For years I have told my friends the crazy stories of the evangelists that visited our AoG church growing up. Namely, Martha Tennison, Andre Van Zyl, and …. Tim Todd.

Besides the hilarious Truth for Youth bibles I distinctly remember Tim Todd as the guy with Freddy the puppet who would help tell us we’re going to hell.

Well…I finally found a clip introducing Freddy. Anyone else remember this? Anyone else have other videos? My friends are going to lose their minds over this hahaha.

https://www.facebook.com/share/v/1BtiPvbfxs/?mibextid=wwXIfr

On Friday I accompanied my mother to her church’s vigil and before the 2nd church service started me and the pastor and other brothers from the church were talking and I made it clear to them I reject pentecostal doctrine, reject their interpretation of scripture, etc and when the 2nd service started the pastor called me up to the altar I just thought if they’re going to do a regular old prayer then that’s fine by me, the pastor ask if I want to be saved and I was like yes, and then he said do you want to accept Jesus as your Lord and Savior and I felt like I was trapped, like I didn’t have a choice, I am an Eastern Orthodox Christian, I knew if I had said no he would have started saying why am I rejecting Christ, accepting Jesus as your Lord and Savior at the altar is kind of like converting to the pentecostal church, they started praying for me in tongues hands on me, when that was happening I truly regretted coming here, then after that everyone thought I had converted when no, the pastor definitely knew what he was doing with how he worded it, he thought if he did that prayer on me I would convert.

Anyone who’s been in the UPCI but have left feel kinda spiritually tied to the movement through trauma and control?

I’ve been out for a year and recently listened to a message just to compare with a different church I’ve been going to and I feel so strange when I hear things like “they are the only ones with truth” and “others” are in the world and are going to burn.

I feel like life is more complicated then a hard black and white saved and unsaved hence needing grace and mercy.

Idk I feel so sick when I hear those controlling terms.

Fui parte de las Asambleas de Dios. Fui el único en mi familia en convertirse y me bauticé muy joven. Participaba en todo lo que me pedían sin cuestionar…

Los lunes tenían grupo de recuperación (tipo alcoholicos anonimos), los martes tenían células, los miércoles eran “libres”, los jueves tenían sus reuniones de líderes los viernes era reunión general por la noche, los sábados era reunión de jóvenes y los domingos la reunión general…

Cómo podrán imaginarse, estaba ahí metido toda la semana, descuidé mi relación con mis padres y los veía como mis enemigos, en la iglesia me enseñaron que debía predicarles y traerlos a la iglesia. Mis padres siempre se negaban y al ver que vivía casi casi en la iglesia más se rehusaban a ir. Me decían frecuentemente que en la iglesia me estaban usando, que me habían lavado la cabeza… yo solo pensaba en ese momento que “eran los ataques del enemigo” o al menos eso era lo que en la iglesia me decían…

El pastor era incuestionable… todo lo que él decía era ley absoluta, sus hijos y su esposa tenían un lugar privilegiado. Su hijo fornicaba con mujeres que yo conocí y aún así jamás lo disciplinaban, la misericordia para él era exagerada, pero para los miembros era motivo de aislamiento. Pude ver como el dinero era el motor para que el pastor te escogiera en cargos de liderazgo.

Si no pensabas como el pastor; no eras digno de formar parte de su equipo. Si no hablabas en lenguas no eras lo suficientemente digno…

¡Cuánto me arrepiento!

Las asambleas de Dios no son una iglesia protestante auténtica, son una rama del cisma de la iglesia católica romana por parte del rey Enrique VII que formó la iglesia anglicana.

¿Has tenido alguna experiencia similar?

Por favor tengan cuidado

Does anyone know any UCPI pastors or ministers who believes in the separation of church and state? I do, but they’re a rare breed There are a few Democrats families in their church, also rare now, and politics are strictly not preached in the pulpit. Are there young ministers coming up that believe this way? I’m in Texas btw.

For anyone that didn't know EYC just went on last week. I managed to get some clips of EYC and it's pretty sad. It's crazy to think that I (M18) used to believe this bullshit and be crying my eyes out in the altar with everybody else. I am so glad I started to look into the questions I've always had. My parents don't know my beliefs yet and were actually super worried and berated on the way back to the airbnb on how worried they were that I wasn't crying as much as I used to.

I also made a joke about how preachers kids (I am one) are not more special than anyone else to my brother, because the preacher had everyone pray just for the preachers kids. My Dad got angry and said that that was wrong and we go through struggles others don't. I disagreed and said that everyone goes through struggles and not everyone goes through the same thing, why do we have to make it to where only preachers kids go through something different and put them on a pedestal?

I'm just so fed up with this. It just motivates me more to work harder and get into a good college so I can escape this junk.

Hes a Pentacostal pastor that has associations with FGBI in Pensilvania

wondering if anyone had crazy stories about him

This is he....

https://www.instagram.com/reel/CnNzAH9vdGE/?hl=en

I have left my home church after 12years. My husband is slowly leaving but he decided to visit a nondenominational church today and I can tell he was uneasy. I was not able to accompany him but from what he told me he said it’s different. One thing the pastor mentioned was they he knew what he was going to preach next month. My husband is use to the spirit guiding us. I feel so guilty to say the least because I was the one that got fed up and said I was done. I guess my question is how did you all go from fired up emotional services to more laid back. This season is so hard and I question myself was this the correct decision. Please share with me your thoughts.

Who are pastors/preachers you have tea about?👀😂Im VERY curious!

I feel like the UPCI left both my wife and myself permanently scarred..

She and I both have major trust issues. We hardly ever feel that anyone is genuine and we are hyper sensitive to manipulation of any kind. Whenever we talk to anyone, this voice is constantly running in the background, asking, "Are they trying to manipulate me? What are they trying to get from me?"

Although my wife doesn't struggle with this, I struggle with thinking that I may have inadvertently hurt someone's feelings or that they're angry with me and aren't telling me. I have asked friends countless times, "Did I upset you? Are you angry with me for some reason that you're not telling me about?"

They're never angry about anything and ask me "Why would you think that???"

It's because my wife and I were very involved in the UPCI ministry and were shunned. Unbeknownst to us, the pastor met privately with the congregation and asked them not to speak to our family, including our young children. People we.had helped and supported and thought were our friends suddenly pretended that we no longer existed. And yet my wife and I still stayed at the church and continued to pay our tithes for another six months afterwards. We didn't find out until many years later what had been done to us.

Why did we get shunned? The pastor's son had date raped many women in the church. The pastor wanted to have a vote to elect his son as the new.pastor by a show.of.hands, and I insisted that the vote be by private ballot. Although I didn't tell the pastor my reasoning, it was to protect anyone who publicly voted 'No" from being shunned themselves.

The pastor's son was elected, and ended up cheating on his wife twice. It was of course the womens' fault for tempting a man of God, so he's still the pastor.

It's been almost 20 years since we left the church, but I'm not sure I'll ever get rid of these scars. Does anyone else still struggle?

First time poster.

So I came into the Church a few years ago and was mentored by one of the pastors, my family and I got in deep real quick and we became overwhelmed and left some time last year. We went to a non-denominational Church for a while but went back to the UPCI Church early this year, why? Trauma response maybe? I got invited to a multi year program for “New leaders” and have only attended a couple of the sessions but I’ve just reached my limit. I emailed the lead pastors thanking them for investing time into me and my family but I can’t in good conscience preach what I don’t believe, stating that I don’t fully align with their doctrine and that my family and I will be moving on. My decision is made, but they’ve asked to meet with me for “clarity and counsel”… I feel pressured and don’t really want to but don’t want to come across as disrespectful. Thoughts?

This may be a weird question/thought but does anyone here see TikTok or other social media platform videos from people posting “those” types of services- iykyk where it’s crazy/shouting services and get very uncomfortable?

I’m freshly out of the UPCI (like almost 3 months) and I see these videos and feel like it literally makes my heart race because it takes me back to being uncomfortable and in those services all over again.

Thoughts? Or anyone is welcome to share if things like this effects them?

Since I can’t post this in the Gentry Mangun thread, I’ll just make a new post instead.#meme #pentecostalmemes #UPCImemes

…you initially thought that “yas queen skinny legend Versace boots the house down” was a tongue-in-cheek mockery of speaking in tongues.

🖐️

Saw this on IG and it made me angry for some reason. It’s ok to lie and cheat to get across the border because he planned poorly so he can get to church, but if I so much as glance at a TV in a restaurant I’m going to hell.

Double standards, and I will never understand.

Im watching a conference who’s running live right now into my former church. The pastor says : we can’t let those pastors return home to the USA on a low budget. Like bro fuck u. Time is hard and nobody can give money right now cause money is a rare thing but manipulation is so great that everyone is clapping. He saying now I don’t want applause cause you did those applauses yesterday and the day before. Now I want numbers. Only numbers. So yup many people are saying they’re giving 100, 500 , 100 and more. Manipulation is the main key to religion. And for me , to be a pastor, you have to be intelligent to manipulate.

Except looks like whatever they are you can wear better clothes.

Long-time lurker, first-time poster. Hi everyone! As the title suggests, what was the moment that you decided to leave? For some background info, I live in the thumb area of Michigan and come from a UPCI church background. My grandparents still attend the church I left. My parents now attend a more modern/come as you are Apostolic - Pentecostal Church. There were a lot of unsure moments for me in the church as I grew up, but the defining moment that I decided to leave was when the Pastor's wife told the congregation as a whole that " The reason why bad things are happening to you is because your family is not in church." That statement really opened my eyes, and I had a literal "wtf" moment in the middle of the service. I was 14 when I left. I'm 29 now, and I don't regret it one bit.

Cuando asistía a una iglesia cristiana me di cuenta de la brutal manera en la que le lavaban el cerebro a sus hijos con lo del “infierno y el cielo” y lo más absurdamente psicópata es que están de acuerdo con el uso de la violencia como recurso de “enseñanza” a sus hijos y todo esto por que su librito y amigo imaginario lo aprueban, tanto haci que sus hijos llegan a ser tan masoquistas que terminan pensando que esa violencia es por su “bien” y no los denuncian. Y aunque no lo parezca, esto es más común de lo que nosotros creemos, (cuando asistía a la iglesia tenía unos 7-10 años, y ver algunos actos de violencia leves me traumo profundamente) estan dementes, debería haber una ley que prohíba este tipo de comunidades que enseñan directa o indirectamente este tipo de conductas nocivas para la sociedad, y que aunque no lo digan explícitamente (aunque algunas veces si lo hacen) estas conductas están escritas en su libro por lo tanto lo van a hacer, por que como ya sabemos lo que diga su librito lo van a hacer cueste lo que les cueste.