"The Fifth Halloween"
The Senior Pastor, Mike Bickle, resigned Metro Christian Fellowship and started a new ministry called, “The International House of Prayer”. A new senior pastor was being brought in and was to be celebrated by a churchwide outdoor gathering.
Lori and I took the kids, enjoyed the day, and were rounding up the kids to leave when I ran into the owner of the business I had just resigned from. He started out insulting me and then instructed me to leave the church and leave town. The typical arrogant owner, he was. Control freaks hate not getting their way and the owner was taking another jab at me.
The problem with the owner now, other than being completely out of line, was he had absolutely no say-so over me anymore and now he had to deal with me as an equal. I instantly confronted the owner on his lack of integrity, his control issues, and his manipulations; an in his face rebuke.
Due to the confrontation, I had with the owner, the Church Leadership called me in for a meeting to discuss it. I told them flat out what I thought about what the owner had said to me at the gathering, but they refused to let me say anything in particular about the owner’s business dealings. The Jezebel spirit had taken root. They demanded that I go through counseling for my anger, and I was to select an accountability partner. I choose Pat.
They gave me a document, a questionnaire, to fill out and set a date for the first session. I filled out the document answering the questions the best I could. Some of the questions were a little creepy though. After having done so, the Holy Spirit asked me, “What is missing?” I thought about it for a minute or so and realized there was nothing in the document about anger issues.
Pat and I went to the meeting along with the friend of mine that ended up buying my stock from the owner and knew very well of the owner’s treacheries. Again, the Jezebel spirit, I mean the leadership team, forbade me to speak of any of my issues with the owner.
My friend informed them that there was considerable treachery on the owner’s part, even illegal activity. Pat didn’t last too long and finally came to a boiling point. He blasted them for what they were doing to me and their hypocrisy. The meeting ended shortly thereafter.
Lori and I decided to leave the church and the Sunday after Halloween was our last day there. We had made it across the fifth Halloween. We left Metro Christian Fellowship and have never joined an institutionally controlled church fellowship since.