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Deja Vu
Hey Jesse! My wife and I always wondered if the relationships were really real at RLC. Why? Because EVERY CHURCH and I mean EVERY CHURCH we ever attended were full of superficial relationships that were solid were based on the contingency whether or not you were in their ministry. Do you know what I mean? Nicole stated it in an earlier post, "FACTIONS". Radiant Life is just another church where even down to the actual ministry, if you went to another ministry, the friendship was belittled or even decimated. I never understood it.

I just wanted to comment on your above comment just to say that in my experience Radiant Life was the only church that I went to that was as you described. The other churches I went to growing up and through the years all had genuine relationship. It wasn't until I got to Radiant Life that I was made to feel like the other churches were no good and my experiences with other churches was not authentic. That the other churches could never measure up and were failing miserably. Tony in a very passive agressive way bashed other churches all the time. So did everyone else in leadership. I can tell you that it wasn't until after I left that I realized that the relationships I made at Southpointe Christian Center were real, they were authentic. Those brothers over there still call me to see how I am doing and I havent gone to church there on a regular basis for six years. When they found out I wasn't going to church much because of a bad experience and when they found out my mom passed away they called and kept calling with no strings attached. Just to encourage me and love me and let me know that they were there for me. It wasn't until I left Radiant Life that I realized that the church I grew up in had genuine christian community. Both of these churches loved me unconditionally and continue to love me no matter what church I am attending or where I am at in life. They don't do it with hollow words. With saying I love you over and over again to make you think they care. They do it with actions. With words that are backed up. I can say I have repented to all of these people for the attitude I was taught while at Radiant Life. I can also say that absolutely no one called when I stopped going to Soma and when I started not attending church. You know how many hollow pacts and covenants I participated in while in Soma in regards to looking out for each other. Many. One brother continued to call me not because I left but because he was interested in continuing his relationship with me. For that brother I say thank you but that also eventually slowed down and ended when I blew his hair back about always having to hear about his ministry, soma. and radiant life when he called. It seems like that is all he had to talk about. None of the ministry leaders that I labored with called. No pastors. Brandon finally found out like months later that I had some issues with some things that went on and to his credit asked to meet with me. I am grateful he gave me the opportunity to speak to him as I am guessing that he was questioning things at the time also but was not in a place yet to take action. I am starting to lose my train of thought on this post so I am going to exit now. I will post more later if I need to continue. Bless all of you. Thank you Jesse Jr for coming on here and being honest and forthright. I do not know you or your situation but am guessing that it was bold for you to come on here. Be true to God and be true to yourself.

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Deja Vu
Hey Jesse! Thanks for coming on here and posting. I am at fault for many people leaving and me seeing them as traitors or dangerous or the "just don't get it crowd". I am sorry for my arrogance to you and so many others. My wife and I always wondered if the relationships were really real at RLC. Why? Because EVERY CHURCH and I mean EVERY CHURCH we ever attended were full of superficial relationships that were solid were based on the contingency whether or not you were in their ministry. Do you know what I mean? Nicole stated it in an earlier post, "FACTIONS". Radiant Life is just another church where even down to the actual ministry, if you went to another ministry, the friendship was belittled or even decimated. I never understood it.

I want to give you a personal example of what I personally experienced regarding your comment above about the ministries and factions. I felt uneasy and always questioned things in the back of my mind from the start at Radiant Life. I saw things and heard things and just kind of blew them off for the longest time. But there was kind of a turning point for me as to when I really started looking at the realness of the church and whether the leader and people there in ministry were truly being led by the spirit or being led by man. I was involved in the Parks Outreach ministries. I faithfully participated week in and week out. I made great sacrifices at home to participate. I worked my butt off even to the point of dragging bricks long distances on dollys that had flat tires. I incurred all kinds of physical injury from this and from the breakthru activities. I did all this because I truly believed at the time that it lived in me to reach people for the gospel. I believed going to parks and talking to people in a public setting as such was what I was to do. Everything was going great in the ministry. Paul Childs and Ryan to a certain extent lead this ministry. I can not remember the exact date but somewhere around the summer of 07 maybe 06 if I am wrong, I noticed Paul Childs showing up and being kind of down in the dumps. Then he started showing up and instead of leading us he just kind of stood around like he didnt know what was going on with the ministry. I was very confused. I saw him in the lobby one day after the outreach and he was really down in the dumps. He said he didnt know what was goingon with the ministry but that he was still showing up. At this time there were anywhere from 20 to 50 people showing up at the church to participate. This included the whole Childs clan at Rio Cavodo and other friends like Aaron and Rick and Christian that whole crew. Well eventually I showed up one week and no Paul and only a handful of people. This went on for a few weeks. It was in disarray. No one knew what was going on. There was no leadership. There were only a handful of people showing up. Then one week Kevin Brown showed up and said that he was taking over the ministry. this was fine and dandy as Kevin is a great guy. I was told that Paul Childs was now going over to lead RWorship. My issue and it became a serious spiritual issue with me is that the ministry was huge with many people verbalizing that it lived in them to do what they were doing. The problem with all that is that everyone of Pauls gang went over to Rworship with him. It boggled my mind that one day they could say that this is what lived in them and then the next day follow a man instead of their heart or god. This is what I continually saw at Radiant Life. Leaders amassing their own followings. Wherever the leaders went the group went. This was so true in my experience that I just described. I discussed this with Brandon and we talked about the importance of following God and not man. To Brandons credit he understood and saw what I was talking about. I just ended up seeing a bunch of hypocrites in that situation and eventually it caused me to draw back. That was just the start of it and the rest you have already heard about or requires future posts. Anyway I just wanted to share that.

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Soma Notes
Well now that Tony's church business is failing, he will likely join obama to create the ultimate socialist utopia...