Our Names are Ronnie and Tracy McKenzie.
Neither of us were raised in professing homes. In fact, it was after we were married that we met the workers and a month later, professed. We had gone through a lot of disappointments in our lives. As we look back on it, we believe we professed and accepted what we were told was the “truth” in an attempt to come away from our “past” and begin a strict committed life to God.
Instead, we feel we ended up in a strict committed life to the friends and workers, which ended after 10 years, but not without a “gut-wrenching” and “mind altering” span of time before we actually left.
When we first became discouraged, was in 1986 when the “divorce and remarriage” issue was very prevalent in our area. We went to the workers to ask why it was changing and we were told it was not any of our business and we needed to leave it in God’s hands.
We had felt it was our business to know what was going to be preached to our children.
We decided we’d follow their advice and we were once again counted in as “hardy” as long as we didn’t question their views.
We traveled constantly to meetings and gospel meetings and felt “shunned” if we didn’t make all of them.
We had our feelings hurt many times by the harshness of the workers.
We were constantly being corrected for little things.
We were told we needed to be ready for the workers to drop in at any time.
We were made to feel it was necessary to teach our children to have great respect for the workers, yet they weren’t always kind to our children.
We once had a sister worker in our home that went to every bedroom when she came, testing the beds to see which one would be the most comfortable for her. She then, would clear the top of the dresser of our things and put her things out. She often criticized my cooking. She once told me that I should not go to a Valentine Party for our first grade daughter because it was worldly and on a Wednesday afternoon before meeting that night. That evening she chose the vehicle we would go to meeting in.
Later, this same sister worker called and wanted to come and spend the night again. I told her it would be fine, but that I had previously planned a “Home Interior” party that was to be hosted by one of the friends. She said it would be O.K. and she arrived that afternoon. That evening she insisted on having a Bible study just as it was time for the guests to arrive. As the first few arrived, she kept her Bible opened and continued reading. I suggested we do this when the guests left and she said, “No! Now.”
Another incident with this same sister worker was when she was in our home and during meal time our 7 month old baby became fussy. She took a Kleenex and put it over her mouth and said we needed to teach the child to be quiet.
A few years ago, we met some “outsiders” in a restaurant and they wanted to know about what we believed. The workers were not in the area much that year because they were building a new convention ground. We invited these people to meeting. They then asked to talk to our preachers, who were about 70 miles away at the new convention site, but they couldn’t get away, even for an afternoon.
One evening, I called the convention grounds and asked one of the brother workers a question that these people were asking and he said that he wouldn’t answer any questions because it wasn’t his field and that we would have to wait until the workers came to our area.
One Sunday morning, we went to our Sunday morning meeting and one of the sister workers was there. She had wanted to stay in that home for lunch, but couldn’t because the people of the home had made plans to have a birthday dinner at the home of the man’s parents. So, I asked her to come home with us for lunch. She said to let her think about it. Immediately following, one of the friends came to her and asked what she had planned for the afternoon.
She replied “nothing” and readily accepted their invitation for lunch.
Later that week, I wrote her a letter stating that I didn’t want to harbor any wrong feelings, but I didn’t understand why she so eagerly accepted their invitation after declining our first invitation.
She called and gave 3 reasons.
I am sorry to say that I can only remember 2 of them.
#1. She didn’t want the people we met in the restaurant (mentioned in the previous paragraph) to drop by and ask her any questions because it was not her field.
# 2. She said the Spirit tells them where to go to visit and she was led to the other home. She was never very friendly to us after I questioned her.
Six months later, there were workers assigned to our field after the convention. They met with this couple that we had met. The couple later told us, the brother worker became angry and “red faced” when they didn’t exactly agree on some things. They said they quit asking questions or discussing anything because they could see he was becoming upset with them.
One time I became very depressed, to the point of needing medical attention. I went to a sister worker and confided in her and told her I was on medication and was starting to feel better. She told me she would have to report it to the head worker in our area. He never mentioned it to me if she did.
We came to the place when our family of 5 never wanted to go to meeting.
We felt guilty and thought if we were just more willing we wouldn’t feel that way. We began to dread Wednesdays and Sundays. We seldom ever felt fed spiritually. The guilt grew because we blamed ourselves.
One day, I prayed that if God wanted me to worship Him in this fellowship and “look” the way I did outwardly, that He would help me to love it, because I didn’t. My feeling of discontent worsened.
We felt empty spiritually and couldn’t agree with the rules and unspoken laws that either labeled you “hardy” or “not hardy”. We began to miss meetings and we began to try to read, free of their views.
We even thought back to the time when we were baptized in 1985. It wasn’t something God spoke to us; the head worker in our area called us and said it was time because he had began to see “fruit” in our life.
At first when we began to see discrepancies and contradictions of this “true way” we talked to a few friends that had no concrete answers. They would suggest we go to the workers. Some said, “Don’t give up.” Many said, “This is a matter of life and death, you can’t quit meetings.” Others would say they knew how we felt, but for them they couldn’t give up. Others would indicate we had the problem because this “is” the truth, almost to the point of being offended that we felt discouraged.
Then, the time came when we found out William Irvine started this religion.
We had been told in the beginning (and several times after) that this way could not be traced back to a man starting it, that it was just as Jesus taught: the two and two ministry. A brother worker readily had the answer. He said this way became extinct and God raised up William Irvine to bring the “truth” back into existence. He took me to Judges and Mark 5 where Jesus raised up the maid and then to Luke 7:11-17 and John 11:42-43.
Nothing he said could make the feeling of total deception go away.
By this time, we had a Wednesday night meeting in our home and we called and asked to have it moved and we announced we wouldn’t be back. The brother worker made a “feeble” attempt to meet with us, but we never did. We sought out some Ex 2x2’s that were of great comfort to us. We also read the following books: The Secret Sect , Has the Truth Set You Free? and The Church Without a Name. They were eye openers. We then asked, “Well…..If this isn’t right, what is?”
We have come to find that Jesus is what’s right. We are now members of a church in which we find fulfillment, encouragement and the freedom to have an individual relationship with God, free of the acceptance of man.
These stories are true. If they can be of a help to others to know you’re not alone in exiting, we will have accomplished our intentions in writing this.
