12/31/2010

Life After The New Testament Christian Church; Cursed Or Blessed?

I've raised this question because of my recent experiences leading up to and through the holidays. Sometime after Christmas, I began to think about just how good life has been recently since I left the NTCC. Let me quantify this statement. I have a great job which is as good as I could have ever hoped for and better than any job I ever had while I was with the NTCC. I had almost 2 weeks off during the Christmas holidays with full pay. I get 4 days off for every federal holiday that exists. I earn a great salary, fantastic vacation benefits/time off. Health care benefits which are of no additional cost to me and cover my entire family. Dental care which costs next to nothing and covers my whole family and a huge life insurance policy which will take care of my family in the event that I have an untimely death. Great daytime work hours and weekends off. A fantastic retirement plan. Need I go on? My family and I are currently in the middle of a holiday / Christmas vacation where we are all off work or school at the same time for nearly two weeks or more. Everything is working out far better than I could have possibly dreamed of and that is an understatement.

So where are all the curses which NTCC preachers boldly proclaimed would be awaiting anyone who unwittingly decided to leave their sacred organization? What happened to the eminent financial destitution? Where are all the family problems? Where is the pain and sorrow that NTCC preachers promised would come? I'll tell you where it all is. NTCC preachers/false prophets are full of crap and I have no problem saying so. It was no more than a scare tactic used to convince people that leaving the NTCC would be a fate worse than death itself. It was a scare tactic used for no other reason than to try and keep people in the NTCC for the NTCC leadership's own selfish reasons.

I like having "a lot" of time off, which I get. I like spending much time with my family, which I do. I like living in a nice house, which I have. I like seeing my wife driving in a safe, reliable car, which she has. I like not having to constantly be concerned with money, which I have. I like seeing my kids being well taken care of like Pastor Kekel's son, which they are. I'm convinced that had I stayed in the NTCC, I wouldn't have the good life which I enjoy right now. Life was a struggle in the NTCC; that is if you followed their rules. Oh, and I don't get my money from a bunch of struggling church members. I like what Paul said. "I have kept myself from being burdensome unto you, and so will I keep myself." I'd like to see an NTCC minister try that one. NTCC ministers won't do that because they think they are entitled. NTCC ministers are a bunch of spoiled brats who quite often are afraid of keeping a real job. They think everyone should take care of them but it's clear that Paul didn't think that the Corinthian Church was going to take care of him and he didn't allow it. What? Paul made the whole Corinthian church go to hell? I don't think so.

I know a guy who lives here in Columbus, Georgia who has been with the NTCC for years and years. He and I used to be in the same NTCC church before I left. He feels like he lives a good, prosperous life and he does. He gives God all the glory for his prosperity but there is a catch, (at least according to NTCC standards). He attributes his financial success to the fact that he pays tithes, but there is another catch, (at least according to NTCC standards). His wife has had a job as long as they've been married. She hosts her own TV show. She attends a different church while he attends the NTCC. He has a TV in his house. She wears pants and cuts her hair and so on. He works during the week in the evening time, (by his choice) which results in him missing services. Face it; he has never genuinely followed the NTCC rules so sure he has it good. Stick a dress on his wife and pull her out of the work force and cut off that extra income and live by a schedule where he "never misses services" and see just how miserable life becomes. He'd loose his job. Pull the TV completely out of his house like we did. Let him tell his wife that he is leaving her to go to the NTCS because she doesn't want to "get in" or make her life so miserable that she leaves him like so many other NTCCer's have done before. Sure this guy has it good because he has never genuinely followed the NTCC rules and anyone else who has it good in the NTCC doesn't and hasn't followed the rules either to include the Kekels and the Davis'.

How can you NTCCers, who claim to be Christians, live such hypocritical lives while claiming you are a part of some great spiritual organization knowing what I write is totally true? I don't know how you guys do it? Where in the world is your conscience? Do you even have one? The only reason you stay with the NTCC is to save face or because you are too blind and brainwashed to face the facts. I don't care how the NTCC has changed or if it's getting quote, "better". You guys who've been around the NTCC for a while know how it used to be or have you forgotten so quickly? At a minimum, (if I were an NTCCer) I would have no faith or trust in guys like Davis, Olson, Jones and Ashmore.

Well I live a good life now since I've left the NTCC, and do you call that being cursed? You decide.

Jeff

12/12/2010

The NTCC Promotes Poverty & Free Loading

Helen Ashmore posted a testimony on her blog from an NTCCer who spoke about being essentially broke just two weeks prior to conference. According to the written testimony, this person prayed not only to receive enough money for conference but also to have enough money for a flight rather than (I would assume) to drive. This whole mindset comes from thorough brainwashing resulting in someone thinking it's normal to act like a BEGGAR. Let's analyze this situation for a moment.  

 The reason I said the person was essentially broke is because in my book, if you don't have the money for airfare to attend an event just two weeks out, you are in deed broke. There is no reason that you should even consider attending such an event if you can't afford to get there with (listen to this) YOUR VERY OWN MONEY THAT YOU HAVE EARNED WORKING ON A JOB! If this person didn't have the money just two weeks out then someone had to give them, or loan them, the money. I'm not going to beg, borrow or take a handout to go on vacation because no doubt that is exactly what happened. I can just see it now. "Oh I sure do wish I could take a flight to conference sister, but it's just two weeks out and we still don't have the money". Then the whole time at conference, "Boy we sure would like to go out to eat and fellowship but we just don' have the cash. Oh thank you so much for the money; you sure are a blessing".  

You're not being a blessing; you just enabled a beggar looking for a handout or a loan, who has not yet learned to create their own wealth and savings. There is nothing wrong with helping out a brother or a sister but chances are this person is broke because they spend too much time in church trying to follow the NTCC system, and not enough time working at a decent job. The Bible says if a man doesn't work he ought not to eat. Don't get mad at me, I didn't write it. I'll take it a step further. If you are working and you are still broke, you either have the wrong job, or you are not working enough, or you didn't get a good enough education (like Grant Kekel is getting) to get a good enough job. I don't blame the Kekels a bit. Yeah it's a double standard but at least he is setting it up so his son doesn't have to run around broke and he'll have the skills to earn "enough" of his own money.

Back to the original topic.

Then next thing you know people are feeling sorry for them because they've been running around poor mouthing everybody and people start paying for their dinner. If you don't clearly have the extra money factored in your budget TWO MONTHS out (say no less two weeks out) to attend conference, than you have no business planning to go you bum. You see the NTCC teaches this stinking way of thinking. Why can I say that positively? Because Helen Ashmore posted this testimony like it's some kind of badge of honor to have to pray to attend conference just two weeks out from the event because you are essentially broke. You've got no business going to conference. The only conference this broke person should be attending is a conference on how to get a job that allows them to earn enough money and save enough money so they don't have to look for a handout every time their church conference comes around.

I wouldn't even want that testimony posted nor would I want to give it. Knowing and understanding what I know now, I'd be ashamed. And not only that I wouldn't want or even take a handout so that I could go on vacation or to conference or whatever you want to call it. The problem here is that the NTCC teaches that there is nothing wrong with being broke and in fact, historically it's been encouraged that people quit their jobs so that they could attend conference. RWD spoke of it openly one conference that I attended and I heard him plainly. That is what RWD said but I say, "If you are a minister and you are too broke to go to conference than you need to spend less time in church and more time at work with a real job." If you are a church member the same applies. Stop hoping and praying for a handout, or for money to fall from the sky, and spend more time looking and searching for a better job.

I hate this mentality that so many NTCCers possess. It's the free loading, poor-man looking for a handout mentality, and it stinks. The wife of an NTCC overseer (namely Helen Ashmore) is clearly promoting this mentality just like RWD has all along. Once again, there is nothing wrong with helping out a brother or sister, but if they are too broke to attend conference using their own money, then they need to spend conference time looking for a better job or working at the job they have.  

Jeff

12/10/2010

Control Mongers

In the previous thread Meme wrote...

Hey! I remember my boyfriend and I being told by our first pastor at NTCC that we were too young to marry at 21 and 20. They always highly incouraged/pressured/preached/taught me to go to Bible college and be a pastor's wife. I became so irritated about hearing,"when your a pastor's wife", that I finally told the pastor's wife, "I am not going to be a pastor's wife"! They even tried to hook me up with a bible college brother of my same race. Probably a coincidence that he was the same race, and I did entertain the idea, but my heart and mind were hurt. I had a great relationship with my finance at that time. He was everything that I thought a husband and future father should be for me.

I really always wanted to have an honorable big wedding with a lot of family and loved ones; you know like the fancy weddings in the bible. My mind and heart went through a lot during those times. My fiance wanted to have a secret wedding at the justice of the peace but I cared to much about what the church would think. Luckily a pastoral change took place and a whole bunch of couples took advantage of him not knowing us, and we all got married as quickly as possible. Forbid not to marry! How in the world does one thing get preached, yet they know we will obey the man who has rule over us is a stronger verse, and they will control members decisions but hey; don't forget, that it is biblical. They also know they are going to get members burning in lust, and feeling low and miserable as failures to God. That must mean a lot if your own pastor won't bless your marriage. I am incredibly grateful for my many years of marriage to my incredibly loving husband. I am free, because I can easily forgive NTCC, but somehow my life all in all has turned out good. My husband also persuaded me to break some NTCC rules and have fun sometimes, you know bowling, dvds and internet so we could communicate sometimes. Now I don't even feel tormented about going to the movie theater and if we decide the movie is inappropriate, we simply walk out. It's my perrogative I can do what I want to do, and I serve God.
Thank you mighty God!

Jeff said...

It was certainly not a coincidence that the marriage that they tried to put together were with you guys being the same race. The NTCC strongly taught against interracial marriages because they said it would run people away from their church but they regularly allowed abusive pastors to continually run people away from their church. The lesson to be learned is that you don't ever allow some crooked pastor to rule your life and if he tries you simply leave the church.