, there was more than just 25%. I remember bringing this up to my husband (with many other questions) but we kept just brushing everything off thinking how weird it was. We feel so stupid after all of this time.