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Why would/did you leave a Church of Christ? At what age did you leave/switch?

[Generation Y] 
760 views 6 replies 5 participants last post by  Forest Nymph 
#1 ·
[FONT=&quot]Hi all, I am working to collect some data for a project of mine and I was hoping to get some input. If you left a Church of Christ, what drove you to do so? Is there anything they could have changed to help you stay? If you haven't, what would make you leave/switch? Age helps as well, if you could include that.[/FONT]
 
#4 ·
Do you mean did/why did we stop being Christian?
I may be wrong, but I assumed the OP was referring to those who are members of a Church of Christ. They are Christian, but most are non-denom and autonomous from one another. They do all hold similar beliefs though.
Church of Christ is what the sign on the building will typically say.
 
#6 · (Edited)
I split attendance between Baptist and Church of Christ for a lot of my youth, and did some stuff with a CoC college group during that time in my life, because they were the best/most welcoming of such groups on my campus. When I go now, I usually go to a "true" non-denom (I don't consider CoC to be in that category, although that's debatable), or occasionally a Baptist or Methodist church. I pretty much never go to CoC anymore, so one could say I sort of "left" that church.

Why? Mainly prevailing attitude, at least here in my particular part of the south. CoC is pretty much the most "doctrinal" and legalistic of all the available protestant churches here. The prevailing belief is that only CoC will go to heaven; they seem to have some sort of subliminal "new children of Israel" complex or something. They don't cooperate at all, as a rule, with other churches. In my current tiny town, 1st Baptist, 1st United Methodist, 1st Presbyterian, the CoC, and an Episcopal church are all on the same block. All the other churches, at least once a year, hold a big community service together. All, that is, except the CoC. Trying to get them to fellowship at all is like trying to extract blood from a stone. The Episcopals have beliefs MUCH further from the others, and they love to get together and break bread with everyone. It's wild, but not an isolated incident, in my experience.

They just seem to be a pretty poor example, in broad sweeping strokes, of a "Christ-like" attitude. I see them as basically pharisaical in general terms. That is, in fact, sort of their nickname. If anyone says "the Pharisees," everyone knows to which church the speaker is referring.

That said, I know many friends who attend and believe in line with CoC that do not follow this pattern at all. Like, complete 180. If a particular CoC happened to be full of such people, I wouldn't mind at all going (to the extent I go at all these days).

Last time I attended? Probably age 20 or 21.
 
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#7 ·
Do you mean Church of Christ? I attended a Church of Christ or Disciple of Christ church in Los Angeles intermittently for several years. It was the most accepting, loving, free, lacking judgment church I'd ever attended. They helped me tremendously, by honoring different forms of worship from Jewish to Catholic. The pastor was a woman with short hair who practiced touch healing.

Church of Christ is one of the most liberal Christian churches I've ever attended that still made me feel comfortable with a Catholic aspect (kneeling, praying, anointing, meditation).

I've never felt better at a Christian church than Disciples. I was agnostic or New Age for many years, and then turned back to Catholic study via RCIA.

By asking what age someone left it, it makes it sound like a cult which was not my experience of the First Christian Church of North Hollywood.

As a child I attended the Church of God, which is an evangelical shithole of ties, feathered hair, indie films, and crying.

I left my grandparents for a good goddamned reason. And it was partially The Church of God. I can't stand anything like that in adulthood, it's really hard for me to respect or take seriously, the 80s pop from my childhood is more spiritual to me.
 
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