You can ask questions and have discussions regarding the Truth Project by responding to this post. But simply put, the ends do not justify the means. Regardless of your religious background, we want to welcome . Nguyen, who left in 2021 after attending Gracepoint for a decade, has spoken at length with his former leaders at the Riverside and Pomona campuses, as well as with Daniel Kim, about the ways he felt wronged. First is that I am a much more introspective person than I used to be. Your daily news briefing from the editors of CT. InterVarsity Wins Key Nondiscrimination Battle at Tufts, The 50 Countries Where Its Hardest to Follow Jesus in 2023. By gracepoint In Devotion Text, Genesis with Comments Off on Bible Reading: Gen 19-22 Bible Text: Genes is 19-22 Here are some ways to process the readings for each day. May 2020 to March 2021. One of my old friends is apparently is in this church and I wanted to find out more about the "cult-like" organization after a mutual friend brought up how she's completely been brainwashed by them. Initially, I thought he was going to offer some dating advice from christian perspective, but he flat out forbade me to date. Contact a mentor if you need a ride or get connected! Some former members said their departures were mischaracterized within the organization, with current attendees saying that those who left did so to pursue the world by purchasing pets or getting Disneyland passes. GRACEPOINT BERKELEY - 54 Photos & 87 Reviews - 2797 Telegraph Ave, Berkeley, CA - Yelp Restaurants Home Services Auto Services Gracepoint Berkeley 87 reviews Claimed Churches Edit Closed See hours Write a review Add photo Photos & videos See all 54 photos Location & Hours Get directions Edit business info Ask the Community Ask a question . The Triton is not in anyway affiliated with UC San Diego and the opinions expressed therein are not the overall public opinions of UCSD, ASUCSD, or our staff. if you're looking for a church, or just curious about christianity, drop by our on campus sunday services. We have done our best to ensure this articles correctness, but there are certain parts that still need further corroboration. For serving members, its high pressure, high labor, high toil, but high gratification.. One of the things Im learning now that Im out [of the church] is that I can actually make my own decisions without checking with somebody, asking for permission, being afraid that Ill get in trouble, she said. Regardless of your background, we invite you to come check us out! That's probably why she deleted FB, etc. We are a church located in the Silicon Valley that reaches out to San Jose State University. UC Davis alumnus Sam C. (05), who asked to be identified by his first name and last initial due to the sensitive subject matter, recalled a similar struggle with his mental health after getting involved with the Asian Baptist Student Koinonia (ABSK), a Berkland-run campus ministry group. In fact they are down-right humiliating and induce a lot of guilt-driven repentance. Gracepoint Ministries Gracepoint Berkeley Church Previous DT Notebooks Daily Devotion Text August 14, 2017 A Guide to Self-Reflection By carmenhsuIn Devotion Textwith Comments Offon A Guide to Self-Reflection From Course 201 Chapter 1, Holiness of God: Habits to Form. Created, wrote, and edited weekly email marketing campaigns using Mailchimp to communicate with over 600+ clients . This was posted two months ago but for those of you who missed it, there is now a Discord channel for anyone who wants to have a conversation there: My perspective is different from many posters on this subreddit. He also suffered from insomnia and eczema rashes in the months prior to the meeting, citing the church as his main source of stress during this period. Anyone remember this checklist for how "relational" and "righteous" you are? The church grew in number steadily. My point is- any criticism of you, especially because of the things you actually said or did, is not persecution. Staying at Gracepoint has a strong appeal, echoing the coming-of-age films that ask, Why cant college last forever? Living communally, as I described it above, is really just synonymous with being a good guest, and what GFC does (see, lockboxes) goes way beyond that. The group operates in 24 cities, and according to Kang, Gracepoint staff are now split between college and noncollege ministries. As the predominantly Asian American church network expands to dozens of college towns, former members come forward with claims of spiritual abuse. Visit Website Compassion International 800+ Children Sponsored Gracepoint Fellowship Church members sponsor children in need. It feels like the bridge is being burnt from the other end, said Mun. I say it is extremely damaging! 35 35 International Student Groups 40 40 Elderly Care Facilities 80 80 That is until he met a postal employee with a vision for discipling adolescen. I'll say one thing about Gracepoint: the people are intentional in their faith. I don't think she cut off all relations with people outside of her church (because, going off the interpretation that GP wants to evangelize, this is counterproductive). . According to Len Tang, director of the Church Planting Initiative at Fuller Theological Seminary, high-pressure churches like Gracepoint often enforce a methodological purity within their ministry. That is until he met a postal employee with a vision for discipling adolescen. She started at Berkeley, but had moved to another location to plant another college church. Paul Lee said his pastor at UC Riverside called to yell at him for having coffee with a female friend on staff, which he had done before but didnt know was frowned on. Enter at your own risk and remember to NEVER sacrifice your own personal values and beliefs for the sake of anyone else (unless they are damaging to others/hazardous/self-destructive/etc). You can disagree with me if you want, this is just my opinion, but it does seem to me that even the slightest amount of adversity will cause Christians to play the persecution card. Gracepoint had secured him a $400-a-month apartment in Berkeley, where he was attending college. Leaders might recommend specific pieces of home decor (the affordable Ikea Kallax) or clothes (modest yet tasteful Ann Taylor and Banana Republic). Fill out an application here. (LogOut/ Doe stated that during the repentance process, the church leaderships repeated statements about her character eventually made her question her reality. Press question mark to learn the rest of the keyboard shortcuts. Please feel free to choose from these questions to help remember and process the text. Curtis Yee is a faith and culture reporter in Sacramento, California. Julia Smith, who remained anonymous due to fear of retaliation, attended Gracepoint at UCSD from 2013 to 2017 and attributed her hesitation to leave the church to her fear of losing the community. It really suprised me and other students. Its a vicious cycle. My regrets are mostly about the people that I ministered to when I had no right to be called a minister, Loekito said. Members under discipline could be asked to refrain from serving in ministries and even attending services. Will probably get downvoted for this, but I'm near positive that a good half of the religious fellowships on campus (whether Christian or otherwise) qualify as "cult-like". College Ministry . I'm mad because I've seen not only myself but also others get hurt and develop mental health issues because of your practices. Gracepoint Berkeley Church, Alameda, CA. An anonymous source, who first encountered Gracepoint Church on UC Berkeleys campus, attended throughout their time as a undergrad and continued participating in church activities after graduation, noted that within Gracepoint, church leadership encourage LGBTQ+ members of their congregation to implement guardrails., The source defined guardrails as something that was very prominent at various points in terms of how a person should make decisions and behave, particularly in opposite gender relationships.. If the abuser fails to do that, they rationalize by saying, they dont love me and I guess I never loved them. At this church, it is the same, because if you do not respond to rebuke, you are spiritually desolate and they cannot shepherd or love you. Things I could have done with my time in college, time I can never make up for now -- classes, clubs, study abroad all subsumed beneath the crushing demands that GFC always come first. When they became part of the ministry team, Gracepoint members were required to install internet filtering software like Covenant Eyes on their devices. Let me start by acknowledging three positive things that came out of my time at GFC. We talked a while, suddenly he mentioned me asking the girl out. The church started using Willard Middle Schools auditorium/cafeteria for Sunday gatherings when the building on Alcatraz became too small to fit all the members. jesus centered and bible based short devotions. Browse 60+ years of magazine archives and web exclusives. That would actually be a sin. Of course, as soon as I showed up, he told me about how I was predestined and how I should pray with him, the smug Calvinist bastard. What is Agora Roads Macintosh Vaporwave Cafe? In the meantime, however, there are people whose grades are sagging, social networks are being sundered and psychologies are being damaged for a period of several years by the demands of exploitative organizations. Moreover, my friends spend the same amount of time or even more time for consulting, pre-med, fraternity, and computer science organizations on campus. Soon multiple separate groups were created, which became A2F, Koinonia, Praxis, etc. I think you need to really curb that. Element is the middle and high school ministry of Gracepoint Church.We are committed to connecting with God through discipleship: living out our convictions through acts of service, learning new skills to expand our capacity to serve, building lasting friendships, and sharing God's love with others in the Bay Area. Enough stamps and certifications and you will be qualified to move on up the ranks. CONTACT. During an April 2021 sermon on one of the Beatitudes, Kang told the church not to be discouraged by their online critics; Jesus himself warned that detractors would utter all kinds of evil against you falsely (Matt. Sundays @ 8:15am & 10:00am. 2022 When you've isolated the individual from his or her old support network and substituted the group, they're psychologically locked to the group and cannot leave. You see, this behavior is modeled for other church members and it starts to become apparent that unless you get rebuked, the leaders must not care about you, or think of you much. I had a youth group leader for one of the local churches promise up and down that if I would attend a Bible study, it would be purely academic. Sign up for our newsletter: Church leaders were also encouraged to write positive Yelp reviewsand sometimes report negative ones. Gracepoint santa barbara is a collegiate church that meets near the ucsb and westmont campuses. The leaders force you to confess to the point where you better start crying and feeling contrite. Learn More query_builder Worship Service Read more. I had seen ita couple years before, when other students had trouble academically and seeing what standard practice was when the church is trying to help the students get their academics and I knew it was going to be [a] suffocating environment, Sam C. said. I had a strained relationship with my parents, said Martin Loekito, who was a member of Gracepoints Davis church for 14 years. While oversight and granular life advice can be part of college formation and discipleship, Gracepoints influence grew more intrusive as members remained at the church. He has served as the pastor of Gracepoint Church since 1996. What kind of religious organization are they really? Because even with all the good things, and even with the lack of really bad experiences, I lost a lot in terms of opportunity cost and I have a lot of negative consequences I still suffer from. Because we know that laughter is the best medicine, right after Chinese herbal medicine and acupuncture and Western medicine. Are they still okay? College Directors . proverbs31.org. We want to help make your first experience at Grace Point a great one! I do think it is insulting for Christians in America to play that card when there is actual persecution of Christians in other parts of the world. My time at Gracepoint ended with me feeling at the lowest point of my life, reads a testimonial shared in April via r/UCSD. All I learned from this was to perform kindness, love, and care in order to check as many boxes as possible. Their teaching is unbiblical; the extreme emphasis and focus on sin is unhealthy. Website Developer. Hello everyone, Very much like how Gracepoint Forum did with SET 2008, I wanted to open up a post thread for our Sunday's material, the Truth Project. Join us online Past sunday service messages. https://www.christianitytoday.com/news/2022/september/gracepoint-berkland-asian-american-church-discipleship.html. Gracepoint Church Faces Abuse Allegations Across the UC, Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window), Click to share on Twitter (Opens in new window), Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in new window), Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window), Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window), UC System Creates Largest Vaccine Mandate in Higher Education. /*# sourceMappingURL=https://www.redditstatic.com/desktop2x/chunkCSS/TopicLinksContainer.3b33fc17a17cec1345d4_.css.map*/I would not go to NSWN; if I somehow accidentally did (as I think many people do), I would not go to GFC on Sundays; and, if I somehow accidentally did that, I would not get involved with a small group and spend all my free time devoted to GFC. A few years later, they returned to Berkeley, and Pastor Ed took over the senior pastor position. With the mission to plant an Acts 2 church in every college town, Gracepoint stands out among the loose network of predominantly Asian American college churches that pepper campuses across the West Coast and beyond. I dont see reconciliation efforts made on their side. We know meeting someone for the first time can be intimidating, and going to a new church for the first time can be nerve-racking. The goal of the church is essentially to "train" as many students as possible to become Christians and serve in GP after college. Im not sure who started calling getting rebuked, rocked, but it really turns something negative into something of a badge of honor. A former UC Santa Barbara student said her declining well-beingdepression and an eating disorder relapsewas seen as evidence of her unrepentance after she crossed a physical boundary with her boyfriend. They cared more that I was staying and being a productive sort of functioning member.. Welcome to Gracepoint! Recently, the news exploded out of the Christ-o-sphere: A popular Berkeley, California college-based evangelical church, Gracepoint, fueled its meteoric success through iron-vise-grip control and devastating emotional abuse. It wasnt perfect. a href= '' https: //www.reddit.com/r/GracepointChurch/ '' > Gracepoint Berkeley website, we were way thinner then! 5&2 - Returning Citizens God led us to partner with the Dream Center Oakland to teach technology and bring humanity back to returning citizens from prison. There is just something different about a group of Christians trying to live out the Act 2 church versus a christian club that just hangs out. Without the church's support, he might have had nowhere to live. We continue to be a miracle in the making within the Methodist Church of Southern Africa, and present an unconventional, but unique and exciting way of doing church. On the border of Berkeley and Oakland, the church was named Berkland Baptist. Now let me address one regret I have, and one lasting consequence. There are multiples in both categories, but lets keep it short. We are Cal Alumni with a vision to build an Acts 2 community in Berkeley. At Gracepoint Ministries, 'Whole-Life Discipleship' Took Its Toll As the predominantly Asian American church network expands to dozens of college towns, former members come forward with claims. The most joyous, productive, close-to-Jesus years of my Christian life came after I left GFC. Yes, finally, what you did caught up to you, it got addressed by the leaders, and if you repent, you have a small stamp of approval. He seemed genuinely baffled when I told him I didn't want any part of a god who would endorse lying as a recruiting tactic. Berkeley, California, United States. Latest report on Christian persecution finds Nigeria and Sub-Saharan Africa the epicenter of jihadist violence, while China leads effort to redefine religious rights. Join The Triton! My life would be innumerably poorer without that time. July 2020 to August 2020 . You don't want to miss this!! Gracepoint Berkeley. Just having dinner, everyone at the same tablethat was very rare.. The University of California (UC) announced that it is considering plans to require students, staff, and faculty to receive a COVID-19 vaccination before returning to campus , Are you interested in writing, getting published, and learning more about the campus? But they are not my stories to tell. However, my opinion is that there is too much guilt-driven manipulation and fearmongering, and not enough careful correction. Welcome! For those who have left, connecting with other former members in person and online has helped their transition out of the church. Fill in your details below or click an icon to log in: You are commenting using your WordPress.com account. Of course, they are not trying to get rebuked on purpose (who wants that? Lead Desktop Consultant. At graduation, it encourages young Christians to live life on mission by joining staff at one of its campuses or helping launch a new one. Gracepoint's leaders packaged this very cult-like behavior as discipleship. One thing more to muse on before I close. Loekito said his eldest daughter spent large portions of her early childhood at the churchs babysitting ministry while he and his wife were participating in events. Please, do not get sucked into this cult. A methodological purity might say that college ministry must be done in a specific way. But that's a whole other topic I don't want to get sidetracked by here. Acts2Fellowship Instagram Marketing Intern. My first time at the Sunday service I was surprised by how friendly everyone was. If they really examine things, they really could change, he said, but I just dont think theyre willing to let go of a lot of the practices theyve been holding on to.. In writing this, I can already anticipate the little words and phrases that could get twisted (Ah, he said Things I could have done with my time in college meaning he clearly just wanted to engage in debauchery and did you notice how he said something about a big beautiful world? I encourage you to continue to do so as it seems like profiles with one reviews often get hidden. Thank you Christain and Im sorry your review is hidden.. GFC may teach introspection, but too often it seems to descend into either a toxic form of self-flagellation or a type of faux writing-your-DT-to-fit-in-with-whatever-the-topic-du-jour is. Associated Students of the University of California. Emails obtained by CT show that Gracepoint maintained its own blogs to compete with those critiquing the church. But what might have felt like conviction from God at the moment they later saw as the leaders aggression. That's the type of lifestyle GP tries to nurture, but obviously in a modern day society. Welcome toGracepoint San Jose. Ive learned to just be grateful over the chastising we get even though the form and the content may be exaggerated or straight up not true, Kang said. And culture reporter in Sacramento, California the bridge is being burnt from the other end, said Mun campuses... Sometimes report negative ones ensure this articles correctness, but he flat out me! Packaged this very cult-like behavior as discipleship that is until he met a postal employee a. Others get hurt and develop mental health issues because of your practices leaders packaged this very behavior... To compete with those critiquing the church leaderships repeated statements about her character eventually her! Is a faith and culture reporter in Sacramento, California humiliating and induce a lot gracepoint church berkeley guilt-driven.! A strained relationship with my parents, said Mun on sin is unhealthy years of magazine and! Do that, they dont love me and I guess I never loved.! 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