Review For Heritage Baptist Church

Tyler K.
Former Member
Tread lightly
1
Average: 1 (1 vote)
1/5
I left this review on another platform 1.5 yrs ago (starting next paragraph). Since then multiple reports of confirmed child $3xual abuse has occurred in several family units going back a decade. This church is not safe for children and leadership is more concerned about gossip and the truth getting out than holding offenders completely accountable. In the most recent sermon(s) the Pastor suggested he would welcome back such offenders back in (and already has in the past without the congregation knowing). You can listen for yourself on sermon audio.
Don't ever leave this church! This is coming from a 15+ year founding member that grew up and even married within the church. After lots of discussions with leadership, my wife and I wrote a gentle email explaining that we were leaving and some of the reasons why, to keep the truth straight. We were subjected to a 3+ hour long public ‘trial’ that completely replaced the sermon the next Sunday! This was recorded and posted on sermon-audio but a month later taken down. This review is not as gentle as that email. For years now, leadership has viewed any critique or questioning of their ideas/theology as attacks from Satan or testing from God (much like full fledged cults are known to do). This review is probably seen as such, and it will be attempted to be dealt with quietly (or I will be considered ‘separated’ or in sin somehow). If you notice, the only other negative review has received over 3 dozen likes in just a week! Many, many people feel the same way and experienced the same things.
This is not an encouraging place for women. If you're a single mom w/children and peacefully leave you will be thrown under the bus (figuratively), yes, this happened. Multiple wives were told they couldn’t leave their adulterous and abusive husbands and had no recourse, even after multiple cries for help to leadership (this is even in their church documents). An 11 yr old girl was told to be quiet during a group family Sunday school discussion, just because she was a female, and forced to apologize to the then 29yr old pastor for trying to join the open discussion. My own mother’s spiritual welfare was questioned by the pastor for wearing loose sweat “pants” at her own house!
I hope leadership opens their eyes to what God is saying when multiple families leave during the same time frame, for similar reasons, with no knowledge that each other were doing so. This has been happening since 2006 to now. All were saying similar things to leadership regarding legalism and how we were supposed to relate to God. Many others were too afraid to speak up, to speak against the church culture, maybe to hurt to do so. There is no greater accountability within the church structure; over the years several secondary Elders have attempted to share concerns but were not taken seriously. Please, if you have questions regarding former members' experiences, ask them directly instead of getting filtered accounts by someone else or leadership. This is shared out of sadness over lost community, memories, and blessings --and not out of bitterness. This is shared so future families and women can be protected from hurt and confusion from improper theological application.
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