Common Factors:

• Feeling like it’s wrong that the church continues to perpetuate homophobia, and treat our LGBTQ brothers & sisters as if they have a problem, while ignoring their own real issues like judgment, greed, hatred, control and so forth.
• Feel concerned about hypocrisy, whereby people pretend they have a perfect life and all of the answers, when really deep down they can’t have it that together.
• Have questions about the Bible, Jesus, Christianity, faith, God, spirituality, the afterlife etc. but are afraid to ask people in a church because the forum isn’t set up that way (when will you ask – raise your hand during the 45 minute sermon?) or are afraid of asking because it seems like a question everyone else already knows the answer to.
• Consider yourself spiritual, but not religious.
• Are agnostic, or even atheist, but aren’t 100% certain.
• Have believed in God, or Jesus, and have positive memories of real spiritual connection, but then at some point were so hurt or discouraged by church that you felt you had no choice but to leave.
• Desire a place to be honest and real about your concerns and struggles, where people can accept you for who you are, not what they want/need you to be.
• Believe in equality between men & women, and all the races, and are tired of caucasian male dominated leadership.
• Wish there was a place to go where people truly cared.
• Are afraid if you do go to a smaller church that you’ll stand out like a sore thumb, or people will mob you to become a member if you do go.
• Feel that if heaven is a place where only the Christians you know of are going & where the angels sing all day long, forever and ever, that sounds more like a kind of hell than ‘heaven’.
• Swear, and don’t want to pretend for one hour on a Sunday that you don’t.
• Feel shame for something you’ve done in your life, that you feel God couldn’t possibly forgive you for.
• Feel that churches just want people’s money.
• Think its troublesome the amount of groups Christians seem to know for certain are hell-bound (ie. gay people, Muslim people, Buddhists, sex lovers etc)
• Think a religion only concerned about ‘getting into heaven’ is pretty narrow minded (what about this life here on earth?)
• Find that in spite of all of your concerns about the church, can’t shake the feeling that there may be Something bigger than yourself, like a Creator or Higher Power.

• Find that you are curious about a group of spiritual seekers that talk about these things, and try to be honest, respectful, and caring while doing it.
• Find that you cannot answer some of life’s biggest questions like ‘but who was behind the Big Bang?’ or ‘what if the Creator chose to work through means such as evolution?’ or ‘why have the 12 Steps continued to set countless addicts free through a spiritual experience, when all other methods have failed?’
• Desire to be part of something meaningful in your life, that really makes a difference in this world, and/or have come to realize that working hard just to buy more ‘stuff’ doesn’t really satisfy long term.