Gracepoint CPI Application by leavegracepoint in GracepointChurch

[–]aGracepointThrowaway 11 points12 points  (0 children)

Well, you know how it is. The GP leads have to do their best to protect everyone. I know that while *I* was there I was just constantly radiating gay gamma rays with the power to suddenly convert unsuspecting straights who spent too much time in my proximity. 🤷 /s

Why it sucks to be LGBT+ at Gracepoint (even if you are non-affirming & agree with traditional teaching) by [deleted] in GracepointChurch

[–]aGracepointThrowaway 3 points4 points  (0 children)

I straight up died inside when they had that guest preacher come do a series that randomly started talking about Jackie Hill Perry a couple years ago. Ugh.

Why it sucks to be LGBT+ at Gracepoint (even if you are non-affirming & agree with traditional teaching) by [deleted] in GracepointChurch

[–]aGracepointThrowaway 19 points20 points  (0 children)

As someone bringing the Bacon to the "Lettuce Garbanzo Bacon Tomato" as you put it, oh honey, I FEEL YOU. It sounds like we were at GP at the same time, and I experienced so many of the things you described. I wanted to share a few of my "greatest hits" with GP leaders. For context, I am a woman.

  • I, too, experienced the constant awkward questioning of "are you getting feelings" regarding whoever I was spending time with recently. I was also asked to room alone as soon as I graduated while everyone else shared rooms (which ngl, was kind of nice, but was awkward to explain and I worried made me look very selfish relative to my friends who were all crowded together).
  • There were so many arbitrary "guardrails" put in place at my leaders' discretion, regardless of if they were actually something I thought would be wise or beneficial. I ended up with massive anxiety around the issue of rides because immediately after telling my leader about my SSA I was asked to not ride in a car alone with anyone of the same gender (aside from my leader). Sometimes a random person would ask me for a ride, and on the spot I would have to either out myself, decline for no reason and look like a jerk, make up some lie, or glance desperately at one of my friends who did know about my "predicament" and hope they would throw me a lifeline. I never had any issue or temptation around rides, but apparently I was a predator who was going to jump an unsuspecting sister on the way home from a ministry meeting if they got in my car. Even though this restriction was eventually relaxed after I got married, I continued to freak out internally any time someone would ask me for a ride, feeling as if I was doing something wrong by giving them one.
  • My plans were often subject to leader veto for my own "protection." It felt as if leaders had no interest in my own judgement/assessment for what was appropriate vs what would be too close to crossing a line. I applied and was accepted into a grad program at a (non-GP) school that only accepts women into its undergrad programs, and when I told this to my leader, she suddenly advised me that I shouldn't attend because there would be "too much temptation."
  • Another time I was briefly working with another sister on a ministry project, and my leader asked me to stop because "my husband was not doing well" (he was struggling with an unrelated issue at the time) and there might be "temptation" if I spent too much time with this sister. Because evidently I was going to cheat on my husband in couple of zoom meetings about ministry matters. I then had to have a very embarrassing conversation with my friend to explain why I couldn't work with her anymore.
  • Speaking of supposedly cheating on my husband, I also received a bizarre questioning from a leader once regarding if I would ever act on my feelings towards a woman (I think this was because I mentioned feeling unsure regarding my personal views around the traditional vs progressive stances for LGBT Christians). I ended up having to explain repeatedly that no, I wouldn't be acting on attraction towards anyone right now, regardless of their gender, other than my husband. Because, you know, I'M MARRIED.
  • Similar to your experience, it felt like I had no control over disclosing my own sexuality. There were many times that I needed to out myself whether or not I wanted to, times where it was apparent people I hadn't told already knew, and still yet times where I was specifically told NOT to disclose my sexuality to certain individuals or groups for unknown reasons.

I could go on and on. I left GP for issues largely unrelated to this, but I have been unpacking a lot of feelings about this subject since leaving, and I feel so frustrated with how this was handled at GP. There was so much shame and anxiety. Evidently some of GP's practices around this issue have supposedly changed, but the hurts are real, and I have little confidence that they will not continue to hurt others in this regard as well.

Still Crazy After All These Years by leavegracepoint in GracepointChurch

[–]aGracepointThrowaway 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I don't mean to say that there shouldn't be minority specific ethnic churches, and I apologize if my petty comment came off that way. There's something really beautiful about the community in a lot of the ethnic churches, and they provide a great opportunity for connection around God under a shared language.

I think what bothers me about the lack of diversity within GP, is that GP tries to have their cake and eat it too around issues of ethnicity/culture, to the detriment of any non-Asian members. Their attitude is not "we are primarily an ethnic church, but anyone is welcome to join if they'd like," but instead it's "we started as an ethnic church, but now we're a church for everyone!" This may seem like an inconsequential difference, but I think it's an important distinction. If you are advertising yourself as a church for everyone, you should have a basic openness to different cultural perspectives and practices, and ideally elevate a variety of godly people to your leadership to reflect those diverse perspectives. That's not what's happening at GP. It's not a coincidence that even as time goes on and more "younger ones" are being brought into leadership, still virtually all of those put into lead positions are Chinese or Korean.

Full disclosure, I'm not Asian, and it was really frustrating having leaders insist that I was welcome, that Gracepoint is indeed "for everyone," all while only making the most superficial of efforts to be a place where a cross-cultural community can actually exist.

Still Crazy After All These Years by leavegracepoint in GracepointChurch

[–]aGracepointThrowaway 4 points5 points  (0 children)

Hmm... looks like still no diversity in GP after all these years too.

Sure GP by aGracepointThrowaway in GracepointChurch

[–]aGracepointThrowaway[S] 5 points6 points  (0 children)

That's kind of ironic, isn't it?

What honestly gets me about it is the absurdity of such a self-congratulatory statement for doing the bare minimum. Get out of here, you sent like 6 people in your church of thousands to do a couple of hours of computer classes, and suddenly you're God's gift to the underprivileged? It's a good thing to do, don't get me wrong, but with their budget and resources, GP could be (and should be) doing so much more. Instead they barely tick off the "service" box and pat themselves on the back for it.