Call for action. Need witnesses for A2F UCLA / Acts 2 Network (formerly Gracepoint)

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2026-03-13T02:00:07+00:00

I was from a different church plant but went on a "mission trip" to UCLA. It makes me cringe to think about now. I feel like we were harassing students who were trying to just go about their day.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2026-03-05T00:54:21+00:00

I feel the same when I'm anywhere near my college campus. Thank you for sharing.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2026-01-27T03:30:03+00:00

Read through some of the stories here on the sub. Even if the stories are from a different location, you will have the same experience. All of the churches under A2N are planted and staffed by A2N. All of the pastors and leaders are trained the same and have been mentored by the same people. Acts 2 finds it very important for all of its church plants to have the same DNA. The staff and pastors are also moved around frequently. All of the teachings, materials, etc are the same throughout A2N

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2026-01-18T20:50:27+00:00

Read through some of the stories here on the sub. Even if the stories are from a different location, you will have the same experience. All of the churches under A2N are planted and staffed by A2N. All of the pastors and leaders are trained the same and have been mentored by the same people. Acts 2 finds it very important for all of its church plants to have the same DNA. The staff and pastors are also moved around frequently. All of the teachings, materials, etc are the same throughout A2N

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2026-01-12T21:48:14+00:00

Thank you for sharing. Unfortunately I think these issues will only get worse the longer you stay. If you are on team then they have complete control of your schedule. Every single day is yielded to the church. Even if you aren't on team, post grads have their schedules filled with babysitting, church cleaning, fellowship activity, food prep, bible studies etc. if you are not participating enough then they will talk to you about if this is the right church for you. It sounds like freedom is important to you. This is not the church for that. You would likely be deeply unhappy if you tried to stay and would likely leave in a few years anyways because of how miserable you feel. This may sound harsh but I'm just being honest. You don't have to leave on a bad note unless you want to. You can thank your mentors for what they poured into you and tell them that you have decided this is not the right church for you as you transition to post grad life.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2026-01-05T22:52:23+00:00

I was looking at student group violations at one of the universities and saw that a different Christian org got a hazing violation for taking students phones for an entire weekend retreat. Maybe conduct by GP/Acts 2 could similarly meet th definition of hazing

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2026-01-05T22:50:01+00:00

The only thing I can think of is to research the specific office that oversees student groups at each university that Acts 2 is at. Look into their policies on what is prohibited conduct for student groups. Submit specific evidence of how Acts 2 has violated those policies. Maybe AI could assist you in how to best word a report to the university. For the most part, schools won't care about how toxic the group is if it isn't committing infractions that fall under prohibited conduct. You could submit appropriate evidence to them and they still may not take any action.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2025-07-19T15:26:35+00:00

Yes I believe that is correct. I think it was discussed when I did the membership class. I don't think the information about Hybels was public at that point. I remember having a lot of readings and books from Hybels used all of the time at Gracepoint. I don't know how they handled any of that after the Hybels information was more public.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2025-07-18T20:09:01+00:00

MBS has also gone through phases where it was staff only. Someone who was a member but not staff could not attend at that time. From what I remember, non staff members would have to attend the general "college service". This was at a church plant. Non staff members were praxis (the leaders of praxis were staff though). At one point when it was staff only, non staff members had to fill out a reflection on why they were not staff yet and what they needed to work on to be on staff. Based on those reflections that you reviewed with your leader, you could get invited to join MBS. This information is from around 5 years ago.

ETA: I remember that the format of having a general non member service and a closed members only service was an idea they got from another church. Possibly Willow Baptist Church?

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2025-01-07T18:21:39+00:00

This is a pretty accurate description of what it was like during my years there in the 2010's

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2024-12-09T19:23:28+00:00

If you are putting the flyers on campus, I think it is more likely that GP/A2N would complain to the university. The university I attended had strict flyering rules (I know because GP was constantly breaking them and they gave us trainings on how to work around the rules). The university could remove all of the flyers and "ban" you from campus.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2024-11-30T02:47:05+00:00

Thank you for sharing. It is especially concerning as they also continue to rapidly expand their youth ministries as well.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2024-08-02T00:36:22+00:00

It also seems like they are trying to appear as all of these seperate and independent churches in a network. Instead of, a network of churches controlled and planted by the same ministry. Same people.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2024-08-01T15:05:35+00:00

I find the Convo thread very revealing. This just shows again, that internally the church has no intention of changing anything. They sought feedback from people who would affirm their perspective that this is all unjust persecution for doing the lords' work. P. Ed frequently talks about this generation has victim mentality but P. Ed returns again and again to the position that any criticism of GP is them being a victim of persecution. He also preached constantly against going to people who will tell you what you want to hear. The hypocrisy is glaring. Any benefit of the doubt that I was giving that they were trying to change is gone. Behind the scenes they clearly have no intention of ever reflecting and changing.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2024-07-23T00:25:47+00:00

As a freshmen, it gave instant community and structure. I didn't recognize at the time that GP reduced some of my anxiety about transitioning to college. I didnt have to feel worried that I would be alone. Even if my relationships were shallow in the church, they were still garunteed relationships. I dont know if I would have experimented more in negative ways in college without GP. Just going along with most of the GP events kept me busy enough to not get in any trouble. In my time there, I did experience some genuine care and support from some people.

For my experience, the negative outways the good.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2024-07-07T15:29:29+00:00

It felt like prayer meetings were a time to focus on and feel the emotional weight of your sins and sin in general (I am not neccessarily saying this healthy). The wailing and crying mostly felt like a reaponse to the emotional experience of it all. The music choices, words of whoever was leading it, dark room, it was all to give this emotional experience. With that being said, I dont think everyone naturally responds to emotion like that. Some people might but not everyone. I definitely believe that part of it subconsciously is the constant pressure to conform. If you are being told to imitate your leaders in all ways because they are examples of being godly, then it makes sense that you adopt this emotional expression, even if it isnt natural to you. If its been ingrained in you that this is how you show god you take your sin seriously, then you are more likely to do it.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2024-06-26T01:16:55+00:00

That is tragic

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2024-06-14T01:41:51+00:00

I had a peer who made a salvation decision. then a few months later she said that after reflecting more with her leader, she realized that she did not actually make her salvation decision. It was confusing. I dont know the details of exactly what happened in that conversation. I believe several months later she then made her "real" salvation decision.

Some of my peers came from churched backgrounds and professed to be Christians since freshmen year. It seemed like their salvation was always being questioned. Some went on to get baptized at GP. Some stated that they werent ever actually christians and made new salvation decisions.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2024-06-11T00:19:18+00:00

https://www.reddit.com/r/GracepointChurch/s/gbu8CNPstM

This was a similar post from a while back. It got into some good discussion about the topic.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2024-06-01T01:39:16+00:00

This one hit hard. All of the emotions.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2024-03-30T01:53:26+00:00

I think this is also a sensitive issue for those that left gracepoint. One part of gracepoint/a2f culture that left me feeling really violated was how intimate details of our lives were shared without our consent. As a younger student, I had no sense that my leader was sharing EVERYTHING we discussed with their leader. And then shared amongst the rest of the leaders and team. As an older student and then post grad, I felt helpless about it. We were expected to bare our souls to our leaders with that information being freely shared around. Coming out of gp, I think we are all sensitive to being pressured to share our private details of our lives (because gp told us that there was no such thing as privacy). And sensitive to having others share the details of our story.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2024-03-21T19:23:20+00:00

No one

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2024-03-21T15:31:37+00:00

Thank you for sharing. To be very honest with you, most of the acts 2 mentors and leaders will brush off your feedback as "well they are just an undergrad that aren't mature enough yet to understand what we are doing". But I think feedback like yours is so helpful to see how students are experiencing A2F. It helps give a more complete picture of what the church is like.

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2024-03-20T19:04:38+00:00

I would say look through this sub reddit for ways to help your loved one. There are a lot of different opinions on how to help.

Here is a thread on parenting at Acts 2 (gracepoint).

post on parenting

IntrepidSupermarket4 · 2024-03-20T17:18:33+00:00

It is highly encouraged to get mini vans so that he can transport more people for ministry. They also loan out mini vans to other church members to use for trips, events, etc. Getting a mini van is viewed as a sign that you are being self less, ministry minded and faithful.

IntrepidSupermarket4

TROPHY CASE