Less Churches are to someones advantage
 

You know when there is a church that has a lot of standards and someone does not agree with them or some of them, they can either go along with them and not rock the boat or go somewhere else. But imagine their dismay finding that there are no other churches that believe in the Oneness message and Acts 2:38...could that actually be the design of some? To not allow any competition in their area that a person can go to if they disagree with the local churches standards?

who would design it and how would they go about designing such ?

Prax: this was the situation my family found ourselves in for many years, This was in community of over 500,000.

There was one other upc church, well actually two, but they were both openly spoke against from the pulpit.

The pastor even made the comment from the pulpit, that if you wanted to go to hell just go to Bro. *****'* church.

We finally escaped 16 years ago and have rejoiced over that decision every day since.

We were of course "branded" when we left and the congregation told to have no fellowship with us.

Church's built on fear, parinoia and mind control will never produce a stable Christian.

Refuse to allow new ministers and new works to be started in your area and/or district unless the new pastor is a part of your clique.

In many districts that's just what the elections come down to; what kind of district will we be?

Maybe you're in a better position to tell, but when all of the "ultra-cons" began to move out to California beginning in the 1960's and 1970's this was pretty much their goal. Up until that time the Western Dist was pretty much open, but when one particular UC moved into a town neighboring Stockton he began to proclaim himself as being "the first one to preach Acts 2:38 in the valley."

He said this of himself despite the fact that C.H. had already been preaching there for decades.

I have a friend who pastors in northern CA and when he got a great deal on some land to build, he had to put some earnest money down right away or loose the opportunity. When he finally got a meeting with the District Board to talk about the move he was told "no!" Emphatically "NO!" The move didn't even involve any other churches closely. The Western District Board simply wanted to force the man out of the UPC.

He faced the choice of either loosing $10,000's of dollars or leaving the UPC. And he would have been forced out by the "UC's" who controlled the Western District.

Long story short, he walked away from the money, ate the loss and persevered despite the obvious move by the UC's to unethically force him out of the fellowship.

It's cases like these that make me say, The so-called "conservatives" have always been the divisive ones. They have used their positions in the most unethical ways in the past. Just wait to see what they do with their new org.

And a footnote: you all know my friend who was basically robbed by the "UC's." He would never say "robbed" - that's my word for what he was forced to endure. He's too much of a Christian leader to allow himself to be bullied out of the org. And for whatever reasons, he doesn't even talk about this event much except in the most oblique terms.

That's the difference between the "UC's" and the good men of our fellowship.

So true that "Church's built on fear, parinoia and mind control will never produce a stable Christian."
Blessings to you.

Good Point...
 

I live in a town of around 40k. I attended an independent church and it became unbearable. Then I went to the local UPC church only to see the same problem the independent had. What to do? Fortunately, former UPC pastor that was forced out started another work and we are happy now. But it is a problem for control freakish pastors and churches when there is only one church in a small area.

Someone needs to publish a list of cities that the UPC church left the organization over TV. Some preachers can go to that city and have an instant church!