Christianity Oasis Forum

[eph6man]

THIS ONE AGAIN, WAS ORIGINALLY WRITTEN FOR MYSPACE, SO DONT WORRY IF THERE'S SOMETHING YOU WONT UNDERSTAND, THIS IS VERY LONG, JUST TO WARN YOU, AND VERY DEEP. THIS IS ABOUT THE MOST IMPORTANT AND PIVOTAL POINT OF MY LIFE. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED... HA HA


A friend of mine posted a blog about the same topic, which inspired me to post a blog about my side of the expiriences. So to those of you reading this who have not heard this story before, I seriously dare you to read this and not feel touched in some way.





In a small little Baptist church in the upstate of South Carolina called Tyger Baptist (my friend may be afraid to mention their name but I am not) there were many conflicting forces... once.
Over time, what may have once been passionate hearts had now begun to stagnate both in faith and deeds, and the church leadership, being raised in a generation that looked down upon its youth, began to become complacent and feared change. However their fear meant nothing in the eyes of God. In this tiny little church that previously had shown no love for lost people, particularly youth, something happened that to this day I still find to be quite unexplainable. Something seemed to have "clicked" between God, the new youth minister, and the youth of Tyger Baptist Church, and the power of God seemed to flourish in no time at all. In less then a year, what was a small, 5-10 member youth group, became dozens and dozens. There was an amazing youth ministry started called the Open Door, there was always a new face to be seen every Wednesday night, kids were getting saved left and right, and all were growing spiritually, weather if they actually believed this "Christianity thing" or not. However, the adult population (which was now less then half of the church), remaining well-rooted in their stagnation, found this to be detestable, which I think directly reflects the nature of their hearts and faith in God. Some plotted the over-throw of this great time of change.
Within the community, somehow the youth minister attained the reputation for being a "gothic youth minister." Which, if you knew the man, you would know this to be complete lies and slander, and you would wonder as to how someone could be so idiotic and ignorant to not only to believe, but to start such rumors. These ridiculous rumors started because the majority of the youth (including myself) at Tyger were a part of the hard-rock, heavy metal, and hardcore culture(s). Truth-be-told, there were no actual gothic people in the youth group (metal-heads are oftenly confused with gothics, which is a common mistake to be made by people outside of these cultures). There were many that proclaimed to be atheist, wiccan, and satanic, (the fact that these kind of kids not only came to church, but kept coming back is proof enough of the amazing things God was doing there) and hearing word of this is perhaps when somebody became shocked and started these rumors. However word of this remained incredibly quiet, person-to-person gossip, remaining in-tradition with the history of a church that is mired with treachery, back-stabbing, gossip and slandering (a similar reputation is held by many, many other churches in the immediate area).
It all erupted one Wednesday night. I could go on and on and on about what all was said there that long night, but basically the pastor of the church (who was naturally their ring-leader) said that we could not come to church "...dressed up for a Halloween party," wearing black, chains, guys with long hair, ect. I distinctly remember the pastor's wife telling me that wearing chains on my pants, which I did at the time and still do, was a satanic practice; which you should know, is utter garbage. The youth and youth leaders being strong in their faith stood up firmly (most with tears in their eyes) and quoted scripture proving their firm beliefs. But it was irrelevant to the adults of Tyger Baptist. They continued to make only dead-end arguments, doing nothing more then proving (to me at least) their own stupidity and ignorance of God's ways. The only thing that mattered to them was gaining an iron-fisted rule over our mentality and way of thinking, claiming that the youth leaders were raising "rebellious youth." Being raised in generations that were regrettably and foolishly forced to obey authority even if their practices be wrong, they did not even have the capacity to understand the basis of our debating (different from arguing mind you) nor did they even wish to hear it.
Pretty much all of the youth and youth leaders ended up leaving the church a week later (those youth that stayed were those that were young and their parents forced them to still attend). There was nothing else that could be done. After a week of tears and debating, the youth did not budge from their faith and the adults did not budge from their ignorance and complacency. All-in-all, it was a very spiritually bloody battle that I would wish that no one else would ever have to experience again. Unfortunately other similar stories were to follow for other churches in the area and others will happen all across the country even. However, I think none in that area neared the magnitude that this incident had.
For many kids, the youth group of Tyger was the only place that they could find love, acceptance, guidance, and basic freedom from the world of troubles, pain, drugs, sex and violence. Now that this was gone, they had no where to go, and nothing else to turn to but the false delusions of what the world had to offer to them. Many returned to their old ways involving drugs, alcohol, criminal activities, sex and teenage pregnancies (some ending in miscarriages), suicidal tendencies, other religious practices, and hatred and pain. Many of these were my close friends, friends that will now be lost forever and will burn in hell for eternity because of the selfish actions of others. Those few handfuls of us that have managed somehow to maintain our faith are still more troubled now then what we ever have been. One of the worse things about this incident is that those left behind at the church ignore these facts, and even act as if it didn't happen at all.
To Tyger Baptist Church: I wish I could honestly say that I wish that God would have pity on your souls. I wish that I could find a way to forgive you; but I'm only human. Though I do not regret them, you have left me with scars and burdens that I will carry with me for the rest of my life. I have sworn to myself before that this story will one day be known by all.
I am a huge believer in fate and destiny. God plans out our entire lives before we are born and nothing happens by chance. What happened at Tyger Baptist Church happened for a reason. I myself became grounded in my beliefs and set the path that I will follow for the rest of my life. I am a metal-head and will be for the rest of my life. God has already given me many inspirations for different ministries that are geared towards the heavy metal and other underground cultures. (Cultures that I think the Christian community as a whole should be ashamed that there has been no real efforts to minister to, other then individual band ministries of course) Tyger, you have set into motion the means of the very undoing of all of your weak and insignificant beliefs and ideals.
(Also, looking back on the whole ordeal, me and a few friends have come to the conclusion that there were demons that dwelled within the building of Tyger Baptist Church, based off of an innumerable amount of freaky and unexplainable events and what the secular world would call "ghost sightings." Many of these I would be happy to tell you about. It is my personal belief that they, the demons, have dwelled there for many years, silently influencing the people there, positioning their wills against ours, being disgusted of the works of God that were happening with the youth. Unfortunately, they won this time.)

[Mackenaw]

You both bless me so with your posts. God is so very Good.

God bless you too,
Mack