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Deja Vu
Whatajoke,
I remember those times as well. Here is the truth to all of that and a real shortened version of the whole thing.
When the evangelism ministry took off in July of 2006 when Paul and I stumbled on a ministry opportunity at North Laguna Creek Park, it was an exciting opportunity. The first day we did a Break Thru show and 36 people responded to the preaching of the Gospel. Everyday for about 30 days straight, we preached in that Park and I believe we expanded to another park. Paul, Matt and I all said that, "watch, any day now "they"(Tony or Brandon) are going to call us in to put their "stamp" on this thing and are going to make it into an organized ministry. And as soon as they do it, watch what will happen. They will kill the ministry." At this point, we had about 50 people coming out. They were having so much fun. Some where for the "band waggon", while others were there for the ministry. After the 30 days, Brandon calls us in to his office and says that we need to get a grip on this thing and set a course for it. They began to talk of "strategic mapping" of parks to hit every saturday. Like we said, it became an organized ministry with all kinds of "EXPECTATIONS". What most of you don't know, is the "jockying" for position and the competition for numbers of salvation. If we were not hitting the numbers, we heard about it. If we did not hit all of our parks, Paul and I heard about it. It was all about making Brandon and Tony looking good. That is how it seemed. (Sorry Brandon if you are reading this. I am not trying to throw you under the bus, but just telling my side of the story). This evangelism ministry QUICKLY lost fervor and steam. It was no longer something WE ALL LOVED TO DO, but Paul and I began to lose focus and desire. The heavy expectation of us to perform for numbers began to transfer to those we led. I began to get depressed and hating to preach to the people because I knew it was fake. It reminded me of this scripture at the time which is why I quit preaching, " Matthew 23:15
"Woe to you, teachers of the law and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to win a single convert, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as much a son of hell as you are."
WAJ, that is why you saw Paul the way you did. We both felt lost. They were starting to move Kevin in way before he took over. This is not Kevin's fault. I love KB. He is my bud. It is just how things happen at RLC. Anyways, this whole ordeal took place over a year time. Paul and I ran with the ministry for a little over a year. After that, I had to leave and soon after that, so did Paul. Trust me, even my friend Paul told me that I was FORFITTING the purposes and plans that God has for my life just because I was leaving the ministry. Anyhowm that is the true story of it all. I hope that helped.
-Ryan-
I can verify this from an earlier post about the evangelism and how it started… independent of Tony, Brandon and the church… the day they made it a ministry I left it and stopped going to the parks… it died that very day it was stamped by Tony and what happened afterwards was not what it looked like on the outside… it was a numbers game that the leadership stamped their names on as if they had produced it…
It was a literal attempt at steeling glory… and one year later it was given up on because those charged to work the dead grown got exhausted… but it was played off as a changing of seasons…
funny how G-d can be an easy excuse for any direction a church wants to go...