You're saved by faith in Jesus Christ alone. But you ask that question, 'Can I be a Christian and not go to church? Officials sent KOB 4 the following statement:. For those to whom the perceived risk to their health and the health of their loved ones outweighs the benefits of worshiping in person, we continue to labor to serve them as best as we can by producing the most engaging online worship experience possible. As good citizens and loving neighbors, the leadership team has cooperated with our state government's public health orders.
In fact, we have gone to extensive lengths and great expense to honor, respect, and implement what they have required. Services at our three campuses are contactless and include the use of face coverings and social distancing in all indoor and outdoor spaces.
At our Osuna campus, our service is broadcast outside in order to cooperate with the state's indoor seating capacity limit. We have increased cleaning and sanitization before, between, and after services and provide hand sanitizer stations throughout our campuses.
Our website and mobile app have become a hub for resources like our weekly bulletin for a touchless experience.
We even developed a new app for classes and ministries that need people to check in to decrease contact with laptops, tablets, and other surfaces. We have implemented COVID-safe practices in our on-campus facilities, including capacity management, and traffic flow. The current public health order's restriction on in-person attendance at our weekly worship services allows a certain number of individuals and families who believe that they have an essential need to gather together with other believers as a matter of preserving their spiritual, mental, and emotional health to do so.
By the time construction began on a new church--building a sanctuary in one quarter of an enormous former White Front department store, the floor of which I camped out on every other night for six months as a volunteer guard of the site while building commenced--over 1, worshipers, many of them under 18, were attending every Sunday morning. Similar events were occurring across Southern California, as Smith's burgeoning Bible school churned out dozens of freshly ordained ministers, all male unlike most Protestant-based faiths, Calvary Chapel expressly forbids women from holding leadership status over any man , all trained in the biblical interpretations favored by Smith, all hot to start their very own Calvary Chapel franchise, taking over storefronts, movie theaters, and tire stores, seldom in a building that actually looked like a church.
In Downey, leaders of other churches--particularly at the First Baptist Church--began to grumble that the glittery newcomer was taking away members by offering "easy" salvation and "worldly" entertainment.
In truth, the demand we felt to prove our worthiness has becoming increasingly difficult to maintain. I myself now went to church five or six times a week, and--encouraged to stay away from non-believers--resisted friendships with anyone outside the church. I organized an offbeat performance group, touring the Southland with a seven-person team that used puppets and pantomime to sell the message of Jesus.
Supportive of my dedication and "childlike faith," the Rev. I was given a key and "executive privileges"--I was allowed to use the staff kitchen--and began the process of studying to become an ordained minister of Calvary Chapel. Then things began to get weirder. As the intensity increased, our willingness to debase ourselves in God's name led to unhealthy extremes.
I remember Sandy, a fierce 10th-grade convert. While out on a "harvesting trip" at the local mall, she once chose to literally soil herself rather than locate a restroom and risk letting the couple she was preaching to escape. Later on, during an emotional prayer meeting at the church, she stood up to testify, stating ecstatically, "I wet my pants for Jesus!
Two other high-schoolers, Laura and Julianne, eager for a juicy mystical experience to tell the congregation, insisted that they'd witnessed the love of Jesus materialize before them in the form of a glowing ball of energy dancing before their eyes. They later realized it was a only a halo of light around a street lamp outside.
Then there was Jeff Johnson himself, our leader, who would tell us that before converting to Christianity and while tripping on acid, the devil appeared to him in a tent in the jungles of Hawaii, and, Johnson insisted, granted him the power to control the elements.
After experimenting with the flies in his tent--making them do backflips with the power of his mind--he wandered to a cliff overlooking the ocean. There he summoned a tsunami that drowned all the sunbathers on the beach. He did not tell this story as that of an imagined vision during a bad trip, but as an event that he apparently believes actually took place, an occurrence so unsettling that he had no choice but to turn to Jesus to escape the devil's temptations.
We all prayed that an experience that overpowering, that mystical, that cool, might someday happen to us. Further swayed by Johnson's jaunty sermons encouraging our "servitude" to God and his insistent admonitions not to trust our "worldly desires," we became convinced that we were incapable of making decisions without God's help.
We would pray desperately about everything: whether to go to college, which car we should buy, which person we should date. I myself, after years of gaining only intermittent flashes of anything approaching peace, joy, or happiness, began intense day fasts in order to open myself more fully to Christ.
At the end of one such starvation-fest, I passed out cold at church, as everyone smiled and praised the Lord, supposing that I'd been knocked out by the power of Jesus. I began to have doubts. I became depressed. My doctor suggested that I was carrying a stress load that could kill me if I didn't make changes soon. Johnson--apparently irritated that my doubts weren't dispelled by his prayers--had less and less time to devote to one-on-one counseling sessions with me or any of his other "sheep.
Apparently overwhelmed by the growing demands of running what had become a multimillion-dollar organization with almost 5, members, a bookstore, a full-time Christian school, and numerous ancillary ministries, Johnson began to refer certain mundane matters--explaining contradictions in Scriptures and your basic crises of faith--to his associate ministers.
Often he'd suggest we get in line with the other sheep waiting to talk with him after Sunday morning services. I stood in that line to say goodbye on the day I walked away.
I'd long since abandoned the puppet ministry, shortly after the church took back the studio to convert it into restrooms for the school gymnasium. Lastly, with only a shred of belief left, I had even called a stop to my ordination process. With the last of my childhood faith now fading away, I shook hands with Johnson, exchanged God-bless-yous, and drove away from Calvary, away from Downey, away from Southern California, and away from Jesus. I vowed I'd never return. Last Thanksgiving, after nearly two decades, I finally broke my promise and returned to Calvary Chapel.
RICK ROSS is an "[intervention specialist]," a world-renowned [expert] specializing in the [behavior] of destructive cults [and radical groups]. As a "deprogrammer," Ross aids former members of [extreme groups] and their families to make the difficult transition to life outside of the controlling group.
Working from his office in Phoenix, Ross has assisted members of the Davidian cult in Waco as well as [consulting the media just after the tragic suicide of the cult known as] Heaven's Gate in San Diego. His website -a resource center for cult watchers and families of people who have disappeared into cults--includes a long list of reports on various cults, [controversial and radical groups].
Calvary Chapel is on the list. They treat Smith as if he has some special revelation, an elite calling from God. The churches under Chuck Smith all foster feelings of spiritual elitism.
They are typical of a lot of groups who think they are God's Green Berets, the epitome of God's best. Ross has twice been involved in transitioning clients away from Calvary chapels, each time contacted by parents who were alarmed at the intensity of the personality changes and frightening mood-swings their children experienced after joining Calvary. People who leave [often] feel that they could never be good enough.
The clergy at Calvary don't wish to admit it, but they push their members very hard. By comparison, I don't see Calvary Chapel as being nearly as extreme as others. But does that mean Chuck Smith is a nice man or that his churches are a good place to go?
Well, Chuck Smith's tree has dropped some pretty damaged fruit. Others are more inclined to classify Calvary Chapel as a full-blown cult. I think anyone who says they have the answer, the one way, whatever it is, is potentially dangerous.
Whenever questions are not really answered but always turned back on you like there is something wrong with you for asking them, that's a sign that something is wrong. And though cults are often identified by the influence of one charismatic leader, there is such a thing as a cult of consensus, she says.
As human beings that's what we respond to. In his statement, Willy Rice warned the congregation to brace for retaliation. Scientology has historically sued critics, aggressively surveilled defectors, including Scientology leader David Miscavige's father, and published extensive websites and articles defaming those who condemn its practices.
Shaw said Scientology believes everyone has a right to practice their religion and "respecting the religious beliefs of others is the path to peace; history shows that disrespecting the beliefs of others leads to war and strife. Ron Hubbard. Precept 18, titled Respect the Religious Beliefs of Others, states: "One is at liberty to hold up his own beliefs for acceptance. One is at risk when he seeks to assault the beliefs of others, much more so when he attacks and seeks to harm them because of their religious convictions.
Contact Tracey McManus at tmcmanus tampabay. Follow TroMcManus. Editor's note: This article was changed to reflect the following correction: Calvary Baptist Church in Clearwater operates a high school. An article Thursday gave the incorrect number of grades offered. Subscribe Manage my subscription Activate my subscription Log in Log out.
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