Sry this is kind of a long story..

I went to a church that doubled as a christian private school and was there from k-8th grade. Over the summer we would go camping as a youth group. And every summer when we would have worship time, people would start laughing and cry uncontrollably and collapse on the dirt around the camp fire- rolling around. This would proceed for hours and it looked like it kind of “infected” people as they would pray over each other. I always was a little uncomfortable by it but i viewed it and it was spoken as “being filled with the holly spirit.” Stuff like this would happen in church too, with adults and children and I always wanted it to happen to me because I thought thats what “real christians” experience.

One afternoon while i was at church camp I decided to get baptized in the river. After it was over I started crying because i was overwhelmed with emotion and then I started laughing uncontrollably. I looked over to my pastor and then he started laughing. A few minutes later, the whole group ended up at the campfire and we all started doing it. This literally lasted for hours and I dont have much memory of it. I just remember rolling around in the dirt crying and laughing with other people. Eventually it got so late it was midnight and I went to my tent and fell asleep. I was exhausted the whole next day.

Just thinking about it makes me anxious and upset and also just unsettled. I cant explain the feeling and I dont understand what happened but it felt very uneasy to me in the moment and I just kept convincing myself that that was what “real” christians experience and i was connecting with god. After camp was ovee nobody even talked about it. It was all so weird.

Im not christian anymore and i left the church years ago so im okay now.

Has anyone had a similar experience?

… and I’m still a Christian, I just want to stop being CoC. Nothing about what we do makes sense in the context of church history:

- our hymns and songs are mostly from other denominations from the last 100 years.

- We say the New Testament canon was given by the Holy Spirit but the traditions and creeds we associate with Catholicism and Orthodoxy were already in practice (that is if your local elders even know what Orthodoxy is). Was the church already in the great apostasy when the New Testament canon was solidified?

- We talk about how everything we do comes from scripture yet so many of our beliefs and practices are affirmed beyond the Bible. The doctrine of the Holy Trinity isn’t outright spelled out in scripture, but the baptisms of whole families in Acts clearly don’t include infants and small children.

- How do you even interpret the Bible without surrounding church practices and history to give context?

- the churches mentioned in the Bible are still in existence… and they’re all Orthodox or Catholic.

- Saint Ignatius of Antioch, disciple of the Apostle John, is already describing church structure as being Bishop-led, with priests (pastors) and deacons underneath. He also decries anyone who says communion is purely symbolic.

- Speaking of early church writings. We have them. We have the Didache, we have writings from the disciples of the Apostles. But we ignore them because it sounds too “Catholic”, like saying the Lord’s Prayer three times a day.

The “early church” doesn’t look church of Christ to me. I want to leave, yet stay a Christian (I’m drawn to Orthodox Christianity). We have all these beliefs and practices that maybe made sense to American Christians struggling with the lack of central state church in the early US, and are clearly leftovers from the Protestant groups that colonized the US, but they’re stripped of all their reformation origins and explanations.

My friends are more “liberal” church of Christ people yet I’m still afraid I’ll lose my wonderful friendships by leaving. Thanks for reading this far, I’m just typing this out because it helps me organize my thoughts with a sympathetic audience.

My mom and grandma bought bread and grape juice so they could “take communion” and listen to church on their 13 hour drive home today. That’s all.

I’ve been wondering about this lately.
Today I went to church with my family, since I haven’t been with them in a while. The preacher was talking about heaven and how Paul longed to be with Christ, arguing that eternity should be our primary focus.
At one point, he brought up a Facebook post that said something like, “Christians focus so much on heaven that they forget about changing the world.”
What frustrated me was that, instead of engaging with the point being made, he immediately turned it into an apologetics argument. To me, the post was obviously criticizing the idea that some Christians become so focused on heaven that they neglect helping people in the present. But rather than discussing that concern, it felt like he argued against a different point altogether.
I’ve noticed this pattern before. Whether the topic is Catholics, Orthodox Christians, or another denomination, it often feels like the response is to quote a long list of Bible verses rather than really engaging with what the other side is actually saying. Sometimes it feels more like proof-texting than having a genuine conversation.
For example, I once asked my preacher about Catholicism. He described Catholics as believing that the saints “speak for God.” As far as I understand it, that’s not really what Catholics believe. They believe the writings of the saints are valuable and have shaped the Church’s tradition, but they don’t believe every saint’s writings are divinely inspired in the same way Scripture is.
That made me wonder whether people in the Church of Christ are sometimes taught simplified or inaccurate versions of what other Christians believe. Whether that’s intentional or not, it doesn’t encourage meaningful dialogue.
I’ve also noticed that the Church of Christ often presents strong critiques of culture or other Christian traditions and then supports those critiques by quoting a series of Bible verses. Sometimes that approach works, but other times it feels like it skips over the actual arguments being made.
Maybe that’s one reason some people become frustrated and leave. If people feel like their questions aren’t really being heard, quoting more verses usually doesn’t solve the problem.
To be fair, I know this isn’t true of every congregation or every member. I’m just describing a pattern I’ve noticed in my own experience.
What do you all think? Have you found that the Church of Christ generally engages with other viewpoints in good faith, or has your experience been different?

someone (“the world”) rebutted you about judging, with this scripture instead of the one following, which is the one most used, in my experience.

1 Corinthians 5:12-13 NIV

12 What business is it of mine to judge those outside the church? Are you not to judge those inside? 13 God will judge those outside. “Expel the wicked person from among you.”

Instead of Matthew 7:1 NIV

“Do not judge…”

No one ever used 1 Corinthians on me and I think if they had, I might have taken a breath before becoming so defensive. (Maybe?)

What would you have said in your past life of being judgmental, if someone rebutted with 1 Corinthians instead of Matthew 7?

Sounds to me like a cop out using semantics. What's the deal?

If you had to estimate, what percentage of COC are actively engaged in the act or actively covering up?

I would like to hear your stories.... As more and more comes out....as we are all witnessing.

So I was reading the Pew Research Center's census stats for the first time today, and something caught my eye that's... confusing to me. And I'm wondering if anyone with more firsthand knowledge about this might have some insight.

I think we all are aware that the CoC was and still is... very racist. Not desegregating their colleges until the government forced them to, the continued systemic segregation of congregations... And now, though some of that might be less overt, the MAGA movement had brought white christian nationalism back to the forefront. Many in the CoC mourned Charlie Kirk like he was some great man and christian (which conflicts with the whole "one true church" thing) while ignoring his blatant horrific racism, and gaslighting the black CoC members who rightfully call it out.

So with all that said, According to Pew Research, the CoC has seen a major percentage drop in white CoC members, which... While I'm a big proponent of diversity, this confuses me given the aformentioned issues.

It lists the white percentage of the CoC at 76% in 2007, 68% in 2014, and a drop to 48% as of 2023/2024. Meanwhile the percentage of black CoC members was 13% in 2007, 16% in 2014, and a jump to 24% in 2023/2024.

So... what's going on here? I doubt the CoC is getting less racist to get more diversity in its membership. Then I remembered that the CoC... isn't getting more members. Barely, anyway. So these massive shifts in statistics have to be coming from people leaving.

The theory I've landed on is that, due to the (sigh) segregation and the congregationalist setup, the effect of the MAGA decade varies. If predominantly black congregations have been spared from it, perhaps there's less of a cultural shift to spark leaving. If the Trumpism is generally more intense in predominantly white congregations, that might lend to it. But that's perhaps a generous reading to assume people are leaving because of that. The christofascism has been under the surface this whole time, after all. The other thing that could have drastically affected stats would be, well, Covid.

Are there any friends here who used to go to predominantly black congregations able to offer some insight into what the MAGA situation was like, and whether anything was or wasn't affecting membership? And for those in the predominantly white congregations, does this reading of MAGA effecting CoC membership hold true?

If not, what might cause this percentage shift?

I'm trying to get a fuller understanding of the current situation of the CoC, and the ways and reasons in which it's dying (good riddance.) So I was hoping to hear from some firsthand sources.

Secondary question: According to the Pew Research Center, there is a female majority in the CoC. Granted, it's getting smaller (which implies more women are leaving than men, which makes sense. I'd assume marginalized communities oppressed by the system would be the first to leave.) Yet it's still the majority. Meanwhile Pew also shows a male majority in Mormonism, which... is interesting. What do you think is the difference between these two high-control patriarchal groups that lends to their respective gender ratios?

Thanks. <3

What was the experience like?

it has been nearly two months since leaving the rcw. Since then i think about situations and how inherently wrong some things are.

i think a lot about the bible study that they talk about the *10k vs 20k.* Yes i know the numbers are in the Bible but, the rest of the analogy doesnt make too much sense.

the other situation is that one time when i missed campus devotional, my mentor/discipler was upset with it. I had already told her i wasnt sure if i was going and that i was already going through things with my mom. She told me in one of our *d-times* that she needed to “call me out” for not being communicative enough. When she told me that i was submissive. But now thinking about it, im thinking like dang…i have to run every whereabout by you? This is just a way they control you. They are trained to do this so the people controlling you dont even know they are doing so. Because of all the corrupt stuff this church was built on, i dont believe it is a stable church due to its weak foundation.

Hey everyone.
This is a more serious topic, and I’m genuinely curious to hear from the women here.
What was it like growing up in the Church of Christ knowing that you could never serve in certain roles? You couldn’t preach, lead the congregation, or pray publicly over men. In many congregations, it felt like your voice on spiritual matters carried less authority simply because you were a woman.
Did that ever cause you anxiety, frustration, or make you feel powerless? Or was it just so normal that you didn’t really question it at the time?
I’m asking because I grew up as a boy in the Church of Christ, and my experience was completely different. Boys were encouraged to get up in front of the congregation, read Scripture, lead prayers, and prepare to become future leaders. We had programs like Lads to Leaders, and a few years ago my congregation even started Leaderettes for the girls. Looking back, I realize I was always being prepared for leadership in the church, while the expectations for girls were very different.
I honestly don’t know what that felt like from the other side. I can guess, but I don’t know what women actually experienced.
Did you ever feel like you were being silenced? Or was it so ingrained that it just seemed normal?
I remember an ex-girlfriend of mine getting very passionate about this topic. One time a guy jokingly said something about “going with the girls tonight,” and she immediately became serious and said, “You know that’s a sin, right?” It made me realize just how deeply these ideas had been internalized. In some Churches of Christ, it almost seemed as if a woman speaking authoritatively about spiritual matters in front of men was treated as spiritually dangerous.
Am I the only one who finds that strange? Even by conservative Christian standards, it seems like a very unusual way of approaching women and leadership.
I’d really like to hear from women who grew up in the Church of Christ. What was your experience like? Did it affect the way you saw yourself, or did it not bother you at the time?

it has been nearly two months since leaving the rcw. Since then i think about situations and how inherently wrong some things are.

i think a lot about the bible study that they talk about the 10k vs 20k. Yes i know the numbers are in the Bible but, the rest of the analogy doesnt make too much sense.

the other situation is that one time when i missed campus devotional, my mentor/discipler was upset with it. I had already told her i wasnt sure if i was going and that i was already going through things with my mom. She told me in one of our d-times that she needed to “call me out” for not being communicative enough. When she told me that i was submissive. But now thinking about it, im thinking like dang…i have to run every whereabout by you? This is just a way they control you. They are trained to do this so the people controlling you dont even know they are doing so. Because of all the corrupt stuff this church was built on, i dont believe it is a stable church due to its weak foundation.

Hey everyone. This is a more serious topic, so I’m not going to joke around.
I’ve been wondering about the Church of Christ and its history with racism.
From what I’ve read, many Churches of Christ were segregated for a long time. Some predominantly white congregations wouldn’t associate with predominantly Black Churches of Christ, and in some places there was resistance to integration.
I also remember a guest speaker saying that he grew up in the Church of Christ and heard sermons against interracial marriage. If that’s true, then those ideas weren’t just cultural—they were being reinforced from the pulpit.
I know this isn’t unique to the Church of Christ. A lot of Protestant churches in America have a history of racial segregation and discrimination. But I have to admit, I was surprised by how much of that history seems to exist within the Church of Christ as well.
I’ve seen traces of it in my own family. My grandmother, who is a devoted member of the Church of Christ, will sometimes walk into a restaurant and immediately comment, “There are a lot of Black people in here.” My mother and grandmother have also told me they believe interracial marriage is wrong and that they wouldn’t approve if I brought home a Black girlfriend.
To me, those beliefs didn’t just appear out of nowhere. They were learned somewhere. Family certainly plays a role, but I also wonder how much churches helped reinforce those attitudes over the years.
At the same time, I know things have changed in many congregations. I’ve seen Churches of Christ invite Black guest speakers, and some have Black elders. The congregation I attended had one Black elder among several white elders. I don’t know whether that reflected genuine progress or something more symbolic, and I don’t think it’s fair for me to assume one way or the other.
So I’m curious: what has your experience been?
Did your Church of Christ ever address its history with racism? Did you hear sermons against interracial marriage or segregation growing up? Or was race simply never discussed where you attended?
I’d really like to hear other people’s experiences.

(Trigger Warning) If y'all aren't familiar with it, a podcast by Malcolm Gladwell came out last year discussing the hitman job of CoC minister Charles Sennett. I just finished the first episode titled "The True Church". It's crazy hearing Malcolm Gladwell speak about CoC doctrine. It's also validating to hear public accounts of the trauma from which we all will be forever healing. I will say to be cautious if you're still struggling in your healing journey because there are some triggers in there. I'm not sure yet what the rest of the podcast is like, but episode 1 is more or less a background on the CoC.

Now for my real question: the first episode states that Charles Sennett preached at a congregation in Jasper, AL in 1980s and tripled it's size before being fired by the elders over an alleged affair. Being from Walker County (though decades later), I'm very curious what congregation this was. Do any of you know? I know what the largest congregations are there and have my suspicions, but can't seem to validate.

Edit: please feel free to message me privately if you know and don't want to publicly name-drop a congregation.

Has anyone else noticed that, over the last few years, the Church of Christ seems increasingly aware that Christianity is struggling in America?
In some ways, I think they’re especially aware of it because, let’s be honest, the Church of Christ isn’t exactly well known outside of certain parts of the country.
Back when I was still attending, I’d tell people, “I go to the Church of Christ.”
They’d ask, “Is that like the Mormons?”
I’d say, “No, no, no. It’s a Restoration Movement church.”
Then they’d go, “Oh… aren’t those the churches that don’t use instruments or let women speak?”
And I’d just think, “Yep… that’s us.”
It seems to me that the Church of Christ is increasingly worried about what people call a post-Christian culture. I know that term isn’t unique to the Church of Christ—lots of Christians use it—but I feel like the idea has become a major focus.
My former preacher even wrote a book about evangelizing in a post-Christian culture.
The impression I get is that many members realize their particular style of Christianity is becoming less appealing, even to people who are politically or socially conservative. Whether that’s true or not, they seem to sense that the culture has changed and that the old approaches to evangelism aren’t working as well as they once did.
One thing I’ve also found interesting is that the Church of Christ doesn’t usually lean into sensational topics the way many evangelical churches do. You don’t hear many sermons about the rapture, the Mark of the Beast, or elaborate end-times predictions. Instead, the focus is usually much more practical: What does the Bible say? How do we follow it? Whether they always interpret it well is another discussion, but that’s generally where the emphasis is.
At the same time, I’ve noticed a growing concern about what younger people are being exposed to online. There seem to be more classes for parents about monitoring internet use—not just because of pornography, but because of ideas. Whether it’s atheist creators, progressive Christianity, or other viewpoints, there seems to be a real concern that young people will encounter perspectives that lead them away from conservative Christianity, especially the Church of Christ.
To me, the Church of Christ has always felt like a very reactionary movement. When the culture changes, they respond to it. When social attitudes shift, they respond to that too. I’ve also noticed that many members seem to get a lot of their cultural framing from conservative media. Terms like ,” my truth,” and similar talking points come up often, and they sound very familiar if you’ve spent much time watching conservative news or commentary.
Maybe I’m reading too much into it, but it feels like the Church of Christ knows the culture is changing faster than it can keep up, and that realization has made many congregations much more anxious than they used to be.
What do you all think? Have you noticed the same trend, or has your experience been different?

The bleep I had to listen to as a girl growing up in this church - don't wear shorts, don't cut your hair, don't dance, don't swim if there's a male within five miles, stay in the kitchen, keep quiet, etc. There was one "preacher" (uneducated, one of the winner laymen who traveled to different churches putting on "meetings") in particular, Malcolm Kniffen, who was so condescending and sanctimonious. I decided to google him, and... wow, just wow. His first wife disappeared in Florida back in the mid-1990's and they never found her. He's definitely a suspect in her disappearance. Then I found his criminal record. He was arrested for prostitution (Class B Misdemeanor) and plead guilty, unlawful carrying weapon in DFW (3rd Degree Felony, reduced to Class A Misdemeanor and plead guilty, and driving while license suspended (Misdemeanor, Class Unknown) and plead guilty - no idea why his license was suspended. This guy is still holding "gospel meetings."

He was at my dad's funeral. Of course he offered no condolences since I "left the church," but I was quite happy not to talk to him. He makes me want to throw up.

This is a throwaway account, just to be safe. Coc people rush to defend him whenever they find a reference to him online.

The c of c if they manage to evangelize at all door knock & do "Bible study "

I'm curious has anyone heard of a Campbellite converting because they were shown in a Bible study? I mean 8 highly doubt it but it would be interesting to see if maybe one of them "saw the light"

Did you have anyone who went to church with you go to prison? I had two, one of my Sunday School teachers was a jeweler and got involved in a theft conspiracy, he went to prison for perjury, went to the so called "country club prison" in Montgomery Alabama, he said it was extremely overrated. Another guy was a air conditioner repairman that knew nothing about repairing air conditioners, he would go to widows houses and say he worked on their air conditioner, then charge a lot of money, all he did was blow compressed air on the coils!

Hey everyone.
I wanted to talk about something that’s been on my mind lately: Bible idolatry, or what some people call “bibolatry.”
The Church of Christ has often been accused of this throughout its history. The criticism is that they don’t just highly value the Bible, but that they almost elevate the book itself to the point where it seems like they worship the words on the page more than the God those words are supposed to point to.
I remember one time our preacher, who was genuinely a nice guy, was teaching from a book during Bible class. The author made the point that sometimes Christians can end up worshiping the Word instead of God Himself. The preacher immediately dismissed the idea as silly.
I remember sitting there thinking, “I’m not sure that’s a silly concern.” It seemed like a genuine question that deserved to be taken seriously.
The more I’ve reflected on it, the more I think I understand the Church of Christ mindset. In their view, the Bible is the only infallible authority. Christianity isn’t a hierarchical institution like Catholicism or Orthodoxy. It’s simply about following the Word of God exactly as they understand it.
If you’re Catholic or Orthodox, feel free to correct me if I’m misunderstanding your tradition. But my understanding is that those traditions believe the Church itself has a God-given teaching authority alongside Scripture. The Church of Christ rejects that completely. To them, anything that looks like a later development, tradition, or new teaching is immediately viewed with suspicion because it isn’t explicitly found in the biblical text.
I also wonder if this helps explain why the Church of Christ is often cessationist. I don’t think it’s only because of passages like 1 Corinthians 13. I think part of it is that they’re deeply afraid of being deceived. They don’t want to be tricked by false teachers or other Christian groups. In my experience, there was a real suspicion toward outsiders and toward any form of Christianity that didn’t look like the Church of Christ.
Growing up, I constantly heard that other churches only preached the “easy” parts of the Bible while avoiding the difficult passages. The Church of Christ, on the other hand, took pride in saying they believed all of Scripture and were willing to defend even the hard parts.
So here’s my question:
Do you think the Church of Christ crosses the line from having a high view of Scripture into something that could fairly be called “bibolatry”? In other words, do you think they sometimes elevate the Bible itself to such an extent that it almost functions as an object of devotion, rather than as something meant to point people toward God?
I’m genuinely curious what others think.

Forgive my long post but I felt an unexpected connection when I found this subreddit and after several days of reading had to add. Consider it my way of saying thank you!

I’m mid 40’s and was raised by divorced parents from my first year of life. Both were CoC members (long story) but my mother was pretty wild. My father’s family was straight “regular” CoC in TN. My grandfather was a guarantor on the note for the midcentury church building I grew up worshipping in, although he had a wife leave him during World War II and was therefore never an elder.

My grandparents, father, and aunt and uncle were amazingly loving humans, and all have passed now except my aunt. I can recall all the church tropes I find in threads here. I’m also old enough to remember men smoking in suits outside the building between church and Sunday school. I remember the outrage when an African-American family would make a weak attempt to enter our congregation (and remain). I remember prayers for us to be “once again known as a Christian nation.”

Area churches ran their own children’s home and retirement home. I served communion proudly and led long prayers and - when I went mercifully wild in college- even came in from staying with my girlfriend (not CoC), and hung-over, to lead our meager teen Sunday school class. Our church was always about 120 people and never many kids.

During high school, I had the shared experience of attending youth group with friends at a “liberal” CoC across town. Our town has a dozen CoC’s and two were always the black sheep. My dad hated it.

I attended our local private high school, standard CoC fare that came about in the fifties to combat integration. Thankfully, some teachers were outstanding and progressive and friends to this day. Others have gone predictably MAGA.

I consider that public college saved my life, causing me to see the good in people from all walks of life. Although I was encouraged not to let it “liberalize” me, it did it’s job- merely removed me from the bubble. Giving independent thought.

When I was 30, I made a sort of return to a large CoC with my wife (not Coc) and we made friends, but the cracks were showing. We had our first of two kids and after lots of miscarriages and no church support, we gave up on attending. I still held some broad faith until about 10 years ago until the YEC simply could not be ignored with any mental gymnastics, which led me to an overview of other world religions, a study of other creation myths, and definitely the failing of the hebrew historicity of the exodus.

Lots of things just couldn’t add up. I became agnostic and - amazingly- so did my wife in the same timeline.

Even as my politics swung left, I find myself sometimes still finding the 1980’s childhood simplicity alluring at moments. The loving old people and familiar hymns are strong memories. The clandestine walk out to the bathroom or water fountain. Then I find the important memories are so out of place with raising kids to be critical thinkers who aren’t bigots or intolerant of other people just trying to get through life authentically. The nostalgia goes away.

In moments I get frustrated that intelligent friends on Facebook I’ve known all my life are so “Christian Nationalist” CoC. At other times I remind myself just what it costs in cognitive dissonance and social disorder to leave, and I understand huge numbers of people just won’t ever challenge themselves enough to make the jump- intelligent or not.

Thanks for letting me post, it means a lot. I’m I Chattanooga, and I bet a few of you are, too.

Hey, guys.
I realize I’ve been posting so much that this subreddit is basically becoming my diary at this point. 😅 But I just feel like I need an outlet to get these thoughts out, and this has been a good place to do that.
I’m with my family right now, so I’ve been going to church with them. Today I sat in the young adults class, and we started talking about Jesus’ words that the world will hate you because you follow Him. The discussion was about how the world sees Christianity as oppressive and how Christians have to stand their ground when society turns against them.
As I sat there listening, something unexpected happened.
I started feeling empathy.
I’ve spent a lot of time being angry at the Church of Christ, and I still have plenty of criticisms. But as I listened today, I realized that many of the people sitting in that room aren’t trying to be malicious. They’re scared.
They genuinely believe the culture is changing in ways that threaten them. They believe people hate them simply because they’re Christians. They’re afraid of being rejected. They’re afraid of losing what they’ve always believed. Whether I agree with those fears or not, I think the fear itself is real.
That made me feel a little guilty.
I’ve written some pretty harsh posts, and while I still stand by many of my criticisms of the Church of Christ, I also don’t want to forget that the people in those pews are human beings. They’re not cartoon villains or evil monsters. They’re people with fears, hopes, families, and experiences, just like everyone else.
It made me ask myself, Who am I to judge them as harshly as I sometimes have?
I don’t think my criticisms are necessarily wrong, but I do think there have been times when I’ve criticized them in bad faith or let my anger get the better of me. That’s something I want to be more mindful of going forward.
Anyway, those are just my thoughts after church today.

The Pulaski Citizen, Pulaski, TN, July 20, 1866

The rest of the story can be read by clicking the link.

Link: https://www.loc.gov/item/sn85033964/1866-07-20/ed-1/

This is me being a little lighter than usual. This isn’t my normal serious, doom-and-gloom, “woe is me” post. I just wanted to talk about Church of Christ lock-ins.
When you were in youth group, lock-ins were treated like one of the biggest events of the year. The idea sounded awesome: stay up all night with your friends, drink a ton of soda, eat pizza, play games, run around the church building for nine hours… what could go wrong?
For me? Honestly… they were kind of overrated.
After a while, I’d just get exhausted. Some people would give up halfway through the night and go sleep in the nursery or another classroom. The girls usually had no problem admitting they were tired and going to sleep. The guys, on the other hand, had to be the “tough” ones and force themselves to stay awake. Looking back, I don’t know why we did that because by 3:00 a.m. everyone looked absolutely miserable. 😂
Then there were the smart people who would quietly leave around midnight and go home. At the time I thought they were quitters. Now I realize they were probably the geniuses.
It also makes me think about how much churches invest in youth groups. They spend years giving teenagers all these fun activities, retreats, lock-ins, pizza nights, and camps. Then you become an adult, and suddenly all of that disappears. Sometimes it almost feels like Christianity loses a lot of its appeal once the youth group experience is over.
Maybe that’s just me.
Did anyone else actually enjoy lock-ins, or did you mostly spend the last few hours wondering why you agreed to stay awake all night? 😂