#Harvest bible chapel locations movie

I still had friends on the inside that I longed to remain friends with. Perhaps my fear had its legitimate reasons. Until recently, I thought I had escaped my fear by leaving Harvest, but I was still afraid. I did not fear God as much as I feared James and longed for his approval. The more I think about the demise of Harvest Bible Chapel and James MacDonald, the more I believe that fear is the cancer at the root of it all – specifically the fear of James MacDonald. I was counted as one of the privileged ones and considered it a great honor to know James personally and even be considered as part of his inner circle at that time. The higher the leadership level was, the more protective of James they were. There is no question in my mind that what I did see and experience increasingly at Harvest was a culture that functioned and was sustained by fear and the desire to please James at any cost.

Still, even I knew when enough was enough. My first two books were scheduled to be released smack in the middle of that summer, and I didn’t want to impact their potential – not to mention that James had agreed to write the forward on my first book. I didn’t want to risk any negative impacts on my own growing ministry. I should have left that week, but I was too afraid to cause damage to Jesus and His kingdom and the women I was leading at that time.īy the time I left, I had discovered something dark about myself: I was a woman ruled by fear. I regret staying at Harvest after that meeting with the elders. I also managed to write an apology to James for the pain I had caused him. I didn’t want to be rebellious against authority. James ended up sending me a copy of the new approved blog post, and out of fear, I complied. My blog had indirectly undermined James. As a result, I was asked to meet with the elders, pull the blog piece and write a new one that James would first approve. I hadn’t realized that James had gotten a tattoo that week. I am ashamed to say that after being a member at Harvest for 8 years, that was the first real conversation I had had with an elder about the state of affairs of the church at that time.Ī year or so before leaving Harvest I had written a blog post about holiness in which I had referenced the growing fad of tattoos in our culture. So I called one of the elders in the video and got his side of the story. I then called an elder who was a friend and someone I trusted. The day I watched the video, I emailed my campus pastor and asked for an explanation.

#Harvest bible chapel locations movie

I left the church 4 years ago, the week after 3 elders were publicly ex-communicated on a cheap home made movie not worthy of one wasted second of the worship service.īy then there were so many small things that weren’t so small and added up to big things that could have explained my leaving, but to me, that video was the tipping point. I attended Harvest Bible Chapel for over 8 years and served as the Women’s Ministry Director at the Rolling Meadows campus for three of those years (that’s the flagship original campus by the way). So many people have recently asked me why I left Harvest Bible Chapel when I did.