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| - I'll be as direct and to the point as possible. I decided to take my family to this church several years ago. Things went pretty good for the most part. I'm not a big fan of live music. If you're like minded, the first 15-20 minutes will definately be an endurance test. In general, the message is pretty good.
Where things went south was my encounter with Pastor Kyle Brown. I'd inquired about a neighborhood group. As it happened, he was the host of the group closest to my house. My work schedule and my wife's schedule are tight. I made it very clear that I was only asking and that there was no plans on joining anytime soon. Every Sunday he made a point of coming by our table to say hi. He always made a point of "reminding" me when the group was meeting the following week. Not being a real church going person as well as being one who enjoys my personal time with ONLY my family, I started looking for his angle. We'll it didn't take long to find it.
The following week I received an email requesting my help. There was a new family moving into the neighborhood. According to Kyle, the husband had back trouble and was in need of assistance lifting. If that was where the email stopped, I would've been there, but it wasn't. Kyle went on to say that he would like me to make CCV known to this family with my continued endorsement throughout this families move. That makes me a recruiter. Why should I care in the least where people, of whom I don't know, go to church? What started out as a request and gesture of good will, became a recruiting mission. I'm not interested in my neighbors day to day activities, thoughts, feelings or habits. I'm certainly not interested in thier religious preferences. At the end of the day, when my garage door comes down, I'm done with the outside world. My work keeps me away from my family so much, that the thought of sitting in a strangers house for an hour, doesn't even hit the radar.
I replied to his email, stating not only my lack of interest in a neighborhood group, but also my apathetic view of increasing the head count of CCV. The Sunday morning after I replied back, he looked right at my wife and I and continued right past us. This behavior continued until last Sept when I pulled the plug on returning for a while if not indefinately. It's pretty clear what his real message was. As with most churches, the more people, the more money. I guess the long running phrase.."Money is the root of all evil" may just have some truth in it.
The overall experience, like I said earlier, was decent when it came to the message, but enter the doors with an abundance of caution. I've got my struggles and doubts when it comes to God and his goodness. I was on the road to overcoming some of these things, but this experience with Pastor Kyle has damaged any repairs that may have been made. The good news out of all of this is that he's no longer in my neighborhood nor is he at the CCV Surprise campus. I will give it another try in the future I'm sure. While still don't care in the least about my neighbors activities or religious preferences, nor do I feel like sitting in someone's living room faking interest about things I may have just heard on Sunday, I do want to be a better person and a better father. CCV will be my church of choice when I'm ready.
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