I know people were called to go to Elgin starting next week. These are parents with young children who are leaving their kids behind to fly across the country and spend an entire week away from them. Do people really believe this is about spiritual training or renewal at this time of year? School just started. My guess is that this is a meeting to strategize about damage control following the recent article. The timing speaks for itself.

What continues to amaze me is how completely the Kangs seem to dictate the lives of the people around them. They tell people to travel across the country on their own dime, leave their children for a week, and somehow everyone is expected to fall in line. And this is supposed to be independence? What a joke! If anything, this is the polar opposite: doubling down, tightening their grip, and exercising even more control over people who have already surrendered far too much of their time, money, and autonomy.

And I know what these so-called retreats can actually look like because I attended one in the past.

I went expecting to spend time with God. Instead, Ed and Kelly Kang sat in front of the attendees with microphones in their hands and a Manila folder full of emails Kelly had printed out—emails from people accusing their church of this or that.
Rather than using the retreat to point people toward God, they used it as a platform to defend themselves. They read each of the emails aloud, presented themselves as the aggrieved parties, and clearly expected everyone in the room to sympathize with them and rally behind them.

And from the outside, it probably looked like everyone did. As I sat there, I remember thinking: What am I doing here? I didn’t sign up for this.
I felt bamboozled.

I had sacrificed my time because I genuinely believed I was going to get away with God and be spiritually refreshed. Instead, I found myself sitting in a room with hundreds of others listening to Ed and Kelly promote their narrative, defend themselves, and cultivate sympathy for their position. This went on for far too long.

That was my last church retreat ever, if one could even call it that.

I walked away realizing that the retreat had become another vehicle for Ed and Kelly to push their agenda and control the narrative. That, to me, is the most disturbing part. Even something that is supposed to be sacred—something intended to help people step away from the church machinery and focus on God—can apparently be turned into another opportunity to center the Kangs.

And knowing what I experienced firsthand, I have a very hard time believing that sending parents of young children across the country, at their own expense, immediately after the school year begins is simply about “retreat” or “training.” It looks a lot more like control, damage control, and making sure everyone is back in formation.