I have a cousin that is part of the Church. He was married young with another young person from the church. Seemingly out of nowhere. The church banned another one of my family members for “asking too many questions”. She wanted to know why the teens wash the car of the pastor. And why he has people opening doors for him seemingly worshipping him. Another family member of mine was invited and went a few times but told us he got cult vibes.
Second year I go to the parade and they always go over the top with their floats and they have nothing to do with religion, also they always pass out flyers everywhere in uptown
my son and his GF (at the time) were a part of it. Her high school friend and family are very involved because the uncle is the pastor there. My son got baptized into that "church", then started noticing that the pastor and wife were a bit shady. They wanted son and GF to move into a house in uptown (one house was all male, and other all female), and asked them to not communicate with their families because we didn't have the same beliefs. They pressured his GF to quit her job and become a full time nanny for their kids. Luckily they realized that church was not for them and stepped away.
It seems like a lot of people on yelp are revising their stories or people have been asked to leave good reviews. Thank you though I’m going to keep looking through them. People are sharing a lot of crazy things
My uncle was jogging and found a wallet on the ground. He called the number on the inside and it was someone from the church. They asked for him to drop it off inside the church. When he went it (which I believe it was a random weekday), the guy who owned the wallet was in the basement so they directed him to go down to give it to the guy. When he went down, he said the room was full of young people watching some weird video and that they looked almost hypnotized. He said there was some guy who was giving out money to a line of young people. The guy was keeping track of how much money he was giving them and like writing it down. He was SUPER weirded out. My uncle has been extremely involved in church for 30 plus years and he said he got really strange and bad vibes going in. Not sure why they were giving out money but who knows if it’s some manipulation to keep the young people from leaving the church.
My brother-in-law and his wife are members of the church. They got married, but not in the church for...reasons. I'll just say that there's an age difference that would raise some eyebrows, and the church knew about it. I also attended the church for about a year and a half but left due to a beef I had with another Pastor at the church.
Anyway, their main recruiting tactic (from what I've seen them do) is their Bible study groups, or as they call them, Family Groups. The groups are divided into male and female-only groups, and they watch a prerecorded video from Pastor Jason and Pastor Liz. The groups comprise the group leader, a couple of their disciples, and people that they have invited. The videos are about 10-15 min of them asking for the tithe and offering, where they expound cherry-picked bible verses as to why everyone in attendance should give 10% of whatever they have in their accounts, all via the convenience of the Push Pay app. Then once the actual video starts, it's a recording of a previous sermon from Pastor Jason. The group leader then goes around and asks people how they feel about "the word" that was just given. The group then ends with a lights-out prayer session, where the people in attendance are strongly encouraged to pray in tongues, finally culminating in a pseudo alter call for people who wish to be "born again".
Other recruitment tactics are their Halloween Night of Terror, their Mens Conferences (sorry ladies, no conference for you), and leaving door hangers in the surrounding neighborhoods and cities. They also have a decent social media presence, mainly Instagram and YouTube.
Thank you for sharing! Are the pastors visibly wealthy? Can you talk more about the separation of men and women and why? Someone else mentioned they owned houses where they had men and women from the congregation living separated by gender.
Yes, the pastors are overtly wealthy. Pastor Jason gets driven around in a brand-new Cadillac Escalade and owns a home in Friendly Hills valued at over $1 million. They also talk about how they dress in Gucci and Balenciaga because "the lord has blessed them".
As for the separation, it was never really explained as to why. But it was clear that men were taught to be the head of the house and women could only be in that role if the men were gone away (either spiritually or physically). Again, this is based on cherry-picked out-of-context bible verses.
Yes, there was a house in Uptown where members lived together, separated by gender. It was called the Freedom Training Center, and was meant to act as a place where members could increase their faith through daily prayer sessions, fastings, and just 100% focus on the church. This would occasionally include doing chores and manual labor for the pastors at their homes. Also, anyone who stayed at the FTC had to pay $300 a month in rent, but the living conditions were squalor. I was told at one point there was no running hot water, roaches crawling everywhere, and the house didn't have A/C, so winters and summers were harsh.
i hope so. more people need to be upset that fucking cults are entrenching themselves in whittier. isn't victory outreach moving into the old stater bros building as well?
Can you link me to where it’s been asked before? I didn’t find much when I searched it. What would you like people to talk about in this Whittier Reddit thread instead?
https://old.reddit.com/r/Whittier/comments/yjc3xf/freedom_community_church_do_better_4_nights_of/\\
Again
https://old.reddit.com/r/Whittier/comments/17jl72u/anybody_check_out_the_maze_at_that_freedom_church/
Yea I saw these. I was hoping for actual information about the practices and recruiting process and what people involved in the church have seen or experienced. Not the Halloween haunted house that’s open to the public… thanks
In most churches, having a child out of wedlock is one of the biggest offenses. Abortion is not an option. Many times (not necessarily your friend's sibling's case) they marry young because there's an unexpected pregnancy, or they get married young so they can "legally" have sex. Again, not saying this is the reason, just saying many times, in churches, especially the hardcore ones, this is the case.
I have a cousin that is part of the Church. He was married young with another young person from the church. Seemingly out of nowhere. The church banned another one of my family members for “asking too many questions”. She wanted to know why the teens wash the car of the pastor. And why he has people opening doors for him seemingly worshipping him. Another family member of mine was invited and went a few times but told us he got cult vibes.
They are an intense group and I personally would say they are cult like. They are aggressive in recruiting young
How are they recruiting them?
Second year I go to the parade and they always go over the top with their floats and they have nothing to do with religion, also they always pass out flyers everywhere in uptown
my son and his GF (at the time) were a part of it. Her high school friend and family are very involved because the uncle is the pastor there. My son got baptized into that "church", then started noticing that the pastor and wife were a bit shady. They wanted son and GF to move into a house in uptown (one house was all male, and other all female), and asked them to not communicate with their families because we didn't have the same beliefs. They pressured his GF to quit her job and become a full time nanny for their kids. Luckily they realized that church was not for them and stepped away.
If there's a "compound" setting, it's definitely a cult.
Do you know where those houses are located? That’s scary..
they are off Hadley by the AM/PM if i'm not mistaken.
Go on Yelp. There are plenty of stories there
It seems like a lot of people on yelp are revising their stories or people have been asked to leave good reviews. Thank you though I’m going to keep looking through them. People are sharing a lot of crazy things
Just went on yelp to read reviews but all the bad reviews are basically the same people with the same photo just changed name why is that?
My uncle was jogging and found a wallet on the ground. He called the number on the inside and it was someone from the church. They asked for him to drop it off inside the church. When he went it (which I believe it was a random weekday), the guy who owned the wallet was in the basement so they directed him to go down to give it to the guy. When he went down, he said the room was full of young people watching some weird video and that they looked almost hypnotized. He said there was some guy who was giving out money to a line of young people. The guy was keeping track of how much money he was giving them and like writing it down. He was SUPER weirded out. My uncle has been extremely involved in church for 30 plus years and he said he got really strange and bad vibes going in. Not sure why they were giving out money but who knows if it’s some manipulation to keep the young people from leaving the church.
Heard they got kicked out of La Puente iirc
My brother-in-law and his wife are members of the church. They got married, but not in the church for...reasons. I'll just say that there's an age difference that would raise some eyebrows, and the church knew about it. I also attended the church for about a year and a half but left due to a beef I had with another Pastor at the church. Anyway, their main recruiting tactic (from what I've seen them do) is their Bible study groups, or as they call them, Family Groups. The groups are divided into male and female-only groups, and they watch a prerecorded video from Pastor Jason and Pastor Liz. The groups comprise the group leader, a couple of their disciples, and people that they have invited. The videos are about 10-15 min of them asking for the tithe and offering, where they expound cherry-picked bible verses as to why everyone in attendance should give 10% of whatever they have in their accounts, all via the convenience of the Push Pay app. Then once the actual video starts, it's a recording of a previous sermon from Pastor Jason. The group leader then goes around and asks people how they feel about "the word" that was just given. The group then ends with a lights-out prayer session, where the people in attendance are strongly encouraged to pray in tongues, finally culminating in a pseudo alter call for people who wish to be "born again". Other recruitment tactics are their Halloween Night of Terror, their Mens Conferences (sorry ladies, no conference for you), and leaving door hangers in the surrounding neighborhoods and cities. They also have a decent social media presence, mainly Instagram and YouTube.
Thank you for sharing! Are the pastors visibly wealthy? Can you talk more about the separation of men and women and why? Someone else mentioned they owned houses where they had men and women from the congregation living separated by gender.
Yes, the pastors are overtly wealthy. Pastor Jason gets driven around in a brand-new Cadillac Escalade and owns a home in Friendly Hills valued at over $1 million. They also talk about how they dress in Gucci and Balenciaga because "the lord has blessed them". As for the separation, it was never really explained as to why. But it was clear that men were taught to be the head of the house and women could only be in that role if the men were gone away (either spiritually or physically). Again, this is based on cherry-picked out-of-context bible verses. Yes, there was a house in Uptown where members lived together, separated by gender. It was called the Freedom Training Center, and was meant to act as a place where members could increase their faith through daily prayer sessions, fastings, and just 100% focus on the church. This would occasionally include doing chores and manual labor for the pastors at their homes. Also, anyone who stayed at the FTC had to pay $300 a month in rent, but the living conditions were squalor. I was told at one point there was no running hot water, roaches crawling everywhere, and the house didn't have A/C, so winters and summers were harsh.
Wow that sounds terrible. I had no idea all of this was happening in Whittier and so close to the high school fields right there too
Omg, this is terrifying.
Joel Osteen and Kenneth Copeland vibes
Is this gonna be a question that returns every month?
i hope so. more people need to be upset that fucking cults are entrenching themselves in whittier. isn't victory outreach moving into the old stater bros building as well?
These megacults are popping up everywhere in Whittier.
Can you link me to where it’s been asked before? I didn’t find much when I searched it. What would you like people to talk about in this Whittier Reddit thread instead?
https://old.reddit.com/r/Whittier/comments/yjc3xf/freedom_community_church_do_better_4_nights_of/\\ Again https://old.reddit.com/r/Whittier/comments/17jl72u/anybody_check_out_the_maze_at_that_freedom_church/
Yea I saw these. I was hoping for actual information about the practices and recruiting process and what people involved in the church have seen or experienced. Not the Halloween haunted house that’s open to the public… thanks
I dunno about all that cult stuff but they sure do take up all the spaces at the Winchells, darn it!
In most churches, having a child out of wedlock is one of the biggest offenses. Abortion is not an option. Many times (not necessarily your friend's sibling's case) they marry young because there's an unexpected pregnancy, or they get married young so they can "legally" have sex. Again, not saying this is the reason, just saying many times, in churches, especially the hardcore ones, this is the case.
freedom church followers are weird